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What a beautiful day for a backwards day. Even with collage and clay provocations available to them, Brown Room spent most of the morning doing large scale construction in the sandbox. These materials have recently peaked Brown Room's interest and they really reveled in the additional outdoor time to build with them. While they built a boat last week, this week the materials became a zoo and a forest for all the many animals outside.
Using a twisting and pushing method, Louisa and Ellie figured out how to stick the bamboo rods in the sand, creating a forest for the animals. After seeing this design, Charlton declared "It's like a cage!" and insisted that the he place the tiger in it.
the progression of part of the zoo including the "wall/ trees" that Ellie and Louisa built. Much like the large construction materials, the bikes were all of a sudden a popular choice today too. Seon started the trend, and once the children saw her pedaling up and down the brick they were quickly interested in the same.   Movie Description: Emma walks over to Seon, gives her a big hug and declares "We are best friends!" Big thanks to our Mystery Readers this week: Fay's Mimi and Emma's Jamma. Mimi shared 10 Little Monkeys, The Hungry Caterpillar and Everybody In the Red Brick Building, and Jamma shared Fluffy and Baron and a story about sharks in Hawaii! Its been so wonderful having family members of all ages join us during snack!
 Have a wonderful weekend!!
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A few weeks ago, we invited "dinosaur experts" from Rainey Room to join us for a Q&A session in the outdoor classroom. We've been thinking about ways that we could say thank you to our experts and today, we started working on some of our thank you gifts. With each group, we started with the prompt, what could we make to say thank you to the Rainey Room dinosaur experts? Karen: Today, we are going to be using clay. What do you notice about the clay that we’re using today? Ellie: It’s different, because it’s different. Ramsey: It’s brown. Ellie: It’s brown and silky. Ramsey: It’s even cold. It’s some little ones (looking at the big block of clay and the smaller chunks next to it). Ragnar touched the clay and wondered, "Why is this not dry yet?"    Ford pounded the clay flat then rolled it out even more, "Hot dog!" Next he flattened the "hot dog" and then grabbed small pieces of clay from the large block and added it to his flattened piece. Ford explained, "It’s a nest for the dinosaurs."    Working with clay in the studio gives us a chance to work cooperatively with our friends. Louisa: I make a worm. I make another worm. I make another worm. I made a big worm. I make another snake. Louisa began counting her snakes, touching each as she did: 1, 2, 3, 4,....6, 7, 8. And I make another snake. Emma: I make a snake. Louisa: I'm still making snakes. I want to make alot! I making snakes. Emma: I make a lizard, too. Karen: Emma, would you like to move over here where there is more room? Emma: I’m using this space here. Louisa: I’m making a ball for the snake. (Louisa rolled a ball out of the clay). Emma: I’m making a pink snake. Emma handed Louisa some clay: We are switching (trading)! Emma picked up one of Louisa “snakes” and added it to the pile of clay in front of her. Louisa noticed and matter of factly commented: I don't care, I can make another snake. Emma: I’m making a dinosaur birthday cake. Karen: How old is the dinosaur going to be, Emma? Emma: A baby. Emma picked up a new block of clay from the smaller table and brought it to Ford: I just picked some new clay up for you (Ford). As they worked alongside each other in the studio, Louisa and Ellie broke into song with the tune of "Here We Go Digging for Dinosaur Bones," which we had sung during morning meeting. Rawls entered the studio and pulled some small pieces of clay from a bigger block on the table. Rawls: Them for Charlton and Ford. I did some for Charlton and Ford. We also have a chance to learn from our friends while we're working in the studio. As Rawls looked at the “snakes” that Louisa had made, he began to roll his own coils. He looked back at Louisa’s “snakes" and commented, “Those the same as mine.” Rawls: I make 2…2…snakes out of metal and 2…2 snakes out of plastic. Isabelle and Seon entered the studio and worked together to bring a large chunk of clay to the studio table. Seon rolled a ball of clay: Look. A ball. Then she flattened it with her hand bit by bit: Smaller, smaller, smaller.         Footprints in the ClayAs the children worked with clay, we continued to talk about how we were going to make some gifts for our friends in Rainey Room. For their "Rainey Room gifts" Charlton, Ford and Ramsey all chose to make "dinosaur footprints."
Ramsey: I’m going to make a walkway. To our house because our walkway has some bricks. Ramsey began to poke his finger into his clay piece: Look at my footprint. A T-rex. These are all the footprints. Charlton: I’m making dinosaur footprints. Can I get a dinosaur from dinosaur world? Charlton went to the dinosaur shelf and brought back a T-rex. Ford: I'm making more dinosaur footprints. Corrugated Cardboard Collages Continued
Corrugated Cardboard Collages- say that 10 times fast! The latest in our exploration of collages, this provocation challenged children with small materials and limited, linear space. We observed the different ways each child approached the glue, the cardboard, and the collaging materials. For more information on the beginning of this studio experience check out yesterdays blog :)
Seon and Ellie were first in the studio. They each decided to add one glue dot and one material at a time. Seon persisted with this technique, and Ellie later opted for larger glue dots, using the paper clip as a guide when she added materials (as seen in the middle photo above). Emma chose an entirely different technique, squeezing the glue over the cardboard, and watching it pour into the valleys between the raised lines. She then chose to add a variety of red materials, carefully pushing them into the lined spaces. Seon: I did it. Look its a heart. There's so much different colors! Ellie: These, I want these shells Seon picks up the painted shells: Oooh it's pretty. It's beach shells. Ellie: I need some more glue. Seon adds fabric flowers to her design and steps back to look at it: It's amazing, it's amazing. Ellie: I added more shells. Seon: It's so cool!  Isabelle and Mimi were next to join. Again, both girls were very intentional adding one glue dot and one material at a time. Isabelle was particularly interested in small leather strips that she flanked with colorful beads on both sides, whereas Mimi opted for translucent materials and shells for her second time with this provocation. Emma squeezing glue: Oooh it's like mustard. Im sticking it and I will stick this on and oooh. It's an easter egg to put on it. It's so pretty! Isabelle: My mom's favorite is easter eggs. Emma: Oooh look at this, it's a snowflake. We have the same glue. This (material) is so goldeny. It's like a little nose. I'm hiding treasures in my hands. Isabelle: Is it for your mom and dad? Mimi: No, its for my Marte. Louisa found a lot of joy in lining up the metallic materials. She began by gluing small dots that she filled with the oblong beads, but when she got to the second line, she decided to flood the area with glue and almost submerge the beads as she went. Louisa's collage can be seen in the top left of the photo below. Check out the above video where she explains her process!  Weaving with Traditional Looms
Ellie: I need to weave this. Ellie tucked the ribbon into the loom. Win: Under. Under. Under. Bailee: Green. Bailee pick up the gold ribbon. Ellie: No, that not green. Ellie began looking through the materials for weaving: I use this -terial, this -terial, -terial. Them feel. Feel in my hands.
Fay: This (green ribbon) is too little. What about this tall one? Bailee: That's like a snake. I want to try the yellow one. Fay: I want to try the green again. My mom's favorite color is turquoise and green. Look I already did this superfast.
Video 1- Bailee and Fay explore the weaving techniques alongside each other.
Video 2- Ford verbalizes some of his weaving processes and expresses joy and excitement when the piece stays together even when turned upside down!  Since the beginning of the year, the Brown Room children have worked on a variety of collages. They have collaged using glue sticks in the message center and liquid glue and with brushes in the studio. They have used a variety of materials in the collages, ranging from materials with warm and cool color palettes to using both natural and man-made items. This week, we tried a new technique, using glue bottles and corrugated cardboard pieces to create "linear collages." It was interesting to see how each child approached the task in their own unique way. We began our studio experiences with “linear collage” by asking the children to share their thoughts with the prompt, “What is a collage?" Fay: Putting things on and using glue to make them stick. Ford: On the birthday committee for Bailee (her gift included collaging materials). Ragnar: Where we put glue on top of it so it can stick better. Cal: A collage is how you make things into plaster and it goes dry (referring to the plaster collages made previously). Ramsey used the small metal pieces (with teeth) and pushed them into the cardboard at first instead of using the glue. Ramsey made a long line of glue in one of the “valleys.” Ramsey described how the glue fell into the valley of the corrugated cardboard: It’s so easier because it goes so long. After placing some more materials, Ramsey used the paper clip "tool" to position some of his materials. Win placed glue dots of glue in the individual "valleys" on her cardboard. Once she was satisfied with the dots, she began to place her materials.
The variety of materials also led to some interesting conversations as the group worked on their linear collages: Ramsey reached for the silver “tacks” and dropped a handful on the cardboard. He then picked up a small dyed seashell. Ramsey: Look at this shell. It’s a little… Bailee: Maybe it’s a pinching crab. Mimi: There are sharks in the water. Ramsey: There’s no sharks, only if they’re in salt water. Bailee: Pinching crabs at the beach. Ramsey: Some lobsters. Well, lobsters live in the shell when they’re dead. Ragnar drizzled glue back and forth across his cardboard piece: See how they're like covered with glue. Are they getting covered? Ragnar chose one wooden bead at a time and placed them in the glue. At the end of our visit to the atelier, Ragnar decided that he would continue to work on his collage again the next day. Upon returning to his piece the next morning, Ragnar looked at his collage and shared an observation, "It's not sticky anymore." He followed up his observation with a question and a hypothesis after some thought, "How do things dry?...I know how things dry. They're dry in the morning."   Cal, Ford and Ramsey also returned to the studio on the second day to continue collaging. While Cal added on to his work from the previous day, Ford decided to create a new piece. Cal: I need to get more materials. I put that and I put it over there with the other one. Then I tried another one. I thought mom would like these different materials. Ford squeezed the glue bottle and very little came out at first. He paused, and then began to tap the bottom of the glue bottle with his heel of his hand until he was happy with the amount of glue that had been dispensed. Ford looked at the materials and stated, “I want to use paper.” Then he looked at the materials tray and seeing no paper, he began to choose a variety of materials, including plastic, wooden and metallic beads. Karen: Which materials that you chose is your favorite, Ford? Ford F! Because it’s in my name! Karen: Ramsey, did you pick the pink bead for a particular reason? Ramsey: Yeah. The pink ones, because Nora (his older sister) loves pink...and purple. Ramsey chose a small purple-dyed shell next. She'll love this. This is a crocodile shell. It has little teeth. Fay placed a dot of glue on her cardboard and then placed a single pink bead on the glue. She then chose several other beads and put them in a pile next to her cardboard on the studio table. Next she began to spread lines of glues into the “valleys” of the cardboard. Fay used the “tool” (a bent paper clip) to pickup and place each of her beads. Rawls drizzled glue across his corrugated cardboard. He placed two orange beads in parallel “valleys.” “Cotton candy. From church. Look at this,” (pointing to the oblong orange beads). “It’s a funny one It’a a funny glue." Fay: I have purple glue at home. Rawls: I got some (glue) on the materials. Stick it. Look at this (picking up an orange bead). It’s kinda cute.” Fay: Look at this one. There’s so much glue over here (looking at her cardboard).
Thank you to everyone who joined us for Brown Room's first time hosting in person sing along! The children were thrilled to sing some of their favorite tunes alongside their friends and family. After planning it during yesterday's morning meeting, we decided to sing Sleeping Bunnies, Old McDonald, Down by the Bay and Jingle Bells. To cap off the morning, Tucker taught us a new song, My Name is Joe! After singalong, Brown Room enjoyed a beautiful backwards day in the outdoor classroom. Under the warm sun, children had the option to choose glazing previous clay pieces, working on a birthday committee or exploring and playing together. Ellie and Isabelle chose to explore some of the larger construction materials behind the Cobb house, and eventually their interest spread to several more children. Using bike tires, bricks and cement blocks, the children constructed a boat large enough for them to sit in!
In the same way that the large construction materials really caught the attention of Brown Room, so did climbing. Children were eager to try the rock wall and Ramsey, Charlton, Louisa and Emma enjoyed a long game of "gecko power" in which they tried to climb as high as they could, engaging their sticky, gecko powers along the way.
Ramsey: I’m stuck on the slide because I have gecko powers. Karen: I wonder why you got stuck with your gecko powers. Ramsey: Because geckos are sticky. Emma stood at the top of the slide: I need some help getting down. I’m stuck. Someone, please rescue me. Ramsey, rescue me. Ramsey “rescued” Emma, as they slid down the slide together. Emma climbed the slide again: I’m stuck on the roof. I need some help getting down. Charlton: You don’t want to get stuck again. While building, running and playing, several children made observations about spring animals and insects they saw. Ragnar noticed a Bumblebee and Charlton expressed interest in learning about cardinals after finding a red feather in the mulch.
Charlton explains to Ford how he found "a cardinal, a mommy cardinal and a female cardinal" in the book he was reading. Big thanks to Jess Bieligk and Kate Kegan for joining us as our mystery readers this week!
Isabelle: Umm its a grocery store Mimi: It's a restaurant Elena: I notice there are some tickets and a computer. What might you need tickets and a computer for? Cal: Oh, it's a train! Emma: A train, choo-choo! Cal: No, it's a locomotive! Karen: What do you notice about dramatic play? Ramsey: A computer. Ford: A walkie talkie. Charlton: A fireman suit. A fire truck! It could be a firetruck. Ragnar walks in: Why do we have a plane now? I like that.  Yesterday, Cal, Ellie, Isabelle and Mimi were the first to give the vehicle ago. They approached their play using Cal's suggestion that it was a locomotive train. 
 Today dramatic play took on a different narrative, as the children decided to use it as both an airplane and a firetruck. While using it as an airplane, some children discussed what they could see, and have seen out the airplane windows.
Using it as a firetruck, Charlton, Emma, Ellie and Rawls explored the finer points of search and rescue as they equipped their truck with the appropriate hoses and gear using materials found around the classroom. Emma; I’m the fireman. I’m the firefighter. The fire is here. I am the fireman. I am the firefighter. I help Ellie. Ellie: The airplane is on fire (referring to Emma’s structure that she had called “a airplane” in the construction area). Rawls (picked up two triangular block and used them to “spray water;”: Two water cannons. Two fires. Charlton arrived on the scene of the airplane fire with his “fireman suit,” He found two pockets on the vest and placed his hands inside them: These are my fire gloves to protect my hands.
Rawls explores using construction materials as water canons and Charlton explains how his fire costume keeps him safe.  Ramsey and Emma work together to build a structure for the firefighters to tend to.
Working with Clay We've had many conversations about dinosaurs in the past weeks. The conversations have often included references to the size of different types of dinosaurs. During one such conversation, Fay looked at two dinosaurs and picked up the brontosaurus and the stegosaurus and said, "This could be the mommy one and this could be the sister one." With this quote as our springboard, we set up a provocation in the studio using clay and asked, "Could we make families out of clay?" As usual, our creative imaginations led us to create a variety of pieces. Glazing our PiecesAfter letting our pieces dry, the next step was to use underglazes to give them color before firing them in the kiln. Before we began glazing, we talked about how to lightly apply the underglaze using a brush, similar to painting. Cal: I choose yellow. There’s a tiny hole. I don’t know how to cover. I cover it. I just cover it with paint (glaze). Okay, how about the (airplane) wing? A yellow plane. Fay: This one (choosing brown). Cal: I would like to choose another color. I choose this one (grey). Charlton: Remember one color at a time, guys! Cal: Right here on the edge. Mimi: It’s a house for a princess. I’m going to paint blue (choosing the aqua). I have paint at my home. This green one is getting dry (observing the glaze drying). A rainbow house. Fay: Well, look! (pointing to her clay piece). It’s covered. Rawls: I’m going to wrap my present (as he painted glaze on his clay piece). Charlton: I choose black. I add a teeny bit. Ragnar describing the layered coils that he had formed for part of his “dinosaur building:" I made the top like this for dinosaurs. I want baby blue. I am gonna to do baby purple next." Mimi: Mine’s a castle. Like a floating castle. An Elsa castle.      
During our clay studio experience, Seon made numerous pieces. As she glazed her first piece she shared her process with her friends: I’m making a boat. Boat in water. Boat. I need to color this. It’s almost done. Now I put it to dry. After putting the first piece up to dry, Seon described her second piece as she began to glaze it: I made a car. The wheels (pointing to the clay balls that she had rolled and placed on the bottom of a larger flat piece of clay). The next step is to fire our pieces. We can't wait to see what they look like after they come out of the kiln!
 With the addition of dinosaurs to our construction area, we’ve started to see more intricate and collaborative building. Building “for the dinosaurs,” began last week and continued today. We’ve seen a variety of structures thus far and can’t wait to see what else arises from the children’s imaginations and conversations! Oftentimes, the children build structures that are familiar to them. Houses, hotels, and zoos often pop up in the construction area. So when Isabelle's house fell down, it was no surprise that Emma jumped in to help her rebuild it. Isabelle observed, "My house fell down." Emma saw that her friend needed help, "Okay Isabelle. I can help fix it. I build Isabelle’s house." As they continued to build a larger structure, Isabelle and Emma added dinosaurs. Emma: A boat. Dinosaurs on the boat. It’s a boat for dinosaurs. Emma placed one on top of the structure: Dinosaurs are up high! As their structure grew in size, Emma and Isabelle added some items from the "grocery store" and their house became the "dinosaur checkout." Emma: To the grocery store to get food for dinosaurs. Upon our return to the Brown Room from the outdoor classroom on Friday, Ramsey headed straight to the construction area. Here he began construction on "a house for dinosaurs." Since our time in the Brown Room is shorter on Fridays, due to it being our "backwards day," Ramsey wasn't quite done with his structure when it was time to go home, so he decided to save it, so that he could continue to build another day.
On Tuesday, Ramsey shared about his building during morning meeting. He explained where the doors were and where the back of the house was situated. Later, he was joined in the construction area by Cal, Charlton and Ragnar. Working collaboratively with his friends, Ramsey's original footprint of his "house for dinosaurs," was expanded. Ragnar: It takes a lot of days (to build). That’s when my dad got here, that’s when it started. Ramsey: Look at our dinosaur house. Charlton: I have my dino lego. It’s a T-Rex. It can be here. Oh no, it broke! Ramsey: I’m putting blankets. Ragnar: I think those (green and brown blocks) could be the road. We gotta do the long ones. Ragnar: Those (metal materials) are part of the sink. We gotta build the sink. Cal: What could we add? Ragnar: The sink has to be outside, because if it rains outside in the sink that’s good. Ramsey: I’m trying to do this (connect two metallic pieces), but they keep breaking (falling apart). So watch this, it’s a slide. A slide, like a jump. A dinosaur jump. For the pterodactyl! Ragnar: Maybe, I could paint a sign (for the outdoor sink). Ramsey: See. This is where little dinosaurs come out of the drain. See this is the gate. Cal (looking at the dinosaur jump): Maybe cars could go on there. When the construction was finished it spanned the entire area and included a number of different materials; wooden blocks, magnetic blocks, natural blocks, faux grass squares, carpet samples, metal canisters and granite samples, as well as our dinosaur friends.  What a beautiful, sunny Friday! Brown Room took full advantage of the weather as we incorporated all kinds of spring transitions into our work! Painting in Anticipation of Weaving  While Brown Room has spent time working with spider looms at the light table, we will transition to more traditional looms in the studio next week. In anticipation of this weaving work, today we worked on painting materials to weave with. We invited children to the outdoor studio and asked them to paint paper or ribbon which we will later cut and add to our loom provocations. For inspiration, we added images of spring flowers (from Karen's garden!) and other natural materials to the table. 
Exploring the Mud Kitchen The introduction of fresh sand and mulch has reinvigorated interest in the mud kitchen. Today Ramsey, Seon, Isabelle and Emma took full advantage of all the mud kitchen had to offer and spent the morning preparing all kinds of exciting and zesty dishes.
 Ramsey made pancakes for quite a while: No more pancakes ever again! Emma: I stirring the pancakes around. I put it in the dump truck. After Emma’s pancakes were “cooked,” she added them to Ramsey’s platter of pancakes. Emma: I can do some yummy pancakes. It has ice cream in it. I put some ice cream in it. Ramsey: No more pancakes ever, ever again because Emma gets the cheetah pancakes. Karen: Are there cheetahs in the pancakes? Ramsey: They come out in 4 minutes and they bite your tongue. Emma: That’s a lot of pancakes. There’s some sugar. Yummy pancakes. I put some sugar and ice cream in them. Ramsey, pointing to the dump truck that Emma was using to “cook:” That’s the yucky restaurant. Karen: Where’s the yummy restaurant? Ramsey pointed to the mud kitchen where he was “cooking:” Here. They yucky restaurant has cheetahs. There’s a bucket of bolts, too. I turn on the water to wash it away. Here’s your chicken nuggets and onion rings, Karen. Rawls: You want some green beans, too? Louisa: I’m making roast beef. Karen: When I was little, I used to put mustard on my roast beef. Louisa: I put mustard on your roast beef. Now I put chocolate on your roast beef. Emma: I helping Louisa. Louisa: It’s not ready yet. I need to make more roast beef. Karen: Are there any vegetables with your roast beef? Louisa: Yes. I'm making carrots and tomatoes. I’m making carrots and tomatoes and green beans and pasta. I’m not going to cook it. My friends are going to cook it. Thank you to our Mystery Readers! We just wanted to take a moment to thank our Mystery Readers who have begun to join us in person! Today Krista O'Neill shared Knuffle Bunny, Shark and Hippo, and Olivia with us. Last week we welcomed Eliza Holladay and Zeina Mone who shared stories from the Little Blue Truck series!
 We were excited to have our first in-person chapel with families on Wednesday morning. As always, the Brown Room led, "This Little Light of Mine" enthusiastically. After chapel, we returned to the Brown Room for morning meeting, where it was revealed that we would be using our new easel paints during project time. We were excited to see the reaction the children had to using paints that they have mixed themselves. Emma, Fay, Isabelle and Mimi were thrilled to be the first friends to try out the new colors and shades on Wednesday. On Thursday, we added photographs of spring flowers to the easel area as a provocation. Some children continued working with clay and dinosaurs in the studio as well, and the very presence of the dinosaurs nearby inspired some of our easel paintings. Rawls: I’m doing one paint at a time. I paint a eating flower. Ramsey: I'm making the dinosaur’s body. Rawls: I’m going to make a dar, dar, brown. Blue and purple makes brown? I think? Rawls tried mixing the blue and the pink. Pink and blue makes purple! How cool is that? How cool is that? Rawls pointed to the blue and pink paints: This and this makes purple! This and this makes purple! This and this makes purple! He then looked over at Ramsey’s painting: What about your painting, Ramsey? Ramsey: My painting is a dinosaur. Rawls: My painting as a eating flower, like the eating flower on Scooby Doo, Doo, Doo!    On the right side of her paper, Seon chose yellow first. Then she layered pink over the yellow. She covered the first two layers with blue next. Then she used yellow and green to paint parallel vertical strokes on the left side of her paper. She finished with a orange shape which arched over the rest of her strokes. She then described here painting, "This is my house."  Ford: Because it's my favorite color (purple). I like it (purple). This is a rainbow (as he painted a green arc around the purple from the bottom of the page to the top).
 Louisa: I’m going to use yellow, no actually green. Not that green (before she picked up the pink jar of paint, but then decided to return it to the paint tray). I don’t know which painting. I painting yellow. Look, I draw a letter (an L). Down. This my only color I want. I want no color because I like yellow." Isabelle and Seon painted side by side for quite a while and shared the materials with ease. To close today's blog, here's a quick snippet of them in action! |
