Beginnings

Today was just glorious. The weather this morning was cool and misty and the afternoon turned brilliant but not too hot. I took my morning and my afternoon classes for a walk through some nearby woods looking for treasures. We found many. Acorn hats, leaves of all shapes, colors and textures, lichen and moss, seed pods, pine cones and small gnarled sticks. It was fun to look up and see the big smiles on the faces of passersby as we bounded in and out of the underbrush, squealing with delight at a new find and worrying the handles of our sacks to nestle it inside.

Some of the children in my classes work on developing social skills, working hard to learn to enter into a meaningful relationship with their peers. Often it helps to provide explicit instruction to help them decode the steps that make engaging with someone happen. Many adults find this as mysterious as the children do! Yet with practice and supportive suggestions, skills are gained and friendships forged! These little guys are just learning to make friends. They were sharing a bag to afford them an opportunity to interact with each other. They began tentatively, both preferring to interact with me but creepingly slowly, they began sharing the responsibility of carrying the bag, discussing their finds and helping each other settle the object safely inside the bag. This was fabulous and I was soon no more than a bystander! The natural world brought them out, coaxed them to chat together, to wait for their new friends' answer and to respond and look at each other. The excitement of discovery became their common experience and their enthusiasm provided the impetus to work at something that is challenging for them. I was thrilled!

This summer I read "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv and this year I am striving to bring my classroom outside as much as possible while still addressing daily the individual needs of each child. Today's experience certainly encourages me to continue to do so. My classes have adopted a nearby apple tree to chronicle it's changes, discuss its' uses and cook with its' harvest. We will chart and graph, draw and rub and trace, plant and eat. I am excited and so do they seem to be :)

Tomorrow we are taking today's discoveries and making pictures of animals or self portraits a la "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert--a wonderful book. I will blip them so you can see :)