26: Tiny Moments

 

"Everything is sacred when you take time to notice.

Big love happens in the small moments."

-JJ Heller

Our life is made up of tiny moments. They are small but significant pockets of time that when put together, make our life story more meaningful. It can be found in many of our firsts, lasts, and in betweens -- like the first time we experienced snow, or the last time we saw our beloved pet, or the slow and quiet walks where we can savor the beauty around us.

This week in Kinder 2 was abundant in small but significant moments that tie up with spring, as well as our new unit under Sharing the Planet.

One of the main things we observed upon going back from Spring Break is the abundance of the cherry blossoms on Rokko Island. They are in full bloom this week, so we enjoyed their splendor by taking short walks and having picnics in the park.

We also captured the moment by taking our portraits with the blooms. After all, this is the only springtime that we will get to experience as a 4- or 5-year old. 

To begin our Sharing the Planet unit, I sprinkled some clues throughout the week to help the children zoom in on the focus of our inquiry. They all put their detective glasses on, searched for the tiny seeds that I planted, and made inferences based on the clues they gathered.

The first clue started with a story called Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert. 

Before reading the story, some of the children expressed that rainbows cannot possibly be planted -- they only come out after it rains! After listening to the story, the children concluded that the rainbow the book was referring to are the colorful flowers planted by the author and her mother. When planted side by side, they do look like a rainbow!

The book inspired us to take a short walk outside the school to look for flowers that were planted by different people, just like the ones we saw in the story. We definitely saw all the colors of the rainbow -- our immediate surroundings are abundant in beautiful blooms that are cared for and loved by the people who planted them. 

We wanted to keep a rainbow in our classroom so we took a short trip to the grocery to buy some flowers. They made our room look more vibrant, as well as fragrant!

The second clue was planted as far back as December of last year when we went to the field near the school to plant some tulip bulbs. It was a tiny moment that lasted just for a few minutes, but with love and care, what the children planted grew into something spectacular.

 This week, the tulips have fully bloomed and were celebrated by many people who visited the island just to see them. The kindergarteners had a chance to see the flowers they planted with their own hands -- the whites and the yellows, and some colors out of place, which is the perfect imperfect mark of a child's work. They were all beautiful.

The third clue is in the form of a story that taught the children about courage.

A Little Bit Brave by Nicola Kinnear is a book about a bunny who was scared to explore and go out into the world. He eventually found the courage to go out and discovered that adventures are fun to have. In this story, we can also learn that we are so much more braver than we believe to be -- and in the process, we get to meet amazing new people (or in this case, animals) who can make our lives richer.

Just like the bunny, we decided to go on an adventure on the island and look for animals, like in the ones in the story. We ended up visiting Sheraton Dog Kindergarten and watched the dogs playing and having little adventures of their own. 

Our fourth clue came in the form of the alphabet.

It was special because it taught us new words, like xolo which turns out to be a Mexican hairless dog (thank you, Ms. Harumi, for explaining to us what it is!) and a narwhal, which is an Arctic sea animal that has a protruding tooth that looks like a tusk. 

It came from the book written by Eric Carle called The Very Hungry Caterpillar's ABC, which showcases the alphabet alongside different animals!

Of course there's also that book by Lois Ehlert called Eating the Alphabet that we read a couple of months back, which is due for a re-read soon. 

I'm curious, have you ever eaten a gooseberry or a swiss chard before? It's the first time I've heard of them and I'd like to find out what they taste like. 

Our last clue is in the form of another book called The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. We decided to read the book outside under one of our favorite trees near the school just to see how important and special they truly are. 

This story begins with a tree who loved a little boy. They always played together and both of them are happy. The story progresses as the little boy grows up into a adulthood, and goes through different experiences that define his concept of joy. At the end of the story, we discovered through the tree's giving heart that helping and being kind to others makes us happy.

We shared moments when others have been kind to us and when we showed kindness to others through our drawings.

Before the week came to a close, we revisited all the small moments that we experienced together and thought about the clues that were sprinkled in between. Based on the clues they gathered, the kindergarteners guessed that our new unit will be focused on the following:

flowers

plants

tulips

sakura

animals

the Earth

dogs 

people

trees

being kind

They have truly grown into inquirers and thinkers as their guesses couldn't be more accurate.

Unit 3: Sharing the Planet

Central Idea

Our actions and choices can affect the life of plants and animals. 

Lines of Inquiry

- The importance of plants and animals

- Effect of our actions on plants and animals

- How to look after and care for plants and animals.

As we get deeper into our inquiry, my only hope is that the children will appreciate the significance of the little things -- tiny moments, small actions -- and make them count. For little things just like a seed, when loved and cared for, will grow into something beautiful.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Your Kindergarten teacher, 

Pam