A house for Toad

This morning Wilder noticed a frog on the bench outside of our classroom and was beyond excited about it. 
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What a find! And it perfectly tied into our ideas for the day...

Where do toads live? What do they like to eat?

The Brown Room is continuing to develop a deeper interest in toads. Today we learned more about the American Toad which is native to our region.
We asked, what they thought toads like to eat. 
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Wilder: Bugs.
Lucas: It likes to eat bees. 
Wilder: Maybe it likes to eat those bugs (pointing to a beetle in a resin casing, which we picked up from the light table in the greeting hallway this morning). Maybe they eat different frogs. 

We expected they would live "on the water" (Cate) or "under ground" (Lucas) but they actually don't like to be in the water and prefer to hide under rocks and wood piles.

Wilder: Maybe they like to be under rocks hiding from people. They hide under this rock (picking up a small tile from the table). Maybe they hide under other frogs. Yeah, that's funny.

The conversation about different kind of hiding spaces for toads inspired Cate, Wilder, Michael and Lucas to create their own houses for toads. ​

​For his house creation Lucas chose a hollow stump, which he surrounded by trees, filled it with keys and closed the top with a door knob. 

Cate and Wilder started by using small tiles to create a "room". Cate then decided to use wood instead and stacked wooden disks to build different levels for the toad to hide underneath. 

Wilder and Michael collaborated and used blocks from the light table to create different kind of homes for their toads. 

Michael: Woah! That's a big tower.
Wilder: That's a house for toad.
Michael: The froggy live here.
Wilder: Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit (making the frog hop over to the structure).

Building houses together is also a favorite in the morning when we arrive at school. In Blake Hall houses are being constructed with magna-tiles for items that were brought from home like stuffed animals or cars, berries that were found outside and lovies. 

Remy: I want to put something inside.


clockwise from the top: Frannie, Michael, Wilder, Jade and Remy constructing different types of houses this morning.

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Ohh, that smell - Michael (smelling flower petals)

After exploring our front lawn and collecting natural materials yesterday, we revisited them during a collage making process today. In addition to the natural materials a variety of items from our studio was provided. 

A special focus was placed on intentionality, self-control and  proportions.
The children were encouraged to choose an item before using glue. This assisted with choosing the appropriate amount of glue for the size of the chosen material. The smaller collage base (2.5x5 inches)  promoted and demanded awareness of dimensions and to make intentional choices. Instead of dumping a larger amount of items at once, individual items were placed with purpose on a previously chosen space. 


Collages left to right, top to bottom:
​Lucas, Frances, Michael, Wilder, Cape, Cate

How can we get the materials to stick onto the collage?

Cape: With collage (holding up the glue bottle)

Michael: Can I have the glue?

Michael: I get the rock (using small pebbles). It's covered in glue.

Frannie: I want to use these (shiny copper paper)
​I put lots of things.  Feathers! (finding beechnut covers)

Collages in progress: