Dear Studio Red,
This week we noticed so many of you playing with less familiar classmates and materials. It was exciting to watch you take on new challenges and make discoveries along the way!
Love, Lauri and Emily
OUR WEEK IN PARTS
INDOOR AND OUTDOOR EXPLORE
Miles teaches Caroline how to plant a seed in a new way. She asks for help to put a piece of paper towel in a bag.
Travers and Luca play a new game in the library. They work together to match each object with the letter that makes their initial sound.
Kaya and Case design mandalas.
Miles and Will read a label together. "Does this say Pumpkin Seeds?"
Ruth, Miles and Charlie work together to place their paintings on the drying rack.
Travers, Kieran, Ian and Louis build a big ship for dogs with blocks.
Jackson and Kaya solve a problem as they grind acorns.
Ruth shows Jackson how to listen for electricity in the gas meter outside Studio Purple.
Case, Thomas and Will create story together with loose parts.
Katie and Charlie experiment with painting around a craypas drawing at the easel.
Travers experiments with a new tool that creates mandalas.
BOOKS
This week we continued reading stories of Little Bear. Miles chose Fraidy Zoo for his birthday book. We introduced new book baskets. One is filled with books about what we play. Inside are books about dinosaurs, cats, dogs, and vehicles. From this basket, we read Square Cat. We are introducing books with no words in small groups. Each group is taking time to read the pictures in The Lion and The Mouse.
REFLECTION MEETING
After watching the children extend the train play throughout the studio, we returned on Monday to reflect together on this work.
We want to know about these pieces and how you've been using them. What has been happening?
Noting that many children are exploring secrets throughout the day, we opened a conversation about secrets with the whole group. We have seen them hide their drawings to surprise their classmates with gifts. We have seen children whisper to one another during lunch or play in the studio. We observed a small group organize a secret meeting about the train play in our library. We asked, “What do you know about secrets?”
A secret is a thing that you don’t want to share and you want to keep inside. RUTH
You can tell secrets to your friends, not other people. CHARLIE SCHUBERT
I’m going to share it with my family. LOUIS
You can’t tell anybody. IAN
I’ve kept a secret for a long time. THOMAS
If you keep it inside for a long long time, you might forget. CHARLIE NICHOLSON
When you do a secret, you shouldn’t do it to people you don’t know. JACKSON
I’m just gonna tell it to my brothers. TRAVERS
GREETINGS & GAMES
This week we had music with a new teacher, Kyla’s mom, Kat! She invited us to sing some familiar songs and introduced us to new songs and games. Ask your child about how we passed the instruments like a machine.
STORY WORKSHOP
This week as authors we searched for stories in new materials. Rotating between four play spaces, children began representing story ideas. We rotated three times this week. As they each began in a new space, we asked them, will you take your story with you to a new material? Will you write a new chapter of your story? Or will you begin a new story idea? On Friday, sitting in chairs around the circle, each child shared back one story idea with the group.
I BROKE AN ORNAMENT. luca
I MADE A LOOKOUT TOWER. travers
I WAS MAKING OTHER THINGS FOR PEOPLE. jackson
I MADE A PICTURE WHEN IT WAS NIGHTTIME. caroline
I MADE A PORCH ON MY HOUSE. charlie nicholson
I MADE A SLIDE. kaya
I MADE A TOWER AND I WAS IN THE TOWER. case
I MADE A GLIDER, I MEAN AN ICE CREAM GUN. IT SHOOTS ONE HUNDRED PIECES AT ONCE. louis
I MADE A PARK. charlie schubert
I MADE A SLIDE. ian
I MADE A TENT. miles
I CAUGHT TWO FISH. I CAUGHT THEM FOR REAL WHEN I WAS ON POP POP’S SHIP. thomas
I MADE A RAINBOW. will
THINKING WITH A LINE
We revisited some mandalas from last week and shared back how many children noted it was tricky to find the true middle of the paper. Lauri taught them a folding trick for finding the center.
Inspired by Katie and Kieran’s mandala drawings on different shapes, we began printing on large circles and then went on to experiment with mandalas on square paper.
