"Around and around and around's the game! Around and around and what's your name? Ms. Buckley is her name! Ms. Buckley is her name!"
After worship and before the Rivers Class goes out to the park to play, the students gather on the Nest (the braided rug in the classroom) for a morning meeting.
One important thing that the Rivers Class students and teachers do during this meeting is greet each other by name. The students know several greeting songs and games, but this week we learned a new greeting song:
Cheerfully and politely greeting other people and remembering their names... those are life skills!
But more importantly, in the Rivers Class, teachers and students affirm three powerful statements which inform our life and work together:
You are seen.
You are heard.
You are known.
During morning greetings, Rivers Class children are indeed seen, heard, known. Students greet each other by name and hear each other's voices. They count the number of students sitting around the nest. Students notice and name those who are absent.
Last weekend, Ms. Emily Sytsma, our Early Childhood Director, attended a conference at Columbia Teacher's College, offered by the Collaborative for Spirituality in Education. The conference title was The Next Wave in K-12 Education: The Spiritual Core of the Whole Child. After attending (and presenting at) this conference, Ms. Sytsma reminded Nest teachers this week that greeting is a spiritual practice.
Morning meeting is also a time for schedule reminders or learning about a service project: collecting baby cereal for the food pantry.
Students might practice some good school skills, like their Cough Catcher:
Or demonstrate a good Sneeze Catcher:
On Fridays, Ms. Mauldin visits the Rivers Class. Of course she greets the class with a special musical morning greeting and the students sing a greeting back to her:
PS: Learn more about the conference Ms. Sytsma attended here. Ask her about her presentation on honoring young children.
