Studio Red: daily do & draw 5/25

Dear Studio Red,

On Friday we left a special gift at each of your homes.  The gift is a box tied up with string.  It is a gift and it is an invitation.  It is an invitation to help us build something beautiful together as a whole school.  It has a little note on top that tells you to wait until Monday to peek inside.  Today is Monday!  

 

Inside the box you will find everything you need to participate in our project.  For this project we will be playing with rocks!  We will all be creating something special with rocks.  But of course, rocks can be played with in so many ways!  This week, we invite you to explore rocks in other ways too!  We bet you already know so many ways to have fun with them and will probably discover more!

We invite you to first explore what is on the outside and inside of your box. Then return here to find more ideas for rock play as well as some ideas and photographs about our project!

Love, Lauri and Emily

do & draw

DO

Which rock strikes you?

We invite you to go on a search for a special rock.  Rocks can be of so many colors, textures, sizes and shapes.  We can be drawn to explore them for so many different reasons—to hold, to toss, to sort, to climb, to slide, to do oh-so-many things!  Visit Kjerstin and Karen’s invitation to go on a Rock Walk!  Together in our gathering, we read, If You Find a Rock, by Peggy Christian.  Read it again with Karen below!

We read this story because it is all about different kinds of rocks and, for our project, we are going to be thinking about one kind of rock together, a hope rock.  What is a hope rock?  What does the word hope mean?  How might a rock be a symbol for hope?

Hope is believing that something good may happen.
hope is a feeling of trust.

When we think of hope we think about imagination.  These two words go together. To have hope is to imagine that the world can be different, to imagine something good might happen.  Why do you think so many people are thinking about hope right now?  Is there something happening now that you imagine being different?  Is there something happening right now you hope will change?

Where might you nestle your hope stone?
Previous slide
Next slide

A special rock you find outside may become a hope rock, or you may choose to create hope rocks with the three stones that Kjerstin has collected for you and your family.  Each hope stone will be unique.  Kjerstin chose these rocks because they felt nice in her hand.  You may find others that feel special to you.  Then you will decide what your symbol will be.  Some stones may be left alone just as they are, holding hope.  Others may have friends found in nature by their sides, wrapped together as one.  

What might a rock encounter in the world?
In the woods or on the beach? 
In a meadow or on your driveway?

Once your hope stones are ready, they will live in your home for awhile.  Then, in a couple of weeks, we will begin to visit deCordova to give our stones to a special place.  Have you visited the old stone foundation you see in the photos above?  This is a place just behind the Two Big Black Hearts.  Long ago it was the foundation of a building, then it was a place where a sculpture made of newspaper lived.  Now it will be the site of our creation that we are calling Spaces For Hope.  This will be where all our hope stones come together to create a special place for all our hopes.  Visitors will be able to pass through and add new hope rocks to our collection.  This will be a space to help everyone feel hope together.

A note for parents:

There is no one way to engage in this project.  Assume the stance of a researcher.  What might you discover as you play with rocks?  What might you discover about rocks, about nature, about hope, about each other in this process?  What does hope mean to you?  How is your child making sense of hope?  How is your child finding hope in this moment, whether they know it or not?  What questions are you generating as you play in response to this provocation?

DRAW

How can a rock help us imagine?

Rocks can help us imagine in so many ways.  Here we invite you to research another way we can transform them into something different with a paper and pencil!