Studio Purple Happenings, Week of April 27th

After our April Break, we’ve come back together again — at least virtually that is!  We have now moved to holding Small Groups along with continuing our Whole Class Music with Mark shared with Studio Red.

Our Small Groups give us opportunity to share time with one another in a more intimate way and to better facilitate hearing one another’s thoughts and ideas.

After taking some time to revisit what we remembered and missed about Studio Purple, we left off before vacation break wondering… 

What do you Love at home?  Is there something or some place at home that is special to you and why?

We returned to this for our new group format…

We were excited to have Charlie join us all the way from Truro!  We noticed how Charlie listened carefully to Luca explaining his collage of sledding with his brother.  A lively discussion of our surprise Spring snow seemed to capture his attention and he found a way to connect, “It snowed here a few days ago!”  While Charlie is not necessarily in his own home, he has grown to love exploring the outdoors in his Truro home.  He shared with us from his many explorations there, “We found a water snake at the pond we go to.  We got close to it.  We thought it was dead.”  We learned that it was so still that it led Charlie and his family to believe it wasn’t alive but at last it did move! 

When our Small Group was over, Charlie set out to create many houses with his brother Joey.  We noticed how our reading of the story Mr. Pine’s Purple House really seemed to capture him.  We know that during this time, shelter or home has come to be so much more meaningful and we were struck by Charlie’s exploration of different ways something could be a home.

Luca joined us along with his younger brother Marcel.  It was delightful to see his smiling face!  Luca also spends a lot of time outdoors and has grown to love long bike rides with his family.  In fact, he had to race back just to make it in time for this Small Group!  He carefully shared with us a collage he created to show how he and Marcel went sledding.  We noticed how he worked to cut paper into shapes such as a half circles for the sleds and a long squiggle to create the hillside.  We also notice how proud Luca seemed as he shared this with us!

Alex was eager to share that at his home he has an abundant love of books!  He is especially fond of cartoon style, graphic novel books and shared a couple of them with us.  One of the books he showed us was Dogman of which we heard a lot about when we were all together in the Studio!  While Alex commented that it is “a little inappropriate” he eagerly read to us a page illustrating how a dog was “afraid of the vacuum!”  “Isn’t that funny?!”  We noticed how joyful Alex seems being able to read this well-loved book to us and to spread some laughter in our day!

Jack was captured by Emma and Victoria’s showing of how high they could now jump on their outdoor trampoline.  As we waited for friends to join our meeting, Jack had been showing everyone how he pretends the rug in his Mom and Dad’s room is “lava” and how he carefully maneuvers from the bed to a chair to a cushion without touching it.  After listening in on Emma and Victoria he gleefully showed another love of his in this space and that was how high he could jump on the bed!  We noticed how capable he felt when he declared, “I can talk when I jump and I can talk when I talk!”  Paying attention to Emma and Victoria’s trampoline, Jack connected this to how he works out sharing his own trampoline with his sisters; “I do wallpaper, scissors, shoot with my sister to see who goes on the trampoline first!”

Jack continues to enjoy spending lots of time outdoors with his family and has begun to add lawn care with his Dad to his routine!  We notice how he remains fond of seeing his Studio Purple friends and reminiscing of those times together.

 

As noted, Emma and Victoria showed us their new, higher jumping skills on the trampoline.  While Emma spoke for them, Victoria eagerly agreed with Emma that it was what they loved best at their house!  Emma and Victoria also loved how their Studio Purple friends took time to wish them Happy Birthday and they shared some images of them revisiting these videos again and again.  We notice how much their Studio Purple community is important to them.

We noticed how patiently Amelia waited to share her special home item.  What Amelia chose to share was a wonderful book she created.  The title of her book was Recess at 20 Below.  Mom shared with us that Amelia was learning a lot about living in Alaska.  Amelia smiled and peeked over her book pages as Mom shared some of them for us.  We noticed her writing and how she took care to illustrate her knowings of living somewhere very cold.  On one page she depicted a figure clutching their arms together and a talk bubble saying “Brrrrr.”  Another page showed children sledding.  Her Mom helped narrate, “It can be hard to follow your teacher.  You can tell your teacher, can you wait for me?  Then you can feel better.”  We noticed Amelia chose to end her book with an inviting question.  “What was your favorite part of the book?”  On the opposite page she created drawn boxes and encouraged the listener to “draw your favorite parts here.”

Tessa was excited to share that something special she loved was “lamby.”  What is really special about lamby is that it’s her sister Vivians’ and Tessa explained, “My sister sometimes let’s me sleep with it.”  It  warmed our hearts to hear of such a lovely gesture between two sisters and we noticed how Tessa smiled when sharing, leaving us to wonder how Vivian’s gesture feels to Tessa’s heart!  

We noticed a connection when Amelia shared with us her book that she wrote and illustrated.  Tessa also has been creating books and she recently shared her Bird Book with us!  She carefully read her title and shared many interesting facts about birds that she has been learning.  Did you know that Cardinals are thought of as “birds from Heaven” or that the Chickadee, our “state bird” also has a “beautiful song?”  We also learned that Woodpeckers take “two weeks to make a hole in a tree to make their nests!”  We clearly noticed Tessa’s sense of pride in not only making this book but sharing her reading of it to us!

Charlie Menke gave us all a great big smile when he shared a drawing of what he loves in his home…a drawing of his dog Luke!  “It’s Luke!  It’s my dog.  We get to have him in our house for a billion years!”  Charlie also shared with us his thanks for his birthday videos and we noticed from this photo that turning 5 felt pretty great for him!

Kyla has been very busy!  She showed us how she has spent a long time creating a giant “fort” in her livingroom…the whole livingroom!  Inside her special fort she has a cozy “bedroom” complete with a beautiful butterfly pillow.  We noticed Kyla curling up in this fun bedroom as we read our story and wondered how many hours of imaginative dreaming she must be doing there!  Before our break she was also busy doing a number of fun things.  She created her own nature crafts and new fashions along with building a “new friend, Snow Maiden.”  She also baked Sourdough Bread with her Mom.  “That starter smells horrible but the bread tastes good!”  Hmmm, funny how that happens.  We wonder why?

Sam has been inspired by our very own Mark.  So much so, that he proudly shared what he loves at his house…his beautiful Ukulele!  When asked if he would play us something, we noticed how he carefully made sure his instrument was just so and that he had his trusty pick ready to strum.  We also noticed how lovely the sound was as he played and of course, we witnessed his proud smile when he finished!

Sam is also enjoying Karen and Kjerstin’s invitations.  We love how he and his sister, Hannah tried out making a rain cloud!  We wonder what they noticed.

Zack and Mika enjoyed listening in to everyone’s share with lots of smiles and quiet questions.  Sharing their own home loves later in an email through drawings, Zack reveals his pride in riding his bike.  We’ve noticed this loved for both Zack and Mika over the year as many of their stories and drawings often focussed on bikes and bike riding.  Mika’s drawing shows his love for a favorite family event, Movie Night!  His family snuggles by the fire with popcorn and watches something together.  Mom also shared that it’s her favorite night too!  Sounds like something many of us might like!  Zack and Mika also wanted us to know that dinosaurs and their guitars are more loves they share in their home.  We notice connections here with other friends in Studio Purple!

We really enjoyed sharing this time together and we look forward to what next week’s Small Groups will bring for us!