By Natalia Pareja, Acorns teacher If only for one moment My feet could leave the ground. The breeze below My arms spread wide. I’m off into the sky. What a hoot, to ride inside my parachute. Simply tie off the corners of a bandanna, napkin, silk handkerchief (or the like) using yarn, string, or thread onto a stick, cloth, or another item. Delight in watching your child take off with the wind, discovering flight and gravity. These are fun thrown into the air or held in hand!
1 Comment
Children Following Directions?
Pro-tip#1 Remember that children think in pictures. If you need to give directions, speak in pictures. "Stop doing that." or "Be careful!" these phrases do not have pictures to form in our imaginations. Try building imagery in your direction, say, "Put your feet on the floor." or "Lay the stick on the ground to rest now." If there's no picture in your words, children will struggle to follow your direction. Pro-tip#2 Speaking in pictures also means that if you say "Don't Run!" it will give a child direction to run. Say the phrase to yourself, the first image you see is running. "Don't" doesn't have a picture, so children will likely run. Try, "Walking feet please." or "Walk slowly like a snail." By Heather Young, Waterstiders teacher
A little brown bulb went to sleep in the ground. In her little brown nightie she/he slept very sound. Old King Winter raged and roared overhead, But the little brown bulb did not stir in her/his bed. Then came Lady Spring tip-toeing, tip-toeing over the lea, fingers to lips as soft as can be. Then the little brown bulb she/he lifted her/his head, slipped off her nightie and jumped out of bed!
Children often enjoy playing this game over and over again. They also may enjoy playing the game with the adult getting under the blanket, or with both of you getting under the blanket to spring out together! Supporting Play Pro-tip#1 Take a few minutes after the children are asleep. Set up a simple playscape with a few items. You can lay out a couple of cloth napkins, with a stuffed animal and an empty box, for example. Be Creative. Leave it to be found in the morning. You might find yourself enjoying the imaginative play as well. Pro-tip #2 - Do you have a space inside or outside your home to set up some cushion to jump down onto? Setting up a place for young children to jump can help organize their nervous system as the joints (especially the hip joints) need lots of feedback. Be creative. Where can your children jump off from and safely land? By Anne McCarthy, Cattails teacher
Children in deep play are like whales who only come to the surface, every once in a while, to breathe—out of sheer necessity. Children want to stay deep, immersed in the waters of their imagination, only coming out when a need arises. That’s why ending play abruptly must feel like a small trauma to them, a sudden yank, crumbling the place they had been before to nothingness. Like waking up from a dream, you wanted to last just a bit longer… How then can we as parents transition our children gently when the time comes to end play?Singing to them—putting your request in song—is a wonderful method. Singing carries children from one state to the next, allowing them to come to the surface slowly. They have time to acclimatize, realize, and are therefore much more willing to transition out of play and into what’s next. We built a ship upon the stairs
All made of the back-bedroom chairs, And filled it full of soft pillows To go a-sailing on the billows. We took a saw and several nails, And water in the nursery pails; And Tom said, "Let us also take An apple and a slice of cake;"-- Which was enough for Tom and me To go a-sailing on, till tea. We sailed along for days and days, And had the very best of plays; But Tom fell out and hurt his knee, So there was no one left but me. Robert Louis Stevenson Get To Know Your Plant Neighbors by Lia Grippo What volunteer or wild plant is growing nearest to your door?
Getting to know plants is like getting to know people. Knowing someone's name doesn't usually tell you much about them. In order to get to know someone we have to pay attention and engage our curiosity. It is the same with Nature connection.
Tin Foil Sculptures By C.J. Cintas Gum was a specialty when I was growing up and whenever my sister and I would get a piece of gum, we would peel the tin foil from the wrapper and create people from it. Here’s how we’d do it: Gather sheet of tinfoil Doesn’t need to be anything special and can even be some that’s already been used as long as it’s not too dirty. Make 5 tears for the head, arms, and legs of your person: Holding the tin foil so it is taller than it is wide, split the top of the tin foil into three parts (a left arm, a head (middle) and a right arm), then make two tears at the waist and one tear at the bottom for either leg. Begin to twist or scrunch the individual sections: This is where you get to shape your person. Does it have a large head, small hands, toes? Form and shape: Have fun with your person. Take it outside, stand it up, dress it, make it a sword or a basket to carry! OR... just sculpt with tinfoil, a great recycled art material! Art by Gwendolyn McCarthy, Cattails class What kind of shorts to clouds wear? Thunderwear What type of tree fits in your hand? A palm tree What did one volcano say to the other? I lava you What runs but never goes out of breath? A river How does the rain tie its shoes? With a rainbows Person 1: Knock-knock. Person 2: Who's there? Person 1: Lettuce. Person 2: Lettuce who? Person 1: Lettuce in, it's cold out here! How many people can jump higher than a mountain? None! Mountains can’t jump |
AuthorWild Roots staff authors include Erin Boehme, Lia Grippo, CJ Cintas, Anne McCarthy, Tyler Starbard, Jenn Sepulveda, Heather Young, Amalia Smith Hale, Natalia Pareja... Archives
May 2020
Categories
All
|