Dear Studio Red,
This week went into the museum with Sarah. Share one memory of the visit with your family! Also, don’t forget to share your texture book! What story will the textures inspire? Maybe a family member will create a new story!
Love, Lauri and Emily
OUR WEEK IN PARTS
INDOOR EXPLORE
Have you created a mandala?
What were your steps?
Inspired by the designs emerging from the drawing table, we introduced the children to mandalas. We have not yet defined this word. Rather, their images have been a provocation. The children have been tracing them, extending them with line and shape, and adding color. They have been figuring out mandalas with loose parts too! We look forward to reflecting on what they are figuring out.
"What is a mandala?" -Travers
How do plants inspire story?
Children have been inspired to incorporate our potted plants into their stories. This week Luca and Travers created a collaborative story setting and heard many compliments from others!
What problems did we solve in this new space?
What project did a small group envision with the chains and hooks?
How did you attach a spine to your texture book?
BOOKS
This week we read books to explore various ideas. We read The Carrot Seed, a book that children can joyfully retell. We read The Tiger Who Would Be King, a book exploring themes of control and fighting. We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, a classic book exploring rhyme, rhythm and letters big and small. We read Infinity and Me, a book exploring infinity and ways of imagining this captivating concept.
We read one of our favorites, When Sophie Gets Angry, Really Really Angry. This book offers such expressive and captivating images to convey anger. Before reading, we reflected on some of the ways we have seen children respond to their big feelings in the classroom and find comfort in these moments of upset. We see them go to the library to look at books or hide in the pillows. We see them draw or paint. Many then began to share what they do when they are visited by a big feeling.
In your child’s sketchbook we created a page to inspire further reflection. We invite you to share this page with them and offer some tools for drawing. We plan to provide a time for them to revisit this work in the classroom or engage for the first time if they do not have a chance to do it at home over the weekend. We haven’t done this before so it is an experiment!
What do you do when your feelings grow big?
Draw how you find comfort.
OUTDOOR EXPLORE
overheard outside during dramatic play . . .
“The best kind of power doesn’t come from power,
it comes from the heart.”
Kaya
REFLECTION MEETING
Numbers are a hot topic in Studio Red. We hear children talking about numbers big and small. We hear talk about googolplex, infinity and zero. This week after reading Infinity and Me, we invited the children to reflect.
How do you imagine infinity?
So infinity never stops, it just keeps going like numbers. Thomas
I think infinity goes on and on like a circle. Ruth
Actually infinity is the highest number. Actually, infinity is the world. The entire planet. It’s big as the earth and everything on it. Thomas
A googolplex is the highest number in the world. Ian
What’s the highest number? I didn’t hear you. Caroline
Googolplex. Ian
Infinity is big as the universe. And a billion is just one more. Jackson
The world is basically the planet. Infinity is not a number. It keeps going, so it’s not a number. Case
Infinity goes on and on. Charlie Nicholson
I agree with Case cuz infinity is not a number it just goes on and on forever. Caroline
Numbers never stop. Thomas
It’s the highest thing in the world. Louis
I can count to a thousand. Jackson
We facilitated a conversation about group games outside and the use of jerseys in the play. We wondered, "Why do you think we asked you not to wear the jerseys?"
We wondered, "What agreement can we make all together?"
Some excerpts from the conversation…
Because they’re short sleeves. Ruth
Because some people were feeling left out. Charlie Schubert
What’s a jersey? Child
Case was wearing his jersey underneath his clothing. We asked him to show us his jersey so we could all understand.
That’s the back and this is the front. Case
Charlie just said something about a jersey making people feel left out. How can a jersey make people feel left out? Lauri
Because other people don’t have jerseys. Miles
Actually my mom said they feel left out of the football game because they wanted to play. Charlie Schubert
You can join the football team even if you don’t have a jersey under your jacket or under your sweatshirt to play football outside. You just have to ask to play football. Case
But how do we still play football. Kaya
You just ask to play football. Case
But we don’t have a football though. Kaya
You don’t have to have a real one. Case
This is how it started, Case and I were playing football with a plastic ball, remember Case? Charlie Schubert
Yeah, yeah, we were playing with a plastic ball. Case
I was a yellow one. Kaya
And then Nancy said we couldn’t play with that and then we got a ball and that’s how the football started. Charlie
And what are the rules of this football game? Lauri
Well we were not coaches when we were playing that game. We were just playing. Later on, I decided to be a coach and then I was a coach. Then later on, we started football and I was the coach and then that’s how it started. Case
And then I was the second- I was the first football player. Jackson
I was the second, Charlie was the third. Miles
Then I joined, then Miles joined. Jackson
Many talk about who joined in what order.
Kaya was the last one to join. Travers
No, Thomas was the last one. Who knows who was the last one. Kaya
It sounds like some people have joined the football game. But it also sounds like some people have not joined the football game. Lauri
That’s because they didn’t want to play. Case
Oh, should we ask them? Emily
Me Neither. Travers
So you played, you played…1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8. Case counts the people who have played.
Can we hear from some people who haven’t played? Lauri
I didn’t play. Travers
Did you want to play? Emily
Yeah, you played two games. Case
The girls did not play. Ian
No, Caroline only played one game, right? Charlie Schubert
I didn’t. Charlie Nicholson
I notice we started talking about who is playing and who isn’t playing. I wonder if we finished talking about the jerseys. There was another piece of that that was also about color. I had heard children saying that to be a coach you had to wear blue and you couldn’t be a coach if were wearing another color. Emily
Actually when I watch football I see coaches sometimes wearing blue, sometimes yellow. Sometimes I see them wearing, after some holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas and other different holidays sometimes, they’re wearing sweatshirts if it’s not raining. Case
And my dad’s a coach and he wears gray. Katie
And my daddy is a coach and you know, an electric green shirt. My sister is learning how to play soccer and my dad is the coach. Kieran
My dad is the soccer coach and he wears…gray. Charlie Nicholson
I wonder if there’s meaning to these colors. Lauri
So what does it mean that I come to school and I happen to be wearing gray. If I am wearing a certain color, does that mean I can’t play? Case I know you have had a lot of turns to talk. I wonder if we hear from some other voices. Emily
Yeah, that actually means, yeah, it does cuz there are different colors of teams and some of them are not wearing those colors. Kaya
When I’m watching…sometimes I see coaches wearing red. Miles
Yeah, sometimes coaches wear red. Lauri
I see sometimes coaches always wearing green and dark colors. Travers
We are noticing that people wear different colors and then wondering what do we do when we are children in studio Red and we know we come to school in a lot of different colors. What does that mean for how we play? Emily
A lot of different colors…I guess I can…I don’t know. Case
It’s a hard question to answer. When we come to school wearing a color. Does it mean we can’t play the game if we aren’t wearing the same color everyone else is wearing? Lauri
Sometimes it doesn’t matter. Case
. . .
I have seen children playing games and solving this problem. The other day some children were pretending to be polar bears and no one was wearing white. Emily
You can imagine you have the things that you wanna be. You can imagine you have them. Caroline
You can imagine whatever you want to imagine. Ruth
I mean you imagine what they look like. You imagine what they look like. If you have something, you imagine what it is. You don’t imagine something that is on you, you imagine what it looks like. Caroline
I’ve only seen girls playing soccer. Charlie Schubert
Maybe there can be a girl team and a boy team. Thomas
My sister plays football and she’s not a boy. Charlie Nicholson
My brother Liam played football with a broken arm. Travers
I used to play soccer and boys were in mine. Katie
See Ruth can play football. They can play football if they want. Caroline
I used to see a girl that I don’t even know on a football team. Katie
I’ve never heard a coach say girls cannot play football. Or a ref. Case
We revisited this conversation the following day to clarify our new agreement. We proposed Caroline's idea. Everyone agreed, but Charlie Schubert shared a concern: "We won't have enough players." Miles explained, "Because everyone will want to be a coach."
And so we proposed that we experiment with this new agreement, keeping in mind Charlie’s question: “How can we imagine our characters and clothing and still have enough players?”
GREETINGS & GAMES
Many children seem to naturally seek running in circles and spinning after transitioning from clean-up and rest. We have been exploring these movements through freeze dance this week!
STORY WORKSHOP
What does it feel like to sit in the author's chair?
Taking the author’s chair to tell a true story can be a challenge. This week, three children practiced taking the first step. They each took a turn sitting in the chair. We are practicing making ourselves a little uncomfortable when we are learning something new. Way to go, Charlie Nicholson, Will, Ian, and Charlie Schubert!
THINKING WITH A LINE
We messed about with a new tool. We messed about with a curved line!
