We worked this week with an Early Springtime Pussy Willow Circle composed by Laurie Clark and Clair Orphanides. Waldorf Circles are made up of seasonal poetry, classic nursery rhymes, finger plays, songs, and movement games. These are combined in a logical order to create an entire story made of movement. This Circle contains classic Mother Goose rhymes and more:
- Hey, Diddle Diddle
- Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been?
- Three Little Kittens
(Music for Little People 101 Toddler Favorites volume 4) - Little Robin Redbreast
- Pussy Willow
(seasonal poem - Spring by Wynstones Press page 29) - Grasshoppers Three
(traditional song - Seven Times the Sun page 72, CD track 15)
For the last few weeks of the school year we will be working with Circles for well-loved traditional fairy tales ("Sweet Porridge" and "Goldilocks").
We continued with our Songs, Verses & Movement for classroom routines.
Circle Time
#1 - "Good Morning, Dear Earth" verse
#2 - "Morning Verse"
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, page 13
#3 - "We Stretch Right Up to the Star of Our Birth" verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 56
#4 - "Early Springtime Pussy Willow Circle"
from Movement Journeys and Circle Adventures: Therapeutic Support for Early Childhood by Nancy Blanning & Laurie Clark, pages 65-69
Monday, April 22
This morning I observed a new variation on play dough play unfold, as the children began rolling the circular plastic lids along the ground to see what paths they would take: straight or curved. Then they would race the lids across the room and see whose went the farthest.
Today I also set out my newest early childhood Montessori material. This material, the Third Box of Color Tablets, is for developing the sense of visual discrimination. It is tremendously visually appealing and Natalie had her hands in it as soon as I opened the box (she's 17). However, I have some steadily-increasing objections to the Montessori materials for early childhood. As I see my own students work with them, I am struck by their limitations. Montessori materials are always called a "work" and they truly are the opposite of play. Unlike the freedom of exploring -- like the play dough lids, which can become a toy in and of themself -- in a Montessori work there is just one correct way to use the material. You must get a lesson on the work and then do it in the way you have been taught.
I have consistently seen how, given the choice between a Montessori material and a Waldorf material, children are interested in the Montessori work first. It looks like there is something to do, and they want to do it. But once they see that they can do only one thing with it, the material holds their interest for only a short time. On the other hand, a Waldorf toy like a basket of silks or a basket of pine cones doesn't look like there's anything you are supposed to do with it. So for some children, this is off putting. But then when the imaginative play begin, these things are perfect because of their flexibility. Then the children are absorbed in the game and those open-ended materials now support many possible variations.
In the long term, I see that children are completely drawn into the Waldorf because of its fundamental belief that the work of the young child is play.
Outside, the main goal of the group was carrying our landscape timbers from the old path and putting them back under the magnolia tree in large piles, then finding new ways to climb into the tree and balance and swing from its branches. The timbers and the tree have been there since the first day of school... today, they were still played with in new ways. The older children are playing with the timbers in new ways too. Released from the path and back into the flow of play, the wooden pieces and some cardboard boxes are being used to construct a series of boats.
Follow the rule that a toy should be as open ended as possible (90% child and 10% toy) and the play materials can continue to expand and flow with your child's changing creativity and exploration. Our book club will read Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids by Kim John Payne over the summer and try to apply principles from it, then meet up in August to discuss.
In my Foundations study with the faculty at the Waldorf School of St. Louis we are currently reading The Kingdom of Childhood by Rudolf Steiner. I was very struck by his comments on how much curriculum for early childhood education is focused on being CLEVER, and is often very clever indeed, but that it does not often take into account the actual unfolding of child development. Instead of what we are teaching, the young child is actually taking in who we are. Think of the young child as a pure sense organism. So the question in all of this imitative stage from birth to the change of teeth is "Am I a person worth imitating?"
Tuesday, April 23
Another reflective day for me of observing play. I saw play with old favorites including blocks, musical instruments, Connectagons, the marble maze, paper and scissors (folding and cutting is still immensely popular), and the basket of silks and the Pikler Triangle.
Dr. Rudolf Steiner would say that young children are putting all of their energy into developing their will, and so you should not stop their play to say to them, "Why are you doing that?" They are working with their will forces and should not be pushed up into an academic evaluative realm. Dr. Maria Montessori would also say that a child should be allowed to choose the same work over and over if he or she wishes. We may not be able to see what learning is going on, but if a child is choosing it (even if it looks like endless repetition) then something is still drawing him or her to the material. When given freedom of choice, people don't choose to be bored. Therefore, if they are choosing something then they are still finding it interesting and so they are learning... and are to be given time to engage in it as long as they like.
I find it fascinating that the play with the Pikler (which I got from Table Manners Woodwork) is often about light and darkness. The children love to experiment with how the sheerness of our silks can create darkness -- even total blackness -- if enough of them are layered on top of one another. The play with the Pikler always revolves around two children being under it and reporting on how dark it is growing inside while two other children add silks and constantly ask about what it looks like from underneath. Then they trade places. I have seen the older children climb under the Pikler too and marvel at how dark it has become. So this play is not limited to small children!
Today we added two new plant growing experiments to our Nature table. Joining our avocado seed and sweet potato are the cut bases of bok choy and celery, each placed into a dish of water to see if they would grow new shoots and leaves. Then it was outside to the magnolia tree to hang from it as a little tree frog, march around it and guard the princess Becca (here, the tree was a castle) and, of course, be a dragon hatching from an egg. At first we thought it might be a griffin's nest but, as it turns out, the massive Nest we built of sticks last week is a perfect spot for baby dragons to be born.
Thursday, April 25
Earlier in the week I gave a dried stalk of pussy willow to each child who wanted to take one home. Today we took the ones which had been kept in water (and we even saw how a new branch and new leaves have erupted from one of the soft fuzzy catkins) and planted them in my yard. It was raining pretty hard at the time and so there was a lot of puddle jumping afterwards, plus joyful digging in the garden and making pots of mud stew. The kids in my group absolutely love the Puddle Pants and other raingear from A Toy Garden!
We also sang "I Love Catkins," track 6 from The Singing Year and read another pussy willow poem on page 31 of the Wynstones Spring book.
Having pussy willows where we play outside would be a wonderful sensory experience, along with lamb's ear, mint, and lavender. I would love to fill my yard with an abundance of sensory delights and welcome more suggestions!
Pussy Willow's Time to Shine
In indoor play, playing with my little wooden honeybees under the dining room table, and building a hive of play silks around around the table and covering the chairs, was again popular.
Of course, today was also Fruit Salad day. Here was our list of group contributions this week:
strawberry
banana
apple
raspberry
cantaloupe
We made two different dishes. The first was a cold treat based on some frozen strawberries which we macerated in a bit of sugar. Then I served the softened strawberries and their juices alongside organic vanilla yogurt. We also made a larger fruit salad with the other fruits. Both were so delicious! The older children enjoyed the dishes as well and each came to say thank you to the younger children who worked so hard preparing the food.
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Immersive Experience
Immersive Experience
Immersive Experience
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