Ateliers

Winter Term: Drama, Week 8

2012-02-02T15:47:00.000-08:00

The last play of winter term bore the extraordinarily groundbreaking title of...

PLAY

Where: A park with a castle and a house and the wild and the sky.
Houses: CASTLE. Knights, princess, unicorn WILD. Tiger, ground fish, bunny. HOUSE. No one except squirting babies.

       A blue kid dragon flew down to the ground so he could chase the knights. He got the idea to eat food and the blue tiger decided to eat food too. The knights decide to fight them, so the dragon and the tiger run away so they won't be fighted at.
      The ground fish comes along to try to eat people, but he can't because the knights protect the people with their sheilds. The knights tie the grund fish up with Solomon the knight's rope.
       The princess tries also to not get eaten by the ground fish. The dragon and the tiger are in the wild chasing the green bean bunny. The knights go save the princess and the bunny. Maki the knight chases the dragon and tiger to save the bunny, and Solomon chases the ground fish to save the princess.
       The unicorn flies down to save the bunny and the horse flies down to save the princess. The knights fight the dragon, the tiger, and the ground fish. The knights win. The end.

Solomon: A knight with a rope (lasso) and a sheild. He fights monsters and bad guys and dragons and tigers to save the poeple.
Garland: A tiger with a blue body.
Ila: Unicorn (pink) with a purple tail. Flies. A pink horn.
Nye: A horsie. Horsie that flies.
Isaac: A ground fish that eat people. It's blue. Its as big as Isaac's wingspan.
Jane: A princess (pink & green) with a bow on her head. She has powers. She has a rope that she uses to get people down when they are climbing walls.
Tressler: A dragon. A kid dragon. A blue kid dragon.
Maki: A knight with a sheild and a sword. Fights dinosaurs and loves house candy.
Oskar: A green bean bunny, just like my lovie. Light green.

Winter Term: Drama, Week 7

2012-02-02T15:43:00.000-08:00

THE KNIGHTS SAVE THE DAY

Finley: A knight with armor and weapons. He's good at hiding. He guards the king.
Miles: Another knight- with swords. Rootbeer the knight. He protects the castle for the queen. He has lightning bolts to use again the monster.
James: A bad guy monster who is trying to steal the princesses from the king.
Tanuja: A princess that has special powers (using pixie dust that turns people into witches) and a wand.
Abigail: A princess with a crown. With circles, triangles, and squares on it.
Myla: A princess that has a magic where she can turn bad guys into good princesses.
Lana: A princess that has a triangle crown and a horse that she rides.

Where: A castle (the house area), grass (green carpet) that the knights guarde. A monster cave (block area).
The book area is backstage. In Europe.
When: The Present.

In the beginning, the monster comes out of his cave, and Rootbear the knight throws lightning bolts at him. Then the monster can't get at the princesses. Myla and Tanuja the princesses tell the other princesses to hide in the castle. Myla princess and Rootbeer get up high so the monster can't get them. Finley the knight goes out to the front door of the castle to block it from the monster. The monster gives up and goes back to his cave. The end.

This play was very brief, but very exciting to the audience. It should be noted that we gave a whopping 3 performances of it in a row, and that teacher Gregg was our cameo star, stepping in for James as the monster.

Winter Term: Drama, Week 6

2012-02-02T15:37:00.000-08:00

THE KNIGHT AND THE FRIENDLY MOUNTAIN LION HELP SAVE THE BABY PRINCESS AND PEGASUS UNICORN

Where: The Desert Kingdom of Hawaii
When: Between 2006 and 2008

Talia: A princess that sounds like a boy. She once maried, abd tgeb the boy ate her, and she got his voice. The boy left because she took his voice.
Sydney: A baby princess that can already walk and talk.
Nate: The friendly mountain lion. He doesn't eat people, but he does eat other animals. He fights to help protect the castle.
Sofia: Mama Pegasus Unicorn.
Malia: Other Mama Pegasus Unicorn.
Jackson: A knight that has a horse that wears a suit of armor. He has a bow and arrow and a shield.
Cain: A king who cares about nothing.

ACT I

    Our story starts by meeting Nate, the friendly mountain lion. The friendly mountai lion protects our castle.
    Once, there was a fire at our castle, and the princesses came down and they yelled for help. A firefighter came, but he couldn't get the fire out.
    The mountain lion came and got the five out and told the fireman "Hey, you're a BAD fireman."
    The knight was upstairs typing and making calls, then he saw the flames, put on his suit, and flew out at the open castle window. Then he turned on his electric hose and helped the mountain lion put out the fire.
    When he got out of that window, a tiny canon shot blankets (no bombs!) near his body, on his face.

ACT II

    On a different day, the knight, the princesses, and the pegasus unicorn went snowboarding. While everyone snowboarded, the knight cooked everyone fish.
    The moutain lion hung out by himself in the woods.

ACT III

    Bad guys came to take over the castle. Everyone came into a big circle, with the knight and the friendly mountain lion leading everybody.
    The knight hurled bolt after bolt of mighty thunder.
    The mountain lion got on a giant windmill and swung down to bite/claw the bad guys.
    The pegasus unicorn used her horns to buck the bad guys.
    The baby princess was scared. The pegasus unicorn took care of her, because the king "doesn't care."
    The bad fireman came in, waved his hose, then the knight took it, put fire in it, and sprayed the bad guys once and for all. The end.

Winter Term: Drama, Week 5

2012-02-02T15:35:00.000-08:00

THE SAVANNAH OF THE UNICORNS

Where: The Pacific Ocean, in the summer. Two islands. They look connected, like a pair of glasses, when you look down from the sky. It is a land called Magic World. The island with unicorns is called Magic Land Fairy Tale and the island with LIONS is called Magic Savannah. There is a hyena who is bad. The unicorns make it magic, the lions make it good, the hyenas make it BAD.

When: In 1981, on the 1st Friday, in the first week, at 10 o’clock a.m.

The story:

     The humans attacked the animals. The animals used all their powers, and then they couldn’t do anymore. So, they flew to the islands.
    The unicorns go to Magic Land Fairy Tale island. The lions go to Magic Savannah island. They don’t see any hyenas, so they sleep.
    The hyena king sneaks up behind them while they sleep, but they wake up before he can get them.
    The hyena wants that space, so they fight over it. The lions win. The unicorns wake up and watch the fight. The hyena’s ankle is almost broken, so he goes away, walking on three feet. Then, he jumps into the river and smashing into the rock that stops the river from flowing into the ocean and smashes his head open.
    Before he does, he calls his hyena army friends to come fight their lions for him. But the lions make them disappear by pushing them into the river.
    Then the kions and unicorns have a gigantic, romantic celebration, where Santa Claus comes!

Character Specifics:

JULY. A pergasus unicorn named Lilli. 16 years old. She can make a rainbow to make the whole world pretty and to step the hyena from doing bad stuff.

SIENNA. A super long haired lion. 6 years old. The long hair helps her hide in the grass from hyenas because it looks like grass.

EVERETT. A lion with cheetah spots. Goes super fast but is also big and strong like a lion. 7 years old. The King of the Cheetah Lions. Scares away 20 hyenas at a time.

ZACH. A lion that can’t roar. It hisses like a cheetah. It is 40 years old and it lives with a Pride of Lions. His named is Freddy Teddy, the Lion King. He can scare 100 hyenas at a time.

WILLA. A unicorn with a yellow horn and it has spots on it and a golden tail and polka dot legs.

ANYA. A unicorn with wings and a dress and a horn with while, pink, and purple stripes and spots.

NIKO. A lion who can shoot fire from his mouth and sun super fast. Its really stronger than lions normally are. Can lift up 6 houses. He can also talk to other animals.

URSULA. A unicorn with polka dot stripes. She can fly and also walk like a human, on two legs. Her name is Sparklefairy.

ANDREW. A hyena in the Magic Savannah. A bad guy. He has a bad castle with a skeleton hyena drawbridge on it (written by Everett).

Winter Term: Drama, Week 4

2012-02-02T15:33:00.000-08:00

Group 4 wrote this very brief, but very focused and professional little play. They had the entirely thing blocked and rehearsed by Wednesday, did a public dress rehearsal Thursday, and a performance with a requested encore on Friday.

DRAGONS TO MARS

    All the dragons go into the haunted house. They make spooky noises. They come to the door, throw their claws up high, and then they jump all at the same time.
    Plaque Fighting Man comes and says “Your teeth are dirty, and I’m going to clean them!” All the dragons run out of the house and jump. Then, they roll their eyes.
    Plaque Fighting Man holds up his hammer and says “You’ll get cavities if I don’t brush your teeth!”
    The Witch Dragon says “Well, I already brush my teeth, so….”
    The Purple-Puff-Smoking Dragon says “Mmmmssgrrgjmmm” because it is breathing fire and letters are coming out of its smoky mouth.
    The Witch Dragon flies to planet Mars- the other dragon follows him there. She gets indian food on the way, and does not like it. She likes salter and pepper, though.
    The Witch Dragon hides.
    The End.

Cast:

Ari- Witch Dragon
Jasper- Purple Puff Smoking Dragon
Ryder B- Plaque Fighting Man (played by Jasper in the final performance)
Zenna- Dragon Who Does Not Like Indian Food
Lane- Stage Manager/Writer/Advice-giver
Elinor- Assistant Director
Others- Costumes/Props help

Drama: Fall Term Summary

2012-01-30T16:02:00.000-08:00

In the first term of the 2011/2011 school year, Drama Atelier was entirely focused on introducing concepts of storytelling and dramatic play. In a nutshell, saying “You’ve been play acting before, outside and in your classrooms. Here is an opportunity to do that in this special class, with more resources, and more time to focus.”

Only a handful of friends were in past Drama Atelier classes, so we took a step back from the large scale productions and complex plot devices we had worked up to, and focused on what’s at the core of dramatic play. Many friends who were on the younger and shyer side of things throughout last year now had the opportunity to be leaders amongst our large populous of new preschoolers.

I took constant notes during these sessions. I have gone through the crazy pile of papers to share some gems with you. Hopefully this paints a picture of how things went, and how your children began their drama adventures this school year.

BILLY LAZROE & THE KING OF THE SEA

We started every week with a fantastic Erica A. Kimmel book, called Billy Lazroe and The King of the Sea. Our school wide theme for this atelier term was “the Pacific Northwest.” This story takes place in and around Portland, but in the exotic world of the 1800s shipyards. Week after week, the children were drawn in by knowing the place and then hearing an incredibly nuanced adventure story. My hope was that this epic story, drawing on Greek mythology, would inspire them to create similarly complex plot lines in their dramatic play. It worked to varying degrees of success.

I asked the children to summarize the Billy Lazroe story immediately after finishing it. Here are some surviving results.

Group 3:

Where: Portland, OR

When: The 1800s

What: The girl goes down to Davy Jones's locker. She maybe swam to Davy Jones's house. Someone is sleeping. Billy Lazroe is on the boat, trying to drive the ship. Billy is playing his music. Davy Jones comes up and talks to Billy. Billy gets pearls. In the end, Billy disappears.

Character List: Davy Jones

Billy Lazroe

Willamette

Dead Guys

Group 4:

Where: Portland, OR

When: April, 1885

What: Billy Lazroe is a sailor who works on a boat. He sings. Davy Jones comes up from the river. Davy sends up pearls. Billy buys a boat from the captain. There's waves. Davy Jones's huge hand comes up. There's dead sailors down in Davy Jones's locker. He sings again. Billy meets Davy's daughters. She's swimming and gets lost. She has no shoes on, but does have a necklace. It floats and goes on to the shore. Billy wakes up and holds on to the necklace. He talks to not-dead sailors. He leaves and his dog is all alone and sad. But he's not dead. He's on the sea.

Group 5:

Where: In the Pacific Northwest

When: A Long Time Ago
What: Beginning. He's in his house. He grows up to be a sailor. He sings a song..Davy Jones comes! Then he's looking at the pearls. Then shows the captain that he has the pearls, and the boat sails off. Middle: He jumps into the water. Then, he sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Then the sailors are in the locker. Pirates! Then Davy Jones's daughters come, and Williamette swims up. End: Billy comes up to air with a pearl. And she shows it to the other pirates. Billy then disappears. The waves are pushing the boat. The End.

FOCUSED, INTENTIONAL FREE PLAY

On the second or third day of the week, we started making intentional choices about characterization and setting within our free play. Here are some telling notes from those sessions.

Sofia: Grandma (does nothing)

Ursula: Mom (works at a store)

Sienna: Baby (1 month old)

Finley: Musician/Instrument Player (lives with family)

James: Dad (works w/computers)

Will: Dragon (Friendly).

The dragon lives in the book area (dragon house). Baby, mom, grandma, and dad live in the house (castle). Instrument guy is there because the family hired him to play.

Ursula, Sofia, and Sienna happily work in house, staying in character. Sienna just lies on the ground. James starts to wander. I ask him what's up. "Dad goes to work." Finley decides to build his own dragon house and to be the "dragon police." Halfway through, Sienna announces that she would like her character to be older so she can walk and talk a little.

James goes about his business making eggs. Ursula and Anja, the "two moms," help him. Ursula picks up a stuffed doll "baby" and starts to take care of it.

Finley, once again the "music player guy," wanders around the house banging on a drum. He then goes over to build a cabin on the family's property, continuing to bang on the drum. Anja eventually finds an apron, and takes over the cooking operation.

Finley comes back into the house. He picks up the lib of the soup pot with his toes and places it on the frying pan. This prompts a discussion with James about "how to cook things."

Ursula "shares the bed" with the baby.

I decide to visit as the uncle. I ask for a snack and a place to sleep. Anja tries to offer me some scrambled eggs, but James insists that "the eggs are for TOMORROW." They settle on grapes. I have some, and then pass them around. I yawn and say that I'm really tired, and the friends go about making a bed for me. James goes "Oh, you need a pillow!" and gets me one.

I notice Anya trying to sneak away while I'm pretending to sleep. I ask her where she's going. "The bathroom," she says.

Another week:

PHASE ONE. Choosing characters.

Sydney: A princess. Named Julie. 3 yrs old. Her favorite food is oranges. She likes to twirl with dresses.

Sabine: Another princess. Belle. Sister of Julie. Favorite food is ice cream. Also likes to twirl with dresses.

Lana: A horsie. Sometimes a flying unicorn. Her favorite food is grass. She is a very happy horse. She is white and brown.

Olivia: The girl on the phone. She is 3 1/2 years old. Her favorite food is carrots, and cucumbers, and quesadillas.

Monica: A baby. Named Clarabelle. She is a 1-scratch that- 2 yr old girl. Cupcakes are her favorite food. She is a happy baby. She loves to drink lemonade. She likes to wear pink. She doesn't like getting boo boos or tooting. She likes to sleep and does not like to cry.

Malia: A unicorn. Named Unicornio. It is a 4 1/2 yr old big kid unicorn. Its favorite good is egg shells. It's a difficult uniorn. But a happy one. It loves to drink orange juice. She doesn't like pepper.

Ryder: A squirrel named Harry. It's 5 yrs old. Its favorite foods are cheese & chicken. Its a happy squirrel. A girl squirrel.

Kingston: The Daddy. Named Kingston. Is a 39 yr old daddy. His favorite foods are good things like vegetables. He likes to drink milk and water.

PHASE TWO:

The friends split off into their groups. Ryder B, Sydney, Sabine, Olivia, and Lana are in the house.
Monica, Malia, and Kingston are over in the "office" (block area).

Sydney recreates her costume exactly each day. Lana and Olivia are a dog and cat, though that is not what they decided to be originally.

Sydney and Sabine have veils.

Kingston and Malia announce "We need stethoscopes!!!"

I put on a the cd of a big thunder storm, and announce that we all need to make sure we can stay dry and cozy.

Sydney: I'm on storm watch!
Malia: Our office has a super good roof, so we can stay safe.
Lana: Protect the babies!
Sabine: We have swords to hit the storm away!
Malia: Did you know that Unicornio can make anything stop? I stopped the storm!
Sabine: Who wants some coffee? Who wand some cookies? Cookies and coffees....
Malia: MORNING SUNSHINE!!!

PHASE THREE: Friday.

Very quiet, focused play. Kingston and Malia reconstruct the "office" again, and Sabine volunteers herself to be the "patient." She lies down, and Kingston and Malia cover her in silks and gently tab her with the small wooden hammers. I am amazed with Sabine's monkish patience throughout the whole process.

Lana builds a very nice bed for her baby, as Sydney prances around in her extensive princess garb. Syndyey and Lana find some jewels on the shelf and declare them to me.

Lana: This one is lemon. This one is grape. This one is a meatball, probably, and this one is red noodles.

Sydney: Pssst. Patient Sabine! I see you!"

Kingston and Malia ask Sabine to spell her name. She starts, then the clipboard crashes down. They finish, then spell Monica's name, since Monica was our patient yesterday. Eventually, Lana and Sydney play a car.

Sydney is content to rule over the land as princess for ever and ever. She positively beams with delight at her role. She adds a leaf bracelet about half way through. Kingston builds himself an "office" on the side of the house. Malia takes it upon herself to be a unicorn assistant, and Monica joins in as the "patient." Meanwhile, Lana and Olivia become a dog and cat in the house. Ryder B. is happily cooking food for 20+ minutes.

Sabine is STILL lying on the doctor table.
Kingston and Malia start prank calling me.

Yet another week:

The Family woke up in the morning, because the phone rang. Mom gets up and makes breakfast. Mom helps everyone get ready for school.
Then the family goes to the bus stop. The bus comes, and then everyone gets on the bus except for mom.
They go to school, and uncle Maki is the teacher. He teaches them how to write their names.
After school, they find a payphone and call mom.
Mom is at home, with stuff for dinner. She says "Come home so we can all have dinner."
Peanut catches rain drops.
The family goes back to the bus stop and takes the bus home. When they get there, Mom has made dinner. Then they take a family portrait and go to bed:

Peanut and uncle Maki
Mom and Sister
Dad and Brothers

Also from this group's sesson:

WHAT is our house like? Pause, no answer.

Color? It's a pink house.

Big, small, or medium size? It's a big house.

What kind of things do we have to use? Spoons, forks, plates, beds. Tables and chairs. Clothes. Toys. Cars.

Is there anything unusual, or special, about our house? We have a treasure chest of jewels, a flower, and a kitty cat. Also, a nest with baby chicks in it.

Dad has an office and a car.

CHARACTER CHOICES:

I ended up just sort of improvising my course of action, depending on the experience level of the group, and their enthusiasm towards the work. One group seemed very excited about more fantastical dramatic play (less mommy/baby play, more like fantasy/adventure story). So I had them choose characters to be and supply me with the details about the characters, to help them flesh out their own ideas.

One group:

RILEY: A princess. Named Riley. Loves to eat oat crackers. Can eat a lot. Can kiss her own foot.

CONNOR: A big robot. Named Big Rocks. Loves to eat rocks. Has shooters (but safe ones, only used against really bad guys). He has special green scales on his body. He can jump really high, all the way up the clouds.

EVERETT: BatmanSpiderman. That's his name. Black with red stripes, a web, and a cape. He can web-up guys. Lots of buttons on his cape. Can change outfits. Also loves to eat rocks. (It should be noted that Everett was seen dressed as this character with an original, non-corporate costume at the lantern walk!)

RYDER: A pirate who has a pirateship sailing in the water. Loves to eat chicken noodle soup and banana bread. Named Ryder. He has some jewels and treasure box of money and lobster claws.

TANUJA: Mermaid. Named Monkey. Loves to eat peanut butter and jam. (When asked by one of the other children if she is talking about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, she says "No way. Just peanut butter and jam." She can swim really fast.

OLE: A lion. The biggest lion in Africa. Named Bonzie. Loves to eat peanut butter and sort of...salad. He loves salad. He can jump really high in swimming pools.

VIJA: The director. No name.

The BatmanSpiderman and the lion are having a battle out in the woods. The mermaid and the princess hang out with Andrew. Then, they meet each other, and go to restaurant with the "Big King" (Andrew, apparently). We go into the castle to eat. Tanu says that the phone is ringing, answers it, and says we're busy.

I turn on the thunderstorm sounds. All the characters crowd into the house at Vija's insistence. Ole covers himself with a blanket to hide. Tanu starts cookin' food. Every makes many announcements. Ryder runs around screaming.

Everett: These are the most beautiful fishes. This killer whale is going RIGHT TOWARDS YOU!

Lost fragment of group 1's story:

Group 1 had more kids experienced with drama in their group, so they actually wrote and performed a story. Half of it was torn up and lost during a rehearsal. The first half appeared months later.

One day, in Washington, in October of 1984, in the fall, there was clock ticking loudly. And it struck 12. It was a dark night, and the moon was on the pumpkin. Then, a magic wand made the pumpkin talk. And a bridge, right next to the farm, flew away.

Thanks for reading! More from winter term coming very soon.

Sensory: Winter Week 8

2012-01-30T08:02:00.000-08:00

Ursula, Sienna, Willa, July, Anja, Niko, Zach, Everett, Autumn: Sensory week 8
Wow! This group was ready to move, shake, small, taste and learn all about their senses from the start! Some days we had as few as three friends while other days we had all nine friends learning together. Each day we began talking about our five senses and making a diagram of a person and added each body part affiliated with each sense. We sounded out each word for example "we See with our Eyes", this gave us an opportunity to continue working on our literacy skills. Each day we explored a new material, day one we explored with Salt where we wrote our names and with a gentle shake watched them disappear. Day two we explored with flour talking about how soft it is and how it reminds us of snow. We made flour art on black paper too. Day three we stirred, splashed, poured, funneled and colored water as we used our hands and our feet to make bubbles and secondary colors from primary colors. The last day (no ateliers day five) we combined water and flour to make mache. We carefully tore strips of newspaper and dipped them in our messy concoction then applied them to our upside-down bowls. I wonder if they will take them home to make a treasure bowl, mask, hanging basket or hat? Day five we had some teachers out and stayed in our rooms. I encourage you to explore with primary colors and create many swirls and designs creating new colors! What a fun time we had learning with our bodies about the world around us.

Engineering: Winter, Week 8

2012-01-27T18:15:00.000-08:00

Usually we start our week in Engineering by discussing the idea of tower being something tall and stable, and puzzling out through conversation what those terms mean. From there, we play a game of Jenga - which we still managed to get to! - to illustrate those concepts in action, but this time we switched things up a little. We spent most of our first day recording the kids' heights with measuring tape and marking them on one of the wooden pillars in the room, so that we could all see our heights relative to one another. After that, to illustrate stability, we noted how easy it was to maintain our balance when crouched down on all fours, and how our own personal stability decreased as we stood up, balanced on one foot, and then balanced on their toes. It proved to be a pretty useful way of approaching those concepts!

Cultural Studies: Winter, Week 8

2012-01-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

Earlier in the term I mentioned that we've been converting distances to feet to show how big the distances are from school or Portland to OMSI or Africa in really BIG numbers. One thing that we've found really helpful in comparing the different distances, and which also introduces helpful skills in number recognition and counting, is counting the numbers in each specific amount of feet. That is, it is about 528 feet (thanks Google Maps!) to Buckman from ChildRoots. That has 3 numbers in it and seems like a super huge number. But then we mention that to get to OMSI it is 11,088 feet from school. That distance has 5 numbers in it so imagine just how far that would take to walk there? The gigantic number that always really gets them excited is the equator which is over 131 million feet around, and has 9 numbers in it. The guesses for how long it would take to walk that (5 weeks, 3 years, etc) really get their minds pumping about just how big the world is. In comparing distances with the same amount of numbers we can know that the other is bigger by looking at the very first number. If one distance is 1,000 feet and the other is 6,000 feet, we know 6,000 is bigger because 6 is bigger than 1. And the kids are on that every time!

Cultural Studies: Winter, Week 7

2012-01-27T11:17:00.000-08:00

One thing that we've found particularly helpful in Cultural Studies when we start to introduce continents is pointing out things that they easily recognize and can then associate with that place. Again, it is pretty broad, but it gives the children a sense of what makes those places unique. We see lions and gorillas at a zoo, but did we know that they come from that giant continent known as Africa? The same goes for kangaroos from Australia and penguins from Antarctica. Food has also been a great segue into a specific continent (I wonder why...). They can easily associate spaghetti with that really small continent Europe or Chinese food and sushi coming from Asia. It has also been a lot of fun to introduce or continue ideas of compass directions when talking about the location of South America and North America. If we know that south is down on a map, and north is up on a map, then it makes sense that South America is below North America. Having older pre-schoolers to point that out to their younger counterparts is also awesome.

Movement- Winter week 8

2012-01-27T08:07:00.000-08:00

This week it was clear that friends had anticipated movement for the whole term. Friends arrived reminiscing about previous movement classes: "Remember when we did handstands out there (pointing to the hallway)," "Remember when we used to do the obstacle course?" "I loved when we did tight roping!" These memories helped to jump-start our movement class and a conversation about ways to move our bodies in safe ways. As we started out with stretches, we talking about how our muscles are a bit like a rubber band. If you stretch them little by little, they will eventually become more flexible. Yet, if you try and stretch too far too fast, it can damage them.
As our big idea this term is "process" we worked to break down the process of a handstand together. Movement friends first started by locking their elbows to keep their arms straight and strong, and to protect their heads and neck. Then friends practiced getting the momentum to jump their bodies all the way up into a handstand. Friend enjoyed practicing these two key factors while playing a dancing game. When the music stopped, they had to lock those elbows, place their hands on the ground, and kick their legs up like a donkey. Throughout the week, we also worked on exercising specific muscles used in a handstand to become sturdier and stronger.

Sensory, Winter: Week 7

2012-01-24T18:58:00.000-08:00

Jasper, Ari, Zenna, Lane, Ryder B., Kingston, Olivia, Elinor:

Wow! The mixtures of ages and personalities made this week full of learning opportunities. We began each day drawing the five senses of our body on the white board, describing what they are used for in learning about the world. Each day we explored a new basic element using descriptive words as we explored with each sense. Day one we explored salt in round and shallow trays which we could write words and then erase them with a gentle shake. We also made salt shakers with paper and golf tees. Day two we explored water, using both our hands and feet! We pumped, stirred, swirled and funneled mixtures of colored water while sharing ideas, expressions, space and tools. We really laughed a lot and worked as a team to help clean up our water spills. Day three we combined water and flour to make mache. After reviewing our senses, we began this day by tearing strips of newspaper and making individual heaps of it next to our bowls. Friends used different strategies to apply the wet, gooey and very sticky mache to their bowls; some used every finger and others preferred the help of a friend and paint brush. The last day (we had Monday off) we decorated our bowls, this was an opportunity to swirl primary colors into secondary colors while combining tissue, sparkles and natural materials to add the final touches. What an absolute joyful time we had learning together!

Science: Winter, week 7

2012-01-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

This term during science atelier the children have been investigating the long term transformations of animals and plants as the experiment to further understand animal and plant adaptations. Through their experimentation, the children have become more aware of the scientific process as we outline and follow each step. We practiced vocabulary, both spoken and written, and became very excited when we noticed that the words 'adaptation,' 'experiment,' and 'hypothesis' all have four syllables!

After reading an exciting story called "Gaaky Two-Feet," on Tuesday, the children were engaged in a conversation about our own personal development as humans. Gaaky outlines the story of the long-term adaptation of homindees moving from walking on four to two legs, this lead to the children outlining their own stories of how they began life being carried and moved through each process until they got to walk on two feet. This group was also excited to note that not only can they walk now, but they can also run, skip, jump, gallop, etc.... They repeated a similar succession as they discussed how their eating skills have changed as they develop.

On Wednesday, the children became birds and practiced using different types of bird beaks: hooks for birds of prey to rip into dough, plastic needles for fishing birds such as heron to gather beads in water, tweezers for gathering birds such as robins to collect string, eye droppers for birds such as hummingbirds to transfer water, and spoons and tongs for birds such as ducks to collect marbles in water. Each of these experiments gave the children to practice sorting, one-to-one ratio, and other mathematics skills. It also provided us with the opportunity to use the scientific process from start to finish and proved our hypothesis correct: bird beaks have adapted to help them eat!

Thursday was a look into the adaptation of animal coloration. After studying a book and playing an eye spy game to find the camouflaged animals we studied three special cases of color adaptation in octopus, cuttle fish, and chameleons. The children were fascinated in camouflage and it led to an in depth conversation about predators and prey and why how each animal may utilize their ability to change color. Noting that some animals are able to change their colors, the children began to discuss other reasons they may use color adaptation. Some of the children created the hypothesis that animals are able to change their colors to communicate with each other.

Friday was an exciting hands on day with insects. Insects have been around since the time of the dinosaurs and have a lot of unique characteristics. With the classroom's Madagascar hissing cockroach and the Indian stick bug we were able to get up close and personal with some amazing adaptations. Some children chose to let the walking stick climb on them, while others were content to watch. We noticed that the walking sticks have some green qualities and some brown and when they hold very still and put their front legs up, they look just like a stick! After our observations, each child had the opportunity to draw a diagram of their own (an important part of science).

Engineering: Winter, Week 7

2012-01-20T18:15:00.000-08:00

This time around, we spent most of our Engineering time focused on the popsicle stick tower project that we've worked on in previous weeks.. Before we started, we talked a bit about how, in building a tower, we're striving to construct something that's both tall and stable, and set a goal for ourselves by building a small tower out of a few wooden blocks, the height of which we would try to match with our popsicle stick structure. It was interesting to see how having a concrete, set goal really helped give the kids a little direction in their brainstorming. In the end, we ended up with a structure that was nearly as tall as the wooden blocks, but also suffered a small setback - one part of our tower was fairly lopsided, and we spent quite a bit of time and energy reinforcing that section. Of course, that was a wrinkle in our plan that was more than welcome, as it simply afforded us with an opportunity to talk out and test new solutions. Have a good weekend!

Movement: Winter week 7

2012-01-20T08:15:00.000-08:00

This week in movement friends were excited to learn the process of a new skill. The vote to learn handstands was unanimous so we got right to work. We started off by talking about some important ways to keep our bodies safe during a handstand. We practiced locking our elbows to keep our arms straight and strong while supporting our upside down bodies. We then worked on using our legs to jump and kick at the same time to get our bodies up to a standing position. Movement friends really challenged themselves to stay in a handstand as long as they could. The end of a handstand ends with an upright stance and possibly a fun finish if friends wanted (i.e. "Ta-Da!," "Yay!" "Lightning McQueen racer super fast!" or just a high five).
Another way we explored process was through stretching. We started off by moving through some fluid yoga stretches (i.e. sun salutation). We then worked on creating our own stretches and encouraging the next friend to transform the previous stretch into a new one.
Lots of excited and proud smiles seen this week!

Cultural Studies: Winter, Week 6

2012-01-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

Over the last few weeks, I've been showing the children a National Geographic book that has a lot of great photos of kids being kids all over the world. This week specifically, I made a point of really emphasizing the beautiful diversity of the different places children come from, and even then, that there are so many things that make us all the same. We all eat food. We all where clothes. We all go to school. We all have families. We all do chores, etc. It was great to see how their eyes lit up when I deliberately took a long time for them to see the pictures while I read the few words that accompanied them. For things that they recognized that they do as well, which was nearly every page of the book, they all exclaimed, "I eat pancakes" or "I go to school and we're at school right now." One picture in particular showed a boy herding cows as an evening chore, and we all were amazed at how "silly" but difficult that must be. Connecting their knowledge of what they know and experience every day with ideas of what children millions of feet away are doing, has been invaluable for starting to grasp the concept of different cultures and ways of life.

Baking: Winter Term, Week 6

2012-01-17T11:40:00.000-08:00

Day One: We began by discussing what preserve means. "You have to put something in water and keep it in a jar in your cupboard," Cody explained. We then tasted some preserved foods like sauerkraut and pickled green beans. We noted the many ingredients in each and wondered which were necessary to complete the preservation and which were optional and only used for flavor.

Day Two: We researched a cold pickling recipe and went to work cutting cucumbers and salting them to remove moisture so that micro-organisms would not be able to grow. We also tasted each of the ingredients that we found in the other recipes.

Day Three: we added all of our ingredients after discussing as a group how much of each to put in with the cucumbers. We decided we wanted them to be sweet. We also wanted lots of spicy onions so friends went to work slicing and dicing until our eyes couldn't handle any more.

Day Four: We tasted our creation and absolutely loved it! We talked about the different flavors and tried to identify the various ingredients. Some were even brave enough to eat a whole peppercorn!

Day Five: We wondered what the cucumbers would have been like if we had just left them sitting out on the shelf for the whole week. We decided to look at some of the food from our compost jar under the microscope. "It looks all slimy and hairy," Natalie commented. "Yuck!" the class agreed!

Engineering: Winter, Week 6

2012-01-13T18:15:00.000-08:00

This week in Engineering, we've focused on the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We started our week as usual, playing Jenga and building towers out of our plastic blocks, using those activities as springboards to discuss load-bearing structures and stable foundations. For the last half of the week, though, we worked on repairing a tower I'd already built out of popsicle sticks , one that was badly off-balance. We began by reading the Leaning Tower section in Super Structures, with a particular emphasis on the structural strengthening that was undertaken beginning in 1990. From there, I brought out the tower we'd be working on, and the kids began brainstorming different methods for keeping the tower upright. We quickly began taking turns adding additional popsicle sticks to the tower, and it was great to see the kids testing out their different ideas and building on top of the work that other people had started. In the end, the kids ended up taking out one level of the tower to improve its stability and then building up from the top again. A job well done!

Sensory: Winter Week 6

2012-01-13T10:40:00.000-08:00

We began with talking about how we use our senses by creating a diagram of a person and adding each part of our body that helps us learn about the world around us. This is the first group that has mentioned feet! Thus, on our third day we explored water and got to put our feet and hands in water using colors, droppers, bubbles, scoops, funnels, a tube and pump and lots of team work and collaboration. The first day we began exploring with salt (we used all basic elements to scaffold upon for next term). We practiced writing our names with our fingers and golf tees and then used letters to spell words and then shake them out. We also got to make salt shakers. The second day, we began exploring with flour. It reminded many friends of soft, fluffy snow. Day three we got to explore with water and day four we got to combine water with flour to make a sticky, messy, liquid mache. First, we used our strong fine motor skills to tear newspaper into smaller pieces and then apply them all over our bowls. Day five we will get to use primary colors to create secondary colors. We also talked about making masks, treasure bowls or hanging baskets.

Sensory: Winter Week 5

2012-01-13T10:34:00.000-08:00

Exploring basic elements and understanding what our senses are is the main focus this term. Each day we would make a diagram of a person and talk about the five senses we have to learn about the world around us.

We were able to use salt on day one and make our own salt shakers. On day two we got to explore with flour and used white on black contrast to create art on black paper. Day three we got to explore with water using funnels, splashing, a pump and scoops. We talked about solids, liquids and focused on adding descriptive words to our vocabulary. Day four we got to combine water and flour and get our hands messy, sticky and wet using mache. We made our very own bowls which can be turned into a treasure bowl, mask, hanging basket or any creative ideas your children share. It was a blast! Thanks, Sarah

Movement Winter week 6

2012-01-13T08:06:00.000-08:00

This week, friends started with the beginning of a process and explored the many different ways they could turn that into another skill. We started with a donkey kick and friends realized they could turn it into a somersault, a hand stand, or a fun jump. Some even challenged themselves by balancing on their head for a bit. We also explored the process of moving into different stretches and yoga moves. By the end of the week, movement had developed a main focus on somersaults. With the range of ages were were able to see so many levels of somersaults. Some friends were so excited to do their first one, while others added their own spin by adding a move to the end or working on fitting two somersaults in a row.

Art: Winter Week 3

2012-01-12T20:36:00.000-08:00

We started the week off with a discussion about plant fibers vs. animal vs. man made fibers. Although many friends were unfamiliar with plant fibers almost everyone had something to share about sheep, llamas, and goats. We passed around the different fibers and friends shared their thoughts on how they looked and felt. Ari stated that he especially liked the silk. Ryder B. enjoyed pulling the raw cotton into tiny pieces between his fingers.
After prepping the fabrics everyone chose a smock and gloves to wear for protection. Next we carefully added hot water to activate the dye and friends took turns shaking the squeeze bottles, making sure the dye had fully dissolved. The dye solution was then placed in small jars that everyone could access with their eyedroppers. Once dyed, the wet and colorful fabrics were placed in plastic bags and placed in the fridge to absorb overnight.
On the following day we gloved our hands and rinsed the fabric to remove any remaining dye. Then we began taking off any rubber bands (that give that tie-dye effect, if friends chose to use them). Everyone was really excited to see how the once white fabric had become an entire rainbow of colors.

Baking: Winter Term, Week 5

2012-01-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

Day One: We began by loosening up a little with a fun song called "I'm in a pickle" complete with silly hand motions. Once we had settled in we took out our cook book and began researching just what preserving is. Once we had a better understanding of the concept we shared our knowledge of foods that we had eaten that had been preserved.

Day Two: We sampled several different types of preserved foods from asparagus to apricots. While sampling these foods we listed the ingredients to form an idea of necessary ingredients used in the process.

Day Three: We narrowed our scope and discussed pickling specifically. We tasted individual ingredients and experimented with combining some together. We also talked about decomposition and different organisms that help do the work of decomposition. We then began slicing cucumbers. Once completed we discussed salt and it's properties. We remembered eating salty popcorn and needing to drink water afterwards. This helped us to understand the next step, salting the cucumbers for 24 hours to remove the moisture.

Day Four: We measured and mixed other ingredients to complete our pickle brine. We then submerged the cucumbers in this mixture and talked about our predictions regarding the changes that would occur in the cucumbers.

Day Five: We tasted our creation and decided it was absolutely delicious!

Cultural Studies: Winter, Week 5

2012-01-09T08:33:00.000-08:00

In relating the large size of the world to the children, we've found it really helpful to draw lines on the map from Portland to a place they are familiar with (Seattle or Disneyland for example) which is relatively close. We then can draw lines from Portland to far away places on different continents and compare the size of a tiny line to a much larger intercontinental line. It really allows them to see just how big the world is especially when compared to that distance that they can relate to. A lot of friends had driven to Seattle, and while that 3 hour drive seems to take a really long time, imagine how long it would take to "drive" to Africa or South America? This week's friends really seemed to be blown away with just how big the world actually is. It also helped us to appreciate that Minna's extended Latvian family comes from somewhere super far away, or that Adi's birth country, Ethiopia, is even farther.

Engineering: Winter, Week 5

2012-01-06T18:25:00.000-08:00

After a couple weeks off, the kids were ready to jump right back into ateliers! This was a short week, but we had a lot of fun. We started with our usual discussion about what towers were, and it was really fun to see the kids making connections between the towers they build in the classroom out of blocks and the "real" towers they see in the outside world. We also had a bit of a conversation about skyscrapers, and whether our school qualified as a skyscraper - some of the kids felt that the school was big enough to count, while others thought a skyscraper should quite a bit taller.

From there, we moved on to Jenga, which we ended up returning to at the end of our time every day this week. We talked a bit about working together to make the highest tower possible, and would discuss which block we thought we should pull out next as we went around the circle. Doing so provided a great opportunity for learning about stability - we were particularly excited about looking for the blocks that were bearing the most weight and trying to keep that load as balanced as possible. All in all, a lot of fun!

Movement Winter Week 5

2012-01-06T08:10:00.000-08:00

This week friends were really excited to explore the "transformation" of movements with two particular skills. We started off the week by talking about the force of momentum and how we use it to move our bodies. We started playing around with this new concept with some donkey kicks (friends place their hands on the ground and jump off the ground with their feet). Friends started talking about how this motion reminds them of a handstand. We decided to head to the block area to learn the steps of a somersault. While waiting their turn to do a tricky handstand with my help, others discovered a simpler way to do a handstand by just placing their hands on the ground and walking up the wall backwards. This was a clever way to strengthen the same muscles we use for handstands in a safe way.
We explored "momentum" through somersaults as well. Friends started by somersaulting over an exercise ball to become familiar with the movement and to work on using their leg muscles to push their bodies over the whole ball. Once we had this down, all were excited to try somersaults all on their own! Often friends are wanting to practice these skills more at home. We use a large foam pad for safety at school but couch cushions, pillows, or a soft carpet work just as well.

Science: Winter, week 5

2012-01-06T07:30:00.000-08:00

This term during science atelier the children have been investigating the long term transformations of animals and plants as the experiment to further understand animal and plant adaptations. Through their experimentation, the children have become more aware of the scientific process as we outline and follow each step. We practiced vocabulary, both spoken and written, and became very excited when we noticed that the words 'adaptation,' 'experiment,' and 'hypothesis' all have four syllables!

After reading an exciting story called "Gaaky Two-Feet," on Monday the children were engaged in a conversation about our own personal development as humans. Gaaky outlines the story of the long-term adaptation of homindes moving from walking on four to two legs, this lead to the children outlining their own stories of how they began life being carried and moved through each process until they got to walk on two feet. They repeated a similar succession as they discussed how their eating skills have changed as they develop.

On Wednesday, the children became birds and practiced using different types of bird beaks: hooks for birds of prey to rip into dough, plastic needles for fishing birds such as heron to gather beads in water, tweezers for gathering birds such as robins to collect string, eye droppers for birds such as hummingbirds to transfer water, and spoons and tongs for birds such as ducks to collect marbles in water. Each of these experiments gave the children to practice sorting, one-to-one ratio, and other mathematics skills. It also provided us with the opportunity to use the scientific process from start to finish and proved our hypothesis correct: bird beaks have adapted to help them eat!

Thursday was a look into the adaptation of animal coloration. After studying a book and playing an eye spy game to find the camouflaged animals we studied three special cases of color adaptation in octopus, cuttle fish, and chameleons. The children were fascinated in camouflage and it led to an in depth conversation about predators and prey and why how each animal may utilize their ability to change color. After our conversation we used primary colors of paints to mix and once the color was mixed discussed if our new color would be helpful in hiding or as warning to other animals.

Friday will be an exciting hands on day with insects. Insects have been around since the time of the dinosaurs and have a lot of unique characteristics. With the classroom's Madagascar hissing cockroach and the Indian stick bug we are able to get up close and personal with some amazing adaptations. After our observations, each child will have the opportunity to draw a diagram of their own (an important part of science).

Baking: Winter Term, Week 4

2011-12-23T14:07:00.000-08:00

Day One: We began our exploration of food preservation by talking about what the word preserve means. "You put something in a jar," Solomon offered. "Ila added "So, it doesn't get yucky."

Day Two: We talked about what would happen if we left a piece of cucumber on the counter for a week. We explored a some food that had been in a jar for about a month. We examined the mold under a microscope and thought about what we could have done to the food to keep it closer to its original state. We read a recipe for cold pickling. We then explored the individual ingredients using our five senses. We also cut cucumber and covered it with salt to draw out the moisture overnight.

Day Three: We combined the cucumber with the rest of the ingredients. Using measuring cups and spoons we added sugar, vinegar, salt, onion, peppercorn and garlic.

Day Four: We tasted our pickles and documented our observations. We also compared the pickles to a fresh slice of cucumber as well as one that had been sitting out all week long.

Cultural Studies: Winter, Week 4

2011-12-22T08:56:00.000-08:00

Meredith, Vija, Riley, Anya, Natalie, Cody, Sierra, Ryder R., Lera

Our measuring took a fun twist this week. Natalie, perhaps from hearing that we call our measuring unit a foot, and many of them feet, starting counting out steps from our back table in East to the bathroom where we were measuring to. This was an easy, fun, identifiable way to estimate a distance, and soon every child in the group was trying it to see how much their estimate would come to. And as we were soon to find out, those estimates using paces were actually pretty close to the measured distance!

Our cultural side of the week had some fun observations and connections as well. While looking in the South America book, Riley noticed that there were giant icebergs in one picture leading someone to comment about Antarctica and all the snow and ice there. Just like last week's visualization of the proximity of deserts to the equator, we were able to see that the very southern tip of South America in Argentina and Chile is very, very close to an extension of Antarctica. Since Antarctica is super cold because it is so far from the equator, it made sense that the southern part of South America is also really cold.

Vija also pointed out, in the same book, a picture of an Incan ceremony worshiping the sun and how colorful and patterned the man's robes were. This got us talking about ceremonies and special occasions and how we dress up for them here in the United States. We mentioned weddings, religious ceremonies, parties, and get-togethers as fun opportunities to wear things that we might not otherwise.

Baking: Winter Term, Week 3

2011-12-21T14:30:00.000-08:00

Day One: We talked about what preservation is. Myla suggested that preservation is keeping something in a jar. This sparked a conversation about the different steps that make up the canning canning procedure. We discussed removing moisture so that micro-organisms need it to live. We also talked about how heating the mixture is an important step in some types of canning because this also kills enzymes and micro-organisms. And then finally, we touched on why we create a vacuum seal.

Day Two: We began our day by exploring different canned foods. We identified the various ingredients in each and discussed their role in the preservation process. We talked about necessary ingredients that do a job other than adding flavor. Salt and vinegar were put into this category. We then sampled many of these ingredients individually. Surprisingly the entire group loved the vinegar!

Day Three: We went to work slicing cucumbers and salting them while they lay on a screen so that the salt would draw the moisture out over the next 24 hours.

Day Four: We put the cucumbers into a jar and then measured and added other ingredients like vinegar, onion, garlic, peppercorn, sugar and shallots. We hypothesized what the mixture would taste like the next day based on the amounts of different ingredients that we chose to add. Lots of math skills came into play during this time. We were curious about fractions and used a round piece of paper to represent one whole. We then drew lines and cut the paper like a pie to identify the different fractions within.

Day Five: We tasted our group pickle mixture and made our own individual recipes using the information gathered after tasting the group recipe from the day before. We also used a microscope to examine some mold and slime that began growing on some old vegetables that had not been preserved.

Baking: Winter Term, Week 2

2011-12-21T13:55:00.000-08:00

Day One: We started off my reading the book "Pickle Museum" to get an idea of what the week had in store for us. We then discussed what a pickle is and how does a pickle become a pickle.

Day Two: We sampled pickles that were made using different recipes. We also tasted each of those ingredients individually and discussed what the effects of each were on the pickles.

Day Three: We began creating our own recipe by cutting cucumbers and covering them with salt. We used the information we gathered on day two about what salt does to foods to make hypothesis regarding what would happen to the cucumbers over night.

Day Four: We Found that the cucumbers were smaller and kind of wrinkly. We also noticed that a there was about four tablespoons of liquid in the bottom of the bowl that the salt had drawn out of the cucumbers. We then moved on to measure our the various ingredients that we wanted to use in our own recipe.

Day Five: We tasted our recipe and then made individual recipes to take home to share with families. We observed the flavors of the group recipe and used this information to adjust the amounts of the ingredients that we put in our own personal jars.

Drama: Winter Term, Week 4

2011-12-20T16:24:00.000-08:00

DRAGONS TO MARS

TIME: The present
PLACE: Austin, Texas

All the dragons go into the haunted house. They make spooky noises. They come to the door, throw their claws up high, and then they jump- all at the same time!

Plaque Fighting Man comes and says "Your teeth are dirty, and I'm going to clean them!" All the dragons run out of the house and jump. Then they roll their eyes.

Plaque Fighting Man holds up his hammer and says "You'll get cavities if I don't brush your teeth!"
The Witch Dragon says "Well, I already brush my teeth, so you don't need to clean them."

The Purple Puff Smoking Dragon says "mmmmhHhFFFMmm" because he is breathing fire, and letters are coming out of his smoky mouth.

The Witch Dragon flies to the planet Mars. The other dragons follow him there. One of the dragons get indian food on the way, and does not like it. She likes salt & pepper, though.

The Witch Dragon hides.

the end

Cast List:

Plaque Fighting Man: Ryder B.

Purple Puff Smoking Dragon: Jasper

Witch Dragon: Ari
Dragon that can swim in water but does not like indian food: Zenna
Dragon that can breathe fire: Olivia

Assistant Director: Elinor

Stage Manager: Lane

This week our group showed a strong progression from the previous term. Right away at the beginning of the week, the children were excited to create a "real" play. We had our characters chosen and a basic plot outline by Tuesday. By Wednesday, the story had been fine tuned and everyone was delighted with their parts. Costumes were meticulously recreated each day of the week, and because of the brevity of the story we completed a whopping 15 private run-throughs and 5 performances for audiences!

Sensory Winter - Week 4

2011-12-19T07:53:00.001-08:00

Connor, Grant, Will M., Will E., Monica, Lior, Rafferty and Gabriel explored many simple sensory provocations as they built a new repetoir of descriptive vocab words. Flour was our first sensory experience. We noticed when we used droppers to add water to our mountains we were shocked that the drops didn't absorb. While exploring with water we used pumps, funnels, tubes, scoops and ocean creatures while collaborating. Speaking of collaborating, in order to get water into our sensory bins we had to work as a team to fill up a huge pot at the sink area. This task proved challenging at first as friends communicated about how to share the sink with six people. Eventually, two groups of three had the pot filled in no time. We added bubbles and had a fun time getting wet and exploring with a liquid. Greg led the group through a salt exploration on day three as friends made salt shakers and practiced writing letters including each others names. Thrusday we got really messy and combined two familiar elements, water and flour, to make mache. Next, we used our fine motor skills as well as large muscles to tear strips of newspaper. Surprisingly, we found this task challenging and collaborated about different ways to hold the paper to make it tear.
The last day we got to explore with primary colors creating secondary colors to design our bowls/masks. - Sarah

Sensory Winter - Week 3

2011-12-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

Nye, Ila, Oskar, Maki, Jane, Solomon, Issac, Treslor and Garland worked as a collaborating team exploring their five senses. Each day we began talking about the way in which we use our body. Being the younger preschool group, we started with the very basics about what each sense tells us about the world around us. As we explored salt, flour, water, mache and glop we developed an understanding about how to describe our experiences. We worked together making a list each day of descriptive words such as gooey, slimy, rough, soft, smooth, bumpy and liquid for example. I'm excited for you to see the photos as they are the truth tellers to how much fun we have learning together. -Sarah

Science: Winter, week 4

2011-12-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, the children became birds and practiced using different types of bird beaks: hooks for birds of prey to rip into dough, plastic needles for fishing birds such as heron to gather beads in water, tweezers for gathering birds such as robins to collect string, eye droppers for birds such as hummingbirds to transfer water, and spoons and tongs for birds such as ducks to collect marbles in water. Each of these experiments gave the children to practice sorting, one-to-one ratio, and other mathematics skills. It also provided us with the opportunity to use the scientific process from start to finish and proved our hypothesis correct: bird beaks have adapted to help them eat!

Wednesday was a look into the adaptation of animal coloration. After studying a book and playing an eye spy game to find the camouflaged animals we studied three special cases of color adaptation in octopus, cuttle fish, and chameleons. The children were fascinated in camouflage and it led to an in depth conversation about predators and prey. As we were all so focused on our discussion and creating stories for the hidden creatures, we decided to continue the investigation by placing camouflaged animals on a canvas that has many different colors to hide them in.

Thursday was an exciting hands on day with insects. Insects have been around since the time of the dinosaurs and have a lot of unique characteristics. With the classroom's Madagascar hissing cockroach and the Indian stick bug we were able to get up close and personal with some amazing adaptations. After our observations, each child drew a diagram of their own (an important part of science).

Friday left us with a look into seed adaptations... How do they travel? Why are there more of some than others? Why do we eat some? Why do some animals store them? Why does their size change? All questions we created an hypothesis for and then did some hands on investigation with tomato, artichoke, and wildflower seeds. The last of our time was used to cooperatively work on a puzzle. The children were able to practice their social and emotional skills and problem solve together as the puzzle came together to reveal a look at animals of the African plains and showed us a lot of the predator-prey-camouflage, that we have been talking about.

Engineering: Winter, Week 4

2011-12-16T18:15:00.000-08:00

The kids in engineering this week were especially interested in The Empire State building this week, spurred on by Myla mentioning that she had been up to the observation deck and the reading that we did in Super Structures. We talked quite a bit about how tall the Empire State Building is relative to Childroots, our own houses, and The Leaning Tower of Pisa, which came up when we noticed that our popsicle stick tower was beginning to tilt a bit. From there, we moved on to Skyscraper, which talked a bit more about the process of erecting such a large building, from an architect designing the building to digging the foundation to building the frame. Very exciting!

Movement Winter Week 4

2011-12-16T08:15:00.000-08:00

This week movement friends expressed that they would like to do somersaults. We started the beginning steps of a somersault (standing, bending with hands on the floor, and jumping) and noticed that this move is very similar to the start of a handstand. This led us to learn how to do handstands and somersaults this week. All were so excited to practice using their upper bodies for both skills. This week was especially exciting to see friends using their arm muscles to protect their heads and necks while standing on their hands or rolling. All worked so hard to lock their elbows and challenged their bodies to stay up as long as possible in a handstand. We also ended each movement class with some calming yoga poses from The Children's Yoga Book of Feelings.

Cultural Studies: Winter, Week 3

2011-12-16T07:59:00.000-08:00

Connor, Grant, Will M., Will E., Monica, Lior, Rafferty, Gabriel

At the beginning of the week, the children took a great interest in measuring their heights. We were able to see that a one foot ruler, even in terms of height, isn't very much and that we needed to mark out sometimes more than three of them. This became a great way to relate the size of our bodies to other things in the room and the distances between places that we have been measuring over the last few weeks.

Our cultural/geographical topic of the week centered around deserts. Lior had pointed out a picture of the Arabian Desert in a book about Asia, and I mentioned that one large reason deserts exist is their proximity to the equator (Side note: Did you know that the equator is 131,479,920 feet around?!). After drawing a line from the Arabian Desert to the equator, the children were able to see that it was pretty short. We did this with examples from all over the world (the Sahara in Africa, Death Valley in North America, the Atacama in South America, and the Australian Outback) to give a global sense of deserts and we noticed that most of the lines were really a pretty short way to the equator. This was especially the case when compared to the line we drew from the equator to Antarctica, where the children are well aware that penguins come from and it just so happens to be super cold.

Drama: Winter Term, Week 3

2011-12-09T15:25:00.000-08:00

THE KIDS MEET THE MOM, AND IT TURNS INTO THE FAMILY

Cast list:

Lisa: Vita
Rosie: Lucy
Flower: Norah
Sabine: Sabine
Holy Pole: Ole
The Random Super Heroes, Tiger Man and Lion Man, who run around the action trying their best to not be disruptive: Arlo and Adi

ACT I

   Lisa is the mom, Sabine is the big sister- she's 11, the Princess (who's name is Flower) is the middle sister- she's 7, and the little sister, Rosie. The big brother, Holy Poly, is 16 and a half. He goes to work with Lisa.
       Sabine is in middle school, the princess is in elementary school, and Rosie is in preschool.
       Lisa and Holy Poly drive Rosie to preschool. When she gets there, she meets Andrew the school teacher, Lisa signed her in and hands Andrew her milk bottle. Then Lisa gets back in the car to take the other kids to school.
      She takes Sabine to the bus stop (Sabine takes the bus to school), then Lisa takes flower to second grade, and then goes to work with Holy Poly.
      Lisa brings her computer, and Holy Poly brings his school things.

ACT II

Rosie's Day:
     Andrew has some toys, and Rosie plays with them- then, they put the toys away, make lunch, then: it's naptime!

Flower's Day:
    During school time, they have a party. After the party, flower stays in the office until she gets picked up. But she has gymnastics after school- Mom can drive her there easily.

Sabine's Day:
    She eats lunch and has gym class.

ACT III:

THE END OF THE DAY

     Holy Poly and Lisa pick up all of the kids, one at a time, and then go to the park. They play swinging and sliding there. They go get ice cream at the store, then a different store where there is other food, and then they go to the beach, have dinner, and stay for 60 weeks.

2011-12-09T13:04:00.000-08:00

Winter Term of Ateliers begins November 14th! Your children have been divided into new groups that will explore eight, (yes eight, we've added a new one!) ateliers together over the next several months.

This term Science, Art, Baking, Engineering, Cultural Studies, Drama and Sensory Explorations will all continue with new themes and in some cases new teachers as is described in detail below. In addition, Movement atelier is back! As before, each Atelier has a teacher selected theme that the kids work within to build their own curriculum as the week unfolds. Each individual ateliers theme is united under the terms "Big Idea." (For more on what a big idea is, see the 'term announcement' post for fall term.) This term, our big idea is: Transformations!

***Ateliers will be recessed the weeks of November 21st, December 19th and December 26th.***

*** Atelier photos will now be shared via links rather than individually posted on the blog. I will send these our weekly via Picasa.***

Atelier: Cultural Studies Teacher: Andrew E

Theme: Distance and Geography Description: This term the atelier will focus on having children gain an appreciation for just how big and diverse the globe is. They will start small and try to master the concept of a unit, specifically the foot (ft.) as a constant. They will explore tangible distances, like the distance from East to West classroom, and then extrapolate from there to distances to between cities, states and eventually continents. Children will explore basic maps illustrating continental divisions and begin to hone in on an area of interest. The language, dress, food, history, climate, transportation and housing of interest areas will be explored at the childrens' pace for the remainder of the week.

Atelier: Engineering Teacher: Harry

Theme: Towers

Description: Children will discuss and experiment with concepts such as foundation, stability, balance and support as they work to transform smaller, individual pieces of a variety materials into big, unified structures.

Atelier: Drama Teacher: Andrew B

Theme: Character Development

Description: Last term we explored the concept of performance and adopting a persona- most friends chose different characters every day of the week. This term we will expand on those skills by introducing concepts such as beginning, middle and end be and challenging friends to transform themselves into characters with progressive story lines that last all week. We will start by reading a great existing story from start to finish, choosing original characters (e.g. 'Tiger Man' or 'A princess with one leg who loves burritos'), getting a chance to explore those characters through free play, and then writing our own story with beginning, middle, and end. If all of those steps are achieved, we'll turn our story into a play with costumes, sets, and props designed and constructed by the children.

Atelier: Science Teacher: Lauren

Theme: Animal & Plant Adaptations

Description: During our week the children will explore the long-term transformations of animals and plants as they conduct experiments designed to further their understanding of plant and animal adaptations. Through their work, the children will become more aware of the scientific process as they experiment with bird beaks, insect camouflage and exoskeletons and a variety of uniquely adapted plant seeds. There will be an emphasis on expanding childrens' vocabulary, both written and spoken, developing mathematical skills through one-to-one ratio correspondence and group problem solving skills.

Atelier: Baking Teacher:Jordan

Theme: Food Preservation

Description: During winter term we will explore the process of preserving food. We will look at the process as a whole as well as break it down into smaller more manageable steps to understand the procedure. Our explorations will be scientific in nature as we create and measure out recipes, suggest hypotheses, document observations and make conclusions about our research. We will use microscopes to explore bacteria and fungus. Math skills will be a large part of the recipe creation process. We will have an opportunity to taste many different spices, pickled produce, fresh vegetables and even things like vinegar! We will also familiarize ourselves with tools such as peelers and knives all while developing our small motor skills. By using locally grown vegetables we will also continue to understand and appreciate the foods that are grown here in the Pacific Northwest and learn about sustainability.

Atelier: Art Teacher: Hannah

Theme: Fabric Dying

Description: This term in Art Atelier we will be exploring fibers and fabric dyeing. At the beginning of the week we will examine and feel various plant and animal fibers such as cotton, wool, alpaca, cashmere, silk, and bamboo. Using cotton fabric, students will then experiment with pleating, wrapping, and using rubber bands to bind and manipulate their fabric. Before the dyeing process begins, students will put on gloves and smocks to ensure safety and cleanliness. For the remainder of the week we will test different dye application techniques, using droppers, sponge brushes, and spay bottles. The last day of class will be used to create a personal flag using their favorite piece of fabric.

Atelier: Sensory Teacher: Sarah
Theme: It makes sense
Description: It makes sense Sensory atelier will focus upon the use of our variety of senses. We will also be using a start-to-finish dialogue as we explore making a variety of messy, goopy, slimy and sometimes hardening provocations. Based upon Piaget's philosophies, I tend to lean towards letting children be guided by what they know (by using thier senses). It is not about what we as adults see, but about how they are making sense (ha, ha) of the world around them. We will use a variety of descriptive vocab words and address patterns, lines, space, colors, rythmn, contrast and use of measuring devices to incorporate math. The first phase may appear very basic as we discover what it means to use our five senses with simple materials such as water, salt and flour. We begin by identifying each sense and finding examples of how we use them. Next, we examine each basic ingredient, one day at a time. The first day we will explore salt, creating salt shakers and practicing making letters and numbers together. We always touch with our hands last in order to focus upon the use of the other four senses one step at a time. Day two and three we will explore either water or flour depending on the energy of the group. Day four we will combine water and flour to create mache. Next, we will wrap bowls in foil (talking about the properties we notice in the foil) and then begin to tear newspaper into strips. Finally, we will begin adding our paper and mache together to create our bowls wich can then be made into a mask at home for example. Day five we will explore primary colors to decorate our creations with. This always leads to a discovery of secondary colors which is a wonderful opportunity to talk about the color spectrum and process of design.

Atelier: Movement Teacher: Kim
Theme: Step by Step
Description: This term of movement will be focusing on body dynamics. We will start each week by talking about learning a certain skill (a somersault for example). We will spend the following days breaking that skill into progressive steps, talking about what muscles we are using for each one, and strengthening those specific muscles. Along with this we will be exploring our bodies to discover our different levels of flexibility and strength while gaining an understanding of spacial awareness inside and around others.

Stay tuned for more...

Movement: Winter Week 2

2011-12-09T12:48:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of movement class we have been starting with some fun warm-ups using our imaginations to turn our bodies into butterflies, to paint rainbows, to pick fruit at an orchard, etc. This week we started off by talking about a somersault. By breaking it down step-by-step we were able to focus on certain muscles to strengthen. We started with the first step of a somersault by bending over to the ground and jumping off our feet. This week we talked about "momentum" and how the more we have the further our bodies will roll. We explored the rolling part of a somersault by using an exercise ball. To use this, friends laid stomach down on the ball and worked on pushing with their feet to roll all the way over. The last step to focus on was the end of a somersault. For this, we worked on standing up really quickly with our hands stretched up high and shouting "Ta-Da!" This week was especially exciting because we worked together to take turns alphabetically and then reverse alphabetically to make it as fair as possible.

Art: Winter Term, Week 2

2011-12-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

In the Art atelier this term we are exploring fibers and fabric dyeing. At the beginning of the we talked about the many natural fibers that come from plants and animals. We passed around samples of wool fleece and cotton. We then talked about how these fibers are spun into yarn, then made into fabric for us to use in our daily lives. Next we passed around samples of dyed fabrics, and talked about different techniques we could use to dye our own fabrics. We used rubber bands, string, and marbles to bind fold and pleat our fabrics.
After putting our art smocks and gloves on, we began to select and mix our dyes. Some friends chose to work with a single color while others couldn't wait to use them all! We carefully placed our dyed fabrics in plastic bags and placed them in the fridge for the dye to really penetrate the fabric. Everyone was very anxious to how their fabrics would turn out.
On Wednesday and Thursday friends carefully pulled their fabric squares out, rinsed out any remaining dye, and began to cut away the string and rubber bands (which is a bit tricky with gloves on). Each and every fabric square turned out differently, it was a very fun week!

Sensory: Winter, Week 2

2011-12-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

What an amazing week we had exploring salt, flour, water and combining ingredients to make paper mache which we then used to make our own bowls or masks. We then used primary colors to create secondary colors as we collaborated throughout the week talking each day about our five senses and noting what each sense tells us about each ingredient.

Cultural Studies: Winter, Week 2

2011-12-08T11:19:00.000-08:00

Garland, Ila, Oskar, Nye, Tresler, Isaac, Solomon, Jane, Maki

After our introduction to distance and how we measure it, this week opened up more discussions of the continents and where they are in the world and just how far away they are from us. We pointed out that the earth at the equator is 131,477,280 feet around and brought that home by saying how many feet (the unit that they are familiar with and can now visualize) it is from Portland to Berlin or Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and other far off places. Being the oldest in the group, Solomon was very helpful in reminding his younger friends what the colorful shapes on the world map are (Africa, Europe, etc) and by pointing out some pictures of far off places in our books and atlases. After discovering a picture of a canoe with outriggers in the SE Pacific, we had a discussion about transportation and how the land we live on our around can determine what we use to get around. Here in Portland we live on land and there are streets so we can take cars, but in that part of Asia there are lots of islands and lots of water so they need to get around by boat.

If you are interested in checking out the world maps we are using, they are located on the wall in the back right corner of East classroom. There is also a tub of books and atlases that the children are looking at and researching.

Engineering: Winter, Week 3

2011-12-05T14:45:00.001-08:00

This week in Engineering, we continued to collaborate on the construction of a popsicle stick tower, but we also had a bit more of a chance to test our tower's stability. We borrowed a soccer ball from the play yard on Thursday afternoon, set up our tower on top of one of the square wooden boxes in the classroom, and took turns rolling the ball into the boxes, creating "earthquakes" and seeing if our tower would topple. When we finished with that, we tested out a few other small popsicle stick structures - a pyramid, a cube, and a stick coming straight up out of a cross base - in the same way, which the kids were quite excited about!

Engineering: Winter, Week 2

2011-12-02T14:34:00.000-08:00

This week in Engineering, we returned to the collaborative building with popsicle sticks that we'd been doing last term, though obviously with a slightly different focus this time around. Since we're building towers this term, we talked quite a bit about having a strong and stable foundation, and building up from there. This was an idea we returned to as we continued to build and our structure began to take on a more lopsided look - "Look, it's the Leaning Tower of Paris!" the kids called out, leading us to look through Super Structures for the pages on both The Eiffel Tower and The Leaning Tower of Pisa. We also read The Man Who Walked Between the Towers once or twice, which the kids have been very enthusiastic about. All in all, a very enjoyable week!

Winter: Science, Week 2

2011-12-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

Ryder B., Lane, Zenna, Kingston, Ari, Elinor, Jasper, Olivia.

On Tuesday, the children became birds and practiced using different types of bird beaks: hooks for birds of prey to rip into playdough, plastic needles for fishing birds such as heron to gather beads in water, tweezers for gathering birds such as robins to collect string, eye droppers for birds such as hummingbirds to transfer water, and spoons and tongs for birds such as ducks to collect marbles in water. Each of these experiments gave the children to practice sorting, one-to-one ratio, and other mathematics skills. It also provided us with the opportunity to use the scientific process from start to finish and proved our hypothesis correct: bird beaks have adapted to help them eat!

Wednesday was a look into the adaptation of animal coloration. After studying a book and playing an eye spy game to find the camouflaged animals and study three special cases of color adaptation in octopus, cuttle fish, and chameleons we mixed colors in our own pallets and then shared the animal we would be and where we would live based on the colors we made.

Thursday was an exciting hands on day with insects. Insects have been around since the time of the dinosaurs and have a lot of unique characteristics. With the classroom's Madagascar hissing cockroach and the Indian stick bug we were able to get up close and personal with some amazing adaptations. After our observations, each child drew a diagram of their own (an important part of science).

Friday leaves us with a look into seed adaptations... How do they travel? Why are there more of some than others? Why do we eat some? Why do some animals store them? Why does their size change? All questions we will examine today!

Drama: Winter Term, Week 2

2011-12-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

PERHAPS, THE ZOMBIE AND THE MONSTER CAN BE FRIENDS

The very scary monster and zombie live in Seattle, China- and come to scare all the princesses/fairies.

The mad king locks the princesses and fairy in the castle with him, so he can protect them.

Then, the monsters get in because the mad king really opens the door. He fights them, and the scary monster and zombie get stuck inside with everyone. And the door is locked again.

The flying horse makes a hole in the castle, and flies in- shooting fire! The zombie and monster die in battle, but then they come back to life. Everyone dies, but then comes back to life. The mad king’s car comes to take them out of the castle.

All the characters other than the monster/zombie go get some food and bring it back to the castle to eat it. The monster and the zombie eat some too. All the food gets eaten because the monster ate so much. Then they all go to bed, wake up the next morning, and go to school.

THE END.

CAST LIST:

Riley- A princess who loves carrots and burritos

Meredith- A flying fairy with no wand.

Vija- A zombie. A super scary one.

Lera: A scary monster.

Ryder R: A mad king. Who drives a car.

Anja Z: A flying horse with a necklace that shoots fire.

Cultural Studies: Winter, Week 1

2011-11-30T12:06:00.000-08:00

Lana, Myla, Tanuja, Olin, Miles, James, Finley, and Abigail.

The focus of this term's Cultural Studies will be the process of starting small and building to a larger view of the world especially as this opens discussions on different cultures and ways of life in different places.

One of the keys to doing that is giving the children a sense of distance and the spaces and measurements between two different points. This could be the width of the table, the height of a child, or the distance between East and West classrooms. We started by introducing the unit of feet and seeing what a ruler is. After measuring some items close by we took some estimates on how far it is between the various classrooms in ChildRoots. After getting a sense of some larger numbers, the children had fun helping to unroll the 25 foot tape measure and then add on if there was still more measuring to do. We were then able to compare our estimates and findings to further enforce the growing spaces between larger distances, and practice the scientific method.

The next day we were able to head outside and see how far it is from the school to Ankeny Street. It took us about 5 whole tape measures or 125 feet! Then we noticed that Buckman was still two blocks away and a lot more feet to measure. Upon returning inside, this started a discussion about the amount of feet it takes to get to various locations familiar to the children. They were astounded with the growing size of the numbers as we listed the distances to Voodoo Doughnuts, Jeld-Wen Field, Grant Park, and Sauvie Island.

The rest of the week we built on that sense of distance and introduced the 7 Continents. We took a great interest in talking about the animals that we find on different continents specifically on Antarctica and Africa. On the last day of the week, we brought the discussion full circle by first mentioning what we had for breakfast that morning, and then what they might eat in Africa. Obviously we have to make some large over-arching brushstrokes, but they really were interested to learn that cereal and toast aren't what everyone in Africa always eat.

Baking: Winter Term, Week 1

2011-11-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

Day One: We tasted many different pickled vegetables and canned fruits and discussed the ingredients in each. We then had an opportunity to isolate each ingredient to sample. We then talked about the history of food preservation and the reasons for which it exists today.

Day Two: We broke down the process of pickling vegetables. After researching many different methods and recipes we created our own steps to make a jar of pickles as a group. Ideas were shared and possibilities were discussed and we eventually were able to write our own recipe. Unfortunately, this recipe was soaked with pickle juice a little later down the line so I am unable to post it here for you to read. Whoops! After the recipe was completed we passed around several cutting boards and plastic knives and each child had the opportunity to cut cucumbers and add them to the jar. We observed the large and small pieces going into the jar and hypothesized that the larger pieces would remain crunchier than the smaller ones. We then set to work carefully measuring out the rest of the ingredients. Steady hands slowly poured vinegar and water. Salt, sugar and pepper were added next. Once we had finished filling the jar we closed the lid and set it in the refrigerator remembering that we chose not to heat the water and we did not want bacteria to grow in our pickles.

Day Three: We tasted and observed the change that had happened to our once fresh cucumbers. We also explored some decomposing cucumbers with microscopes. We were fascinated by the mold growing and attempted to identify it using a research book.

Day Four: The group began by tasting the pickles. We noticed the cucumbers had softened a lot and now had a sweet and tangy taste. After that we went to work writing up individual pickle recipes.

Day Five: We worked the entire time to create our individual jars to take home.

Sensory: Winter, Week 1

2011-11-22T07:57:00.000-08:00

JAY, TALIA, JACKSON, SYDNEY, CAIN, MALIA, SOFIA, NATE
From start to finish, "It just makes sense", sensory begins with flour on day one, salt on day two and water on day three. On day four, we combined flour and water then dipped torn newspaper into it to make paper mache bowls which could be turned into other ideas such as masks. Day five, we used primary colors to paint our bowls/creations and explore how to make secondary colors.
We explored what each sense helped us learn about the individual items. Jay thins salt "looks like hail peices and tastes like snow flakes," for example. We learned descriptive words, enjoyed exploring with all of our senses and explored with combining different ingredients and colors.
Have a wonderful holiday and we'll begin ateliers again on November 28th! -Sarah

Movement: Winter Week 1

2011-11-21T16:45:00.000-08:00

What an amazing tranformation this week! Movement friends decided to learn the process of a somersault.Some in this group had never done a somersault before so they were eager to learn how. We worked step-by-step to learn different parts of a somersault while also warming up and stregthening those muscles that we use for each step. (Step 1) We started by focusing on our upper body. We use our arms in a somersault to support our heads and necks and keep them safe. We did some arm exercises using blocks as weights while sitting in chairs, standing, and laying on the floor. Once we were warmed up, we were able to practice the beginning move of a somersault: hands on the ground and jumping to get the momentum for a full roll. (Step 2) The next step was to strengthen our legs and work on an ending stand up. Friends had a blast with this exercise: Lay on the ground and on the count of three stand up as fast as we can and yell "Ta-Da!" (Step 3) The last move to work on was the rolling part of our somersault. Friends used a large exercise ball to lay belly-down on. As the ball was rolled, so was the body upon it and as the hands touched the floor, the body was able to roll right off. This ball allowed friends to focus on bending their back as their head touched the floor to allow their bodies to roll. (Finished Product) The last two days were spent putting all the previous steps together to practice somesaults. The transformation step-by-step was amazing to witness, as well as the expression on each friend's face as they showed pride in learning a new skill!

Science: Winter- Week 1

2011-11-21T07:50:00.000-08:00

Minna, Vita, Lucy, Norah, Sabine, Ole, Arlo, Adi

A brand new atelier has brought the excitement of animal and plant adaptations. The week began with a brief conversation about the length of the word adaptation and questions of what it could possibly mean. After comparing the number of syllables in the word adaptation, to the number in biodiversity, and each of our names we began to embark on our adventure into the world of long-term evolution and change.

The class read a story called "Gakky Two Feet," in which a hominidee who is the first to walk on two feet is made fun of by the other quadrapeds. In the end, his two-footed abilities save the day and the hope of other two feet creatures lives on. The children quickly pointed out benefits of Gakky's two feet, which allowed him to carry his friend to safety and to see the predator as he reached above the tall grass. With a brief understanding of the ways in which animals have the ability to transform over a long period of time in order to ensure they continue to live, we continued on to our first experiment.

During our first session, Biodiversity in the Pacific Northwest, we had begun to understand the steps of the scientific process, and so were able to revisit the idea with more of an understanding. Our first experiment created the opportunity for children to explore the adaptation of bird's beaks, that they change depending on the environment and the available food. Using tools representative of different beaks: spoons, needles, tweezers, hooks, tongs, and nut crackers the children tried to collect their prey: marbles, beads, string, and play-dough.

We continued our experimentation into adaptation through a discussion about camoflauge. After researching and identifying the different ways that animals are able to hide the children used primary colors to create their own camoflauge and then present the kind of animal they are and the environment they might find themselves in.

Our next experiment lead us to the adaptation of insects as we observed the stick bug and Madagascar hissing cockaroach. We noticed that some insects use camoflauge, while others have other adaptations like the ability to push air from their bodies to create an intimidating sound. After noting our observations the children drew diagrams of something that they found especially interesting.

The children's final experiment into seed adaptation allowed the children to note that just as animals transform over long periods of time, seeds do as well. We noted all the different ways that seeds are able to travel and then closely observed some of the different types.

It was a packed week with a lot of exciting discoveries of the adaptations that can be found all over our world in all living creatures.

Engineering: Winter, Week 1

2011-11-18T18:43:00.000-08:00

This term in Engineering, we'll be exploring towers. Our prior experience with building bridges has turned out to have given us a handy framework for starting our conversation: at the beginning of the week, we spent a while discussing how our bridge-building was an attempt to build a structure that was both long and weight-bearing, while our work with towers will be focused on building something tall and stable. This, in turn, sparked questions about the difference between length and height, and about exactly what "stability" means. For the rest of the week, we experimented with this in different ways: playing Jenga, working together to build a tower out of popsicle sticks, and building two different towers out of small wooden planks, one built out of trangular shapes and one out of squares, and seeing which one best resisted being shaken. It was a fun start to what I think will be a very exciting term!

Engineering: Week 7

2011-11-04T18:15:00.000-07:00

Week 7: Ursula, Will M, Anya, Miles, Sienna, Sofia, James, Finley

Another exciting week in Engineering! This time around, we returned to the collaborative project we attempted a few weeks ago, where the kids tried to build a bridge together out of wooden blocks. Instead of trying to walk across it myself, though, we instead tried to roll a small toy car across the deck. We didn't manage to get it all the way across, but it was still great to see the kids trying out different ideas for how to build the bridge and reincorporating ideas from our previous work with paper and popsicle stick bridges.

Art-Week 7

2011-11-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

This week we started off by looking at photographs of Pacific NW Landscapes. This gave people a chance to share what stood out most to them and really gain an interest for what type of Landscape they would like to focus on. Friends called out what they were seeing in the pictures while I (Kim) wrote words I was hearing that pertained to our topic. At the end of this "book browse" We went over the list and pointed out what words were landscapes and which were most interesting. The four that Art friends picked out were Mountains, Waterfalls, Farms, and Islands. We then prepared four canvases by painting them with Gesso (a sort of paint/glue combo)to have a fresh start for our own creations.
We collectively worked on these canvases first with paint and later adding details with markers. We started this process by observing photographs of each landscape and talking about what colors we were seeing and what we would need to create each piece. Friends worked to first add the color using small brushes and covering the whole surface. When dry, we were able to go back and add the details.

Engineering: Week 6

2011-10-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

Week 6: Garland, Maki, Norah, Jasper, July, Isaac, Rafferty, Niko

Week 6 has been a lot of fun. As in previous weeks, we began with an exercise in building paper bridges, but this time we did so as partners, and it was great to see the kids negotiating and bouncing ideas off of one another. After that, we started to work on our large collaborative project. This week, it took a little longer than usual, as we really struggled to build a bridge that was able to balance on its own - a great deal of our building was happening on one side of the structure, and it took quite a while to compensate for all the leaning that was going on. All in all, though, we still had a terrific time!

Science: Fall Week 5

2011-10-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

This week, the group quickly took to creating webs and cycles that we find in the natural environment all around us. After reading a story, "Where Would I Be in an Evergreen Tree" the children began to decipher all the connections between the flora and fauna and then we drew a web of our own with animals we recognized from the book as well as with animals and plants we remembered from our own outdoor adventures.

Biodiversity has become a word the children are beginning to understand with complexity and it has been very exciting to observe them as they decipher a definition and then apply it to their own experiments including: paper-making, creating biomes, and dissecting owl pellets!

Engineering: Fall Week 4

2011-10-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

Week of October 10th: Minna, Lane, Vita, Elinor, Natalie, Lior, Sierra, Jackson.

This week in Engineering, we spent a little longer working on paper prototypes during the beginning of the week. After our usual introductory reading, we spent most of Monday and Tuesday building bridges out of masking tape and paper of various weights, testing them out to see how many dominoes they could hold, and then reworking our designs to see if we could make them stronger.

For the rest of the week, we worked on a challenge together: I placed two wooden boxes about six feet apart and explained that these were cliffs, laid two blue scarves on the floor between the boxes and told the kids that they represented rivers, and asked if they would be able to build a bridge between the two boxes out of wooden blocks. The catch was that I would need to be able to walk across the bridge without it collapsing. From there, the kids took turns laying blocks down and altering the existing structure as they attempted to make it as stable as possible. It was especially exciting to see them negotiating when there were differences of opinion as to how the bridge should be laid out. All in all, a pretty rewarding week!

Science: Fall Week 4

2011-10-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

This week in science the children really focused on food webbing. There were so many questions about what happens after something dies in the forest, why some animals eat other animals, and what happens when an animal poops out seeds (new plants grow!). After reading and researching the biodiversity of just one tree the class began their focus on the relationship and contributions of owls. We discovered that owls are so important because they keep rodent populations in check as well as tell scientists about the biodiversity of an ecosystem through their pellets. The next step then, naturally, was to dissect owl pellets. Owl pellets are the fur and bones that owls are unable to digest and are, in a sense coughed up. Scientists then find pellets on the forest floor and are able to see that: 1) there is an owl population and 2) there is prey (this is what we focused on). Each child delicately took apart their pellet while making notes and drawing diagrams in their observation notebooks.

After discovering, in detail, the importance of the biodiversity provided by one tree, we discussed how paper is made. Many children talked about teachers and parents who remind them to use paper from the recycling bin or to use both sides of their paper. After understanding that paper comes from trees, and their connection to one tree being a home to many animals, we decided to do our own part and make some paper. The paper the children made has seeds in it, so if they decide to compost it, wildflowers will grow... Living art!

Friday is the children's chance to create one last experiment, as we ask: Can we create an ecosystem or biome ourselves?

Baking: Fall Week 3

2011-10-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Quite an interesting group this week in Farm to Table. After posing the question, "what is your favorite fruit or vegetable?" We all shared our answers, which happened to be fruit. We decided to examine which fruits came from the Pacific Northwest and which ones, such as mangoes live on tropical islands for example. After learning about the kitchen vocab, ingredients and researching recipes, we decided to make dough and continue the theme of pizza's and pizza pockets, except with fruit! Not only did we get to talk about why some of the fruit is brown and oxidized we got to enjoy an extra fruit salad after our amazing team work of getting our food into the oven as a team! We really enjoyed looking at a local newspaper article about pears and then having a fun Friday discovering how to make art with it. Alas, baking and food in general, we all agree, are such an art! What a pleasure it is to get to spend this time with your amazing children!

Baking: Fall Week 2

2011-10-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

This week in Farm to Table we decided to continue our exploration of our favorite foods grown in the Pacific Northwest. We decided to use vegetables again this week to make either a pizza or pizza pocket.
After learning about being safe in the kitchen and some vocab surrounding materials and ingredients, we decided to make some dough. The dough we use does NOT include yeast.
I do hope eventually, we will be able to include yeast in our studies.
We enjoyed being together, using our five senses to create delicious snacks from the farm to our bellies. Adding the toppings was an exciting finish to a great week in baking!

Engineering: Fall Week 3

2011-10-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

Bridges Week 3: Arlo, Ari, Solomon, Cain, Nate, Grant, Gabe, Jay

Engineering is a new atelier that we're offering this term, and I'm quite excited to see what the kids end up doing with it! Though we'll be doing a bit of research, and no doubt there will be a great deal of discussion that emerges organically from our work, I imagine that the bulk of our time will be spent in hands-on activities. Each term will be focused on a specific kind of construction, and for the fall, we'll be working on bridges. Isaac has brought us a selection of age-appropriate books from the library, as well as a photo book about Portland's bridges, which has helped us to situate our conversations in our day-to-day lives.

This week in Engineering, we've continued to experiment with different bridge-building materials. We tried out plastic straws on Wednesday, which something of a mixed success, and then collaborated again on a large popsicle stick bridge, which the kids have continued to really enjoy. Have a wonderful weekend!

Art-Week 2

2011-10-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

This week we started out by looking at photographs of many different Oregon landscapes. From this, all showed a large interest in the lighthouse photographs. We decided to build our own! We noticed that most of the pictures we looked at showed white lighthouses so we started by painting cardboard cylinders white. The next day we added our details with black markers. Many friends chose to draw windows, stairs, and flowers. In addition to this we explored adding materials to paint to represent the different landscapes. These were desert-sand, mountains-ice, beach-salt, and forest-dirt.

Engineering: Fall Week 2

2011-10-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

Engineering is a new atelier that we're offering this term, and I'm quite excited to see what the kids end up doing with it! Though we'll be doing a bit of research, and no doubt there will be a great deal of discussion that emerges organically from our work, I imagine that the bulk of our time will be spent in hands-on activities. Each term will be focused on a specific kind of construction, and for the fall, we'll be working on bridges. Isaac has brought us a selection of age-appropriate books from the library, as well as a photo book about Portland's bridges, which has helped us to situate our conversations in our day-to-day lives.

We had another exciting week building bridges in Engineering! We still had a chance to build bridges of our own, but we also set aside the last couple days for collaborating on a larger bridge, with the kids taking turns adding popsicle sticks one at a time. It was a great time, and a lot of fun to listen to the kids brainstorm and debate about how and what to add to the existing structure.

Sensory: Fall, Week 2

2011-09-29T18:17:00.000-07:00

The majority of week two was spent outside in our neighborhood documenting the sights, sounds, smells, touches and tastes that we found. One day was dedicated predominantly to searching for animals. We heard the chirping of birds and used our binoculars to track them down. We found a large maple tree that seemed to be home to a all sorts of creatures including a squirrel and several small grey birds. We felt the rough bark and drew comparisons between that of other trees around us. Several in the group pointed out that the soft moss was such a stark contrast to the bark. Another day was spent exploring puddles that formed after a rainstorm. We used magnifying glasses to look for creatures too small to see with the naked eye. We felt the cool wet water with our hands and feet as we splashed merrily. On a particularly windy day we found a bit of grass to lay in and we looked up at the clouds as they drifted overhead. We felt the breeze on our cheeks and talked about the different things we thought the shapes of the clouds resembled. Our neighborhood provided many examples of the sensory rich place that we call home.

Science: Fall- Week 2

2011-09-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

Week two in the science atelier has been filled with energy! We began by reading a story about the biodiversity of just one tree in an a forest's ecosystem and began to understand just how many living organisms need it to live. As we read, children pointed out the plants and animals they noticed in the illustrations. The children began to notice that many of the animals they were noticing are animals that they have seen. We discussed that the animals and plants they were noticing are animals that may be found in our region, the Pacific Northwest.
On Tuesday we got out some maps and had a conversation about our location from a global scale down to a regional scale. We officially named our region together as the Pacific Northwest and then used some pictures of animals that we recognized to place them on the map.
Wednesday we revisited the idea of our region and the flora and fauna found in our ecosystem and then focused on the owl. As we discussed owls we realized that we, as scientists, can rely on owls to give us a lot of information about the biodiversity of an ecosystem. It may be difficult to see an owl, but we can find their pellets and through dissections we can better understand some of the other life of the area, which in turn can tell us about the health of the area.
Thursday we will continue our experiments as we discover what we can do to promote biodiversity as well as create our own biomes!

Ateliers Fall 2011!

2011-09-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's already that time... Ateliers are back! That means that your children have been divided into groups that will explore seven different classes or ateliers, each for one week, in the afternoons from 3:30 to 4:15.

This term the offerings are as follows: Science, Art, Baking, Engineering, Cultural Studies, Drama and Sensory Explorations. As before, each Atelier has a teacher selected theme that the kids work within to build their own curriculum as the week unfolds. So, for instance, past themes have been Archaeology (Science), Self-Portrait (Art), Yoga (Movement), etc. etc.

This time around, we've decided to add another layer to our Atelier program with the goal of creating an even more immersive and cohesive learning experience. Its called "The Big Idea." A big idea is an overarching or unifying concept that each teacher can incorporate into their unique ateliers explorations. A big idea must be substantial enough to provide inspiration for teachers looking at it from multiple perspectives (i.e.; science, art, gross motor, literacy etc.) and roomy enough to allow space for children to co-construct their individual learning experiences along teachers and peers. This term, our big idea is: Home in the Pacific Northwest!

Please find a description of each atelier below:

Atelier: Cultural Studies Teacher: Andrew E

Theme: Cultures of the Pacific Northwest

Description:

This atelier will introduce and allow children to explore different cultures around the globe with the goal of increasing their awareness and sensitivity to the wide world around them. This term we will focus on our own region, the Pacific Northwest, and explore past and present cultures and traditions that are not too far from home. Here is how I imagine the week unfolding - We will begin on Monday with questions and research: What does ‘Pacific Northwest’ mean anyway? What does it look like? What makes it unique? On Tuesday, perhaps we will take and imaginary journey to some place or time that caught the children’s interest. We will use the rest of the week to learn about the language, food, clothing and other traditions of a that particular people or place. Then again, we may not – each week will be different so stay tuned to find out how things went on your child’s week.

Atelier: Engineering Teacher: Harry

Theme: Bridges

Description:

Bridges are great and useful! We’ll talk about weight bearing and different kinds of bridge designs. Each week we’ll start with a span that we need to bridge and a weight it needs to hold, do research and build models and then collaborate on a bridge made of cardboard or other materials. As we design and build we’ll hopefully have the chance to discuss the role of bridges in our own lives and in the history of our city and region.

Atelier: Drama Teacher: Andrew B

Theme: Personal Performance

Description:

Children will have the opportunity to create and perform stories with and in front of the group. We will be up on our feet al lot this term creating stories using improvisation games as a method to help children do the “hard work” of making up stories and learning basic story telling fundamentals. The materials and games will be designed to encourage the children to think about place and home across multiple scales including their literal and families, their broader culture and the whole world. We will use stories set in or about the Pacific Northwest our examples of story construction and storytelling tradition.

Atelier: Science Teacher: Lauren

Theme: Biodiversity in the Pacific Northwest

Description: We will investigate the different fauna and flora of our region through research, experiments and observations of our environment beginning broadly and finishing with our own neighborhood.

Atelier: Food and Baking Teacher: Sarah

Theme: Farm to Table

Description: We will begin to explore the concepts of local vs. global and the idea of local and seasonal food. This will be paired with the basics of kitchen safety, building fine motor skills, reading recipes, recognizing measurements an simple cooking math.

Atelier: Art Teacher: Kim

Theme: Landscapes of the Pacific Northwest

Description: This term we will go back to basics a bit and explore the color. We will use tempura paint and a variety of painting implements to explore color mixing, light versus dark shades and texture. For inspiration we will be studying the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest (beaches, mountains, temperate rain forests) and working with the colors that define those landscapes.

Atelier: Sensory Teacher: Jordan

Theme: Exploring the Pacific Northwest with all 5 senses

Description: We will use our five senses to explore the many things that define our home in the Pacific Northwest. Through this exploration we will hopefully develop a greater understanding of and sense of connectedness to our natural resources and environment. We will also explore the biology behind our senses and how we use them to categorize and understand what the world around us is like.

Stay tuned for more...

Baking: Fall, Week 1

2011-09-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

From the farm to the table, week one was an exciting week! We learned about our favorite fruits and vegetables that grow in the Pacific Northwest! After learning about safety and cleanliness in the kitchen, we moved onto some vocab words such as sifter, press, liquid, dry, ingredients and recipe.
Next, we shopped from a local farmers garden (Teacher's Sarah and Beverly's) and then discussed recipe ideas we could make the following days. We ended up making some delicious dough topped with our favorite veggies which we "fake" purchased. Our pizza pockets were delicious and we ended our week enjoying them along with a cucumber salad...as well as making the first letter in our first name into a pretzel for our Fun Friday activity. What a pleasure it is for the older and younger preschoolers to learn alongside one and other. I learn something new everyday! - Sarah

Engineering: Fall Week 1

2011-09-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

Engineering is a new atelier that we're offering this term, and I'm quite excited to see what the kids end up doing with it! Though we'll be doing a bit of research, and no doubt there will be a great deal of discussion that emerges organically from our work, I imagine that the bulk of our time will be spent in hands-on activities. Each term will be focused on a specific kind of construction, and for the fall, we'll be working on bridges. Isaac has brought us a selection of age-appropriate books from the library, as well as a photo book about Portland's bridges, which has helped us to situate our conversations in our day-to-day lives.

On Monday, we began with a brief reading and discussed a few different types of bridges and their relative strength. After that, we decided to do some experimenting of our own: each of the kids was given a pair of blocks that were placed about six inches apart, and then asked to bridge the gap using an eight-inch strip of paper. We then tested the strength of the different bridges by stacking checkers on top of them. We quickly noticed that bridges with the sides folded up or with accordion-style folds underneath were dramatically stronger than a straight piece of paper!

With this in mind, we spent the rest of the week building popsicle stick bridges, with the different pieces being joined together with the hot glue gun (handled by a teacher, but directed by the kids). It was a lot of fun to see the different designs that the kids came up with, and then testing them by seeing how many small books we could stack on top of them. Many of them proved to be surprisingly strong! When they collapsed, we were able to discuss why that happened, and what we could do to make our bridges stronger, and then add more popsicle sticks and try out these new plans. All in all, a pretty fruitful week!

Science: Fall- Week 1

2011-09-23T07:47:00.000-07:00

Our first week of science has been very exciting! The children came in on Wednesday remembering that it was our experiment day. I provided each child with an observation notebook and we discussed how important it is for scientist to compile their data in both notes and sketches. The children were able to practice their literacy skills as they flipped through their observation notebooks from right to left and practice their fine motor skills as they used the pincer grip while they wrote.
Each child also had a specimen cup with an owl pellet in it. At first the children just observed what they saw. James said, "Feathers!" There were tiny little feathers in the pellet, which led to a conversation as to why that might happen. Maybe the owl had eaten another bird or maybe it was from cleaning itself. We practiced using the word hypothesis as we discussed what else we thought we would find.
At first the children were a little trepidatious, but as soon as the first, tiny, bone was found they all began methodically pulling the pellets apart. Will drew a picture of what thought the owl would have looked like in his observation notebook. Finley sorted his bones into lids. Miles reached out to touch the skull of a rodent and whispered, "I touched it!"
When we finished our observations, we had a conversation about why owl pellets are so important: Owls are not always easy to see, it's much easier to find their pellets and that gives us the message that they still exist. On top of that we can make observations through the pellets and better understand what else in the ecosystem, giving us a clue about the biodiversity of the region.
On Thursday we revisited our information and created a web to better visualize, which also gave us the understanding that sometimes the pellets may be a way for seeds to travel and then grow. We also revisited the idea of an ecosystem being huge or as small as a jar. I then got out a jar and we used our hands as puppets to enact a mouse eating seeds, being caught and eaten by an owl, and then 'pellet-ed' out (into the jar biome), where the seeds could grow. We layered our soil and finally covered the contents with a brief understanding of the condensation that should collect and water our seeds.
Friday will be dedicated to the children using paper that they made (which comes from trees, where owls live), and understanding what we can do to help our ecosystems. We will also revisit the steps of Thursday's experiment so that the children have the opportunity to practice their recollection skills and then make their very own biome to take home.

Sensory: Fall, Week 1

2011-09-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

Our first week together in sensory proved to be very stimulating to our bodies and minds. We began by looking over a map to identify where exactly the Pacific Northwest is located. Once we narrowed down the scope we compiled our knowledge of the different types of natural spaces that exist within the region. Forest and ocean were the areas we seemed most connected to. We spent the next bit of time exploring seashells in water, sand, a crab shell and more at one table. The other area consisted of fir needles, pine cones, bark, moss, soil etc. While we dug in with our hands feeling the smooth texture of oyster shells we also listened to the sound of waves crashing against the shore and gulls squawking. Over at the forest table the gentle sound of rain splashing in puddles, owls hooting and rivers rushing filled our ears. During this time friends shared their own stories of visiting that pacific ocean and tasting the saltwater, camping on Mt. Hood and hearing the crackle of a fire burning. The last day we set out into our own neighborhood with journals to document the sights, sounds, smells, touches and tastes that are all around us. We sampled mint and rosemary that smelled like pine cones and tea to several friends. We also stopped to identify several familiar plants and trees.

Science: Fall- Week 1

2011-09-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome to science! I am so excited to spend this term focusing on biodiversity in the Pacific Northwest. The first half of the week was dedicated to a broad understanding of both the temperate forest biomes of our region as well as the food webs that exist from a broad to very focused level.

We began by reading, "Where Would I Be in an Evergreen Tree." This story outlines many of plants and animals found in the forest. The children were excited to take turns pointing out the different flora and fauna that they recognized on each page and notice the interactions between the life: squirrels eat acorns and acorns grow into oak trees! Our conversations became more focused as we began webbing all of the creatures we could remember from both our reading and from our own personal experiences.

We then refocused to understand our area as the Pacific Northwest. Using visuals of world maps and state maps to provide the children with a tangible context of our location, we detailed the words 'biome,' 'ecosystem,' and 'biodiversity,' in their most basic forms. I tried to instill the idea that ecosystems are communities in which these webs (like the one we created exist) and can be as big as the world and as small as our own play yard.

Stay tuned for upcoming experiments: dissecting owl pellets, creating a group biome, and creating individual biomes.

Dynamics: Spring, Week 7

2011-05-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

Joining us this week were Kingston, Lane, Jackson I., Owen, Nate, Sofia S. and Sydney.

Day One: Our first day together was spent reading through our research books and discussing the things we know about the properties of air and flight. We decided to compile a list of things related to this topic that we are already familiar with. On this list were things such as pegasuses and other fictional superheros, helicopters and airplanes and also things that are powered by wind such as sail boats and windmills. The conversation gravitated toward sail boats by the end of the day and we worked together to create a sketch of a simple sail boat and took turns labeling different parts that we were familiar with. We also discussed the way in which the sail uses wind to move through the water.

Day Two: We began by looking over our documented conversation from the previous day. Afterward we decided what materials we would need to build our own sail boats. After we discussed this we decided to take a walk to collect things from the neighborhood such as sticks and leaves that we thought would float.

Day Three: We got right to work as soon as we met. Hot glue was used to connect parts of our boats. Fabric glue attached sails to masts. Cork made sturdy bases to build on. We worked right up to the very last minute finishing the final details on our boats.

Day Four: We filled several large sensory bins with water and went to work testing out our sail boats. We used fans and straws among other items to create wind and move our vessles around in our pools. We found that the boats with plastic bag sails caught the wind very well and moved quickly through the water while the boats with tissue paper sails didn't work out so well once they got wet. The fabric sails worked pretty well if they were attached to a mast with a cross on it.

Day Five: We decided to take out some balloons and blow them up. While trying to inflate them we discussed our lungs and how they work. We looked through an anatomy book to see images of what our lungs look like inside our chest.

Literacy Week 6

2011-05-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

Day 1 - This was not only our friends first time to the literacy games atelier but also my first week working with the group as well. We spent our first day looking into what makes a good story. We decided that characters and action were the most important things,Toy Story 2 came up a lot as our favorite story because Buzz Lightyear was always flying around. From there We touched on what nouns are and how we can spot them within our favorite stories. People, Places and things are very fun to spot. We played a game were we all looked around the room for interesting things, gently place one finger on that thing for 2 seconds then get back to the green carpet to report to the rest of the group what we touched. The loft was a very popular choice! Once the game was finished we read a story through once just to listen then played a game where if anyone heard or saw a noun on from any page of the story they could raise a quiet hand and tell the rest of the group what they heard. Time ran short and we said goodbye by saying our favorite noun, you guessed it, Buzz Lightyear.

Day 2 - We began day two by recapping what nouns are by playing the search game played the previous day. We then talked about how to make those nouns more exciting by describing them using words like big, small, smelly, shiny, fast, slow, tall and short, not to mention a variety of colors. Once we established what adjectives are we then read the same book and listened for the adjectives used by the author to make the story more colorful and in some cases more delicious. When the story was finished we began to talk about favorite foods and how they taste smell and how each food has a different texture and how it feels to chew certain foods.

Day 3 - We continued to look at stories and what makes them interesting and expanded our story telling skills with using verbs. First we came up with all different kinds of action words, running, jumping, swimming and playing were among the favorites. We then put our characters, again Buzz Lightyear, into action by playing a game of charades. Each friend was given the chance to stand up in front of the group and demonstrate what something that Buzz might be doing in the story. Flying was the most popular but some other ideas came to the surface as the game continued; thinking, resting and reading. We again read a story listen for other action words within the books pages. To finish up we started mind mapping stories we could write on our own for the following days.

Day 4 - Upon entering the room the students noticed that something was drawn on the board. They were given a a few moments to think of what it might be. We decided on one thing but were reminded to keep our other ideas in mind for later in the lesson. We then put the picture into action by telling a story about it. After that we handed out paper and crayons so we could create our own characters for our own stories.

Day 5 - We finished up the week by finishing our stories. Everyone was given the chance to show the rest of the class their picture and tell the story they had created. after each story we talked about which nouns, adjectives and verbs were used to make the story more exciting. This took up the greater part of our time so we decided to play a drawing game where they had to guess the picture using as many words as possible i.e. "It's a big running elephant!" "It's a small mouse that is eating red cheese." We said our good byes with a high five and went back to our classrooms.

Dynamics: Spring, Week 6

2011-05-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

Joining us for week six were Finley, Max E., Lucy, Riley, Bryan and Nina.

Day One: We took our research books out to spark the creative thinking process on Monday. Immediately we became interested in airplanes and how they fly. We spend the whole first day just reading and looking at pictures and photographs that we were curious about.

Day Two: There was still a lot of reading that we wanted to do so we spent the second day together looking through more books about airplanes and rockets. We stopped periodically while reading to talk about our own experiences with flying and being at airports.

Day Three: Two of our books had many different paper airplane designs and instructions for folding inside. We took these out and set up stations for paper airplane folding. Everyone worked really hard all day to create many different designs.

Day Four: We headed outside with our prototypes and used sidewalk chalk to draw a long runway down the sidewalk. All of Thursday was spent flying our planes. We talked a lot about what it takes to take off into the air and how pilots land these heavy machines.

Day Five: Outside was calling us again on Friday. We went out one more time after making a few more planes to fly them. This was a pretty windy day and we had an interesting conversation about how the strong gusts of wind changed how our planes fly. We experimented with simply holding the planes and then letting them go to see if the wind could carry them without using our bodies to create and force.

Communication week of 5/9/11

2011-05-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

This week for communication we explored communication through sign language and pictures. By exploring two books about sign language, friends were able to learn some letters in their names, some action words, and various nouns. Some of these were: slide, spin, play, run, dog, cat, mother, father, and cry. After reading the story No English (about two friends who do not speak the same language) we discovered that an extremely effective form of communication is through pictures. This sparked a game of Pictionary with a spin. For each round we thought of a category. These included “What you like to do when it’s hot,” “...rainy,” “...cloudy,” “Ways to get from here to there,” “Ways to be a good friend,” and “Things you can climb.”

Dynamics: Spring, Week 5

2011-05-16T08:33:00.001-07:00

Joining us for week five were Niko H., Solomon F., Olin, Zach, Leo, Vija, Gus C. and Ari.

Day One: As we do every week in dynamics we began our time together with some healthy reading and researching. Our group became quite interested written on the subject of air pollution. We took some of the information that we read about and made a large poster called "air and flight" on which we drew pictures of things we were interested in exploring. On it were hot air balloons, air filter masks, planes, butterflies, rockets, parachutes, fans and more. The part that interested us most was the section about different places around the world that deal with such bad air pollution that they have to wear masks while outside to filter the air they breathe.

Day Two: We started our second day by donning hospital masks and heading outside on a walk. We were interested in seeing what it would be like to have to do this every day. We decided that it was pretty uncomfortable and generally unpleasant to deal with. After deciding that we did not enjoy the masks we thought it would be helpful to make a list of ways to help keep our air clean.

Day Three: We dedicated day three to discussing the ozone layer, recycling as opposed to burning trash, wind power and more. We were fascinated to learn about the ozone layer and its important job that it plays in keeping our planet at a safe temperature for humans to thrive. We also discussed why people throw away so much trash that ends up in landfills or getting burned in large trash incinerators. The toxic gases that this process releases concerned us greatly. We decided that we would each try to tell one person that recycling and reusing items is important to keep our planet safe. This was our attempt at helping reduce the amount of trash that gets burned. We also started talking about ways that wind can produce clean energy. After reading about windmills we decided that this is a very good way to create energy without hurting our earth.

Day Four: Talks of wind power lead into a discussion about sail boats and how wind powers these vessels. While exploring sails and the way they catch the wind we naturally moved into kites because they catch wind in the same fashion. We all wanted to try our hand at kite making so we drew up plans for kites that we would try and make. We also talked about parachutes and decided that we would take ours out on Friday.

Day Five: We scrapped the kite making idea because the weather was so warm that we just couldn't wait to get outside. Zach was kind enough to bring in a puzzle of outer space for us to share. We grabbed it and the parachute and headed out into the sunshine to feel the soft warm breezes. While outside we all sat together on the sidewalk and put together the puzzle. We discussed how there is no oxygen in space and astronauts have to carry tanks of air with them to survive. We also talked about the lack of gravity. While looking at the location of all the planets we tried to guess what the environments of each of the planets might be like in regards to their distance from the sun. Once we finished with the puzzle we took out the parachute for some fun in the breeze. We played with moving it in different directions at varying speeds to see if we could create our own wind. The week ended with our group rolling in the grass giggling in a giant dog pile wrapped up in a parachute.

2011-05-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

Dynamics: Spring, Week 4

2011-05-09T08:26:00.000-07:00

Joining us for week four were Valeen, Jasper, Nico O., Ben, Malia, Claire, Talia and Rafferty.

Day One: We began the week by reading many books about flight and air. After we'd researched a fair amount we set to work creating a large compilation of drawings of things that we were interested in discussing and exploring throughout the week that relate to the topic. Several children in the group were rather curious about butterflies. Malia, Talia and Valeen chose to draw several different kinds of butterflies that they found in books. Nico O. drew a rocket ship and explained to the rest of the group how the rocket boosters made it move in space. We identified this force as thrust. Jasper drew a basketball hoop and a ball. He explained "a ball flies through the air when you throw it into the hoop." We also talked about fans and kites a bit.

Day Two: We started by refreshing our memories about the previous days talks and activities. We were all interested in the basketball hoop idea so we sat down and drew up a plan for creating our own hoop toss game in which we could experiment with different ways of throwing things through the hoop. The group chose a large wooden hoop and we strung it up with yarn at first. This proved too weak to hold the weight of the hoop so the group chose another type of string that they hoped would be stronger to keep it up. Sure enough it worked! We then had a ton of fun throwing things at and through the hoop. Some chose to swing it through the air and spin it as they tossed to make the task more challenging.

Day Three: We explored air pressure with straws. In a science experiment book we came across a section about "air mazes". Large sheets of paper were put out with mazes drawn on them and the group had fun using the straw to blow air and push different objects through the maze. This activity opened up an interesting conversation about how we are able to create air pressure with our lungs.

Day Four: We began our day by reading a Japanese fable about the origin of kites. We spent the remainder of the afternoon drawing out plans for kites that we would construct on Friday. Children were encouraged to think about shapes and materials as they planned out their ideas. Once the drawings were finished we compiled a list of all of the different things we would try and make the kites from. Plastic bags, tissue paper, and sticks among other things were added to the list. We also thought a lot about how we would connect the different parts of the kites together. Tying with string, gluing and taping were all ideas that we came up with.

Day Five: The last day of the week was dedicated to constructing our kites. Once we put them together we headed outside in hopes of finding wind to try flying them. Unfortunately there wasn't much of a breeze for us to work with but we got really creative with other ideas to make them fly. We ran with them and spun in circles with them. We all stood together in a group and tried blowing at the same time to make our own wind. (Which was really really funny to watch) This silly outside time was a fun way to wrap up our week together!

Art/Spring Week 4

2011-05-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

Week 4:

This week was a group of very dynamic, physical, creative kiddos! Our exploration into shape this time around concentrated more on a variety of artistic provocations to drive inquiry about shape. The kids seemed most interested in shape and their contact with it within their natural environment.

The creative process this week utilized lots of books, in particular the artist Andy Goldsworthy, viewing art in nature then breaking the compositions down by their recognizable shapes. Some of the kids explored this by using shapes to recreate the pictures in the books they found most interesting to them or by drawing the nature set up around them. They seemed to really like using different mediums and materials to create to produce fun abstract compositions!

Further in the week, others became interested in how shape is used to create actual structures and how certain shapes can add strength to structures such as triangles in bridges. We read a book about the shapes in space and talked a bit about how shape can affect the form and function of spacecraft. This inspired some of the kids to find materials around the room to manipulate into shapes they thought would create the most efficient spacecraft.

Art/Spring Week 3

2011-05-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

Week 3:

This week we began our exploration of shape by starting with a tub of shape templates, markers and pastels. We talked about the kinds of shapes we see in the natural world vs. those within the man made structures that surround us. This hands on exercise allowed the kids to naturally create patterns and motifs; this helped them understand how to utilize shape as a tool for drawing.

On Tuesday we discussed concepts of line and how lines can help us identify and differentiate between geometric and organic shape. We also talked about the ways shapes can show movement or emotion. This lead to some experimenting with gesture drawing. Each child took a turn to strike a pose and the rest of us practiced drawing movement with quick lines and shape.

Wednesday I brought in a Kaleidoscope. Each child took a turn looking at the patterns and shapes within it. We then drew some of the designs and played around with making our own kaleidoscopes.

Thursday was spent exploring shape with building blocks. Some of the kids were asking about the difference between 2D and 3D shapes. This exploration put more emphasis on “form” referring to objects that have length, width, and depth. Here we also touched on the importance of balance in compositions and structures.

On Friday we talked about the symmetry of shapes and the symmetry in our faces. We decided that creating masks was a great way to explore symmetry further along with color relationships, expression, organic and geometric design.

Communication week of 5/2/11

2011-05-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

Our discussion this week started with the question “How do we understand what others are feeling and saying?” The children had many different answers related to their own daily lives. Myla shared: “Sometimes when a friend hurts you, you ask for space.” Everett said: “You hear them!” Upon reading a book titled No English, we were able to see a friendship form between two children who did not speak the same language. This gave us a chance to see different ways to understand someone. In the story, the friends find a book that helped to translate their languages. The word “translate” was new to all so we learned its meaning and applied this knowledge by translating our own words with a Spanish dictionary. Another way the children in the story communicated with each other was through drawing pictures. We practiced this form by playing a game of Pictionary.
The next form of communication we explored came up when we were talking about our five senses and how people communicate when they lack one. Friends were interested in how people who have lost their hearing or voices communicate. They wanted to try some sign language so we learned some different action words and turned these into a “Simon Says” game. During the game each friend had a block as a prop and would do the signed action with or around it. These were: run, slide, play, spin, wake, sleep and “I love you” (hug). Ask to see if your child remembers any of the sings we learned!

Dynamics: Spring, Week 3

2011-04-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

Joining us for week three were Logan, Stella, Asher, Noah, Solomon R., Sophie Jackson M. and Aviv.

Day One: We spent our first day hitting the books to gather information that we would use to sculpt our week long exploration of air and the properties of flight. We also spent a fair amount of time discussing things that we already knew about the air around us and more specifically how things move through the air.

Day Two: Throughout our second day together we gathered a bunch of materials that we used to experiment with how things move through the air. Balloons, feathers, a large parachute and silks were taken out and played with. We noticed how differently things moved. The parachute "caught" the air while the silks flapped like flags. Feathers moved differently depending on how we used them. When dropped from high up they floated slowly through the ground. When tapped to strings and whipped around they moved much faster.

Day Three: We looked through more books to spark our creative thinking at the start of the day. Several books about airplanes were read aloud and the group decided that we would spend our third day together creating our own paper airplanes. We also decided that a runway would be necessary. To do this the group worked together stretching tape out along the floor to mark where the runway would be. Afterward they went to work making their planes. After finishing them we set out to fly them and land them as near to the runway as possible. We noticed that some of the designs flew straight and fast while others turned in different directions and did flips and such. After discussing how each design was different and each plane flew differently we attempted to decide which parts of the design could be attributed to the different types of movement. After several runs we all concluded that if one wing was turned up while the other stayed down then the plane would hook toward the direction of the down turned wing. A downward turned nose on the plane caused it to do a nose dive.

Day Four: Since the sun was out we decided to take balloons and the parachute outside for some exploration and play! While holding on to the edges of the parachute each child took a turn hiding underneath and shouting out what the wind and air felt like. We took turns flapping the parachute slowly and then more quickly. Several people in the group said that they could feel more wind when we started off at the ground and pulled it up slowly as high as we could reach and then pulled it back down to the ground. We also enjoyed tossing the balloons up into the air and then catching them in the parachute as the wind blew them all around us.

Day Five: We began our day reading a couple science experiment books to see if we could come up with some fun activities to do on our last day together. Inside we found a section about air mazes. I drew out two of them on large sheets of paper and a few children decided to make their own as well. The group was encouraged to choose materials to force air through and push different objects through the mazes. Straws were used as well as larger plastic pipes. We found that by using the smaller straws we could create much more air pressure to move things like paper balls and small pieces of plastic and wood through the mazes. While some children had fun experimenting with these others filled a large bucket with water and soap and used straws to blow bubbles in the soap. Interesting conversations about how and why the air was trapped inside the soap bubbles were had. It was also fun to debate about how to make the most bubbles and the largest bubbles. After lots of play it was decided that blowing slowly and at a steady rate produced large bubbles while fast hard blowing made lots of tiny bubbles more quickly.

Science, Spring week three

2011-04-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

This weeks science crew was Charlie B, Will, Minna, Monica, Grant, Sienna, Miles! This group was unique because half of the students did not want to actually touch our gooey, slimey mixture. This meant that those who did touch it did lots of describing and those who did not did lots of exploring with tools.

Our goal was to make "fluffy mud." We spent day one and two preparing- grating up ivory soap using cheese graters and tearing a whole roll of toilet paper into tiny tiny pieces. This may sound easy, but we discovered it took a lot of patience!(Ripping toilet paper looses its glory after 20 minutes.)

Finally day three came and we added....WATER! We mixed the water with the soap and then left it over night. When we came back it was thick, slimey and definitely a soild. We had a blast squishing it into soap balls, etc. Now it was time for more water and TOILET PAPER! As we squished it around the mixture went from being hard and slipperly to fluffy and frothy. Day four we added color and lots more water as we mixed and watched it once again change texture.

Finally on day five we thought about what we should do with all our soapy water...hmm...

Math Games: Week Three

2011-04-26T17:11:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned in my last couple of posts, we're focusing on traditional card games this term in Math Games, which we've been introducing with Old Maid and Go Fish. Of the two of them, Go Fish has proven quite a bit more popular this week, and by Tuesday, we were able to split up into a couple of smaller, more independent groups to play, which has been very gratifying.

From there, we've tried out a sort of skeletal variation of Poker, and the kids have been surprisingly enthusiastic about it. We've started by discarding all the face cards and aces from a standard deck and giving each kid a small stack of 7-10 chips. From there, I explain that the deck is now made up only of numbered cards, and we talk together to figure out that the smallest possible value is a two, and the largest a ten. I ask everyone to put one of their chips in teh middle of the table, and then I deal each kid a single card, face down, and tell them to take a look at it. After that, we go around the table and I ask each kid if they think the value on their card, without telling us what it is, is the largest value at the table, the "winning" card. If they think so, they toss another chip into the pot, and if not, they hand their card back to me without showing it to anyone. Finally, all the players that are still in turn their cards over, with extra cards being dealt as tiebreakers if need be. It's been an ideal game for larger groups - plenty of bits, short turns with relatively little downtime - and it's been interesting to see the kids mulling over their cards, deciding whether or not to "fold." Definitely something we'll be looking at again in the next few weeks!

Art-Spring week 2

2011-04-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

Inquiry Into Shape: Week 2

This week we started our exploration of shape by reading a few books, engaging in a few picture walks, and ending with a conversation about shape and the shapes that surround us. To my surprise many of the kids were able to easily identify geometric shapes and name the common attributes of each, even those such as hexagons and octagons. We then began playing with simple squiggles and geometric shapes to create all sorts of artwork. The kids’ focus remained mostly on geometric form and patterns. We practiced drawing these shapes while making up our patterns and designs.

Later in the week the children decided to explore shape using tangrams and immediately the shapes began turning into warriors, flowers, rocket ships, and princesses. This exercise was not only good for the imagination but was also great practice for one-to-one correspondence and geometric thinking.

After exploring shape with the tangrams the children began to realize they too could draw these creations on paper. July was interested in learning to draw things in nature and focused on organic and geometric shapes combined. Cody and Anya went on to design buildings, Elinor was interested in using the shapes to draw birds, and Trey was all about using shape to design the perfect super hero.

By Friday we were able to get outside on a rock hunt where we found all sorts of rocks that represented circles, squares, hearts, stars, clouds---you name it!

Dynamics: Spring, Week 2

2011-04-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

Joining us for week two were Charlie B., Monica, Miles, Sienna, Will, Gus C., and Grant.

Day One: We began by looking through many books about air and the properties of flight. Children were encouraged to mark pages that interested them so that we could further discuss the things they were naturally drawn to. Hot air balloons, airplanes and butterflies seemed to capture our interest more so than other topics we touched on. We compiled a list called "things related to air and flight" and posted it up on the wall so that we could come back to it the next day.

Day Two: After looking over our list the children decided they were interested in doing some drawing. They helped put two large sheets of paper on the wall and each selected drawing materials that they wanted to use to create images of their ideas from the list. All sorts of things were drawn. Charlie B. went to work creating a helicopter. Minna and Sienna each chose to make butterflies. Will drew a tall hot air balloon. The rest of the group spent this time doing some drawing and also taking time to research more ideas in the books.

Day Three: We came back to our drawings and added to this by making a new list titled "things related to air and flight explained" in which each child stood in front of the "audience" and explained why they chose to draw each thing and how it pertained to our conversations. After this conversation our interests took us in the direction of rockets and thrust. We read in a science experiment book about balloon rockets. We thought it would be interesting to try our hand at this project. While some children worked on this the rest wanted to make paper airplanes. We set up to stations in the room and went to work. The rocket group chose a wide ribbon, straws, balloons and paper to attach to the balloons for wings. They helped to tie the ribbons to different things creating "tracks" for the straws to slide down after snipping the ends of the balloons off that were attached to them. After finishing the experiment we found that the ribbon we chose was too wide to allow the straws to slide freely. This lead to a discussion about friction which we had touched on during the force atelier last fall.

Day Four: We dedicated this day to outdoor exploration of air. We brought many items out with us to aid in our experimenting. Among the items was a large parachute. We played with moving it in different ways to see how it moved the air in turn. Grant suggested we hook it to the fence to see what would happen. When we let go we found that it flapped in the breeze like a flag. When we held onto the bottom of it it made a "wind cave" that we had tons of fun huddling together inside of and talking about the ways that we could tell the air was all around us.

Day Five: Airplanes and flight was the hot topic on our last day. We looked at several different books about paper airplane designs. After making many planes that were various shapes and sizes we took them to the runway (a landing strip on the floor made of tape) and tried them out. before each toss we talked about how we thought the plane would fly and why and after we altered the shape a little and guessed what the difference in the trajectory would be. We were really excited when we learned that by folding one wing up and the other down the plane would do barrel rolls. This activity was a really exciting way to end our week together!

Math Games: Week Two

2011-04-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

Week two: Valeen, Jasper, Nico O, Ben, Malia, Claire, Talia, Rafferty

In Math Games this week, we continued to try different games utilizing a deck of traditional playing cards. Like last week, we mostly focused on Go Fish and Old Maid, with Old Maid being the clear favorite with this group of kids. We played a mix of games using a traditional deck and games using a more cartoony deck produced expressly for Old Maid, and we also inverted the rules a little, so that the kid holding the Old Maid card once all the other pairs had been matched was the winner, rather than the loser. We talked a lot of about keeping the Old Maid secret if you had it in your hand, but that was a bit of a struggle, both because it was hard to keep the excitement off of one's face and because it wasn't always easy to hold one's cards in a fan that didn't reveal them to the other players. Nevertheless, the kids had a lot of fun trying matching pairs and trying to keep track of the different cards as they moved around the table. Have a good weekend, folks!

Math Games: Week One

2011-04-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

Week one: Solomon R, Aviv, Sofie, Asher, Jackson M, Noah, Stella, Logan

This term in math games, we'll be focusing on traditional playing card games, which we've played from time to time in the past, with a particular emphasis on teaching the kids games that they can later play in independent groups. This week, we started with Old Maid and Go Fish, and spent a couple of days learning to play in a large group (six or seven kids). On Wednesday, we split into two smaller groups of three or four kids, which was fairly successful. Our biggest struggle was with how long it can take to get through a game - what with working to remember rules and searching through our hands for potential matches, we had a couple of games that we weren't able to finish by the end of our atelier time. This was mitigated on subsequent plays by removing two suits from the deck beforehand, and the kids found it much easier to focus when we could wrap a game up within twenty minutes or so.

All in all, we had a really good time. It was really rewarding to see the kids picking up on the rules, reminding each other of things they'd forgotten, etc. They also were quite interested in the different suits, and it was nice to see them working out which ones they should be on the lookout for when making matches - we were matching by color, so there was a lot of, "Wait, you have a five of clubs, right? So you'll be looking for a black five, but what suit will it be?" It was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to taking this stuff forward into subsequent weeks.

Dynamics: Spring, Week 1

2011-04-15T14:42:00.000-07:00

Week one consisted of Max K., Sylive, Vita, Sofia B., Peyton, Everett, Myla and Sofie.

Day One: We researched all sorts of books filled with information about subjects ranging from flight, to air pollution, to wind and kites. I posed the question "how do we know air is there if we cannot see it?" We talked about feeling the wind while outside in stormy weather. This we identified as drag. We also talked about air being trapped inside of things such as balloons.

Day Two: After discussing the idea of air being trapped in things we designed an experiment in which we filled a bucket with water and colored it with a bit of water color paint. We then filled a jar with tissue paper and took turns submerging the jar into the large bucket and taking it back out again. The result was the tissue paper staying dry. This proved to us that the air was in fact inside the jar and was staying in because the water trapped it. Max K. had the idea to tip the jar at an angle and the result was a jar full of water and bubbles of air floating up to the surface. This led to a discussion about displacement. Also, the soaking wet tissue paper became a new mini experiment as well. We set it out on a screen and talked about how the air would affect it!

Day Three: We were all curious about how interesting it was that water was a big part of our talks about air. During this chat we touched on the fact that fish breath oxygen underwater and that in turn there must be air inside the water that we cannot see. We decided to each choose a different size and shape of clear jar and fill each with water. Some children chose to put other materials in with the water. We then let them set over night to see the result the next day. We also checked the drying tissue paper and found that it was still damp.

Day Four: We were amazed to find that tiny bubbles of air had collected on the side of the glass jars. This proved our hypothesis that air is inside of water correct. We checked in on the tissue paper screen to find that it had dried completely and was now even more solid than the original paper had been. We also talked about different types of machines and devices that fly and float and why. Afterwards we set out to make our own flying devices. Glider planes, parachutes and kites were made using wood, paper, plastic bags among other things.

Day Five: We began the day by testing out our flying machines. Most fell straight to the ground and we followed up by talking about the forces that help things fly. Drag, lift and thrust were discussed. Afterward we set up a zip line with straw and balloon rockets to explore the some of these concepts. A large plastic bag also provided a neat look into how parachutes work! What a fun week for all.

Dynamics: Winter, Week 8

2011-04-15T14:27:00.001-07:00

Joining dynamics for the last week of the winter term were Stella, Logan, Olin, Aviv, Elinor, Charlie Tex, Sofia B. and Sylvie.

After discussing the in's and out's of woodworking the group decided that it would be fun to collect their own materials to use throughout the week. We spent some time wandering the neighborhood in search of wood and other tree related materials. Once we gathered our things we had an interesting discussion about the differences between what we had found and the refined wood that was brought in for our use.

Stella spent the week using a mix of small lumber and moss to create a garden.

Others in the group were very interested in taking measurements and drawing out plans for things that they were interested in making or understanding how they went together.

The hammering and screw-driving table was lively with all sorts of exploration. Screw and washer combinations were driven into large rounds of wood to make buttons for command centers and airplane cockpit dashboards.

Communication: week one

2011-04-15T08:32:00.000-07:00

I am excited to share about our first week of the new atelier: communication. We started just by having a discussion of the word communication and what it means. It became apparent that this big word was somewhat new to many friends. Our discussion challenged friends to think about how we communicate without the use of our voice, hearing, hands, or understanding of language. We thought of certain examples such as talking on the phone or writing letters. This gave friends the chance to think about how communication changes when you cannot see someone's face or body.
The next level of interest came with the discussion of language. We read a book called No English from which we were able to see two young girls who do not speak the same language. As they became friends they worked out different ways to communicate such as through drawings, books, and facial expressions.
After the reading of this book, we realized that we had a Spanish/English dictionary very similar to the one in the story. Friends were able to guess the English words by looking at the pictures while I pronounced the spanish (with help from the pronunciation key in the back). It was amazing to hear some of the mnemonic devices to aid in memorizing some of the Spanish words we learned:
Gus: (Spanish for "fish") "El Pez! That sounds like 'pest'!"
Charlie: (Spanish for "ocean") "El mar is kind of like sand bar."

One other interested conversation was based around our voice. When asked the question "Where does our voice come from?" there were many different answers:
Charlie: belly
Will: brain
Minna: brain
Gus C.: belly
Monica: ears

Ask your child if they remember any Spanish words or Sign language that we learned together!

Spring Atelier Announcement

2011-04-14T16:36:00.000-07:00

Welcome to spring term of Ateliers! We are excited to begin a new term and hopeful that soon we will be able take some of our explorations out into the sunshine. I have several exciting modifications to the program to announce, including two new teachers: Daniel Ashford and Athea Erwin. Daniel was featured in the teacher feature I sent out a few weeks ago and Athea’s bio can be found in this attachment just below the atelier theme descriptions.

This term also brings us two new ateliers Literacy Games (teachers Daniel and Sarah) and Communication (teacher Kim). These ateliers, which will replace Baking and Movement respectively, seemed particularly timely as we prepare a third of our community to move on to kindergarten and the other two thirds to welcome two brand new cohorts into preschool in the fall. We are also excited to welcome back the Art atelier under the direction of Athea.

On the logistical side, several ateliers will change locations this term. Science will be in the Art Studio with plenty of room to make messes. Dynamics and Art will share South; Dynamics in the main room and Art at the back tables. Literacy Games, Math Games and Communication will share East classroom leaving West class wide open for storytelling and drama. As always, the weekly assignments and locations will be posted on your classroom bulletin board as well as the school entrance bulletin board each Monday morning.

This document along with weekly updates complete with photos can be found on the Atelier blog. Please check it out!

Theme Descriptions

Atelier: Literary Games Teacher: Daniel

Theme: Figurative Language

Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else, you are using figurative language. This term we will learn about figurative language by exploring the different ways in which we are able to build descriptions (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole etc. ) with aim of developing our abilities to describe our surroundings and each other! We will explore these concepts though games, artwork and especially poetry.

Atelier: Drama Teachers: Andrew, Lauren, and Joel

Theme: Reinterpretation

We will be building on the children’s centers-time dramatic play and long-time interest in telling/acting out existing stories. The catch: We’ll read stories they’ve never heard before, ONCE, and then ask the children to tell the story back to us. We’ll also give the children the freedom to intentionally make changes to the stories, while continuing our lessons about plot, dialogue, and style. We will also be expanding our endeavors in the realm of stage building and set design.

Atelier: Games Teacher: Harry

Theme: Playing Card Games

I’ll be teaching basic elements of playing card games- numbers, suits, etc- and simple games (War, Go Fish, Old Maid) with an eye toward getting the kids to be able to play their own games (w/o teacher facilitation) by the end of the week.

Atelier: Science Teacher: Susan

Theme: Slime, Goo, and Ooze

We’ll be experimenting with states of matter, focusing on hypothesis, data recording, documenting observations, describing experiences, and mixing materials.

Atelier: Communication Teacher: Kim

Theme: Introduction to Communication/Language Ideas

We’ll be doing an exploration of how people communicate through facial expressions, body language, voice, and culture.

Atelier: Art Teacher: Athea

Theme: Visual Thinking; An Inquiry into Organic and Geometric Shapes:

Together we will explore form and shape described as either organic or geometric. Students will learn to differentiate between geometric shapes and organic forms. Geometric shapes will correspond to named regular shapes such as squares, triangles, rectangles, and circles found through architecture and geometric structures. Organic form will be introduced with a deeper look into nature as a way to discover the organic shapes found in the environment that we visually experience everyday. Form and shape will be linked within multiple hands on art exploration.

Atelier: Dynamics Teacher: Jordan

Theme: Air and Flight

This term we will explore the properties of air and the dynamics of flight. Learning about air is an early lesson in physics. The aim of our study will be to expand on the children’s vocabulary and understanding of the world around them as they begin to understand the many ways in which air supports and shapes our daily lives.

Athea Erwin Position: Substitute and Ateliers Teacher

Athea has always worked with youth. She started with a diverse at-risk youth population while working for the Boys and Girls Club of Scottsdale where she stayed for six years. She received a Bachelors of Science in Speech Communication with a minor in Speech and Language disorders from Portland State University and has worked for Reynolds school district as a speech path assistant working closely with autistic youth. She then went on to pursue her Masters in Teaching at Marylhurst University specializing in PreK- 4th Grade. She student taught Kindergarten and 3rd grade at an International Baccalaureate school within the Beaverton School District. On her free time she likes to run the Deschutes River in a wooden drift boat, watch Kung Fu Movies, do yoga, go surfing, and is a huge fan of non-fiction reading.

Dynamics: Winter, Week 7

2011-03-29T22:10:00.001-07:00

Joining us for week seven were Owen, Peyton, Sasha, Jackson I., Ben, Gus C., Bryan and Myla.

A rather interesting concept came about this week that each child took a bit of time exploring. Hinges and moving parts was a fascinating part of our time together. We experimented with many different types of hinges and rotating pieces.

Myla created an elaborate flying machine complete with helicopter blades that were constructed from long pieces of cedar and fastened in the center with a nail that was left sticking out of the wood a fair amount to allow the blades to spin around the axis.

Sasha and Peyton spent a good amount of time on the planning portion of their projects. They worked diligently with paper and pencil to lay out the schematics for various things that they thought about building. They also looked at different pieces of furniture around the school and drew out blue prints for recreating similar pieces on a smaller scale for dolls to use.

Ben and Bryan decided to make dwellings of sorts. They both played around with different methods of door making that would allow the doors to swing back and forth. After eliminating each method that they tried they both decided that a space that stayed permanently open would be the most suitable for their respective designs.

Gus, Jackson and Owen spent the week exploring many different parts of the woodworking process. They became especially interested in the tape measure and worked together to measure and record different lengths of things in the art studio.

Dynamics: Winter, Week 6

2011-03-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

Week six consisted of Sienna, Vija, Solomon R., Lane, Bryan, Niko H., Malia, Aviv and Sylvie. After a quick discussion about what to expect throughout the week and how to stay safe in the woodworking studio we dove into exploring tools and different types of wood that the children put into two categories "natural" and "refined". They each chose a piece of wood from one of the baskets and we then labeled it appropriately and discussed how we thought it had been changed by humans and tools since it was taken from a tree. This connection to the beginning of the life cycle of the wood that was once a small seed proved to be a very interesting one at that. We took a closer look at the difference between coniferous and deciduous trees and the ways that they reproduce. Later in the week the kids split off into different areas of the room to work on different activities that interested them. Solomon R. decided to continue adding to some of the drama props that the previous week had started to make. The rest of the group was content pounding nails and forcing screws into wood. Many different techniques were tried and discussed. Everyone was very interested in finding out the most effective way of driving a nail into wood. It was decided after a day of experimentation that having someone else hold the nail at the base while the hammer wielder held the handle of the tool with two hands and hit the nail firmly on the head while looking at it. This idea of the eyes connecting to the hands in helping the children hit their intended mark was fun to discuss. On Friday we brought all of the things we had made for the play into South and a dynamics representative stood in front of the audience and explained what we made and how we put it together. A giant round of applause left us feeling quite accomplished!

Dynamics: Winter, Week 5

2011-03-29T18:10:00.001-07:00

Our group this week consisted of Ari, Sydney, Asher, Jackson I., Lucy, Everett and Nico O. We began as usual. While sitting together we discussed the question "What is Woodworking?" Children gave all sorts of answers and asked many questions. "What tools will we use?" and "what happens to the wood in between being a tree and becoming a piece of furniture?" Another important question that we spent quite a bit of time brainstorming was "how will we keep ourselves and each other safe?" After creating a helpful poster of all of our thoughts and ideas complete with images of different materials and tools that we thought we may use we set out to explore and create. The entire group was keen on the idea of building different types of structures and vehicles. Plans were drawn and models were built to get an idea of how the different things would eventually come together. Several days were devoted to the planning part of the process. On Thursday we had an exciting idea come up. It was suggested that we visit the drama atelier and see if they were interested in our help with building props for the play. Naturally they were really excited about the idea so we set out to gather some ideas. After meeting with drama we were able to put together a list of things that they thought they could use for the production. Among these ideas we pulled two that seemed possible to create. The last two days were spent collectively working to build the front bumper of a car and an electricity sword. The crossover was such a fun thing for the kids to experience and will definitely be something we visit again in coming weeks.