The first *full* day of school in the Gan

We take our time easing into the daily routines of Gan life. Right now, we are focused on getting to know the children, helping them feel at ease in the Gan and working to build a kind and respectful community of learners. Also, having a lot of fun.

We began today with singing, again. I know that every year children start off a little shy about singing aloud, but I'm not kidding when I say that this morning they looked at me as if I were singing in Martian. Fortunately, this condition wore off later in the morning and I began to actually hear their voices rise in song. I believe so strongly in the power of song to teach literacy skills,  build community and express ourselves spiritually.

At meeting we read our morning message, played a name game, reviewed the morning schedule and then went on a tour of the upstairs, where we visited the first, second and third grade classrooms. When we came back, we reviewed what we learned yesterday about the life cycle of a monarch. We made a visual display of the cycle, and acted it out. We then looked at a very silly picture of a caterpillar, and talked about the difference between scientific drawings (which we did yesterday) and imaginative drawings. This set the stage for drawing self-portraits. With mirrors on every table, the children examined their faces and did their best to draw what they saw. We'll have these on display after children have a chance tomorrow to add color (we worked in black and white today.)

We moved on to snack - we were able to distribute a few more kippot (head coverings) and hope to have more very soon. After snack we had our first math time. We talked about counting - while every child seemed to know how many children were in the class, I was interested in finding out *how* they knew. We brainstormed and demonstrated several ways to count, and then created an attendance tower, made up of a cube to represent each child in school. We then had some time to free explore one of our math manipulatives - colored tiles. Here are a few examples of children's creations:

After math, we went outside for recess. There was a lot of cooperative play and some good, tiring fun. Afterwards, we returned inside for "Explorations" - when children can choose an area in the classroom. We watched some children make lemon tea in the imagination station, while others built in the construction area, drew in the art area, or made creations in the small building area.

This kept us very busy until lunch time and our first Gan rest. We worked with children to start developing independent skills - laying out their mats and sheets and getting settled, and during rest we played the cd "Ramona the Pest" by Beverly Cleary. (I couldn't help but laugh aloud several times during the story, but most children were very, very quiet.) We had such a successful rest that the class earned their first "magic bean." See if your child can explain to you what that means.

We continued our long day with a second recess, and returned for our last activity - art. We do a lot of work with the visual arts and expression in the Gan using a wide range of materials. Today, we used...rocks! We looked at a photograph of Stonehenge and children described what they saw. We talked about the way the stones were arranged, and what the arrangements reminded the children of. Then I put a large collection of small rocks on the rug and asked each child to choose one. They looked at it, touched it and even smelled it - then they turned to a partner and told their partner 3 things about their rock. Next, I asked each child to share something that his/her partner said (this was a great exercise in listening - some children didn't remember any and had to ask again...) Lastly every child had a chance to take up to 15 rocks and try various ways to arrange the stones on a piece of paper. Here are some examples -

I was really impressed with how long children wanted to work on these. I had to stop them after 30 minutes so we would be on time for pack up and dismissal. I think it's a great sign of things to come.

Today three chrysalises, tomorrow, who knows? I can't wait to find out!