jo0L5s

Drawing a path from the Royal College of Art to the heart of Early Learning. It turns out there’s nothing ‘child’s play’ about child’s play.

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

A #nursery child joyfully holds a single #Montessori ‘Golden Bead’ in one hand and a 1,000 Golden Beads, in the form of a cube, in the other.
He’s enthralled by the difference in magnitude, number & weight.

He holds 10 & 100, feeling their relationship.

It got me drawing…

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

@OriginalRobyn Nor I - and I’m a trained artist and never have I achieved such directness of expression!

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

Nursery child draws an elephant with wonderful expression & succinctness, a simple line and perfectly judged areas of tone capture the imagination:

“I’ve drawn it for you…It’s sitting down and feeling sad because it’s the last day of school…and his trunk is crumpled up”

Joy

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

@TraceyHamer3 The conversation continued: I said that I thought the triangle (eyes) had told a joke and he responded “and the squares are laughing!”
😂

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

Nursery child invites us into some thinking on shape and space:

“I’ve made a face do you want to see?

You turn the circle and the mouth can be happy or sad…

But I can’t decide if square eyes are happier than triangle eyes!”

We look, wonder and I see what he means.

Joy!

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

@jillpg_jill You’ve just made a recipe for learning!

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

A nursery child explores the Montessori Shape Boxes.

She engages with the properties of congruence, shape, colour, & magnitude, using them to create imaginative & varied designs:

“I’ve made a rocket & there are lots of stars around — every star is going to be different!”

Joy!

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

Nursery child plays on the “Number Ten Study Rug” with Numicon

“You can make 10 with 5 and 5 and that’s fair but you can’t make ten with 6 and 6 “

“You can’t make ten with 7 and 7.”

He laughs.

“You’d have to squash a 7 down into 2 and 1 which isn’t fair … Or three”

Joy.

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

When my ideas stall,
play is the spark I turn to.
It’s the fire starter that breathes life
into my sleepy designs.
It unwraps and
shakes awake thinking.
Play excels at this,
to tame play
or try and contain it
is to dim plays brilliance
and silence the magic.

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

Since my pupils are the main stakeholders in their learning, why plan it without them?
And, if I want them to drive their own learning, the sooner they’re in the driver’s seat, the more prepared they’ll be when the road is theirs to travel alone.

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

A Nursery child picks fresh leaves & daisies and lays them out with careful attention to position and 1-1 correspondence.

She adjusts any spacial and numerical errors as she goes:

“Squirrel is making a picnic, all his friends get one daisy each so they don’t squabble!”

Joy!

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

@ReBuckEdu @_MissieBee W

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

That moment when you walk past a little toaster left on a garden wall and you realise it sums up your state of mind!

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

@wishilikedmaths I suppose I could have asked “What is it” and he might have said “A snail with wings”
But since he was scratching his head I asked “What are you thinking?”
Two very different questions’!

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

Nursery child creates a beautifully executed & concise line drawing.

He pauses,
sits back,
and scratches his head.

I ask “What are you thinking about?”

Child “What It’s like to be a snail with wings”

Joy!

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

Wherever you begin your journey
through the mathematical landscape
you’re guaranteed to bump into someone
who started somewhere else.

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

‘It’s not how you fall,
but how you get up’

(in progress)

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

When my pupils playfully improvise with wooden blocks, shapes & spacial relationships, I can’t help recalling John Coltrane’s sentiment:

‘Damn the rules,
it’s the feeling that matters’

And when I see the speed at which ‘feeling’ translates into learning, I think:

‘Yep, he has a point!’

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

@BirdsallMaeve @helenjwc @Manor_Wood_Pri What a beautiful drawing in so many ways - utter joy!

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

@teachwellall @SollyKathryn Yes Steve - these are great questions 🙏!

Children are incredible learners, have you or I mastered a language in 36 months without a single formal lesson?

I think Maria #montessori s idea of the absorbent mind is a useful model for thinking about teaching very young children…

[jo0L5s @Joolone]

I’m struck by the capacity of young minds, whose age is measured in months, to learn at a speed much greater than mine, measured in years.

Can I match the speed of learning they’ve achieved in their 36 months since birth?
No!
Working with brilliant minds is a serious business!