Sewing Families

Last year we sewed by hand. This year I introduced sewing on the machine. It is the favorite activity in the classroom. Last week Asher made a Batty Cat, which led his sister, Vega, to make her own Batty Cat at home along with her own design, a flower.

Asher also sewed a wizard cape for himself for Halloween and Brigit who is the sewing master sews at home constantly. Last year, after I taught Brigit how to sew, she helped me teach the rest of the class. This year, when I taught her to use the machine, she mastered it, no longer needs my help and spends her days sewing and teaching others how to use the machine.

I have even gotten the bug and we sew at my house as well.

Paul’s First Sewing Adventure - A Hat

Today I gave Paul some sewing machine lessons, so that he can help the kids sew.  Sometimes I feel like I’m chained to the sewing machine during open classroom.  I LOVE it but I want to play Lego’s too!

Karate Batty Cat by Asher Sage

The inspiration. Amy, Zavier’s mom borrowed our book one weekend and made Zavier a Batty Cat, which was a huge hit in our classroom during sharing time.

Asher picked this material because he has a “blankie” made out of it on his bed and he wanted Batty Cat to be camouflaged and then pop up and be ready to karate!

Workin’ the machine!

Hand sewing the eyes, nose, mouth, tail and wings.

Asher told me when he got to school in the morning that he was going to sew a Batty Cat during open classroom. I put him number one on the sewing list for the day. During open classroom, he was not drawn away to the Legos (his greatest love) as usual and came right up to me and said; “I’m ready to sew.” He got right to work and worked the entire open classroom on his Batty Cat. I love that the kids can decide what they want to do when they are ready to do it and feel emerged and engrossed in a nearly two hour project - seeing it from beginning to end and coming out the other side with a creation all their own.

Welcome Karate Batty Cat - defender of Asher’s bed!

(Asher LOVED the sparkle fabric and went on and on about how beautiful and shiny it was - he took the scraps home to make something else from them.)

Choices

We go to Daystar every other Thursday to visit with the seniors and then to hang out at Castle Park. Every other Thursday we have previously (last year and two trips this year) gone on other types of field trips such as taking the bus to Lincoln Park or going to the library. Last year they couldn’t wait to bust out of the doors and find adventure. But this year is different (in more ways than one!)

When I asked them where they wanted to go for their field trip last week, they told me they wanted to stay at school and have open classroom ALL DAY LONG! So that’s what we did.

When I announced to the parents and the rest of the school, the choice the kids made, I got many reactions. Some people were shocked because who doesn’t want to travel and explore and some people asked me questions like; “What does open classroom mean? Are they just going to play all day?”

It’s kind of funny or not-so-funny or a bit shocking to think that just a year ago the openness that is our preschool that involves choices at every turn is then narrowed down to breaks of time that increasingly diminish choices. While I am the one who created the schedule and find focus times such as math and language arts to be an important stepping stone in the developmental stage that is primary education, I do believe that our open classroom afternoons are just as significant in the learning process of five to seven year-olds as when I am instructing them in a lesson.

Don’t get me wrong focus time is fun too. We are learning skills that are empowering and magical such as telling time on an analog clock, figuring out all the words in the {at} word family and listening to Asher yell to a friend; “I know ALL the words in the {at} word family and then turning to me and saying; “Hey, look at the clock, it’s noon, I just learned how to tell time!” How wonderful. Not all students will come to this information by choice and if presented in a fun environment makes focus time worth every minute.

I just want to state in black and white that choosing what you learn and how you learn it is just as important and that play is how five to seven year-olds still learn the best.

So we got to work making our choices, which included sewing (which involves many of the mathematics skills learned during math time,) building with Legos, (again dimension, math, architecture,) studying the salamander, typing on the typewriter, making crafts such as our bats, which brought out the super-craftiness in our typical rough and tumble folks. These are all meaningful, self-guided, significant learning adventures. Making choices, following through and creating something from just an idea takes something more than when I give a lesson. It takes unique minds that are driven to learn on their very own. We were also able to complete large projects that some kids spent the entire day working on, projects that otherwise would have taken them a week to finish only having an hour or so of open classroom a day.

BUILDING

Starting to build a house

CHEMICAL REACTION

Making Gak “Hey, we’re gakking” ~Justin

SEWING

Ella’s tiger pattern

Isabel’s dog pattern

Cutting out their patterns

Isabel’s finished dog with a bone

Ella’s finished tiger (now with four legs)

Amalie’s Cat

Justin sewing a pillow, Harriette waiting to finish Ginger and Brigit sewing another pillow by hand

The only picture I can find of Harriette’s “Ginger” doll

THE BAT MAKING STATION

Cutting out the wings

Figuring out the pattern

All about the glue guns

And we have bats

Our new bouncy balls make the big yard giddy

They want to go on this very same adventure next Thursday. And I only encourage this amazing synergy to draw every bit of knowledge and independence out of this incredible classroom that is Mystery Bay.

I say hooray for these kids knowing exactly what they want and going after it, even if it means giving up a few field trips along the way.

“Ginger” made by Anya

Sewing the Autumn Days Away

Brigit, who just itches to sew every minute of open classroom, works on her wrap skirt:

Alex works on his long shirt, which he decided kind of looked like armor:

Flynn works on her glamorous purse design:

Talin was so inspired by Flynn’s purse that he decided he wanted to make a wallet, which caught fire in the classroom, inspiring Joey and Isaac to also make red, satin wallets, each with their own flair.

Face Drawing With Trisha and Dress Making With Michelle

Today we had our first art class with Trisha. We split the group into two and she taught each group, one after the other, about face drawing and the spacial relations of our face - where our eyes are in relation to our ears and so on. There was much speculation as to whether she was right.

While one of the groups was making faces, Amalie and I made a dress with some lacy fabric, some gold fabric and our old beautiful green sewing machine. I have had the kids take lessons in using the sewing machine with me - I had them get a feel for the pedal, speed of the needle and feeding the fabric. Almost everyone has given it a try and then late last week Brigit made a blue sweatshirt material bag, which could hold lots of toys, supplies or groceries for that matter. Then today with only half of the class to attend to, Amalie and I were able to dig in and cut and sew. It was so much fun and the dress is so beautiful and just what she envisioned it to be. Amalie did all of the peddle work and I helped to feed the material through the machine. Talin and Joey watched us intently the entire time and then signed right up for a lesson on our sewing machine sign-up sheet.

A Week in the Life…

Reading and writing our own comics (especially for those who find writing and journaling grueling.)

Asher found Calvin all too familiar and laughed hysterically for the hour he spent reading all about their adventures:

If you have any (non-violent type) comics, bring them in for our comic table.

A page from Harriette’s comic book:

Lookie, lookie, peas:

Onions and nasturtium:

Dice math problems (a huge hit) :

In pairs, each partner rolls a die and then they add the amount rolled on one die with the amount rolled on the other die and then they write down the math problem they created with each roll.

Fractions:

Puzzle making:

Fini:

“Michelle, I’m TOTALLY into sewing!” ~Asher

Sophia’s lovely 1030’s wool material bag for her mama for mother’s day:

Violet’s pillow:

Asher’s bag for his dad:

All of our beautiful sewing projects:

Cooking with Kathleen:

Cheddar Cheese Crackers (recipe below):

This past week we’ve been reading to each other at circle time as well as reading to other classes and to the seniors at Daystar:

Remaking the wheel:

The tadpoles are gigantic but too fast to photograph:

 

 

CHEDDAR CHEESE CRACKERS

Ingredients

¼ cup Cornmeal

¾ cup All purpose flour

1 Tbsp Poppy seeds

¼ tsp Cayenne pepper or ground black pepper (optional)

¼ tsp Salt

¼ tsp Baking powder
½ stick Butter, cold, cut into small pieces

1 cup Sharp or extra sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely grated

5-6 Tbsp Cold water

Directions

1. In medium bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, poppy seeds, salt, baking powder and cayenne (if using.)

1. Cut in butter with a fork or pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

1. Add cheese and 4 Tbsp water, stir to blend with fork. Add additional water if needed to bring dough together. (Dough should be soft but not sticky.)

1. Turn out onto floured work surface and knead gently 4-5 times to combine.

1. Form dough into two balls. Using a floured rolling pin, roll out each ball into a 12” circle.

1. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters or biscuit cutters. Gather scraps and reroll as necessary to use up dough.

1. Place shapes onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Prick each cracker a couple of times with a fork.

1. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes, rotating racks halfway through, until crackes are a pale golden brown. Immediately remove crackers from pan and cool on wire racks.

1. Once cooled, crackers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for several days. If they get chewy, you can recrisp them in a warm oven.

Sewing and Sowing - Using Our Hands to Make and Grow

Neve works on a scarf with pom-poms:

James makes a bag:

Isabel makes a pocket purse:

Harriette makes her signature cat face drawing into a stuffed cat:

Brigit continues sewing the scarf she started this past autumn and finishes her sewing bag:

The crocus continue to bloom - spring is coming:

We pulled weeds, loosened the dirt and planted peas and nasturtium:

(photo by Isabel):

We found larva, caterpillars, worms, beetle’s (photo by Isabel):

…and spiders:

and NEW dump trucks:

I Think We’re Really On To Something Here…

On Wednesday we continued our sewing projects and Zavier made this jazzy little, long-skinny bag with handles:

And we made invisible ink and wrote secret messages ala our da Vinci project book:

Then on Thursday, we went on our weekly fieldtrip; this week we went to Lincoln Park to do some leaf collecting for wreath making. We climbed, played on the zipper swing and then surprise James’ mom at their house just across the way. It was so cute to watch James show everyone around his beautiful house.

This squirrel thought my camera was food and tried to take it from me:

We are also getting to be old pros at jumpin’ on the bus and high tailing it to wherever our hearts desire. November 9th is the Maritime Museum for Pirate Day!!! Then December 7th we’re off to the Burke Museum to see Washington States only set of dinosaur bones.

Isabel’s grandma called the school today and left a message expressing her joy about our school and new K-2 class and the classroom journal. We also had a visitor who works in the public schools come by for a visit to see what we’re up to because she follows our journal and thinks we’re really on to something here (and Brigit taught her to sew)!!!

Also, my article “We make the road by walking” just came out in Natural Learning Magazine and you can pick up your very own copy at school.

An Intro to Sewing, da Vinci Inventions & Dance Class

Today we learned how to handle, thread and work a sewing needle.

Harriette made a couple of pouches and Brigit is working on a scarf which she made a template and pattern for before starting.

Today was the first day of dance class. We will have dance every Tuesday from 3:00-3:45.

Dancing in my old classroom - Blake Island. My partner and I painted that beautiful tree.

A couple of weeks ago I visited the Museum of Flight’s da Vinci exhibit. Most of the exhibit was da Vinci’s inventions and drawings built into two, three and four dementional objects. I found the book, “Amazing da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself.” So we are embarking on a 15th century exploration into the art, math and science of Leonardo da Vinci. If the class gets as excited as I am and if it’s financially and time-wise feasable, I want to take the class to the exhibit as well. Today we started our exploration by making webbed hands that enable you to move water like a water fowl. It was hard work - we’ll keep you posted on our da Vinci adventures.

We are sooooooooooo busy - whew I’m beat!!!