Dear Studio Red,
This week we continued our play with and investigations of stories, patterns, flags, books, and weaving! We will be away from Studio Red for a little while to help keep one another healthy. This was unexpected! To help us connect we thought we might share some stories from our time at home. Here are some ideas about how you might continue our Studio Red research at home:
– Draw a true story from your day or save a memory of something you create.
– If you see a flag in a book, in your home, or through the car window, take a photograph.
– Do you want to continue weaving? Follow these STEPS to make your own plate loom.
– What building materials do you have at home? Use blocks, legos or objects you find outside to build a story.
We invite you to send photographs of your work to our email, redteachers@lincolnnurseryschool.org, so that we can create a newsletter to share all your ideas with one another.
Love, Lauri and Emily
ZOOMING INTO OUR WEEK
INDOOR EXPLORE
What can we discover when we weave with a larger circular loom?
When we reflected all together on our paper plate weavings, the children began to imagine what would happen if the weaving went on and on, past the perimeter of the paper plate. This inspired us to introduce the group to another loom in an effort to extend their thinking about number, size, pattern and growth.
What do we notice when we look at Peter Hutchinson's collage?
“It could be a dog that roamed away. He got out of the house. He got out of the house on accident.” Charlie N.
“The tarantula thing (chair lift), the owner is there. And the dog’s collar fell off.” Luca
“Or the owner is taking a picture, or it’s the artist’s dog.” Travers
What other stories might we uncover?
While we look at the work of Peter Hutchinson, Emily encourages us to slow down and really look closely. Our findings confuse us and give us reason to pause. We imagine and create a narrative together.
What do you see?
mountains.
flowers.
water.
a dog. that must be a wild dog.
snow. snow blowing off the mountains.
it’s all kinds of pictures and they put it all together!
like a puzzle.
How do we envision flags for our group ball game?
When a group in Studio Red was playing the ball game outside, Jackson envisioned an idea. He was the referee and he used a branch like a flag, waving it to make the game stop when someone was hurt. Later, Will found another branch with no needles and waved it to make the game begin again.
Back in the studio we invited a small group to think more about this idea.
How can we create flags to help play the ball game?
The group met twice. During the first meeting they focused on representing their own ideas, drawing flag designs in their sketchbooks. During the second meeting, they were tasked with putting their ideas together to create one stop flag and one go flag to use during the game.
“I thought about that. A go flag and a stop flag.” Jackson
“There’s a go and there’s a stop for when someone is hurt.” Luca
“The stop is for hurt and the go is for fine,” Kieran put the ideas all together.
“What if it’s nothing and they’re just crying because their pants got ripped?” Luca wondered. “If the stop flag would be for somebody’s hurt and the go flag would be for if they fall down like this and nothing happens.”
They share their ideas and look for what is the same and what is different. How can they agree on two final designs?
Kieran, Luca and Jackson share back their small group work during our gathering.
"All the stop flags have red!" Luca
The group agrees to create a red stop flag and notices they each have drawn an X or plus symbol on their separate designs. Together they draw the red.
OUTDOOR EXPLORE
Did you visit Ian and Louis' bakery?
Beginning as a house, the name of the building changed throughout the play. Ian and Louis worked together to build a structure and a nearby cannon to create and shoot out the cotton candy.
STORIES
Caroline told a true story this week. She looked to her summer book and sketchbook to help find a story idea.
What happened as Caroline drove to her Grandma's house?
books we read aloud during rest
In small groups of four we read aloud this children’s book written by a transgender girl named Jazz. In this book, she tells the story of how she transitioned to become a girl, to become herself. In an effort to avoid reinforcing gender stereotypes, we did rephrase some of the book’s language and reflected with the children as we read. We wanted to extend conversations about gender in Studio Red without reasserting the false dichotomy between boys and girls interests and favored clothes and colors. We look forward to reading all together to generate more conversation as a whole group.
THINKING WITH A LINE
What is a pattern?
