We’ve spent this week getting to know each other and getting (re)acquainted with the studio! We’ve taken some time to check in on how we’re all feeling at the start of this new school year, using our new “Scale of Pets” (see photo below!). At the start of each studio session, I’ll ask how everyone is feeling, on a scale of Grumpy Cat to Happy Corgi, giving us a fun and silly way to gauge how everyone’s feeling as we start our creative work.

We’re starting off our studio work with making and personalizing our own studio sketchbooks. These sketchbooks will live in the studio all year long, and will be the spot where we’ll sketch ideas for projects, do funny drawing warmups, and doodle while we’re listening to a story. 

The Downstairs used markers, bingo daubers, and paint sticks to add bright color and their names to their sketchbooks. We talked about what letters we have in our names and had a mix of children who were ready to write theirs and who needed help. Each Downstairs child has a photo of themselves on their sketchbooks so they can recognize their book even if they’re not yet recognizing their letters. 

In the Upstairs Neighborhood and Carriage House, personalizing our sketchbooks included using an optional sketchbook decoder, so we could include hidden facts about ourselves right on the cover, everything from “I have a brother” to “I love pizza” using different symbols and colors. 

The story of soil prepared and seeds planted last June for fall harvest and the story of our whole community working together to create a Stone Soup celebration this coming November are threads that join together and become intertwined in the first weeks of September, as students return to Randolph to kick off another year of living and learning. In these first weeks of school we went straight into the garden to see how our Three Sisters (corn, beans, squash) fared over the summer and begin collecting and preserving the yield for Harvest Feast.

Using our skills of close observation and observational drawing, we became scientific detectives looking for clues and hypothesizing as to why Sister Squash was conspicuously absent from the garden, identifying the large amount of rabbit scat as a likely indicator. We then ventured to the back field to wonder at the much more surprising mystery of how Sister Squash somehow traveled all the way to the Rumpus Structure and spent all summer climbing and thriving without any help from us. These familiar and unexpected stories link us to the natural cycles in which our school is embedded from the moment we set foot on the grounds and we look forward to another year of linking together as we investigate and celebrate the ecological wonders around us. 

Hello Randolph Grownups! The ‘B’ in BEAM Team stands for Books, which is what I spend my days thinking about, organizing, categorizing, and reading with children. There are so many ways we are inspired by books and inspired to read here at Randolph. We look at books, listen to books, study books, learn from books, talk about books, and make our own books! My most important job is to help each of your kiddos find delight, pleasure, and joy in reading. Throughout the course of the year, we will explore all different genres of books, various reading materials, different ways to enjoy books together, all types of reading formats, and all different ways of engaging with books. The goal is to help your child figure out what and how they like to read. 

My other important job is to help your children start to think critically about the digital world and the media-saturated environment in which we all live. Since we are a mostly analog school that uses technology sparingly, I try to help our students start to decode any type of media that they encounter, whether that is a book cover or a magazine article. If we all become more savvy at decoding any kind of media we encounter, we become more discerning users of technology and online media. 

Im very excited to be returning to Randolph this year, focusing on Rhythm and all of the ways it informs our understanding of music and movement. Rhythm is so fundamental to music, that highlighting it allows me to dig deeply into why it is so essential, and how without that foundation sound could feel anchorless. There are rhythms and poly-rhythms everywhere; from the songs we know,our natural environment, as well as the buildings we live in and the clothes we wear.

This (and much more!) will be where we place our attention during our time in music together.