Tasting, hearing, seeing and feeling silver golden patterns
Guiding Ideas
El ecuador y los polos (the equator and the poles), how the sun warms and la tierra turns, applying more color, texture and patterns to the ocean. Where you land in on the earth in relation to the equator changes the climate of your land. We will explore the taste, sound, look and feel of patterns, while preparing for Earth Day, which we will celebrate on Saturday, April 25th at our very own PUEBLO-FEST ‘26. (Tell your friends- get tickets!)
I (Eva) invited a dear old friend, Stuart Bogie with his clarinet to surprise the amigos. Stuart is an incredible musician who has played with bands like Arcade Fire in Everything Now, as well as Antibalas. Check him out!
Ingredients for today’s lab
A book about the snail’s spiral Swirl by Swirl by by Joyce Sidman. Piñata making with Nicole, cut zanahorias, apio, y bok choi both to taste and to paint patterns, bright colors, and a Stuart. Our Bruja Arielle returned for another try at getting messy. (Spoiler alert, Arielle allowed just one finger to touch messy paint. Isabel returned with the newest lyrics to “This land is your land". A looped video of the rotating Earth playing in the background.
What just happened?
From the moment we started Niko insisted while rolling up his sleeves: “C’mon everybody. Let’s get to work.”
Stuart and his clarinet and the power of music: Stuart quietly walked in to the Centro and sat down at the piano bench while Wendy read about snails and repeated patterns in nature. Once she finished, I asked if anyone noticed a new amigo walk in. Right away they were excited to see Stuart with his clarinet. “Is that a trumpet?” and so began a new exploration connecting the patterns in nature with patterns in sound. The videos tell it best:
Does anyone have a question for Stuart?
Niko jumps up “I have a question!” Then, here I must paraphrase, Niko told a long excited story about a flying dragon and fire and a meal, washing hands, and a chamber pot. Sunny said, “Look at my new dress.”
Nicole y la piñata: La invitación en mi mesa era crear una piñata para celebrar la Tierra. Al inicio, muchos amigos llegaron emocionados, pegando tiras de papel maché con engrudo sobre el globo… pero cuando el proceso se volvió repetitivo, la mayoría se fue en busca de otros estímulos. Willem, en cambio, fue el único que se quedó. Fascinado con la textura pegajosa, encontró su propio disfrute en mojar, pegar, y a veces simplemente sentir sus deditos al pegarse y despegarse entre ellos. Se lo pasó así unos 15 minutos hasta acabar la actividad.
En el segundo grupo, ocurrió casi lo mismo: el entusiasmo inicial se apagó pronto, excepto para Leo. Él continuó un poco más en ese “mojar y pegar”, hasta que de pronto exclamó: “¡Mira, Nicole! El volcán explota aquí!” “El agua y el fuego se están juntando”, “¡el huracán viene por este lado!”. Así, las tiras de papel se transformaron en tornados, volcanes y en otras fuerzas de la naturaleza. La piñata se volvió su planeta imaginario, donde él orquestaba la naturaleza y distribuía mares y fuegos, y yo lo seguía añadiendo más papel y engrudo detrás de él.
Painting the ocean exactly:
Rey: “I want to make golden. "I am making dragon fire. I want to make a very silver golden”
The Post-LAB-que-pasó for grown ups:
We realized that we had yet to dub Isabel a LAB name, so here it is. Isabel from here on out will be knows as the Griot. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the word, a griot (pronounced GREE-oh) is a West African storyteller, musician, poet, and oral who preserves genealogies, traditions, and cultural narratives through song and spoken word.
Rey described his ocean as “silver golden.” Can silver be golden, can gold be silvery? To most adults the answer is likely, ‘no’, especially when the base colors are red and yellow, but continuing on our thinking from last week on boredom. The word ‘no’, like boredom, is not an end. It’s a place of respect and acceptance, but it is also a place to go back to curiosity. It’s a place to listen outside yourself and within. When as adults we hear or have to say no, think about the why’s and what then’s. “No we can not paint our bodies right now, but we can paint our hands. This is because Mi Casita does not have bathtubs, only sinks.”
While helping to put together the piñata Leo shared: “¡Mira, Nicole! El volcán explota aquí!” Comprobé, una vez más, que cuando invitamos a los niños a jugar y crear, nuestras ideas preconcebidas se pueden desviar fácilmente. Y que muchas veces es justamente en el tedio, donde aparece una puerta inesperada para la imaginación, que responde con formas sorprendentes y profundamente propias.
(and because I don’t want any grown up reading to miss out on the lesson,
here are Nicole’s words translated to English)
When we invite children to play and create, our preconceived notions can easily be upended. And that often—precisely amidst the tedium—an unexpected door opens for the imagination, which responds with surprising and deeply personal forms.