Newsletter, Feb. 3-6

Dear Studio Blue,
We had a great week together! You found new ways to work with materials, you noticed each other's creations and found ways to play together in the Studio and outside in the Park!

A Broken Pipe

Ferdinand, when you came to school on Monday, you told us that there was a broken pipe in your home that needed to be fixed. You looked under the sink in the bathroom and noticed a pipe there. You said There’s a broken pipe here and we need to fix it. There's a little crack here.

Arlo, you wanted to investigate the broken pipe, too. You started making tools to fix it. You and Ferdinand were together in the bathroom, talking about your tools. Here's what you both said.
Arlo: It fixed the pipes. You know what this tool is? It’s a cutter. It cuts something. It cuts tools and stuff.
Ferdinand: My tool is to cut the lights down and to unhook the lights to see what’s inside. This is a drill.
Arlo: Mine is a wind blower.
Ferdinand: And mine goes through cracks. Because look, there’s a crack here.
Arlo: This is a dangerous tool, cause it cuts like a scissor.
Dax and William were interested, too, and they came in to make and use tools. William said, My mom has one that can even cut wood. It can even cut bones. Arlo asked, Who’s William’s mama? and William answered: Catherine. You all talked more about the pipe: Arlo said, It’s a new pipe. William liked this idea: We’re putting in a new pipe. Arlo said, I have one more big dangerous one. (I guess that was another dangerous tool, like the one that cuts like a scissor.) Ferdinand, you got your clipboard, and you explained why: I need to write the things down that I use. William, you got a basket because your saw was big and you wanted to make sure it didn’t break. You said, This is what I put my saw in. I’ve got my saw, all fixed up! Ferdinand, you went over to Kairan, who was working on a tool at the table. You reminded him, Don’t forget your equipment! Arlo wondered, You make a wrench?
William, you got under the sink and started working on it: A leaking water pipe right now. A leaking water pipe saw. Leaking water pipe won’t leak anymore. You held up a big tool and said, I don’t need my big saw. This is a ax and a saw. It saws and axes. Will, you came in with some bristle blocks and said, Hey, I need more. This is all I got. When you went over to the bristle block table to look for more, Kairan told you what he was doing: We are making a tool, cause there is a broken pipe, so don’t go in there. Will, you explained to Kairan, I’m painting, and you went back in the bathroom and found more bristle blocks so you could make a paint brush. While you were painting in the bathroom Joe came in. Joe, you found a tool for painting. You brushed the wall with it, saying, I’m painting wall. Then Will, you worked on the crack in the pipe and said, I’m disappearing the crack because it’s too tight and I don’t like it. You and Ferdinand also found a hole in the bottom of the sink and pointed your flashlights into it. You wondered about it.

Arlo, a few days later, you were looking through the tool book when you got an idea. You got your clipboard and brought it over. You looked very carefully at the picture of the wrench. Then you drew the wrench – it’s just the right shape!

More Tools!

So many tools are being created and used in Studio Blue. We brought out new tool sets for you to try out and explore.

Who's Hiding Inside?

William: This is me! 

Augie: Two eyes . . . a nose . . . and a mouth.

Drawing, Building, Creating

A Hawk!

Arlo, you put some Tinker Toys together and then held your creation out to the side as you moved it around and around above you.

A hawk! Flying!

Games keep popping up!

Alice and Arlo saw the table with the dots and it made you think of a game (sorry we don’t have a picture of this). When Vivian and Jemima were there, it started as a game of putting paper circles on the dots, then it turned into a sorting game, putting the perfect circles in one bowl and the ones that were broken in another bowl.

Augie, you've been thinking about games. When you were working at the duplo wall, you said, I’m making a game. (Then you made it into a house for your bird: It’s a house. He came back to his mama.) Vivian was building next to him and you said: She’s making a game.

In a game you agree to take turns. We have a kind of game on the sliding rock, where we get in line and take turns getting up on it, and then sometimes we have a game of holding hands and sliding down together. Here, Vivian and Cassie have an agreement to slide down on their bellies, and Llewyn likes this game and is trying it, too; Kairan, Ferdinand and Alice’s game is to hold hands. William has his own game, of sliding down a new place on the rock.

And here is a game of how to cross the bench that Camden, Augie, Alice and Will played.

What games do you play at home?

Fondly,
Mark and Diane