Where we left off...

As we enter the spring season the teachers and the students will start to pour all of their energy into creating and bringing to culmination OUR LEARNING CELEBRATION. The learning celebration is a time for reflection, recognition and honoring the HARD WORK that we as a community have encountered throughout the school year. Currently the themes we will continue to study are:

The human heart- we  investigated what is happening on the inside? from a fairly scientific view at the beginning of the year. Around the holiday season we started to explore the social emotional learning that happens in the heart (and brain). What are emotions? How do we communicate them? Why is it important to recognize how a friend is feeling? How can we help one another when we are feeling frustrated or sad? What does a peaceful community look and feel like? This lead us to the creation of:

Bloomsberry- our land of friendship. A place where love, laughter, safe adventure and all things that can fill ones buckets live. New questions we have started to explore are: What other creatures live in Bloomsberry? What are the neighborhoods of Bloomsberry? Why do these neighborhoods exist? How do they influence who WE are as individuals and as a community? How do we feel when we are with our friends here in this place? We learned through our play that not everything feels good all the time. We have curiosities and impulses that do not necessarily fit into BLOOMSBERRY but are still very much a part of us. And so we created:

The Underground. Here mystery, risk, and challenge live. In the underground we sometimes feel wild, afraid, angry, daring and mischievous-  Questions we are exploring here are: Who are our WILD THINGS? What do they do? Why are they important? What scares us? What happens when we feel afraid or angry? What stories live here? How can we honor one another when we are feeling BIG feelings? How can we be peaceful warriors in our darker world? How do Bloomsberry and The Underground connect? 

Here are a few images that captures work that explores these current wonderings:

A new Bloomsberry Character named Chocolate.

If our community were to have one BIG heart what would live in it?

This Bloomsberry character is named Ella.

Our Wild Things: What story do they have to tell?

And just because it is cool and snakes live underground- Addie brought in the molting of her snake Angel.

Our last week before Spring Break we had an AWESOME intern. Her name is Jennifer and she is an US sophomore. For her winterim study she wanted to be a part of a classroom. We were so lucky to have her around. She was super fun, loved to play games, read great stories and helped out when we needed it most.