Random and Recent

In the old days of teaching, (and, unbelieveably to me but it's true, I have been teaching for almost twenty years, so feel qualified to say this!) there used to be a thing called 'Recent and Relevant' experience, that those in leadership positions had to gain, to keep in touch with the classroom. It was a good thing I think, and one that should still go on, but doesn't. It has nothing to do with this post, just made me think of it when the title popped into my head.
Here is a selection of recent photos I like. They are mainly school, some linked by colour or mood, and some by subject. But if you are looking, you could work that out for yourself!

This brilliant picture is by R., and is of H. This is an 'S.'-I say an 'S.', as she has a pronounced style of painting people, and this is it! I liked this so much that she went back and painted me one to keep.

This is H.'s work. I watched her in fascination, as she deftly and surely made these marks-which reminded me of Stone Henge-and am glad I took the photo when I did, as Sophie came along and joined her and it became a free for all with lots of giggling!

These are our bean bags. By today everyone had one, as far as possible. They are filled with some kitchen towel, a broad or a runner bean seed, and a little bit-A LITTLE BIT!!! of water, and stapled to the fence. I have seen this done before, so hope it works, but, as I kept telling the kids, 'it is an experiment, which means we don't know if it will work or not'

The alien gets time out. Not sure what he had done.

Exploring the compost and cress tray can be dangerous work.

You need a good lookout at the front.

Last week I cleaned out the grotty palette paints and put in lovely new ones. A messy job which requires soaking and throwing away the last bits of paint. Except I didn't want to throw them away, so I made paint balls. Harry was most excited about this. Not sure what to do with them now, but they are made anyway.

Misty view over Reception.

Sunrise reflected in windows behind building site.

Non-school related, but Cassie winking and licking her lips must be shared!

Today

After school, girders were being swung into place, guided into their slots by two builders in crane platforms. I love all the shapes against the setting sun.

Earlier in the day I saw that the washing had been hung on the climbing frame by Berkye and the large Holi paintings Linda has been doing with the children were laid out to dry. You can see the blossom on the confused tree in the background. I like the whole scene. I am not sure how long this Spring like weather is going to last but it is very enjoyable while it does.

Rapunzel

I didn't know the story of Rapunzel very well. The fact that her mother and father could not have a baby for a long time, and that the herb that the husband steals from the witch's garden is called Rapunzel. It is horrible really because they lose their baby until she is quite old. The morals are hard to fathom. The husband was only taking the leaves because he was worried about his wife, and the witch was only taking the child because she was stolen from. I don't think a child for some salad really constitutes an eye for an eye though. Ah well, those are questions I did not have to worry about today when I used my dolls to help tell the story. And I expect, like me, most of the children will remember the most exciting part of the story, the fact that Rapunzel has extremely long hair which people climb up and down. I bought some herbs for a touch of realism-today was mint-we all had a sniff and some liked it more than others. Tomorrow is dill and coriander. I made two of each of the main characters-so each carpet had a set, and there is a set for the children to play with afterwards, and one to keep for the adults to use. I was most proud of the design feature that Rapunzel has detachable hair! A long plait, a bit of weaving and some elastic worked very well.

Here are a few pictures of the Rapunzels, the Princes and the witches posing on my book ladder. (It became my book ladder earlier in the year, rather than my lovely but doesn't have a purpose ladder. It works well, though needs to be attached to the wall at the top or it pushes away with the weight of the books and falls over)

Two shades of green and curly wool tops from Skye became the hair for the witch. I needle felted it on which worked really well. Some yellow wool I have had for about ten years is the hair. I used some recently bought hessian to make the bodies, and wrapped pipe cleaners with wool to be the arms. Don't cut up loads of hessian while wearing flanelette pajamas. I had to get the sticky roller out even after they had been washed. I really enjoyed making these as they are quite rough and ready, and I am better at that than polished and smart!

I embroidered the initial sounds of the characters on their fronts so they can never forget who they are.

Morning and Evening

Attention grabbing skies over Woolwich this morning. Is this a mackerel sky or something like that?

Spaceship clouds over the school as I left to go home tonight. The building made a lot of progress over half term and is now towering over the current school.

I was glad to be waiting at the traffic lights, as it gave me a chance to take a quick picture of this lovely old car that had been travelling the same way as me. When I first saw it from behind I thought it was a Morris Minor as it had the same shape and the same looking boot. But it was much longer than that. It was beautifully kept.

This last photo is more to jog my memory, as I only had my school camera with me and so could not get a very good shot. If you click on it you might just be able to see the crescent moon. That alone would be lovely, but combined with the deep turquoise tinted sky, and the way you could just see the whole of the moon as a slightly lighter blue it looked amazing. I have never seen the moon look quite like that.

Thanks for lovely comments on recent sketches. I love drawing packaging and once did nearly a whole sketchbook of it. Not sure where that is currently or I would show you some!

Friday tomorrow-hurray! I hope the weather is as good as it was today-really warm and sunny-you can just feel everyone's mood lift a little.

More Positive Thoughts and Things

Monday morning-I got to work very early, about seven, and had to go looking for Fatima our cleaner to get the nursery keys, as it was still locked and alarmed. I walked through the hall and saw a little bird flying around. I got the keys and came back into the hall. I really wanted to help the bird but couldn't think how. I watched it flying around, willing it to get out of one of the open windows. Then...it did! A good start to Monday I thought. These stylish mice were dressed by Hafsot. I was working one to one with her to do some language assessment. She speaks a lot-and has good vocabulary and imagination, but often, what she says does not seem to make sense and leaps from thing to thing in a seemingly random manner. I think she has a lot to say and maybe not quite the time to formulate her thoughts before she speaks. However, when given a concrete task like playing with these little mice and getting them dressed, and when I am given the chance to talk to her on her own, then she makes perfect sense. So I am not worried about her now. And I love what she put on the mice. She is a very stylish little girl with a very glamourous mother, so I am not surprised really.

To end the week, another bird visited us. This is the same robin as last week I am sure, as they are territorial birds. The camera work is very shakey but the song is clear.

Wishful Thinking

What we see... What I wish we saw...

I can't help it-every time the crane goes up with its latest load of girders or steel poles, I wish it was an elephant dangling at the end of the chain. It would be quite spectacular and something we would remember forever! Thank goodness photoshop can help me make my wishes come true!

Star Tree

I saw this little star tree in a charity shop and had to have it. I think it was 50p-a price I have been paying for bargains since the '80s. I remember items that cost me 50p over the years-a purple jumper from Leicester market, a pair of crystal earrings from a junk shop in Maidstone, a 50s rose coloured dress also from Leicester market and the star tree. I bought it with my dolls houses in mind-the dolls houses which now look like a miniature version of our flat-too much stuff crammed into a small space-and not even arranged, just piled. I used it this week as part of my carpet sessions with the children, to encourage them to talk about things they see. My favourite thing anyone said about it, was Aliyah saying 'it looks like the stars fell from the sky and into the tree.' Another favourite thing one of the children said this week was Clinton, whilst making playdough food, who said he was making 'Angel snacks'. I had never thought about angels needing snacks but I suppose it is a possibility, and what better to snack on than some playdough food made by a child. I love working with this age group as they come out with the sweetest and funniest things and they are so earnest, but are developing their senses of humour too. I was reading a book about play today and it was talking about the mess children make during their play, and how early years practitioners need to be aware that to constantly tidy, or insist that children do, is an interruption. I know this and try to abide by it, hard though it sometimes is from the adult perspective! We have a traditional home corner area at work, and every day it gets trashed, clothes all over the floor, along with plates, food, babies-you name it, it is on the floor. I think it is mainly children rushing to get the thing they want and chucking everything else out of their way to do so, but I never seem to see them doing it. But yesterday I was not so sure. I came along and found Charlie in the middle of putting everything under the table, while holding a duplo gun he had made, and looking around frantically. I asked what he was doing and he informed me that the 'bad mans' was coming, so he had to hide everything. It made a strange kind of sense so I left him to it!
Anyway, another busy week over, and I still have not made a periscope, though I have now printed instructions from the Internet, got some mirrors ready, and taken my saw into work to cut the tube. Next week I will do it!
Hope you have had a good week and have a lovely weekend!

Today

A tiny flash of red is all we could see of this Robin, but we could hear him so clearly as he sang his lovely song. Unrelated to the Robin, but another part of today, are these bottles. In fact they are not just bottles, they are part of something. We don't exactly know what yet, but something we are working on together. I appealed for large plastic bottles before Christmas, and got quite a few-enough to get this far with whatever it is we are building. I had a lot of interest and offers of help in using the hot glue gun to stick the bottles together. I squeeze the glue out and the children take turns pushing the bottle onto it before it solidifies. They arranged the bottles in an arc big enough to fit two people in. I am thinking it is a lunar module, but at the moment it doesn't really matter, just the excitement of making a big thing, that is really easy to lift up, is enough.

It is living on top of the phonebox untill it gets big enough to get in and to stand around without getting too easily broken.

Shine

Winter sunshine is my favourite kind. Cassie agrees. This photo has a name-I name most of the photos used on my blog and find myself using the same unimaginative ones over and over again-which I suppose shows my interests. I keep photos on my desktop until I have used them, or decide not to, and the names help me find them quickly. This one has been on there for ages waiting to be shown. It is called 'Goldeneye'. I loved the way that Cassie's eyes are almost the same colour as the gold part on the cushion behind her. This picture is the odd one out, as there is nothing shiny about it. It is a very mundane subject but one I love. It is the sponges we use to clean up in the creative area at work-the area with the paints, playdough, collage, water and sand, amongst other things. When I have finished the last bit of tidying in this area at the end of each day, and then the end of my week there (we work in a four weekly rota of areas to set up and work in), I rinse out the sponges in hot water, squeeze them, line them all up the same way around then squeeze them into their wire holder. I love things to be neat and tidy-though you wouldn't believe it sometimes, and like the subtle changes of colour in the sponges. There is something to enjoy in the tiniest of tasks if you look hard enough! The texture I have used is one of Kim Klassen's and is called 'Embrace' which is quite appropriate for the subject. Looking again, I see that the wire is shiny.

This morning it was icy on the rubber matting outside, so I had to go to fetch rock salt from the other playground. The frost was glistening in the sun on top of the bin, making this quite ugly object quite beautiful.

Cardboard Princesses

All princesses need jackets, even cardboard ones, or they will get cold. If their jackets do not have buttons they will come off. So it became my job to sew on the buttons, and from one girl making a princess and needing a button, I then had quite a few more. All the princesses are very individual in appearance, but they all have green jackets with pink buttons in common. This is my favourite sort of activity as it involves both me and the children having an input to get what we want, and also involves them in real activities with real and potentially dangerous tools. The needle was a pretty blunt one so not really dangerous, but I was using the grown up scissors to cut the arm holes. I think quite a lot of the kids we have got this year could be trusted with needles and sharper scissors, but certainly not all! Anyway, here is our round up of princesses.

Today

It is so lovely to have a lake next to a supermarket and it looked very calm and lovely in the early evening light.

The sun glinting on the block of flats that overlooks the school is what made me take this picture. I have been to the nineteenth floor of these flats on a home visit and the view was amazing. I would be a terrible nosey neighbour if I lived in one of these places.

This is the sun that glinted on the building. It was behind drifting clouds and looked like the moon in the day. This afternoon I did a fairy tale activity-hacking through a very dense and thorny plant so that we can have a view of the diggers. (the similarity did stop there-no princess) I am nearly there and we could catch glimpses of the action. One of the boys in my class spent about an hour this afternoon watching and giving me updates-'It's going! It's not going! It's going round.' I need to climb over the fence in the morning to just do the last bit.

I am the Flower Lady

I got up extra early today, and was at school by ten past seven. I had lots to do preparing for the builders to fence off our garden next week. As the sun rose, I dug up the lavender and rosemary, cut some of the bigger seedheads and lots of smaller ones from the sunflowers, and put all the logs from the nursery garden over the fence into Forest School. I went out to the car a couple of times to put the plants and the sunflower heads in. As I was putting the logs over, a little boy walked past on his way to breakfast club. I don't know him so he must be new to the school. He asked his mum who I was, and she said I was the teacher. "That's not the teacher, that's the flower lady" he replied. I much prefer that! In the afternoon we had a sunflower ceremony.

We took the large sunflower-a sunflower tree, to Forest School, and once I had shared out the seedheads, the children walked around, deciding where to leave them. We hope some sunflowers will grow, even though we won't be there to see them.
The other sunflower has come home with me.

It left the dramatic grey clouds and evening sunlight, and is now secured by a drawer handle in the kitchen chest of drawers. I was very pleased with this solution to how to stand it up! I have planted the rosemary and lavender in a pot rather than the soil as I don't want bindweed in the garden and we have loads at school. I might as well not have bothered though. I removed the squash vine tonight-it was all dead and ready to come up. I then did a little chamomile lawn weeding and found two tiny pieces of bindweed! How annoying, it is so hard to get rid of. I wonder where it came from.

I also found a frog. He made me jump, but I expect I did that to him too.

This Week

 I used inktense pencils on wet paper to draw wolves, moths and this girl with a stripey hat.

I have so much to do but am too tired to do much of it, so instead I decided to sharpen my pencils. I also made a list of the colours I have got in certain series along with their number. I find this kind of cataloguing very satisfying.

Dramatic grey sky, yellow sunflower, and red cranes look beautiful together.

Autumn in the treasure baskets at Forest School today.

The crab apple tree which will be lost soon to the new building. Very sad. Also the beautiful rose bush-I wish they could incorporate our nursery garden into Forest School which is being kept-it is just the other side of our fence. Although the new building is exciting to look forward to, I actually prefer old things-old established things such as our garden-we won't have that feel in the new outdoor area I don't think. So I am really pleased Forest School is staying, and I will try to plant lots of lovely things there as a gift to future users.

Autumn and Halloween inspired painting-I used gouache-just three colours, and a wide brush which was lovely to make lines with. The other page is my journal with the pencil list. I finished Erewhon and have been using a pastel sketchbook with different coloured ridged paper in.