A Visit from the Man Who Takes Care of the Planet

Today Dave, the Meeting Caretaker, came to the Turtle Room to talk with us about the logs in the grove. He told us that the tree was very old and had been sick for a long time. He said that unlike people, trees can be sick for many many many years before they die, and that when a tree is very old and sick, sometimes it has to be cut down so that it won't fall down on people. He also told us the story of a time when a great big tree had cracked in half, and he got to witness it! The children had lots of questions, and all wanted to share stories about trees that they had seen fall down or crack.

The children were eager to visit the logs again after talking with Dave, and so after some time on the playground, we headed over to the logs, carrying with us two baskets in case we wanted to collect things along the way.  Dave had told us that you can know how old trees are by counting the rings on the tree, and so several children worked on counting the rings. There were a LOT of rings!

The children were also interested to see if there were still signs of the deer under the big acorn tree, and so we went to check it out. We ran into Dave again, and he told us that the deer also love the apple tree, and showed us where it was. There were lots of bees eating the sweet rotting fruit so we kept our distance.

How We Teach Our Values

from the Surfrider Foundation

The Quakers have a central belief in living out one's values. They have framed these ideas as Testimonies, meaning that one's life should be a testimony to one's beliefs and values. As teachers, parents and educators, we are doing this all the time, whether we are conscious about it or not. The ways that we live our lives, speak to each other, and make choices are the blueprint for how young children will learn live their lives, speak to each other and make choices. We are never perfect in living up to this (for example, I was not my best self today), but it is important that we acknowledge the importance of our behavior, not just our words. I love that I work in a place where this is valued, and I love that as teachers, families, and a community we are bringing these values to young children.

How Do You....?

The Turtles know how to do so many things, and they are figuring out how to teach each other to do the things that they know how to do. The other day, one child showed his friends how to climb the logs, breaking the process down into steps. This got Fran and Tamara thinking about how the Turtles could share what they know with each other, and they decided to introduce the idea of How To Books. At Morning Meeting today, we started with a basic one, and had the Turtles dictate the steps to "How To Wash Our Hands." Not only does book making build pre-literacy skills, but this kind of sequential thinking is an important critical thinking skill, and the Turtles feel proud when they can teach their friends how to do things! In fact, just a few minutes later on the swings, one child was trying to help another child understand the process of pumping, explaining the different ways she had to move her body.

 We also began our Guessing Game that the families made for the children! They had so much fun trying to figure out who's was who's!

We had Music with Jenny, and the Turtles were so excited to meet her new puppets, including Hermina the Turtle!

On our visit to the logs today, we practiced walking across the long section like a balance beam,

and found a spider web, wet with rain drops.

Some of the best discoveries happen on the way to somewhere else...

Lots of block building was happening this morning, so Tamara decided that we should get some more big blocks. Several strong helpers accompanied her to the outside storage basement, where in addition to blocks, we found a (very old) globe! Matthew was excited to share with his friends how a globe worked, and that sparked many many conversations about where people lived and where they had visited. At Book Time, (as Tamara was looking for her favorite book, "Tacky the Penguin," she found a different topical book), we read Wangari's Trees of Peace, and talked about how Kenya was in Africa, and where that was on the globe.

The morning started out with a fantastical dress-up show. Several children used the long wooden tracks as instruments, even playing the stringed bass.

At Morning Meeting, we sat down and Tamara had brought several photos and some documentation about the logs to study. As we we sitting down, however, two children started arguing about where to sit, and one declared, "You're not my best friend anymore!" The other was so sad! Tamara told them that she would help them talk about it after Morning Meeting, and then realized that perhaps they could talk about it AT Morning Meeting. Using puppets, she acted out the scenario, having the kids make suggestions about how to solve the problems. They had so many ideas! And the two boys were laughing by the end, saying, "Hey, that's just like us!"

Other highlights of the day included:

Scarf Dance to Dil Se