Wednesday, January 13th

The birthday committee continues their work

The next Brown Room birthday celebration is for our friend, Daniel. It was decided that we could showcase our recently learned paper making skills to create a beautiful blue paper message for him as his birthday gift. 

So, what's going on in the studio today?
​The birthday committee uses a blender to process our wet paper pieces into fine paper pulp. 

Blue Paper Pulp

After the mixture of paper + water has been added to the blender... it's time to blend! 

The blender can be an intimidating tool to work with because it's so unexpectedly loud! 
However, it was quickly evident that the noise would not deter us from following through on making our pulp. 

If you haven't ever had the opportunity to feel paper pulp yourself, Jade uses a fantastic vocabulary word to describe it - Goopy! 

Many of us feel that the paper pulp has a very pleasant texture. Frances and Lucas were both drawn to exploring the pulp with their hands. This exploration quickly transitioned into a fine motor challenge as they worked on transferring the viscous material into a variety of different sized containers using tools such as spoons, sponges, and their hands. 

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An introduction to Weaving 

Today was the first time the BR children had the opportunity to work with a loom. We created "web looms" to use in the classroom as an introduction into the concept of weaving and how to begin to learn this skill. 

Wilder and Cate were eager to learn what they could create using the new looms! 

Weaving on a loom is not an easy concept to learn. 
It takes concentration, patience, persistence, and greatly challenges fine motor control.
Weaving is an excellent introduction to pattern and repetition as well as a great opportunity to strengthen visual-spatial skills. 

Wilder reminds himself to follow an "over, under" pattern as he weaves his paper strips into his web loom. 

While experimenting with this new concept, it was discovered that if you don't weave the paper strips into the loom using the over, under, and through concepts, your materials could potentially fall out if not secured!


Cate tests her work to see if her paper strips are "stuck" in her web. 

We plan to send home weaving materials to try at home during our virtual learning day next week (Wednesday, January 20th). 

If you are interested in creating your own additional weaving experiences at home, here are a few images for inspiration!

Any flexible pliable item can be woven! 

Think of things such as ... flowers, shoe laces, cords, natural materials (grasses, leaves), feathers, ribbons ...
​endless opportunities to be creative!