October 5, 2026
Important Dates…
Friday, October 16: School CLOSED for Teacher Professional Development/Conference Preparation.
Saturday, October 17: Autumn at Overfield. Games and food will be available from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Pumpkin Glow walk will be open from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Monday, October 19-Friday, October 23: Visiting artist, Jake Lockwood of Muse Machine, at Overfield for week-long residency; celebration of the residency will be on Friday evening.
Wednesday, November 4: Dine to Donate at Troy Buffalo Wild Wings, 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Insights from the Studio
Many of you parents have traveled through the Studio during morning drop off with your children. The long room that sits between the South Side classroom and the Main Playground has large glass doors and walls that offer views of nature and outdoor play and let in oodles of natural light. The shelves and tables house a wide range of materials that can be used to support creative experiments and endeavors. There are typical school supplies like paints, markers, scissors, and glue; higher end fine art materials, like oil pastels, watercolors, sculpture wire, and clay; yarn and needles for sewing, hammers and drills for woodworking, and plenty of scavenged materials, including the trays of marbles, feathers, sticks, and other “beautiful stuff” that fill the north end of the room. I’m confident that if you’ve traveled this way with a child, you’ve seen the way these materials call out to the students, begging to be touched, handled, manipulated, and transformed.
The Studio is a hub through which all age groups and staff members pass on a regular basis. Some stay for longer than others, but all interact in some little way. Small groups gather to go deeper with palettes that support their current areas of interest. Teachers gather here for lunch to visit and reflect with colleagues. It is a place of intersection, contamination, and cross-pollination. Different ideas and perspectives encounter one another.
As our Program Lead Beth Poronsky described in last week’s newsletter, this is a year in which Overfield teachers are engaging in research about conversation. With this topic in mind, I’ve been paying special attention to the ways in which materials speak to children, how the children respond, and the ways in which the use of art materials in open-ended contexts inspires, prompts, and supports conversation between children.
As a group of North Siders painted peacefully side by side one afternoon last week, they seemed mesmerized by the act of mixing colors and feeling the smooth stroke of brushes along paper. Their paintings reflected their engagement. Some of the painters had a subject in mind. Others were following where the brushstrokes or an accidental color discovery led them.
“You are beautiful painters,” I said to them. I was enjoying watching the pictures develop, and also appreciating the spectacle of their process.
One of the girls looked down at her paper in response, looked around the room, at her friends’ work, and then said, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.” Indeed. A conversation ensued.
“None of us is perfect either,” said one.
“I am,” said another. They continued with their paintings and their discussion for several minutes before deciding they were ready to go play outside.
Our Studio is not a perfect space. It can be loud, chaotic, messy, and crowded. But each and every day it also hosts and inspires beautiful moments of creation and community.
Elizabeth Perry – Atelierista
Fall Fun at Autumn at Overfield!
Autumn at Overfield is fast approaching! This fun-filled day will take place Saturday, October 17th from 11 a.m-2:00 p.m. for games and food, and from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. for the Pumpkin Glow. We need your help to make this day a success!
Volunteering – Please use the following link or QR code to volunteer for set-up, clean-up, or to work one of many fun stations we will have available: