Our children have been learning about different bird species that inhabit the woods behind the school. One of the things they have become interested in is the differences in the bird calls. One of our youngest members of the class was being asked by Jen "What is the call of the chickadee?" His response was immediate: "chickadee dee dee". "What is the call of the blue jay?", Jen continued. And once again he responded correctly by saying, "jay jay jay". Jen then asked, "What is the call of the Canada Goose?" He stood to sing his response at the top of his lungs, “Oh Canada our home and native land”.
We of course shared the real bird call with him, but really loved his zest.
Another forest school note: The children were very excited last week when they had a chance to see a porcupine in a tree in the woods. One group of children also had a chance to see a deer!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Rolling Downhill
You would expect this blog to be a posting about Forest school, but in fact, it is a quick classroom observation from October.
We have really reached kind of a dynamic equilibrium: Normally September starts out with a little bit of chaos as everyone (parents, children and teachers) adapt to the new environment. This is somewhat highlighted in our new school where everyone is experiencing firsts, but, it is also somewhat moderated by our small size. After this adaptation period you start to get glimmers of an equilibrium where everyone is active and a lot of learning and growing is taking place and less of the adjument activities are occuring.
We settled into this early in October and one of the big indicators of that was activities of one of our little guys. He has really internalized the idea of the sequence of materials in a specific area. In particular he has identified an activity in the math area involving what is called the "Thousands Cube" (10x10x10 units arranged as a cube). He understands that this activity is a few steps further along than his current activity.
He has had converstations in the class about what he needs to accomplish to get to that activity and has now really engaged in the math area and is entirely rolling towards that goal on his own momentum, actively choosing this area and requesting lessons. This rolling analogy is not to suggest the activity is passive he is very much engaged, and indeed, even the teachers are helping and instructing to avoid snags. The satisfying observation for us is that this momentum is a great indicator of a class running well.
Aside: It reminds me of a really attractive element of child centered learning programs: He can spend a few weeks working hard in one area as his interest and focus are inspired and it does not disrupt the process by which all of the material is covered. But less obvious and perhaps even more profound he has experienced learning and understanding and even goal setting as a positive experience and that will carry him much further, and much more contentedly, than any math activity.
We have really reached kind of a dynamic equilibrium: Normally September starts out with a little bit of chaos as everyone (parents, children and teachers) adapt to the new environment. This is somewhat highlighted in our new school where everyone is experiencing firsts, but, it is also somewhat moderated by our small size. After this adaptation period you start to get glimmers of an equilibrium where everyone is active and a lot of learning and growing is taking place and less of the adjument activities are occuring.
We settled into this early in October and one of the big indicators of that was activities of one of our little guys. He has really internalized the idea of the sequence of materials in a specific area. In particular he has identified an activity in the math area involving what is called the "Thousands Cube" (10x10x10 units arranged as a cube). He understands that this activity is a few steps further along than his current activity.
He has had converstations in the class about what he needs to accomplish to get to that activity and has now really engaged in the math area and is entirely rolling towards that goal on his own momentum, actively choosing this area and requesting lessons. This rolling analogy is not to suggest the activity is passive he is very much engaged, and indeed, even the teachers are helping and instructing to avoid snags. The satisfying observation for us is that this momentum is a great indicator of a class running well.
Aside: It reminds me of a really attractive element of child centered learning programs: He can spend a few weeks working hard in one area as his interest and focus are inspired and it does not disrupt the process by which all of the material is covered. But less obvious and perhaps even more profound he has experienced learning and understanding and even goal setting as a positive experience and that will carry him much further, and much more contentedly, than any math activity.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)