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                                      TUCKER ROOM

April 30th, 2021

4/30/2021

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​Rainey Room A has spent plenty of time with sand this year but none so colorful! Today we enjoyed a sand drawing provocation on the light table which inspired all sorts of wonderful creations!
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George: I made a car. 
Violet: I made a seaweed, look I made a C. 
Jack: I want to draw, first I have to trace it like  a pencil and then I can paint it. 
George: Now I need the dark blue. 
Violet: I made a butterfly. 
Marley: Look what I made!
George: Violet’s looks like an egg. 
Violet: It’s a present, a kitty present. 
George: It’s an egg. Mine is a dog present. 
CC: I made a bear. 
Elle: It's a plum fairy flower.

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​We also have some exciting news, we finally named our class fish! After almost a week of calling him “fish” we decided to name him Bubblegum Red Whale. For those wondering more, CC says “you can just call him bubblegum if you can’t remember his whole name”. The name comes as a compromise between many many different names including Whale, Red Fish and Candy Cane.

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to RSVP for next week’s classroom stories! You are welcome to join us in person or on Zoom, just please let us know one way or another in advance. Thanks!

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April 29th, 2021

4/29/2021

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Happy Birthday Brigitte! Today we celebrated the birthday of our beloved French friend with madeline cookies, fresh strawberries and our signature Christoph’s baguettes. Can you believe we have just two more birthday celebrations left this year? My, how time flies!
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Today we also continued with our watercolors of our fish. For those who had explored watercolors yesterday, making messages and painting at our easel were the top choices.
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Violet: I want to try this one (copper watercolor), Brigitte. 
Lochie: Hey, Mr. Fishy it’s you! He’s trying to get away from himself!
Violet: Look, Brigitte, I made a rainbow fish!
Lochie: When it’s dry I want to show my fish to our fish.

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Marley You do eyes like this and then the mouth and now you keep doing that and doing that. 
George: I know that. The mouth is right there. 
Marley: The water is blue so you need to do blue. 
George: I’m going to do blue now. 
Marley: Whoah! You’re doing it like a rainbow!
George: I wanna do purple for the eyes. 
Marley: Oooooh, look! You did really big eyes! Which one (paint color)  are you going to do. 
George: I think this one (green). 
Marley: Oh I knew you were going to choose that one. Whoah! I think that’s too much paint!

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CC: It was sunny then the rain came. Now the rain is gone. So it rained and a rainbow came because rainbows come after rain.
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Jack: Look, it's a rose bush with roses on it. It’s for Abby’s birthday today!

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Elle: I hope my Nona loves it. 
Jack: Well, it is pretty!

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April 29th, 2021

4/29/2021

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What to do with the treehouse town?

What would we call this town with a treehouse? - Jordan
Treetown - Lucia
Tree Tree - Janie
Tree world? - Sylvie
Treeburg - Cedar
Treehouse World - Maxon
Those houses are the mouse houses - Maxon
This is the road - Lucia
Didn't you say, Lucia, that we could connect our houses with the roads? - Jordan
How will the cars go up (the table to the treehouse) unless they have special wheels - Giacomo
I saw a bump that cars can go over - Maxon

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So I noticed the treehouse town is not structurally sound. When we tried to play with it yesterday, it fell down. What should we do so that we ca play with the structure? - Jordan
Glue it on! - Maxon
If we glue it on, we will have to move the table and this thing so that we can glue it together - Giacomo
And we have to take it apart to make it again - Audrey
But not the squirrels - Cedar
If we glue it, we could make a different design.
So what would we keep from the tree house? - Melanie
There's a building and a ladder - Jane
This is a skyscraper. Its taller than the other buildings because skyscrapers are taller than trees - Giacomo

Special Mystery Guest: Elyse!

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Elyse, today's mystery reader, brought in some amazing books on mythology. We learned about Kenyan and Greek mythology! Fun fact, Giacomo and Jordan both love mythology!
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Wednesday, April 28

4/28/2021

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Working on a new kind of Tree House: "Tree Town"

With loving adoration we completed our paper mache tree house a few weeks back and have since maintained interest in the idea of "tree house." Considering this, Jen thoughtfully provided the children with a stunning stump with three limbs. We started with an approach using clay during our outdoor time yesterday. Moving on from that we found that the children were investing their energy into adding dimension and depth to the branch, in efforts to construct a tree house, using construction materials. It turns out that making roads to the tree house is also part of what is important to the children relative to their overall investment and interest in the making it. 
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"I do. But I can't get there." -Jordan
"Use a car." -Maxon
"What will I drive on?" -Jordan
"A road." -Maxon
"I can make a road! Here's a road and here's a parking lot." -Maxon
"I have more materials." -Sylvie
"What about the path to my house." -Maxon
"Bad news my house doesn't have any sidewalk." -Maxon
"This (the road) can go to Maxon's house. ... Look it's working!" -Sylvie

"Giacomo, is this how you climb up?" -Maxon
"This is an elevator. You go up the logs and end up here." -Giacomo
"If we build up, up , up it will collapse." -Giacomo
"We could build down." -Maxon
"I'm making a tunnel from the treehouse." -Sylvie
"Do you want to visit my mouse house (pictured below)?" Maxon


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More to come with this work!

Mystery Reader: Thank you Rory!

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April 28th, 2021

4/28/2021

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Following in yesterday’s effort to capture the beauty of our class fish through wire, today we tried our hand at painting him with watercolors. The children started with drawing him in pencil and then added dimension with the paint.

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​On observing the fish: 

Jack: I notice he’s in a tank. 
Lochie: I see blue, red and a white!
George: I see green! 
Elle: That’s the seaweed, but it’s just pretend. 
Violet: Yeah, it’s not a real plant. 
CC: Look, he has red and white!

Jack: Those are like his. I want to do the tank, and I’m going to paint the water blue. He does have some red on his top. The fish part needs water.
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 Elle: I picked green for the rocks because I like green for the rocks. That’s because I’m adding moss to the rocks. He’s going to be different colors. I’m going to do a rainbow in the water.

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CC: Look, he’s all furry! I did his eyes and colored it in, it’s brown. Then I’m doing his nose and his mouth and stripes on the tail. 
Marley: I’m going to add some food, but first I’m going to make the fish tank. This is the top. 
CC: I’m going to draw the food too. Some is falling down and some is on the top. He’s going to be a rainbow fish. I did red and orange. Now I’m going to draw blue for the background. 
Marley: Purple here so it sort of covers him face.


When we weren’t painting with water we were enjoying it in the outdoor classroom! With the warm weather and freshly fixed water pump, an animal bath was inevitable. Lochie, George and Jack loved plunging the animals in and out of the water while the other children watered the flowers and added water to the sandbox.

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April 27th, 2021

4/27/2021

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A Wire Exploration 

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Calder's piece Fish, 1944
Inspired by the work of American sculpturist Alexander Calder, Rainey Room A tried their hand at making and beading wire fish. With our class fish (still unnamed) in front of us to aid our imagination, RRA used copper and silver wire to design their fish sculptures!
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Lochie: So you twist the wire around, then you add beads, the tail was easy, you go in and out in and out… Look, my fish is saying HI to our fish!
CC: I like the beads, my fish has an eye.
Jack: (bending his wire) I made a fish, I am really good at beading, because I made so many necklaces.
I’t s fun for me because I don’t like getting my hands dirty.


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Elle: Look at mine, isn’t it the best. 
Brigitte: Let’s add the letter “E” to your fish to know it’s yours. 
Elle: No I changed my name to China, because I love that name.

George: It’s easy to make a fish, oh look, it’s my favorite bead (a green one). So I put this (metal T bead) and then this one (a green bead) and this one, and this one.



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Jack's Kitty Cards 
Jack specifically requested that his kitty cards make it on the blog today. To honor his request, please enjoy the photos below of his kitty cards. He practiced writing CAT all last week and has happily been giving the cards out to his friends as gifts and decorations! "I want people to hang them up or keep them" - Jack
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Big thanks to CC’s Goo-Goo for joining us as our mystery reader today! ​
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Friday, April 23

4/23/2021

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Learning more about Cedar in Kenya: A Video and Conversation

Departing Washington, DC during a snow storm, Cedar and her family arrived in Kenya 14 hours later. Their time was shared with many friends, cousins, and of course animals from desert to water, where Kenya meets the Indian Ocean. 
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"Where did you go for the water?" -Giacomo
​Jecca: So Kenya also has a coastline. It's on the Indian Ocean. And it's really beautiful. And it has big long white beaches and really pretty water. So fun to swim in. Cedar bug was so excited when she got into that water because...there are no waves in Kenya. And when Cedar got in and her legs were kicking so hard with excitement. 
"Where is Cedar's house?" -Janie
Giacomo: It looked like the desert
Cedar: It doesn't look like a desert if you come inside you will see only flowers. It is sunny outside that will look like the desert.
Giacomo: I, I think Kenya is close to the desert.
Cedar: Kenya is very hot, but the desert... Some camels live in Kenya but not so much. Camels live in the desert.
Maxon: ...It's really far away in Africa.
Janie: Where's Kenya?
Cedar: The desert. It's next to the desert.
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Jecca: It's on a continent called Africa. Which is about a whole night and a bit of a day's flight from here. And part of Africa is a desert; it has a big desert called the Sahara. And it's sort of northern part of it and we are in the part that is less desert as you come out of the desert but it's dry and it's hot.




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"There's so much salty." -Cedar
Cedar: There's so much salty.
Giacomo: Did she see some sharks?
Jecca: We saw some baby sharks playing in the water...
Cedar: They were like fish.
Maxon: Did Cedar scuba dive and see some angler fish?
Jonathan: Not deep enough.

Cedar: We saw some zebra fish in the sea. ... I saw a big blue whale jumping.
Janie: My question is, my question is, did she find a hermit crab?
Cedar: Lots of crabs! And we found a big crab.
Sylvie: Did you see any frogs?
​Janie: I have a question. Did you find any jellyfish.
Cedar: We did here (in Florida). ... We did see a manta ray.
Jecca: Not a manta ray, a sting, a small one.
Janie: Did you find an octopus?
Sylvie: I have a question! Did you see a mermaid?
Janie: Did you see any dolphins?
Jecca: That's a good question.
Cedar: Only Florida.




Clay Play 

"Here, Janie. I'm cutting some up for you!" -Cedar 
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"Thanks!" -Janie
"When Sylvie says she wants some clay I will give it to her, and when Janie wants some clay, I will give it to her," Cedar said as half of us gathered around the round table to play with clay, for a second day of clay work since last year. Poking, cutting, pinching, pulling, smooshing, building, rolling, and scoring were all part of our clay play this morning. "I'm making a tree house," Sylvie and Maxon said, but by the end of their work, they chose to take apart their clay to try again next week. Janie made a house with no walls or roof and has plans to add these structural elements on Monday. Cedar enjoyed her time by cutting and distributing the clay to others in a helpful manner while Audrey, Jane and Giacomo added small twigs to their clay pieces, giving depth and meaning to their work. 
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Giacomo made a house with walls and a roof along with a centipede with two stick antennae. "The sticks are walls. It's a stick house," said Jane about her clay creation, and Audrey's undefined clay work was skillfully rolled and carefully decorated with a single stick. ​

Painting Flowers... literally

Who wants to paint the flowers?
The original intention, as set up, was to paint images of flowers on watercolor paper. But when asked to paint flowers, why not paint the actual flower? ​


​In an innovative and creative fashion (and a bit of an Amelia Bedelia manner) Jane and Audrey painted petals and leaves carefully selected from the flower bouquets set on the table for a watercolor tube painting provocation. 
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Enjoy the weekend and the flowers!
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April 23rd, 2021

4/23/2021

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Happy Friday! Today we continued on several projects from earlier in the week, most notably finishing up our messages for the incoming children! CC kindly wrote a “Welcome to St. John’s message” that featured some of her writing from the Pajama project. We printed it out and each child had the opportunity to add it to their message if they wanted. Some children also took the opportunity to sign the cards, and as Lochie said
“that’s so they’ll know it's mine”.

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CC writes "I love you" in her message to her younger sister Bailee
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 For the children who weren’t working on this project or prepping their portfolios, there were all kinds of exciting experiences around the classroom to enjoy!  Lochie and George enjoyed exploring a mixture of the silhouettes and colored blocks on the light table.

Lochie: When you put this on it changes the lamps color. This one is half red, half blue. 
George: Look the window turned blue. Look at this blue, blue, red. 
Lochie: Look! There’s more blue, red, purple and yellow. Hey, this one is a mirror. I see your face!

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April 22nd, 2021

4/22/2021

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While the weather was cold and cloudy, we took advantage of our time outside today to make some sun prints! Lucky for us, even with some cloud coverage, our project worked. Using materials from the classroom and special sun printing paper, we practiced the technique. While today was a little too blustery for multiple attempts, it’s certainly something we’ll experiment more with next week!
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Lochie: I want one of these, and some gems on mine . And a wheel  
Marley: I’ve got two hearts on mine. Do you see?
Lochie: Ooh a heart? Can I have a red?
Marley: Yeah, but do you got three or one?
Lochie: Just one. 
Marley: This is the last one so I thought you wanted this one. 
Lochie: No, that’s ok. You can have that one. I’ll have this one (another wheel). I think mine’s done. 
Marley: Look at mine!That’s all that I got.

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Elle: This is Marley’s I know. 
Elle: I’m going to use this one. Marley saved this for me, remember?
George: This one is mine. 
Elle: I’m going a key in mine and this in mine.I’m going to pick a seashell George. 
George: I’m picking two green ones. 
Elle: Ok, I’m going to add some leaves. Ok, I’m done. 
George: I’m done too! Look at mine. 
Elle: I'm scared, Elena. I’m scared you’re going to move it when you put it over there.

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CC: Why is there a picture there?Do we have lots of paper?
Jack: Can you give me a piece of plastic?
CC: and this one moves!
Violet: Hey, there’s one in here. 
Jack: This thing, whatever it is, is so cool. 
CC: Elena, look! What about the shark?
Jack: I wanted one of those. 
CC: that’s ok, you can have it.

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We also continued with making messages for our incoming Brown room friends! 
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Lochie: Hey, I know Fey, we go hiking together sometimes. 
CC: I know Bailee, because she is my little babe, and I know her (Emily, and I know Marley’s little brother. 
Lochie: When I went to Marley’s house, Marley’s brother was chasing us around the house until we were at a dead end. Marley told him to stop following us, but he didn’t. 

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April 22nd, 2021

4/22/2021

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Clay Inspiration

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"I know we used clay a long time ago" - Giacomo
I know we used it a long time ago but I don't remember when - Jane
What can we make with clay? - Melanie
A tree house - Maxon
It could be so high we couldn't move it from the table - Jane
We have to use wood to make a treehouse - Sylvie
​Wood and clay - Maxon

​This is what we have to make it like! Sylvie
(using our book as a reference point)
We need clay - Janie
I can bring in a book with so many stories. - Sylvie
Only wood - Cedar
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Mystery Reader!!

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Today's shout out is for Jecca Baille, our Mystery Reader. The weather wasn't the best but our reader certainly was.
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