Dear Studio Blue,
We made musical instruments of all kinds this week! In the photo above, some of us were airplanes (see the music blog for more about this). We found different ways of smashing pinecones, thought about games, built structures with animals and more!
Music Festival!
On Monday, a lot of us had a spontaneous music festival. Many of you created instruments out of bristle blocks. We saw flutes, trumpets, tubas, trombones, and more. It went on all morning! Even signs were made and put up announcing the festival. We played Hakuna Matata, Jingle Bells, Old MacDonald and I've Been Working On the Railroad. Kairan, you composed your own song.
The day after making instruments out of bristle blocks, Mark showed us how to make an instrument out of a block and a rubber band at meeting. It's tricky! We helped each other out, and we all learned how to make them. Then we strummed along to You Gotta Sing When the Spirit Says Sing (and You Gotta Strum When the Spirit Says Strum).
The next day, Dax, you made an instrument with so many strings!
Pine Cones
Last week, Arlo, you brought in a pine cone that you and Jude had found out in nature. Jemima, you liked this idea and brought in pinecones and something prickly, too. We passed them around at meeting. The next day, some of the pinecones had changed. Arlo, you called yours spiky.
Then, Dax, you tried hitting two pinecones against each other to see if they would break up. We thought everyone would like trying that, too. We put out big tubs with pinecones in them. It takes a lot of work to break apart pinecones! Alice, you found that when you twisted them against each other that worked better. At a meeting we also found that you could use one pinecone as a "saw" or "knife" to cut another in two. We also used blocks like hammers to smash the pinecones.
Games
We’re thinking more about games. Maybe this table has a game on it. Sometimes we can put paper dots on the path. Sometimes the animals help move the paper dots onto different spots.
Kapla Blocks and Playdough
Many of you used Kapla blocks to make a wall or an edge. Like this . . .
Just like we thought about using a pinecone for a knife, we can also use Kapla blocks as a knife. Llewyn, you used a block to cut pizza. Jemima, you discovered that you can squish playdough flat by putting it under a board and pushing on the board (Cassie calls this cardboard). Lots of other children saw you doing this and tried it, too.
