The Relationship between Kindness and Home

As the outdoor temperature is slowly rising up, nature is incredibly offering us beautiful things. From blooming buds to chirping birds we won't have to travel far to catch a glimpse of this change around us. 

Hudson notices it immediately the many ranges of birds' singing - crowing, chirping, and cackling to a sweet, unforgettable melody.  As much as we are captivated by the chirping and calling of the birds, we wonder what they are trying to communicate.

We inject the idea of the birds feeling hungry; therefore, they communicate through their melodious singing. Hudson, being empathetic, comes up with his thoughtful ideas. He starts collecting dry leaves, moss, and twigs to be a collective meal for the birds. 

Felix arranges the natural resources such as twigs, grass shrubs, and dry leaves to assemble a nest. The idea of a bird nest makes us curious how it is assembled by only two feet and a beak.

Making connections with the eggs as part of the nest, Brooks pulls off a ball of clay to begin with. He kneads to soften, rolling it in between his cupped hands, and shapes it to form an ovoid as a three-dimensional version shape of an oval.

These eggs make a meaningful connection to his families as Brooks explains a very detailed composition. The size, as the principle of design, determines the meaning. 

Our interests of this concept of home include a storybook Home by Carson Ellis. Its illustrations consider the many points of wonders of architecture. ​In conjunction with our growing interests on the concept of home, we extend the many possibilities with this question - "What does home mean to us?"

We expand our ideas to constructions with recycled materials. We start by arranging and re-arranging pieces to get a general idea. Once we have a good feel where everything should go, it's time to bring the idea alive. 

Making connections between home and kindness, we approach an unfortunate situation to become another learning experience.
What happens to our neighbors when the strong wind blows?
Yoyo: "The fences breaks apart".
What do we choose to do?
Felix: “We go to his house to tell him”.
Noticing what we've been attending to, another neighbor pays attention and shares a simple of act of kindness by offering cookies to us. 
Fides: “I got a cookie for myself."
This opportunity makes us ponder upon "What can we do to return his kindness?".

Baking our own cookies to share with our neighbour becomes our small act of kindness. Leaving them a note as a way to share messages is interesting to our emergent literacy progress. 

A sunny day provides us an opportunity to take a nature walk to Green Timbers. Is there anything more serene than immersing ourselves in nature. While we all appreciate the environment around us, the nature walk itself promotes social connections with self and others.

A growing body of research suggests spending time in nature supports better attention spans, self-discipline, creativity, physical fitness, lower stress level, and makes us more engaged in learning. 

Facilitating drawing experiences are opportunities to engage our ideas in a variety of experiences to create multimodal texts. 

Luna expresses her drawing as a meaning to share her story. "These are the homes of friends" - Luna uses symbols to represent and make meaning. 

While enjoying sun kisses on our cheeks, we reflect on the stops we've made along the way to turn over rocks, touch moss, climb on and over rocks and fallen trees ... and how they create a sense of wonder.

Kindest,
Children & Friends.