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Community Event: ARTSHOP!

Our amazing teacher-led Art Committee put together the sweetest event this weekend... the first ever ARTSHOP!! This was an art workshop where families made artwork together. There were several stations, such as collage, mask making, dot painting, sculptures and more. Check out these pictures in case you missed it!

Making a collage for dad for Father's Day. They used different types of patterned paper as well as photos from old National Geographic magazines.

Using different types of circular lids to make circle prints.

Making dot paintings using Q-tips.

Kids and parents experiment with play dough and craft sticks to create a variety of different structures.

Kids and parents alike enjoyed making masks with Lelia. Co-op schoolers could select a pre-cut mask and decorate it with markers, glitter, feathers and flower petals.

Working together on a large scale drawing using a variety of graphite pencils.

Art: “I'm a Roly Poly Artist and I'm happy to create."

Our 2 year old Roly Polies have been exploring what it means to be an artist. Out with the crayons and in with Queen's very own Run DMC. They began their unit throwing it down, “muggin”, and scratching to Run DMC’s “Wake Up”! They learned the first few lines of the song, which encourage us to wake up and be better people, to ourselves and to each other like Vvgotsky explains: “hence, we may say that we become ourselves through others and that this rule applies not only to the personality as a whole, but also to the history of every individual function.” 

By utilizing art and the culture of the city in which they live to scaffold their social/emotional, cognitive, physical, and language development they hope to instill in each Roly Poly a sense of confidence, empathy, camaraderie, and the importance of being a good person. They have also been discussing the importance of the word RESPECT. Many Ropos have begun to utilize the word in their every day language when interacting with friends on the playground. Our RoPos have truly taken to the role of young rap artists, each Roly Poly has come up with his and her own MC/DJ pseudonym and they are SO proud and excited!  They went around the Circle asking each RoPo to make up a name that fits their idea of who they are and boy did they have us laughing! They''ve got MC Machine, Lightzout, Flowers, Flip, Olympia, Moo-Moo,  McMuffin, Dinosaur, etc.

 They took it even further by writing our own raps! They have begun rapping them on stage in front of a very respectful audience of RoPo friends building up our confidence, memory, language development and a different modes of expression. These Roly Pollies are incredibly talented artists, and they know it!

 Hey! I’m MC Flip and I’d like to say

MC Flip and Mommy come to play

Backflip and go to sleep

When You wake up, sun up

Play. Spin around the rosy.

Play and flip.

 Hey! I’m MC Moomoo and I’d like to say

Moomoo MC he’s a cow

Cows have milk

Moomoo has pink milk.

 Hey I’m DJ Duffel and I’d like to say

Hmmmmmm.

I like to go out – to restaurants

To eat, to eat and to stomp my feet

To stomp, to stomp to stomp my feet

Hey! I’m MC Monster Jamz and I’d like to say

Monster trucks are fast, Mater and a firetruck

Wee ooo wee ooo digger too

Basketballs and motorcycles all day

Sleep all night and Cooper says - wake up next day.

Community: Get Dirty and Plant Day!

Project Work: Pipe & Plumbing Study

After many questions about how the water "gets in the toilet," the 3 year old Crickets have been investigating water and water pipes.

The Crickets work together to connect the pipes. Once all of the pipes were connected, they had to figure out a way to make the water flow through the pipes without getting "clogged." The Crickets decided that if they hold the pipes up, the water would move.
Well, that didn't quite work so they came up with a different idea.
"What if we hold the pipes up and down, up and down?" 
"Okay guys! Turn on the faucet! Oh no! The water is leaking!"
The water flowed through the pipes and made its way to the water table.

We measured the length of PVC pipes.
"This pipe is taller than me!"

How many blocks long is this pipe?      

 "I think we need like 100 million blocks." 

The Crickets wanted to know where the water went after we flushes, so they went on sewer hunt and continued to discuss the water cycle. During our walk they spotted a few fire hydrants. "These are really big pipes! Water comes out." 

So, why do we need water?

"So a baby can take a bath." 

"Flowers need water to grow!" 

Literacy: Children's Book Author Visits The Co-op

The First Grade Chipmunks had an writer read aloud this week, local writer Caron Levis, author of the book "Stuck With the Blooz..."

Awesome: The Caterpillars Hatch Baby Chicks!

The Caterpillars were asked to incubate some chicken eggs on behalf of the community garden located at 100 Quincy Street at Franklin Avenue.  They took their job very seriously...

They watched them carefully in the incubator looking for signs of

hatching! They  knew it would take 21 days, but we checked every day just in case.

On April 23, their babies were born!  They were wet.

They kept them nice and warm in a cage and watched them eat, poop, and sleep. 

They  took them out for exercise and loving.

They made new friends.

They  visited the mommy chickens at 100 Quincy to let them know that their babies were safe with us.

They love kale!

 The Caterpillars will go back to 100 Quincy when the babies are old enough to live there in the end of June.  They can’t wait to be reunited!