The language of paper, birthday committees, and Nora's Birthday celebration

Birthdays are incredibly special here at St. John's.  Birthdays offer the opportunity to celebrate each child for who they are, what they love, and connect with their family.  Each year, a gift is created for the birthday child by the Birthday Committee. These committees are typically 3-4 children who take time to share what they know about that child, interview the birthday child, and use this information to inform their committee work.  While the teachers may guide the work with a chosen language or direction, it is the work of the committee to incorporate their working knowledge of materials with their knowledge of the birthday child. It's a beautiful display of thoughtfulness, empathy, and care for each other.  

This year, the Tucker Room will be taking time to explore the language of paper in a deeper, more intentional way.  This work will inform our birthday committee work, and each child will receive a gift that is unique to them, but it will be created using the language of paper.  

Paper exploration in the atelier

To start our intentional work with paper, Jen and I invited a small group into the atelier; we also knew that this would be a wonderful opportunity to reintroduce the atelier, which hasn't been available in this way since Brown Room.  On the tables we provided a variety of papers, all in shades/tints of white for the children to explore.  There was variation of size, shape, texture, weight, color, etc.  We invited the children to explore and think about the possibilities.  

Much of their work was using the cardboard for a castle, exploring some of the paper under the microscope (noticing the fibers, texture up close, and other things that can only be seen up close), and learning to use the drawing compasses. 

We concluded our time by thinking about all of the things we remembered/rediscovered that we can do with paper (e.g. paper can roll; it can be seen under the microscope; it can be crumpled and stuffed inside of things; it can be used in a structure).  

“I cut the corrugated cardboard, and teared it.” - Lucia, 4.4 years
How did you get the triangle for your sculpture? 
“I think they cut the corner.” - Giacomo, 4.10 years
“No, I just did like this.  I had a long piece, and then I went like this [gestures in an arch], then decided to make the bridge.” - Lucia 

Throughout the year, we will have many intentional paper experiences that will inform our committee work; this was only the beginning. 

Interviewing Nora

Nora's birthday committee included Jack, CC, and Audrey.  We already knew that Nora likes unicorns by listening to stories she tells, knowing her song choice for sing-along, and she has shown us all of the fun stuffed unicorns she brings from home, but we wanted to know a bit more about Nora; things that might inspire us even more. 

“I like pretty much colors.  I’ll tell you which colors I like. Blue, pink, purple, and green. And white!” - Nora, 4.11 years
“White like pearl color.” - CC, 4.11 years
What is your favorite thing to do in the Tucker Room? Or do you have a favorite space in the Tucker Room? - Elyse 
[Nora went to the atelier door to look around the Tucker Room]
“The microscope!” - Nora, 4.11 years

Once Nora left, there was some discussion about how to use this information. 

“So, we could make a microscope or a paper airplane, or we can make a unicorn out of the cardboard paper.” - C.C., 4.11 years
I’m wondering how we can use the paper with the microscope? Did you know that you can take photos of it when it’s under the microscope?

This idea prompted the children collect colorful paper, and we brought in the white paper from the original paper exploration.  We began to think about which papers  might look beautiful under the microscope? ​

"This one is purple [one of Nora's favorite]." - Jack, 5.3 years

“That one will look beautiful!” - C.C. [to a piece that Audrey picked out]

---

"Not this one. It's too plain." - C.C.

Committee work

With the information that Nora gave us, and the children's enthusiasm for taking photos of the paper as seen under the microscope, I proposed to the children that we could make a book for Nora that would include our chosen paper samples with images from under the microscope.  They seemed intrigued by this idea, and were eager to begin using the microscope. 

For our first meeting, I selected a variety of paper textures, weights, colors (still within Nora's chosen color group), and some with designs while others were "plain".  The children chose a few from each color to observe under the microscope. 

The committees original paper choices from our post-interview search. 

---

Paper choices that were prepared for the committee. 

---

Jack, C.C., and Audrey each self-assigned a role in the process of selecting papers, observing them, and photographing them.  Jack took the role of taking photographs in Photo Booth; this requires patience and precision.  Audrey demonstrated her knowledge of focusing the microscope so that we did not have a blurry photograph. C.C. took on the role of choosing the papers that Nora might like, and carefully placing it under the lens of the microscope.  

“That’s blurry.” - C.C., 4.11 years​
“Okay, but just pause it [the paper under the microscope] somewhere.
I’ll take the photos.” - Jack, 5.3 years

nThe excitement grew with each piece of paper that was chosen.  The details seen on the screen elicited many comments about what the paper could be, or what it looked like. 

“It’s like a big, big crocodile.” - C.C., 4.11 years
“It’s bumpy here around the x’s.” - Audrey, 4.6 years
“Hmm, that’s [first image] blurry.” - C.C.
"I see them [the fibers] right here." - C.C.

---

“Oh my gosh!” - C.C.
[they put it under the microscope, and it was blurry on the screen]
“And now it’s all just pink.” - Jack, 5.3 years
“That doesn’t look very good.” - C.C.

---

“Oh my gosh it looks like pearls. Some looks like white pearls, and the rest is pink.” - C.C., 4.11 years

---

“It looks like a zig zag.  Zig, zag, zig zag.” - C.C.
“It could be the unicorn mane.” - Audrey 
“Keep it like that CC [under the microscope.” - Jack
“Okay, here?” - C.C.
{choosing the placement for the photo]
“Definitely that part.  It’s so focused.” - C.C.

---

“It’s like...I don’t know how to say it. It looks a little crumpled when you look at it that way (as they placed it under the microscope), but not that way (looking at the image on the screen).” - Jack

“Oh my gosh, it looks like leopard.” - C.C.
That’s so pretty. It’s like space.” - Jack

This paper introduced the light on the microscope and the need to turn it down and up.  
“It’s turning lighter.” - C.C.
“We should turn it lighter and darker for Nora’s birthday.” - Jack 
“This way.” - C.C.
“It’s focused.” - Jack

Finalizing our photo choices and naming the papers

Based on the conversations from the day before, we decided that each paper needed a name.  This proved to be a very collaborative process, and while they each shared their own idea, they willingly combined titles so that everyone's idea could be used.  This part of the process also required us to give thought to which photo to use because we had taken multiple images for some papers and some of them were blurry.  

“The stripe paper because it has stripes.” - Jack

---

“This one can be the sky paper.” - C.C. [Audrey immediately agreed]
“Yes, because it kind of looks like the sky.” - Jack
“Wait, come here.  I need to show you something. Can you see that it’s like...” - Jack
“Kind of like blue and white on the sky.” - C.C. 
“It’s not just white. I can see white ish blue. I can see this dot of white on the blue.” - Jack
[they all begin to use the magnifying glass to look closely]

---

“We can name it bumpy paper because it has bumps on it.” - C.C. 
“Ooh, yeah, yeah!” - Jack 
“You see it’s bumpy on the edges.” - C.C. 

---

Does it look bumpy on the edges when we look at the big piece of it? 
“Ill go and look.” - Jack 
“Well, I kind of see it.  Look at it closer. Everybody, look at it closer.” - C.C. 
“Ooh yes, I see.  I see them so close.” - Jack
“It feels bumpy.” - Audrey

---

“That one should be called the golden paper.” - Jack
“No, the golden sparkle paper.” - C.C. 
“The golden sun paper.” - Audrey
“Because it’s golden and sparkles.” - C.C.
“We can combine it, or the golden garden.” - Jack
“The golden sparkly sun paper.” - C.C. 
“The golden, garden, sparkly sun paper.” - Jack

We need to choose one image. 
“I like this one because it has a rainbow on it.” - Audrey
“Oh yeah, let’s do that.” - Jack
“And it looks like a swirl too.” - C.C.

---

“Green, sparkly grass paper. I think we should do this one because this one is blurrier.” - Audrey
So maybe we should use the one with the sharpest resolution?
“Yeah, because it’s not blurry.” - C.C.

---

Do you remember the pink shiny paper? We’ve got two images. 
“I like this one [first] better.” - Audrey
“I like the first one best.” - C.C. 
“I like the second.” - Jack
“We can do both.” - Audrey
C.C. said yesterday it was like leopard. 
“The leopard paper.” - C.C. and Audrey together

The most controversial choice of all.

Do we want to use this image?
“No, because it looks like feet stepping somewhere.  I shouldn’t have taken a picture of that one.” - Jack 
I’m wondering if we should use it because we could write what you said.  Audrey said to use it, and your idea could be an interest way to label that.  
“It is the gold paper.” - Audrey 
“But it looks brown.” - C.C. 
“No, but it’s actually gold.” - Audrey 

Can you go get it? Can you find which piece of paper it was? Maybe we should look at the big piece again. 
[They look at it]
This could be interesting in the book because look how different the actual paper is from the microscopic image. 
“Actually, we made it darker [turning the light button on the microscope]" - Audrey 
“Don’t keep it! Don’t keep it!” - C.C. 
We’ll keep it today, and if we decide tomorrow that we don't like it, then we won’t keep it.

A book

For our next two meetings, we spent some time writing the titles for each page, examining the cotton fiber paper that we would use for the book, arranging the paper samples/microscopic images/titles, and binding the book.

Audrey is holding the paper up to the light from the window to see where it says "cotton fiber". 

[to the left] On Monday, Lochie was kind and offered his assistance for writing the remaining page titles. 

We took a trip to the copier "in the other church", and shrunk their titles so that they would fit on our book pages. Once the titles were shrunk, the children arranged the original paper samples with their microscopic image to create a beautiful display on each page.  

C.C. and Audrey noticed that we needed artwork for the cover, and they volunteered to draw it.  Audrey drew Nora's favorite animal, the unicorn, and C.C. made a rainbow to go with it.  When Audrey noted that she needed a unicorn to look at, C.C. kindly offered her dress that she was wearing [seen below].

The titles were added, holes were punched, and the book was assembled.  The book binding technique (hole punch, rubber band, and a cinnamon stick) was new to all of the children, and there was a lot of enthusiasm for now making a "paper smelling book". ​​

The Paper Book, for Nora

Happy Birthday Nora!

tNora is our second 5-year-old, but our first birthday celebration for the year!  It was a beautiful day on the front lawn.  Nora's mom, Zeina, and her brother, Ramsey joined us! Zeina shared some wonderful photos from Nora's baby book and a family favorite book! Then, the birthday committee presented Nora with her gift before she walked her 5 turns around the candle, blew it out, and we sang!  We hope that Nora had a lovely birthday this weekend, and felt all the love from her Tucker friends at her school celebration! Happy birthday Nora!