 While today would have been our backwards day outside, the weather had other ideas. To get our bodies moving on this rainy day, we enjoyed a Halloween dance party and played freeze games with a huge rainbow parachute!
Back in the classroom, several children enjoyed the digital microscope. From gourds to gondola trains, everything was investigated! 
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Happy Classroom Stories Day! Brown Room was abuzz with conversation about grown ups coming to the school this evening. When asked what it is we should share with them tonight, Ragnar said “clay!” and Ford and Charlton both suggested painting and collaging. Several children got to work right away preparing some collages to share this evening.
Other children enjoyed making messages, some even left them in their portfolios for grown ups to check out while they were here!
Of course, the most popular choices today were the new additions to the classroom! After lots of interest in the ball run from the hallway, we decided to add one to the classroom space. At the light table, several children explored the digital microscope. Tomorrow we will have even more things use with it!
We're so excited to see everyone at 5:30 tonight!
Ever since our family clay event, children have been asking for clay in the studio. Today children worked together to share and use tools, baked “birthday cakes” for one another and held “parties” for their friends. Cal: It’s a hole. I made it with some chocolate. I don’t see the cutting wire. |
 Seon: Clay! |  Louisa: I’m making a cake. I’m making a cake. For my sister, Ellie. It’s a popsicle. It’s heavy. |
Isabelle: I make my Mickey Cup.
Bringing Clay into the Studio
Today, the children of the Brown Room experienced clay in a new environment, the Brown Room’s studio. In the studio, children had access to clay tools from the shelves.
Here's some snippets of conversation from today's clay experience:
Ragnar: More tools please. I’m making something. Candles. So many candles. I’m pushing this down.
Mimi: I want to cut it (using the felting knife).
Fay: Worms. (as she explored using the wire to cut the clay).
Cal: My hand. It’s dirty with clay.
Charlton explored the textured roller while he worked alongside Fay. Mimi and Ragnar made cupcakes. Rawls worked to flatten some "pancakes."
Some of the children talked about last week's parent clay experience as they worked, while other talked about what they were building together.
Ford: I made a rainbow. Her (his mom Jess) did clay for fun. I’m making a rainbow. I’m making carrots because they’re yummy. I cut it (using the felting knife).
Ramsey: Cars. (referring to working with clay with his dad Phil).
Ragnar: I made a bridge. It goes to the playground.
Cal: This is my playground. I made a playground, too. Here’s the road.
Visiting The Post Office
As children become more familiar with the concept of using their symbol on messages, they have also started to show interest in the post office. Today, Ragnar made messages for his friends and found the correct mailboxes in which to place them by looking for each friend's symbol: For Ellie. This one is green (remembering from his work on Ellie's birthday committee that one of her favorite colors is green) before finding her mailbox with the lamb symbol.
Ramsey and Cal were both surprised to find messages in their mailboxes from friends and family members.
 Ramsey commenting when he found a message from his sister Nora who is in Tucker Room: "There already one here!" |  "I want to read another one." Cal |
All week we’ve worked on collaging. For some, the focus has been on finishing their warm and cool collages to hang on portfolio drawers, and for others collaging has made it’s way to the messaging center. Despite the strong breeze this morning, Ellie, Louisa and Isabelle were all able to continue working on their cool collages in the outdoor studio. Ford, Ragnar and Emma, interested in the collaging, took time to come investigate and explore some of the collage materials as well. While the materials were sorted according to a warm and cool color palette, the different shapes and sizes of the materials sparked some conversations.
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| Emma: What materials is these (tiles) Ragnar: I do not know. Emma: Oooohh a diamond, ooooh a square Ragnar (noticing some of the materials resemble candles): Candles are for birthdays! Louisa: Daddy just had a birthday! Ragnar: oh I am using these (green tubes) Louisa: I’m making a tunnel with this (green tubes)! Louisa: I like these (mirrored tiles) |   |
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After snack, some children continued to collage, adding foil paper to messages to friends and siblings!
 | Isabelle: I want to make one for Mafae Charlton: I’m going to make one for Charlton Ragnar worked on messages for Rawls and Cal and then he and Ford hand delivered a message to Molly’s mailbox. We can’t wait to read the replies later next week! |
The Birthday Committee
To prepare for our birthday committee work, we learned a bit more about Rawls during morning meeting. He told his friends his favorites color, animal and food.
Favorite Color: Red
Favorite Animal: Tiger
Favorite Food: Oranges
Knowing more about Rawls, red and orange were chosen for our class gift of a wood collage sculpture.
Favorite Color: Red
Favorite Animal: Tiger
Favorite Food: Oranges
Knowing more about Rawls, red and orange were chosen for our class gift of a wood collage sculpture.
Day 1-Painting The Wood
On the first day, the birthday committee used red and orange watercolors to paint the base of the sculpture and the small wooden pieces that would be added.
Ragnar: "Why just wood?"
Karen: What is the birthday calendar made of?
Ragnar: "It’s wood."
Karen: "So for our birthday gifts we’re making wood collage sculptures."
Ramsey: "What’s a wood sculpture?"
Karen: "It’s a piece of 3-dimensional art work. That means that it is not flat. "
Ragnar: "Why just wood?"
Karen: What is the birthday calendar made of?
Ragnar: "It’s wood."
Karen: "So for our birthday gifts we’re making wood collage sculptures."
Ramsey: "What’s a wood sculpture?"
Karen: "It’s a piece of 3-dimensional art work. That means that it is not flat. "
Day 2- Assembling the Wood Sculpture Collage
On the second day, the birthday committee worked in the outdoor classroom on Backwards Day. Charlton and Seon worked diligently to place the wooden pieces that were painted the previous day. Ramsey and Ragnar joined us in the outdoor studio to add some of their painted wood pieces as well.
Charlton: "1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. I want to paint (glue) another one. The red side. I do that. But it has glue. I’m done."
Seon: "Glue. All done."
Ragnar: "Two. I need one more piece. As Ragnar held his piece of wood down, he counted down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. It’s standing up."
Ramsey: "I’m done."
Ragnar: "2, 7, 8, 10. It’s good. It’s totally cool. "
Charlton: "1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. I want to paint (glue) another one. The red side. I do that. But it has glue. I’m done."
Seon: "Glue. All done."
Ragnar: "Two. I need one more piece. As Ragnar held his piece of wood down, he counted down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. It’s standing up."
Ramsey: "I’m done."
Ragnar: "2, 7, 8, 10. It’s good. It’s totally cool. "
Day 3- Adding the Finishing Touches to the Gift
On the last day of our birthday committee preparations, Ragnar and Seon put the finishing touches on Rawls' gift. They added ribbons, buttons and wire coils.
Seon placed a wire coil on the wood sculpture as a finishing touched and exclaimed "This!"
Ragnar described the wire coil standing up, "It’s doing it. It’s just string. Can you push down? When is his birthday? It’s a rainbow, cause its shape. "
Seon placed a wire coil on the wood sculpture as a finishing touched and exclaimed "This!"
Ragnar described the wire coil standing up, "It’s doing it. It’s just string. Can you push down? When is his birthday? It’s a rainbow, cause its shape. "
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Rawls' Birthday Gift
Celebrating Rawls' Birthday
Rawls and his Brown Room friends shared a special birthday treat of Rainbow Macaroons. As the birthday boy, Rawls enthusiastically chose a red macaroon. After the special birthday snack, the Brown Room children headed out to the front lawn to meet Rawls' parents Brittney and Billy to continue our celebration. They shared two of Rawls' favorite stories, Little Blue Truck's Halloween and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
 Rawls and his mom, Brittney listen closely as his dad, Billy reads his favorite book, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom." |  As a member of his birthday committee, Seon proudly presented Rawls with his gift and then watched on as he opened it. |
This week, the Brown Room invited families to join their children on the front lawn of St. John's for a Family Clay Experience. Prior to this week, children had the opportunity to enjoy studio experiences with clay in the atelier and the outdoor classroom in small groups. During these experiences, children explored blocks of clay in a variety of provocations. The outdoor clay experience this week, gave children a chance to welcome their families to an important part of their Brown Room day. It also gave children the chance to try out using clay tools with their parents.
Monday
 Ragnar uses the rib tool, while Ford and his mom, Jess attempt to use the rolling pin. Mimi an her mom, Nan work on making their "pumpkin chair." |  Rawls and Ramsey work together to split the clay block with tools, while Ramsey's dad, Phil encourages their collaborative work. Ramsey and Phil went on to make a car and then a canoe. |
 Cal and his mom, Kate look at the tool "key" and discuss what tool would work best when making "sweet treats" from the clay. |  Fay shares her plan of what she is going to make using clay with her parents, Paige and Pack. |
Wednesday
 Emma shows her mom, Krista how to use the felting knife. |  Ellie and her mom, Meredith work together to use the cutting wire on a larger block of clay. |
 Seon and her parents, Jinmyung and Youngil worked together to roll balls of clay with their hands. |  Fay uses the cutting wire, while Louisa explores clay and tools with her parents, Danica and Greg. |
Cal demonstrated how to use the felting knife as Mimi looked on, while Isabelle practiced using the loop tool.
Meeting New Friends
Bailee and Win will join the Brown Room shortly after they turn 2.5 in the near future. We look forward to them joining us soon. Today was an opportunity for them both to meet some of their future friends in the Brown Room.
 Bailee and her mom, Courtney conferenced quietly to make a plan before beginning their work with the clay. |  Win and her mom, Rory looked carefully at the materials on their table before getting started with their work. |
Collaging Our Portfolio Drawer Labels
On Friday, children had a choice between a warm and cool color palette for the base of their portfolio drawer labels. Once they selected their palette, children choose between three distinct watercolors, each opting to cover the page in a unique blend of hues. For those whose watercolors had time to dry over the weekend, this morning they worked on collaging their pieces using the same cool and warm color palettes.
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| Fay: Can I give this to my mommy? Cal: This one, I love blue! Mimi: I want to put another color. Cal: Look! Mine’s way pretty! Mimi: Mines almost done. Cal: Mine’s almost done too. I hear bells, its time to go home? Cal: Look I made two colors! |  |
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 | "Look, orange is my favorite!" - Rawls |
| Ragnar trying to collage with translucent paper: Push it down… I’m making something, something really cool! Ford: I’m making something cool like Ragnar. Ragnar: It’s something that’s so green. These look like magnets. We should buy big of these. |  |
 Ragnar |  Ford |  Ramsey |
After enjoying our morning sing along, children had the opportunity for a variety of options in and outside the classroom. Those not working in the studio had a chance to build, explore the light-table and even revisit school tour visits through some documentation with Karen!
Ford explores a seesaw built by Rainey Room. Later, Mimi joined him as they tried to balance on either side of the plank.
We can't wait to see families tomorrow at our parent- clay experience!
Making Portfolio Tags
Today, children worked on creating Portfolio Tags in the Outdoor Studio. Portfolio drawers are where we keep our work all year. Children can check on their work throughout the year and then they will present it at the end of year to parents at the portfolio conference. Children had the opportunity to choose between cool (blue, green and silver) OR warm (red, yellow and gold) watercolors. They each had time to make the choice and explore with the colors in their selected palette. We will add materials of the same palette by collaging on their paintings next week. Some children took time to cover the whole page with one color, while others enjoyed dunking the brushes and watching the paint swirl over the saturated paper. Both Ellie and Emma came back for more painting after they had finished their initial pieces.
Exploring in The Outdoor Classroom
If you look closely, you can see that the dinosaurs are having leaves for dinner.
Louisa: No, it's for the dinosaurs eat.
Louisa: No, it's for the dinosaurs eat.
 Louisa: I want Ramsey to play with me. |  Emma: Merry Go Round. Ellie: Pushing. Emma faster? |
Seon and Ragnar took turns climbing a ramp that they set up on the bench.
Looking Ahead to Next Week
Picture Day, New Friend and a Tasty Snack!
To accommodate the second round of pictures today, Rainey Room swapped their backwards day with us. This meant that we had one whole hour of outside time, and on a beautiful day like today we enjoyed it! Win and Bailee, two friends who will join us later in the year, stopped by for the group photo and stayed after to play. We all enjoyed digging in the sandbox, playing hide and seek in the house and climbing on the rock wall and pull up bar! We can’t wait for Bailee and Win to officially join us, and we were thrilled to have them with us today!
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Ellie and Emma try on hats from the photographer's prop basket!
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Also while outside, Rawl’s birthday committee took advantage of the extra time and got to work. They arranged the orange and red wood pieces they painted earlier in the week, and then layered beautiful materials on top to complete the final design. We’re very excited to celebrate Rawls’ birthday with him when he returns next week!
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Once inside, Ellie shared one of her favorite snacks with us: pineapple! Everyone was eager to try the special fruit, and some children asked for seconds and even thirds! Big thank you to Ellie for thinking of sharing a favorite food with her Brown Room friends.
| The results are in: Emma: More pineapple! More pineapple! All done. Louisa: I love pineapple. Ragnar: I would like more pineapple please! Seon: Good. Yes! |  |
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| | Ellie and Bailee explore moving the merry go round while outside today! |
| | Emma investigates the swing! After several attempts, trying to pull herself into a seated position, she decided that holding on and swinging with her feet off the ground worked too! |