Happy New Year!

1/12/2021

and welcome back to St. John's!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful, fun and relaxing Winter Break. We missed all of you and are excited to be back at school
- and from now on with a full class every day! Yay!

As part of our "Home Research" we asked you to collect all things paper over the break. Maybe you came across a special piece of mail, wrapping paper, paper interesting in texture or purpose, or anything that especially spoke to your child that was made out of paper? Collect it in a ziplock back and bring it in to school. We are excited to see and hear about it!

Today, Lily and Cate shared their paper collections with us during Morning Meeting.

Cate told us about the paper dolls that she made at home by "Draw it and cut it out" - Cate.
That way she made a reindeer, a bear and a boy which you can use as puppets.

She shared a painting of a flower that she painted on water color paper. "It's rough." - Daniel (speaking about the texture of the water color paper)

She also brought pink "wrapping paper" (tissue paper). Cate didn't remember if it was used to wrap a gift but she had another idea: "We can wrap my bunny!". Daniel assisted her in wrapping her bunny 'Poppelhase' in the tissue paper.

Lily shared a few papers with colorful prints on it, wrapping paper with glitter, and an origami fortune teller (some might know it as "cootie catcher") that she made with her mom.

The children were especially interested in feeling the different textures the papers had ("scratchy, rough, soft, smooth").

We also wanted to share a couple stories the children shared with us during Morning Meetings about their Winter Break:

Daniel: I got dinosaurs for Christmas. We stayed home. Even my sister stay home with me. I heard him (Santa) on the roof and then he dove down the chimney. I saw him. I was sleeping. When Santa was here I went to go potty upstairs and then I goed back to the living room and I saw Santa. I sawed him! Yeah. He looked like a silly old Santa. He was wearing a silly old hat.

Bea: We had a great flight on an airplane. We went to Florida. I did not visit anyone. We just stayed there. Mommy, daddy, James and Bea. No Teddy because dogs are not allowed in Florida. Teddy stayed with a person in Maryland. We go in the pool. Some pools are cold.

Our first birthday of the new year is coming up...

...and it's going to be Daniel's! We decided on making paper for his birthday present.

"We should do it the same (referencing to time we made paper in the classroom before winter break). We scoop and then we put it on a towel and then we add stuff to it." - Hugh

The first step in making paper is to create the paper pulp by ripping paper into smaller pieces and submerging it in water. Daniel's birthday committee, consisting of Jade, Cate, Lily and Bea, had different approaches and preferences for wetting the paper for this stage of the process.

They used larger round sponges and sponge brushes which they submerged in water first and then dapped or brushed onto the paper. Bea used a spray bottle to mist her paper with water before spreading the water more by using a sponge brush. Lily had the idea to use her spray bottle to wet her sponge brush with it instead of dunking it in the water.

Bea: It's soaking.
Lily: It's ripping. I like the wet paper. Because the wet paper is easier. It doesn't make any sound (when it is being ripped).
Jade: I like to rip dry paper.

Jade was very interested in the process of cutting and ripping the paper. She made cuts with a scissor around the edges of her piece of paper before using the cuts as a start to further rip the paper diagonally into smaller pieces.

Daniel chose BLUE as his birthday color so the birthday committee decided to create blue paper for him. But in the process we noticed that the pulp we created was white and not blue.

How can we turn it blue?
Jade: How about I have something else blue. Like a paper patch. So maybe we can try something else.
Bea: Not blue paint!
Jade: I didn't say blue paint. I said blue pulp.

But how can we create blue pulp?
Lily: Definitely not blue paint.
Jade: I think blue water.

We made the plan to go and search for blue materials we could use for pulp making in the Tucker closet after we had used up all the white paper.

Jade: Maybe we need to tiptoe there. We don't scare the paper. Each of us should...
Bea: Tiptoe!
Jade: And then come back quietly.
Lily: Let's get some dark blue!

making our way down the hallway to the Tucker closet -
very quietly to not scare the paper away...

Look at this beautiful corse paper pulp we created today!

Now we have to let it sit and soak until tomorrow. We will then blend it into fine pulp.
We are excited to see the final color result!

To end our blog today we wanted to share Cate's creations of houses for her bunny 'Poppelhase'. Yesterday she created a house out of loose parts (paper and feathers) in the classroom. Today she constructed a house out of various wooden blocks and planks int he outdoor classroom.

Cate:
"I build a bed for Poppel. It's cozy. I can build a floor for Poppel. We can build a cozy floor for him to make his feet warm. Maybe some walls? We can lay the walls flat on the rug."

Today Cate brought individual pieces one by one from the wood shed in the outdoor classroom over to the wooden platform next to the benches.

"It needs to be flat." - Cate

She created a living room, a dining room, a kitchen and a bedroom. In the end two more bunnies joined the house.