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Last week, the Tucker Room children looked closely at their faces to represent them through black and white self-portrait drawings. Drawing first with pencil or black felt-tip marker provides an opportunity to focus on smaller details. The children then made copies of their black and white portraits to then add color to them. This method, while not the only method of drawing, allows for the documentation of the children’s drawing process, which can sometimes get lost when color is immediately added.

Charlton makes a copy of his self-portrait.

Charlton admires the copy.

Just as they did while drawing their initial black and white portraits, the children again looked in the mirror to look carefully at the colors they could see on their face.

My eye has black and blue around it. Cal

You look at yourself in the mirror and you see what your face looks like. Ford

Let me see what color is on my face. There’s all different shades of pink. Ellie

Golden, red, blue. It’s myself.  Rawls

When adding color to their portraits, the children took their time filling in the shapes and details of their face. Some chose to use watercolor, others colored pencils and markers. They all worked diligently to bring their self-portraits to life.

Ava, we have the same color hair! This one (gold liquid watercolor) is like my skin. It’s golden and sparkly. Zari

Why is there a circle around my head? Maybe I’m in outer space. Like an astronaut. Jack

All covered up (referring to his self-portrait with the watercolor) I want this color for my mouth. It also looks like my mouth. Purple for my hair. That’s Tita’s favorite. Jack

Isabelle and Seon use special markers to add color to their self-portraits.

Whit uses a red colored pencil to fill in the color of his lips and mouth.

Isabelle uses blue liquid-watercolor to fill in the shape of her body.

There’s little red lines in your eyes. I like my hair like this because I have a ponytail. I like it black because I have dark hair. I added every single detail. Seon

My lips are red. Bailee

The self-portraits in color will soon be displayed on the children’s portfolio drawers!

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ECES Day - Look out for blog on Thursday!

9/26/2023

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Today was an exciting day at St. John's with the first Early Childhood Educators Series (ECES) of the year! ECES is an opportunity not only for visiting educators to learn from our school but also a chance for us to reflect on our own practice. The educators were highly complimentary of the Tucker Room children and their work, and were curious to learn more about St. John's educational process and our engaging environments. During planning time this afternoon, we were able to converse with these educators and answer their thoughtful questions. For this reason, we will have a more detailed blog posted on Thursday of this week.

Cece, our Mystery Reader last Friday, reads a couple of her favorite books to the Tucker Room.

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A look at next week...

9/22/2023

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Watercolor Paintings with Details

9/21/2023

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From their first days at St. John's the Tucker Room children have always shown great excitement about using watercolors. As an extension of our work around portraiture as a language, the children explored using two languages; mark-making and painting together using permanent markers, pencils and liquid watercolors. To give deeper meaning to this exploration, the children were invited to paint some of our beloved classroom stuffies. Strengthening the home to school connection, some children chose to paint lovies that they regularly bring to school.

Preparing to Draw Stuffies and Lovies

Before drawing a part of his dragon, Jack examined its tongue by feeling its shape: I see two straight lines.

Ellie thought about ways to draw the head of her "Ahi," her stuffed elephant: It has to be a circle. This is a oval. I need to trace something to make a circle. We could trace that (a bottle cap) to make a circle.

Fay looked and shared a strategy with Ellie that she could use her finger to trace the shape of her Ahi's head before drawing.

As they drew, Seon, Cal, Rawls noticed minute details.
I first start with the face. His feet are white. So I just left it (the feet) white. - Seon
I draw the lines. I draw the tentacles. I need the eyes. - Cal
They do not have fur. They do have skin. It looks like my skin. The color. -Rawls

Ava and Zari learned from one another as they drew.
I did the brown line there and the brown line up there (describing the legs of her frog). -Ava
The 1, 2, 3, 4 are the legs. They (the legs of Ava’s stuffy) are thicker (than the legs in my drawing). -Zari

Adding Color and Preserving Details

Whit carefully used liquid watercolors to show the varying shades of orange on his squishmallow after using pencil to draw its facial features.

"I did 4 lines (showing the segments on the caterpillar). I did three legs on each part for the legs. "

"He needs four legs. 1, 2, 3, 4. Pandas live in the forest. I need a leaf."

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Looking Closely: The Self-Portrait

9/19/2023

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Since their Brown Room year, the children have shown a strong affinity for drawing and mark-making. Drawing is a necessary expressive language. It allows for communication beyond verbal language, it builds a foundation for writing letters and it invites children to slow down and notice small details. Sometimes we have observed that when the children set out to draw, it can be challenging to recreate without a physical representation. One of our intentions for this year is to provide the children with more opportunities to draw from life (“still-life”), rather than solely their imagination. There is an infinite amount of objects that could be drawn for a still-life, but we wondered if the children might relate to using themselves as the subject to create a self-portrait.

Seon looks closely in the mirror.

I want to take a picture of myself. It’s so funny. Ford

While planning the self-portrait experience, we wanted to be sure that looking closely at the features of their faces and drawing their observations would be joyful for the children. We didn’t want them to feel discouraged if they weren’t able to represent their face exactly as they saw it. Even the most talented of artists could never capture the full essence of themselves. The intention isn't perfection, but rather looking closely at the details that make our faces unique. To provoke the children’s interest in the experience, we looked to one of the most culturally significant elements of our modern world: the selfie.

Fay, Bailee, Whit, Charlton, and Rawls use Photobooth to take selfies.

Ellie uses a special effect to enlarge her eyes on Photobooth.

Isabelle and Whit observe the selfies they have taken.

Ava and Jack take selfies together.

I like to have my doggy and be silly. Seon

I made a happy dinosaur face. Zari

Can we take pictures of the pictures for the self-portraits? Ford

Drawing Self-Portraits

"A child is born a first time, and then through the long and difficult process of constructing their identity, it is as if they are born again. In this process, they give themself a face, a body, gestures, movement, speech, thought, feelings, imagination, fantasy; in short, the awareness of being and the means of expressing their “me-ness” which are absolutely essential for becoming autonomous and distinguishing ourselves from other people and things.” Loris Malaguzzi

Ford, Seon, Zari, and Whit look at the selfies they took before drawing their self-portraits in the atelier with Jen.

You can sort of like look in the mirror. You draw what you see in the mirror. Fay

Rawls uses mirrors to draw his self-portrait.

I’m gonna look at my mouth. My tongue’s out. I saw something. I see little holes on my tongue. Cal

I look mad in that one. I’m crying. I have hair. Where’s my ears? Jack

I have two clips. There is a tiny person in my eye (referring to her reflection). I want to draw my neck. I have eyebrows. We have more eyelashes down! My cheeks! Ava

The eyebrows look like that because I’m mad. I need to draw my buttons on my dress. Now I made myself happy. I just drawed a line like this and then I’m happy. Isabelle

I already made the nostrils. I have a hair do. The ears are both different sizes. I drawing the deep hole. I know where you go to see inside your ear. Fay

Why are there two of me? I’m gonna make my eyes bigger. Bailee

Bailee uses a spiral technique to draw curly hair on her self portrait.

My lips are two lines. My hair keeps growing so I have to draw lots of hair. We forgot about my ears! What about our cheeks? Ellie

Now that all of the children have had the opportunity to draw their self-portrait, the next step will be to add color to their self-portraits. When they are finished, the children will display them on their portfolio drawers to indicate where they keep their work. We invite you to look closely at their detailed portraits soon!

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Our Special Songs in the Tucker Room: Sharing and Illustrating

9/12/2023

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Sharing Our Songs With Our Friends

The children have been sharing their special family songs during morning meeting. We've observed that as one child shares, there are many different reactions amongst their friends. Some find that they know the lyrics and begin to sing along, while others find that the music makes them want to move to the beat.

Illustrating Our Songs

Drawing illustrations about our songs, is an opportunity to develop fine motor and visualization skills. Children also gain experience making meaning of print and expressing their thoughts and ideas through drawing and writing.

We observed several different interpretations of the prompt, "Draw your song."

Cal's illustration represents the title of his song, "Coming In From The Cold," while Seon's detailed the story of "Hey Diddle Diddle."

Ava visualized Mary Poppins dancing and singing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."

Ellie was inspired to draw her mom, because "Drawing my family because it’s in Skidamarink. My mommy has yellow hair. I’m going to need some yellow and some black. "

Isabelle drew the instruments that she heard in her song: This is the guitar. Good ole Rocky Top Tennessee! This is the guitar, a different guitar that you hold. You start banjo-ing it! It goes like this!

Children shared their illustrations with their friends during Morning Meetings and Reflection Meetings (our end of the day meeting before we say goodbye).

All of the children's illustrations will be posted as part of our documentation near the meeting area. Come take a look!

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Music Sounds Better Together

9/12/2023

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There are some songs that have joy joy joy and so much joy can make you cry. Charlton, 4.9 years

Over the summer, we invited the Tucker Room children and their families to think and converse about a song that is special to them. While setting up our new classroom environment, we wanted to include an area to extend this Summer Research. The idea of a music atelier was born. Although we don’t yet know all of the possibilities of this atelier, it has begun to be a space to try new instruments, create music, sing, dance, and perform with friends.

The Music Atelier

It's our music house. Ellie, 4.11 years

Ellie and Bailee play a tune on the keyboard.

I’m curious about the instruments. I don't know much about them. Seon, 4.8 years

Charlton invites Seon to play the tambourine.

What fun! Ava, 4.5 years

Ava and Jack dance and laugh exuberantly while making music together.

Zari helps her lovie play the maraca to the "pattern" of a song playing nearby on the keyboard.

I try to follow the same pattern as the song starting at the beginning. Zari, 4.3 years

I need a clipboard. I want to write my music. How do you spell ‘I Need a Hero?’ I want to write how it plays. Charlton, 4.9 years

To support with his music writing, Charlton found some letter tiles in the construction area. He looked carefully at the letters while he wrote the lyrics of "I Need a Hero" and even created some new letters of his own.

Charlton performs Holding out for a Hero by Bonnie Tyler on guitar.

I'm making a ticket for the concert. Jack, 5.5 years

Jack "sells" his concert tickets.

Jack's Concert Tickets.

I have to make more tickets because everybody else wants to go. Jack, 5.5 years

In order to better capture the children’s interactions with the instruments and with each other, we created a documentation chart including some guiding questions that we are updating daily with our observations. We invite you to find this chart on the clipboard in the music atelier!

Teacher observations from the music atelier.

I'm pressing this yellow button, that makes the song. Ford, 5.1 years

Charlton, Ford, and Isabelle use instruments in the music atelier.

We look forward to seeing how the music atelier develops and evolves with further investigation of the children’s special songs from Summer Research and their musical curiosities!

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First Days in the Tucker Room

9/7/2023

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Joy, laughter, and connection have all been prevalent in the Tucker Room this week. The children have seamlessly adjusted to their new environment and reconnected with friends. We have welcomed our new classmate, Jack, reflected on summertime experiences, and began sharing our Summer Research. If you have not already done so, please share your family’s songs via email so that the children’s research can continue. We anticipate another wonderful school year together!

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