Augie, Camden, Dax, and Ferdinand visited the museum on Thursday.
My biggest impression was that these children are much more capable of making their ideas visible to each other than they were in the fall. They were enthusiastic and engaged cooperatively!
Upon leaving for the museum, we climbed the hill as a slightly roundabout way to the museum to get out excess energy. But Dax became upset upon seeing the tall sculpture with the open mouth and ears and began crying. I assured him that we were going to the museum, not to that sculpture and after a minute he recovered. But later, in the Process Gallery, he pointed to the photo of the same sculpture and talked easily and calmly about it, mentioning its mouth, the “popcorn”-like texture on the pole, and how “creepy” it is. Others noticed and commented on the photo beside it, showing a similar photo of faces on sticks. Camden was also interested in the photos in the Process Gallery, pointing out one of Kitchen Trees (“Guys, guys. I found something – look.”) and others. Augie used the blocks to build a school, which Dax said looked like a hotel where people sleep. Then Dax himself built a hotel (“Look, Mark. Da, da da! I made a hotel.”). Someone spied a paper with drawing on it clipped to the wall, and soon they were all drawing and clipping their papers to the wall.
I suggested that we all get a drink at the water fountain, and Ferdinand was excited to push the lever at the bottom while everyone got a drink, then he got a drink too.
We headed up to the LAB, where we found the beautiful house decorated with colorful paper. Here they built with blocks, and piled on top of the big cushions, and then became kitties. Being a kitty was tricky in the house, as paper was easily knocked off the walls, but we managed, occasionally hooking them back up. One thing I learned was that crumpled paper can also fit in the mesh, making it easier for us to contribute to the installation.
Suddenly our time was up and we headed back to the classroom.
