Much has happened since our last addition to the Quill.  We have welcomed Sterre Quakkelsteijn, Remy Perisic, Robin Keath and their families to Class 1.  We have wished Juno and Amaya Marshall Buen viaje (bon voyage) as they travelled to their second hearth, Chile…and we have since celebrated their return.  We have lost teeth, pets and loved ones, stumbled with our feet and even our words but golly have we grown!  While we continue to lay the foothills of literacy and numeracy, our hands too are becoming nimbler, our feet are jumping higher and our voices are becoming clearer.  We are learning to breathe together and to move together.  These are complex and demanding tasks, and we strive to do this with care.  Care for others, for our spaces and for ourselves.

I’d like to share some pictures that have emerged this semester that have helped us garner a feeling for some of our learning.  Perhaps there is something in this for us all.

In moments when we need to listen (to receive, sometimes with our whole body) we refer to the opening up of our elephant ears.  Each morning we sing the roll, we sing each others name in full, for example, “Lyra Andersson, are you here?”

And now we are at the point where each child will respond courageously all by oneself: “Yes, I am here!”  We then sing to our room or the different spaces that we find ourselves in and we open our elephant ears to listen to their characteristic voice.

The second picture, is that of the jellyfish – swaying and moving with the rise and fall of the waves.  We take up this image in moments that ask for inner or outer flexibility or both.  There is a palpable power when we take on these images as a collective.

Marie Limondin (who has an incredible ear) came to visit our class after Class 1 had just discovered the letter V.  She shared the story of how she came to find her Violin (beautiful and captivating, well worth asking Marie when you next meet).  She invited us to ponder what music this Violin (or Violon in French) may have played in its long lifetime or by whom.  She then gifted us a tune and in return we drew.  Marie was struck by the childrens receptivity, and the character expressed in each childs rendering of her Violin.

In the coming weeks, we will work together to re-enact nature stories of birds in our local setting and preparations are well underway for our Winter festival.  Class 1/2 and I look forward to being with you all as we try to evoke the wonder of the darkest part of the year and remember the treasures that glint and glow deep within us all.