Tuesday, February 22nd

Continuing committee work for our school's 25th birthday celebration on March 4th. 

I think I know what would make the school happy.
​A new mailbox! - Finlay

As previously mentioned in a past blog post, the Rainey Room decided to focus on three different areas of "work" in preparing for the schools upcoming birthday celebration. 

A committee in charge of caring for the school environment... ​

That’s what you have to do.
​Make it all nice in Brown Room,
then make it all nice in Rainey Room,
​ and then make it all nice in Tucker Room. - Bea

A committee that will make a special treat to enjoy at the celebration...

A cake! - Finlay

And a committee that will construct a gift to present to the school on its birthday. 

Knowing that the school has its own symbol and accompanying stamp to represent that symbol, children began to wonder why the school didn't have its own mailbox?

One of the main ways children use their symbol stamps at school is to communicate with one another within the school community.

If the school now has its own stamp, should it also have a mailbox to encourage communication and message making to the school as well?

​

Here are snippets of dialogue from a conversation that initiated this idea among the Rainey Room children:   

Finlay: I think I know what would make the school happy. A new mailbox! 
Ines: What made you think about that?
Finlay: I know why we should because it has a symbol. See, look at the calendar! I was wondering since there’s a birthday could we make it a message in his (the school) mailbox.
Ines: But does the school have a mailbox?
Finlay: No.
Sam: If we make the school a mailbox are there any materials we could use to make one?
Bea: Plastic. 
Remy: Ribbon to make it beautiful. 
Cape: Do you know what the wrapping paper should be? It’s symbol on.
Saul: Wood and screws.
Finlay: Let’s wrap the mailbox in paper like we did with our photo thing.
​(referencing how we present birthday portrait gifts to each birthday child in RR)
Ines: I wonder, if we build a mailbox, where should it go?
Bea: Next to everyone else's mailboxes.
Jade: There’s not enough room.
Bea: (It should be) small like the other mailboxes. One of the teachers and you guys can
measure and the kids can tell you what measure it can be.
Cape: How will the school get the messages out of its mailbox?
Bea: Molly. 
Cape: Molly could pick them out of the mailbox and give them to the school.
Sam: If you did write a message to the school, what would you say?
Bea: Thank you for opening the school and we love the school and thank you for letting
the kids come in.
Finlay: You know how the birthday committee carries the gift. Since it was my idea I
should give it to the school.
Bea: No, the whole classrooms of the school.
Cape: And Molly could read the messages to the school.

A small group (including Finlay, Jade, Michael, Daniel, and Cape) volunteered to work on the Mailbox Committee.

Finlay: We’re making a mailbox, so we need to be by the mailboxes. 

To begin, the committee needed to assess the area near the school "post office" (where everyone's mailboxes are found) to decide if there was an existing space that might work for a permanent home for the school's mailbox to be kept. 

A plant stand sits next to the children's mailboxes and seemed to be an ideal place to house a mailbox for the school. 

Children began taking measurements and recording their data for the dimensions of the space.
That way, they would know what size to construct the final mailbox so that it would fit on the stand. 

Cape works on the blueprint.

After gathering information about the dimensions of the space, a blueprint was created to help us better visualize the size and shape of the box. Capers designed a slot in the blueprint to include in the final design of the mailbox.
Yes the slot can fit big messages and little messages. - Cape

A Three-Dimensional Model 

We realized that drawing a blueprint on a flat surface could only support us to a certain extent of understanding the potential of our mailbox layout. Using both the plant stand and our recorded measurements as reference points, a 3D model was built. 

​Knowing that the "real" mailbox will be constructed out of wood, the committee then sketched the dimensions of the mailbox walls onto a piece of plywood and wrote a note to our friend, Victor, asking him to help us cut the wood into the correct sized pieces for our future construction project. 

Dear Victor,
We are making a mailbox. 
A mailbox for the school. 
The mailbox will be a cube shape. 
The walls will be 10 inches wide and 12 inches tall. 
Can you cut this wood for our walls?
We also need a bottom and a top piece. 
In one wall we need a mail slot hole please. 
6 inches wide and 3 inches tall. 
From, Rainey Room

Design and Decoration Ideas

The committee also discussed ideas about what the mailbox should look like as far as its decorations and colors once fully constructed. 

Sam: Are there any colors that we should be thinking about for the color of the mailbox? Does the school have favorite colors?
Finlay: Wait, like the symbol?
Cape: Like all those colors. 
Finlay: All of the colors. So what about a rainbow cake? Are we gonna add the symbol to it? (the mailbox)
Finlay: We could put the symbol on both sides?
Sam: So it sounds like our ideas so far are that we will build a mailbox, we want there to be a cake on it, and maybe it will include rainbow colors?
Cape: Yeah like we could maybe do rainbow lines. 
Daniel: Or rainbow circles. 
Finlay: Or we could paint the wood.
Jade: I have a rainbow crayon at home. 
Sam: Maybe we could make some designs of our ideas. 

Left to Right: Finlay, Capers, Jade, Daniel

​Here are some more details of each design. Many designs incorporate "cakes" as decorative additions to represent the birthday and rainbow colors that represent the school's colors found on its rainbow gingko leaf symbol:

Finlay

Cape

Cape decided to incorporate rainbow gingko leaves to match the schools symbol in his design.

Jade 1

Jade 2: Jade's design includes a "flap door" that covers the mail slot when closed.

Daniel

Construction

Today's portion of the committee work was so exciting that it drew a larger crowd of volunteers to help!

For some, this was their first experience using a hammer and nails.
​For others, they mentioned using these tools for home projects. 

Have you ever used a hammer before?
Daniel: Dad lets me fix the walls at home. (with a hammer)
Saul: No, but now I have! 
Jade: Yes. I made a bird feeder. 
Cape: Yes, with my dad. 
Frannie: Only my dad does. He was fixing the refrigerator. 

Stay tuned for the final reveal of the mailbox at the celebration for the school on Friday, March 4th!