To generate some curiosity and interest, last week I put a collection of charts from past years out on the rectangle table for the children to look at. This concrete approach seems to have worked and Nurseries have finally caught hold of group planning for post Color Days celebrations. They looked through and talked about last year’s Shape Days Chart and Number Days Chart. Plus they poured over the list of different ideas from a Food Day Chart that another Nursery group had created around seven years ago.

We also looked at a few old Name Days Charts. Name Days is an idea that was generated by a Nurseryer around 15 years ago. She successfully pitched it… it caught on then and has become a recurring theme almost every year since. Along the way it became a lovely springtime tradition that recognizes and celebrates each child in turn over a several week period as we head toward the end of our year together.

Anyway, I was predicting that Nurseries would be most inspired by the concept of Food Days, but Number Days is the one they chose to go with first! So Number Days it is. They are already beginning to sign up for their favorite numbers and we will probably be ready to begin sometime this coming week. Then after Winter Break will be able to finish up when we return. And then we shall see what's next... perhaps they'll add in something entirely new.

Early on Friday morning a Nurseryer asked me to come with her to see a bird she had found. It was a beautiful male cardinal who was immobile, down and seemingly in shock on the asphalt near the OG window wall. One wing was stretched out and looked broken. She said we should stay away and I agreed. Presumedly he had been disoriented by reflections of nearby trees and had crashed into an OG window. Hoping he could somehow recover, we kept our distance. Nathan was alerted and he let the other teachers know as well.

After about 5 or 6 minutes we saw that he had shifted position and was able to tuck his wing and then get on his feet. After about another 5 minutes he was suddenly gone and must have recovered enough to fly away. So... it was an unexpected and very happy outcome.

On Friday morning several children came in dancing and wanting ballet music to dance to. The Circle Table and chairs were moved out of the way; they dictated their Dance Safety Rules; and then they proceeded to dance a large part of the early morning to Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker.

Still dancing later on, they found that they could circle up and take turns going under one another's arms to make new patterns of human geometry!

Athena told me that on Monday, the day when Nurseries returned after Thanksgiving Break and the day that I missed, the children all chose to play Family all morning long and didn't even bother to get things out in the room. Back together again, one another seemed to be all they wanted or needed.

Since some were wanting to eat the applesauce we had made while it was hot and some were wanting it cold, we put together a sign-up sheet. One child joked with appreciation, since she had tasted it on Friday afternoon when it was finished up with a small amount of cinnamon, honey and butter, "You know it's not grocery store applesauce!" Grocery store applesauce or not, everyone did want to try it, and also decided together that the temperature should be WARM, not hot or cold.

Outside after Snack Time, they enthusiastically ate their firsts out of a cup, and then each child requested seconds! Cooked for hours over low heat, it was the rich color of apple butter and very different from the typical Motts-from-the-store variety. They all thought it was delicious... but then they are also adventurous eaters.

In pre-Covid times, planning for the traditional, community wide, All School Thanksgiving Feast always helped kick off this bigger kind of group process for Nurseryers. The days before Thanksgiving, all of the students would work together in their own groups to provide the basics for a Thanksgiving Feast at school from turkey to mashed potatoes and veggies to bread and pies. All the school families were invited to come and also to bring something to share... pot luck style. Nurseries traditionally prepared the cranberry sauce and used my hand cranked food grinder to make the cranberry relish. It was a big deal for them and helped Nurseries, and all the students, to see and connect with one another as a larger community.

These Nurseries would be naturals at this kind of large scale planning and celebration! But since this kind of gathering still isn't possible at school with Covid, I want to find something that will help approximate the experience for them.  Food prep, hand tools, mechanical devices and shared food are always great motivators for these ages. We'll talk about finding a way to use some simple hand cranked machines in the Nursery over the next months. I'm predicting that they'll all decide to have me bring my hand-cranked apple peeler/corer so we can make and eat applesauce together. We'll see! Like with our pumpkin pie, Nurseries will prep the apples. They will be well sauced and only adults will be servers!

In this group of Nurseries, most of the children will want check out whatever materials I’ve put out in the early morning as a starter for them. At this time of year it’s really to help create a gathering place and also to help them generate some ideas to expand from. Last week, among other things, I put out a repeating theme of a rainbow of paper plus scissors. They found the tape and staplers markers etc., as they needed them. They cut more kitchen corner “food.” They also came up with the idea of paper airplanes.

Glue, paper and colorful letters for collages were out on Tuesday. On Wednesday we finally found time to set the November calendar. Thursday I put out beads and pipe cleaners at the rectangle table and many decided to make bracelets while they were waiting to go down to Art/Science with Brian. Friday it was paper plates plus crayons and new juicy markers in a rainbow of colors. One person got the idea of making a mask and eventually several used a hole punch and yarn as part of their process. It was another busy week with new layers added in. They were busy exploring the room and coming up with new ideas.

Oftentimes, when children paint at an easel, a painting is begun and becomes an exploration in movement and texture and mixing color, plus tracking the color and pattern as it goes down. Sometimes there is a story line that drives the painting as it goes along. Oftentimes there can be multiple compositions all on the same sheet of news print that end up obliterating one another! The sheet can become so heavy with paint that it has to rest for a while at the easel before it can safely be moved without ripping! Other times it’s a quick dip of the brush in the paint, a wiggle or arc across the paper and done. Sometimes children will clue into shape and color and composition more than into the kinesthetic and will stop when they get the sense they are done with that kind of exploration.  Always different, always interesting and satisfying to them where ever they are inside their own moments at the easel. It’s all part of their process.

Nurseries made a beautiful pumpkin pie on Thursday. To get us started with the custard, four took turns breaking eggs from our school hens (we were thinking probably they were from Jazz and Easter). They sent the combined eggs around the table for mixing. They took turns scooping out the pumpkin from the can, opening the can of evaporated milk, measuring spices, measuring honey, pouring it all together… and mixing, mixing, mixing. Almost everyone chose to take part. They are enthusiastic and thorough cooks! The custard was well assembled and WELL MIXED. Then, once the custard was prepared, only grown-ups were the food handlers.

I carried the pies down to Art/Science for baking during our Thursday morning with Brian. Nurseries all had a piece after we came back from the Enchanted Forest with the OGer’s.

The Enchanted Forest is an Older Group Halloween tradition from long, long ago. This is very much a language/literature/music/theatrical sort of Nursery group so I was pretty sure they would enjoy it.

To prepare them, we talked about how we were all invited to the OGer’s Enchanted Forest dress rehearsal and how the actors would all be Older Groupers. I told them that the OGer’s wrote all of their plays together and that they would also perform them for us. I said OGers could be dressed up as other things, but that we would still know they were the Older Groupers we already know. We talked about how sometimes OGers did magic shows or card tricks. I told Nurseries we might see them fall down and do fun and silly stuff… kind of like some of their own Nursery games and plays. They wondered what I meant about their own plays. I said like when they sometimes make up stories they act out. Like what they wondered. I said like their game of Asleep and Wake Them Up. That seemed to put it all in context for them and helped remove any Halloween jitters. After we went down to Art/Science, I saw Nurseries acting out Asleep and Wake Them Up over by the sand table a number of times.

Later on and back in the Nursery room, our two OG Guides came to lead us off to the OG outdoor classroom for the plays. It was so fascinating to see the Nurseries respond to the OGer’s and their productions. They loved the Enchanted Forest so much the first time through that Nurseries decided they wanted to go through again…which they did.

So thank you OGers for the live theater and entertainment; along with everything else, you created some inspirational (and magical) experience for Nurseries. It will be interesting to see where it may lead.

When the two Nurseries by the slide began swinging their jackets at the olders, I motioned them over to the balance beam so we could talk. I said we couldn’t swing jackets at people because of the metal zippers. They agreed that it could hurt people. So I had them just stand and watch with me for a bit to see if we could figure out the OG/YG game. We did see them tagging each other… sometimes two or three almost exactly at the same time… it seemed like a very complicated game.

I said, “So if they’re tagging each other, what are they probably playing?”

They said, “Tag.”

Could you play that game with them?

They both said, “Yes,” and rejoined the game. Mostly they were running and sliding with the olders, but just as we were getting ready to go in for lunch, I saw one of the Nurseries tag an OGer. For me, it was a wonderful cap to their play and the work they did to be part of it successfully.

This multi-aged group play is so powerful for all of them. For the Nurseries, the olders are modeling a fast paced group play plus the give-and-take that keeps the gears greased and the game moving forward. And it’s heady and fun!

This last week in the Nursery was about consolidation and growth. Is it the cooler weather; is it the time they have logged together. Is it their practice with solving problems together? Trikes stuck in the shed? Turn taking with the things they have and want? The finer points of their group play together? Maybe these Nurseries are so quickly and deeply into this process because they are each intensely who they are? Intensely active, intensely calm, intensely rational, intensely seeking, intensely contemplative, intensely analytical, intensely spontaneous. Often they are each all of these things together by turns!

They are all driven to do this group process work and they each bring themselves to it in their own unique ways. How do Nursery children organize themselves into groups… big and small? Athena and I are providing the scaffolding and support. They are providing the will and desire to do it. They are deep into this process with one another and are doing it within the flow of their play. They are having fun. They  are also taking on the challenge of talking and listening to one another, setting a limit and respecting a limit. It feels like they are becoming more comfortable with this part of their process through practice and repetition. They are beginning to experience how these few social tools can smooth the way for them and the things they want to do. They are all of them doing complicated and demanding work that is also their play, that is also their work, that is also their play….

This process as Nursery children organize themselves and come together as a group is always a bit of a wonder and mystery to me. What I do know is that these children are in the midst of taking this on so very early in the year. Even the week before Halloween which astonishes me!

It was a busy, adventurous week in the Nursery that was full of new ideas! The Nurseries’ beginning of the year’s focus was on a lot of big group, getting-to-know-you play. Basically it took the form of of running as a herd. Then, week before last, I saw their focus begin to shift into a bit more of one-on-one and small group play. It was as if the children were beginning to see each other as individuals and were wanting to get to know each another in that new way. And perhaps they were simply curious and feeling ready to expand into new connections with each other? In any case, it was an additional focus for them.

And then came last week. They’ve added in a new layer of complexity! Inspired by several spontaneously shared ideas, they came together and proceeded to help invent and take part in some pretty involved play concepts. These ended up as games with names: “Asleep... Wake Them Up” and “Ball Game.”

Last week was fast paced with a lot going on. Years ago and thinking back to her own childhood, my daughter once made an observation to me that children in groups move at the speed of light. It’s a good metaphor for the flow of their ideas and the pace of their play… especially in young children.

I know that the speed is part of the exhilaration of it for them and I know it can still be difficult for them to keep up with it.... even though together they are the driving force of it. They are taking part in plans and play that can morph and change on a dime. This seems especially true for last week’s Nurseries.

I think in part it came out of our first real taste of sunny October weather, plus the the very beginnings of Halloween excitement that we always see emerging around this time. I think it also comes out of a growing familiarity with the process of talking and listening with each other if their play gets stuck. They are beginning to become more practiced with setting a limit with one another as needed and, in turn, with accepting a limit as it is set by a peer. They are beginning to take the time for one-on-one play together. Along with this growing understanding of the individuals in the group, they are becoming a bit more confident in their group play.

The Nurseries were busy with their plans in a big group, in a small group, and sometimes on their own. Their days involved a lot of climbing and running and triking and digging and swinging. They are MOVING! They are also getting the idea that if they have BIG energy they can take it outside where it can match the space. My repeating words are, “You know, it’s great to have big energy and a big voice. You just need to find a big space for it… outside.” It is beginning to make more and more sense to them and there are several who want to start outside first thing in the morning. Finding a way to recognize and match your own energies to the realities of the moment is a big part of self regulation.