It was a fun night on Venice Blvd. this week. Roleen, Kris, Amy, Cindy and Jessica set up the front yard to welcome the public into New School-West for the Mar Vista Art Walk. This season, we decided to display our work on self-portraits. We create self-portraits with children each year in an effort to…
Kris
“I know this kid.” – Josephine
The West Wing children are starting to have appointments in the Front Yard this week. The children are eager to work in this wonderful outdoor classroom. The teachers have been working with small groups and introducing the different areas available within this space. Also, it is a communal space where we meet children from the East Wing.…
“Maybe if we make it out of clay…” -Dashiell
To encourage community building among the children, we usually begin our appointments by asking a question and getting them to express their ideas so they can listen to one another. Theo G.: It’s a machine Dashiell: When the bugs go all the way up here, it turns into Pac Man Bea: Can you do it?…
“Let’s make it go in a loop!” – Sol
Since last year, this group of children has shown a huge interest in testing the different ways an object travels. They have formed relationships that make collaboration inviting. Here, they are trying to figure out how a ball can travel through a loop. Sol: Let’s make it go in a loop! Cooper: Ok, I…
“This is the forest.” -Remy
In the West Wing, strips of paper were laid out without adhesives (tape or glue) as an invitation to explore together, allowing players to change the story as it evolved at the Communication Center. As strips were squeezed, rolled, twisted, torn, and bent, aspects of the story took shape. Remy: This is the forest. Archer:…
“Hey, I made a heart!” – Miro
Today, Miro’s grandma, Elma, came to ‘cook with children’ in the middle courtyard. She and Miro, Willow and Dashiell prepared a fruit salad and cracker snack that was served at WW lunch. Children used shaped cutters on melons, chopped apples with knives and assembled raspberries and grapes in a sweet experience at school. Thank you,…
“It’s not moving.” -Julien
Last year, the current East Wing children investigated how motion, force, and incline interacted in their racetracks and boobytraps. As they tested race cars, they noticed how easily they moved down the ramps yet struggled to move up varying slopes. During reflection meeting, they described the obstacle they encountered. The discussion with peers elicited feedback which…
After working together to fill the cement mixer truck with sand, Theo G. and Dashiell worked on emptying it out into a mound. First they tilted the cement mixer and allowed gravity to bring the sand out. To reach the remaining sand, they began to reach their hands and arms into the belly of the cement mixer.
Theo G.: Our skins are together. Guess what? Mommy has two different types of skin. My Mommy has two different types of skin and I say she’s colorful.
It is one of our strategies in the West Wing to work as a classroom community on, “Celebrating commonalities and differences in our lives.” In this brief exchange, the differences between Theo G.’s and Dashiell’s skin tones and the differences between Theo G. and his mother’s skin tones were simply that – differences. In a New School-West culture of “being different is normal”, differences can be celebrated as seamlessly as commonalities. -Teacher Jess
“It’s a lot of floors.” -Juliette
In the first week, Teacher Flora observed the children and their first interactions with the West Wing Block Area materials. Then, she engaged them: Teacher Flora: What kind of building will you build together? Juliette: It’s a big, big, big building. Madeleine: Don’t try to blow on it because if you blow on it, we’ll have to do it…
“Your fingers are really good carving tools.” -Emmaline
In the East Wing, we have brought the clay out. I wanted to see how the children would use the clay they are familiar with if they had only their hands as their tools. Working in groups of six I observed how the children interacted with the clay as well as supported them with added,…