Learning with Rhythm

8/29/2023

“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”
~Rachel Carson

A nurturing environment that is rhythmic in nature supports a strong foundation that is essential to the healthy development of the young child. Predictable rhythms through the day, week and year help children feel grounded and nourished and deepen a sense of the interrelationships and wholeness of life.

Young children are in deep harmony with nature and our seasonal rhythm connects us more to the natural world. Nature is a world of rhythms - the rising and setting of the sun, the flowering of trees, the change of seasons... when we provide supporting rhythms for children, we harmonize their being, thereby aiding the development of their inner rhythms of sleep, digestion, circulation etc. Monthly themes, block study, seasonal festivals and celebrations, eating seasonal foods we grow and prepare together all reflect and support our connection to the seasonal rhythm.

Our Daily Rhythm

Our daily rhythm is a gentle guide to the flow of our day. We do not adhere to a rigid time structure for the day but we do generally follow the same order so there is a natural predictability of what comes next. This natural predictability helps support positive transitions for the children - if they know what is coming next they feel more ease with the flow of the day:

Arrival
Art Projects
Creative Free Play
Opening Circle
SEL Snack
Gross Motor Free Play
Guided Activity
Dance Party
Lunch (Morning) or Snack (Afternoon)
Special Classes
Closing Circle
Story Time

Art Projects
As children arrive we have art projects and materials for the children to interact freely with. Our art projects are process based - please read our blog Raising Creative Thinkers with Process Art and Learning with Loose Parts for more details!

We love messy sensory art!

These friendship bracelets are a fun project to practice fine motor skills, learn mathematical patterns, and express through artistic design.

Creating these 'About Me' books are a great way for us all to get to know one another and learn about our friends families and homes . The conversation around the project is where a lot of the learning is happening.

Free play with clay can turn into a fun new way to learn about the alphabet!

Creative Free Play

The children have the freedom to play freely with open ended, high quality materials.

Opening Circle

In our opening circle we unite as one group, connect with each other through singing and various greeting activities and move our bodies in brain smart ways that enhance our ability to learn.

Snack with Social Emotional Learning

To start off our day together in a positive way we like to focus on social emotional learning while we have snack - we practice our grace and courtesy at the table and discuss ways we can be kind and helpful. We also love to read books together at snack time that help us learn about our emotions and the feelings and needs of all the beings around us.

Gross Motor Free Play

We love to create together in the big sand box, play games on the straw bale obstacle course, build and balance with the large blocks, and dance with the trees! Free play is often where we are learning the most about conflict resolution, cooperation, and group dynamics. How do we grow from being a 'me' to a 'we'?

Guided Activities

After free play, we come together for a guided activity of gardening, literacy, math, sensory exploration, science investigation, cooking class, or a special project.

Science Time

What do you think will happen if we add this liquid to this powder?

Mollusk Hunting!

Where do slugs live? What do they eat? What do their antennae do? Do slugs have bones?

Learning with the Garden

We have been harvesting lots of herbs, greens, squashes, and HUNDREDS of pears!

Cooking Together

We made a delicious herbal tapenade with the mortar and pestle.

Then we cooked up some delicious homemade pizzas and topped them with our fresh ground garden herbs and olives!

Magical Garden Soup!

Kids that wouldn't eat the soup last year are now devouring it with joy! It can take gently offering a food more than 10 times for a young child to start eating it.

Check out these giant garden collards!!

Fresh Pear Butter

The kids have been helping to make pear butter all week!

We didn't follow an exact recipe. We just cooked the pears with lemon juice, cinnamon, and a touch of honey on low simmer all day. Then removed the juice and pureed all the cooked pears in the blender. SO divine!

The kids love it! They have been spreading it into sandwiches, dipping carrots in it, and we made popsicles with the pear juice - a total hit!

Dance Party!

Music Class

Yoga Class

We love to go on yoga adventures! Today we flew in an airplane to Hawaii, caught some waves with some singing surfers, swam with a school of sharks, rowed our boats to shore and had a picnic with some friendly turtles and frogs.