Happy Mother's Day!

Little elves have been busy in Room 15, creating beautiful magnet gifts for the important women in their lives.












This is a great re-use project to do on the heels of Earth Day, but I didn't plan far enough in advance to collect enough Altoids tins without asking parents.  So I had to send out a last-minute e-mail plea (well, 2 weeks ahead).  A very generous friend worried that the children would not bring in enough tins and someone (or more than one someone) would be without.  So he purchased a case of Altoids at Costco. With those, along with what the children did bring in and the ones I found squirreled away in my "children's crafts" box, we had plenty!

I spent a Friday night visiting two Walmarts, a Jo-Ann, and a Michael's to gather the necessary supplies:
* Clear gel glue
* Glass marbles (One big bag from Walmart for ~$4.70 was more than enough for our class of 24!)
* Lovely printed craft papers (On sale at Jo-Ann)
* Magnets (This year, I sprang for the peel-and-stick dot magnets from Walmart)--4 for each student

To reduce waste, I cut the papers into 4x3" rectangles (to line and cover the tins) and inch-wide strips (to be cut into circles for the magnets).
The children selected their papers,

and began to cut and craft.

They were angelically peaceful, absorbed in their work!

The results are just gorgeous!  Every child is so very proud of the gift s/he created.

Meditate on this

After tea and breakfast, we drove a short distance to Turtle Rock (a huge granite rock formation) 

and then a bit farther to begin our hike to a meditation temple, built into the side of a mountain.  

Its placement in the mountains is intended to bring people closer to heaven for their meditation.  

What a beautiful hike!  There are conifers with tiny pine cones and a green meadow filled with wildflowers and butterflies (and what I think may have been tiny bees).  

We also saw cows—and trash.  Trash is an issue here.  Our guide tells us that people are in the habit of just tossing their garbage on the ground, believing nature will take care of it.  That works if it’s something that is not plastic or metal, but so much of what we saw were plastic bottles and bags.  

The meditation temple is across a hanging bridge and at the top of a fairly steep set of stairs, with signs along the path leading up that provide Buddhist teachings on your arrival and return route.  

It was built in 2000 to look like an elephant in profile with the temple building as the head and the stairs that lead up to it as the trunk.  

The interior reminded me of some of the brightly colored quilts I’ve seen at the Quilt Festival.  

We all sat for a moment and meditated—what a serene spot to get quiet inside yourself. 

Breathe

Maria Montessori advocated educating the whole child--mind, body, and spirit.  Nature activities can integrate all three, but children need to develop a toolbox of positive self-calming strategies for the lives ahead of them.

Yoga is one such tool that the children naturally seem to love.  Occasionally, during our class meeting--especially if some of our little bodies seem in need of a few deep breaths, I'll introduce a few new poses to the class.  I love to catch (out of the corner of my eye) a frustrated child or a child who has been engaged in lengthy serious concentration putting our yoga mat bag over his/her shoulder and heading outside.

There's a book for that!

The ABC's of Yoga for Kids by Teresa Anne Power

Yoga Pretzels (Yoga Cards) by Tara Guber

Storytime Yoga by Sydney Solis

My Daddy is a Pretzel by Baron Baptiste

Sit Spot success!

We've been preparing for Sit Spot for a while.  We observed worms and created scientific illustrations.  We did the same for mealworms, observing their life cycle.  To sharpen our Fox Walk and Deer Ears skills, we've been playing Fire Keeper--in the classroom and outside.  We played Birds and Worms to learn about camouflage and model predators and prey.  Each week in our class meetings, we share Nature Gratitude, appreciation for something we noticed in nature during the week.  Slowly but surely, we've been building up to Sit Spot.

Today was the day.  The children have been jumpy--interrupting and impatient and wiggly.  Spring has sprung and (due to fifth grade TAKS testing) we were not permitted to use the playground Monday or Tuesday.  Even our volunteer who listens to young readers one-on-one commented that everyone was unusually unsettled today.  Yep.  The weather is beautiful, and we're all feeling just a little like we'd like to wriggle out of our skin.  So I decided we needed to be outside.  Today was the day to debut Sit Spot. 

I explained that we would release our worms into their natural habitat, do a short Fox Walk, and then each child would choose a Sit Spot. 

During our Fox Walk over to the habitat, the children spied a toad.  "Look, Ms. S! It's camouflaged!"  A good omen!

Once you've found your spot (away from other humans), you just sit and observe.  It's a little like a nature version of Montessori's silence games.  You open your wide Owl Eyes, perk your big Deer Ears, turn up your sensitive Dog Nose, and you notice stuff.  If you notice something, you should not get up or try to attract anyone else's attention.  If you notice something during a Sit Spot, it is a gift just for you.  Take a picture of it in your mind, notice the details, and wonder about it.  Later, you can tell your friends or you can use a field guide to identify it.  We took along our journals and pencils because sometimes, if you're young and you want so much to share, it's hard to be quiet and keep inside all the gifts that nature brings your way.  You might need a place to record them--to sketch and describe what you're noticing.

Sit Spot worked its magic.  We started out small, with a ten-minute Sit, but the children were quiet and still and calm throughout.  Many of our typically fidgety children were engrossed in watching and recording what they saw. 

When I stood and pointed to my watch to indicate our time was up for today, each child gathered his/her things, quietly rose, and peacefully walked back toward our classroom.  No one ran.  No one shouted.  Just being outside and opening ourselves to nature had soothed the spirits and calmed the bodies.  As we neared our classroom door, there was a quiet buzz as children began to share what they had seen.  Some were still hurrying to write, journals propped on bent knees as they paused on the sidewalk!

Story of the Day, another Core Routine of nature connection, is an important follow-up to Sit Spot.  The children need an opportunity to share with one another their experiences in nature.  "Sharing stories with others builds a collective knowledge much greater than the isolated experience of one person. We can gain a storehouse of information from others’ stories: one saw frogs by the pond with bright red legs; one made rope out of old dead cedar bark; one snuck up on coyotes and aplodontias living in the woods near the pond.  . . . Curiosity, our greatest resource for learning, becomes contagious. If you listen to someone tell about catching the frog by 'the most beautiful pond just down the street,' you just might want to go there soon. Or maybe you wonder, now that we’ve mentioned it, who ever heard of an 'aplodontia?' . . . Sit Spot and Story of the Day, feed each other constantly, like a call and response" (Coyote's Guide).

Next on my list:
Child-friendly binoculars and some method for learning to identify a few bird calls.  Suggestions welcome!


There's a Book for That!
Crinkleroot's Guide to Walking in Wild Places by Jim Arnosky
The Other Way to Listen by Byrd Baylor

Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature

Try it out at home!  Right now Wilderness Awareness School has a 30-Day Sit Spot Challenge!  Go to the same spot in nature every day for 20 minutes.  Will you accept the challenge?

"Keep close to Nature's heart...and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."  ~John Muir