Tag Archives: children

teaching the young on a monday.

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i’m ready for you, kinder!

 

 

art credit: gary larson, the far side

living and learning.

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love seeing my granddaughters

riding while filled with a gentle spirit and mutual trust

love all the other grandies coming out

to see what they have been working on

love that they each have different things they love to do

karate, basketball, writing, swimming, cooking, reading, fantasy games,

swimming, horseback riding, drawing, helping people, flying, exploring,

floating, small business building, playing, celebrating

yet they all have the same tender spot for animals 

while living life and learning.

“from horses we may learn not only about the horse itself

but also about animals in general,

indeed about ourselves and about life as a whole.”

-george gaylord simpson

yellow.

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the kinder create with loose parts

dressed all in yellow. 

clearly in their yellow period. 

 

 

“yellow is the color which is closest to light.

we associate the rays of the sun and the stars with it.

it is the radiance of the spirit.”

– ueli seiler-hugova

breathings.

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the long letter

written on the outside of my valentine

was even more important

than the card inside

 the kinder who worked very hard to write it all down

read it out loud to me

confident, proud, with voice inflections, hands moving

and so much to say.

“fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”

-william wordsworth

portrait.

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one of the kinder drew this portrait of me in class

and

it is one of my favorite portraits of all time. 

 

‘every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”

-oscar wilde

memoir.

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the kinder wondered what happened to the big, old tree they used to play under

it was a good tree

we sat under it when it was hot in the sun and its shade kept us cool

we collected pretty leaves that floated down from it in the fall

it was on a hill and we ran by it in the winter when we were playing in the snow

pieces of it had been falling off for a very long time

we guess that maybe it was very old and very sick and it was getting too tired

 the kinder began to put its little pieces back on to decorate it

we hope that in the spring

a new sapling will come up near where the old tree used to stand so tall.

“a tree’s wood is also its memoir.”     

-hope jahren

creativity doesn’t wait.

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when you try and try

to make a snowman

 the fluffy, sticky, wet snow is gone

the icy, hard, dry snow is here

 you think and think

of another way

  just decorate a bump that you find

make a flat-puffy snowman

and there you go.

 

“creativity doesn’t wait for that perfect moment. it fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones.”
– bruce garrabrandt

moved.

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today a ladybug stopped by our classroom veterinary clinic

the kinder docs looked at it closely with a magnifying glass

 decided it might be having trouble flying

after much discussion, more close looks, a few notes on a paper, a phone call,

and a blood pressure check of one of the other docs

 their good care and magic worked

and the ladybug flew away home.

“true compassion means not only feeling another’s pain but also being moved to help relieve it.”

-daniel goleman

parenthood.

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advice from the kinder to the parents of a classmate’

about how to take care of their new baby.

one so sweet

one filled with adventure 

all the others equally from the heart

everyone has their own unique way of approaching parenthood.

“folks, i don’t trust children. they’re here to replace us.”

  • stephen colbert

learning is creation.

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“what does our word say?!!”

(two kinder working together in my multi-age classroom, one older, one younger)

 

“learning is creation, not consumption. 

knowledge is not something a learner absorbs,

but something a learner creates.”

-george couros