• Our End of the Year Celebration will be on Friday May 30st at 9:15a to 11:00a. Here is a link to our RSVP and Potluck Signup!
• We are gladly accepting donations of (beautiful) brown paper handled bags for our last day of school- we will be putting the children’s artwork, memory books, extra clothes, sunscreen etc in brown paper bags to take home. 

Beautiful Brown

What happens when you mix red, blue and yellow together? You make brown!  We’ve been investigating this wonderful composite color with our senses. All around the classroom, works have appeared that feature the many shades of brown. We are also learning lots of things about color value-  you can tint and shade to make brown lighter or darker.

We’ve been reading lots of books about skin tone and have been so excited to begin our exploration of the origins of skin color and creating our very own skin tones in paint. We read a book called “All the Colors We Are: The Story of How We Get Our Skin Color” by Katie Kissinger and Chris Bohnhoff, and learned that many of our guesses were spot on! We get our skin color from three things: Our family, the sun, and melanin. Depending on where our family is from, our the color of our skin might be lighter or darker. When we have lots of melanin in our skin, the color of our skin is darker. Melanin helps protect our skin absorbing harmful UV rays and provides pigmentation to our skin cells. Emily is sitting with each child, one at a time to create their very unique and beautiful skin tone with paint.

Can you spot who’s who? Wait till you see the finished pieces in full color!

***We’re just getting started this week with painting our skin tones. It’s a time consuming process and we’ve talked to the children about how we all will wait our turns. If you notice your child’s portrait is not painted yet- it will be soon!***

Self Portraits- On to the next steps!

We completed our sketches and ink outlines for our self portrait project! We had lots of fun brainstorming all of the parts of our faces. While many of us have similar features, we are all different in small and big ways. As we looked around the circle in small groups, we noticed similarities and differences. Mitra set up a fun activity using wood, beads, buttons and yarn to create self portraits out of loose parts. Then, one at a time, each child sat with Emily and were invited to look into a mirror to notice their faces. We noticed scale and proportion, and sketched biiiiiig self portraits on a large piece of paper. We used a special sharpie marker to create our self portrait outline. Currently each child is blending their own skin tone color and soon we will add yarn for hair and other adornments.

Teacher Safia (Mariposa Class) joined Magnolia to talk about hairstyles and braiding/locs. We created a “braid board” where the children could braid yarn and hair weave together in a circle. We will share more about cultural hair practices in our upcoming “hair” unit!

How our Beautiful Brown Self Portrait Project Helps us Understand Race, Ethnicity and Identity

Throughout our Beautiful Brown inquiry, we have been making connections together about where our skin color comes from, noticing the similarities and differences in all of our skin tones, and affirming that all skin is beautiful and special and good. With help from many fantastic picture books, we’ve sparked many conversations about how we identify ourselves in terms of what name we like to be called, our gender identity, and our racial and ethnic identity. One of the wonderful benefits to picture books is that they contain stories and images that reflect the children in our classroom (mirrors) and provide a view (windows) into stories of people that are different. We are mindful about the books we rotate in the classroom so that students feel seen and understood. We live in a time where there are many book lists available for families to explore diverse, age-appropriate reading material at home. You’re always welcome to email us with a specific topic in mind and we can help direct you to some titles we love! Here are some of our favorites here in Magnolia:

Around Magnolia

It’s been a joy welcoming families into the classroom this month! Ollin’s parents Tahnee and Julia came and talked to us about farming and even made smoothies. Lara’s parents Edna and Nate joined us at morning circle one day and read a story about a rainbow, then we made some art. Lots of families came to our garden party and helped pull weeds, plant seedlings, and beautify our outdoor space.