photo collage

A reflection work after going to the forest in 2010.  This gives me a few sketchbook ideas, and ways to incorporate collage and photography into our work in the garden.

So far, this week

Working and playing are one and the same.

More stories

I love this story because it is about the whole world of stories.  E adds these little pieces from stories she has heard, like the line "Every day, she did".  The picture is a big inspiration for the words, and she incorporates so many aspects of it into the story.  (Side note: scrap paper from the bin in the copy room is more inspirational to the kids than regular paper.)  In the end it doesn't matter if the events in her story are connected or not; it matters that she is a storyteller.  And that ending, "He crept into his house, and set off" - someone is hearing all kinds of stories.  I love it.

With just two weeks left in the school year, the stories are pouring out and it is unstoppable.  Someone cried on Thursday because I said we had to go home and all of the Moms were waiting and he couldn't read his story - and the children agreed that it was more important for M to read his story than for us to be on time.  Amazing.  And it was an excellent, dinosaur filled end to our Thursday.

I hope that this trend means more stories to share here - I'm finding that it is one of my absolute favorite parts of preschool.  Besides the spontaneous break dancing session that P showed us on Friday.  And I got all excited about the possibility of a dance project and exploring the different kinds of dance with our bodies, clay, painting, stories, music - whew!  That has to happen somewhere, someday.

I was in my classroom this week with the intention of figuring out a layout for the room.  I spent most of the time standing in the middle of the space, drinking tea and staring.  Anyone who saw me doing that probably thought I wasn't being productive.  But I most certainly was.  Details on that will come later.

But I found some treasures while I was dragging furniture and emptying boxes, and I'm sharing them here.  Evidence of what we do in the classroom together, and what the children create.  I can't wait to get back.

I'll be taking a real, true, honest break until I return to the classroom so I can get off the grid and enjoy my last week of vacation.  I'll be back in a few weeks.

Neighborhood Stories

I love this idea.  I wish I were in Toronto so that i could see this exhibit.  Just like The Hundred Languages of Children exhibit, bringing young children's visions and words into a public space is a way for entire communities to see the value of documentation and child-centered education.  Go see it and tell me about it!

Neighbourhood Diaries, via Nostalgia for the Future