How and why to set up a nature table

We all know that children need rhythm in their daily lives. Any educational philosophy worth its salt agrees on this, from Montessori to Waldorf or Reggio. They also need to understand that there is a rhythm to the world beyond them. (Remember, spirituality at its most basic is an attempt to connect to something greater than ourselves.) Nature Tables are a practical way to help a child understand the rhythm of the greater world around them.

Nature tables highlight both the physical seasons and special holidays. It is a place to put the small "treasures" that children find outside: stones, leaves, sticks, flowers, etc.

Summer Nature Table

Autumn Nature Table

We follow this rhythm with our nature tables: winter, Lent, spring / Eastertide, Ascension, Pentecost, summer, autumn, Advent and Christmas. Our rhythm follows the Christian liturgical calendar, but if you are not religious or of another faith, you could highlight other holidays that are significant in your culture.

Lenten Nature Table

Advent Nature Table

Although I come up with the basic concept and much of the symbolism, I allow my children to add their ideas and help set up the table.

Adding to the Summer Nature Table.

Making felted butterflies for last year's Pentecost Nature Table.

If you've never made a nature table, here are a few tips:

1) Begin your design for the table by asking the question, "What about this season is important to our family?"

2) Less is more. We try not to overcrowd the table with too many things. 

3) Try to use only what you have, have found, or have made before buying new things for the table. 

4) Let your child have input, but give guidance as to what is aesthetically pleasing. 

5) Avoid the table becoming a drop-off point for unrelated things like keys, papers, toys, etc. 

I recently asked my children of all the special activities that we have done through the years what their favorite was. My nine-year-old son answered without hesitation, " The nature tables!" My heart just jumped when he told me that, because they are a true labor of love with and for my sweet ones. 

P.S. - You can find links to all the nature tables I've made by clicking on the "Nature Projects" button above!

Ascension & Pentecost Nature Table

Dieses Jahr haben wir Himmelfahrt und Pfingsten auf dem Jahreszeittisch zusammen getan. This year we combined the themes of  Ascension and Pentecost to set up our nature table. 

 Unten kann man Jesus mit den Jüngern sehen, 

bevor er zurück zum Vater in den Himmel fährt.

Die Flamme aus Holz stellt das Geschenk des Heiligen Geistes dar.

Here you can see Jesus speaking last comforting words to the disciples

before he returns to the Father. 

The stacking flame represents the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Schmetterlinge sind in der Waldorpädagogik traditionell zum Pfingsten. Diesmal haben wir sie mit dem Filznadel trocken gefilzt. Sie hängen vom Fensterrahmen und sehen so aus, als ob sie "fliegen", wenn der Wind weht.

Butterflies are also traditional at Pentecost, also called Whitsun. 

This year we decided to needle felt them. They are hanging from the top of the window sill and appear to be "flying" when a draft comes through the window.

Meine 7-jährige Tochter wollte auch beim Filzen mitmachen. Bis jetzt habe ich wegen dem schrecklich großen Nadel gezögert sie's probieren zu lassen. 

Aber sie überzeugte mir, dass sie vorsichtig wäre, und benutzte eine Ausstechform um die Fingern zu schützen.

My 7-year-old daughter also wanted to try her hand a needle-felting. I had been a little hesitant after having accidentally stabbed my self a few times with the needle, but I relented when I saw that she would be careful. We used a cookie cutter to make the butterflies and protect little fingers.: )

Dann filzte sie diesen wunderschönen Schmetterling und eine Tulpe.

She went on to make this lovely butterfly hovering over a tulip.

Ein wunderschönes Pfingstwochenende an euch allen!

Have a wonderful Pentecost weekend!

More on The Mystery of Pentecost (or the mystery of GP in two languages!)

Storyteller just wrote a post about Pentecost in which she describes the opening scene from "The Mystery of Pentecost" where a tower of blocks is built and then allowed to collapse. As soon as I read it, I thought, "Blocks? What the heck is she talking about?!!" 

Then, I realized that the German version of this Godly Play story must be different from the original English version. A few hours later my new English copy of Volume 4 arrived from Amazon, so that I could check my hypothesis. And yes, the original version is a bit different. Not radically different, but different.

Some of the Pentecost materials

The original English story draws a contrast between the story of the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament and the Pentecost story in the New Testament. Both are curious stories that are difficult to explain and involve "tongues". 

The German story, however, leaves out the Tower of Babel bit, and makes a stronger connection between Ascension and Pentecost. This makes perfect sense in our German context, because both Ascension and Pentecost are public holidays here. (Schools even get two days off for these holidays!) And even though everyone knows the holidays, the average person on the street has no idea what they are about. For this reason, the story can be used to teach about both of these important events.

Both versions retain the idea that Pentecost is like a parable. Hence, the red box for the materials.

I tend to like the German version better, but that's probably because I am used to it. I will definitely have to find a way to try out both versions, before I make up my mind. (I probably can't tell it to my own kids, because my son, who remembers absolutely everything, would tell me that I'm doing it wrong!) Also, I will have to ponder the connection between the Tower of Babel and Pentecost more. 

I've slowly been collecting the English Godly Play books. I resisted for a long time, because of the cost. Fortunately, I have managed to find all of them used on Amazon. I figure that since I am a GP Trainer now, I really should be aware of any differences and be able to tell the stories in both languages. 

And to my Russian-speaking friends who are currently translating stories, this is the sort of thing you have to look forward to. : ) 

Telling the story at Easter Club

. . . . . . . . . 

Obwohl meine Muttersprache Englisch ist, habe ich Godly Play erst auf deutsch kennengelernt. Ab und zu ist mir bewusst geworden, dass manchmal die deutsche Geschichten  andere Schwerpunkte haben als die englische Version.

Neulich hat Storyteller über "Das Geheimnis von Pfingsten" geschrieben und erwähnte Bauklötze, die man fürs Material gebraucht. Ich dachte, "Bauklötze? Was für Bauklötze meint sie?!!"

Ich habe dann nachgeguckt im englischen Text und da macht die Geschichte eine Verbindung zum Turn von Babel im Alten Testament. Die Pfingstgeschichte und der Turm von Babel sind beide kuriose Geschichten, die etwas mit "Zungen" zu tun hat, und deshalb diese Verbindung.

Der deutsche Text aber lässt den Turm von Babel weg und schliesst Himmelfahrt an. Das hat natürlich perfektes Sinn in unserem Kontext, wo Himmelfahrt und Pfingsten öffentliche Feiertage sind. (Obwohl in Berlin  die meisten nicht wirklich sagen können, worum sie gehen!)

Ich tendiere zu sagen, dass der deutsche Text mir besser gefällt, aber ich müsste beide Versionen mit Kindern probieren um das definitiv sagen zu können. 

Ein schönes Pfingstwochenende an euch allen!

YCW: Dorcas, Follower of Jesus, Helps the Poor in Judea

This is another Young Children and Worship story that I've tried out with my own children. Although I have not been the biggest fan of YWC, I have been trying to keep an open mind about it until I've told more of these stories. And the story of Dorcas has some really great things in it. 

First of all, it is a New Testament story about a woman. Not many of those out there. And as someone who is consciously trying to empower young girls, I do look for stories that highlight women characters.  

The materials for Dorcas: a Dorcas figure, a Peter figure, 2 figures to represent
a widow and a poor person, and 5 tunics 

Secondly, this story communicates freedom and variety in how we show our love for God. The story begins with how the followers of Jesus received God's gift of the Holy Spirit and how they began to do the things that Jesus did.

"Dorcas did the things that Jesus did, but in her own special way." (She made clothing for the poor and for widows.)

I love this!! The last thing I want to do is mentor children to be cookie-cutter Christians who end up not truly living out the Gospel, because of social pressure to do what everyone else does. Stories like this one communicate that God values all of our gifts and talents. 

The second half of the story focuses on Dorcas' unexpected death brought on by an illness. The many widows and poor people that she has helped are distraught with grief. The apostle Peter is immediately sent for. He prays and then bids her to get up, and she comes to life again. 

Peter and Dorcas after God makes her alive again.

My kids once again complained about the length of the story. (YWC stories are in general very short in comparison to Godly Play.) But they had a lot to say during the Wondering.

I picked the following questions to wonder about:

1) How did the people feel when Dorcas was dying?

2) How did it feel for Dorcas to die and then be made alive again?

3) What did Peter say when he prayed?

4) How might the people who saw Dorcas be made alive again have shown that they loved God in their own special way?

Unfortunately, I don't remember a lot of what we talked about this time. We did talk about the special ways that we show our love to God. And we also spent a lot of time discussing what Peter might have prayed before he told Dorcas to get up.

There were also a few silly moments, because Dorcas' name sounded a lot like "dork" to my son.: ) Glad that we can laugh together and not take ourselves too seriously.

And this is a YWC story that I would definitely tell again.

A note about the materials: Obviously, I used Godly Play People of God figures instead the YWC figures. I also looked at their material list and asked myself, "What can we leave out and still have everything we need for the story?" So I chose not to use a wooden bed for the house and a water basin with cotton balls (to represent the women washing Dorcas after her death). I thought those things would ultimately be distracting and better left to the children's imagination.

Linked to Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now

Linked to Eco Kids' Tuesday at Like Mama-Like Daughter and Organic Aspirations

Art Project: Spring Trees (Oil Pastel & Watercolor Resist)

Melinda and I recently had an opportunity to do an art project with inner-city children in another part of Berlin. We have a great relationship with a Children's Club there who provide after-school care and activities for the children in the neighborhood. Since the club is located next to a park and playground with lots of towering trees, we chose "Spring Trees" as our theme. 

This is a basic oil pastel and watercolor resist, but with the added challenge of drawing the trees from the perspective of looking upward. 

To prepare for drawing the trees, we first walked around with the children and took a closer look at some of the beautiful trees. What are the different parts of a tree? What color is the tree? How does the bark feel? When you look up, which parts of the tree appear large? Which ones appear small?

Then, we played a game in which each child picked a partner. The partner was then blindfolded and led to a tree by the other child. The blindfolded partner "explored" the tree by touch and was then led away again. After the blindfold was removed, the child had to find the tree again. The younger kids loved this game and begged to keep playing it.

And here is how we created our pictures:

Step 1: We talked about how to draw the tree, and started with the trunk. I told the children to decide how many trees would be in the picture and pick a point on the page to start. We also provided the children with some black and white photocopies of trees taken from the perspective of looking upward, so that they could visualize what to draw. 

This first step proved to be quite challenging for the children, and we were met with protests of "I can't do this!" Melinda and I calmly helped each child to keep going and repeated our mantra of "There are no mistakes in art - only changes to be made!"

Step 2: The children drew the crown of the tree using oil pastels. We told them they could use any colors they wanted. 

This part also proved challenging, because it requires a lot of patience to make the leaves. I demonstrated several techniques for making the leaves, but all of children decided on a dot/stipple effect. One child wanted to give up half-way through, but we encouraged her to stay with it.

Step 3: We added a watercolor wash over the oil pastels. Although I prepared several different colors of paint, most of the children settled on blue.

Here are a couple of the finished works:

From a second grader . . . 

From a fourth grader . . . 

This type of art project is so important for inner-city children, because it trains the child to observe intensely and to persevere with an activity. In short, it helps them to enter into the intense periods of concentration that Maria Montessori wrote are essential for healthy overall development. And the interaction with nature is also invaluable to their spiritual development. 

I really enjoyed being with these children and hope that we will have this opportunity again!

 . . . . . . 

Melinda und ich hatten neulich die Möglichkeit ein Kunstprojekt mit Kindern führen, die in einem "Sozialbrennpunkt" von Berlin wohnen. Die Zusammenarbeit war mit einem Kinderclub, die ein tolles

Nachmittagsprogramm für die Kinder im Kiez anbietet.

Da der Kinderclub gleich gegenüber von einem Park mit vielen Bäumen liegt, haben wir uns für das Thema, "Frühlingsbäume" entschieden. Als Vorbereitung fürs Zeichnen, haben wir mit den Kindern die große Bäume genauer angeguckt. Wir spielten auch ein Baumspiel aus der Naturpädagogik, damit die Kinder die Bäume mit den 5 Sinnen kennenlernen konnten. 

Danach fingen wir an die Bäume zu zeichnen, aber aus der Perspektive am Boden zu sein und nach oben zu schauen. Dann haben wir die Baumkrone, Stamm und Äste mit Ölkreide gemalt. Zuletzt haben wir den Hintergrund mit Wasserfarbe darüber gemalt. 

Die Technik war für die Kinder ziemlich herausfordernd und manche wollten mittendrin aufhören. Aber dies war genau, was sie gebraucht haben, denn so ein Projekt trainiert Wahrnehmungsfähigkeiten und Ausdauer. Am Ende waren die Kinder ganz stolz auf die schönen Bilder! 

Linked to Eco Kids' Tuesday at Like Mama-Like Daughter and Organic Aspirations

Making Painting Supplies Available

If we want our kids to experiment with and learn to paint, the supplies have to be readily available. All of the classic art books say this. It's also a Montessori principle: we help the kids to help themselves. This is a great idea, but actually doing it can be a bit tricky. What if I don't have enough space to make a paint corner or shelf? What if my kids get paint all over the house?

We live in a small apartment in Berlin and space is a huge issue. We are constantly getting rid of things to avoid clutter. It is a constant battle. And for years, I would pull out the paint supplies each time the kids wanted to paint, and then we would put it all back when we were finished. And then, for a long time, we didn't paint much at all because it was so much work to go through this process each time. 

Here is a simple idea that I want to share with you. One morning as the kids trekked into my bedroom for the 100th time to get the painting supplies (as I was trying to wake up and enjoy my first cup of coffee in peace!), I decided there had to be a solution and I was going to find it before the morning was over. I ended up emptying the books from one of the bookshelves in my son's bedroom and turning it into our painting shelf. (I sorted through the old books that we didn't read anymore to give away, and relocated a few others.)

In the picture above, you can see that I put paper, two trays, two sponges, paints, and a jar of paintbrushes. There are also two picnic tablecloths that the kids can spread on the floor to put their materials on. Behind the bookshelf are also two wooden boards that they use as a hard surface to paint on. With the tablecloths, each child can paint on the floor in his/her room without risk to the furniture and upholstery.: )

I then showed each child how to clean their supplies and put them back in a more or less orderly fashion. After a couple of times helping them, each child can now clean up after him/herself without leaving a mess. 

As for the paint itself, my kids use quality tempera or gouache paints that can be easily washed off of walls, rugs, furniture, etc. just in case an accident happens.

The result is that my kids have been painting much more frequently in their free time! You can see some of their work in my last post.: ) 

So, even if you you think you can't find a place in your house or apartment for the kids to have their own paint area, I encourage you to think again. Even a tiny space where the kids can get to things on their own can make a world of difference! 

 . . . . . . 

Ein großes Prinzip in der Kunsterziehung ist das Material den Kindern zur Verfügung stehen, unabhängig von Hilfe der Erwachsenen. Aber in der Tat kann das ziemlich schwierig sein zu realisieren. Was macht man, wenn es an Platz in der Wohnung mangelt? Wie meidet man eine große Kleckerei mit der Farbe?

Unsere Wohnung ist ziemlich klein, und mich quälte schon jahrelang die Gedanken, eine Malecke bei uns ist nicht zu einrichten. Eines Morgens nachdem die Kinder tausend mal in mein Schlafzimmer kamen um die Malsachen zu holen, müsste ich einfach eine Lösung finden. 

Ich habe dann alte Bücher bei einem Bücherregal im Schlafzimmer von meinem Sohn aussortiert und die Malsachen (oben im Foto) da verstaut. Jetzt kann jedes Kind sie unabhängig von mir nehmen und danach aufräumen. 

Die Kinder benutzen immer eine Tempera oder Gouache-Farbe, die man ohne großen Aufwand auswaschen kann.

Das Ergebnis: viel mehr Kunstwerke bei uns zu Hause!

Sketching and Painting

Well, I am happy to report that there has been a lot of sketching and painting going on in my household the past couple of weeks. 

I love it when children do multiple projects on an idea that they constantly return to. My daughter is fascinated by houses and the rooms within a house. Typical for her age, but I was surprised when she worked several days on the painting below of a house. She named each room, who lived in it, and its purpose in the house. 

My Mom recently sent us the art book below. Usborne books are generally well-written, and this one is one of the best art books that I have seen. It has precipitated a whole slew of projects from my children.

Here is some of their work and all use techniques inspired from the Usborne book:

"A Dark Castle" - loosely based on Hogwarts from the 

Harry Potter series that my son is currently reading.

 

A pointillistic snake from my daughter:

My son made this painted, torn paper fish collage:

 And in my quest to keep drawing things that I don't usually draw, 

here are a couple of horses:

My daughter also drew a horse:

 And I've been working on a few spring trees from the perspective of looking upward: 

You'll probably see the spring trees later on this week in an art project that 

I will be doing with a group of children!

 . . . . . . 

Vielleicht errinert ihr euch, dass ich am Anfang des Jahres vorgenommen habe 10 Minuten jeden Tag zu zeichnen.: )  Ich bin froh zu berichten, dass nicht nur ich, sondern meine Kinder auch, haben in den letzten paar Wochen viele Kunstwerke gemacht. 

Meine Mutter schenkte den Kindern neulich ein schönes Buch mit vielen Anregungen und Ideen drin: The Usborne Book of Art Ideas. Sie haben seitdem nicht aufgehört Bilder zu malen. Ihr könnt oben ihre Meisterwerke anschauen.:)

Und ich schaffe es mehr und mehr zu zeichnen, auch wenn ich platt müde bin. Es tut mir gut mich so intensiv konzentrieren zu müssen und die Welt 'rum herum für einen Augenblick zu vergessen.: )