Beach school...perfect summer days

For our continued adventures, go to Class Two!

We walked through the most gorgeous meadows...

Big break on the rocks

In his own habitat

Seals lazing

Education through the senses

It would seem like we were playing, but as we walked, Thomas and myself stopped along the way to get the children to notice things. I have seen this, when you walk with a consciousness and when you just walk, the children respond differently... i have an extract from my blog here about the my thoughts on education through the senses... the simplified version of it...here it is

We had Forest School yesterday, which should be changed to Beach School because we spent big break on the rocks by Belfast Lough in the heat, paddling and watching the seals, terns and gulls. We also saw house martins, linnets (about 30 of them), swallows, house sparrows and cormorants. We also saw a host of plants - wildflowers and some inects and the children asked me questions about this and that.

I loved having been in the birdy place and wandered around with the wardens, because really its the wardens who knew the most about everything. They were the ones who taught me everything i know (which is not a lot) about moths, butterflies, wildflowers, insects and of course birds. If i do miss anything it is my annual visits to these places and being with wardens to chat about stuff and to see stuff. Eddie used to run moth traps for the boys round about this time of the year which was filled with the maddest LSD inspired inhabitants. Of course Eddie only looks on now (bless you Eddie)... how i miss him. Anthony patiently explained the difference between a gull and a tern, then taught me how to recognise birdsong, Brad floated me around Lower Lough Erne, Cuilcagh and other places, attempting to discover hen harriers (which we never did) and then and showed me wee baby snipe and lectured me about Sandwich terns (amongst other things :-) ), Matthew showed me the glories of Lough Foyle - i first saw whooper swans with him, and my first red and greenshank, Liam told me all about seabirds and placed a dead little auk from his freezer in front of me at three in the morning. Then there was the Biodiversity Officers network which gave me a wonderful insight into habitat management, bats, planning orders and plant ID. Really... and then of course there was the entire rainforest experience.

But you do not attempt to smother children with this info of course. When i go out with biologists, i want to tell them, do no do this to children. Let them enjoy it. Work with the teachers so that they have a poetic feeling before they actually see the thing, they will remember the thing so much better, it will be like magic.

And yesterday it was like magic.

Thomas led us through fields of buttercups and through orchards and the most lovely farm...we finally ended up at the beach. All the time the childen were going, this is fun...but really, i could see they were learning.

I could see even how they knew how to put on their wellies so much better. That they knew how to converge in the outdoors. They were confident with the woods, and the waters. They were asking questions all the time. Children who first did not like being outdoors, were now perfectly happy with it. I had a girl walk alongside me asking me the names of flowers and plants. We stopped at a stone totem (probably carved by Luc our woodowkr teacher) and we identified pictures and guessed at the figured that was carved. I helped identify the birds near the farmyard.

Then with all those black-headed gulls flying about us i said, gulls have different names too, i said. See this gull here, what colour is its head? Black, Oisin replied. So that is a black-headed gull. Oooooh! they all said. And they only have black-heads in the summer. WHAT??!! The children said. Yes, i said, in the winter they have their winter coats on and it is white. What colour are their legs... look...things like that. Then after big break, in the gorgeous heat of Belfast Lough, with all that around us, that we recited The Rainbow poem by Walter de la Mare. In these days of sun and rain, i hope they will see the rainbow and think of the bejewelled words of the poem which filled us daily.

Children learn through their senses because they are not awake yet in their thinking. We fill them with sensory activities and there is nothing more sensory than learning this way. We stopped and i got them to smell different flowers. Lilac. Pink thrift. Here, smell this rose, i said. A little boy sniffed it. It smells like sweets!! He said. Can you imgaine how wonderfully children can describe things? Could we eat it? We digest everything, and here was a child telling me he was literally digesting this encounter with a rose.

These are the days of the lifeforces, when the sun and air spirits surge within us. I said to Thomas, i love these beautiful summer days when it has been really really hot and then it rains and everything is saturated. Colours, smells, the air itself is swirling with amazement. The world admires itself. The elementals are singing. And Thomas, in his very wise way said, yes, you really feel the lifeforces. That is exactly it Thomas! The lifeforces, i said.

It is impossible not to be happy in these days of summer.

Dipthongs, EE, OO and the last two weeks...

http://www.shivasandmettasmotherssutra.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/dipthongs-oo-ee-and-beach-school.html

Accidentally posted it on my own blog! ...

Getting it all in...maths and the second day of Forest School

This is our last Maths Main Lesson block, although we do 10 mins of maths every day. However, it is SUCH a contrast from when we first began and there were the number gnomes and everything was very visual and sweet...here is a typical board from the day...

We are counting in threes and sixes. We do sense of number - 20 and we do division. I have come to since realise that Class One and Two are quite similar in terms of numberacy and literacy. You are basically getting the foundations really strong during these years so that the children will be able to build on them and thus minimise the risk of dyscalcula. Which sounds like a relation of Dracula, but is not. It is like dyslexia, but really it can be minimised if children are not afraid of maths.

I cannot tell you how much fun we have in class when we do maths. In fact when i say we are doing division they are delighted and go yay!

So maths is an inner movement which is helped by outer movements. We walk the tables, we count it clapping. We use little clay beads/marbles which they have made themselves to make division a real thing. My idea is that as they are learning to count in groups they are also learning to divide in groups. Next year we will get them to memorise the tables and to do division mentally - which a few of them can already do.

I set them exercises and they are absolutely allowed to use their fingers or to use the claybeads. What we want now is to establish their sense of number and give them every confidence that maths is something which is wonderful and challenging.

Here is a board from a group which did division by 2, 3 and 4

Worksheet from a group which did a more complicated division
I had set a few tricks for them and they loved it

Another group that did some work independently

I do my own worksheets

I keep the gnomes in to keep the quality of the numbers and the operations. They also let me decorate the sheets appropriately. The little balls also echo the clay marbles which we use. I help children that can't do the work independently. It is far far better that children feel confident in asking for help than if they suffer on their own and feel they are floundering. Recently a child learnt to do addition. I was delighted. This time round they understood division. I cannot tell you the remarkable feeling of happiness that you see on their faces when the penny drops. It is like the sun suddenly comes out and shines over everything.

The more advanced side

We have not left form drawing behind as you can see!! We do it everyday still. Some children who struggled at the start are now excellent at it. It will really aid their cursive handwriting skills later on.

Sense of number - 20

Forest School...the elemental of Water

The children pretend to fish!

The flag with more leaves! We sewed 12 on this week



Add caption

A sunfilled day in a wood splashing about
it does not get better than this



Next week we count in sevens

The fairytale this week was the Firebird, a Russian one. It was lovely when i asked, what shape does the seven star also make? And one child was able to say 3!!

We have another two more days of the Maths Main Lesson and then we go back to English and Literacy.

Close up of our flag

Our sunflower seeds have grown

All over the school are sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds sprouting away! Can't wait to see them when we come back from the holidays!


Forest school

Here are some photos from our first forest school session. It went really really well! Thank you to Thomas Baker and Vincent Reynolds of Camphill Glencraig for making it possible. And Jo for doing the driving!!

We arrive and hang out with the King of the Woods

Mini break. Our last one!

Bluebells in flower under the beeches

Thomas unveils our fleg

The fleg is very important.
we use it to help demarcate boundaries

Exploring the limits of the surroundings

Making willow huts

Free play

Gnomey huts

Helping to rebuild them

Kai has added a covered calvurt

Splashing in the stream

The ant hotel

We worked with the earth elementals today. I was told just let children play and explore the element of earth and soil. Thomas and myself chatted at length about this and the importance of getting children at this age to experience the delight of the open spaces. It goes beyond the health benefits which of course are many. It also is a vital part of their becoming adults. It goes something like this - which is by the way Steiner pedagogy: Children must experience wonder and awe, along with reverence and respect, for the world around them. This is because when they become teenagers, they are then called to still be engaged with that world. The danger with adolescence is that the human being will be come apathetic, as the thinking and willing forces start to seperate. This foundation of having this imaginative understanding of the natural world, helps to them create a strong feeling centre - namely the imagination - which will let them engage with life in a meaningful way where they feel they want to give something back, instead of either switching off or lapsing into fantasy ie consumerism, consumption or the image. That's the theory any way. As for the elementals, they are the basis of physics, chemsitry and biology. We chatted about getting them to 'identify' plants and i said, no, do not do that. We agreed that this made them not actually see the thing they were supposed to be looking at. I would not ID anything until they are around 10 or 11 i said. I've done this before and it just goes over their heads. Far more exciting for them is spiky plant or sweet smelling plant. What we want them to do is open their eyes and open their minds. Give them the name and the eyes may be open, but the mind may also shut. They had a great time and i would most certainly recommend the Forest School to anyone. In addition to all the above we also played sensory games and we sang songs, recited the three times table, did story time and recited our May poem by Walter de la Mare. Perfect.

More fleg creatures and division with some minus

We made more critters for the fleg

It's the Maths Main Lesson block again this week. We are pushing ahead with division and minus. Having introduced the concepts via our famous number gnomes in the first term, we revisit these with more abstraction (but not too much!). Here are some photos from this week...

A lovely sunflower sewn by Kai

The minus gnome who looses things and King Equals

Just above that are the three times tables

The song we are learning this week

 

Division

Maths is an ethical subject. It i good and true, it is beautiful. There is a spirituality in maths which is once removed in language. You don't tell the children this of course, but you say things like...The Divide Gnome is a very fair gnome. He carries his sword and he divides everything up fairly. Later on for minus, they will learn that you do not borrow, but you take, since you never return what you borrow. King Equals rules justly as everything on either side of him is the same, he balances. This will later come in useful in algebra. The gnomes are also related to the temperaments. Division is choleric, minus is melancholic, addition is phelgmatic and multiplication is...yes...sanguine!! Each temperament has a colour...which will explain the worksheets later. Since we learn the timetables through the magic circle, the children see that maths is also beautiful. That the correct answer gives you a beautiful pattern.

The children learn that you can make 15 in different ways

This was sense of number. The children learn number bonds and number relations through the sense of number. It also enables them to think differently - there is no one solution. You have an answer and you can reach it by many different means. At this stage most of them would have understood that all those operations give you 15.

Homemade worksheets

There are two sets of worksheets i make, aimed at different stages of development. Because the class is small i am able to help each child personally. But to be honest, there are very few children who need help at this stage. It is amazing to see how far they have got in less than a year. They get NO homework. And they only started their literacy and numeracy this year.

Our main lesson book

Each brings their own character to the book

We make our own teaching aids

It's not because we are cheap, but working with beeswax and scissors helps the fine motorskills. I got the children to make 36 balls from beeswax - which also helped their sense of number and then we did division by three. 36 divided by 3 is...12.

Division by 5

I love the way we use simple natural materials. I don't know if i have said this before, but it is vital that children experience genuine materials as the sense of touch, smell and taste by a moral counterpart. By knowing what tastes, feels and smells real, the children learn to intuit the 'truth'. It is better explained through the reverse...which is how is a person supposed to know what real silk feels like or real wool feels like if they have only felt the synthetic one? Similarly, how are you supposed to know what the truth is when all you have known is a lie?

See how our sunflower has grown in a week!

I'm hoping for them to do some observation as the inner leaves now begin to grow.

Teacher's example

Picture of our happy gardening club!