It was quite the rainy week here at the farm but we all just sort of did our thing and managed through the downpours. It really is amazing to watch these children march along without complaint; aside from a few “My hands are getting cold.”, we really didn’t hear much resistance. How wonderful to be able to embrace the weather as it comes. I think our staff team has also learned a lot about just being outdoors and enjoying ourselves, regardless of what the weather might be. Enjoy some snapshots from the drier days and our cozy indoor times this week.
Nature School was invited to participate in the market place area for the BC Nurse Union Conference. Lovely to share our mandate with folks that work in keeping people healthy; it starts when they are young!
Two nurses enjoy our hands- on activity of making rosemary salt.
Owen scales this fence so quickly and confidently. He says he can “see the world.”
Heidi teaches the Owls a new game whereby the Bone Keeper, sitting in the middle, has his/her eyes closed and then someone must try to take the bone without them knowing. The Bone Keeper must then guess who has the bone behind their back.
Theia enjoys sneaking up on Hayden. Games like this one teach awareness, control and turn taking.
Barry reads the Eagles a beautiful book. They are captivated by the story, the pictures and Barry’s interpretation of the book.
Maliya and Ariel work together to try to make a tall structure. Working together to create an idea is a new stage of development for these children; it is hard but exciting too!
This small Eagle group is brainstorming about their walking stick project.
Exploring chalk pastel’s ability to blend and smudge, Avery spends a long time at this activity. What is she learning about colours, all on her own, as she is doing this?
Levi is proud of his work and says to me ” Take a picture of me to put on the blog!”. Too funny!
Nell and Kaya take the blocks from the light table and place them in front of the mirror. I hear them counting together. Are they noticing the reflection? This is numeracy at it’s core- an interest in knowing how many there are of something.
Manipulating clay in the Studio provides an opportunity for learning many different skills.
Tricia sees that Keaton is picking up the tubes and calling into them to make a new sound. She playfully lies down with him and they use it like a telephone. This simple scaffolding develops their relationship and shows Keaton his ideas are important.
Nika and Will make a car ramp, running cars down the tube with gravel. Each child will use a material in their own unique way.
Sharing space and materials, Hayden, Ibrahim and Will are filling and dumping. They are interested in how full they can make the pot.
Ariel takes a quiet moment to read on her own.
Heidi works with Esuh on his wet felting project. Esuh, always full of questions and comments, engages Heidi in a dialogue about the process.
These blocks are popular this week; which means this area is often loud and rambunctious. It is tempting to put them away but the learning is too important so we continue to help support the learning around sharing the blocks and ideas.
Damian challenges himself with the glass blocks; he keeps trying to make it taller and taller. What is about height and length that we find so fascinating?
Conor and Kingston have fun playing pirates together outside and here they are working on the pirate puzzle together. This theme is really an important connection for these two friends.
Heidi shows these Eagles how to wet felt because they did not get a chance to do it last week and we are going to use our projects for something later on. They are learning to listen and follow through on instructions.
‘Till the next post,
Emily