Happy New Year to all as we enter into 2020!!
As we are about to start the new term, I have been taking yet another look at the work, philosophy and wisdom of Maria Montessori. I came across these insightful words of hers: 'If education is protection to life, you will realise that it is necessary that education accompany life during its whole course.’ I appreciate this truth and realise that as time marches on our absorption of learning is not finite. My eldest daughter (19 years old) reminded me of this during the holidays when I tried to organise her social life and she was having none of it! Lesson in life about letting go! Much like the tower in the picture our lessons in life are a series of building blocks which can at times collapse under the strain of thinking we know it all (picture 2)! The children don’t pretend to have all the answers as they are ambassadors for imagination and love discovering, learning and absorbing all the lessons that life has to offer. We naturally see a tower in the pictures but when I asked the children what they saw the answers were diverse and brilliant. They saw a person, a plant, a tooth, a rainbow and best of all some saw simply a process; a process of balance, weight, size, shape and wonder and fun – especially when it toppled over. What could be more joyful?! So here’s to continuous discovery and learning! Happy 2020! During the Christmas of 1747 in Herrnhaag, Germany, a young bishop called Johannes de Watteville made the first Christingles from candles wrapped in red ribbons. He gave them to the children to celebrate the birth of a child who brought light into the world.
Over the years the Christingle has evolved keeping the red ribbon and the candle but adding the orange, cloves and sometimes different fruit. Our children enjoyed making their Christingles and happily took them home. Some wanted to light them and others simply wanted to eat the orange. It made me reflect upon the original purpose of the Christingle: that children are a joy and all bring happiness, light, hope and love. Wishing all children everywhere a happy holiday. The past week we delved deeper into the world and lifestyle of Neanderthals. We had discussed what they made their paint from last week and this week decided to think about other aspects of Neanderthal life.
So! We looked at where in the world they lived. Out came the continents puzzle map and we identified all the continents and placed a man from our ‘m’ sound bag in Europe. Also in our sound bad was a ‘monkey’ and a ‘mermaid’. We debated if the Neanderthals came into contact with those and the children rationalised that the mermaid would ‘definitely not’ be found on land and anyway as one said ‘but Fawzia they are pretend’, and as for the monkey, ‘perhaps not as they like it hot’ and we had already had talked about Neanderthals living in the Ice Age. In the pages of this wonderful book we learned that Neanderthals were actually quite clever: they made fire. One child asked ‘how’ so we looked it up in the book and found out they made sparks from striking flint or they rubbed wood; the Neanderthals made tents – again another child asked ‘how’? so we looked it up in the book and found out they used animal hides – they hunted. And again a child questioned ‘but what did they hunt with?’ so we looked it up in the book and found pictures of different types of blades they made from flint and bones. And we all concluded Neanderthals were actually pretty smart people. Funnily enough last night on TV there was a programme all about Neanderthals and it concluded what the children had thought, that Neanderthals were intelligent, cognitive and on the money! In baking we prepared healthy snacks of roasted vegetables with garlic and herbs – rosemary and thyme plucked from the nursery garden. The children were busy, smashing garlic, plucking rosemary and chopping peppers, tomatoes and florets of broccoli. One girl said that we could find more mushrooms in the Gruffalo’s forest which was handy as we nearly ran out! And finally! On a summery walk to the park Archie (our border collie) had fun chilling out with the children! This week we are painting like Egyptians! This past week, before we put our feet up and enjoyed the long sunny weekend, we went back in time, WAY BACK! About 40,000 years or so...
We learned about people – we named them Neanderthals (one boy insisted on calling them Neanderthals) that used to stride the Earth. They lived in caves and they hunted animals, and they painted. They painted with berries and animal fat. ‘What’s fat?’ one of the children asked. Hmmm... without wanting to fat shame myself, I ventured, ‘We all have fat – humans and animals – to keep us warm. And we have muscles which help us move’. The children and I then patted and felt our arms, legs and tummies. ‘Where were the muscles in our arms?’ We flexed our arms and found biceps and triceps, ‘And what were they hidden beneath?’ I asked. Silence and then, ‘Fat?’ suggested a girl. ‘Yes! We have layers of fat beneath our skin. They help to keep us warm’ I told them. ‘And do they help to protect us when we fall?’ a boy asked. ‘They certainly do!’ And after that little discussion we set about making Neanderthal paints. Using berries, butter (I couldn’t source animal fat and some of us are vegetarian) and a mortar and pestle. The children loved getting stuck in! We all got wet, greasy and messy! And what a better way to start the Summer Term than making, baking and then breaking bread?! (see photo below)
It was great to welcome back all the children, parents, friends and carers back for the start of a new term. Everyone was looking refreshed, happy to be back and full of the joys of spring! Easter had been fun according to our motley bunch. As the children volunteered their news on what they had got up to during the break the number of Easter eggs received gradually went up – one child got one, and another child said they had got one, and another child said that they had got four as they had been on an egg hunt and finally one boy said he had acquired 100 and eaten the lot! Hmmm… We revised and reviewed the rules of the nursery (which we unpinned from our display board) this week encouraging the children to phrase things positively. For example, instead of ‘Don’t run!’ it’s better to say ‘walk in the classroom’, and ‘Don’t shout’ is replaced with ‘Use inside voices.’ It was a great exercise in positive communication! I started off with our first rule of the nursery which is ‘Be Happy!’ One boy remarked, ‘That’s not a rule!’ to which I replied ‘Of course it is. We make the rules, and at the moment, there are no rules on what the rules are, so we can rule whatever we want as the rules!’ He accepted that! We continued on; the children wanted a rule ‘Don’t hit or punch’ and between us all we rephrased it into ‘we are gentle and kind’ and thought about how we can be gentle and kind by helping each other. And finally for now, as it would be quite drawn out if I repeated all the rules here, rather than phrasing the most recent suggestion ‘Don’t take things out of other people’s drawers’ we rephrased that as ‘Only use your draw!’ This week we are going to be starting our new topic of paints and artists! I am excited as over the next few weeks we will be recreating how to make paints and tying this in with the history of art and artists. First up is Neanderthal cave paintings painted with berries and fat! So guess what I am taking in to nursery tomorrow?! Will keep you posted!... Continuing on from the music of last week we finished the term with our, always delightful, singing assembly.
The picture shows the calm before the storm, or to be more precise the calm before the cacophony of little and large voices, some lively spontaneous dancing, the sharing of hot cross buns, cakes and drinks and finally messages of happy Easter as everybody wended their way! Happy Easter holidays and looking forward to more learning fun next term! This week saw the start of the counting down to Easter; this was done in a variety of two ways; namely singing and baking and then more singing! All wholly beneficial to the soul!
In circle the children have begun to now sing about Isaac Newton, Marie Curie and, of course, Archimedes. Tim has written a catchy little number we call the ‘Science Song’ and our children refer to it as the ‘Eureka! /Apple on Isaac Newton's head’ song. We have five little ducks with a usually loud quacking mother duck as well as singing for the whereabouts of the Muffin Man. We find him by passing a hat around the circle –much like pass the parcel – and whoever has the hat when the song ends is the muffin man! The children play this in a variety of ways; some are suspicious of the Muffin Man hat and ignore it, don’t want to touch it or have anything to do with it, others play the game and pass it on happily, and a few eagerly grab it and then attempt to style it out singing with gusto, not passing it on and then crowning themselves the Muffin Man when the song ends!… Will be interesting to see how it all goes in our Spring Term singing circle this coming Thursday… Another preparation for Easter came during baking when the children donned their newly sewn gingham aprons, courtesy of Anna, and set about making rice crispie chocolate nests. They were all very excited and what was impressive was their self restraint in not munching as they made! They popped some chicks in the nests, one child confirming ‘but we won’t eat the chicks’ and were very delighted when there was enough mix to make two each! They didn’t last long as they were tucked into at pick up time whilst going out of the gate. And finally to The Music Fun Day! Tim has been wanting for a while to do an event, not only to promote the nursery but also something that all parents, current and old can enjoy… and so the Music Fun Day became a thing! Very exciting and as the name says fun fun and even more fun! Tim was able to pull together some stellar, and hugely accomplished, musicians and the band played for 2 sets of about an hour. All who attended enjoyed the day and the resounding consensus was that the music was simply fantastic; not only were there were the standard nursery songs – such as 'Wind the Bobbin Up’ and ‘If you’re Happy and you Know it’ and a delightful version of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little star’ when full audience participation happened but also there were numbers like ‘Raindrops keep falling on my head’, ‘We all live in a Yellow Submarine’ and ‘I’m the King of the Swingers’ (from Jungle Book). The richness of the music was appreciated and the band are already thinking about the next event! Roll on the festival! |
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