TREE CLIMBING IS AN ART BUT ITS FULL OF SCIENCE

MY CHILDREN LOVE TO CLIMB THE TREE AS THOUGH THEY HAVE CLIMBED IT 1000S OF TIMES

Before capturing the moments of my class activity, I would love to share this INTERESTING FACT ;

The Tamri Goat, a breed in Morocco masters the art of tree climbing. The goat learn the skill due to the scarcity of flora and food. The goats supposedly love to eat the berries of Argan trees. But those fruits are forbidden due to the height until goats learn how to climb the trees to access the fruit.

"In Morocco, goats have mastered the art of tree climbing. Since only one in three of today's children have ever climbed a tree, maybe they can learn from the goats!"

As we finished our lesson of PARTS OF A PLANT, we were planning for the next relevant lesson of PARTS OF A TREE, so we decided to go out look  and observe some trees in the garden.                                             

 I pointed out  the roots, trunk,  branches , and the leaves ...parts of a tree and then they bombarded me with lots of amazing questions.

One of them shouted, " Can we climb  this trunk ?"

My answer was ,"Yes ,why not".

 

And then the children dived into an Imaginary world , where they existed with their own fantacies...its wonderful to witness their wilderness and curiosity.

I was wondering and feeling ashamed how we adult think about children , how much we underestimate their powers, motivation level, their curiosity,and sense of discovery....its like I'm discovering HUMAN BEINGS again...... 

This child was stuck up first ,but never ever felt bad, rather he came up strongly again and again . The key of Children's curiosity is that the word Failure never existed in their dictionary of life, and we have to learn that lesson  from them.

The first few steps are the hardest, but then the NEURONS in the brains work amazingly to give a lift to any newly learned activity.

Tree climbing has a lot to teach a child about Balance, co-ordination of  Gross-motor skills , controlling of Fine-motor skills, eye -hand co-ordination, predictability of height, the perfect Grasping positions, the relation between man and nature (nothing can be taught through lectures and books).

Every child learns in his own way, I discovered that each one experienced a unique way to hold the trunk, grasp it with hands or feet, where to Gaze while going up, what to see when coming down, so its all about INDIVIDUAL UNIQUE LEARNING , which cannot be generalized .That's the beauty of nature interaction.

The "immense concentration of a child" is the  natural outcome when he works in nature , we need not to do anything to  build up the span of attention  in children or  speed up their curiosity or raise their concentration level. Its already there in their SOULS . Stickers (artificial reward systems) never works  in reality, it only makes a child greedy.

 Learning is something which a child does himself in a natural way .

The children can never be seen so satisfied as can be seen after reaching their Goals and targets .And it is not we (adults) who can direct them towards their UNIQUE GOALS , its embedded inside them and they are the best judges and leaders of their destiny, if only we think differently .

After the climbing session, they all relaxed. At that time, I introduced them the lesson on PARTS OF A TREE through pictures and culture cards.

If you  look at this picture in a bit detail, you will  find out a PIECE OF TRUNK from the tree which one of my children had pulled out from the tree he climbed .He came to me and asked," Miss Erum, can I pull out one of those part ? I want to see if I can pull it ? It was amazing to witness how children CHALLENGE themselves ,they don't need artificial or externally induced  Challenges ,they know exactly what to challenge and how to challenge....Speechless!

 And then the boy asked me that he wanted to put that piece of trunk on our NATURE TABLE . So  he took out the Nature tray, put that piece over there , brought it to the Circle area and then announced proudly, "Look at this ". The children shouted ,"wow ,you have pulled out one, how did you do that?" Is'nt it amazing what IMPORATNT AND RELEVANT Questions kids ask .

So he got the Magnifying glass and took the Trunk piece to every single child for Observation.

Everyone explored differently according to their unique sense of Appreciaton and curiosity , they talked , and talked and talked about it the whole day ...

UNIQUE STYLE OF OBSERVATION

And it goes on.

  And thats not the end of the CURIOSITY JOURNEY , thats the BEGINING infact.

OUTDOORS BRING SELF-AWARENESS, CREATIVITY AND PROBLEM SOLVING AMONG BOYS...........

"When children come into contact with NATURE, they reveal their strength".

Maria Montessori

Whenever I see kids in nature, I feel as though they are enjoying every bit of it and nobody is forcing them to  pay attention, engage, interact and involve but they are doing it on their own. That's the power of nature.

It all started with a Rainy day in Riyadh, that I found kids running out of their homes, apartments and doors, just to Play and play out. It tells us about the nature of man himself who notices every change in his surrounding which leads to curiosity, inquiry, and then discovery in the end.

Some boys started playing with the water itself, some chased each other, some ran after their sticky balls, some jumped trees, some traced their fingers on the newly formed mud, some were wondering at the sight of the changing color of  the trees, leaves, and sky because everything was fresher now.

Some decided to pick rocks, some jumping on the puddles, some started thinking what new play they could invent ........

I saw few youngsters on the tree house, trying to get to the top, communicating about the tree climbing tips, making new connections with their friends , helping each other, balancing their eye-hand control, getting the strength, exchanging new ideas about the relation of tree structure and tree houses. Once they got there, they started looking for new ways to climb faster and on that they talked many things which just opened up the window of new learning ....all unknowingly.

One of them looked around as if he was capturing the sounds, the rythm, the beauties of nature and analyzing it's relation with humans and solving the problems just aroused in the mind.I saw another boy on a branch of a tree, he found himself stuck up but he never gave up and continued trying out new possibilities. That's the power of nature which challenge young minds to come up with the most creative and workable plan.

 That boy was deeply immersed in the nature and became extremely curious, he showed amazing concentration level while in school he might be labelled as ADHD. Nature has the power to attract attention until the discovery is made by the child.

Another boy was running towards them,and I was amazed to see how he jumped to the tree realizing his potentials and strengths all just by interacting with the nature.

After sometime, the rain stopped and the weather was just beautiful enough that the boys decided to play there all evening.

 Few boys found a cardboard box at the backyard, so they started exploring it, looking at every possible corner and opening of the box. One of them shouted, "I got an idea, let's skate with this box".

Other replied," wow, let's make it a perfect one, and we will play with it".

So he ran into his house, brought the skate shoes, fixed it under the box and sat inside it just to discover how fantastic a cardboard could be. So they started the play, one pushing the other, and taking turns.


      Children love Free-play , it’s a way of grasping the new world, investigating new ideas, exploring the unleashed powers of the environment, examining the differences of facts and fictions, digging the strength of human potential. Play is the way a child enters into the world of reality although it seems that he exists in a fairytale world. It’s a process of natural transformation into an adult life. Let's give our children the opportunity to play, it's a real learning..... Boys need it too and they learn those life-skills through Outdoor- play which no school can teach and no teacher can even imagine of making such a lesson plan.

Children Learn Best in their Freeplay: TREE CLIMBING IS AN ART BUT ITS FULL OF SCIENCE

Children Learn Best in their Freeplay: TREE CLIMBING IS AN ART BUT ITS FULL OF SCIENCE: MY CHILDREN LOVE TO CLIMB THE TREE AS THOUGH THEY HAVE CLIMBED IT 1000S OF TIMES Before capturing the moments of my class activity, I w...

Children Learn Best in their Freeplay: THE LOVE FOR PLANTING IS NATURAL IN CHILDREN AS I ...

Children Learn Best in their Freeplay: THE LOVE FOR PLANTING IS NATURAL IN CHILDREN AS I ...:                                            PLANTING ACTIVITY IN THE GARDEN I love nature as much as any child in this world. So we go ou...

AS SOON AS THE CONCENTRATION HAS BEGUN, ACT AS IF THE CHILD DOES NOT EXIST.............

                          THE BEAUTY OF AN OBSERVER / TEACHER

“Education should not limit itself to seeking new methods for a mostly arid transmission of knowledge: its aim must be to give the necessary aid to human development.... If the 'Formation of man’ becomes the basis of education, then the coordination of all schools from infancy to maturity, from nursery to university, arises as a first necessity: for man is a unity, an individuality that passes through interdependent phases of development. Each preceding phase prepares the one that follows, forms its base, nurtures the energies that urge towards the succeeding period of life".

MARIA MONTESSORI

 Children are capable of leading their own learning process.The learner has all the capacity to build and construct his knowledge, all in their unique way of interacting with the new concept. The teacher's task is nothing but to touch the Imagination of a child so as to excite him to a level of Curiosity, and then the learner is ready to Explore in his own way depending on his interest, experiences, and specific hidden talents. Exploration leads to Discovery; the ultimate goal of Education.

The teacher is always there not as an Instructor or Dictator but as a scientific Observer who specializes in OBSERVATION SKILLS, just to witness what's going on  and then to predict what and where he should add.

The teacher has to discriminate between Careful scientific Observation and careless Interference.

This statement is a beautiful expression about the Teachers' Job, 

"Praise, help, or even a look, may be enough to interrupt him, or destroy the activity. It seems a strange thing to say, but this can happen even if the child merely becomes aware of being watched. After all, we too sometimes feel unable to go on working if someone comes to see what we are doing. The great principle which brings success to the teacher is this: as soon as concentration has begun, act as if the child does not exist. Naturally, one can see what he is doing with a quick glance, but without his being aware of it.

 (Dr. Maria Montessori, 'The Absorbent Mind')

Only Observation leads a teacher to know exactly where the child is ....

Teacher's role is so sensitive that he has to be extremely careful about her looks, attitude, facial expressions, gesture, posture, and even where he stands or sit...and what he speaks, otherwise he can easily make the Learning process disappear.....

 "The mind takes some time to develop interest, to be set in motion, to get warmed up into a subject, to attain a state of profitable work.  If at this time there is interruption, not only is a period of profitable work lost, but the interruption, produces an unpleasant sensation which is identical to fatigue".
 Maria Montessori

                     Such a scientific Observation is needed by the teacher to go with the laws of nature.
"Before such attention and concentration have been attained, the teacher must learn to control herself so that the child's spirit shall be free to expand and show its powers; the essence of her duty is not to interrupt the child in his efforts. This is a moment in which the delicacy of the teacher's moral sensitiveness, acquired during her training, comes into play. She must learn that it is not easy to help, nor even, perhaps, to stand still and watch. Even when helping and serving the children, she must not cease to observe them, because the birth of concentration in a child is as delicate a phenomenon as the bursting of a bud into bloom. But she will not be watching with the aim of making her presence felt, or of helping the weaker ones by her own strength. She observes in order to recognize the child who has attained the power to concentrate and to admire the glorious rebirth of his spirit."
 (Dr. Maria Montessori, 'The Absorbent Mind')

"The vision of the teacher should be at once precise like that of the scientist, and spiritual like that of the saint. The preparation for science and the preparation for sanctity should form a new soul, for the attitude of the teacher should be at once positive, scientific and spiritual".
MARIA MONTESSORI

This role if played by the teacher changes the outcomes, change the environment in such a way that that every child becomes a thinker, innovator and creator ....
For all this to happen Schools should stop acting as a Prison and stop Producing Confirmists and only then Explorers, Innovators and Creators will be joining the CREATIVE FORCE...and not the (work force).

Children Learn Best in their Freeplay: OUTDOORS BRING SELF-AWARENESS, CREATIVITY AND PROB...

Children Learn Best in their Freeplay: OUTDOORS BRING SELF-AWARENESS, CREATIVITY AND PROB...: OUTDOORS BRING SELF-AWARENESS, CREATIVITY AND PROBLEM SOLVING AMONG BOYS.

MUD PIE KITCHEN 

(This is a series of Blogs which advocate Nature based learning opportunities for children. The goal is simple: unless children live in Nature, the will not develop any love for it , and  only love can take them to the point of Protection. Providing Nature based learning is the most essential part of creating Environmental stewardship in children, who will take care of this planet)

. "When children come into contact with NATURE, t...

LET'S TAKE A NATURE WALK

                                      NATURE WALK BRINGS FAIRY LAND ADVENTURE...
                                                      MAKING FLOWER NECKLACE

Nermeen and her friend are always ready for a Nature walk.
It was a rainy day I was also excited so Nermeen called her friend, and she joined us near the Neighboring Park.

Nermeen loves to explore the little garden area with lots of flowers, she kept moving with her basket from flower to flower.

She started picking flowers which fell down on the ground and asked me if she could also pick from the plants.I told her, sometimes if we really wish to pick few, we can but not always.

                                    They talked about their different colors, shades and shapes. They talked about the                                         shades of pink and relating it to some other objects .
                                        So we got few beautiful ones, and put them in the blue basket.

They arranged the flowers on a piece of white cotton and and were excited to discover their colors and textures.

'I want to a make a Necklace, can I?" Nermeen asked me in a cute requesting tone. I liked her creative idea and we started making few Designer-made Jewelry.
They realized it needed a plastic wire or thread to create a necklace, Nermeen got it from her mom. I showed them how to thread a needle, they practiced until they got the mastery.
  Now the question is how to arrange the flowers on the thread, they brainstormed and started matching the flowers with each other ,making patterns and analyzing different combinations. Finally they used the needle very carefully all by themselves.

And while making it, they were appreciating each other's work, thoughtfully exchanging new ideas, developing new patterns and finally came up with their original works.

They discovered that the necklace couldn't be fixed by themselve, so they helped each other
(I was a silent observer, noticing how they discover things, explore new ideas and solve problems without any adult interference)

Her friend was happy to get the beautiful necklace all made up of multi-color leaves 

                                           Her friend helped her by making a neat knot at the end.
                                           (estimating the length of a thread  that is required to make a perfect knot,                                                       keeping in view the Locket size and its perfect length hanging from the neck)

                                          Out of many Necklace they loved the Leaf Necklace

Leaf Necklace was special , it was decorated with small red pearls which has given it a perfect Designer touch.
 Learning happens when a child finds a real life connection with the skill learned . It has to be initiated with the key developmental milestones in the mind.
Skills developed;
1. fine motor /Gross motor skill
2. Color identification / differentiation
3. Simple Sewing
4. Sense of Estimation
5. Creativity
6. problem solving
Please add more