Golden Moments

You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by.
Yes, but some of them are golden only because we let them slip.

— James M. Barrier, Author

story boards and a plan for next week (krista)

This week, we continued our work with story boards. Almost everyone has asked to dictate and illustrate a story....some friends have created 4 or 5 story boards.

Alaira has been particularly interested in the process and today, she decided that her story should have a title. She also chose to tell a story about two characters, instead of one central character.

Sophia and Alaira collaborated on a story board today, as well. It was important to the girls that both of their names were credited. I really enjoyed watching them work together in such a respectful way on this creative process.

The children now proudly refer to themselves as authors and illustrators ;).

Looking ahead:

We're going to make paper next week, with the goal of producing enough paper for each friend to make their own book. I've got a paper-making frame and some complicated directions for using it...does anyone have suggestions or a simple guide to making paper? I'm going to look around at crafty blogs this weekend, as well.

Overheard at the lunch table:

Allie: I just cover up my vegetables so I don't have to taste them.

Jalie: You can also try pinching your nose...that really works, too.

Happy Weekend, Happy Sunshine!

xo

Conflicts Resolved, and more...(Krista)

Conflict Resolution at its finest:

Alaira and Natalie got into a heated conflict over the silver teapot this morning. They both wanted to use it, and neither was willing to give an inch. The scene quickly escalated into a teapot tug-o-war with Natalie on the floor, still holding onto the teapot spout and Alaira standing over her, with a death grip on the teapot handle.

Further investigation determined that the REAL issue was that Natalie wanted to serve coffee but Alaira wanted to serve tea.

I assured everyone that we could pretend to serve ANYTHING that we wanted....there was silence as our friends took this in, and THEN in one of those golden moments, a breakthrough occurred.

Mia S.(who, along with McKenna, had been observing this scene with great interest) said, "Yes, we can pretend whatever we want. I can pretend it's MILK!"

McKenna: "And I can pretend it's WATER!"

The conflict was resolved. Alaira began serving cake, and Natalie poured unnamed liquid into cups. The girls went on with their tea party as if nothing had happened.

As I was moving away to work with another child, I heard Natalie say under her breath, "You drink tea with sugar and sugar is bad for your teeth...so this is coffee."

Getting Bigger:

This morning, Allie J said: " I don't want to play, I just want to talk about how I'm getting bigger!"

Thoughts about Spring:

Corbin: It's warm and I like it! In just about one more day Spring will be here!

Jalie: Spring means it's a beautiful day all the time.

Mia Gleinser: We can play hide and seek allllllllll the time!

Sophia: Yes, it's Spring and we garden.

Storytime Deconstructed (Krista)

This week, I offered the children the opportunity to create a "story board".

Jalie, Allie, Damon, Alaira, Jason and Mia Gleinser (she's made a request that I refer to her as Mia Gleinser, instead of Mia G, which I totally understand ;)) were interested in the activity.

Inspiration:

I offered the children a small story board that is divided into 3 sections, an array of markers, pens and colored pencils, the wooden box of sandpaper letters and a basket of various animals and insects for inspiration.

Process:

The creative process was different for each child.

Jalie sorted through the box of letters before choosing the sandpaper letter 'a'. Together we came up with a list of words starting with the letter 'a'.

Here is our list:

apple ant anteater

apple juice Alaira Anika

Allie alligator

After reviewing the list, she decided to tell a story about an ant. She dictated the story to me, and then carefully chose the colors that she would use to illustrate the story. She laid the markers out in a row and worked methodically.

Mia picked 2 frogs out of the basket and set them next to her story board. She tested several colored pencils and markers before finding the ones that matched the color of the frogs exactly. It was important to her that her drawing look like the frogs. She took a lot of time with her illustrations.

Damon referred to his story as a comic book. He said that it was his first comic book and he was incredibly proud of it.

Jason grabbed the markers and began excitedly dictating to me as he drew. He took my finger and placed it on one of his drawings, "This is the plane, right here. Write plane!"

Allie told me several stories before finally letting me write one down. It was important to her that the story ended with everyone's dream coming true.

Alaira asked to do two story boards. She told her stories quickly and with a lot of enthusiasm. She re-told the stories as she illustrated them. Twice, she said that she was finished, and then returned to add some more. She chose to dictate two stories because she thought that the first story was too mean.

The story boards are displayed in the foyer, and the children are quite proud of them, so please take a moment to read their stories next week.

Happy Weekend Everyone! xo

An investigation of shadows (Christine)

The children had begun to do work with shadows right before I joined Terra Luz. Their silhouettes decorate the nap room door. After a long cold and rainy stretch, the sun is finally showing itself, the ground is drying up, and the air is beginning to warm up a bit. We took the opportunity to go outside and explore our shadows again.

In order to move this work forward, I first needed to know where the children were at. What did they know about shadows? I knew that they had associated it with their bodies since their shadows were outlined and we have read a few books about groundhogs and their shadows. I wondered: What kinds of things did the children think had shadows? What were their ideas about shadows? What were their theories about how shadows worked?

On Monday, I went out with Anika, Jalie, Damon, Eddie and Lucca. We first searched for shadows on the covered patio. After a little while without success, Anika ran to the grass, beyond the house's shadow. Eddie followed, and said, "Look! My shadow!" Anika said, "We need to be in the sun!"

I asked if anybody could find any other shadows.

Jalie: I found a shadow!
Christine: Whose shadow did you find?
Jalie: It's a log shadow!
Christine: How did you know it was a log shadow?
Jalie: Because the log was standing right there.

Damon: I chopped the shadow with my boot!
Christine: Which shadow?
Damon: The plant shadow.

Damon: I found a shadow! A slide shadow!
Eddie: I step on it!

Eddie and Lucca were happy to spend much of their time chasing each other's shadows and making their shadows jump.

Damon: Look everyone! It's a house shadow!

I asked if we could make our shadows disappear. Damon, while watching his shadow, backed up until his shadow was enveloped by the house's shadow. "It's gone guys! Can't find it!" I asked where the shadow went. Jalie said, "In the darkness." Damon agreed.

Tuesday, at morning gathering, Andrea asked the children what a shadow was. Here is what they came up with:

Anika: I saw shadows of a lion.
Mia G.: Is black
Jalie: It comes inside when you come inside and it goes outside when you go outside.
Alaira: They are black and so dark.

Later that morning, I went out with Alaira, Corbin, Natalie, Allie and Jason. We first looked on the patio.

Alaira: I don't see any.
Corbin and Allie echoed Alaira's thoughts.
Allie: There's no shadows. Oh! I see a little tiny shadow. A mouse shadow. (pointing to a space underneath the picnic table)

As we were running over to the playhouse to look for some shadows, Natalie shouted, "There's mine!"
Alaira: I see my shadow!
Corbin: I see my shadow!
We looked in the playhouse and Alaira told us, "I don't see any."

I wondered aloud whether we were the only ones with shadows. Did plants have shadows? Or trees?

Alaira: I see one! (pointing to the tree's shadow)
Allie: A tree!
Alaira: A tree shadow!
Allie: Oh! I see one! It's right here! It's a biiig shadow! (standing in the house's shadow)
Jason: My house!

Christine: Can you make your shadow hide? Can you make it disappear?
Alaira: You go into another shadow! (running into the house's shadow)

As Alaira and Jason were both standing next to each other on a slide, Alaira noticed: "Jason's a little bigger than me." Shortly after, she commented, "My shadow's littler than his!"

It appears that the children have a spectrum of understanding. Eddie knows he can make his shadow jump if he jumps. Anika understands that the sun makes shadows. Some of the children understand that shadows are matched to an object. Jalie seems to understand that a shadow follows someone. Alaira knows that shadows can be covered by another shadow, making it disappear.

Many of the children have also been talking about darkness and hiding as well - concepts that are related to shadow exploration. Although I am continuing to discover what the children know about shadows, I also want to figure out what they want to know about shadows. What are they interested in that may drive their investigation forward? Who has similar interests that I can group together to sustain their exploration?

[Quote] Sir Ken Robinson

"Education is about developing human beings, and human development is not mechanical or linear. It is organic and dynamic".

— Sir Ken Robinson, How schools stifle creativity writing on CNN about reaction to his famous TED talk.

Letters, Stories and Yoga (Krista)

This week, we continued our focus on early literacy. In addition to our letter and sound exploration, we explored the different ways to tell a story.

This week, we celebrated the letter ‘D’.

Here is the list of ‘D’ words the children came up with:

Damon Dress Drip

Daddy Dark Drop

Dip Don’t Doll

Drink Dinner Down

(Chef) Dan Dandelion

The children told a tag-team story about a duck and a dog:

(Alaira, Mia G, Jalie, Anika)

Alaira began:

Some ducks were there and they love to swim so so so much!

Mia G:

One duck really liked his friends at school and he played and he swimmed.

Jalie:

Then one duck walked off down the path. He was lonely.

Anika:

Then he was walking around like a little fool, and a monster came and the duck was very scared.

Jalie:

Then a dog came walking down the sidewalk and he was very tired.

Alaira:

Then he laid down and him didn’t take a nap though.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar:

(Corbin, Mia G, Jalie, Lucca, Gwen)

The Process:

First, we read the story together. Then, the children worked together to re-tell the story from memory. Next we re-told the story using special stickers and fold-out scenes from the story. Finally, the children told the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar with yoga poses and body language.

Next week, the children will have the opportunity to create and illustrate a story of their own.

Yoga:

We’re learning a new yoga song that you may be hearing at home. Here it is:

“Om Gwen, celebrate Gwen! Sing it with an open and a joyful heart!

Om Ryland, celebrate Ryland, sing it with an open heart!”

-we repeat until all of the children have been named...try it at home, it'll make you feel happy, i promise!-

Scenes from the classroom:

Lucca and Mia G. taking turns caring for the plants, using a sponge to clean each leaf and talking about the plant's feelings.

Corbin thinking and talking about sea urchins and jellyfish and sharing stories about when he and his momma where swimming in the ocean dodging jellyfish stingers.

Allie and Alaira acting out the story of the three little pigs, ‘puffing and huffing’ until they were red in the face.

Alaira and Corbin discussing whales in the ocean:

Alaira: “ I know what whales sound like. Them say, “woooo-wooooo-woooo” to everybody and that means I love you and I'm really hungry.

Corbin: “Yep, they do, I heard them before. Especially humpback whales are hungry.”

**We said see you later to Ava today. On Monday, she will be going to another school. We're gonna miss her and we send her lots and lots and LOTS of love! We can't wait to hear about all of her new adventures ;).

Happy Valentine's Day! xoxo

[Another] Update on Property Search

Thought I would take a moment to give an update on the 620 property. Well, there really isn't much of an update, other than we still have not heard back from the company that owns it. We are left to guess that the estimates came in higher than they expected, but we're left with some frustration because they never got back to us, did not return emails, and we spent a ton of time and energy focusing on this particular property.

So, we're moving on because time is a ticking.

The previous property I had mentioned a couple months ago, off Parmer and Metric is still vacant, and the landlord has reduced the rent, so we're heavily considering it. We viewed it again this week, and it most definitely needs a large amount of cosmetic work, and lots of TLC, so we're hoping that will help us in negotiations.

It's a big house on a large plot of land. Previous tenant was a Russian daycare so the conversions have already been made for classrooms, although we will probably knock down a wall to make 2 of the rooms into one. The upstairs of the house is considered a separate apartment with no access into either side, and is currently being leased to a tenant. Part of our offer will be to take over the upstairs when their lease is over, so we can have the entire building. We're returning this afternoon to view the upstairs, which we've been told is 1600 sq ft (3 large rooms with wood floors, and 3 restrooms), which could be used for a number of different things. Supposedly, a church group is also interested in it, but what I've learned from landlords over the past 1.5 years is they tend to bluff.

Even though it needs work, I love the uniqueness and character of it.

Clay: Working with the Earth

Clay comes from the Earth: Ancient, Organic, Substantial.

It is cool and has smooth moistness. Clay requires muscle. We engage clay with our hands (and even our feet) and we feel it on our skin. There is an intuitive aspect to working with clay; through many encounters, we develop a sense of its fluidity and substance.

This week, the children were invited to experience clay through exuberant physical play with Christine and I in the Atelier. I did this whole body exploration with the children last year, but since we have new friends with us, I pulled out another 25 lb block of clay, and we did it again. The floor was empty, except for a big tarp in the middle, and a block of red clay. The children were invited to climb on to the block of clay, to dig into it with their toes, fingers, and elbows. We focused on building a physical and experiential knowledge of clay with small groups of children and we will continue next week for those who didn't get a chance this week.



The common initial response was hesitation and skepticism, however, as soon as the children were encouraged to stand on top with their bare feet, all doubts were out the door!

Sophia: “Look at that!”

Jalie: “I want to try!” ... “Oooh, It’s squishy.”

Eddie: “Squishy!”

Jalie pulled off a piece and made a snake.

Lucca remained standing on the clay, vigorously tearing off pieces and relishing in the whole body experience.

Damon: "I’m making a big rock! Look it, I’m making a WHOLE rock!"

Sophia: “I’m making a mommy one. There’s two. A baby one too. And my JJ and my Dominique...and my Grandpa, and my Memaw."

Eddie noticed the clay got "bigger"as he stomped on it.

Jalie: "Look what it made! I want to get more clay...I’m making a pancake...It’s a castle now."

Damon: "It's a Sleeping Triceratops."

Ava: "I’m smooshing mine."

Gwen: [rolling clay] "This is a snake"

Anika: "Can I do it now?" [jumped on clay for a good amount of time noticing it became flatter and wider]

Damon: “It’s a worm now.”

Ava [began gathering popsicle sticks from the atelier] “I’m making a castle, with a garden,” then proceeded to gather bottle caps and acorns to add to her creation.  “Look Ms Andrea, each acorn goes in the garden."

Gwen discovered she could use a CD to cut her clay in pieces.

Jason: [When invited to explore with the clay] “No, I clean! I clean! My feet CLEEEAN!”

Allie: "Well, how 'bout I jump on it?"

Atticus: “How about a birthday cake? ...Ta da! It’s now a birthday cake. I blow out candle.”

Allie: “Remember, don’t eat the clay, it’s just a pretend birthday cake.”

Ryland: "It’s brown. It feels like soft sidewalk."

Allie: “With my cake, I'm making a cupcake...and also a piñata."

Jason: [after some gentle nudging, became completely absorbed in the exploration], “I made hot dog!” Two hot dog!"

Ryland: "This dinosaur, is it enormous? "It has eyebrows"

Jason: “A transformer!”

Corbin: “Wow! Vrroooom! "I’m strong!” [continues making car noises]

Mia S. “It looks like Poo!”

Alaira: [While standing on the clay] “It’s moving! I want to keep two feet on it.”

McKenna: “It’s gooey”

Natalie: I love clay! I want to explore too.”

Mia S. “I make shallow holes”

McKenna: "Heavy"!

Allie: "Look it’s a taco…and now I smashed it into a tamale. [Minutes later] Now it’s a tortilla!"

The children did many different things with clay. Pounded it, jumped on it, stomped on it, flattened it, tore off pieces, rolled it. They noticed how to make different marks; using the whole hand, scratching with fingers, poking holes...

























As children brought their whole bodies to their encounters with clay, they were able to experience the responsiveness of the clay. This relationship between the children and clay, will deepen over the months ahead as the children continue to encounter this medium. This truly begins the dialogue between children and clay, and an invitation into the centuries-old tradition of working with the earth.

Tell me a Story...Early Literacy (Krista)

This week, Andrea and Christine explored clay with small groups while I focused on literacy concepts with groups of children. Together, we explored the wonderful world of letters, sounds and words, with a particular focus on the letter ‘S’. First, I tapped into my Montessori roots and offered sandpaper letters, and a basket filled with different materials that start with ‘S’. We explored these materials on and off of the overhead projector.

I invited the children to make the "ssssss" sound, and to list words that start with ‘S’:

Here is their list:

Scuba diver Slippery

Squirrel Skip

Snake Sister
Slide Spider

Starfish Skirt
Sophia Stone
Stories Spoon
Splash Star pose
Snack Slipper
Sunflower Secret
Stone Sun Surprise

We also touched on the idea of action words. They totally got into this concept and we played a little game that went along with the words that they listed:

Stand Sit
Smell Smile

Spin Sneeze
Scoot

Finally, the children worked together to create ‘tag-team stories’ that centered around the items from the basket:

Day 1

Corbin began:

Once there was a shark.. He was eating fishes in the water with a fish in his mouth. He had s-s-s-strong, s-s-s-sharp teeth.

Allie continued:

Then he sawed a snake. The snake was really mean. He roared so loud and he was sad.

Mia G took over:

Then a little squirrel had a big tail and she went to her mother’s home and she had hot chocolate.

Allie:

And then the squirrel ated him all up and comeded out of his body and lived happily ever after!

Anika added:

Then a mean shark came over…

Corbin:

And the squirrel was chased by the shark and then a snake was here and the snake ate the shark.

Day 2

Mia G started:

One day a scubadiver went to the shore and rested on his pillow

Corbin added:

Then he went way down inside a stone and he couldn’t get out so he hit the door open

Allie continued:

And then the stone opened wide open

Anika finished the story:

Then the scubadiver fell asleep and then it was morning time.

Day 2:

Ava:

The starfish landed in the water and woke up and he then went outside and was floating in the water and he said, “where’s momma?” and then he said, "mommy I’m so happy to see you and then the starfish put on a dress and then he went to a wedding".

Day 2:

Jalie started:

A squirrel was walking alone the path and stopped and told his mommy, “I’m tired”.

Anika continued:

Then he walked and walked and walked and walked and fell asleep

Ava:

And woke up and realized there were a lot of nuts on the tree and grabbed them all and ate them all up.

Allie:

He…a bear comeded and it chased and went home and his dreams came true

Sophia:

Then he was tired and he had an owie and his mommy gave him m&ms and candy and a dvd

Mia G:

Then he went home and he said, “mommy, mommy, I missed you sososososososo much!”

Day 3:

Mia S:

A little spider craweled up a spider web

Allie:

Then he found them and they were just at his house playing hide-n-seek

Corbin:

Well, then his mommy went off to get some food

Jalie:

Then he walked up the path lonely and sad and then he felt happy again

Eddie:

And then the spider fell down and he hurt his legs

Lucca:

Are you okay Eddie?

Thinking Creatively and Scientifically with Block Building

Children speak with blocks.

Block building challenges the whole child. It builds self-confidence, it enhances social skills, it facilitates vocabulary development, and it stimulates eye-hand-body coordination (so important for the development of reading skills). In addition to enriching the traditional subjects of mathematics, science, and social studies, blocks also enrich language-arts, social-emotional, and art. As they build with blocks, children discover, invent, imagine, and construct a fuller understanding of their world.

Thinking Creatively and Scientifically
Invention and discovery are part of scientific thinking. A successful scientist has a creative mind and creates new forms by finding new relationships among established ideas. In block building, the material is fluid, providing infinite possibilities for a child to develop ideas. Through exploration, invention, and discovery, children develop ways of thinking about physical phenomena that they encounter in their construction. In this way, they build knowledge that will be relative to more complex concepts later on. Too often children are urged to deal with abstract ideas before they are prepared to do so. All that this effort accomplishes is children being able to mouth the words without understanding them.

Our work as teaching guides, is to avoid teaching science content formally; rather, they should reinforce what the child has done by making a descriptive comment, such as “you’ve learned how to balance that long block with some smaller ones,” or “you have found the right size block to create a bridge for the animals.”

Asking our children questions is another way to help them focus on an aspect of their work—for example, “how did you know where to put the big block?” or “can you make a ramp for your animals to cross?” From time to time, we can to get our children to verbalize how they solved a problem in constructing. This type of learning allows children to develop their thinking and can lead learners to discover for themselves what they are ready to understand.