Dear Collaborators,
Over the course of the first two days this week (the 24th & the 25th), we have begun using our classrooms even though they aren't quite finished yet. The lack of doors and windows made it harder for the younger children in the kindergarten next door to stay separate from the first graders, but I made it clear to the other teachers and to the students that we would maintain this healthy boundary. It is completely acceptable to cry, while in compliance with a rule, as a little kid! We should not fear tears, but rather fear lack of safe boundaries. And we certainly had some crying and adjusting periods this week.
However, the crying ended, and the boundaries held firm (at least when I was present), so I am confident we will have less crying in the future. Having trained my own infant daughter to sleep through the night by not positively reinforcing nighttime crying with anything other than absolute minimal diaper changing and feeding (absolutely no external entertainment or walking around in the middle of the night!), I have seen how quickly happy results can come for everyone over the course of just a few short days when there are no doubts about healthy boundaries and when everyone quickly acquires a feeling of safety through predicability within those healthy limits.
The first grade also had one long last visit to the river Monday over an extended recess period between their early morning English and Math lessons with me and there later Waldorf Spanish lessons with Olga. This also helped all our sibling pairs to develop a firmer sense of their separation during the school day between kindergarten and first grade. We ate our snack down but the river before swimming a little, and we developed a new way to practice math as we walked together. To the tune of "Left, left, left, right, left" marching chants, we chanted our way all the way up the number line from 1 to 100, and even a little further sometimes. This was actually a challenge for the children. When I would chant something like "57, 57, 57, 58, 59, 60," it could be very hard for them to repeat. On our science and math walk Tuesday afternoon, I dropped the memory work down to two number advances only, such as, "57, 57, 57, 58." Our July birthday boy specifically informed me that it was hard to hear me and remember the four big numbers that I was chanting for them in English so quickly. After that, when we simplified the work, we enjoyed fuller active participation from all the students.
And that brings me to our new secret code for student names in this blog! Since we have 5 students all born on different months of the year, I will now refer to them in this narrative as:
February, March, July, August, & September! You know who your child is.
Now continuing with our summary of Math skills, it has been brought to my attention that some people might be concerned about large gaps in math skills between different. Fear not! There are no large gaps in skill. February and September are the most advance, it is true, but they both wrote that the answer to 6 + 6 was 21 even though they said 12 to me, and neither of them had any clue at all how to add 50 + 50. Everyone in the class did well adding all the doubles that we can do on two separate hands (1+1, 2+2, 3+3, 4+4 and 5+5). March wrote the 6 facing the wrong direction, and I had to help August figure out what I was saying in English by showing him on his fingers, but everyone wrote all the answers quickly and independently on their chalk boards after they understood what we were doing.
Over the course of the 1st grade academic year, Melina, Ulli and I spoke about how must students in general around the world are usually expected to master addition and subtraction of sums up to 20. I am much more ambitious than this although I intend to pursue my goals rather intuitively and amorphously when we are not simply doing Singapore math worksheets (which I will use more for practice and assessment rather than primary instruction). Young children need to physically and emotionally connect to what they are learning by being active with their bodies and using as many of their five senses as possible. One of the core axioms or proverbs of Neural Science (See Principles of Neural Science, Kandel) is that "Neurons that fire together wire together." First grade students can master a grade deal of number manipulations in the first grade (for the whole number line from 1 to 1000 and not just from 1 to 20) if their experience of numbers can be full of emotional and sensual meaning for them and not just be a chore of tiring mental abstraction as a weird kind of game that impresses adults.
What am I talking about? I am talking about association! On Monday I had the children create a special 10 digit rainbow for each of our single digits. It is a rainbow ladder from the ground up, and I intend to create these color coded steps up to our tree house to reinforce this lesson later. So from top to bottom, imagine the ladder or stairs to the tree house like this:
9 = Pink
8 = Red
7 = Orange
6 = Yellow
5 = Lime Green
4 = Jade Green
3 = Turquoise
2 = Indio Blue
1 = Purple
0 = Dirt Brown
We are now on a deep imagination adventure to bring these numbers to life in the first grade by hunting for more exciting and meaningful things that we can associate with these numbers and colors. On Tuesday we created one very exciting association that I am deeply enthusiastic about. Our stinky fruit, as the children call the cashew fruit, has become the absolute perfect manifestation of the number 7 and the color orange for us. Seven now has shape, texture, feel, color, and potent smell! The amazing thing about this fruit is that the nut at the end of the orange fruit is actually shaped like a number 7! It couldn't be better for our work.
The other numbers are still a work in progress. I am optimistic that we can break off just the right branches on the dark green mint plant in the garden to reveal a hidden number 4, and it seems we can easily work with the banana flower hanging down at the end of a stock of bananas to reveal the number 6 connected to our yellow theme. That big round flower at the end of a curving cord is the perfect number six.
If you have additional ideas for the other numbers, so that we can also discover those other numbers connected to their shapes and colors in Ecovilla, please let me know! I am planning on buying a turquoise fish for the classroom to put in a turquoise tank full of real turquoise stones, and then I am going to make a turquoise sculpture of a diving and twisting fish with the head as the bottom of the number three shape, the tail as the top, and a side fin sticking out as the middle of the number. The other fin will either not be visible from the class viewpoint or it will be flapping against the outer curve of the body to maintain the shape of the number 3. Look at the Pisces sign to get an idea of how this works abstracting the shape of a fish in the direction of the number 3. Fish also have a smell as we all know! So if you have any other colorful, edible, drinkable, smelly ideas, please let me know quickly!
As I start to teach the children English phonetics, I will follow a similar path of creating living association for them to letter shapes and sounds (as I have done with great success in teaching children to read quickly in the past). But for now, I have nothing thrilling to report to you. We are just practicing fine motor skills by working with our pencils in the workbook Handwriting Without Tears. Fine motor skills just take work and practice. We have created an atmosphere of cooperation that facilitates such discipline easily through the methodologies of the Virtues Project (www.virtuesproject.com). I may start to read simultaneously to the children today, Thursday, as they continue this handwriting and fine motor skill practice. We need to work on our 7 Habits story book which will will want to re-read many times for a week or two.
AND KINDERGARTEN?
Right now what the kindergarten needs more than anything else is unity, consistency, clear boundaries, and motor skill development. I am concerned about certain students indulging in frequent absences. A little strategic suffering in the beginning of a new venture avoids a lot of protracted suffering in the long run (like in my story above about teaching my infant daughter to sleep better through the night when she was 5 months old). We will soon see some of the younger toddlers in preschool much better adjusted to the environment than some of the older students if the younger ones have more consistent boundaries around attendance than the older ones. I will address this with individual families in private conversations soon.
In more exciting news however, I am happy to report that kindergarten has been playing happily with large left over PVC tubing that serves as wheels and forts on the playground. The more we can do to create united play space like this for the kindergarten especially, the more they will thrive.
Then, in a month or so, after 1st grade has helped to create a sense of magic and wonder around numbers and then later letters, I will have them teach and guide the kindergarten in number and letter games to subtly invite the kindergarten to focus more on their fine motor skills in drawing images and symbols on the path to number and letter acquisition. Just as there is a time to separate first grade and kindergarten, there will be times when it is equally advantageous to bring them back together. As the old proverb says, there is a time for every purpose under heaven.
And now it is time for me to pack up and get ready to head out the door for another day of school!
Love and Light to all of you,
Sky
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Next Week and This Year
Dear Collaborators,
This coming week, February 24th through the 28th, Olga and I will start working with both groups of children every day (except for Wednesday when I will return to immigration).
From 8am to 10am, and from 12:30pm to 2pm, I will be with 1st grade, and from 10am to 12pm, I will be will the preschool and kindergarten group. Olga will have the opposite schedule, and Karla will be with the preschool and kindergarten only. On Friday at 2pm, we will have a teachers and parents meeting.
In the morning this week I will need to informally assess the reading and math levels of the first grade so I can start teaching them appropriately form where they are now. I will experiment with various approaches somewhat spontaneously through story and song to see what feels right with the first grade and fits best. In the afternoons, we will work on virtues, drama, science and fort building. We will mostly build the tree house if we have the materials we need, otherwise we will fall back on virtues drama and exploring our ecosystems more.
As for the general year long instructional plan, Olga has designed her rough plan using Waldorf guidelines and the Costa Rican MEP guidelines. I will use the Tree of Life plan for reading, math, and science topics each month until and unless I decide to modify through ongoing consultation with Ulli and others.
Love and Light to all of you,
Sky Thoth
This coming week, February 24th through the 28th, Olga and I will start working with both groups of children every day (except for Wednesday when I will return to immigration).
From 8am to 10am, and from 12:30pm to 2pm, I will be with 1st grade, and from 10am to 12pm, I will be will the preschool and kindergarten group. Olga will have the opposite schedule, and Karla will be with the preschool and kindergarten only. On Friday at 2pm, we will have a teachers and parents meeting.
In the morning this week I will need to informally assess the reading and math levels of the first grade so I can start teaching them appropriately form where they are now. I will experiment with various approaches somewhat spontaneously through story and song to see what feels right with the first grade and fits best. In the afternoons, we will work on virtues, drama, science and fort building. We will mostly build the tree house if we have the materials we need, otherwise we will fall back on virtues drama and exploring our ecosystems more.
As for the general year long instructional plan, Olga has designed her rough plan using Waldorf guidelines and the Costa Rican MEP guidelines. I will use the Tree of Life plan for reading, math, and science topics each month until and unless I decide to modify through ongoing consultation with Ulli and others.
Love and Light to all of you,
Sky Thoth
First Week of School
From Monday, February 17th to Friday, February 21st, Olga, Karla and I held classes for both the preschool and the first grade outdoors from 8am to noon as our classrooms where not completely constructed yet nor did we have chairs and desks. Using flexibility and imagination, we had a great week, and the children loved our shared experience.
On Monday, Olga started a knitting project with the 1st grade to made bags for their flutes, and I began with Karla in the preschool. Karla will be the lead teacher in preschool, and Olga and I will rotate in and out as the Waldorf teacher and the English teacher. On Monday, I took the entire preschool class with many parents on a long walk from the Rancho to the school construction sight. We learned to hold on to a rope together as we walked and sang songs. It was too much for all the small children, however, and parents had to carry the smallest children part of the way.
On Tuesday, Olga and Karla worked with a distraught older boy in kindergarten who wanted to be in first grade, while I worked with first grade. The first graders and I learned about virtues that we needed for working together in our circle in the morning like respect, helpfulness, cooperation, kindness, effort, firmness, and detachment, and then we went singing and walking hunting materials to build a tree house. We also spent some time down at the river in the middle of our morning, and we had a very joyful time. When a girl feel in the first grade and slightly hurt herself, I put my Deep Blue essential oil on her and she felt better immediately. When a little boy was worried about ants getting on him, I put a little bit of our On Guard essential oil insect repellent on him. He was happy too.
Tuesday night, I spoke with the father of the eldest boy in Kindergarten about why he could not enter first grade at age 4 and a half in Costa Rica. It really is far too young for my experience as a teacher in any educational system anywhere in the world, for Waldorf schools or public schools I've taught in before in Costa Rica. Speaking with Ulli about this later, Ulli informed me that he believes the Costa Rican law makes students wait until they are 6 years old and 2 months. That may be only for public schools, but we can cross that bridge later. For now, we agreed that we would try to create a successful combined preschool and kindergarten experience.
On Wednesday, I worked with the preschool and kindergarten and helped our oldest boy build a model banana leaf fort for the children who were learning about building toy homes for their stuffed animals. All the children were very happen, and nearly all of them helped a little with expanding the banana left fort after the eldest child and I completed the initial structure. It was a very happy morning. Olga continued knitting flute bags with the first grade on Wednesday.
On Thursday, I worked with the 1st grade again on building our tree fort. And we also spent more time at the river. Some of the songs we learned and invented or improvised where the following:
To the tune of "I've been working on the railroad," we sang:
- We've been working on our tree house,
- all the live long day,
- And we've been looking for some branches,
- all the live long day,
- Then we've been sanding down those branches,
- all the live long day,
- so we can build our platform,
- all the live long day.
To the military tune of "left, left, left, right, left," we sang walking to the river and back:
1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4,
A, A, A, B, C, D,
Ape, Ape, Ape, Bee, Cat, Dog,
1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4...
The children were also entertained with and asked to hear many times the "Crazy!" loop drama:
What time is it you ask?
Time? Time is a magazine.
It costs a dollar.
I haven't got a dime.
Rat! Rats? Rats make me crazy.
I was crazy once.
They locked me in a little white room,
where I couldn't tell the time.
Time? Time is a magazine.
It costa a dollar...
(and round and round we go again, and again, and again)
Then to the tune of Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat Song (Day-O),
we sang, and I sang out especially forcefully:
Ay-Oh! - Let's go!
[So-and-so]! - Likes surfing!
Ay-Oh! - Let's go!
[So-and-so]! - Likes reading!
Ay-Oh! - Let's go!
[So-and-so]! - Likes playing cars!
Ay-Oh! - Let's go!
(and so on and so forth with the other students)
Then, by special request, the students got me to sing the crying and sighing song occasionally:
(Improvised from Godspell)
When you are crying, sighing,
and your oil tree is dying,
temples are graying,
teeth are decaying,
and creditors weighing your purse!
Your mood and your role!
chick-a-chick, chick, chick, chick, chick!
Are both a deep blue!
chick-a-chick, chick, chick, chick, chick!
You bet that Job!
chick-a-chick, chick, chick, chick, chick!
Had nothing on you!
Who? Ooh!
But just remember that when you get to heaven you'll be blessed,
YES!
It's all for the best....
done, done, done, done, done, done, done!
Some boys (girls) are born to live at ease,
richer than the bees are in honey!
They get the center of the meat,
cushions on the seats,
houses on the beach,
where it's SUNNY!
Yes who is the land for?
the sun and the sand for?
You guessed! It's all for the best!
The last part is song at such high speed that the words can barely be understood, so the irony need not be talked about with 1st grade. The point is that the change in tempo from slow and sad in the beginning to super fast and hilarious at the end thrills the children and changes moods when needed.
And that was a wrap on Thursday!
On Friday, Olga worked with 1st grade again on knitting, while Melina assisted Karla with preschool and kindergarten since I had to go to Tree of Life Learning and the Migracion office to proceed with my work visa processing. I will have to leave again next week to continue with this process, probably on Wednesday.
On Saturday, a few families and I worked on setting up the classroom with the furniture that arrived this same day. I also consulted with parents about the location of the tree house for which the 1st grade has been preparing materials. We decided we will move the tree house to a safer tree and bolder since the mango tree branches where the tree house was begun break too often.
Please feel free to leave comments in the comment boxes below, but please conceal names of students and families as I did above.
Love and light to all of you,
Sky Thoth
On Monday, Olga started a knitting project with the 1st grade to made bags for their flutes, and I began with Karla in the preschool. Karla will be the lead teacher in preschool, and Olga and I will rotate in and out as the Waldorf teacher and the English teacher. On Monday, I took the entire preschool class with many parents on a long walk from the Rancho to the school construction sight. We learned to hold on to a rope together as we walked and sang songs. It was too much for all the small children, however, and parents had to carry the smallest children part of the way.
On Tuesday, Olga and Karla worked with a distraught older boy in kindergarten who wanted to be in first grade, while I worked with first grade. The first graders and I learned about virtues that we needed for working together in our circle in the morning like respect, helpfulness, cooperation, kindness, effort, firmness, and detachment, and then we went singing and walking hunting materials to build a tree house. We also spent some time down at the river in the middle of our morning, and we had a very joyful time. When a girl feel in the first grade and slightly hurt herself, I put my Deep Blue essential oil on her and she felt better immediately. When a little boy was worried about ants getting on him, I put a little bit of our On Guard essential oil insect repellent on him. He was happy too.
Tuesday night, I spoke with the father of the eldest boy in Kindergarten about why he could not enter first grade at age 4 and a half in Costa Rica. It really is far too young for my experience as a teacher in any educational system anywhere in the world, for Waldorf schools or public schools I've taught in before in Costa Rica. Speaking with Ulli about this later, Ulli informed me that he believes the Costa Rican law makes students wait until they are 6 years old and 2 months. That may be only for public schools, but we can cross that bridge later. For now, we agreed that we would try to create a successful combined preschool and kindergarten experience.
On Wednesday, I worked with the preschool and kindergarten and helped our oldest boy build a model banana leaf fort for the children who were learning about building toy homes for their stuffed animals. All the children were very happen, and nearly all of them helped a little with expanding the banana left fort after the eldest child and I completed the initial structure. It was a very happy morning. Olga continued knitting flute bags with the first grade on Wednesday.
On Thursday, I worked with the 1st grade again on building our tree fort. And we also spent more time at the river. Some of the songs we learned and invented or improvised where the following:
To the tune of "I've been working on the railroad," we sang:
- We've been working on our tree house,
- all the live long day,
- And we've been looking for some branches,
- all the live long day,
- Then we've been sanding down those branches,
- all the live long day,
- so we can build our platform,
- all the live long day.
To the military tune of "left, left, left, right, left," we sang walking to the river and back:
1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4,
A, A, A, B, C, D,
Ape, Ape, Ape, Bee, Cat, Dog,
1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4...
The children were also entertained with and asked to hear many times the "Crazy!" loop drama:
What time is it you ask?
Time? Time is a magazine.
It costs a dollar.
I haven't got a dime.
Rat! Rats? Rats make me crazy.
I was crazy once.
They locked me in a little white room,
where I couldn't tell the time.
Time? Time is a magazine.
It costa a dollar...
(and round and round we go again, and again, and again)
Then to the tune of Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat Song (Day-O),
we sang, and I sang out especially forcefully:
Ay-Oh! - Let's go!
[So-and-so]! - Likes surfing!
Ay-Oh! - Let's go!
[So-and-so]! - Likes reading!
Ay-Oh! - Let's go!
[So-and-so]! - Likes playing cars!
Ay-Oh! - Let's go!
(and so on and so forth with the other students)
Then, by special request, the students got me to sing the crying and sighing song occasionally:
(Improvised from Godspell)
When you are crying, sighing,
and your oil tree is dying,
temples are graying,
teeth are decaying,
and creditors weighing your purse!
Your mood and your role!
chick-a-chick, chick, chick, chick, chick!
Are both a deep blue!
chick-a-chick, chick, chick, chick, chick!
You bet that Job!
chick-a-chick, chick, chick, chick, chick!
Had nothing on you!
Who? Ooh!
But just remember that when you get to heaven you'll be blessed,
YES!
It's all for the best....
done, done, done, done, done, done, done!
Some boys (girls) are born to live at ease,
richer than the bees are in honey!
They get the center of the meat,
cushions on the seats,
houses on the beach,
where it's SUNNY!
Yes who is the land for?
the sun and the sand for?
You guessed! It's all for the best!
The last part is song at such high speed that the words can barely be understood, so the irony need not be talked about with 1st grade. The point is that the change in tempo from slow and sad in the beginning to super fast and hilarious at the end thrills the children and changes moods when needed.
And that was a wrap on Thursday!
On Friday, Olga worked with 1st grade again on knitting, while Melina assisted Karla with preschool and kindergarten since I had to go to Tree of Life Learning and the Migracion office to proceed with my work visa processing. I will have to leave again next week to continue with this process, probably on Wednesday.
On Saturday, a few families and I worked on setting up the classroom with the furniture that arrived this same day. I also consulted with parents about the location of the tree house for which the 1st grade has been preparing materials. We decided we will move the tree house to a safer tree and bolder since the mango tree branches where the tree house was begun break too often.
Please feel free to leave comments in the comment boxes below, but please conceal names of students and families as I did above.
Love and light to all of you,
Sky Thoth
Saturday, February 22, 2014
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