Visitors to Studio Yellow will discover a bursting enthusiasm around letters, names and writing in general. During recent months, children have taken to labelling their work with their names or signature trademark. Recently this interest has permeated many other areas of play.
During free play several children have been holding lemonade stands using a myriad of materials. Perhaps we asked, they would be interested in making lemonade.
Julia “For real?!”
Jesse “You just need to go to the store and buy some lemons and squeeze them.”
Avery “Into a cup.”
Excited to begin preparations, we soon learned all we could do at the time was to gather and count the cups we would need.
Once collected, we decided to make signs to ensure that these cups would be safe until we made our lemonade. Several children set to work making the necessary signage and what followed was an amazing exercise in collaborative work.
Violet – I don’t know how to make an R.
Avery – Oh I do. I have one in my name.
Alex – Can you help me make a D?
Violet – I can.
Alex – No, I don’t want you do write it.
Violet – You just make a line down and then a curve.
Violet – Alex, are you making an L or an I?
Alex – I
Violet – Then make a dot on the top.
Alex – No, a dot on the top is a lowercase i and I want an uppercase I.
Violet – Well then how would you know if it’s an L or an I?
Alex – I know because it doesn’t have a line to the M.
Violet – An L you can also do straight down too, ‘cause I know ‘cause Stella has
two Ls in her name.
Sue – So how can you tell it’s an L and not an I in Stella’s name?
Violet – I don’t know. What would happen if Larry started with an I? They would call him the wrong name?!
