developmental ponderings

For me, the last several weeks have been a whirlwind!  Getting to know these 12 amazing pre-k's has been truly special, and now, much too quickly, it is almost time for me to say good-bye.  I am astounded that next week is our last full week of school.

I've been thinking long and hard about this incredibly important period of time.  The children are playful, imaginative, active, brilliant.  They are exploring with language, with writing, with experimentation  They can challenge parents and teachers.  They can be cuddly and adorable.

If you have a moment I encourage you all to take a look at this article:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1574854/?page=4

It is called The Thorny Child and provides a wonderful overview of the emotional stages which might loosely corollate to age as the child grows and matures.  I know that I found this useful, and actually still do, with my own children.

The end of the year provides excitement in that our classroom schedule is often disrupted with important and fun end of the year activities.  Yesterday we went to Claire Kucera's Electric Hearts Play.  I was amazed with her dedication to inquire based learning.   Wednesday we watched our  upper school buddies perform our play for us as well as the entire upper school!  This was wonderful, darling and the students loved it!  In class we are focused on thanking those who have helped us throughout this year,   There is plenty happening and sometimes a lot of emotion.  Thank you for all that you do to help your children grow into the amazing adults they will one day be.

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Sharon and Meredith

learning celebration wrap up

I EXPLORE

I CREATE

I CONNECT

I COMMIT

These are the four essential competencies of OES. Our class's budding expertise in these areas was evident in their work showcased in the installation, both individually and collaboratively, and also seen through their interactions with others. Their comfortability with the work and materials in the installation shone as they acted as guides and ambassadors, and their pride was sweet to see! The amazing thing about this year in particular, was that all we teachers had to do was LISTEN. This group has been full of IDEAS, IMAGINATION and WONDER. They brought us our biggest areas of study this year, and worked together to grow the work and bring it to life for our families and OES community to join in and wonder with us.

How did our upper school buddies help us to explore relationships this year?

How did our creation of the underground world nurture our imaginations?

How does becoming someone else help us get to know ourselves better?

Why might it be important to share our learning with our community?

What will INSPIRE us next? 

Mount Hood Climb Service Day

     Yesterday I had the honor of joining our class in a day of service.  We began at the Bell Tower surrounded by our entire school community.  This was my first opportunity to see the entire school together.  I was struck by so many different emotions- the sadness of the remembrance, the beauty of the bell ceremony,  the comfort, the calm and the respect which I observed throughout all of the students, parents and staff.   This brief memorial was an experience which I will remember, cherish and share with my own friends and family.
      Meredith and I, in our efforts to make this day as meaningful as possible for these youngest learners, decided that we should focus our attention on some of the spaces which they hold dear- naturally we immediately thought of the woods and the wetlands as those are often areas of play and exploration.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that our woods are exceptionally clean, so after a short period of looking we moved to the field.  The children quickly noticed the difference, but also recognized why one space would be more likely to gather trash than the other.  The woods are a place for play, for exploration, for imagination.  The field is a place of community gathering, excitement and celebration.   One naturally lends itself to having more trash present.  Both pre-k classrooms showed amazing endurance and true excitement and pleasure at the difference they were able to make for our school.
     After a short break, and a wonderful book, we wondered over to our wetlands.  Our book, Miss     Rumphius, told of a woman who was challenged to travel, to live by the sea, and to make the world a more beautiful place.  We, in our continued focus on service, worked to make our space in the world a more beautiful place by spreading wildflower seeds.  Hopefully we will see new plants growing for years to come.
     I am truly amazed by the incredible experience which yesterday provided for me as well as the kids.  They deeply understand the importance of taking care of each other, of taking care of our community and of taking care of our spaces in the world.  As always, I learn so much from all of my experiences here and feel so blessed to continue to learn and to grow alongside these amazing youngsters.


















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Rhododendron Garden

As you all know, we went to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens last week. We lucked out with the most beautiful and sunshine filled window of time. It was one of our most relaxing and fun pre-k field trips to date! We enjoyed connecting with family members who were able to join us, our lovely art studio teacher Laura, the neighboring pre-k class students and teachers, and of course with the natural world. I think we all came away refreshed and in good spirits! 

What do we notice that is small and what do we notice that is BIG? 

What happens when pen and paint meet somewhere outside of our art studio?

What emotions and stories live in the colors we choose?

What ways might we connect with our surroundings?

Nature walk

Thursday April 21, 2016

I consider myself  blessed to have this opportunity to see the world through the eyes of the pre-k students.  So much is new, and exciting.
Today, while the students were examining our caterpillars with mind buddies they made observations such as:
 "they are getting so big",
"there is poop on every leaf"
"the holes in the leaves are so much bigger"
 "they eat a lot and they poop a lot"
"they are turning into butterflies"

Then I was asked "Sharon, why did you have to put a green leaf in with them, they are so hard to see."

We took this question to the class for conversation and the results were fabulous.  The students knew and discussed the fact that they eat the green leaves, but they wondered further if we could put in something else instead "so that we could see them" something like "apples" or "cake even".  "so they don't blend in so much"

Tomorrow we are going to give the caterpillars apple.

Cabbage white larva are incredibly quick growing, and their chrysalis stage is very short.  We should have butterflies within 2 weeks.  When these caterpillars joined our class on Monday  they were less than 1 cm in length and less than 1 mm in width.  They are now getting close to an inch long.  The growth is fast and exciting to observe.












Yesterday was also a fabulous day for a nature walk.  The tadpoles were visible in the pond, there were animal tracks in a slide to the water, the beaver dam was accessible.  The kids found sticks which were "walking sticks" "dragon slayers" "fire sticks"  and "taller than me" sticks, we observed leaves and wildflowers and overall had a wonderful time.

Character's of Bloomsberry & The Underground

The evolution of the characters of Bloomsberry and The Underground truly shows the growth of these amazing pre-k students over the course of this study. The complexity of their characters continues to develop as they bring them to life through the arts and imaginary play. Below are images and snippets of conversations from art studio, where the children painted large scale images of witches. They started with one color and one brush, taking turns and passing the brush back and forth while discussing the attributes of their witches. The next step was to work in color families to add pinks/reds and then green/yellows. The children have also returned to experimenting with costume in their imaginary play, and have developed the beginnings of stories around these other characters.

She has bumps. There are nine arms. These are extra eyeballs! She has eyeballs on her stomach.

Her belly button is showing. The dress is striped. The dress is blue, there will be a color between the lines.  Her hair is straight. But some parts didn't get cut, this part is short and this part isn't short.

This witch is on fire, and is from nowhere. Her face is black. She is very spiky and poisonous.

She is a puzzled witch. She has six arms and three fingers each. She has blood and a heart. Her heart is alive. She has bumps all over the place. She is wearing a dress. An exploding dress. 

It is nighttime. He likes the night the best because he is spooky. He has a hat on and looks cool. He has smooth skin and feels soft. He is asleep at day time and he is awake at nighttime. 

She has lots of belly buttons and spiky hair. Her dress is made of steam. If you get close to her, she puts you in jail. She has 100,000,000 cats and only eats stump stew. She is from poison land. 

She has squiggly legs, and squiggly arms, and a thorny dress. She has a tusk on her nose, and one nostril. She has curly crazy hair. She has pointy, pointy, ouchy, ouch hair all over the place. Our witch has three legs. She has one big toe on each leg. She only has one eye, and a big CHOMP mouth, so she can eat everything in one bite! She has one BIG ear, and a magic star in her hair. 

I am a wizard! I live in a very light cave in Bloomsberry. The cave has glow in the dark stars when I turn off the lights. Wizards are afraid of the dark. She has a spell basket. A wizard make magic powers and brownies. I am friends with pirates and doctor princesses. 

I am a princess of rainbow sparkle jewel unicorns. I ride a unicorn, and I can fly. The horn makes her fly. The unicorns name is Sissy Lala Abigail. I live in Bloomsberry. I play with my friends, and sometimes I even tell secrets at playdates and sleepovers. My favorite thing to eat is unicorn sparkles and jewels from them. Sometimes I am also a doctor princess. I am peaceful.

I am a princess hero. I live in a talented family. We live in costume land. It is in Bloomsberry.

I am a princess doctor. I go places where people get really sick, and help them live. Sometimes I am a princess doctor and I have 24 and 55 powers. Some of them are snow powers, and ice. And I have water powers. I have melting powers, and I haves one summer powers. I also have statue powers.

I am a pirate that lives in the underground. I have a pet tarantula, coyote, wolf and a t-rex named Fangs. I like playing around inside my ship because I have my own secret hideout in the sea, and I have a fleet of ships. It is an underground ocean because this underground ocean is in Battle Island. Up in Bloomsberry there are some knights, and sometimes the knights come down and we hide behind some old roots and then we attack with our compasses and pistols. That is what we do!

I am a police officer in Bloomsberry, and I do not battle. I help people who are hurt and put bad guys in jail. I live on Fantastical Creature Island. My name is Sky. I am a police officer dog. I mostly just play and fly. It is important to help people because it is my job, and because I Just want our whole community to be safe.