We will be starting off our Shape Days this week with Squares on Monday and Tuesday, and then Circle Day for Wednesday and Thursday. In addition, for Thursday, Nurseries have planned Pajama and Pancake Day. Circles and pancakes should work very well together shape-wise.

Talking together about Pajama and Pancake Day before stories last week, we talked about how you could wear pajamas to school if you wanted to. Nurseries agreed that of course you didn't have to if you didn't want to! One Nurseryer said that she didn't have pajamas and followed up by asking "What are pajamas?" I said that they were just anything you wore to bed while you were sleeping. Sounding a little concerned, she said that she didn't have pajamas; she only had jammies. I said that jammies would be great... that jammies and pajamas and PJs were just different words for the same thing. So now we've decided it should be called Pajama/PJ/Jammie and Pancake Day.

Nurseries came up with the idea of Shape Days, I think, partly in honor of our celebration of Color Days last fall. I read them Squares are not Bad by Violet Salazar last week and they dictated their list of shapes to me while they ate snack one morning. I believe their list is final, but you never know. . . . Some may want a sign up chart like we had for Color Days. If so, we will work on that on Monday.

Their complete, as of now, schedule is…

January 22 & 23 (M&T)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Squares

January 24 & 25 (W&Th) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Circles

January 29 & 30 (M&T)  . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . Triangles

January 31 & Feb. 1 (W&Th). . . . . . . . . .  .  Rectangles

February 5 &6 (M&T)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ovals

February  7&8 (W&Th)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diamonds

February 9 — 14 (F—W) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Hearts

February 15 & 16 (Th & F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stars

February 21 (W). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Pentagon

February 22 (Th). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hexagon

February 23 (F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Octagons

February 26 (M). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Trapezoids

February 27 & 28 (T & W) . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Lines... you can make any shape you want!

March 1&2 (Th & F). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . All Shapes

Year after year I see such significant changes in the children and the group after we get back together following Winter Break that I have really come to think of those two weeks as a fundamental part of the Nursery program. It can seem a little magical and mysterious, but I know for the Nurseries, the family time away gives them a real opportunity to digest and process and internalize what they have been so busy doing those first four months of school. They come back in January ready to take off into their second half with a deeper understanding of themselves and one another and the group they are making.

These children are no different. I can tell that they have really missed being with one another. They are ready — and busy planning together — for what comes next!   

They have each come up with ideas for what they would like to do in the coming months. I started off asking if they would like to plan Shape Days ("Yes," was their reply.) They continued on with their brainstorming and have come up with ideas from Outside-Play-In-The-Snow Day (celebrated every day last week!) on through Trike Day, Car Day, Drawing Day, Painting Day, Cookie Day, YG Partners-Up-On-The-Golf-Course Day, Pajamas and Pancakes Day, Snow and Maple Syrup Day, and finally finishing up with Play Day. There are several others as well, but this gives a pretty good sense of their agenda!

Last week they let me know in so many ways that they are ready to be out in the hall. It's a responsibility, of course, and so on Friday morning we gathered at the rocking chairs to come up with our list of Hallway Safety Rules. We came up with: "Stop at the red line… tell Ann or Ben your plan… talk and listen… keep people safe and comfortable… calm, inside energy… inside voices… come back when it's time, clean up when it's time…."  We finished up the early part of Friday morning in the hall and then, before snack, they cleaned up several massive block constructions in the hall... along with what was out in the Nursery room as well.

Later, while we were eating morning snack, two YG Partners came in with the news that All School Meeting would be at 11:00 on Friday instead of 12:30 and could we please come. We couldn't make it on such short notice, but now we have a plan to go to our first All School Meeting next Friday! 

We are off to a great January!

We had a fine and busy week celebrating purple and brown. On Monday, we had Purple Cow which almost everyone liked. On Wednesday we baked (and ate) what we called "brownie cake muffins," with a gluten free mix and four eggs... since there were four egg crackers... Nursery recipes are always delicious! Nurseries made purple playdough by kneading together red and blue. There was lots of making and wrapping of presents for friends and family all week long. 

The rains arrived just in time on Thursday for some good brown mud. We gathered walnuts still in their coats of green on Friday… you may have had a bag or two come home with you!  And then we finished up the week on Friday afternoon with Grandfriends Day!

Ben continues to play his music in the Nursery... and at Grandfriend's Day for the entire school community also! In the Nursery, he will often play piano to support and focus the play or to switch the energy of the room or to foster the dance. He has also begun to work individually in a very organic way at the piano with any children who are interested. Last week he played the background beat, chording on the left for individual Nurseries. I watched one child spontaneously add in the right hand, playing around and then falling into the beat, sometimes repeating his spontaneous melody. I could watch and hear him making his own musical discoveries as he and Ben interacted.  

There were many good meetings as the children get more and more practice and comfort with the concept of setting times with one another, telling a friend they aren't comfortable or listening to a friend say the same… which can be even more difficult. What will also come more and more to all of them is the give-and-take necessary so they can solve a problem together and have their play continue on smoothly without the interruption of a lengthy meeting. Among other things, the Nursery is their social laboratory for discovery... plus their understanding of the intricacies and responsibilities of living in the world of their peers. As much as they are all drawn to this, it is hard work and I know they must be tired when they get home!

The children and I have begun to talk about our trip to the Peifer's Orchard later on this month. It's scheduled for an Orange Day, of course. On the morning of October 24th, we will all climb aboard the hay wagon that John Peifer has hitched to his tractor for a ride down to one of the pumpkin patches. Each child will get to pick a pumpkin that he or she can carry back to the wagon. We will also stop along the way so each child can pick an apple for the ride back. It makes a lovely harvest experience for the children and also a gentle contrast to all of the intensity and excitement (and for these ages… sometimes real scariness) of Halloween.

We were all grateful for the break in the weather last week… Tuesday in the Nursery, the children were slow and melting with the fans on high and by Wednesday they were renewed with BIG energy and they wanted to go right out into the chilly morning. We seemed to go from August to October overnight! 

I am beginning to getting a sense of building Halloween energy, probably as the children see more of the seasonal stuff in the stores or around and about. October can also be an intense time for young children partly because of cooling weather, changing seasons, harvest time… and also just the Halloween excitement that is beginning to float in the air.  

Even with the heat on Tuesday, the afternoon group made a plan to go up on the Golf Course  to catch a breeze and expand our boundaries a bit. We started off with our music with Darla sitting in the shade of one of the baby trees and then Nurseries had some time to run in the expanse of sun and green. These children will help make a foundation for the rest of the group when we are ready to use the Golf Course all together.  

On Tuesday we made a blueberry pie for Blue Days and everyone asked for a piece! Many loved it and almost everyone sampled it… at least the blueberries. Later in the week we made green burritos with cheese and pesto (and also no pesto) for Green Days. Every one tried and many asked for seconds!

On Wednesday, the morning imaginative play of "kitties" in the the Nursery room morphed into "witch cats" on Cycle Circle Side. The next morning was Art/Science… Brian put out a bin of dress-ups in the room which provided inspiration for beautiful, complex, collaborative imaginative play. Really, it soon was beyond imaginative play and had expanded into truly amazing theater. 

These are fine actors! I went outside for a while to be with a small group and left Brian and Ben inside with the rest of the group. I knew I was going to miss a lot of something quite wonderful. When I came back in, there was a Princess on the stage with a toy microphone singing a soft song to another child with wolf ears (also holding a mic and singing in reply): 

Princess: "You are bad… you are bad… you are not my friend…"

Wolf: "Watch out… watch out… I'm a blood thirsty wolf." 

The facial expressions were so very evocative of their words that I had to ask, "Is everything okay?" 

The Princess sang back without even looking at me (NOT wanting to break character) "Yes... it's a play; it's a play…."

I looked over to my left and there were two other Nurseries dressed in black together — one with a feathered mask. They were sometimes facing off, sometimes running along in tandem and singing (one also with a toy microphone): "Everyday…. Everyday…. And don't be nice to your friends… that's the bad guy song." 

In addition to all of this and Color Days, we are getting to know the Younger Groupers and beginning to figure out our YG partners. Partners make a lovely way for the students in the two groups get to know one another and form connections and friendships. For the Nurseries it helps demystify just who those big kids are and fosters a feeling of community. Throughout the year there will be performances and events at school and it can be a great feeling to have your YG partner along with you. 

We finished up the week with a Readers Theater performed by the Younger Group and they brought us chocolate cookies. This was in the afternoon…  on a smaller scale for this first gathering, but soon all the Nurseries and YG's will be gathering up.

Cool weather and a good amount of sunshine has helped get us off to a fine start in the Nursery this year.

Tuesday and Wednesday made our tea party beginnings — even for the returning Nurseries. They were all a little cautious, eyes a bit wide taking in the newness of people and things. Nurseries were very busy checking out the room, the equipment and supplies, their teachers, the wider world both inside and out, and, of course, one another. I watched them observing, processing, and trying it out. They were seeking out playmates, learning the routine, eating together, gathering up for meetings, snack times, story times… and when designated as snack helper, going down the hall to Nathan's for supplies — a responsibility and a big deal to them.

Next they will experience seeing where this world will take them. I saw the beginnings of this on Thursday and Friday. Returning Nurseries were helping explain the boundaries, why we stay together, why we wear shoes outside and that sort of thing. They were all wanting to share songs, choose books, toys, activities.

They are also finding ways to share space and stuff and sometimes ask for space for themselves. We had the first of our meetings to solve problems. I know there will be many more in which they can all refine the process for themselves and one another. And, of course, problems are essentially good: If you don't have problems to solve, you don't learn how to solve problems! 

The following is the grittiest, but also my favorite example from our first few days together… feelings just happen so much faster than words! The process they used is not refined by adult standards, but it is a wonderful example of reaching a resolution by two young children, both of whom have a most exceptional foundation in problem solving. First off, when you're not comfortable with something, you say something! Then words will help you sort it all out and make sense of it for yourself as well as others! Here it is:

There was a disagreement about space at the sink:

"What's up?"

A pause to think from both… then one said:

"We were arguing, and I pulled that little girl's hair. She spoke to me quite sternly, so I stopped." 

"Is everything okay?"

Both nodding, "Yes!"

Smiles and back to the water and soap!

Nurseries love "Once upon a time…." and "Long, long ago, in a land far away….". They love stories with challenge and adventure and a satisfying resolution at the end. They make up their own stories as a backdrop for their play with one another. These stories — their own original ones and the ones the have heard and are retelling and are modifying as needed — are the scaffolding for their work and play together.

Young children are driven to do this. Creating and sharing these stories, individually and in the group, moves them to work together. Nurseries have worked hard this year to help one another and themselves to begin to master the give-and-take in order to keep their storytelling and play with one another moving forward. Active, immediate, on the spot, group play is what they are after; collaboration and cooperation and problem solving tools are what they need to make it work; and storytelling is their medium.

In the Nursery, we often preface fairytales, folktales, tall tales, myths and legends by talking about how these are stories people liked to tell each other a long, long, long time ago. We talk about how they didn't have movies or dvds or radios or TV or even books to read and so they told each other stories. One or two people will usually add, "It was a really looong time ago," and, "Maybe they sat around a campfire."

Really it was not too long ago that there were always family story tellers who would pass along, not just the family stories and their own created stories, but also an oral tradition from the wider culture. This was to pass on traditions, to teach, to entertain and to have fun. It's not difficult to see that our own is a time and culture that has begun to lose this creative storytelling and oral tradition. Even the old tales and myths are read now — or are experienced on a screen — and are not told, which, of course, can also serve to crystalize them in a certain time and place and cultural reality.

Aside from being natural story tellers themselves, young children are hungry for stories. Humans are hungry for stories. Think of the commercial success of the books that are strongly hero's-journey and story driven. The Harry Potter books come to mind, and also recent Disney animations, Frozen and Moana. We are all of us hungry for stories that help us process our lives: fun stories, goofy stories, serious stories, teaching stories, coming of age stories and, of course, stories of the hero's journey.

This past Friday morning at the Victoria Theater, we saw a live production of Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters from the picture book written by John Steptoe and based on an African tale written down in the1800s. It's a tale out of a Cinderella/fairytale/hero's journey tradition. The audience response was often powerful (and sometimes the applause was a bit loud for Nursery aged ears.)The music, dance, sets and staging were beautiful and like other fairytales, the story line could feel out of time, because, of course, it is!

These are the stories we have inherited from our pasts — distant and not so distant, they are part of our cultures still. Some parts don't fit or shouldn't fit. There is a remedy for this. Hang out with some three and four and five year olds. Follow their examples: In their tradition, it's all grist for your personal mill. As you do your own personal story telling, discard or alter the parts that don't fit, use the parts that do. Make up your own stories to tell. Use the hero's journey often since it is a popular and powerful form. Share with family and friends. Have fun.

As these Nurseries make clear time and time again, don't be afraid to talk and discuss or disagree with the storyline as it progresses. Always remember the words of several Nurseries who made up their own play on Friday when we were back from the theater:

"You don't have to marry the king."

"Yeah, you know, you can marry anyone you want."

The weather is back and forth and it's been difficult to predict coats or jackets or even long-sleeved shirts from day-to-day.  Mud time or snow, it is still the dark days of winter. Along with the overcast week and a bit of a virus making the rounds, I'm noticing Nurseries being more content to play and plan inside.

There is lots of interest in the shape of the day, plus they are noticing various shapes around the room, doing art projects with circles and triangles, and planning and anticipation for the shapes to come. Right now there is a lot of talk among the children about octagons and spirals which are still weeks away. They have been referring back to our big chart on the door to see what shapes are coming up. Next week will be Rectangles and Rainbow/Arc/Arches/

Last week for Circle and Triangle Days snacks, we made muffins (imagine stacks of circles!) and pizza (imagine many triangular pieces spread out on a plate!). A group of five Nurseries cooperated to carry their big pizza on a large cookie sheet down to bake in the Art/Science oven. Teamwork. Ben was there to put it in the oven for them, but they did the coordinated carry.

On Thursday the Nursery participated in the All School Lunar New Year's banquet.  Early that morning, the Nurseries opened twenty packs of jasmine tea and carefully cut the tabs off so we could take them down to Art/Science for brewing tea in the giant coffee maker. The YG made a beautiful tofu stir fry and rice and noodles. The OG made delicious spring rolls and egg rolls. This year, instead of their traditional almond cookies, the Kindergarten decided they wanted to make their own fortune cookies. And they did — with fortunes of their own composition inside!   

Over the week in the Nursery, we read a number of different books on Lunar New Year and talked about how the Asian dragon was for bringing good luck for the new year, and was NOT the fire breathing, guard the gold, capture the princess kind. As one child said, "I'm happy it's the good luck dragon.

Our Lunar New Year is a celebration that expanded out of the Kindergarten years ago to include the whole school. The Kindergartners spent days making this year's dragon head... then, when the time came, with the long red cloth attached and Kindergartners inside, the dragon went from room to room gathering each group in a long procession behind while we all stepped on a walkway of bubble wrap — for the firecracker sounds.  Kindergartners led us down to the Art/Science room where the beautiful feast was waiting. We each carried our plates back down the hall to sit at the banquet table… a long piece of red paper unrolled down the length of the hall from OG room to Nursery.

Back in the Nursery after the feast, many of the children got busy making treasure maps having Ben or me help write their instructions. One child had her rather poetic clues on three separate pieces of paper. She wanted her second clue to say, "Point at the dark and look at the light."

This week especially, I have been watching as Nurseries move into a new level in their planning and thinking. They are beginning to make some very thoughtful and nuanced decisions — individually and as a group.

The Shape Day Chart is on the door now. One child suggested that if you sign up for a shape, then that day you get to be snack helper. She made this suggestion on a day that wasn't even her Shape Day!! Then another child suggested that if you sign up for a shape and want to be Snack Helper, then you also get to choose another person and ask them if they want to be Snack Helper with you. She also made this suggestion on a day that wasn't even hers!! Everyone agreed with both ideas!

Shape Days — with the last minute addition of Spirals:

January 19 & 20 (Th&F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Squares

January 23 & 24 (M&T) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Circles

January 25 & 26 (W&Th) . . . . . . . . . . . . Triangles

*Jan. 27 (F) Conferences-No School

January 30 & 31 (M&T) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rectangles

February 1 & 2 (W&Th) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Arcs + Arches (Rainbows)

* Feb. 3 (F) Conferences-No School

February 6 (M) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ovals

February 7 (T) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Crescents

February 8 (W). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Stars

February 5 (Th). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diamonds

February 10 — 14 (F—T) . . . . . . . . . . . . Hearts

February 15 (W). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Hexagon

February 16 (Th). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pentagon

February 17 (F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Octagons

*Feb. 20 & 21 (M & T) Presidents Day/Mid Winter Break-No School

February 22 (W). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Spirals

February 23 (Th). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lines

February 24 (F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .All Shapes

Deciding as a group about Shape Days and snack helpers is just one example of some of the remarkable work they've done together this week. I'm aware that their imaginative play may still go by the same invented names — Kitty, Puppy, Family, School, Picnic, etc., but it has suddenly become more complex, it flows more smoothly, story lines are sustained longer and more of the group joins in.

As an example: toward the end of the day on Friday, three children told me their plans to go outside since they had a storyline going that needed lots of space. They needed room to really run. In the story/play, one child had his stuffy — a puppy — and the other two were trying to catch him and take it away.

Not sure how this would actually work for them all, I asked each separately as they were going out, "What will you do if there is a problem?"

Each answered immediately, "Come and find you."

As they were moving off into the play, I asked the one with the puppy, "What will you do if you need to catch your breath?" Included in this, but unstated, was the query, "What will you do if you aren't comfortable anymore?"

He said, "Say, pause." and then made the time-out sign with his hands.

They all agreed this would work and took off into the game. It was big; it was noisy; it was reciprocal, with a wonderful and well controlled edge that they navigated together beautifully. I watched from the door while they played this non stop for twenty minutes in beautiful give-and-take. One finally came back in saying he was warming up and the other two continued on playing a slightly different storyline until it was time to call in to get ready for snack.   

Another remarkable vignette from the end of last week: We have three doors in the Nursery. One opens to the Tire Swing Side play yard. Another opens into the hallway. And the third door opens into the Kindergarten room. Individuals from both groups often make a plan with Lindie and me to visit back and forth.

On Friday morning we had a Kindergarten visitor who got very busy with a group of Nursery friends. As they were telling me their plans and getting ready to go outside together, the Kindergartner, with straight faced bravado, said, "In the Kindergarten we don't need to tell Lindie our plans, we just go… outside, or down the hall to the bathroom…."

While Nurseries were trying to square this with what they had already seen and experienced in their own Kindergarten visits, I said, "Well, but you tell Lindie your plans before you go… like when you wanted to visit Nursery…."

The Kindergartner swung his statement around with the greatest of ease and listed examples of how Kindergartners do tell Lindie their plans, but said that in the Older Group they don't need to tell plans — not all the time. One of the Nurseries, who had been very engaged in thought about all this, encapsulated the discussion beautifully by saying, "Older Groupers don't need to tell plans because they already know how to keep people safe." We all nodded in agreement with this and then they were off into the outdoors.

What remarkable internalization and analysis. And what better way to articulate the concept that with freedom comes responsibility.

The Antioch School experience makes a very powerful and complex educational tool that the children begin to learn how master and to use in the Nursery.

Nurseries have started their New Year with a lot of collaborative work and have begun to want to dictate their ideas to me to plan for the days to come.

On Monday we made a blue batch of silly putty which they used most of the early morning until we went outside. Then at morning snack they decided together that the next day on Tuesday we would:

•Play with playdough.

•Make things with cardboard like mummies and coffins and gingerbread houses.

•Do shooting games outside where there is lots of space… finger guns only and just with people who want to.

•Jump up and down.

•People hugging.

•Go home.

On Tuesday morning about half the group got very busy constructing with pieces of cardboard and lots of tape. There was a three sided gingerbread house with a door and a roof, also a coffin that morphed into a house with a scary basement, plus various 2-D constructions taped together — flat and decorative. There was playdough in the morning and then again in the afternoon.

The shooting games were forgotten along the way, as they usually are.  Since they are not forbidden, just given a reasonable box to contain them — finger guns only, outside where there is lots of space, and just with people who want to — they usually lose their appeal, supplanted by other stuff that's more interesting or has more play possibility. However, there was a lot of jumping up and down, plus people hugging, and at our final snack time we talked about how we would soon do the last thing on our list: go home!

On Wednesday, one child presented the group with the idea of having a Nursery News once a week like Kindergarten does. He said that if they wanted, people  could bring something from home and that we could have a special time they could show it to everyone. Their discussion bogged down when we got to the part of picking a day, but so far people have decided:

Nursery News

•Bring stuff and show someone or everyone and then put it back in your cubby [if it's electronics or other things that don't usually come to school].

•Bring something to show people at News.

•Tell people about things.

After a warm rainy start to the week we finished up with cold and snow. On Thursday we spent the morning with Sarah in the Art/Science room. There were microscopes and weights and measures to use, plus paints and dress-ups. On Friday after making bran muffins in the morning, Nurseries decided there was enough snow on the ground and that they wanted to have snow cones at afternoon snack. Outside in the bitter cold, some used cups and some used a plate to partially fill a bowl. We talked about not scooping too deeply to avoid picking up mulch and dirt. One child looked deeply into the bowl, counting to twelve to make sure we had enough for everyone. She decided we did.

Back inside, we covered the bowl of snow with aluminum foil, wrote a sign and set it outside our door to stay frozen until snack: 

Please don't get this bowl. This is from the Nursery… don't touch it. It's for Nursery snow cones.

We definitely didn't have enough maple syrup, but we were able to add in some honey and water to stretch it. They shook the bottle to finish the mix and later at snack they decided it was a great recipe.

For Monday, their plan is to make a different colored silly putty, to have playdough in the afternoon and then to make more snow cones!