Following the Lead of "Little Folk"

Painting the fairy cups we molded after reading "The Ivory Cups" story

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?

Ethan and Louisa working on adding branches and pipe cleaners to our fairy forest for morning art invitation

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?

Teagan uses crayon to create her representation of a strong fairy

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?

Dax experiments with feather-painting on his fairy cup

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?...

Working on our "strong fairy" illustrations