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☞Pod B A Wintery Backwards Day! It was fun to play in the icy snow today. Children found areas to “skate” and make animal environments. Gigi, Lane, and Nora pretended to be puppies and also created a “Happy Day” Song. Toward the end of our outdoor time, Cannon and Palmer invented a catapult. There was some trial and error as they worked through the mechanics involved. For example, it is important not to have the catapult send the ball of icy snow back toward the operator! Construction Pod B Children love the opportunity to use measurement tools. They came in handy as we thought about repairing the clay number line for the school’s birthday yesterday. Today the tools served two purposes, measuring and building materials. There was some initial drama involving lava: Cannon - We’re battling the lava! Cannon, Gigi, and Palmer work together to defend their homes from the lava. Gigi -It’s not up to here, is it? Palmer - I made the lava pipe overflow to this bin. The lava problem has been solved. We just needed to send it all in that tube. There were other scenarios developed together throughout the morning. Perhaps the most dramatic moment occurred when Lane’s animal was deciding if she would marry Cannon’s gorilla or Palmer’s lion. Collage Animal environments continue to be popular with other medium as well. Today Cannon added animals to a forest collage background he created yesterday. Nora has been working on a series of nests for a few days. Today she added the birds, taking time to carefully select the home each bird would prefer. Lane was inspired by the nest idea and began making nests of her own. We are still drawing from the images that parents cut for us. Thank you! ☞Pod A Morning Meeting: Locating China and Discussing the World Map First we introduced the class to Chinese New Year, a holiday which Andy’s family celebrates. We are preparing to celebrate it here in the tucker Room next week. We asked him what the best part about the holiday is… Andy: Decorating everything!! (A few children begin to realize they aren’t familiar with the holiday.) Maren: I don’t remember celebrating this… (We explain how this is a holiday that people in China celebrate, and since Andy’s family comes partly from China, he’s introducing it to us) Andy: My grandma and grandpa in China is my mom’s dad and mom. (Some are still confused and curious about where the holiday originates) Dakota: I don’t know how Chinese goes. Grace: Me either. I never even heard of Chinese. Olivia: I haven’t heard of Chinese either. (We got out the large map of the world from the Tucker Closet! This led to a much broader conversation about the elements of a map.) Andy: I want to tell you something. Here’s China. Aida: There’s a really funny place I love. The Democratic Republic of Congo. Maren: I really like Cayman. Dakota: Guys, don’t you think we should talk about where’s China? Andy: China’s right over here. Melanie: We live over here. How long would it take to get to China from here? Grace: It would be across a ocean. Fletcher: Oh, that’s a lot of water. Dakota: This is a really big map. Andy: Here’s the star where I live. (Pointing to US west coast) Fletcher: Where’s the North Pole? Oliver: Here’s the North Pole. (Pointing towards bottom of map) Olivia: The North Pole is on the top of up in the sky. (Pointing towards top of map) Fletcher: No, it’s not high up. Oliver: It’s very far away. God is in the sky. Fletcher: Oliver, you’re sitting right next to the North Pole. (Pointing to an inset map of Antarctica in the corner) Andy: That’s Antarctica. Dakota: They live on the ground, but you can’t see because they live in ice. [referring to Santa] Aida: (pointing) This is Greenland. Andy: What are these clocks for? (Indicating edges of map) Fletcher: Maybe time zones. Aida: Or maybe it’s [if you] wanna know how long it takes to get to countries and places. Melanie: What do you mean by time zones Fletcher? (After a pause) If I live here in Washington DC and it’s daytime, what does that mean about China? (Indicating clocks) Fletcher: Dark! Maren: Nighttime! Because daytime in Washington DC, in China it’s nighttime. And nighttime in Washington DC, it’s morning in China. When it’s half of the night, it’s afternoon in China. Grace: Now that it’s morning here, it’s nighttime in Japan. Olivia: What is this? (Points to compass) Andy: I know! Here is the west, here’s south, here’s east, here’s north. Melanie: Do you know what the whole thing is called? It starts with a C…. Fletcher: Compass! I didn’t guess, I have a compass at my Nana’s! Melanie: What do we use it for? Fletcher: It just points north. Aida: Maybe it’s a weather vane. Oliver: (referring to compass) It’s backwards, turn, straight, left. Aida: (pointing) There’s Asia. This is Africa. There’s North America, this is South America, there’s Antarctica, that’s Europe, and that’s Australia. Dakota: When I was on my road trip I went to that place. All the way from LA to here. [It took] Days and days and days and days! I went to a lot of states and stayed at a lot of hotels. Reflecting on Our Collage Work We were SO proud of the Tucker Room children for how thoughtfully they responded when reflecting about collage. Children reflected on techniques like: gluing, layering, choosing and placing images. They also clearly articulated why documentation is important. Finally, there were interesting reflections on the learning process as a whole. Please read their words below. What do you think is the best way to make a collage? Olivia: It’s the best way to make a collage is putting glue, a lot of glue on the back of it and then sticking it on your paper and holding it for a couple of seconds. Fletcher: The best way is to put them on the paper. Dakota: For people to look at stuff and think it’s beautiful. Grace: Well I normally start with thinking doing what paper and then I get the materials and I think about where I’m going to put them before I glue them down. And then once I glue something down I think if it’s the right choice or not, but if it is I just keep it there and I keep going. Then if I have 2 or 3 pictures I stop and look at my collage. And then I keep going. Maren: What I do is I look at the materials, then I get them together and then I put them on the paper but I don’t glue them, I put them how I want them to be. And after I put a few stuff on I keep adding, keep adding, keep adding to make a huge collage. What do you think about when you’re making a collage? Olivia: You think about what you want on the paper. Oliver: Using the stuff you want. Brooke: How do you know what you want? Oliver: You choose images from your brain. Olivia: I just looked at the stuff and I was thinking about kitchen stuff. How do you decide what images to choose? Aida: I just looked for stuff I liked and stuff that are my favorite things. Fletcher: Because I loved them. Dakota: I chose the giraffe because I really like them and have lots of them at my house. I liked how the sunset was dark blue here and purple there. What do you think your learn when you make a collage? Dakota: I like how we put the glue. Remember how I put it here (she shows the edge of an image) and here. Grace: I learn that you can put stuff on top and you can also make a story with your collage and you should like the things you have. You never have to do it even if someone suggested it to you. Maren: I learn basically the same thing that Grace said, but one thing that is different is that you can solve a problem because I had no more room and then I had to get another background and put it and get another background and put it and get another background and put it. Andy: Going at places. We’re making something and we’re wondering how we will go there. Aida: Like what you want to stick. Like draw stuff or glue stuff or like cut out paper and glue it on. Why did we put all this stuff up here? What’s it about? Andy: Collage! Aida: So people and kids’ moms and dads and nannies know what this is for - like what we’re doing. Maren: It’s about what we’re doing. We put collages up here. This is because we want to remember what we did. That’s why we put pictures. How do you know it’s right? What are you thinking about? Grace: I’m thinking about if I should take it off or keep it on because I know nothing should be perfect, but I want it to be better than good. Maren: Because I look at it really closely and see that it’s messed up or something’s wrong and I don’t like it. And then I fix it. Monster Village! We offered a provocation at the light table for children to make a cozy place to live for some little monster finger puppets. See our experimentation below...                   
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