Building Up to the End

5/30/2025

In (and outside of) the Studio with Nina

This week we’ve been glazing our ceramic flyers! Adding color and shine to our ceramics, while being very gentle with our work, is an important and exciting step in the ceramics process. We revisited the photo resources we used when children first chose their "flyers" and made artistic choices about how realistic the flyers should be- if they should match the photos or be a little more abstract. This work is going into the kiln this week and next for its final high heat “bake” and then it will be ready to hang or display at home! We're all very excited to see how they turn out!

Alongside finishing our ceramic projects, we’ve been doing lots of just-for-fun art projects as we finish out our studio year. From scraper paintings to zines, collage and beading, we’ve been enjoying creative studio choice times together. The Carriage House helped Nina brainstorm and created a long list of possible projects to work on as we finish out the year, so we'll be making our way through several of those options in the next couple weeks.

One of our favorite experiments has been creating with tempera paint and our new scraper tools- putting blobs of paint all over our paper and squeegee-ing the paint to create an abstract (or sometimes not so abstract) masterpiece. This process has been fun and experimental. Making process-based abstract art can lead to surprising results, sometimes exciting and sometimes disappointing, but practicing this kind of creating just gives us more chances to grow that experimental muscle and figure out what kind of art making we love and want to do more of!

Back in the Stacks with Siobhan

Libraries Are for Everyone

As a way to wrap up our discussions about equity and inclusion in our library space this year, the kids were introduced to the Libraries Are for Everyone posters created by librarian and graphic designer Rebecca McCorkindale. Using the media decoding techniques we've worked on all year, we started by looking at the library street sign, which was the inspiration for McCorkindale's work.

Then we examined several of the Libraries Are for Everyone posters, taking note of what we saw on them and how we might interpret the images. We asked what "libraries are for everyone" could mean. We asked what it means for the people on the signs to be holding different things. We talked about how the slogan on the posters relates to the work they've been doing this year to make our Authors and Illustrators section more inclusive.

Then the kids were given a blank library patron outline and invited to create their own person, holding whatever they chose. They could choose to represent themselves, someone in their community, or someone from a community that they wanted to amplify. See below for just a small sampling of their amazing and delightful work.

We'll be continuing discussions around these topics next year and finding a way to make their custom library patron signs into a display. Look for a book drive in the fall that will help us get some of their book choices for the Authors and Illustrators section in the library!

Notes from the Field with evan

If You Build It

We talk about how our approach to learning centers around play. When we use the that word we are thinking broadly about the concept of play. You can play with ideas, words, materials. At its core play is describing a way of interacting with your world that is spontaneous, inquisitive and joyful. Building and tinkering are a perfect example of how play can be combined with purpose to help children explore ideas, create worlds and exert control over their learning.

Building a Foundation

Few objects are more directly linked to early childhood education than wooden blocks. They appear on corporate logos and signs as a way to communicate the way young children learn. Blocks are the perfect toy to help children construct vast and elaborate worlds embellished by their imaginations. Their design is beautiful in its simplicity. Their uniformity makes their applications boundless. And their scale is perfect for illustrating mathematical relationships between fractions. This is the kind of integrated learning that we love. Its complex, nuanced, multifaceted and fully available to each child to explore in their own way. Children don't need grown-ups to tell them how to play with blocks. When confronted with a bin of naturally colored wooden shapes they know what to do. And we know how this play is helping them build language skills, cooperate with peers, interact with mathematical concepts foster creativity and build resilience.

Sailing Away

One of our final Randolph traditons the children participate in each year is our Boat Regatta. Fresh off the soaring success of rocket launch, the children are eager to continue to continue applying their engineering and building skils. This year, evan has opened up a pop-up shipyard full of wood, metal hardware and loose parts. While glue was sufficient to construct our airborn vessels, we must shift to sturdier methods for our boats. The children have all had access to drills, hammer, nails, screws and saws to complete their unique boat designs. By this point in the year we have had the opportunity to practice using a variety of tools and the chidlren are ready to take on more independence as they work with focused determination to safely construct their designs. The confidence and pride that beams from the face of a child that has completed a 'grown-up' task on their own is priceless and more importantly communicates to that child that we trust them and they are capable and skillful.

Musical Storytelling with Michael

"Bust my buttons!"

"Dagnabit"

"Hot diggety dog!"

Yes. Fiddlesticks.

The drum's made their way back to the sunny outside. They had been lollygaging for too long upstairs, and certainly needed some love. When you find yourself in front of a rhythmically complex instrument such as a drum, one needs some guidance. A map. A cartographer of sorts. Well... the words above can be one's guide out (or into) the woods.

The drum is tonally unsophisticated. It has but few things it can do. So one needs to explore the surface of the instrument with the hands. Placement and touch are very important, as repetition can make tiny fingers tired quickly. If i took a word such as, 'will-o'-the wisp" and break it down into four parts say:

Will=hand in center of drum

O=side of drum head

The= both hands in the middle

Wisp= fingers moving like raindrops

Then you have a way to move both hands alternately and involve the fingers as well.

Its the mechanics of playing this particular instrument, learning a word or expression that is fun to say (and pepper your language with) and learn complex rhythmic structures fairly quickly.

With the Ducklings, we simply explored the surface of the instrument accompanied by songs and movement. It is very natural at that age. For the Downstairs, Upstairs Neighborhood and Carriage House friends, we were able to take two words that they picked from a list, and put them together. We then circle up and teach all present our patterns and words with a call and response. It is great fun! Don't be surprised if someone calls you out as one of the Katzenjammer kids!

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