The power of We. In Dr. Laura Jana’s book The Toddler Brain she discusses at length about WE skills –people skills. What exactly are we meaning by that? To start, the skills to form relationships and the skills of interacting with others. Essentially, this hits to the heart of why so many families choose to send their young children to preschool. To learn to play and get along with others among many other reasons. Children, of course do not need to learn how to play but all of us benefit from discovering how we can better listen to and communicate with others.
With this intention we begin our small group work this year. We start by having the children share with each other their chosen nature object from our home visits. We quietly watched and listened in to how these intentional dynamics interacted together as they shared their pieces and drew what they noticed.
“I found a piece of bark. Well I wanted to collect it cause it fit into my bag. When I picked it up I noticed there was a creature on it but I shaked it off!” — Spencer
“Well that rock…this was usually a flower, I think but I picked it and it died and someday I got this big rock.” Madeline
“Well I just picked this leaf off the ground and I noticed it had a creature on it but I noticed the creature was gonna bite me so I shooked it off!” — Ada
“Why was it gonna bite you?” — Spencer
“I thought it was a bee.” — Ada
“Oh.” — Spencer
“This looks like a Truffla Tree.” — Henry
“Those do look like Truffla Trees!” — Spencer
“My brother told me to pick those so I picked them.” — Quinn
“Well I picked this by myself at the driveway.” — Madeline P.R.
“A flower from home in the garden. It looked happy like all the other flowers in the garden.” — Maddy
“Okay, that’s a feather.” — Quinn
“Hey, well you don’t know what feather it is.” — Margot
“What feather is it from?” — Quinn
“A Blue Jay feather.” — Margot
“C’mon, Blue Jays only come out at Winter.” — Quinn
“No. Blue Jays don’t.” — Margot
“Yeah. My brother said that Blue Jays only come out at Winter.” — Quinn
“This is the only thing I have about a Blue Jay.” — Margot
“Then you…then it must have felled when it was Winter.” — Quinn
“Well, I found it on the street.” — Margot
“It must have been covered on the street. Covered on the ground.” — Quinn
“Well, it felt soft.” — Margot
“So I found a moth in my room and it was killed. It was actually on my blanket. I saw it flied but then it was dead.” — Liam
“I found it at school in the nature walk area. It’s tangled. And this is a Maple Leaf.” — Hannah
“I grew it. At my house. On my Apple Tree. I picked it off.” — Milo
“Do you eat it?” — Sylvie
“Not yet.” — Milo
Later drawing…
“(I’m drawing) Milo’s apple. Cause he’s my friend.” — Sylvie
“Milo’s apple. Because I asked him to play with me on a different day.” — Liam
“(drawing) A rock. Liam’s. Because…” — Milo
“I asked you that I wanted to play with you? — Liam
(Milo nods, yes.)
“On the road. We went into the bushes and then we got them. Daddy was there, standing there. Near the bushes and I gave him the pinecones.” — Nico
I found a leaf with some sand on it. In my backyard!” — Eleanor
I found acorns.” — Britton
“These are from the beach.” — Callen
“The sand was on the leaf in my backyard but how did the sand get there? All the sand in the world is at the beach!” — Eleanor
“Maybe the wind? — Britton
“Eleanor brought a pail of sand and she dumped it in her backyard.” — Calen
“No I didn’t.” — Eleanor
“The rain came and then the wind came and blew it there.” — Nico
“Rain can’t blow things!” — Eleanor
“Rain can blow off roofs! ” — Callen
“No it has wood. Wood can protect ceilings.” — Britton
“…Wood can break. What about lightning?” — Callen
“Yeah, lightning could…” — Britton
“It is not so much that we need to think of a child who develops himself by himself but rather of a child who develops himself interacting and developing with others.”
–Loris Malaguzzi