Outside on Thursday Nurseries and I stood back to watch a slender, yet very sturdy, dark brown/black wasp that was excavating a tunnel in the sand. The urge to dig is something that lies at young children's core and they understood absolutely what they were seeing. The wasp dug like a little dog walking into its tunnel and backing out over and over… scooping with its front legs and kicking it back with its hind legs. After observing it and it’s very efficient earth moving for about 6 minutes (until it finally flew away), one child said he thought it left because it knew the tunnel was going to collapse. Astute analysis coming from a lot of experience!

Nurseries have been interested in searching for sea shells in the sand box left over from ones Kindergartners had used the week before to decorate a sand sculpture. So on Tuesday, I put several bins of shells, sea stars, sand dollars, kelp pods, and one sea horse out at the long table for them to explore. One child found a very large and beautiful clam shell, and then found another just like it, and THEN discovered that they were from the same animal and fit together perfectly! Down at the very bottom of the bin he also found what they all decided was a jaw of a baby dinosaur. Amazing discoveries! Many theories! [It appeared to me like the still articulated jaws of the right side of a very, very, tiny baby shark... double rows of tiny, tiny teeth included.]

Wonderous!

Ann

Friday morning at snack, I brought out one of the old Nursery Color Day charts that I had saved so we could have a visual while we talked about our Color Days coming up.

It was pretty faded and the children’s names were different, but one child remembered from last year and so there was a lot of energetic conversation about the different colors and what we could do. There was actually enough excitement that I searched through my file a bit more and found the chart from last year. The colors on this one were a lot brighter and even more exciting.

Children talked about how they could bring blueberries in their snacks when it was blue day, or red apple slices for red and on through the list. One child thought that gold would be hard to find a food for. I suggested maybe we could make things with gold glitter or things like that instead.

They thought baking brownies would be really good for a brown day.

I hope this Labor Day weekend has been fun and enjoyable for you and your family!

I am so looking forward to tomorrow and the first day when we are all together.

I am reassured to see that Nurseries appear comfortable in their masks. They all kept them on while we were inside the building and put them back on after eating snack. And a number also wore them, seemingly without a thought, outside as well! Many thanks to you parents for modeling mask wearing for them and for helping by explaining and talking it through with them. I know it will be a process of approximation and reminders and figuring it out together with them, just like with anything, but I can see from last week that they can all do well with this additional bit to our Nursery and School routine.

So thank you parents!

Ann

Nurseries had a great time with the Lunar New Year feast. We read several picture books about Lunar New Year and then talked about how the Chinese dragon in the stories brought good luck to everyone and how it wasn’t like the European dragon that guarded gold and breathed fire. Nurseries reassured each other that the Kindergarten dragon would only breath air, or maybe water, and that it was a costume and that the Kindergartners would be inside making it move.

Several Nurseries said, “And anyway we will see their feet!”

What I didn’t know at the time, was that Kindergartners’ had decided together to take turns being the person who wore the dragon’s head during the actual parade… since there were six Kindergartners who wanted be the head! Lindie explained to them that, during the actual parade, she would be so busy putting down bubble wrap (to stomp for the firecracker sound effects) that she might not be able to cue them to switch. What to do?

One Kindergartner suggested that whenever they came to a doorway, they would know it was their cue to quickly change positions under the long red cloth — the body of the dragon.

So Lindie asked how many doorways they would be going through from start to finish. They figured out that if they went out of the Kindergarten room and then into the Nursery room from the hallway, that there would be six doorways… enough for each person who wanted to have a turn!  

I loved hearing from Lindie about Kindergartners’ impressive problem solving and group process. And I think the piece that really blew me away was how beautifully and seamlessly they carried through with their plan! It was so beautifully done that, even though I was just a few Nurseries behind the dragons tail, I didn’t have a clue that they were doing that kind of complicated stagecraft inside the dragon while they walked us from room to room and on down to the feast!

Nurseries truly loved the anticipation and joy of the celebration and the idea of being such a part of it all. When the time came on Thursday, we followed the Kindergartner’s dragon as it wound it’s way throughout all the rooms leading the entire school down the hall to the tables filled with stir fry, egg rolls, spring rolls, noodles, rice, and almond cookies. I know that Nurseries also loved the responsibility of expanded horizons and spreading out to sit along that long, long strip of red paper (the communal table) and then going up and down the hall on their own to get a cup of tea or another egg roll!

Enjoy,

Ann

After weeks of discussion, planning and anticipation, Pajama and Pancake Day finally happened on Thursday. Thank you, Brian, for griddle work, of course, and to parents for following along with the Nurseries’ plan… to help it all happen. We had another wonderful Sign Language session with Sarah on Friday. She taught us an ASL version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." After which I shared that the children are wanting to save and store apple seeds to plant baby trees in the spring. One child had already taught us the sign for apple... Sarah is his mom... but we needed the sign for seeds! So Sarah showed us and then signed an impromptu rendition of finding, eating, saving, planting, growing, harvesting apples. It was truly beautiful to watch, not just the story as it unfolded, but the beauty of ASL and the fluency of Sarah's signing! As she got ready to say good bye there was a grand group hug for Sarah as she sat in the rocking chair. We are moving into Shape Days next and will be making another chart to post on the Nursery door. Nurseries dictated their list: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, oval, diamond, spiral, heart, pentagon, octagon. There may be more along the way. We also talked about an All Shapes Day. Heart Days are planned around Valentine’s Day. This Thursday, students will help prepare food to celebrate Lunar New Year. This is another celebration that has emerged from the Kindergarten and has become an Antioch School tradition. There is a lunch time feast for the children… Nurseries prepare jasmine tea and the other groups make the rest. It’s usually stir fry, egg rolls, spring rolls, almond cookies. Kindergartners always create a huge dragon puppet (with Kindergartners inside as puppeteers) to lead us through all the rooms and then down the hall to the Art/Science room to find the feast waiting. I was thinking back about Martin Luther King this weekend (I came of age as a student at Antioch College in the late 60s) and I remembered, that back then, beyond knowing of her in connection to Martin Luther King, himself, and the crucial importance of his own work, I knew very little about Coretta Scott King, herself. For example, even though I was doing my own student teaching at Antioch School, I did not know that she had attended Antioch College in the mid to late 40s or that she also student taught at the Antioch School for two years. At any rate, I thought I would include this link about Coretta Scott King and our own historical connection to that important time and those two crucially important people. https:/www.notablebiographies.com/Jo-Ki/King-Coretta-Scott.html

Here we are finishing up October and now into the very first week of November and these children are already forging larger group ties, connections, and the skills they will need to work together in more complex ways. It’s still so early in the year and they are already busy and able and interested in going on to the next level of group building.

Every year, every group of children does this. For Nursery children it sometimes happens in November or December, often in January or later, and one year it wasn’t until two weeks into May, that a collective group understanding came about.

When it does happen, it’s when they seem to sense individually that they are ready and also that they want to accomplish things they can’t do as well on their own. It requires the ability to communicate their ideas in a group setting with the others. It requires a certain give and take, plus a comfort with the process of really listening and talking as they work out the inevitable bumps in the road and figure out how to take their play forward. It requires practice, repetition, and sometimes courage, to be able to let go of what you may want in the moment to become part of something bigger than yourself and make yourself part of a blended vision. I see the work they put into it to find the balance. I think they are  aware of their individual and collective effort, but, for them, I think it is the joy of the process that is what they’re most aware of. Their process is the motivator! When they are on a roll, it’s like watching jazz musicians improvising with and off of one another.   

I think one thing that is at the core of being ready to do this kind of work is their practice and comfort with turn taking. I have watched them spontaneously join up in unlikely little groups of three or four to throw a ball around to one another while they came up with  variations to the game as they went along. One variation included them trying to bounce it off of their heads instead of catching it. Much laughter.

There has been another game that was invented and refined by one Nurseryer over several days. With this one, as many as six children at a time would eventually join in. In it, after the rest of the group had ritually stepped out of the way, each Nurseryer, in turn, would run like mad around the perimeter of the sand box and, after several circuits, would dive — head, tummy, legs — flat into the sand. They would jump up triumphant, the rest of the group would celebrate with them, they would scoot out of the way again, and then the next person would make their own run and dive and celebration.

With no adult involvement or direction, they are sometimes having real shared group conversations around the lunch table now which absolutely requires them all to individually  buy into turn taking. Sometimes in call and response. One went like this:

“Who likes cucumbers?”

Around the table one at a time: “I like cucumbers.”

“Who likes strawberries?”

Again, one at a time: “I like strawberries.”

“Who likes carrots?

This time, one person quickly disagrees: “I hate carrots.”

Another gently says, ”Don’t say hate; that’s not good.”

The first person, rephrases: “I don’t like carrots.”

Someone else responds: “But they’re healthy food; they’re good for you.”

Playing with the form of their call and response they had just invented, the others continued laughing around the table: “I like carrots.”

Being three and four and five, it eventually was over the edge and into: “Who likes to eat poop?”

And then they joyously moved into something new.

Please realize that all of these vignettes stem from their hard work and practice and getting to know one another and themselves in this group setting. Add a creative spark, the idea of some Nursery Schooler who leads the way, and then the others spontaneously join in. I am an observer and sometimes if I am quick enough I can grab my iPhone or paper and my pocket pencil to make a record of these moments.

This is high level work/play that they are choosing to do. Make no mistake, they are accomplishing this while they often feel “Meee first!” You can see that there is much joy and satisfaction in their process and what they can do together, but it’s also challenging work for them. It requires a lot of practice being together and working things out to set the stage for every one of these spontaneous epiphanies.

I imagine they may be tired when they get home!

Enjoy!

It was hot and dry last week at school! Sand in the air ended up coating sweaty Nurseries with a fine layer of dust by the end of each day. One child made note that when you mix sand and water you get mud.

Nurseries are busy taking in their worlds… often when they appear to be mostly lost in a haze. They think about what is happening… or what has happened and then try to figure it out. Sometimes, compared to adult analysis, they make what seems to be strange sense of things. If you hang back a bit though, sometimes you can pick-up some amazing outside the box thinking. There is always an individual way to their figuring things out (which I am busy learning from each of them as part of my own process). Their individual ways might be linear or meander and jump from here to there and sometimes it ends up shaped and expressed into what can be described as a metaphor to express the feeling and emotion that surround what they are working to understand in the moment, or, it could something they’ve experienced and are remembering. “Remember when…?”

One morning on Tire Swing Side, I saw a Nursery child, one of the youngest in the group, leaning down and looking very intently at the ground. I wandered over and started looking with her. She had a small stick and was poking at the ground where there was a patch of scintillating light about 8 inches in diameter. We talked about it.

It was a display that seemed to be coming out of the ground in some odd way. It was nothing I had ever experienced before and my immediate instinct was to find another stick and poke around with her. The light really did seem to be emerging directly from the ground.

Because I am a grown up, and by definition with more experience and knowledge and observation hours, I found myself quickly discounting that theory and I started looking up and around and about to try to figure it out in another way! (Of course, more experience and knowledge and observation hours, can also lead you into assumptions and thinking that closes too quickly. It can speed up your thinking, but it can also lead to thinking that’s just more inside the box. It can create limits to your understanding.)

Anyway, other Nurseries began to appear. They joined us in the marvel and then wound into their own processes of searching out answers. Since I had already discounted my own from-the-ground and from-above hypotheses, I started scanning the Kindergarten window wall that was nearby. There was a lot of discussion with a lot of ideas and a lot of poking at the ground and looking about. Then while looking through the Kindergarten window, I saw the overhead fan cutting the sunlight that was coming in from the skylight… with a pattern that exactly matched the pattern of scintillating light that seemed to be emerging from the ground.

I said nothing about my discovery, but I did step in front of the source for a moment which stopped the light display. I stepped aside and then I did it over again for just a little bit longer. The Nurseries glanced over and were matching my movements with what they were observing about the light display disappearing and reappearing. Almost immediately I heard one say, “It’s from the sun! It’s from the sun! Look into the Kindergarten room!” There was talk and some quick theories about different kinds of skylights. All of this happened in just a few minutes time and then they were off and onto other things.

Along with the of the light mystery, it was magic to watch them work!

l loved getting to see the children together in our two little Nursery groups last week. They were up in the loft…  and down and up and down again… checking things out (and one another!) from different perspectives… and getting to know that ladder. On Thursday, we mixed up a beautiful batch of blue play dough which they enjoyed both mornings. They were around the room or elbow to elbow at the long table, and all the while they were getting to know one another in the context of a new year. They flattened and rolled, pounded and pulled; they rolled little balls and bigger balls; molded and cut it into shape, built it up and decorated, and often started all over again.

Each of those two morning, around 9:00 or 9:15, a Nurseryer came up with the idea of wanting to go outside. So I polled the children on “how-many-minutes-do-you-want.” On Friday the children independently announced their choices as the numbers 1 through 5 which was fun and so very unusual. I added them up, we “found the middle,” and then got out the three minute timer to match.

Each morning we used the timers and gathered at the rocking chairs for our first group meeting of the year and talked about staying together so we could all see “the-trees-that-say-stop.”  Once outside, we walked the entire perimeters of the Tire Swing Side (on the west) and the Cycle Circle Side (on the east) to get oriented with both play yards and comfortable with the visual boundaries.

The delayed gratification of first walking the perimeter of the play yards all together and in a group instead of simply heading out to get busy with their ideas for sun and sand and trikes and friends can be really hard work for children these ages. After snack and stories when we were planning for their second perimeter walk (this time on the Cycle Circle Side) one child said very clearly (and insistently), “But I don’t want to.”

I said, “I don’t want to either… it can take a long time… let’s really stay together this time and see if we can walk quickly. I think we can make it work.”

It was a mighty quick walk! Each time I asked, what does the tree (or bush or stump or corner of the building) say there was a great answering chorus of “Stop!” We were all the way around before we knew it and they were off the play.

It is all in their process and perhaps a little glimmer of the individual and group work they will be doing. This time one child presented a problem and I was the one who presented a solution. Layers and complexities to be added. Stay tuned, we are off to a fine beginning!

Enjoy,

Ann

Even before All School Lego Day, some Nurseries have been wanting to bring their own lego constructions from home to show friends, use at school, share, and also put on display. My reminders that their pieces could get mixed in with our school legos has gained no traction with them. They have all been adamant that the Nursery display shelf or in the communal lego bin is the best place for them to be.

These are generous individuals who have made a generous group and so this has worked for them this year very well until last week, oops, when it suddenly didn't.

There were some deeply felt discussions about whose were those and which were whose. It got sorted out for the moment, but it was clear, to me at least, that we would need to talk as a group to go forward.

Later on, when I brought up the problem with legos, they had ideas of what to do. I asked if I could write their ideas down, and, as it turned out, it would take more than one go at it to really figure it out. What follows are their thoughts and words they dictated to me so parents could know their new plan.

Here is the part they came up with on that first morning after snack.

Dear Moms and Dads,

Please, we are asking that we not have any legos at school.

Because they keep getting mixed up with the school legos.

It's making us feel sad.

And please don't bring legos to school; they'll get lost and you can't find them.

But on [All School] Lego Day you can bring them… of course.

Love,

Nurseries

I read it back several times and these were the words they wanted me to email to their parents. But I got home late after school, ran out of time that evening, and couldn't get it done.

My thinking was also that, of course, All School Lego Day is only once a year, and once a year is a looong time and a difficult concept at three or four or five years old. Also I understand that sometimes when children are solving a problem they can be pretty absolute.

So later in the week I told them that I ran out of time and couldn't get their letter typed out on my computer for their parents like we planned. I asked if I could read it to them one more time to be sure their words were the ones they wanted me to write.

I read it and I asked, "Does everyone agree that we shouldn't bring lego constructions from home anymore?"

One right after another, five people immediately said, "No, I don't agree!"

I asked, "Should we change it."

"Yes!" they said.

"Well, how can we change it? I can write down your words."

One person said, "Keep them in your cubby."

Another person added, " Instead… when you're done playing with them, keep them in your cubby."

Another person capped it off with, "And take them home at the end of the day!"

I read it back to them with the changes and everyone agreed.

So here is their newly amended and agreed upon version:

Dear Moms and Dads,

Please, we are asking that we not have any legos at school. Because they keep getting mixed up with the school legos.

It's making us feel sad.

And please don't bring legos to school; they'll get lost and you can't find them.

But on [All School] Lego Day you can bring them… of course.

Instead... when your done playing with them, keep them in your cubbies and take them home at the end of the day.

Love,

Nurseries

Their work was in-depth, over time, and makes a fine snapshot of their group process and the sort of problem solving they are capable of doing.

To be changed as needed!

It's always so interesting to see how the Nurseryers take on the challenge of more and more complex group process to match what they want to accomplish together. Lately they have been using our set of hollow hard wood blocks as a backdrop for their plays. One afternoon in December, while the others finished eating lunch, one child used all of the Nursery big blocks to build a huge stage and announced that there would be a play after lunch. Later there indeed was a play and and one that they wanted me to write down.

Included here are not only the written words of their play, but also notes recording some of their process as they worked out the rough spots. First the process:

Child 1:     It's called "Mighty Pups Ready for Mighty Action!"
Child 2:     playing piano accompaniment
Child 3:     announcing, "I'm Sky."
                 "Mighty Pups ready for mighty action!
                 We're here to save the world!"
Child 4:     singing and dancing….
                 "And now we begin!"
Child 1:     "No, no. You don't sing… you just play!"
Child 3:     "Oh… I guess the show is over….
                  pausing she begins to leave….
Child 2:     "Ruff-ruff, ruff-ruff, ruff-ruff…."     
                 barking insistently to bring them back together….
Child 3:     returning...
                 "Ruff-ruff."
All:            joined in pup chorus…
                 "Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff…."
Child 5:     "Tornado… take cover!"
Child 3 and 4 and 5:     
                 dancing….
                 "Ready to dance, ready to dance…."
Child 1:     "No. Don't dance. No, it's a show that talks."

At this point, one-by-one, the other actors simply leave the stage for the circle table where one other child has been observing. They all quietly begin drawing.
Child 1 has lost his players.

I watch him as he makes the realization that, in order for the show to go on, he will have to let go of the kind of control he would like. He begins to work hard to get them back.

"Guys guys... come back... come back!"

He begins enthusiastically talking about the play, focusing on the story line that they were all developing and on their characters.

This whole time, I have been sitting watching and taking notes in the chair they gave me to be part of their audience. As they come back over, they notice that I have a pencil and paper and ask me what I'm writing. I tell them I've been writing down some of their ideas. Child 3 suggests I should write down their words for the play. I tell them I could do that. And if they want me to I could be the narrator in their play.

"What's a narrator."

I tell them it's the person who reads words the actors have written in order to tell their story while the actors act and say their lines. They think that is a good idea.
The child who had been observing from the circle table comes over to join with the rest and be in the play. I ask who they will each be in their play so I can write that down too. They already have the title!

Here is their play… these are their words written in fine collaboration. It was enthusiastically performed two times on the afternoon of Thursday, December 6, 2018.

Mighty Pups Ready for Mighty Action

CAST:
Child 1………………. Chase
Child 2………………. Zooma
                               also plays music for the play
Child 3………………. Sky
Child 4………………. Another Sky
Child 5………………. Another Sky
Child 6………………. Marshall
Teacher/scribe  …. Narrator + Rider
*Note: Rider is portrayed by a picture posted on the wall

PLAYWRIGHTS:
The Nurseries…
*Note: Child 1 suggested playwrights should be written down as all of them… The Nurseries... and this was agreed upon by the entire group.

Narrator:         "The beginning of the story is when the pups are playing on
                         the field. And then the tornado comes and Rider calls the
                         pups."
Narrator/Rider: "Paw Patrol to the look-out."
All the pups:    "Rider needs us. All pups into action!"
All the pups:    "Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff…."
Narrator:          "Paw Patrol was playing volley-ball and lava comes and Rider
                         called the pups.
Narrator/Rider: "Paw Patrol to the look-out."
All the pups:    "Rider needs us. All pups into action!"
All the pups:    "Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff…."
Narrator:          "The pups went out at the playground one day and there was
                           a terrible storm and they had to go home."
Narrator/Rider:  "Paw Patrol to the look-out."
All the pups:     "Rider needs us. All pups into action!"
All the pups:     "Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff. Ruff-ruff…."
Narrator:          "The robot shoots the metal net on Chase. Chase gets out of
                           the trap with his super speed."
Narrator:          "Sky finds a shovel and when Rider calls the pups, the robot
                           traps the metal net on Another Sky. She got a sword and she
                           flies back with her mighty wings."
Narrator:          "It ends when the robot has no use for the powers and the
                           robot breaks apart. Mayor Humdinger's nephew Gerald was
                           controlling the robot."
 
The End

This is their process and their play... with the rough spots, limit setting, problem solving, compromise, and collaboration along the way!

Remarkable.

Enjoy!

Ann