PHOTOGRAPHY: FIGURINES, FAMILY & COMMUNITY
2s Home 116

Since September, photographs of family, familiar objects, and places held special meaning to the children in Home 116. As teachers, we thought about the lives these children have lived for the past six months: in quarantine, likely spending a lot of time at home with their families. We thought that having family photos in the classroom would provide comfort as children adjust to new routines in a new environment. As we settled into the school year, we observed that these photos had much more impact than we had predicted. Photos of their families piqued children's curiosity about their identity: "who am I?"

As they demonstrated and expressed who they are through dramatic play, construction play, and just simple conversations (retelling their past experiences), we started to add photos of familiar objects and places from around the neighborhood they live in, as well as figurines of themselves.

Those photos and figurines provoked their recollection, curiosity, creativity, and imaginations, which have expanded the concept of their identity and sense of belonging.

In recent months, the children have grown increasingly aware of teachers taking pictures to document children’s actions and the ideas and learning behind them. Before long, children began to direct us on what we should photograph. We offered to children the opportunity to use cameras to capture the world through their lens. They beautifully captured their classroom community and neighborhood. Each of the photographs children have taken is unique, and they give us a glimpse into children’s perspectives and shows us what is important to them .

LOVIES AND LOVIE HOMES
3s Home 206

In Home 206, a Lovie can be a stuffed animal, a toy, a ring, a drawing, and much more. They are objects that give us comfort when we are sad, provide security when we miss home, instill confidence in us to make connections with others, and serve as characters that come alive in our imaginary play. This year our Lovies have joined us in our exploration as we learned about compassion and kindness and discussed what makes a family, home, and community. They have brought us friendships, fun, and so much love.

More definitions of a Lovie from Home 206:

Ahnya: A Lovie is a toy or a stuffy that is alive.
Wright: A Lovie is something that moves.
Lina: A Lovie is something soft that we sleep with.
Leo: It is something we sleep with.
Coburn: It is something I snuggle with when I sleep.
Adair: Something that you play with.
Fatimah: Sleep with it. It makes me feel happy. And you play with it.

Lovie Homes
To add another layer to the Lovie exploration, Home 206 decided to make “Lovie Homes “ during their studio time on Wednesdays.

The Lovies usually stayed in 206, yet for these special instances, they got to travel to 305, the Music and Art Studio. The children decided what size of boxes they needed for their homes and what materials to use to decorate them. The Lovie Homes were an extension of the exploration children and families have done at home, throughout the year through the medium of photography. One of the last steps was to add their photographs inside of their Lovie Homes as a way to unify the comfort from home life with school life.

MARKER CAPS
Home 207

Young children are curious learners who will often experiment with ordinary objects in extraordinary ways. When we set out markers for the children to use, they were instantly drawn to the shape of the marker caps: curved, smooth sides that resemble fingernails, and indents that are perfect for inserting small fingers into. The colorful assortment added an extra layer of interest.

“Mommy paints her nails like this” the children would say, as they topped each finger with a shiny marker cap. Then, the children turned their attention to common everyday tasks that adults in their own lives might carry out: typing on a laptop “at work” or cooking meals in the classroom’s pretend kitchen-all the while wearing their decorated fingernails. Such play repeats itself in our classroom so often that we sometimes forget the more typical use of marker caps. To our class marker caps have become accessories that remind children of adults in their lives. They provide an opportunity for children to re-enact scenes of caretaking and responsibility, and to express creativity and identity.

THE CITY: A MAPPING PROJECT
UPK Home 309

The idea of a city is vast and intimate at the same time. Take our very own NYC, sprawling five boroughs, but neighborhoods put them in a homey perspective. 309 started mapping the City through a combination of our own lived experiences and ideas from our imaginations. The project is a lesson in using found objects to represent each part of the City; cardboard boxes for buildings, people made from cork, and a range of bottle caps, tape, yarn, buttons, etc. for detailing.

When asked, "What is a city?" some replies were: "A big place where there are a hundred fifty buildings!" “A city is a place where people live--there are buildings so people live there."The value of such a project like the City is how much detailing goes into it, and the detailing, of course, represents the singular thoughtful work of the children: Ness’s books and bench “because that is where people read”, to Frankie’s and Sonya’s intentional tape work and Forest’s cork people, this City is a true thought project.

A teacher asked, how do people in a city live together, and the idea of marriage came up: “They get married!" “They find someone to marry and they marry each other."The children in 309 sometimes incorporate the idea of “bad guys” into their play. Wanting to understand how they were making sense of this idea in the City, a teacher asked, "Are there bad guys in our city?

"The boundaries of our real NYC and the City we constructed from found objects began to blur as someone said, "There are real ones outside."Another response to the question was, "The bad guys are invisible." Which brought another child to surmise, "The bad guys can get caught in a big net, the net will be as big as a building."

Children in our classroom are continuing to build their understanding of the different roles we play in our community and how we assign labels like “good” or “bad”. As we continue to make and re-make this City (and our own NYC) how can we also construct new ideas around the label of “bad guys”?

THE IMPORTANCE OF “THE KISSING HAND”
2s Home 209

Transitioning back to school can be challenging at the beginning of any year, and this year especially so. The moment of separation and goodbye from parents or caregivers is emotional at first but often subsides as relationships form. We imagined both children and families would have a mixture of feelings about coming back to school after spending so much interrupted time together. There are many children’s books written to help ease separation.

One book we leaned on as a classroom was the book The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. Rocca is very comforted by the act of kissing hearts drawn on her palms as a way to send kisses to her parents. One particular morning, when the hearts on her palms were fading, a teacher added a new color to the hearts. After the drawing was refreshed Rocca sighed happily and quickly kissed her hands.

Forrest was nearby and carefully watched what Rocca was doing. Forrest approached her teacher and expressed that she wanted the “kissing hand” as well. Her teacher drew hearts on the palms of her hands as well. This attracted the attention of Linus, who was at the art table, and soon after he requested “kissing hands” as well. This goodbye ritual began to form into a bonding and supportive ritual for all the children. The Kissing Hand continues to be an offering that children use to comfort and support one another.

We used this story as a tool to help us provide comfort and help families establish a good-bye ritual. In this ritual, the caregiver and child kiss each other’s hands as a reminder they are always together. As we began the year several of the children relied on kissing their own hands during moments of transition or missing their grown-ups as reassurance. In these small moments, the children are validating one another’s feelings, as if to say, ‘it’s okay to miss your grown-ups sometimes’. They are also sharing strategies that bring comfort to them as individuals and in doing so, are creating a caring and empathetic community for one another.

WOLVES AND PAPIER MACHE
UPK Home 306

After children expressed interest in wolves at the gym, teachers introduced toy wolves to our classroom. It became clear that children already had a lot of prior knowledge and ideas about wolves when they started using the terms "pack", "den", and "nocturnal". These are words they learned from one another through collaborative, open-ended play.

Noticing that many children were dividing their toy wolves into "packs", we decided to talk about what a wolf pack meant. At meeting, Rachel wrote their ideas on the whiteboard. She read them out loud and we realized that most of them had one word in common-"together."

From all of this wolf exploration in Home 306 came the idea of creating a large papier-mache wolf during studio time. Oscar: "I'm making the face and the ears. It looks like a cow. I need to make the ears pointy. "Aeon: "I'm painting the flour and glue and water on the legs and wrapping newspaper. There is one big leg here but when I fold it, it makes two! "Paxton Lu: "The big legs will make the wolf run really fast! "Angela: "We need a tail!"

The teachers are thinking about how the papier-mache wolf could be used for dramatic play, assist in expressing emotions, or become our classroom mascot encompassing what it means to be in a wolf pack. We are excited to see how this wolf evolves physically, and how it impacts the children in our class.

THE STORY OF STUFFINS
UPK Home 307

Puppets (although Stuffins would take exception to the term being applied to him) can be a powerful tool for communication. They can be tellers of social stories that teach concepts and strategies for handling big feelings. They can be means for expressing emotions and processing experiences. There’s also something appealing about a cat who’s sad that he can’t find any markers that work because the caps have been left off, versus reminders from adults.

When Stuffins joined our class, Jill helped him express his apprehension, because he gets nervous when it’s too loud or too fast. He didn’t know how he would be received, because he’s smaller than the others and is different from everyone else. The children asked him his name and how old he is. When he whispered to Jill that he wanted them to guess, Gabriella guessed “Stuffins?” And thus he became part of our classroom community. Skylar sought him out when he was resting, Ramoma made something to put in his mailbox, and the group identified things he would need to join us throughout the day. A raincoat, rain boots, shoes, a show house, an umbrella, a pillow, a bed, a blanket, a book, a bowl, sand, scissors, glasses, a bottle, and a baby.

As Stuffins becomes more comfortable in the classroom, it will be interesting to see what emerges as the children, themselves, assume the role of Stuffins