​Amidst the stories of toasting marshmallows, campfire stories, and finding tools of nature to build tents, cabins, and bonfires, the Older Saplings began to wind down as we reached the end of our Camping theme. In the middle of so much activity and fun, it can be difficult at times to take a moment to appreciate the people, nature, and everything around us. We then began to consider and ask each other: What are we grateful for?

"I am grateful for the flowers and my family."

"I am grateful for my family and when I get to go to the ice cream store."

"I am grateful for the trees."

"I am grateful for the stars and the moon."

"I am grateful for how we live, and how the Earth around helps us do."

"I am grateful for silly things!"

Our crew has spent a lot of time together locating, identifying, and collecting nature items and expressing why they are special to nature, and why they are special to us. With that, each Sapling was given a blank slate and water colors to paint the colors they desired, painting colors of gratitude that was known only to them. With the nature items we collected, the Saplings arranged the items to their liking, and then our gratitude boxes came to be. 

The Saplings express gratitude to each other in many ways that they may not realize. It is the smile that is born when one tells a joke that they are grateful to have fun with our friends here today. It is a tight, warm hug that shows their strong bond and joy to be together. 

This fall, the Sprouts have been experiencing many new exciting things that have enriched all of our lives. Our new Teacher Ms. Charlene has begun introducing yoga to all of us. Most days, we do "wake up yoga" right after nap. Some of the poses we are learning are: Down Dog, Cobra, Child's Pose, Table, Twisted Cow and Cat. Ms. Charlene explains that yoga helps bring awareness to our bodies and helps bring happiness into our hearts. We are practicing deep breathing during these poses and also through out our day to help reduce stress and bring calm to our classroom. 

The Sprouts have been participating in many intentional Reggio Emilia-inspired activities. Reggio inspired activities are open ended projects using natural materials. These projects drive children's curiosity to understand and know more about themselves and their world. Teachers observe and guide children, gathering information along the way. We then use this information about each child's interests to build onto our play. This gives each child the opportunity to take their interests further and learn at their own pace.  Our Theme for November was Fall Harvest. We used items from nature like leaves, pine cones, bark, branches, pumpkins, rocks and apples to create with. We also explored fall colors with paint, crayons, markers and paper. We discussed how the seasons and weather change when summer leaves us and fall moves in. The Sprouts also enjoyed making and eating some fall snacks like vegan pumpkin custard and cranberry butter. 

During the last month, the Sprouts have been conducting an experiment!  While Ms. Nichole was in the midst of researching ways to help our youngest sprouts friends stay safely in their chairs during mealtime,  She ran across some interesting information!  This information led her to feel that maybe it is best for children's development that we actually ditch the chairs and sit on the floor! After sharing this information with the other Green Apple Teachers and Families, Ms. Nichole and Ms. Charlene asked the children to try something new with them. We set up a Japanese floor table that was borrowed from Ms. Nichole's Husband, put the chairs in the basement and tried sitting or kneeling on the floor for meals. It didn't take more than a few minutes to see a positive change in the Sprouts behavior. The children appeared more comfortable and calm sitting or kneeling on the floor. They said "This is fun!", "I like the floor." and "I want a floor table at my house."  Ms. Charlene sits with the children and demonstrates deep breathing and being mindful during mealtimes.  The children seemed to really enjoy a few found independence. Being able to get up and clean up their area when they were finished without having to ask for help to get out of their chair seemed exciting and important to them. Ms. Charlene and Ms. Nichole felt more relaxed and calm, not having to worry about a child climbing and falling out of their chair or someone getting their fingers pinched. We also started serving snack "family style" Letting the children use scoops, spoons and tongs to serve themselves with the guidance of their teachers. These changes over the last month, have created a much more mindful, calm and fun mealtime experience for everyone!
Here are the links to information we gathered for this experiment, we hope you find it useful in your own world! 
Floor living
Sitting on the floor to eat
Sitting on the floor
Why sit on the floor to eat?
Floor sitting

One of the most meaningful aspects about following a child-led curriculum is that you never really know where the kiddos will lead you.  A favorite book or a simple question can open up an entire door of wonderings waiting to be inquired, investigated, and researched.  The unknown quality of emergent learning also happens to be one of the most challenging here at Green Apple: how do you incorporate all of the other inspirations we draw from while still honoring the children's interests?

The answer is: you listen first.  You listen to the messages they are sending you through their art, their construction, their reaching for the same book over and over again.  You hunker down frog-style and pay close attention to their conversations with each other during play.  You listen with ears and eyes, you make note after note, and finally, you ask yourself: What are the children telling me?

This month, the Saplings were telling us they were extremely interested in learning about fairies.  We saw them discussing some of the magic that happens around the holidays, as well as incorporating fairies into their dramatic play and, occasionally, their construction (building fairy houses together outside).  We took their cue and made fairies our December theme!

For the younger Saplings crew, our fairy exploration has led us to conversations revolving around size, ability, and strength.  Many of the younger Saplings asserted steadfastly that you must be big to be strong, and that strength is only a measure of the physical variety, often in comparison to what another cannot do.  All quite fitting explanations for people who hear regularly that one day, they will be big and be able to do more, right?

With fairies, we've focused on the power and capabilities that small beings possess, and that being strong can mean many different things.  We've read stories about small fairies who were able to save a fallen knight by working together, and listened to finger puppet performances about a tiny boy fairy whose strength lied in his compassion and ability to solve problems for his enormous animal friends.  We've used our own small fingers to sculpt fairy cups like the fairies who saved the knight drank from.  We've made illustrations for a class book about strong fairies, and described what makes them strong.  

For most of the kids, strong still means big and able to push or lift heavy things.  And that's fine.  It's a hard concept to wrap your head around, that strong isn't just what superhero idols are, and we're not setting out to invalidate those ideas.  It's all about slowly offering different perspectives, introducing little nuggets of possiblity, to say:  We hear you, now have you considered this?...