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!

Togetherness.

Our wagon always provides a rich opportunity for the girls to exercise their negotiating and problem solving skills. The girls work to determine what order they will take turns in and have to work with all of their might to navigate the wagon around the garden. It is always a pleasure to observe them at play.

"Coming together is a beginning. keeping together is progress. Working together is success."

- Henry Ford

Self-portraits.

Today our new girls worked to create their first self portrait with us.

Here are their drawings:

Artist: Kaitlyn

Artist: Emily

Artist: Chloé

Artist: Alice

Artist: Paige

"These are my happy eyes." - Chloe

Each term as we have new groups of girls settling into the classroom we like to explore the idea of 'Who we are' with them. Over the period of a week or so we work with the girls to explore what makes them unique. During this time we look closely at our eyes, the colour and length of our hair, whether or not we have freckles etc. It is always wonderful to listen to the girls as they make discoveries about themselves. "I've never really noticed this tiny dot on my face before!" Paige explained today.

On Monday the girls focused on their eyes, and we were surprised to find that all of our new girls but one had brown/hazel eyes! The girls worked with mirrors to sketch their eyes in pencil and following on from this they drew them again, this time with black pen and coloured pencils.

Artist: Paige

"If we didn't have eyes we'd bump into everything!" - Sophie

Shadows.

As we have been listening and observing the girls over the past two weeks, we have noticed that they have been paying particular attention to the shadows which they have encountered. We have heard and been a part of many fascinating conversations about shadows as the girls have worked with our projector or played in the sun. Shadows produced with both natural and man-made light have captured the minds of the girls, and we have caught hold of this interest, as a possible focus of inquiry for the term.

We will work to provide the girls with provocations and questions to ponder, relating to shadows in order to take their thinking deeper. We look forward to where this interest may lead.

"A shadow is like a mirror, but much more grey."

- Emma

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

Our first week back, 2012.

We have just enjoyed our first week back at school after close to seven weeks of summer holidays!

We would like to say a huge welcome back to everyone and a special welcome to our newest additions to the Foundation Class, Paige, Alice, Kaitlyn, Sophie, Chloe, Emily and of course their families too. With fascinating areas of interest, and potential inquiries already beginning to surface, we are looking forward to another term filled with loads of opportunities for wondering and making discoveries.

Make sure that you check back regularly for updates about the learning that is taking place in our classroom and the adventures that we are having.