Thursday, January 20th

1/20/2022

A Committee for Lucas

Can you believe that we have already celebrated 10 birthdays this school year in the Rainey Room?

So far, Finlay, Michael, Remy, Ines, Cape, Sam, Lily, Wilder, Jade, and Daniel have all had their school birthday celebrations.

As you are probably already aware, we begin the process of preparing for each child's birthday by conducting a large group interview (that takes place during morning meeting) to offer the opportunity for everyone to ask the birthday child questions about themselves. These meetings not only support everyone in gaining better insight into the personality, interests, and uniqueness of each individual member of the Rainey Room, but also invite collaboration and strengthen our ability to be kind and care for others.

If you'd like to read the full transcript of the large group interview for our friend, Lucas, you can find it below!

Next, the small group committee meets to reflect on the information obtained during the large group interview.

It's Cape and Cate's turn to be on the birthday committee this week!
Some of our major takeaways that supported the work moving forward are underlined.

What do we recall about Lucas's birthday interview?

Well, his dog. - Cate
Do you remember the dogs name? - Sam
Puppy. - Cape
*Lucas overhears*
My dogs name is RuRu. That’s his nickname. - Lucas
And red. - Cate
Lucas, do you like red? I don’t know - Cape (asks Lucas to confirm)
Yes. - Lucas
Yes. His favorite color is red. - Cate
Oh and I remember. A monster truck . - Cape
He wants a monster on the monster truck that’s purple with three eyes. - Cate
Like a monster truck he can drive? - Sam
Like a bus. - Cape
He said he doesn't want to drive it. - Cate
Maybe you could go ask him. - Sam
Lucas do you want to sit on your monster truck or not? - Cate
He said no. - Cape
The puppy could drive the monster truck! - Cate
So how are we going to make this? - Sam
I can draw a dog. - Cate
We could ask him to bring puppy. - Cape
We could, we could also use other materials to make what we need. - Sam

Do you think the truck will be big or small? - Sam
Maybe big. - Cate
How will we make the window? - Cape
A square shape and one line across for a window.
-Cate
Cape, weren’t you riding something in your birthday photo? - Sam
A tractor. - Cape
And how did your friends make you a tractor? - Sam
With wood. - Cape
And blocks. - Cate
And it was driving on grass. - Cape
Maybe it could be driving on a road. - Cate
How would we make it road? - Cape
It would go straight lines with a yellow and white in the middle. - Cate
Yellow lines on the road. - Cape
With yellow string. - Cate
And what color is the road itself? - Sam
A black road, with yellow lines. I could get string from my house and a big platform thats black for the road.
-Cape
I think we might have something like that in our classroom. - Sam
*Sam points out black panel board*
Yeah, like that! And we need to use big yellow string.
-Cate
Yeah two in the middle. - Cape
Yellow is one in the middle and two whites (lines) on the sides - Cate

And how will we include puppy? - Sam
Draw it on the window. In the window on the truck. - Cape
I can draw that! - Cate
Do you want it big or little? - Cape
Let’s do it little. Lets put the puppy looking out the window. - Cate

So it sounds like you’d like to use blocks for the truck? - Sam
Yeah. And draw the puppy. - Cate
And how will Lucas be included in the portrait? - Sam
Maybe waving to the puppy? - Cate
And we could do some other cars around on the road. - Cape
And maybe the puppy could wear a Santa hat? - Cate
What?! No!! - Cape (laughing)

So if we do include other cars on the road does the monster truck need to be bigger or smaller than the other cars? - Sam
Bigger! With big wheels! And they can jump really high! - Cate
We’re gonna cut them out like this big. - Cape (showing size with his arm)
Cape, lets do this big. - Cate (making her arms bigger)
I want to build the truck. - Cate

Roadwork

Maybe it could be driving on a road.
- Cate

And we need to use big yellow string.
-Cate

So...we need to cut it. - Cate (measuring white line/ribbon for the length of the road)

It’s a double yellow. Means don't cross. - Cape

The roads I drive on are not dashed lines.
Dashed lines are for highways. - Cape
(comparing the road he invisioned to the road drawing picture book used for reference)

A Three Eyed Purple Monster

He wants a monster on the monster truck that’s purple with three eyes. - Cate

Cate volunteered to get started working on the monster for the monster truck sign. She began her process by choosing different size circle stencils, then tracing and cutting out two circular shapes. One larger circle and one smaller circle for the head and the body. She tested each arrangement to determine in which order to glue the circles together (large on top, small on bottom versus large on bottom, small on top).

Lucas said he wanted the eyes in purple. This shade of purple. - Cape
(choosing dark purple paper)
Cate, do you want these to be the color of the eyes? These are good shades of purple. - Cape
Yeah. - Cate
Lucas wanted how many eyes on the monster? - Sam
Three! - Cate

I noticed Cate used a technique earlier for creating her circles. Cate, can you demonstrate for Cape? - Sam
I know! She traced. - Cape

So look. I got three eyes. One, two, three. Maybe Cate should cut… - Cape

Maybe the monster has a silly face.
Monsters are silly like this. - Cate
(making silly faces to show Capers)

And maybe like 2 teeth. That are shaped like squares. Chubby teeth. - Cate (giggling)

Capers then sketched a mouth in a "rainbow shape" to match Cates description of a silly monster face.

Both Cape and Cate worked through this process in an extremely collaborative effort.
Each child stepped up and offered support to the other when needed, typically when faced with a difficult task.

This is silly mini. Silly Mini Monster. - Cape (introduces monster to Sweetie Dog)
We should name it Silly Mini Monster. - Cape says laughing
Cate laughing: yeahhhhhhh!
You know why it’s called Silly Mini Monster? Because that’s part of the monster trucks name. - Cape
You know I think you’re right. Most monster trucks do have names. - Sam

Silly Mini Monster

Wow Cate! Great job! - Cape observes their finished sign.

Monster Truck

I want to build the truck. - Cate

Using a few Google images of monster trucks for inspiration, Cape and Cate began constructing the truck that would be the backdrop for Lucas's portrait.

When you look at the monster trucks, what do you notice about them? - Sam
The wheels. - Cate
How do the wheels look? - Sam
Big. - Cate
Maybe you could start with the wheels. You said they were big. What is the biggest material we have? - Sam
This! - Cape (finds the largest blocks in construction area)
Thats a square and wheels are round. - Cate
We talked about drawing wheels… we could always draw wheels to add to the blocks as our base. Do we know how many wheels we need? -Sam
Five! *Cate begins counting*
No, four. 1,2,3,4. - Cate
We have it! - Cape
(counts out 4 large blocks to use)
Let’s set it like this. Then draw it on. - Cape
(sets blocks up in tall ordered arrangement with the intention of attaching drawn round wheels at a later time)

Taking a break from building to enjoy some outdoor time proved to be really beneficial. The problem around "round wheels versus rectangular blocks" was solved when finding tires in the outdoor classroom.

As the design of the monster truck progressed and took form, Cate expressed dissatisfaction with the appearance of the wheels and wanted to make a change.
Remember? There’s grey in the middle. Like a grey design. We can make that.
- Cate
A trip to the Tucker Closet proved to be successful for both finding grey paper for the wheels and shades of brown to create Lucas's puppy.

We need tape at the top, middle, and bottom. Lucas really likes red so we can see the red tape. - Cape

Puppy

Using photos from Lucas's family photo book, Cate and Cape decided to use an approach similar to the construction of the monster by sketching shapes, cutting them out, assembling, and adding details.

I can draw a dog. - Cate

The puppy could drive the monster truck! - Cate

Photo Shoot Day

This looks awesome. - Finlay

The entire class becomes very invested in celebrating the birthday child. Non-committee members were so excited for Lucas to see his photo shoot setup when first arriving in the classroom today.

It's good! Puppy is my favorite. - Lucas

As Cape and Cate conducted the photo shoot, they considered body placement, facial expression, photo clarity, and prop arrangement to be important factors in capturing the best image.

They requested that Lucas try different positions throughout the shoot and afterwards narrowed down their choices to a handful of "favorites".

In the editing process, Cate emphasized the most important aspect to consider when choosing the final birthday portrait.

Lucas is more important than the monster truck. - Cate