Dancing shadows.

Recently on a trip to Mt St John, Georgia and Sara discovered that their shadows could dance just like they could.
It was fascinating to observe the girls swinging their arms and swaying from side to side, watching carefully as their shadows would imitate their every move. It didn’t take long for the giggles to start, and this soon evolved into roaring laughter!

Returning to Mt St John.

On Wednesday we had our first visit up Mt St John for the year. It was a beautiful sunny morning and there was a real sense of excitement and anticipation for the walk. As always it was fascinating to see the way in which our newest girls encountered the mountain. We took in the sights, ran through the long grass and shared in a picnic together at the top. We were also surprised to discover that a flock of sheep had replaced the resident brown cows!

Here are some images from our journey:

"Children are born with a sense of wonder and an affinity for Nature. They explore the world with all of their senses, experiment in the environment, and communicate their discoveries to those around them."

- Zenobia Barlow

Flower pressing.

We recently drew and then pressed some of our beautiful Pansies. We can't wait to see what they look like once they've been in the press for a little while!

"Flowers whisper 'Beauty' to the world, even as they fade, wilt, fall.  - Dr. SunWolf"

A love of nature.

"The future will belong to the ‘nature-smart’

 - those individuals, families, businesses, and political leaders who develop 

a deeper understanding of the trans-formative power of the natural world 

and who balance the virtual  with the real. 

The more high-tech we become, the more nature we need."

 -Richard Louv

Nature is providing the girls with opportunities to build theories about their world, wonder about the beauty they are surrounded by and to think about their responsibility for safeguarding our precious natural resources.

The girls interest in Mt St John, and the flowers and trees around us, is proving to be a powerful catalyst for our learning in the Foundation Class. At a recent conference we attended, the keynote speakers from Reggio Emilia, talked about the importance of children having an emotional relationship with the topic of the project in order for them to engage deeply with it. This notion has intrigued us and we have been considering this idea as we have been noticing how the girls have wholeheartedly embraced our work centred around ‘all things of nature’.

The girls have been writing, reading, measuring, comparing, designing and having to think hard about the work they are doing. The pride they take in their work is commendable. We believe that learning in the early years is most effective when it is connected with things the children are able to be actively involved in. Things that capture their imagination - as the fairy letters do - gives valid reason for learning how to write letters and numbers correctly, form words and sentences. Giving meaning to learning brings so much joy!

“Children develop an understanding that symbols can be “read” by others and that thoughts, experiences, and ideas can be represented through words, pictures, print, numbers, sounds, shapes, models and photographs” -  Te Whaariki; Early Childhood Curriculum. Goal 3 Communication

A gift for our mountain.

Last week we were very lucky to have Siena's mum, Melissa, join us on our walk up Mt St John. Siena had a wonderful idea to construct a fairy swing, and Melissa worked with the girls to create a very beautiful swing indeed.

Thank you so much for joining us for our walk Melissa, we absolutely love our families joining in on our adventures.

Measuring our trees.

Conversations have continued around the idea of there being 'boy' trees and 'girl' trees, and many times the girls have discussed what 'makes' a tree either a girl or a boy. The height of the trees seems to be a popular theory, however one girl has suggested it might be to do with whether the trunk is 'fat or not'.

In response to these discussions we invited the girls to take a closer look at the trees and to engage in a measuring experience relating to the circumferences of the trees. The girls have also been working to compare the sizes of the different leaves from the trees. Here are some images from their measuring experience:

“Participation in active enquiry develops children’s confidence in offering ideas and in understanding.”

- Te Whaariki: Links with Essential Learning Areas (Science)

 

"Does a tree have a belly button?"

Last week Chicky wondered out loud, "Does a tree have a belly button?" The girls discussed this question and decided that they were uncertain as to the answer. We enabled the girls to go out and investigate, exploring the trees in our garden. The girls insisted on photographing a couple of their own belly buttons so that they knew what they were looking for. They soon found what they believe to be the 'trees belly button'.

Sydney shared a wonderful theory about the possibility of trees having belly buttons:

“Maybe...a tree has a bellybutton, just like we have a bellybutton because a tree is born out of a seed. The mommy tree, she drops her seed down if she wants to have a baby.”
- Sydney

A conversation about trees...

“There are apple trees and pear trees, mandarin trees and rose trees.”
- Chicky

“And...honey trees!” - Sydney
“Yeah, they have hives all around.” - Chicky

“Camellia trees.” - Victoria

“Bottle brush trees and peanut trees, even moving trees.” - Ishani

“There are mango trees. Mmmmm my dad loves mangos.” - Olivia

“There are banana trees, grapefruit trees...Christmas trees!” - Siena

“Oh, and FANCY TREES! I’ve seen a fancy tree before with a fancy ribbon around it.”
- Siena

“A fancy tree would have a bow tie don’t you think? - Ishani

“Did you know there are girl trees and boy trees!” - Ishani

“Do you girls agree with Ishani that there are girl trees and boy trees?” - Mrs Smith

“Yes, yes...yes!”  - All of the girls agree

“Girl trees have long hair and boy trees have short hair.” - Siena

“The leaves are their hair. The boy trees are the biggest trees and the girl trees are the smaller ones.” - Ishani

“Annnnnd, have you ever heard of a ‘lovely’ tree?” - Olivia

Caring for 'our' world.

Stemming from the girls work around the buttercups, a focus for this term has developed around ecological thinking and caring for our beautiful world.

We based a recent morning meeting discussion around the ways in which we can work to take care of our world and the girls spoke passionately about what they believed they needed to do to make a difference. It was lovely to hear words such as care and responsibility coming through.

“We need to take care of the world.” - Olivia

“Our world.” - Mia

“We need to pick up rubbish.” - Sydney

“We need to take responsibility...for our gardens.” - Chicky

“If we throw stuff on the beach, we need to throw it in the bin afterwards.” - Victoria

“Petrol is not good for the air. My mummy is waiting for a car that doesn’t use any petrol.” - Siena

“I need to water my plants.” - Katie

“We want no rainy days though.” - Mia

“But we need rainy days! We need rain so that the plants can grow, so that my vegetables can grow.” - Siena

“If you don’t have rain my tomatoes won’t grow.” - Katie

As a wonderful coincidence, Reverend Moss happened to be talking about caring for our beautiful earth and respecting God’s creation in chapel a few days later. On our walk back from the chapel the girls considered God’s creation. They talked about the flowers they could see, the sky and the trees...

Buttercups.

On our first journey up Mt St John for the term, we noticed that the girls were particularly captivated by the buttercups. The striking yellow flowers  were a huge talking point and many of the girls insisted on filling their hats with them to bring back to our classroom. There were beautiful encounters where the girls reflected the yellow from the flowers underneath their friends chins to find out whether they 'liked butter or not' and several of the girls commented on how the colour would sometimes rub off onto their fingers.

When we arrived back at the classroom the girls were invited to draw the buttercups which they had picked in black. Later we added yellow dye and also narrated and wrote short stories about buttercups. Here are some images of our encounters with the buttercups:

Constructing fairy houses from natural resources.

This week on our visit to Mt St John the girls worked to construct fairy houses using natural resources which they collected. The girls are very eager to find out whether their houses will still be standing when we return to the mountain after our two week holiday!

Here are some images of the girls and their fairy houses:

Reconnecting with our mountain.

It's been a few weeks since we visited Mount St John, due to poor weather and our visit to Cornwall Park last Wednesday, and so the girls were very eager to go this morning.

The weather was beautiful, and with spring upon us there were so many new discoveries to be made. The flowering Kowhai trees were a favourite, as were many other spring flowers. We took our sketching books and the girls were invited to draw their surroundings. They drew cows, trees, spring flowers and the wider landscape of the mountain.

Here are some pictures from our walk:

Kowhai flower        Artist: Victoria H

Our trip to Cornwall Park.

Yesterday we had the pleasure of visiting Cornwall Park. Now that spring has arrived the park is bursting with life, from beautiful flowers  to sheep and their lambs grazing in the fields.

The girls had discussed and drawn about what they might see prior to visiting the park, and we took the girls books along, so that they were enabled to sketch the daffodils, bluebells and also the sheep with their lambs while they were at the park too.

The girls seemed to really delight in the experience, sketching their surroundings, climbing trees and having a picnic in amongst the lambs.

A huge thank you to our parents who came along and helped out with transport, you are all wonderful!

Here are some photographs from our trip:

Here are some of the girls reflections from the trip. They are looking forward to writing about some of their ideas and drawing some more pictures about their experience at Cornwall park:

"I liked climbing trees. My favourite was the tree with the big hole in it!" - Harriet

"I liked looking at the daisies." - Priya

"I liked doing the drawing. Drawing flowers." - Mia

"I liked the baby lambs and how they eat the milk from their mummys." - Olivia

Native Birds.

Tui by Priya

Kereru by Priya

Pukeko by Olivia

Kiwi by Olivia

Recently, on a trip to Mt St John, with the help of Mia's lovely Nana we were able to collect and identify different leaves and flowers which belong to the native trees which grow up on the mountain. This week we created a chart which shows which leaf or flower belongs to each tree, and following on from this the girls expressed an interest in drawing some trees of their own. We created a 'native forest' mural, and it was then decided that we needed to fill the forest with native birds too.We sourced some lovely images of different native birds from the internet and used these as a provocation for the girls drawings.

Too much fun!

The pants and laughter say it all. Thanks Ka Man for joining in the fun and challenge on Mt St John.

Climbing trees and rolling down hills.

On Wednesday we had our first walk up Mount St John of the term, which was so exciting and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. It was fascinating to observe the girls who were encountering the mountain for the first time and to listen to the beautiful conversations which occurred. The girls always seem to truly embody the idea of what it means to be free when they visit the mountain, rolling down hills, climbing trees and running through fields. We are so lucky to have this rich natural resource so near to us!

Here are some images from our adventure:

"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are all excellent educators, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books. - John Lubbock