Musings from the Educators
Heather
March seemed to bring us to together as a community, and closer also to our discoveries. Our eyes, noses, and ears have found a plethora of exciting Spring developments! With frogs croaking, bushes budding and flowers unfolding, the group instinctively bonds and connects as a group of learners. In fact, the variety of ways in which the Seeds connected with each shows serious social development, growth in languages and ecologoical literacy. I cannot drum up half the times we learned from each other about the species around us, or how the weather, sky, . With less trepidation about being wet and cold, and less cumbersome layers to inhibit our hold on nature’s treasures and jungle gyms, I believe the group will find even more depth in our play/learning as we go.
Alix
The old saying “in like a lion, out like a lamb” surely held true for our March! We started out with typically stormy March weather and ended with warm spring temperatures. After months of working wearing bulky mittens and gloves, it has been a pleasure to see how the children’s dexterity has improved. Now that their hands are in thinner gloves and mittens (and sometimes nothing at all), their knot tying (and untying), carabiner clipping (and unclipping) and all small motor tasks have developed leaps and bounds. With spring in the air, and hands freed, many children have spontaneously returned to hand holding while walking to our classroom. This is a testament to the bonds that have been created over the last 7 months, and the growing community of learners that is emerging. The lighter days and warmer temps has instilled a new energy in everybody, as well as in the forest around us – it will be exciting to see what discoveries are made in the next few months!
Themes from March
Community of Learners
Here are some photos that show the strength of the relationship between the Seeds and with their environment.
Amelia and Kaya work hard to lift this cinder block. Fun to stand and fun to see what thrives underneath!
A squishy tomato spurted seeds on Zachary!
Fingers are more nimble now that we wear our gloves less often, and that means we can help friends buckle their backpacks.
Nova took to cleaning buckets with the scrub brush one day. This idea sparked similar ideas in the other children.
Sometimes we just need to expand our boundaries and find a new area to explore. Here’s an example of the kids leading the way!
Oh, the things they caught!
Intricate and careful placing of the connecting pieces on the dam. Tori and Zachary were singing together about building it, showing team-building and high spirits!
Community effort in building up the fort. Some would ask for specific sticks and others would retrieve
She reached the branch! Nova told us she did it by putting her feet and hands where she knew she could feel stable
Some like to get in on the action, some like to watch and learn, and add new ideas or give advice.
Colours: painting, mixing and finding them!
Identifying colours in our changing spring environment was really fun this month. In finding purple, pink, magenta, and white flowers, brilliant greens budding everywhere, we were inspired to paint and play with colour ourselves. Here are some of the experiments and results from our learning about colours and painting techniques.
Gemma took her multicoloured snails and put them in their beds. She made the imprints with sticks.
This bag was full of paint that they blended together in a tactile way.
These two were very helpful in collecting different colours of glass for future projects
We did some water-colour stick painting and the different styles of mixing and putting the paint on paper were very interesting! Finnigan made a bunch of unique shapes.
Poppy tried each colour separately then mixed them afterwards to create new colours and a new picture. It’s all about the process when trying painting at an early age.
Wacky Weather
From torrential downpour to peeling off sweaters under mid-morning sun we have seen it all this month! Here’s some photos to demonstrate the spectrum of skies we experienced.
Making the best of a seriously rainy day, these three made guess on how the rainfall was effecting the creek, and the fishing conditions!
Making rain pass from ocean to mountains tops. The sponge is like a cloud carrying the rain from a larger water reservoir to a smaller one
This sunny photo perfectly portrays the contentedness these Seeds were feeling as they idly fished and splashed from the bridge, thanks to a heavy rainfall the night before.
Beach Field Trip
Even with strong gusts on our field trip, our Seeds triumphed this day and climbed on the large rocks preventing erosion, dug in the sand, explored the shore and tide pools and enjoyed a healthy snack all white the wind was whipping past them. They showed signs of interested and previous knowledge in the biodiversity, when they got used a field guide and scavenger hunt to guide their search for a variety of creatures. They got down on all fours for crabs, chitons and more. We extend great thanks to all the parents how came and shared their knowledge of the Salish Sea, and especially to Chelsea who is a marine biologists and definitely took our understanding of these organisms to the next level!
Climbing, jumping and sliding across the large rocks which prevent erosion at Point Holmes. Here, Sunny and Nova were guiding each other along, trying to find the easy and fun way.
There goes Nova jumping off the log! Not only does jumping encourage confidence and coordination when landing and in navigating a changing environment, but it builds song bones and muscles with the impact!
Tide pool guide helped us distinguish species, like this sea slug we happened upon!
We identified some organisms based on their habitat and colour. Was this one a purple rock crab?
Balancing has become an interest since playing with rocks at the beach
Sharing shovels and sharing digging space, Gemma and Zachary exhibited growth in this department as they shared space and buckets to reach a common goal – filling the bucket!
Pancake Breakfast
To celebrate Spring and the beautiful weather and the strength of group and families for making it through winter we had a pancake breakfast. We encourage opportunities for safe food sharing at potlucks like this one where allergens are avoided and everyone participates in the making of the food! Everyone contributed fruit to our ‘friendship fruit salad’, and the beautiful rainbow and diversity of fruit well represented our differences and community 🙂 Some family members stayed to enjoy the day and Torin’s classroom, and to preview our routines, songs and fun activities.
Poppy looks delighted at the sweet smells and colours of the friendship fruit salad!
Zachary shows us how to gently pout the syrup and hold on carefully as to not drop the pourer.
Jarrett told the legend of how a First Nations child discovered maple syrup
Torin turned 4 this month, we had two reasons to celebrate on our pancake breakfast day. Finnigan also turned four this month!
Recent Comments