As usual, our Summer curriculum is woven from many different threads. With one thread, we worked to incorporate all of the vacation experiences we heard the children reflecting on as they returned to the classroom after spending time on family adventures. We listened to tales of sunshine, sand, ocean waves, lobsters, lakes, boats- all sorts of inspiring images to feed the imagination!
Time for sharks, shells, seaweed, fish, and whales! Soon the Frogs were including all of these ocean-y elements into their pretend play. It was almost as if we were all on an extended ocean vacation together, without having to leave the classroom!
Perhaps the most significant thread this summer had to do with the concept of growth.
The seedlings that we started way back in February have been tucked away in our playground gardens for a while now, but it seems like their growth over the last month or two has been particularly spectacular.
Of course, these plants have nothing on the kids in the Frog room!
During the summer, we teachers often marvel at the substantial growth that takes place while these kids are in our care. This is largely because summertime at Nonotuck is synonymous with transition. During the summer children move from one classroom to the next, little by little, until finally everyone is settled in their new environment, ready for the new school year. We teachers spend a lot of time going through all of our documentation from the school year, and marveling at how these children-who came to us in diapers, with baby faces and binkies- have changed into bona fide kids. Kids who can ride bikes, make rules, construct arguments, imagine stories, create art, count things, make educated guesses, form alliances, show empathy, and navigate their world with an actualized sense of autonomy that we could only see glimmers of when they came to us.
It is a significant change, and as such, we think it deserves to be marked by a bit of a ceremony.
The whole concept of Ritual is important to the Frogs. really, they view our day at school as one ritual after another. Through the school year, our rituals around cleaning up, taking turns, washing hands, eating snack, and going to sleep give the Frogs a way to take comfort in the predictability and safety of their environment, while simultaneously taking ownership over their day. When you really think about it, a ritual is a combination of a structured set of activities plus a little bit of magic. That is pretty much the definition of a three-year-olds existence right there!
For the last two years, we have marked each child's transition from the Frog room to whatever is on the horizon with a little ritual. At the beginning of the school year, we measure each child with a ribbon, which we add to a little keepsake. In the past, we have made magic wands, but this year, we opted to use simple felt "stuffies" with ribbon streamers.
On a child's last day in the Frog room, we measuring them with another ribbon and compare the two. After everyone has a chance to admire how different the two ribbons are, (and don't worry, no matter how tiny they seem, every single kid manages to grow a few inches in the Frog room!) the child gets to take this symbol of their growth down the hallway to their new cubby to take home, or onward to their new school.
This year, we decided to add another element to this ritual. As we mentioned before, our month-to-month mural seemed closed to being finished, but it wasn't quite there yet...
...Every artist needs to sign their work!
This year, after going through their ribbon ritual, we invite each child to paint their hand and press in on the mural that we have made together.
It has a few more hand-prints to go before it's "finished", but it is beautiful.
If you look closely, you'll notice that one of the hand-prints on that mural is my own.
This past Thursday was my last day at Nonotuck Community School. I've just finished going through 13 years worth of documentation of my years at Nonotuck. The change in style is mind boggling- from notes, written in magic marker on loose leaf notepaper, studded with Polaroids in a binder to this blog. It doesn’t feel like I've been doing this since before the dawn of the internet and social media when I measure the time in my own head, but when I look at those Polaroids and realize that the little kids in those pictures are all old enough to be starting college in the fall...- yeah, it’s been a while!
My perspective has changed along with my means of documenting and sharing the learning that I have been privileged to be a part of. I started out as a fresh college graduate, with a Bachelors Degree in theater and no idea that this job would become my passion and my life's work. I truly do not have the words to sum up everything that this work, these children, these families have given me.
Let's just say there isn't a ribbon long enough to measure how much I've grown here, and for that I am immeasurably grateful.
I will continue teaching at a different school, and I will post a link to the new blog that I will start there for those of you who want to follow along at home. The Frog's at Nonotuck will continue to document their experiences, along with the younger "Polliwog" class in a new blog at www.nonotucktoddlers.blogspot.com I look forward to reading about the continuing adventures of the Nonotuck toddlers, and wish you all the best of luck on the next part of your journey!
-Michelle
