Blog Archives

Happy Holidays!

12/14/2023

Dear Families,

We wanted to send you all best wishes for this holiday season. It has been an amazing fall in the Tucker Room and we know this spring holds many more special moments. We are so lucky to have such a kind, creative, and joyful group of children and families. We appreciate each and every one of you wholeheartedly.

With love,
Karen and Emma

Projections for after the break

Mystery Reader

Last week's mystery reader was Bailee's mom, Courtney! Thank you so much Courtney for reading The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish by Chloe Savage and Heart of Gold by Betsy Fenzel to the Tucker Room. The children loved the books and Courtney shared their family's special connection to Heart of Gold – the author is a family friend from St. Patrick's School!

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A Holiday Gift for Victor

12/14/2023

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Each holiday season, the children of St. John's make a gift for someone from the church that helps us. This year, we made a very special gift for Victor, our handyman. Similar to when we begin a Birthday Committee, we started thinking about Victor and what we know about him.

The decision was made. The children of the Tucker Room would make a mailbox for Victor. The first step was to visit the post office.

Who is Victor?

He cleans the school. -Ford
He fixes everything. -Ellie
He makes brand new things, like our new sink. -Ford
The brown board! -Seon, describing our new bulletin board

What Kind of Gift Should We Make for Victor?

Cookies. -Bailee
Christmas cookies. -Ellie
We could make him messages. -Fay
But he doesn’t have a mailbox. There’s a mailbox that no one uses. -Ford
Maybe if we could get a plastic box and put his picture on it. We could write his name on a sticker and put it on the mailbox with his name and a symbol. -Ava
He doesn’t have a symbol though. -Charlton
We could make a symbol for him. A construction symbol, maybe a excavator. -Fay
We could cut a piece of paper and put his symbol on it. Maybe a tiny hammer. -Ava

I don’t think it will fit. -Ava
There’s no space for a mailbox. -Fay
How about this space? -Ava
But it’s a wood box. These are plastic. Other people will think this is better, because it is so special. Other people will be jealous. -Charlton
I made some space here. -Fay
If I move Bailee (Bailee’s mailbox) over here. I want him to be next to me.- Ava
He should have a mailbox with us (the Tucker Room).-Charlton

Then they visited the tool shed and the atelier to collect some materials.

We can’t use screws. -Fay
He doesn’t fix metal. He puts metal into wood. -Ava
I’m collecting these things (hooks) Maybe to hang things on walls with hooks. This doesn’t have a point like a screw. I’m going to use these (bolts). -Charlton
Looks what Ava found. She’s a very good finder. -Fay
Fay picked up a piece of sandpaper and commented:
At my house, that (sandpaper) scrapes paint and color off wood.

The children made observations about the various materials they chose; like sandpaper, nails and screws.
It feels prickle-y. -Cal
It feels sparkly. -Isabelle
It feels really hard. -Zari
I found a tiny one (nail). -Isabelle
Flat head. You could put this on the side of the mailbox.- Cal

With the materials selected, the children began to use the technique of collage to adorn Victor's mailbox.

I wanna use this, but it doesn’t fit (vertically). How about this one?(turning the piece horizontally). -Ellie
Where do you want it? -Bailee
Put four dots here. I can’t find something that fits here. Maybe it a paper.
I want to add this. I know it’s a screw.-Ellie

Ugh. This is hard. -Zari
Use your muscles, Zari. I can do it and if I can, you can do it too! -Ford

Why don’t we put it (the hook) on the front so he can use it to pull it (the mailbox) out (of the post office shelf)? Charlton

Charlton did several drafts, before he was satisfied with the label for Victor's mailbox.

As Fay suggested, the children made special messages for Victor by sewing paper.

Seon composed a letter to accompany Victor's gift.

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Celebrating Seon's 5th Birthday

12/13/2023

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Learning more about Seon

Seon's birthday committee, Ford, Ava, and Fay began the process of creating her birthday gift by asking questions to get to know her a little more than they already did.

What do we know about Seon?
Ford: Seon’s nice. She helps people.
Ava: She likes to play with me and she’s nice.
Ford: I know she likes dragons.
Seon: Oh, I brought a dragon book to school. I remember the title: Dragon Girls: Twilight’s Dragon.
Ford: What do you like to eat?
Seon: I like to have rice.
Ford: What’s your favorite animal?
Seon: My favorite animal is a dragon dog.
Ford: Do you have favorite toys?
Seon: Toy cars, blocks and doll houses.
Ava: You can come over to my house. I have a doll house. I have blocks too. I also have cars but I can't find them.
Seon: I have magnet blocks.
Ford: You have magnatiles, that’s so cool!
Ava: What’s your favorite color?
Seon: Pink, red, and green.

Photography Portraits of Seon

I have an idea. I’m going to put my arms out so it looks like dragon wings. Seon

Seon, what are you excited about turning five?
Because when I turn five, I think I can jump higher. Seon

Drawing a Portrait of Seon

What’s the shape of Seon’s face?
Round and a little bit bumpy with her chin. Ava

Fay: I know how to do perfect teeth. I’ll show you on the paper. I’ll do the lips and then I’ll do little teeth inside the lips. Then to do the face I’ll do like this. I know how to do perfect eyes.

Ava: I know how to do lips, you do a cross and a cross. She has two pony tails. These circles are where they come from.

We should make it look nice. Fay

Painting Seon's Portrait

Ava: Her hair is black. This looks a lot like her hair.
Fay: Her ears are also the same color as her skin.
Ava: I can add two colors because I have two hands. We should add Seon's favorite colors.

Seon's finished birthday portrait.

Dragon's Are a Girl's Best Friend

Whit kindly allowed Seon's birthday committee to use his dragon lovey to support with drawing and painting her favorite thing: a dragon.

I drawed it all black. I drew the dragon with the dots, triangles and rectangles. Ava

Now we can just do it whatever color we like. I like this one the best. It’s not the same color as the picture. I’ll do more and more and more purple. That’s a very good shade. Ava

A Portrait of a Dragon for Seon.

Seon's Tucker Room Birthday Celebration

For her birthday snack, Seon chose one of her favorite Korean treats: Honey Twists.

꿀꽈배기
It says honey twist in Korean. Seon

Jinmyung read two books to Tucker Room. First she read How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? by Mac Barnett and then Creepy Pair of Underwear by Aaron Reynolds.

The Tucker Room sang Seon the Birthday Song, then counted with her as she walked five times around the birthday candle.

Finally, the Birthday Committee presented Seon their portrait of her and her favorite thing. Although Ford wasn't able to work on the birthday committee as much as he hoped due to illness, he was able to be their to share the gift.

I love it. Seon

생일 축하해요
❤️🐉 🩷
Happy Birthday, Seon!

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A look at next week...

12/8/2023

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Celebrating Fay's Birthday

12/8/2023

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Talking With Fay

To begin our work on Fay's gift, the committee, composed of Ava, Ellie and Jack, gathered to converse and learn more about her. Ava opened the discussion with a question and Fay responded, showcasing her sense of humor.

Do you like unicorns? Ellie
I do not like any animals. Fay
Is your house far away? Jack
I don’t know, but it’s close to Rawls’ house. Fay
What’s your favorite candy? Ellie
I like chocolate. My favorite game is “Busy Town.” It’s with cars and animals are driving the cars. Fay
Does it go fast? Are there dogs? Ellie
It has cats and worms. I don’t have a favorite movie or storybook. Fay

Not yet satisfied, the children dug deeper with their questions:
What’s your favorite color? Ava
You need to guess! It’s (the color) on my cubby bag and it’s the color of the water bottle (hanging next to the cubby bag). Fay
Green? Jack
We should make something that is green (for Fay) because it is her favorite color. Her loves colors and she likes to play “family.” Ellie

On this rather chilly morning, the committee chose an area of the outdoor classroom with a lot of sunlight for their photoshoot.

Drawing Fay's Portrait and Her Favorite Things

The children looked carefully at the photographs of Fay, paying attention to and discussing the details of her face and what they would need to draw.

Her face is a circle. Ellie
It’s mostly like an oval. It’s (her chin) is a little bit crooked. Jack
It’s kinda pointy, but a little bit round. Her lips are kinda like Ava’s. Ellie

Ellie and Ava worked together on Fay’s eyes, with Ava drawing the shape of her eye and the circle for the iris. Ellie added the pupils in the middle of each eye.

Looking over their work, Ellie noted: One thing is missing. Eyelashes! There are curls there too (pointing to her hair). The stripes are her shirt.
This prompted Ava to try drawing eyelashes on a separate piece of paper. Once she had perfected them, she added them to Fay's eyes and mentioned: She has a forehead over her eyes.
At this, Jack refocused his on gaze on Fay's photograph and made sure to add a triangular shape to show how Fay's hair framed her forehead.

After completing Fay's portrait, Ava and Jack drew some of Fay's favorite characters from "Busy Town."

Ava's "Busy Town" Drawing

Jack's "Busy Town" Drawing

Bringing Fay's Gift with Watercolors

Before the birthday committee began working with artist quality watercolors, Ava looked at Fay's portrait that they had drawn the day before: "I thought about it and we need to add her ears!" Then she added ears by drawing circles on the side of Fay's head putting a small black dot in the middle of each.

I need white for her teeth and another color for her lips. -Ava
Her hair is kinda brownie. -Ellie
It’s not all the same brown everywhere. Some is light brown. Some is golder brown. -Ava
That’s a good brown for her eyes. I found the perfect paintbrush because it’s tiny for the tiny part of the eye. -Ellie

That’s the best color that I could find and it has to be more red, because more red will make it beautiful for Fay and maybe then she will like it. - Jack

He’s (the worm) the one that’s driving. I need greenish blackish. Maybe I need this black, but it doesn’t look a little bit of gray at all. Hmmm, what about this? Is this it? -Ava

Celebrating Fay

After a delicious birthday snack of homemade chocolate chunk banana bread, Fay's mom, Paige read Harry the Dirty Dog, while her dad, Pack followed up with We Don't Eat Our Classmates. Then we sang the Tucker Room birthday song and Fay walked around the birthday candle 5 times to signify her turns around the sun. Lastly, the members of the birthday committee presented Fay with her gift.

Fay's brother Van joined us from Brown Room for her celebration.

Fay's Portrait by Ava, Ellie and Jack

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2nd ECES of the School Year

12/5/2023

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On Tuesday, we welcomed educators from across the country to St. John's to explore light and shadow. Each teaching team shared experiences that were rooted in our classroom work with the visiting educators. Due to our time spent preparing for and participating in ECES, our next full blog will be posted later this week and feature Fay's Birthday Committee and Celebration

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Next week in the Tucker Room...

12/1/2023

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Mystery Reader

Thank you to our Mystery Reader this week: Ford's mom! Jess read The Nutcracker based on the story by E.T.A Hoffmann and even brought in their family's very own Nutcracker for the Tucker Room children to see. Jess also read Gilbert the Moose Loses His Antlers by Heidi Shadix-Pieros and shared photos of a moose Ford and his family saw while on vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

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Celebrating Charlton's 5th Birthday

12/1/2023

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Interviewing Charlton

Charlton's Birthday Committee, Rawls, Seon, and Whit, asked Charlton a few questions to prepare for his birthday gift.

Rawls: What’s your favorite color, Charlton?
Charlton: Yellow and Red.
Whit: What’s your favorite show? It can’t be spiderman. What’s your other one?
Charlton: I don’t know. Grizzly and the Lemmings.
Whit: What’s your favorite movie?
Charlton: Spiderman 3.
Seon: What’s your favorite animal?
Charlton: My favorite animal is a ducky.
Rawls: What’s your favorite truck?
Charlton: A ducky mobile. There’s duckies in it.
Emma: What do you really love the most?
Charlton: Duckies! Black Spiderman! A Black Spiderman shield with a spider in the middle. And white and black stripes.

What are you excited about turning five?
So I can be more strong! Charlton

As part of the birthday interview and to prepare for his portrait, Seon, Whit and Rawls photographed Charlton.

What is a gift?
Portraits and sometimes it’s things people want. We don’t buy it, we make it. Charlton
We make it so it will be special. Whit

Collaborative Portrait Drawing

Charlton's birthday committee begins the collaborative process of drawing his portrait gift.

Seon: His head is like an oval.
Rawls: Charlton always wears black stripes and white stripes. His nose is a triangle like us.
Seon: The eyebrows are very easy. It’s just like one black rainbow.