Our fondness to create stronger relationships with creatures from nature exhibits through our many visible invitations. Luna notices the ring circles on top of the tree stump. She starts to draw a few circles in different colors which attracts George to add a dot right in the center of it. This interest of noticing the details has been made apparent by the illustrations. ​Howard Gardner (1991) suggested that the value of learning in nature (what he called “outdoor education”) is that the learning is not bound to school settings; rather nature education fosters connected knowing that is not separate from but an integral part of life.

At the back field, Abigail draws a heart shape and a few more objects next to it on a concrete ground. When asked, she describes, "It is a heart for the birds. Birds love hearts." We further interpret Abigail's description as an invitation to invite the birds and build a bridge of trust between us and them by providing love and compassion. 

​Phenice and Griffore (2003) suggested that children’s sense of self needs to develop in conjunction with and as a part of nature and that regular, positive interactions with nature are instrumental to helping children develop a respect for the environment. 

When we are searching for insects and living creatures in the front yard, we find tiny insects and slugs inside the bucket. We work together to keep them covered with soil. Friends value the importance of soil as an important value for these tiny creatures. 

When children play in nature, the result is a marked increase in children’s interest in and knowledge of nature (Fjortoft, 2001). We keep in mind how natural materials and the intentionally designed spaces in nature facilitate authentic play. 

Based on an invitation to think about "How do we think homes for bugs look like?", Isha illustrates her thought to Abeer. She thinks of the important aspects to create comfort and safety. Isha provides a ladybug and a snail with a comfortable bed made of leaves to sleep and a tiny house to protect them from the rain. Through this learning experience we associate our feelings to be comfortable and safe are some fundamental foundations to build trust with others. 

Through hands-on experiences we learn about plants, soil, insects and wood. As we exercise our close observation skills, we speculate or hypothesize; about what may happen, about what happens, and about cause-and-effects of relationships, We use our imaginations to build structures and props that support our make-believe story lines. We pile, prop, stack, and balance materials. We use tools to level surfaces, dig holes, make piles, dig a trench, and move materials. We stack, assemble and disassemble materials and work to get joints to meet (e.g.,  creating a small-scale “bug house” so bugs could seamlessly crawl up one side and down the other side).

Open-ended natural materials provide important opportunities for active learning through sensory (i.e., tactile) and physical engagement. Depending on the size and shape of the materials, we have opportunities to use our fine and gross motor skills to manipulate these objects for different uses. Open-ended materials allow us to use our hands and bodies as tools. 

Kindest,
​Children & Friends.

Our quest of character building continues with below wondering questions in relation to developing our understanding on the concept of trust at this trajectory.

Or if trust building has any form or shape, does it look like below? A gentle hand and a compassionate heart which care for our ant friend …

Experiencing trust in our early years builds our sense of social awareness and contributes to our emotional growth. Learning about the importance of trust in relationships can have a profound effect on the way we see ourselves and the world.

"Eureka!" It has been a long wait for us. Trusting ourselves in being resilient with our efforts in dealing with the environmental issue, we choose to be diligent in revisiting a clogged drainage nearby. Day after day and week after week we figure out the same problem remains until one fine afternoon we decide to give another try. It turns out our effortful attempt has generated a surprising result!

Emotions are indeed contagious! Isha's detailed explanation sparks Luna's excitement in sharing her thoughts to orchestrate the rescue vehicles to save the fish (under the clogged drainage). Our ability to be attuned to one's ideas creates our classroom atmosphere of trust.

Paraphrasing one's thoughts is one of our many ways to clarify. It certainly promotes understanding and clarity between us. 

Generating and communicating tools as supporting aid for our plan provides an opportunity to Brooks to validate George's ideas.

This journey of building trust is also about us building relationships with people or things around us. For example, we like to share our ways of working together by asking, “When I work with you, how can we build trust here?”

This is the color of trust in us, being individuals, supporting our collective goals. Trust allows us to experience emotional and commitment safety. 

Trust opens the door for a deeper connection and gives us the motivation to endure the challenges we face together. It is built in the little moments of everyday life. 

The essence of building trust is attunement - being aware of others' emotions and leaning towards it with genuine curiosity. 

Let us walk with trust-building in our small moments everyday!

Kindest,
​Children & Friends.

We are being thankful to our mothers for many reasons. During this week we focus on spending time to really think about how special our mother is and how much we love and appreciate our mother's love. We feel this way all the time and we choose to express our gratitude by communicating heartfelt, emotional feelings to our loving mother. 

Some tangible expressions can be something for our mother to look back on for years to come. This process will nurture us to think of others and what others might like, which in turn, can learn about appreciation.

Introducing ideas and opportunities for ourselves to talk about the good feelings that come from making something for others is another learning opportunity about giving. Giving does come in many forms indeed. One of the many ways of giving is by sharing our melodious voice to the plants for them to feel cared or loved.

Sharing our attention as paying attention to the ones in need demonstrates how we really tune in to our experience in each moment. The result is feeling a sense of connection between all of us.

The above small act of kindness is exhibited by Isha and George when we notice a worm has a cut on the body lying on the sidewalk. We decide to bring it back to extend some ways for the worm to feel better. 

It feels good to help those who are in need - even when they are just small creatures. This learning opportunity nurtures our compassion whenever we care enough to do something to help.

Being inspired by the change of season like sunnier days, we take up our running shoes to begin our short distance jogging exercise. We set some small goals to reach a short distance within a short time. With this exercise we aim to strengthen our bones and muscles, help improve coordination, and exercise our cardiovascular system. And the most important thing is to have fun! For example, Brooks demonstrate running in style by taking a few snapshots of interesting things around him. 

Kindest,
​Children & Friends.

Being inspired by a storybook titled "In My Heart: A Book of Feelings" written by Jo Witek,  little by little, we unpack the many feelings we have within us. Happiness, anger, sadness, bravery, or even shyness . . . are just some of the many feelings we  encounter in our daily walks. Acknowledging these various feelings which are indescribable sometimes and hold uniqueness of its own is a lifetime journey. 

We learn to interpret its illustrations during our group time. During our group conversation, we build-up an association between interpreting illustrations and understanding own and others' feelings and emotions through facial expressions or body languages.

We try to acknowledge the abstract shapes or forms of feelings and emotions being conveyed by asking ourselves. "Do feelings have shapes or forms?" "If they have some forms or shapes, how do they look like?"

Journeying with excitements or being determined is so pleasurable. Climbing a tree together is so exciting! We become a ball of energy! We suddenly have this push factor to put all of that energy to a good use and get a little physical. 

Feeling whimsical when following a butterfly creates a chain reaction for our actions. The shapes of sudden and unaccountable changes in our mood or behaviors are apparent.

Riding our tricycles downhill could be a daunting feeling to us at the beginning. However, slowly but surely, we put our fear aside. With support from our peers and others, we build-up on our confident feeling. ​And of course, practices make perfect!

Spelling the letters of our own names has a feeling of being inquisitive! The keenness of learning has a form of following the objects changing shape. Science skills behind this involve us making observations using our senses, investigating and communicating our findings. 

This is the time for us to understand the shapes of our mixed feelings when we understand our dear friend, Dhanush, has to move away. We choose to go through this feeling through our shared representation and a little celebration to keep our moments consisting of uphill and downhill paths of friendships last forever! Till we meet again soon, Dhanush, stay joyful in and be excited of your next journeys ahead!

Kindest,
​Children & Friends.

Children & Friends dedicates this whole week to promote our shared awareness and appreciation of the Earth’s environment. A storybook “If I Ran the Rainforest” by Bonnie Worth has been included during our group time to drive our thinking along this message. 

Abeer: “Do we like rains?”
Isha: “No, they make me wet.”
Abeer goes ahead to explain the purpose of rain.
Dhanush mentions: “I love water because I like getting wet.”
George adds: “I love water.”
Abigail: “Me, too.”

Abigail: “The bids sleep in their nest.”
Abeer: “Where can we find the nest?”
Elie: “On top of the tree.”
When we reach the page with an illustration of trees, where the birds call homes, being cut down, we pause to ponder upon the living habitats and its surrounding environment.
Isha: “They’ll find a new tree.”

Dhanush: “Everyone will get a house and the birds live on top of the house.”
Elie disagrees, “How about building a house of animals close to our house?”
Isha: “We should not cut down the trees.”

Our diverse points of views offer spaces to counter or collaborate. We become more open and pay attention to others' voices as well. During our drawing experiences, we project related illustrations. For example, Elie draws separate homes and further indicates the individual homes are worthwhile. Abigail points out on her drawing another point of possibility for a bird's house to take place on top of people's houses. 

By taking part in learning experiences like picking up litter and planting trees, we’re making our world a happier and healthier place to live.  To heighten our awareness of the many ways we can think for the Earth, we plant some flower  and vegetable seeds to continue our caring for the seeds at home. We are being hands-on in getting our hands in direct contact with soil, picking our own choice of plant, and spraying some amount of water.  

Happy Earth Day! We know it might be celebrated yesterday but we are trying hard to honour and celebrate our planet each and every day. We want our children and their children to have a healthy planet to live and play in.

Kindest,
​Children & Friends.

Even from our very young ages, we could choose to view our environment as our moral concern. Raising our awareness from noticing, thinking over, and pushing  forward to taking our conscience into actions. In other words, with our roles as agents of change, each one of us takes our little part to take responsibilities of the situations we are currently living in. ​

We should take opportunities in our everyday moments, as learning experiences to lay the groundwork for a lifetime of environmental stewardship. During our recent encounter we notice how many thick cardboards have been inserted through the drain gaps. It certainly makes us wonder how it would be fine for the living habitat underneath.

Being quick in their thinking, Isha stretches her arms to try to lift the cover up after our effort with a long stick is unsuccessful. Thinking together, George comes up with an idea of a rope to be tied  around his bike, "Let's do it with our bike!"

On the next day, we share our concerns to friends during our morning group discussion. We immediately take upon collecting our riding vehicles to come to the rescue!

Within seconds, one by one takes initiatives upon arriving and checking it out. Without hesitation, putting hands around long ropes and tying knots on the vehicles take place. 

With so many "hmmph" and "urghh" being heard, we constantly think on our feet. The cheering support has been exchanged throughout to lift up our spirit and energy in putting our collaborative effort. 

To have a meaningful environmental ethic, we must have a fundamental sense of affection for and identification with nature, and see ourselves as an integral, necessary member of the ecological community. 

So this time we revisit the question with some ready birds' food on hand.

• "Do we think the birds would like to peck food out of our hands?"
  
• "Do we think the birds are fine with our presence?"
  
• "Shall we give a try?"

By scooping a handful of birds' food or cupping our hands to offer to the birds  as expressions of being closer to the birds. In other words, this is another expression of us trying to be more courageous. 

After some effortful attempts to invite the birds to come around us, we propose to lay a sheet on a flat surface for some birds who may not visit any type of elevated feeder. We notice crows, for instance, like to peck food lying on the ground. 

Elie thinks differently for she observes some birds, like chickadees, usually feed in trees. It is indeed an important skill for us to gradually develop simple explanations of observations and complex interpretations in the world around us. "In that earliest childhood, we get those invisible glasses through which we look at the world all our lives, and these glasses color our views." - Lainscek, 2020.

During our Easter Egg Hunt experience, we encounter more than 'just looking' at things or 'just seeing' things. Initially, we start observing using multiple senses simultaneously - sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. Direct experiences lead to a higher increase and persistence of skills acquired by us as participants. Developing skills of observation can help us to 'catch sight of the beautiful' (Aked et al., 2008, p.8) and can give each of us unique 'invisible glasses' that 'color our world' so that we can be aware of and appreciate what is happening in the moment. 

What a blast day at the swimming pool! Splashing into the water, floating, treading water take place in various pool areas. Sharing our laughter and joy is indeed an immeasurable moment throughout Can't wait for the next one!

Kindest,
​Children & Friends.

Malaguzzi emphasized that "it was not so much that we need to think of the child who develops himself but rather of a child who develops himself interacting and developing with others" (Rankin 2004, 82). As such, at the core of the Reggio Emilia philosophy is its emphasis on building and sustaining relationships.

Noticing our own feet closely, in particular to our own toes, enables us to identify the similarities and differences between our own and the birds' footprints. Throughout a shared conversational investigation, Elie points out a conclusive finding.

What children learn does not follow as an automatic result from what is taught, rather, it is in large part due to the children's own doing, as a consequence of their own activities and our resources.
- Loris Malaguzzi, The Hundred Languages of Children

Printing our footprints on kinetic sand offers us more and more viewpoints. Through this experience with our senses we allow ourselves to firsthand investigate the world around us.

Music has this wonderful ability to mean multiple things. It can be an affirmation or experiences.

For us, some instrumental music or sound invites comparisons to drama or narrative. We are keen to learn "music which tells a story".

Children keep on extending their current interests through many ways. One of them is building a bird house using wooden blocks. Brooks takes a rectangular block, fixes it as a slide and says, "The bird is going up and down, up and down". Abigail notices and shares her thoughts, "Bird is going to fly over it". Abigail sets a little lamp at the corner and adds, "The bird needs the light to find his Mom. The bird holds the light and searches for his Mom".

Provocations come in many ways to stir or disturb our current thinking. They are intended to provoke us to further wonder, question, think, or feel. As provocateurs, teachers as in a position not to make learning "smooth or easy for children, but rather to stimulate it" by making it "more complex, involving and arousing" (Edwards, Forman & Gandini, 1998, p.184).

With the provoking questions such as -

• "How come the birds only come after we go back inside?" - Jana 
• "Do you think the birds will come only after we leave?" - Abeer 

- we further collect various viewpoints which relate to own thoughts. Brooks and Luna think the birds will not be afraid if we hold the cookies. Elie thinks differently for she considers the beaks of the birds. In dialogue with others, we emphasize on careful listening in order to be able to provoke new questions, ideas and possibilities. 
Emelia wonders, "Do birds have feelings?" 
Brooks: "Happy". 
Luna: "Angry".
Elie: "Angry or upset and happy",
Isha associates birds have similar feelings like us, "Happy and sad because they are hungry".
Arjun: "Black" (possibly feeling about encountering anything in relation to darkness). 
George: "Become tired and sleepy".

Our learning stories of compassions, feelings, respect, mutual trust, and many more things is going to be part of our upcoming Family Night in June 2022. As much as we would like the presence of families and educators to be gathering together over cups of coffee & tea,  Children & Friends propose two choices of dates - Friday, June 10 or Tuesday, June 14 from 05:30 p.m. to 06:30 p.m. Please revert to us by April 30 for your choice of date. Thank you!

Kindest,
Children & Friends.

Each bird has its own call, even when they all sound like "tweet, tweet" to us. By learning to listen to each unique song, we will learn to sharpen our hearing.

We listen to a sound and use it to inspire a drawing. We challenge ourselves to be  inspired by the sound we hear.
What does it look like? 

We can make our own interpretations of sounds through drawing. This allows us to understand sounds in our own personal way and allows us to include all the information we think is important.

We can use different shapes to represent different sounds, and different colors or shading to represent different sound textures.

Isn't it amazing to observe how sounds have a shape? Through learning experiences we learn to hear this shape. It is indeed interesting to transfer sounds onto shapes through listening practices!

The chance to play with big movements and big energy is extremely liberating. This invitation to create a large nest (possibly for an eagle?!) connects us in a way that smaller projects never have and it unites us as a team. 

Drawing with chalks on concrete allow us to express our creativity. Our drawings represent various designs of invitations to the birds to visit our large nest installation. 

We too wonder together about the meaning of our photographic representations. Do we try to animate the movement of the birds? Do we project our imaginative footsteps or footprints comes alive through our body gestures?

When we think the similarities of our footprints are close to our observation.

Another thinking - "there will be three toes (as the photograph) ...".

It's time to trace our own feet prior to comparing to our previous observation. Let us observe and figure out more on our further explorations!

In the meantime, it is time to treasure our moments of joy and friendships!

Kindest,
Children & Friends.

​Through our learning experiences, we are encouraged to depict our understanding of self and the world through various representations. ​

Through another opportunity of a perspective drawing. we learn how to put together our understanding on various individual basic shapes onto two-dimensional multiple representations. 

The art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface invites us to give the right impression of the height, weight, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point.

"In most cases, Land Art is modest and ephemeral - works created outside don't usually last long as they are subject to the elements; the wind, rain or snow that transforms them. But what remains is the pleasure of having created the work - and a photo of the creation is itself an integral part of the creative process, allowing the artist to keep proof of its momentary existence." (Pouyet, 2006)

How many of us been waking up to a chorus of song birds each morning? It can be such a pleasant welcoming feeling to start a new day, can't it?

When we choose to be intentional with our senses, we are working on our state of being or becoming aware of something through our senses. 

We have such a keen ear and are able to distinguish differences in pitch and tone as such a young age. 

We also seem to have an innate sense of rhythm. ​

Of course, like with anything else, the more exposure we have and the more variety there is, the stronger our abilities become. ​

Adding on to the diversification of ways to communicate to the birds in their rhythmic way, we add a variety of percussion instruments such as guiros, castanets. maracas, etc. to bring us together. This learning experience, among many others, nourishes us to listen to one another and work together in a more harmonious relationship. 

The harmonic sounds and attention provides a sense of rhythm and tactile awareness. Kinesthetics and rhythm are two intertwined concepts that permeate our daily lives. which allows us to be more aware of how the whole system works around us. 

Kindest,
​Children & Friends.

"No way. The hundred is there." is the final sentence of the poem "The Hundred Languages of Children" by Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio Emilia approach. It condenses the purpose of us what we have a hundred ways of being, of loving, of thinking, and of expressing. 

These languages are symbolic and include drawing, sculpting, dramatic play, writing, and painting, etc. They represent our thinking and theories around or an encounter with a learning experience.

Poet and painter John Cleal: We must teach our children to smell the earth, taste the rain, touch the wind, see things grow, hear the sun rise and night fall - to care".

We think the way birds communicate to one another sounds like melodious tunes. Therefore, we belt our singing voices as another way of an invitation to the birdies to visit the bird nest we have woven together.

In line with our practice of giving another purpose to recycled materials, we add natural materials to our 'bird houses'. We consider natural materials with various scents such as sweet scent of cinnamon sticks and fresh scent from evergreen leaves.

Thinking of the many ways for the birdies, including our reflections over the cookies we've prepared last time and they ended--up inside our tummies, we rethink on another possibility this time round.

The excitement of our discovery throughout our authentic learning experience is apparent. It sparks a ripple of joy when we find out how our cookies we have scattered around our front yard are being consumed by the birdies.

Kindest,
​Children & Friends.