basic goodness

Sorry for the hiatus, it has just been a hectic week. We completely changed the classroom, moving furniture, combining dramatic play and block center, and adding plants throughout the room. But something that must be mentioned is that the boys and girls raised over $300 for the relief efforts in Japan. Thank you for all of your donations parents! Actually, upon our return from spring break it's very apparent that Japan is still very much on the mind. It's coming up in play, conversations, and they even connected it to Dr. Seuss's The Lorax!

The question now is how do we extend that level of empathy, the empathy the children feel and express for the families in Japan, how do we extend that to all living things?


Last Friday when we visited the Botanical Garden a few children wanted to step on bugs. What would change that action? Is it feeling a connection to a bug? Telling a story about it? Feeling like it's a part of your community? I'm not sure but as we begin to explore the Spring changes in our environment, it's definitely going to be something we reflect on...can we cultivate compassion for every living thing?

Born to Be Wild?

A full school day outdoors may not be in our future, especially in the city. Nevertheless, this is a pretty inspiring video. I can't really imagine anything better for a five year old than mud, trees, and worms. For now perhaps we'll add ten more minutes to outdoor play.

you first, me second

It seems natural that in order to cultivate kindness in young children we really need to involve children in acts of kindness. There are the small moments every day that can often be overlooked but are so valuable in developing empathy. And sometimes, just sometimes a big moment arises as well.

A few weeks ago, two friends in class created a pot of toy soup. Then the topic of Japan spontaneously came up and the thought that the two girls could give their toy soup to Japan...since they lost all of their toys.
This was a jumping point for us to begin thinking about japan, if it would be possible for us to help, and ultimately starting a fundraiser.



We thought about how we could raise money, it took a couple of weeks before inspiration took over. it was mentioned that we could make paper art, like paper flowers. This immediately made me think of origami and after showing boys and girls what origami was, we were all hooked. Ms. Susan, a nearby origami expert, came to our classroom and taught us how to make origami rabbits.


After a week of origami making, our whole school received letters about the fundraiser.


We are only on day two of the fundraiser and we already have $76.31. Thank you families and teachers for all of the support. we have estimates ranging from $8 to $8,000 as to how much we will collect by Friday. How ever much we raise, the children are already thinking about how the money will be spent - on bricks and wood for homes, food and forks for lunch, and beds with blankets. It's that they are thinking about others, developing empathy with every penny we raise.

good job, you're #1

Here is an interesting article for parents and educators alike. I must admit when I first began teaching, I was certainly a praise junkie. It seemed like common sense, we all love praise. This article How Not to Talk to Your Kids puts praise in perspective and was a good reminder for myself.

I'll leave you with one thought from the article...“Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control. They come to see themselves as in control of their success. Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child’s control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure.”

re-look, re-think, re-understand

It has been a week since the Infusing the Reggio Approach in a NYC Public School workshop and to be honest there was so much to take in (in a good way) that I really haven't been sure how to synthesize it all to share here. I decided I won't even try but I will share some inspiring words I jotted down along with some photos, showing how our classroom has been inspired from the learning I have brought back. It's exciting that even a small piece of the Reggio philosophy is now in the hands of quite a few public school teachers and those small bits of the philosophy are undoubtedly appearing in public school classrooms - an exciting reality for sure.

On documentation: it is making visible the process of thinking, of constructing, of learning together...By interpreting the traces collected through observation, teachers can find strategies that will guide next steps in the experiences and work with children. - Lella Gandini





On the classroom environment: Think of the environment you like to be in. Think of an environment you really loved as a child. Did it give freedom, light, space, etc? - Jennifer Strange






On literacy: Literacy starts with understanding the essential function of language is communication, in many languages.





There's of course much more to say through words and pictures but that's it for now. I'm so interested to hear about other public school teachers and how they infuse project work/Reggio philosophy into the classroom.