Skip to main content

Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary

I thought to myself  "I don't have anything special to write about this week". But the truth is, I have been finding everything special in our class. Each and every moment, there is a child doing something interesting.

What is interesting?

  • Building with Keva planks
  • Washing paint off hands and arms
  • Changing from boots to shoes
  • Pretending to sell fruits and vegetables
  • Arguing over the cash register
  • Reading a book alone on a couch
  • Tearing masking tape off its roll
  • Drawing raccoons
  • Opening a snack container
  • Eating noodles without spilling them all over the floor
  • Creating a shopping list for making sushi tomorrow
  • Running, jumping, leaping, falling on the turf
  • Playing football ( yes, football complete with proper ball and teams!)
  • Going to the bathroom so independently
  • Taking turns, sometimes with ease, sometimes with great difficulty
  • Listening in group discussion time
  • Sharing their thoughts in group discussion time
  • Negotiating who sits where and with whom at lunch time
  • Organizing their bags, coats and other stuff in their cubbies

and listening to their conversations like this one-

Jack: You cannot marry someone you met a long time ago.
Kahlen: You can't marry someone in your family.
Miele: I want to marry my baby brother. She (pointing at Emma) is not going to marry Jack.
Kahlen: She wants to marry Jack but he doesn't want to marry her.
Jack: You just can't marry someone you knew for a long time (does he repeat this out of necessity?)
Emma: (looking at me) That's not even true, right?
Kahlen: When we marry, can you wear whatever you want? The flower girl has to match the bridesmaid dress.
Jack: Last wedding when mom and dad married, my mom threw the flowers.
Kahlen: I'm going to be a flower girl for my auntie's wedding.









The joy of teaching.

Emily

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mosaic Garden Stones

Today our children had an amazing opportunity to work with Glen Anderson, a local artist specializing in mosaics. You can see his work at http://www.mosaicplanet.net . I met Glen last year at Urban Weavers Studio in Strathcona. I asked him many, many questions about mosaics, all of which he patiently answered with expertise. I was gearing up for an art project in our preschool class so I really wanted to get any pointers I could from him. The plan was to have our students make mosaic tiles to place along our fence at the garden plot at Terra Nova Farm. They worked out very well, thanks to Glen's great advice and it was a beautiful moment when child and parent hung the stones at the farm on our last day of school. It was a moment of great pride for all of us. The garden that they cared for with their own hands- tended to its needs in sunshine and in rain. They will always remain part of that space, that land and their stone will remind them of this connection. Even though they turne...

A Love for Cabbage

Another day of working with cabbage-our prized cabbage that I babied throughout the summer. The cabbage that I saved from the demise of cabbage worms, watered, and surrounded with copper to scare away slugs. So, yes, babied. After all that care and love I was hoping the children would enjoy working with this gorgeous vegetable and like the taste of it. The coleslaw was a hit last week but would cooked cabbage get the same positive response? We assembled our ingredients for cabbage rolls and showed all the children. They smelled all the spices that were in the recipe and many of them loved the smell of the fresh garlic! They took great pride in recognizing onion, salt, pepper, tomato sauce and ground beef. I wanted to introduce them to another herb so we passed around marjoram, which many agreed smelled sweet. We pre-cooked the meat just so the children could work with the food without any cause for concern. The smell of the onions and meat simmering sparked the interest of many ...

Volunteering at Richmond Food Bank

Today was our last day volunteering at the Richmond Food Bank. I am so grateful we had this opportunity– it has been an extraordinary experience for all of us. I, myself, have been very lucky to work in a community where I have seen dedicated volunteers working countless hours for people and projects they believe in. In my own community centre, the staff devote extra hours for many events, all to help strengthen our community. From these experiences grew a desire within me to try to share this with our children. How can we make them generous with their time and energy for the good of others? How can we teach them to be giving people– people that think of others? Are they too young for these concepts? In my need to answer these questions, I sought to find a volunteer opportunity for them. I thought about many different ideas but the food bank always came out ahead. I was lucky enough to come across an open-minded and risk-taking individual– let's face it, preschoolers gett...