Look who is peeking out from under the nature table! Signs of spring are peeking out of every corner of the early childhood building, and the children are feeling a growing confidence and energy.
Two little brown bulbs went to sleep in the ground
Dressed in their little nighties they slept very sound
Old Winter, he roared and he raged overhead
But the little brown bulbs did not stir in their bed
Till Spring came tiptoeing over the lea
With fingers to lips, as soft as can be
The little brown bulbs gently lifted their head
Split open their nighties and they jumped out of bed
Jumped out of bed
We have been singing this and acting it out in our morning circle time. What an honour it is to be chosen to be a bulb or Winter or Spring! It is great fun to watch the children take this up and by now even the youngest are eager to participate.
Just like the seeds under the earth, the children too are waking up! We have tapped our maple trees and are delighted to see how much sap we are receiving. We always notice than when the sap begins to run, the children get frisky. They have grown so much over the months, and the springtime brings many interesting challenges our way. It is a time when early childhood teachers find ourselves needing to be flexible, and yet also holding a certain firmness for the children in order to provide the security of consistency. It is a delicate balance sometimes!
We are rewarded with seeing our youngest children feeling oh-so-confident at school, our eldest students looking for new challenges and the age group in-between now holding the strong rhythms of our day for the class and providing stability for all. This is the beauty of a mixed-age classroom. We are so lucky to have the freedom to work with these children in such a way that sometimes mimics a large extended family, for they are gaining important life skills by learning how to get along together in their own small community, even as it goes through its own changes.
—Karen White for the Early Childhood