The room was a constant buzz of excitement and energy as the kids happily set to work creating their own costumes for our annual Halloween celebration. They joyfully accepted the challenge that if they wanted to wear a costume to school that it had to be self made. Their comfort with making and thinking outside of the box was clear, as I did not observe a single student who was upset or frustrated with the task at hand.
Bodhi and Addie were collaborating on a costume for Bodhi, using a special fabric they had found as a face mask. “Look it. This fabric is awesome. You can see through it!” “I’m Addie’s mannequin.” “You’re my customer!” I asked if they were making anything specific, but they said no. “We’re just making him look cool I guess” noted Addie. They really liked the effect of the fabric tightly against Bodhi’s face and debated a lot of different ways to keep it that tight – using rubber bands? Tucking it in? I’m not sure what technique they finally decided on… Meanwhile, some of the girls had clear plans on how to execute their costume ideas. Talia was making a Cheshire Cat costume – “so I need purple and pink!” Jaime mentioned that she had seen some cool tutorials on Pinterest on how to make a skirt, but Talia had it covered – “Oh, I know how to make skirts!” I observed her a bit later working hard at creating a tutu using a technique I too was familiar with! Molly was busy creating her butterfly costume, and had some pretty specific plans on each step. She had immediately grabbed some wire hangers and worked hard to untwist them so the wire was usable for the wings. “I’m making wings for a butterfly. I’m gonna take black tights from Target and stretch them over my frame. But right now I’m making my frame.” The hanger wire was thick and hard to bend. Both Jaime and I worked with Molly to help her shape her wings. It was hard but she was not deterred! When I came back to her a bit later she proudly held up her work – three of the four wings were done! She had a new plan now to use two pairs of tights to cover her frame. It was awesome to see how the kids were problem solving while constructing their costumes. As a sewer myself, I can attest to the challenges that come with creating clothing. I wish I had been there to see how their costumes turned out!
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The cooking workshop that I wrote about in my last post seems to have taken off, with an added twist of capitalism! Last week during EBL, I observed three different groups of students engaged in cooking and, at times, attempting to sell what they had made. At the back of each classroom the students had set up tables dedicated to preparing and selling their food. At first I observed Jazlyn and Zoe making hot chocolate for interested students and collaborators (which seems like it was offered free of charge!). They prepared each cup, topped it off with marshmallows, and delivered it to their customers. Alongside their ingredients sat a tip jar with some dollars and coins already inside.
At this point I moved into the other room and observed Abby and Nyssa working on preparing corn tortillas, their first being given free of charge to Sally because she helped them set up their cooking station. They also had a jar on their table, which, unlike the other girls’ it was empty. Nyssa looked a bit bothered, so I asked her what was going on: “They think they’re better than us…” Who does, I asked? “In there [aka, the older girls in the other room], because they have tips and we don’t.” “Maybe we need a sign,” Abby declared. “We never thought of that!” At this point the girls got to work on making a “tip” sign for their jar. They justified their lack of tips with the idea that perhaps people didn’t know what their jar was for and the fact that they were “not even open yet.” When I returned to the other classroom, hot chocolate production had ceased in favor of preparing things to sell at Market on Friday. Sula and Cryi sat in a corner of the room making “mystery packets” and fortunes. Meanwhile, Zoe and Jazyln were working hard baking small sugar cookies. At this point I was let in on the details of their financial arrangement. Jazlyn and Zoe were making cookies and selling them to Sula and Cyri for $1 each. “The other group [Sula and Cyri] will add the fortunes into the cookies and add them to the ‘mystery packs.’” These will then be sold at Market. A student passing noted the days that will pass between Monday and Friday – “won’t they be stale on Friday?” “They’re supposed to be stale. They’re fortune cookies.” I am not sure how each group made out in terms of financial gain (at Market or via tips in class) but it’s interesting to watch them consider the ways in which money gets passed around in a capitalist society such as ours. Additionally, it’s clear that they are learning about the satisfaction that comes when people desire what you are able to produce yourself! Learning about Aztecs has been an ongoing theme for the past few weeks during workshops. On this particular afternoon the kiddos were challenged to follow various recipes using ingredients that the Aztecs would have had access to (in some form or another). Equipped with food such as tomatoes, onion, sweet potato, molasses, masa harina, and squash, they set forth to follow a few recipes making things like corn tortillas, salsa, and roasted veggies.
They were terribly excited to begin cooking, and started by gathering their ingredients, sometimes measuring carefully and sometimes not! They were also challenged to find the right equipment. One group needed to pour five cups of water. “This bowl can hold it!” They debated if they had the right amount of water as they used a ½ cup measuring tool: “That’s five.” “That’s ten!” “No, it’s a ½1/2 cup.” By pouring ten ½1/2 cups they reached their five cup goal. The group making corn tortillas only had two ingredients to mix, but they worked hard to get the right balance of water and masa harina: “Ok, what’s next?” “It’s too sticky, we need more water.” “Can I stir this time?” “Oh, we put too much water. It’s soggy!” “Double stir to make sure I mixed it all.” The kiddos making salsa worked hard to chop all their ingredients, but reached a breaking point when cutting their onions: “We just cannot cut the onions. They are just too powerful.” “I bet the Aztecs had some kind of face device.” Determined to finish their recipe, they got inventive: “We got goggles from woodshop!” Even though they chopped everything up, they were confused when they added it all together: “It doesn’t look like salsa.” “We’re gonna heat it up until it does!” “You need to smash it up. You need to cut it more.” “What do we do? It’s not salsa.” The ladies creating the roasted veggies seemed to feel that their recipe was too simple, and got a bit inventive. Inspired by the seeds that they found when they cut open their squash, they created something new. “We just decided to take the seeds from here and add salt and put it in with the sweet potato. So we’re making roasted pumpkin seeds!” They also veered from their recipe a bit: “We are inventing brown sugar on sweet potatoes!” As the kiddos attempted to follow their recipe, they were challenged to think about measurements in various ways and explored how ingredients interact with each other (“It says ‘almost porridge like.’ This is way too watery”). Along the way they also realized that careful reading of their recipe is key to success! Although their food didn’t turn out the way they expected, it all smelled pretty good to me! |