Nature and Child: Peace

Friday, October 25, 2019

For the LOVE of Trees

On Thursday of last week, I gave a presentation to the whole school entitled, For the Love of Trees. I introduced the children to some of my very best friends in Denver... the TREES. I shared the wonderful discovery that trees communicate!! But not like we do. They communicate via chemicals and fungi networks in and around their root systems. WHOA! (If you want to learn more about the Wood Wide Web, you can watch this video here or this informative ted talk. For a deeper dive pick up Perter Wohlleben's wonderful book The Hidden Life of Trees. )

The children were surprised. Trees can talk? Yep. And you can talk to them. Really? Well I do! I shared how I learned to talk to plants and trees as a little girl by listening with my heart. Yep. Sound hokey? To adults maybe it does, but children often know what I'm talking about. The heart feels love. Love is a kind of chemical in the body and our heart is a big ole magnet.

As a child of hippies, I was taught to "listen" to trees with my heart and senses. I learned to discern if a plant needed water or nutrients by sight and touch and yes... feeling. I learned to ask before picking a leaf and then listening with my heart to hear the reply. If my heart grew warm with love I took that as a yes and if not, I didn't pick the leaf or fruit or flower.

Many of the children were eager to give it a try.

After our presentation the children were invited into the studio to share their wonderings and ideas about trees.

I also introduced a large "tree" made of paper, cardboard and tape. We will be adding papier mache' to it's surface in the weeks ahead. In the Spring our little tree will be on display in the corner window of the Artisan Center along with your children's thoughts and creativity. Stay tuned to watch this project unfold in the year ahead AND if you are inspired to learn or share more feel free to contact me! I love to collaborate!

I hope you have a beautiful and tree-filled weekend. And if you are walking with your child, be sure to listen for a while to the song of the trees in your neck of the woods!

BONUS:Here is a video clip to my dear friend, a ponderosa pine along Apex hiking trail in Golden, CO.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Collaborative Research: Peace Education

I'm excited about another studio/classroom collaboration that is happening this year! Our Ward-Hobbs morning teacher, Claire, has been interested in Peace Education for a long time. We've decided to begin intentionally documenting how we promote and practice peace in the school. This study will allow us to deepen our practice and understanding of peace education. I will be posting about our collaboration throughout the year, so all of you can join our exploration.
To guide our inquiry, we generated a primary research questions.
How can we as teachers of young children promote peace?
And then broke that down into a few supporting questions to further clarify our research:

How do we model peace in the classroom?
How do our movements, words, tone and the lessons we give promote non-violent conflict resolution and mindfulness?
How do we demonstrate respect for each child and support them in recognizing and welcoming others as individuals within a group?
How do we recognize and nurture signs of empathy and care as they arise?
How might we model positive self-talk in a school environment and how might that benefit the children in our care?

Today Claire offered a Peace Assembly for the morning primary classes. She began with a few deep breaths and a listening exercise with the singing bowl.