Backwards Friday

How is it already Friday? Wow, this week went by fast!
And Fridays are special days in the Brown Room. Because Fridays are Backwards days, which means our schedule changes and we get a long time in the outdoor classroom right after drop off. Usually our outside time is between 11:30am and 12:00pm but on Fridays we are outside from 9:00am-10:30am. The children noticed immediately that something was different and had lots of questions.

Do we not change shoes? (Lily) Are we going home then? (Finlay) Going outside? (Daniel)

That shows us that even though we are just finishing up with week two of school, the children are starting to remember our daily routines and question actions that are different from the usual. It was wonderful to start our morning outside and lots of great things were happening. Cape, Lucas and Wilder used shovels in the sandbox to create different things (dig holes, build towers, move sand). Hugh and Finlay were busy cooking for everyone. 
​
Finlay: I'm making poison soup.
Molly: What happens if I eat the poison soup?
Finlay: No! It's for the bad guys.
​

Wilder, Cape and Lily joined Hugh for different parts of his cooking process. And Finlay and Hugh noticed they were both creating different foods.

Hugh: I'm making grapes now. (pouring sand into an ice cube tray)
Ines: How do you make grapes?
Cape: I make it with two hands and I make it with shovels and sand.

Finlay: Hey, look! He's making poison soup with me now?
Hugh: Do you like some French fries? I'm cutting it.
​

For clean up we had a long assembly line at the sink to wash dishes and cars and to give all the people, animals and dinosaurs a bath.

---

Continuing Collages

Back in the classroom we continued to explore collage making. During this process we focused on how much glue to use for different items. The children experienced that some larger pieces need a bigger puddle of glue while smaller pieces only need a dab of glue. Depending on the amount you would like to get onto the paper you need to squeeze harder and/or longer. Michael enjoyed dotting the glue on to his paper and moving it around before adding a silk flower. He then flipped the board over and continued to work on the other side as well. Lucas started by selecting, grouping together and prearranging a small amount of different materials before moving on to arrange his favorite items, the film squares, around the cluster of smaller items. He was very focused and paid close attention to his individual placements. He also moved down his head to watch the glue come out of the bottle. Finlay, similar to yesterday, preferred to explore the materials on their own and only glued a few pieces to the board. 

---

First Painting Experiences

A few children explored the medium paint for the first time at school today. Before we started we put on aprons to protect our clothes from paint and discussed that each jar/each color has its own brush. Everyone was very eager to pick their first color.
I need paint. I like pink. (Wilder) I want red. (Hugh) When are we gonna start? (Lily, while she was holding the brush about 2 inches away from her paper, looking at the paint brush)
The children chose their own colors and were free to switch paint colors at any time by replacing the jar/color they were using back on the tray before choosing and a different jar/color. In the beginning everyone announced whenever they switched colors.
Lily: I'm done with the color. I'm getting a different color. I think I will choose this. (pointing to the yellow paint jar)
Cape: Look at my painting. I want another color.
Lily: Did I already use this color? I think so.

Lily started with the color light blue. She then layered the following colors on top of each other; yellow, darker orange, dark blue ("this blue"), pink, red, dark green, and red again. She finished with dark blue.
The layering of colors eventually created new colors. 

Hugh: Look! I make gray! (noticing it while we moved his paintbrush over the top left corner of his painting)
Lily: Grey? Yes. I'm making colors but my color is brown. You're making gray.

​In the process she changed the narrative for her painting a few times. 
Rain came down and washed it out. (singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider song with Hugh and Cape, but Hugh said "Monster" instead of spider) /// This is a beaver. Tummy tummy tummy. /// I'm making a monster. 

 Hugh also used different colors but at first he did not layer them. He painted shapes and filled in the blank space with different colors in a brushing or dotting movement. He then started to cover the middle part of his painting and started to mix colors together. 

Lily responded to him adding dots with the dark blue color: Why are you making paw prints?
Hugh: I know what they are! They are dinosaur paw prints.

Lily and Hugh got more and more interested in each others paintings over time and sometimes moved their brushes together at the same time.
Hugh: Who can race farther? 1, 2, 3,...
Lily: 4, 5,... (both are moving their paint brushes upwards towards and then on top of the metal clip)

They started to create a story together about a monster and its house. Lily was painting the monster while Hugh was painting the monster's house. (Hugh) "Guess what, the door is all the way down here. The ladder is going to be pink." Cape was painting at the table next to them and was very interested in the story and for some time he got a chair, placed it behind Lily and Hugh and listened. He then went back to his painting and said "I'm making a monster, too."
Hugh: My monster's grumpy.
Lily: What is your monster? (walking over to Cape's painting and looking at it)
Cape: My monster is good.
Hugh: (about his own painting) Wow! Do you see his eyes? (about Lily's painting)  Hey! You're making a cute one. My monster's belly is green. 
Lily: Mine is named Saria. His monster's name is house. That's a silly name. This is the mommy monster.
Hugh: Mine is the daddy.
Lily to Cape: Yours can be the grandma.

 We want to share a short excerpt from Lily and Hugh's conversation towards the end. Lily is mentioning the different colors they create again and Hugh describes his monster's house more detailed and how he is painting.

Thank you everyone for a wonderful week and we are excited to welcome  Sam back to the classroom next Tuesday.
Have an amazing weekend!