Monday, November 16, 2015

Thinking in Metaphor




Vea Vecchi was one of the first atelierista's appointed to the Reggio Emilia schools in the 1970's.


In my very humble opinion, Vea is a poet, philosopher and a visionary.  When I attended a conference in Portland, Oregon Vea spoke regarding the power of thinking  in metaphor. A child's rich imagination often relies on symbol and representation. This inclination is a wellspring for the development of metaphor. This year I again had the pleasure of hearing Vea Vecchi talk in Italy and she stated the following: 
"A metaphor offers many layers of interpretation and does not require a certain explanation."
Thinking in metaphors is fueled by flexibility and creativity.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have had my nose stuck in a book entitled , A Country Called Childhood  by Jay Griffiths. Take a look at what he says about metaphor.

Children are musicians of thought:they transpose from the key of fact to the key of magic. How? Thought metaphor. Children understand metaphor instinctively--and this is a breathtaking idea. If they didn't imagine how difficult it would be to explain it to them. As it is, I know that you can put an empty Heinz baked bean tin on a rug with a child who has barely learned to speak and tell the child the rug is the sea and the bean tin is a boat and there it is in his mind. A boat carrying its cargo across to the other side, just as the word 'metaphor' itself does. as we've seen from meta, 'across' and phor, 'carry', There is a metaphor within the very word itself. 

 "Children understand metaphor instinctively." Wow!

 Children are  constantly assimilating new language and understandings and as they accommodate this learning to what they know they compare and contrast.  Metaphors occur at the intersection between the appearance and the essence of an object or experience. 

We embrace metaphor as we work with the many languages of the classroom------writing, sketching, painting, drama, building,clay.......


Cheri offered the following example of metaphoric thinking captured in the studio.

Cheri's gleanings:
Observational drawing is a daily practice that the children have learned to do with patient focus and increased confidence. It requires coming back, over and over again to the details of the items in view. They are encouraged to draw what they see, and not what they imagine. Being challenged to define the facts and temper their imagination can be exhausting for young children. Finding ways to make this critical practice fun, can be challenging for teachers. 
Following our many sessions of drawing a human pelvis and a turtle pelvis, photocopies allowed them the freedom to revisit their factual drawings with a different intention. They were encouraged to use their full imagination to create something completely divergent from their previous drawings.  Re-observing the detailed shapes from all angles, delighted them in the discovery of utter goofiness and provided a new magic to their diligence.

Each of these images began as an observational sketch of a human pelvis but they were reinvented


A monster      Kenny



                                                      A princess  Sidney

                                                       
                                       a winged bug Zoey


                                                                      a turtle Avery



                           A bowl of ice cream Shayna




Tuesday, November 10, 2015

The Transformative Power of Animals


In a prior post we published the transcript of the children reacting to the discovery of two small squirrel babies that we found deceased in the garden after watching them play ten minutes earlier. It was a difficult afternoon but we unpacked the experience with our eighth grade reading buddies and then began a long process of trying to make sense of what we witnessed and also prepare for a ceremony to say goodbye.

I recently purchased a book entitled A Country Called Childhood Children and the Exuberant World written by Jay Griffiths. I recognize so much of what I read in the book as the truths I have been privileged to observe in early childhood. The author devotes one chapter to the primal connection young children have to animals.

Animals matter to children as companions, as consolers, as comprehenders. A child's psyche leans to the animal world and talk of children brought up by animals exert an uncanny fascination. Animals, though, are important to children in a further sense: they are guides to thought. They lead children to leaps of imagination. 

Wondering what a wasp is thinking or what a tree might feel in the wind is a part of the mind's development, practicing the quick spring of empathy. Children ascribe meaning, intent and emotion to animals. Faithful to  the anthropomorphism until they are ridiculed out of it, children nurture a relationship with the animal world  whereby they become party to extra sensitivities, to other stories and a diversity of viewpoints.

These truths about the relationship between children and animals required that we listen carefully to the thinking of the children and honor their intentions regarding the baby squirrels.

The children felt strongly that the squirrels should be buried in the garden where they lived. Shayna felt that we should bury them and place a marker so we would always know where to find the squirrels. Zoey shared that she wanted to  bury the squirrels with acorns and a blanket so they would be ready for their next life.. Kenny thought it might be a good idea to make a tombstone.

Collectively, the children felt it was important to make cards and express our feelings to the squirrels. As cards were created  in the school studio with Anna,  several Kindergartners  made crowns for the squirrels. Another group of children accompanied Pippin into the garden to look for the perfect location to bury the squirrels. When they returned to the classroom they reviewed the options and drew a map to document the possible locations.  








Pippin and his group led our class to consider the possibilities. We knew it was important that the site was quiet and private.

 As we were studying one of the locations, the Kindergartners realized that there were two empty shelves built into the brick wall. We felt that this would be an ideal space to place commemorative statues of the two baby squirrels.

Anna worked with a group of children to sculpt these statues using clay in the school studio. The sculptures are currently in the kiln and  will be unveiled at a later date.

We also had some big questions that continued to plaque us. The children wanted to understand  how the squirrels died. What made them fall from the tree? Were they dead before they fell or after they fell from the tree? Was another wild animal responsible for their death. Bryce expressed an interest in making a book to document his theory. Several children wanted to be involved in this process.

Shayna: When they were not looking the squirrels stepped one foot off the branch and they fell out of the tree, hit the ground, hit their heads and started bleeding.





Kenny: This is a picture of a snake chasing one of the squirrels. The snake caught the squirrel and bit the squirrels and they fell off.


Bryce: The squirrels fell out of the trees and then they were bit by fire ants and they died. Fire ants are something that bites you and it has fire in it and dies.

Caroline: The squirrels were playing the tree and then they fell down and they got up and saw a bunny. The bunny attacked them to eat them and then they died.



Shayna: The two squirrels were on either side of the tree. Two Kindergartens were also on either side of the tree raking leaves. I think that the Kindergartens accidentally raked the squirrels and that's how they died.






























Kate: One side of the picture is the good side and the other side is the bad part. The squirrels are falling and the snake got them and he killed them because it has a rattlesnake.





Often when we are working in the Kindergarten studio, conversations unfold. In this particular conversation the  children discussed the concept of death. What happened to the squirrels after they died?

Sydney: They will come back alive.

Zach: The get buried under their grave stone.

Penelope: They come back alive again as a baby squirrel.

Zoey: Right after they die their should go up to heaven and they are still alive.

Zach : We still need to tell the family because their babies never came home.

Sydney: God takes them up to heaven. God is invisible and he is inside of us. He can break into little pieces.

This thinking provoked the idea that squirrels might need additional supplies as they move forward in their journey. Each morning Cheri is in the Kindergarten studio. Several children expressed their intention to  sew items for the squirrels to either comfort them in the grave or in their after life. Each child began with a pattern prior to sewing. 

Renditions of the squirrel babies were crafted and many soft and cozy pillows,too.






Beds and sleeping bags were made  to keep the squirrels comfortable and warm.




A few days prior to the Squirrel Ceremony we brought  the sewn items, the cards and the crowns to the children in circle. We shared several burial customs of  indigenous people as well as ancient civilizations. They seemed to favor several of the stories. One talked about a South American group of people who create effigies of their lost ones and keep it close as a remembrance of their life. It is very similar to the Mexican Day of the Dead. 

We offered the option of finding a permanent home for the effigies of the two squirrels in the classroom as well as their sewn items of comfort. This generated many thoughts and reactions. 

We will publish the transcript of the conversation as well as the ceremony in our next post. 

This story is not finished. There are still so many feelings and deep thinking that continue to ebb and flow and seep out. Animals and the love they generate in children  have a transformative power.

Stay tuned........




Monday, November 2, 2015

Umbrella Day: A trip into Richmond

Each year, Sabot at Stony Point hosts a project involving the preschool, lower and middle school. We refer to this project as the Umbrella Project. This is our second year exploring and considering the city of Richmond. Last Thursday, the entire school ventured into the city. The Kindergarten boarded a city bus and traveled to the observation deck at City Hall. .

We asked the children to predict what they thought they might see? We also practiced riding a bus. Anna pretended that she was the door to the bus and offered a few tips with Shayna, our bus driver, regarding cueing for a bus, paying for the ride, thanking the driver and finding your seat.



 



When Umbrella Day arrived there was much excitement and many smiles.












 Later we reflected on our bus ride.

Lorelai: We saw someone put their bike on the front of the car.

Annabel: I felt car sick. It was long ride.

Shayna: I noticed that the cars were much smaller than the bus.

Zoey: I noticed when we walked in  everything wasn't like what I thought it would be. I was surprised to see a sign with a little circle in it that meant no smoking.

Bryce: When I sat down there was a yellow wire that you could pull so the bus driver  would know it was your stop.

Kate: I noticed that the kids were getting in line so they would not get squished or break the bus. Some grown ups got in line too.

Zach: The top one was the money maker. The teacher had to tell the kids to put their money in the other one

Penelope: I thought the money maker would be  a box with a little hole in it because I have been on a bus before.

Samuel: When we got off the bus there were two pairs of steps. I got off in the middle of the bus. I thought we were going to the roof of the building.

Kenny:When we were on the bus I saw us crossing the James River. I saw a tiny waterfall and rocks and lots of trees.













We shared our impressions of the observation deck and the bird's eye view it afforded.

Cal: I remember people bonking their heads on the window as they sketched.

Shayna: I saw the nursery part of VCU and it had alot of words.

Caroline: I saw old city hall. It looked like a castle.

Bryce: I saw a bridge over the James River.

Annabel: I saw a really tall building with lots of windows.

Penelope: I think I noticed my mom's car going under a tunnel.

Charlie: I saw all the way to the beach.

Eve: I saw the clock tower. It had a point at the top and squares on the bottom. It just didn't look much like all of the other buildings but it was really interesting.

I saw a fan on the top of the building.

Lorelai: I saw old city hall and it looked like a haunted house.

Caroline: There was a cross walk where people walk and it keeps them safe. There are these little white lines. They keep going up where you want to go.












We spent some time jogging and skipping around the observation deck. Kenny said he though the top of the building would be the shape of a circle and not the shape of a square. Many of the children were fascinated with the flags from the countries of the bikers