Wordless Wednesday

Love at Beansprouts

I started my student teaching at Beansprouts with love in the air.  Because it was near Valentine's Day many of our circle time activities involved talking about feelings and allowed the kids to share their feelings about who they love.  Our songs were all about feeling love and how you have more when you give it away.

It wasn't long before the first little beansprout sat in my lap at circle and exclaimed, “I love you, Leslie.” I can't tell you how much this warmed my heart. Of course it was followed up quickly by a, “and I love my mom too.” It was heartfelt and spontaneous and so encompassing of the general feeling of love at this school.

I have worked in many different child care environments. In all cases the children were well cared for, but in no other place have I experienced such a fondness between teachers and children. It's easy to take this for granted. Our new student teacher, Tracy, noticed this right away. On both her first and second day she noted, “The kids are so happy here.”

The children at Beansprouts know they are being cared for by loving and respecting teachers. This is important not only for their emotional development, but for all aspects of development. What can children learn from an adult they do not trust or feel comfortable around? Because the basis of their learning comes from a well established relationship I believe the children here are more open to guidance. Coincidentally, it also makes Beansprouts a great place to work!

--Leslie  

100% Child Initiated Scientific Discovery

Here's what these three did when Br discovered this white floaty thing that I think is the seed of something...

 

Br calls me over "Stephanie, come see this thing!"  "What is it?" I ask.  "This thing, come and see it!" he exclaims.  It floats back and forth across the sidewalk, but the wind is so light that it's hard to make the connection between the "thing"'s movements and the breeze.  They laugh every time it moves or changes directions.  They discuss it as if it is a living creature, like a bug. 

They call a friend over, and that friend offers an idea.  The wind doesn't let the mist of the spray bottle saturate the thing as they were expecting.  

 

Be sacrificed all of the water in his water bottle to dump on the thing, even though he was told we weren't refilling any more water bottles that day, all in the name of scientific exploration.

 

 They shout at it.

Be re-assesses his previous decision.

 

They label it dead but stay to pay proper homage to the thing that had devoted it's existence to the entertainment and discovery of children.

 

 They build up the courage to touch it...

 

 and encourage friends to do the same.

They continue to find ways to try to make the thing move as it had before it was drenched.

They stomp it and squish it.

Ten minutes later, Br and Le still ponder the life and death of the thing.

*Stephanie*

A Zen Friday

Fridays tend to be my favorite day of the week.  I get to relax and reflect on the week without the pressures of preparing for the next day.  I often feel a sense of closure and accomplishment.  While some weeks feel like they slip away without having done anything substantial, many weeks feel like worthwhile chapters in the journey of life.

Today was a beautiful day.  The heat wave is over.  I had scratched many things off my work to-do list earlier this week.  I got a solid eight hours of sleep last night.  The stars were aligned.


Just after the last morning drop-off had occurred today, the classroom seemed to let out a sigh.  "We're all here," it seemed to say.  "The day starts now."  The day had started an hour before, but until then I had felt the weariness of adult stressors weighing heavily.  But just then I suddenly felt lighter.

I sat in an adult-sized chair in the middle of the classroom and watched.  And a zen-like ambiance filled the room.

It's not the first time this has happened.  It happens often when no one is looking.  When, beneath the volume and activity level of a normal preschool classroom, the low hum of the universe rises to almost an audible level.  Children harmonize.  Play synchronizes.  My heart rate stabilizes.  But it takes an internal calm to appreciate what these moments offer.

I watched as children played together.  Children who had never played with other children harmoniously suddenly seemed to understand the rules of the game.  A child with no sense of humor joined me in jovial conversation and laughter.  Another group of five children hovered around the sensory table, collectively making a cake with green sand and measuring cups and spoons.  Cooperative play unfolded as children coordinated duties in the cake-making and included extraneous peers into the game.  Everything seemed to click into place.

The morning continued on in this way, and we ended up having a very delayed circletime and snack because it felt wrong to interrupt such an opportunity for shared social development for the sake of schedule.  But eventually, we had to move on.

And as with many experiences, encounters, exchanges in preschool, we learn to embrace the gift and then move forward.  Relationships are transient, but no less valuable.  Moments that we desperately try to prolong with digital photography come and go.  But it's okay!  My Zen Friday is over, and these moments will continue to visit our classroom.  I just have to find my internal quiet and wait.

My Shopping Cart and Stroller Anxiety

It took me a while to find the courage to add those two little red shopping carts into the classroom.  I was very nervous about it, and also nervous about bringing in the pretend strollers. 

Why? 

I imagined myself with  just two shopping carts in the room, having to mediate conflict after conflict, settling turn-taking battles, dealing with crying children not getting turns, the noise of kids running with the shopping carts, the messes in every area of the room as kids collected massive quantities of toys and left them everywhere.  Why would I want that in my classroom?  It was like asking for chaos.  I reasoned with myself, they have those plastic ones outside, they don't need them inside, too.

But we were, after all, in our Grocery Theme.  I needed to at least give it a try.

Sometimes, being a teacher involves acknowledging the areas that hold us back from really being of service to the children.  It can be uncomfortable, but we walk through it.  And I was ready.  Ready to take on the carts.  I placed them quietly into the grocery store area of the classroom, and waited...

Well, I guess I had forgotten that, after all, I was not bringing these shopping carts into an ordinary group of kids.  This is a Beansprouts classroom, where children have learned how to wait for turns, and ask for turns, and negotiate order amongst themselves with light guidance.

To my surprise, the shopping carts became a harmonious tool for kids to play together, and have conversations, and discuss and plan their shopping adventures.  Adding the cashier's counter gave them yet another venue for practicing their social skills.

 R writing a receipt

It was amazing.

And to my surprise, the next day I was actually excited to bring in the strollers!


This morning I was happy to read this post at leaves, branches, trunks, and roots.  The dumping phenomenon is actually a universal (I have seen this over the years), as are many things about preschool behavior.  But the Beansprouts didn't dump, they "unloaded" their groceries onto other nearly empty shelves in the classroom.  They very willingly carted the groceries back to the grocery store at cleanup time. 

And now, our Grocery Theme is over and I'm not ready to take the shopping carts out of the room!

Moon Festival and Sukkot decorations

Aaaaaaah...after a long week, we once again end on Friday.

I just started following Along the Way because I liked her Moon Festival ideas so much!

Today we made Moon Cakes, based on her post about it on Wednesday.

I got the ingredients ready and at circle time, we introduced the "process" of making moon cakes (our way).  We also talked about how exciting the Harvest Moon is because that's the day when things are ready in the garden (like beans!).

They turned out very yummy (and very sweet!).

 

I collected the toppings and the dough that we had mixed in the morning and refridgerated for an hour (they each got to squish their own balls of dough and save them in a bag).  At circle, I made an example moon cake.

I showed them how to roll the dough into a ball, poke a hole on top, fill it with jam, and brush it with egg yolk paint.  Simple!

They did a fantastic job of doing the whole process with almost no help (the fact that I could take pictures proves how autonomous they were).

The hardest part was waiting for the moon cakes to cool when they came out of the oven!  I loved the color...the cooked egg yolk glaze made it look more like traditional moon cakes.

But it was worth the wait!

***

Sukkot

We also talked about Sukkot and for this holiday we are (sort of) turning our our patio area into a Sukkah.  At circle time, we did a mini-board story about the people of Israel and their pilgrimage through the wilderness, building temporary houses all along the way, in which they would eat and sleep.  We decided that we would eat our morning snack outside in honor of Sukkot.  The children also helped to decorate the patio area by making paper chains (which they were quite good at!) and hanging them from the roof of the patio.  Sukkot is also a harvest festival of sorts, and we were happy to have so many special snacks today, like the moon cakes and our very healthful smoothies* in the afternoon.

Here are some photos of our paper chain productions:

Have a great weekend, everyone!

*Stephanie*

*Smoothie ingredients:
-bananas
-strawberries
-cantelope
-spinach
-sprouted grain cereal (for the vitamins and second food group)
-chia seeds (for the omega fatty acids)
and for seconds (they finished the whole pitcher of the first smoothies):
-apples
-cinnamon
-a touch of agave nectar

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 Just say no to cookie cutter art projects!