Wire and Night

As you may recall, wire was the prominent material for our Thanksgiving Gingko branch centerpiece.  The children showed great enthusiasm for the wire, wire cutters, and materials that they could thread onto the wire. 

During this process, we saw some twisting, curling, and even the creation of some beautiful birds nest.  

However, we know that there are many more complex, challenging things that we can do with wire.  We wanted to rethink our use; how can we add layers of complexity to our work?

Our first step was to set up the wire without the beads, sequins, and other small materials that can be threaded onto the wire.  The goal was to encourage a slower process of observing and experimenting with the different gauges of wire -- which ones is more pliable? What kind of wire is it (aluminum, steel, copper, etc.)?  

There were a few types of wire, different gauges, wire cutters, and pliers.  We also set up the book Alexander Calder: The Paris Years .  We thought that the work inside the book would provide inspiration.  There are photos of wire portraits, wire animals, interesting shapes, and wire human forms.  

Examples of work from the book.

The children quickly discovered that the pliers require a lot of strength and perseverance.  

Giacomo was also the first one to compare the wire on our table to the wire in the book.  He suggested that we could match the wire to the book in order to choose the shapes they wanted to make. 

Giacomo was drawn into a project happening in the black and white area, but before he left, he showed Marley the Carder book.  She and I (Elyse) flipped through the pages until she spotted a wire elephant, which excited her immediately. 

After studying it closely, she was unsure about how to create one of her own.

"I can't do it." - Marley, 4.9 years after she was using her fingers to try and bend the 14 gauge copper wire (wire that is not easy to bend)

The first step was to use a different wire, and she switched to an aluminum wire that was more pliable.  Then, inspired by Giacomo's idea to "match the wire", she tried using the wire to trace the shapes.  She carefully placed the wire on the page, and began the process of holding the wire still with one hand, while shaping it with the other (not an easy task).  

This was a rather long process, and it required a bit of team work, trial and error, and imagination.  

"I have an idea. I can twist it." - Marley, 4.9 years

Nearby, Lochie began working on a chain made from 14 gauge aluminum wire. He had been exploring a chain that was on the other side of the table with some small metal machines.  He sat for long periods, over the course of two days and worked to add links to his chain.  His patience and fine motor strength were on display.  ​

The next day, while Lochie was working on his chain, Maxon, CC, and Nora joined him at the table.  They began their work by asking questions about how to curl the wire.  One technique that we used was curling it around a pencil, but we also worked on using the pliers to curl the wire in different directions (not an easy task).  

CC seemed to really love the curling technique and continued to work on that while Maxon began combining different types of wire.  He used his hands and the pliers to twist together aluminum and copper wire.  

After some complex twisting and curling with a separate piece of wire, CC created a "bouncy ball" out of aluminum wire.  She and Nora tested it on quite a few surfaces, and it did indeed bounce; what a great discovery! 

There was quite a bit of collaboration happening at the table.  Maxon was showing Lochie how he was twisting the wire together, and Lochie was giving advice on how to use the pliers to twist it tighter.  

Nora shaped her wire into a ginko leaf, and then collaborated with me and CC to figure out how to get a stem on it using the pliers.  

Meanwhile, that project in the black and white area...

The original challenge was for the structure to be taller than Melanie, but Nora and Sylvie drew quite the elaborate design for their structure, and this caught Giacomo's eye and lured him away from the wire and into the black and white area to help them with their work. 

Giacomo, Nora, and Maxon considering how the plan corresponds with materials in the black and white areas. 

Drawing the realized structure

​At the end of the day, they tested it out next to Melanie!  The structure was indeed taller than Melanie, and it was also taller than me (Elyse).  

Not pictured: The elaborate tubing and pieces that served as part of the oxygen machine; the oxygen machine that is taller than the teachers. 

Night Home Research Small Group

Thank you all SO much for sending in all of the home research about night.  We have received some fabulous photos and works of art.  After we had some incredibly thoughtful and joyful small groups with summer memories boxes, we decided to approach home research in the same way.  Just as we did with summer memories boxes, we had four children gathered with their own photographs.  The goal was to have a conversation with the children's photographs, drawings, and collages spread out in front of them.  We wanted them to share their thoughts about night and more specifically how they decided to capture it.  They looked at each other's work, asked questions, dialogued about how the sunset creates darkness, and more.  Below you will find a portion of dialogue from our first small group which included Reed, CC, Maxon, and Jack.  The entire dialogue will be printed and hung with our documentation (which you'll have the chance to see very soon).  

“It’s not the sunset.” - CC ​
“This is the sunset (can’t see the round sun), but this is not the sunset (can see the round sun).”  - Reed
“It’s the sunrise.” - Jack
“No, it isn’t. It’s the sunrise coming out, like...no, it’s the sun coming down, and the sunrise rising up.” - Reed 
Is this a photo of when the sun is setting or when it’s rising? - Elyse
“When it’s setting.” - Reed
Is this another sunset or the same day?  - Elyse
How is the sunset related to night?
“It makes it get darker.” - Maxon 
Do you guys agree with that? 
“No, because the sunset is light. If the sunset was darker, it would make the sky darker. That doesn’t make sense.” - CC
“But when the light goes down. When it gets downer, the light doesn’t get more lighter. It makes it get darker.” - Maxon 
“How does light make it get darker.” CC 
“Because when it starts to go down, it’s not that bright. In the morning, it gets brighter.” - Maxon (moving his body and hand to demonstrate)
CC is shaking her head…
So, Maxon is saying that when the sun goes up…
“There’s more light.” - Jack 
When the sun goes down…
“There’s less light. And it can also turn dusk. It’s a mix. It’s light and dark together.” - Jack

We had a debate on our hands, and soon I hope to share the video of this with you all.  

Based on their conversation, I asked them to think about the progression of the sun based on their photographs and work. 

Is this the order it would go in for the sun? Where is it the lightest? Where is it the darkest? 
“These kind of match.” - CC looking at two of Reed’s photos 
Would the sunset go before the night sky or after the night sky? 
“First.” - CC and Reed
CC starts to order them.
“It goes sunset, darker, darker…” - CC
Reed starts to move her finger down the progression…
“Darker...darker...darker...darker...darker…[reaches CCs day drawing]...lighter.” - Reed 
Maxon has a photo of the moon in the morning, where would it go in our progression? 
“Right here!” - Reed puts it after CCs day portion of her drawing
“It would go right there [before CCs night sky] because that’s the moon, and that’s where the moon was in Maxon’s home or the car, and this is where CC drawed it at home.” - Reed
If this is night sky, and this is the night sky, would we keep it in between?

“No, because this has to be the night sky right here. Then it’s morning.” - Reed
“Morning, it can go right here because morning and morning.” - CC 
“Yeah! Morning and morning.” - Reed ( puts it after CCs day/morning drawing)

The progression as they agreed upon at the end of our conversation.