As many of you have seen during this week's Classroom Tour, our photo booth area has transformed into our new Rainey Room doctors office, to further support the children's interest in our bodies. In the classroom setting we are exploring and researching questions around our body's well-being and health, healing process, circulatory system and skeletal system. Many children incorporate their personal experiences from previous doctors visits ("I got a shot in my leg at the doctor" - Cate) in their dramatic play. 
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After we established, that our photo booth would officially transform, we asked the children what materials our doctors office is still missing. Again, we would like to thank everyone who donated amazing materials to support our investigations in the classroom! We truly appreciate your collaboration.


What does our Rainey Room's doctors office need?
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Crinkly paper - Remy,  referring to exam table paper
The thing you look through your ears. Your ears, nose, mouth. - Bea, referring to an otoscope
Right when I got in there, there was this huge stand and they check your height. We're missing the thing that tells you how tall you are. - Finlay, referring to a scale
Toys, because where you're supposed to wait. - Finlay, referring to a waiting room area
And we don't have the candy to get after. - Wilder
Oh, and stickers at the end. - Daniel

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​Inspired by Finlay's recent doctor's visit, during which he had an X-ray of his torso taken, the children explored their ideas and thoughts about the skeletal system. 
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Daniel: Finlay just went to the doctor.
Sam: Finlay, what happened at your doctor appointment?
Finlay: Listen, I was watching a show waiting for my doctor to get. And the doctor had
to take pictures inside my body. 
Sam: Finlay’s mom sent us a picture of the picture of the inside of Finlay’s body. Finlay, did you have to swallow a camera or how did they do that?
Finlay: No, they had a special camera attached to the wall and it could move down and it almost touched my body. It was a special camera that could take pictures inside my body. 
Cate: I know what that is called. A X-ray.


On the light table we investigated a variety of X-rays and also created our own by drawing on tracing paper and coping our drawings onto transparencies. 
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Cate: I know it's a tummy because Finlay swallowed a ball and it just looked just like it. 

patient intake
​ ​examining and diagnosing the patient 
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​During a patient intake procedure at the Rainey Room doctors office, the patient's vitals are being checked and recored. Often, the children use a thermometer to check the temperature, a tongue depressor to check the throat (always above a mask), a stethoscope to listen to the patient's breathing and heart beat and a fingertip pulse oximeter to determine the pulse or heart rate. The results are often being written down on clipboards or notebooks. In case the exam table or doctors office are full, patients can also wait in the "waiting room" (our cozy area) for their appointment.

​Cate: I'm sick, too. I'm waiting in the waiting room.
Wilder, grabbing a stethoscope and walking over to Cate: Okay, I need to listem to the insie of her body to see if she's sick. 
Cate, breathing is deeply while Wilder is listening to her chest: Want me to snore?
Wilder: Yes
Both are giggling when Cate begins to snore loudly

​Jade: Cate checked her temperature and it was red. It's bad. That means it's sick.

Michael: Frannie has a fever! I take her temperature. She has a bleed.
​Cate: Her heart is broken. 
Remy: We need to open her up. With a screw driver (picking up a pencil).

Jade: Her leg is broken. She needs a bandage. We're gonna give you a shot and we don't want it to hurt. Frannie, go to sleep!

Finlay: I need to give you a shot. It will hurt for a little bit. One day. 
Frannie: You need a bandaid. 
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Jade, about Michael: I just took his temperature. It's red! He's sick. He's very sick. He needs fish and milk to make him better. And medicine

Jade, describing how to take a certain kind of medicine: You have to squish it around your teeth and swallow it.

After being diagnoses with a cold, a fever, a broken leg or a cut on a finger, the doctors and nurses discuss a treatment plan and how to best support the patient in his or her healing process. Often a bandaid or bandage is needed, a shot given, or a bedrest for between 3 and 89 days prescribed. 

We are getting excited for our St. John's luminary walk, tomorrow, Wednesday Dec. 15 between 5-6pm! In the past few days we have prepared gorgeous luminary bags that we can't wait to see lit up outside of the school. We hope to see you there!

Inspired by the children's interest and their questions about the circulatory system, we explored the human heart and how it works in the classroom. Through investigating and researching heart models and a variety of books on the topic, we learned about that the heart pumps blood through our body in special tubes, called blood vessels (for example veins, bringing oxygen-poor blood to the heart and arteries, bringing oxygen-rich blood back to the body). 

Did you know... 
... that 5 million red blood cells are in every drop of human blood?
... that the biggest arteries and veins are the width of a thumb?​
... that the total length of blood vessels (in an adults body) is 100,000 miles? That's four times around the earth!

Our circulatory system is so fascinating!

Lily: Kind of silly. It just doesn’t look like a heart.
(inspecting the small model of a human heart)

​Lucas: It’s fun! (What’s fun about it?) Lots of stuff. The inside of this is also cool. (What do you see on the inside of it?) I see spots and the blood. Like around here (small red part on inside of  the heart model)

​Hugh and Cape using the pump system
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Hugh: This is so exciting! It looks like blood.This is the heart but you gotta squish it so it comes out the other side. Because then it will pump. (...) But how did you get the water to be blue?
Cape: This takes a long time. (to pump water from one bin into the other)
Hugh: It’s now getting harder and harder and harder. This bin is now almost gonna be full. The heart is pumping fast that’s why I’m pumping fast. I need to take a break.
Ines: Does your heart ever take a break?
Hugh: Probably when it’s like in the middle of the night it stops.
Ines: Can I tell you something? Your heart never stops, it always pumps.
Hugh: Until you die?
Ines: Yes. Every day, every minute …
Hugh: It pumps. Oh yeah, because blood makes you move. Because sometimes you move even when you’re sleeping, sometimes you roll in your bed.
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Bea and Frannie using pump system
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Bea: It can beat quietly. The heart pumps the same night, every night and every day. It pumps the whole night, it pumps the whole entire day.
Frannie: It’s easy (to pump).
Bea: Well, when you have two hands on, it’s easy. And it pumps more water in the other one.

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​Michael and Daniel using pump system
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Daniel: The water is going on to there. Because if he’s doing that (Michael, pumping)
the water will come in and in there and down there and going into that bath. It’s cool!

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If you weren't already aware, we wanted to share with you that during this time of year we also connect with many other members of our school community. Some of these special people include Kurt & Margaret (Church Administrators), Victor & Lucila (Custodial Staff), and Gini (the St. John's Rector) who all support us in various situations and help make our school a very special place.
This month, Brown, Rainey, Tucker, and KW classes all prepare gifts for these individuals as a way to say thank you for all of the work they do for our school!

​This year, Rainey Room will be making a gift for Kurt. 

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Remy - A bouncy spring like in there. (pointing to the classroom skull model which contains a spring to conncect the jaw and her pointing to her own chin)
Wilder - Or maybe rubber bands because they move like skin. 
Lily- I think a spring. It’s more bouncy than rubber bands. But how will we put the whole thing together? Like pasting it?

Finlay has a lot of previous knowledge about Star Wars characters and was able to provide some information to both Lily and Lucas to help them better understand the Darth Vader character.
He helped them visualize what Darth Vader looks like as well as a bit about his persona of being a "bad guy".
​Then we turned to Google for a little help in getting a photo of Darth Vader to support us in our work for Kurt. 

​In January, we will begin inviting families to come to school to share about their family traditions.
Specifically, we are hoping that our families will share special recipes with us and even help teach us how to make their favorite foods!

As mentioned before in previous blog posts, each birthday child is "interviewed" by the entire class during a morning meeting to start the week. This interview time enables everyone to gain a better understanding about the birthday child's preferences (favorite things, likes, dislikes) as well as allows them an opportunity to request any specific ideas of their own for their gift!

 Look! There’s a rainbow right there! - Wilder (noticing a rainbow on the classroom wall created by a prism in the window)
And there’s rainbows at my house. - Wilder
Do you make the rainbows? (at your house) - Sam 
Well we don’t make them. The sun just shines into our house and... actually the sun doesn't. There’s a big light that hangs up on our ceiling and if you touch it and swing very gently there’s a giant ball in the middle that you touch and swing and then the big ball... all the rainbows are inside the ball and the rainbows move if you touch it very gentle. - Wilder
Is the ball shiny and reflective? - Ines
No! It’s clear! - Wilder
Is it made of glass? - Sam 
Like a crystal? - Ines
Yes!  A crystal! It looks like that ball (prism in rainbow). - Wilder 
Maybe the birthday committee could use some of those ideas to create rainbows for you. - Sam 
The sun reflects on the glass and when the sun vibrates it makes a rainbow shining on the glass. - Finlay (hypothesis about how a rainbow is created)

For Wilder's birthday work, Finlay, Jade, and Daniel were selected to be the committee members. Daniel was absent on Monday, so Finlay and Jade began brainstorming together immediately following Wilder's interview.

​The birthday committee is responsible for turning ideas into reality.
This is not an easy task!
To have a collaborative dialogue between committee members, children must utilize critical thinking skills, be attentive listeners, empathetic, and often must be willing to compromise.  

Here is a transcript of dialogue between Finlay and Jade during their first committee session.
​The highlighted sections identify key ideas that helped project the work moving forward.  

The following day the committee met again with their first plan in mind. Knowing that the T-rex would be constructed out of blocks, they intended to first create paint colors to represent Wilder's favorite color palette which would then be used to paint the "dinosaur skin" onto paper.
​Finlay had the creative suggestion that if we painted on paper, the paper could then be taped onto the blocks afterwards! 

Having learned through previous color explorations that colors can come in a an almost infinite variety of shades, tints, and tones, the committee asked Wilder for his input when choosing specific hues to represent his favorite colors Purple, Red, and Yellow. 
Now, the committee had gained a better understanding of how to best represent Wilder's personal preferences! They then began to mix paints until achieving almost identical matches to Wilder's chosen colors. 

Daniel, Finlay, and Jade each took on the challenge of choosing one of Wilder's favorite colors to create through their own trial and error explorations. 

After mixing approximately 1-2 "test colors" each, a final palette was created that the birthday committee felt best represented Wilder's favorite colors. 
It was evident throughout their processes that the children were able to recall on past color mixing experiences in order to support their decision making and hypotheses throughout the color mixing experience. White paint was used to "make it lighter" - Jade. While trying to create an yellow-orange shade, Daniel observed, "the red is putting it down... it's too dark!" before switching back to yellow to lighten the color.  Primary color combinations were also recalled in order to begin the process of creating a secondary color. "I need the blue and the red for this purple." - Finlay 

Finlay: Purple - “Grape Juice”
I did more red. And a little blue. So first you have to start with red. Then you add blue. So a tiny bit of blue and then a lot of red. 

Jade: Yellow - “Sunburst” 
I did white and yellow. More white. 

Daniel: Yellow - “Mardigras Gold”
I’m getting closer and closer! I need more yellow. It’s getting lighter! (adding white). Look! I finished! I think it’s good. I did red and yellow (to get orange). And a little bit of this (grey).  Look, I did it! I really did it! Sam, I really did it! ​

What if it’s too tall if he sits on it and it falls over? - Finlay

Noooooo! That’s too small, bro! - Daniel
Speaking to Jade when observing that the block she chose was too small in scale to accurately represent the T-rex head. ​

Thursday continued ... ​