Lunchtime Conversations

I'm really going to miss listening to our little friends conversations. I just love what these children have to say. Always have.







This last snippet, I had asked the children how their Mother's Day weekend was. I snuck the video on toward the end, but what I captured, was priceless. :)

Snippets from El Jardin

Our gardens are flourishing beautifully and the children LOVE to harvest. This week, we harvested "zunicchinis" and carrots (even a purple carrot was ready!). The carrots were all consumed before we made it inside. :)

Free Exploration

Free exploration means we have no goal in mind, we're just seeing what this material can do and what we can do with it. Give children plenty of free exploration. And Time. Time to play and explore and experiment.

More Video Footage

When we think about it, what these children do in their play is remarkable. Children often use fantasy to make sense out of reality, and that's demonstrated here with our little friends making an example of reality that works.

Part I


Part II (ends with a sweet fruity discovery)

Recently, at Terra Luz (Krista)

This week, we began talking about our bodies.

I asked, "What is a body?"

Jalie: "Our bodies are ourselves."

Damon: "It's our skin."

Gwen: :"We need our bodies to live."

Allie: "Our bodies are really growing"

Mia Gleinser: "Our bodies are GREAT! My muscles are SO STRONG, I eat food to keep my body strong!!"

Corbin: "We have muscles and connective tissue in there."

I asked, "What is your favorite part of your body?"

Mia S: "These things that make my fingers bend (knuckles), but usually it's my skeleton."

Alaira: "My tongue because I use it to taste."

Natalie: "My skeleton."

Corbin: "My brain because I use it to think."

McKenna: "My mouth AND my hands!"

Allie: "My muscles and my teeth...my abuela can take her teeth out!!!"

Body Tracing:

I traced the children's bodies, cut them out and then offered the opportunity to add their features. I encouraged them to use the mirror as a reference. Everyone narrated as they drew, and most returned to the mirror repeatedly.

Corbin: "Oooh, I can draw in my brain!"

Natalie: "And stomach! Food goes down down down into the tummy and that's really a stomach!"

Alaira: "I want to draw the things that make my fingers bend...what are those?"

Anika: "I am drawing my fur and here are my teeth and here is more nail polish and here is my brain..."

Lucca: "These are my ribs in my body. They're pink"

Sophia: "I want to do this, I want to draw hair." (Mia G. helped her draw in her hair after a careful assessment)

Mia G: (Returning to the mirror repeatedly as she filled in her organs and features) "And HERE are my chongos (pigtails) and HERE are my eyes--they're blue and nice, and HERE are my toes...what are these called? Oh yes! toenails!"

Jalie: "It's important to get my cheeks just right or everything won't look right on my face"

Damon: "This is my mask and here is my skin and that's my foot."

Jason: (Observing himself in the mirror) "I've got black hair and black eyes."

Atticus; "Here is my body, right guys?"

Eddie, "This is MY body too, and LOOK! It's my hair...I got a hair cut, it's part of my body, too."

The Benefits of Being Outdoors

The California-based State Education and Environmental Roundtable, a national effort to study environment-based education, found that schools that use outdoor classrooms, among other techniques, produce student gains in social studies, science, language arts and math; improved standardized test scores and grade-point averages; and enhanced skills in problem-solving, critical thinking and decision-making. In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests that time in natural surroundings also stimulates children's creativity.
— Richard Louv

It never ceases to amaze me how far pebbles, sticks, mud, and water will go with these little ones.