Come Gather Round.... It's Fall Storytime.

Come gather round, with a friend on the left
and a friend on the right,
Come gather round. ...

Its that time ..
Gather round for a fall story.

Many of us grew up with the little field mice in "Frederick" by Leo Lionni.

But in case you haven't, here is the story. I recommend the book and I will be showing you a game that I have created to go along with this story. Since the blogs this week are about fall, harvest, families and 

Stone Soup this is the one that I like to start out with in early November and read continuously through the dark winter months. 

In my classroom at the Living Wisdom School, we also spend time in November on community building while working together. This story will guide your children as you create community though your classroom. Begin reading the story to the children several times. The children can also act out the story. I like to create props and simple mouse ear costumes.

At the end of the story during morning circle time, I have each child reach into this bag and select a rock. Without peeking they feel their rock, warm it in their hand and then place it in the center of our circle. With eyes still closed, they pick up their rock. One by one, I read their qualities that have been written on each rock. Some examples are: make a new friend today, be flexible and share with a friend, be joyful today, or hug a friend today. I slowly write down each quality. During the day, I walk around the room and point out the positive signs of their behavior. At the end of the day, at our shared inspiration time in circle we all review our day once again.

How were we like Frederick in the story? Did we use our words today mindfully? Did we work together as well as the mouse family in the story?  I also acknowledge again each child and talk about how their energy matched the words on their rock that they pulled from the bag. 

The colors of the rocks are all painted the colors of fall leaves. The rocks match the colors that Frederick is talking about in the story. This creates glow in our hearts during the cloudy days of winter in Seattle. 

Happy reading until our next story time.

Blessings and gratitude,
Chandi

Our Planetary Home and our place in the Universe Part 2.

Our Planetary Home

Our place in the Universe

This is part two from our class today on families, home and community building. We are celebrating "Stone Soup" with our school community next week. Each class is contributing to the meal. This week we have been reading and telling the story by:

Award-winning artist Jon J Muth. He retells the favorite tale of a selfish community who is tricked into creating a delicious soup from stones. Set in China, in Muth's beautiful landscaped watercolors. This is a newer vision taken from an older German folktale. I am in love with how this book takes compassion and weaves the community together.  The Living Wisdom School celebrates this event with our families each year as our Thanksgiving tradition.

Setting the scene for re-telling the story together. All the children have a part to play.

Our new reading and acting corner. The children have many books and materials for telling their stories together

To continue our playful events around "families" today we had a fishing pole where the children fished for family member puzzle pieces. The pieces were then placed together into puzzles.  These are activities that I like to provide for the Foundation years, at the Living Wisdom School.

Hum, I think this is how it goes?

Showing pictures and telling stories at lunch time. This gives the child a greater sense of confidence  while speaking in front of a group. 

Family Wall

Can you show me your dog? Where is he?

These experiential activities begin to keep children's hearts open toward as an expansive view of their classmates lives. It is a joy to experience their sense of wonder, as their values of compassion are beginning to expand and grow towards each other.

I will end with a quote from the Education for Life book written by J. Donald Walters: 

For education to prepare children for meeting life realistically, it should encourage them to learn from life itself, and to view with skepticism a body of fixed knowledge that has been passed on unquestioned from one generation to the next.
Education must above all be experiential, and not merely theoretical. The student should be taught, among other things, to observe the outcome of any course of action, and not to depend blindly on the claims of others as to what that outcome is supposed to be, and therefore will be.

Friday is my deadline for the book giveaway.

Almost 100 of you have seen this blog post and free giveaway since Monday. But unfortunately I can't enter you unless you comment and send me your information?  We have two days remaining.

 Here is a review by the publisher below.

 

From the Publisher

* A parents' and teachers' guide to developing children's concentration, self-discipline, and compassion, as well as heartfelt qualities like openness and enthusiasm. * Includes more than 90 techniques and exercises drawn from the author's experiences as a teacher and director of the Living Wisdom School, a nonprofit elementary school that emphasizes nonsectarian spiritual principles and practical skills for living. * Recommends books, music, games, and other resources to help grown-ups nurture calm and compassionate kids.

About the Author

Susan Usha Dermond has spent the last 18 years of her 30-year career in education in alternative schools, including 12 years as a teacher at the original Living Wisdom School in Nevada City, California. She is now the director of the Beaverton, Oregon, Living Wisdom School, and also a columnist for modern mom.com.

Many Blessings,
Chandi

First Give-away on "Inside Out"

It is an exciting moment on this blog. Thank you for your emails, verbal comments and expressions of love that you have given me since starting this blog in August.

Susan Usha Dermond has offered our first give-away . Susan Usha Dermond will be sending out a copy of her book; Calm and Compassionate Children. I wrote a book review on this blog in September.

I will be giving the book away this Friday, November 18th. So please comment below and you may be the winner from a random drawing for this deeply inspirational book. I look forward to your comments.

 Many Blessings and thank you, Chandi

Living in harmony with the animals on the earth

The past two weeks our class has easily transitioned to our next unit: "The Animal Kingdom." My Preschool and Kindergarten classes just loves animals. In fact, many young children love animals. This is one of the easiest steps for teaching young children compassion while opening their own hearts to the world all around them. 
The next few blogs will contain the projects that we completed.

To begin the unit I wanted to combine three stories and tell them over and over throughout the next few weeks. I wanted to try some of the techniques from a one of my favorite blogs by: Sally Haughey from: Fairy Dust Teaching. She has written many excellent entries on storytelling.  Specifically here today, the entry on: The power of table top puppets and retelling a story.

I choose the story: The Great Kapock Tree, by Lynne Cherry.  Here is the story read aloud.

The children heard me tell the story with puppets and then we all practiced again and again. For many, this was the first time that they ever had the opportunity to act out or retell a story.  I also want to work with the principals on building strong hands on literacy.

The children acting out different animal parts in the story. These children are listening to sounds on one of our rainforest Cd's and making the sounds of the animals in the story.

 Individually acting out the story

Well, we arent quite yet ready to make a video of our stories, but we have had alot of fun retelling the story in many creative ways.

Come gather round , its time for a story

Come gather round,

Come gather round.

With a friend on the left and a friend on the right,

Come gather round. 

Its a very special day, come gather round. 

On Monday mornings I have the most amazing schedule that anyone could ask for. In my classroom there are five little preschool girls on Mondays. We have so much fun cooking, exploring nature, gardening, creating beautiful art projects and telling imaginary stories.

Today's story is actually using a new story cards that I recently purchased at Eastwest Bookshop in Seattle.

Have you ever wanted to make up grand stories for children but you didnt know where to begin? I was able to purchase these beautiful cards by John and Catlin Mathews. These cards lead you into the land of make believe, wonder and endless possibilities  They are that gentle nudge or simple way to jump start your imagination for any story-time.

   The cards have beautiful illustrations that lead you to a beginning of your story. As you select the next card, the pictures weave the storyteller through a world of make believe and wonder. You can select one card or as many cards for your story as you like. One tip though, is to know the attention span of your children and how long the story should be to will remain fresh and enchanting. With my class, I wanted to create a direct experience for them and keep the story short for today.

 Our morning began with dressing up like princesses. We took an adventure to the secret garden outside where we would surely might find a faery hiding in our mint. There we picked fresh mint and lavender. We quietly tiptoed back into the classroom to make our "lavender mint tea".  

Washing our leaves

Steeping the Tea

Tea and a story. What could be better than that?

 Each time you open the box of cards there are more inspirational ideas. 

We made up this fairy game today with our story but the ideas are endless. 

These cards are wonderful for all ages.  This might also make a nice story for a birthday party.  Additional imaginary themes, crafts and games could go along with the story.

Until next time...We wish you sweet dreams from this castle over the hill in Ireland. The bunny and fairies will follow you into the garden as they wait patiently for your next cup of tea......


Joyful reading and storytelling. 

Parenting Handbook: Calm and Compasionate Children

Parenting Handbook: Calm and Compassionate Children

Are you interested in parenting information and how to uplift and inspire your child?

This week I wanted to pass along a book for parents. This was written by a dear friend. It will honor you as a parent and give you the tools that you need to enhance spiritual principals for your growing child.

 The book is Calm and Compassionate Children by :Susan Usha Dermond

Susan has featured many activities, rituals, stories and shares her insights from documented teaching with these concepts for the past 30 years. Susan Usha Dermond is the founder of the Portland Living Wisdom School.  She leads the online Education for Life teacher training. In 1984, she received a Master degree in Education and was a school college librarian. Susan has taught every grade from third through freshmen in college. You wont want to miss this on line class for educators, teachers and parents.
Susan will be teaching this Fall and I wanted to pass along the information on the upcoming Education for Life Webinar. 

Many Blessings until next week.

"A little bit if heaven"

Come gather round,
With a friend on the left,
And a friend on the right,
Come gather round

This week’s story is a natural sequel to the story by Patrick McDonnell reviewed last week. I found this the same day as the previous story. I am hoping that you were able to read the first story to your child, or in your classroom setting.

This week’s story is Just Like Heaven, also about our two little friends, Mooch and Earl.

 One misty morning the fog had crept around Mooch's favorite tree. When he awoke, he didn't quite know where he was.  He looked left, and saw nothing. He looked right, and saw nothing. Everything that was familiar to him was covered in a dim fog. He wondered where he was—could it be heaven?  I must be in heaven, he thought, and that is where his journey in this tale begins.

.

About two weeks ago, I was reading this book to a group of children from the ages of 6 to 11. We were in a glorious setting in a forest glen, sitting above a ravine of Maple, Pine and Douglas Fir trees.  Each child was able to sit on a small tree stump and look over the panoramic view in this little haven of peace. As I read the story, it was easy to focus the children. This setting embodied the bit of heaven that is all around us at any moment or at any given time. How often we forget that there is beauty in the trees whispering, the flowers dancing, and the birds singing. In this natural setting I reminded the children that we can appreciate our friends, homes, families and even in the small disturbances in our lives. All of these lessons reflect to us, like a mirror, where our energy lies.

To return to the story, the most captivating page is when Mooch comes across a fierce dog tied to a chain. The dog lets out a big “BARK." Now, under normal conditions, Mooch would have gone all fuzzy with fear and run away. But this is not a normal day, since he may be in heaven.  Mooch asks himself, "Here and now, what should I do?"  Then he opens his arms and says......

Sorry, I don't want to give the story away. You’ll have to read it.  But I will give you this hint:  The children are so full of love for the story, they can't refrain from turning to the partner next to them and acting out exactly what Mooch does in the story.

It has never failed me yet.

Children’s senses are heightened when they are in an outdoor setting. This is the perfect book for taking outside; nature will expand your young listeners’ awareness to comprehend its deeper meaning. It’s perfect on a foggy morning, but any kind of morning, or any time of day, will do.

When I read this story to my class, we ended our time together by taking the love of beauty aroused in us and using it to do a creative visualization from Sharing Nature with Children  called "Expanded Mediation Circle."  This can be done with children ages 6-adult.

This story, read against the backdrop of nature, provides a perfect way to tap into the appreciation, love and harmony expressed in the joy of spirit in and around us.

Many blessings, until next week.

Joyful reading, friends. .......

The gift of your presence

 Its our weekly story time!  

"Come gather round,

With a friend on the left and friend on the right, 

          Come gather round"

About two years ago I was walking in our local library looking for a new book about love and kindness, that I could select for the children in my Kindergarten class. I usually have an inner guidance and prayer before I go into the library to guide and help me select the perfect book for  teaching a certain "quality" to the children. 

On this particular day, a book literally fell onto my foot. I picked it up without giving it much attention and placed it back on the shelf. It was not the type of book that I would usually select. The cover wasn't that appealing ,expansive with color or intriguing.  Its cover actually had more of  a "cartoon" feel to the it. At the Living Wisdom School we shy away from any theatrical productions, videos and television.

Well, it fell on my foot again. Now, I am somewhat perturbed at this point. I took a moment to look again at the cover. The drawings by Patrick McDonnell looked somewhat familiar. So it intrigued me enough to slow down and sit with the book.

The title of the book: The Gift of Nothing  

This story is about Mooch a friendly little cat who wants to give his friend Earl a gift. This delightful story is around the love and friendship between friends. How often we spend hours trying to find just the perfect birthday gift for a loved one and we are discouraged about what we have chosen. But what should you do when your friend has everything? This is a tale about Mooch searching for the gift of nothing.  This book is for all ages.  I love to read this for our afternoon story or it is a sweet story for the bedtime ritual. You might be able to get away with reading it twice, since you will fall in love with it.

This is surely one book that you will want to give away, but purchase one for your child's shelf as well. 

Patrick McDonnell has quite a nice series of short children's stories. 
I encourage you to take a peak at the library you never know what enticing stories might fall on your foot. 

Joyful reading friends until next Friday.....

Once upon a time in a land far, far, away.....

 One main focus of this blog is to mention some favorite books I have found over the years.  I’ll write each Friday about the spiritual gems contained in them.

Often  I have been asked by educators and parents how to teach spiritual truths to young children. My background has brought a rich love of books, treasures and memories.  I find that reading is an easy place to begin to awaken the enthusiasm in a young child.  Reading to our children, students and grandchildren is a timeless experience.  Through reading we can explore and create imaginary worlds, and experience within the deepest part of ourselves that which creates an inner world of deep meaning, love and truth.


When working with children's literature there, are many ways to deeply look at the contents of a story.  I love large formatted picture books, but with our culture turning into more visual stimulus for children , I now lean towards not always showing the pictures, but weaning the children into closing their eyes and imagining what the story might look like. This can happen even at the early age of four. I also want to build children’s comprehension and hands on the literacy, an approach used today in alternative education.

The next stage after reading a story would be to act out the story through puppet shows, felt pieces or with a child’s whole being. These timeless stories have the children ask again and again for the opportunity to re-enact them in class.

Today's book review is Pinduli,  by Janell Cannon.


Janell Cannon  is famous for her illustrations. Her very familiar, award-winning book Stellaluna  has sold over 500,000 copies. It was on the bestseller list for more than two years.

Pindulu takes place in Africa savanna and is about a little hyena and his mother. An expression of love is shown throughout the story, as Pindulu’s mother assures her how beautiful she is. However, Pindulu finds out early that the animals in the savanna have a different view of her big ears, fuzzy mane, and wiggly stripes.  Through a chain of events, Pindulu finds that she just wants to hide and return home to the safety of her mother. She decides to cover her fur with pale dust.  On her way home the animals think she's an evil spirit, or a ghost who's come for revenge. This is my favorite part of the story: Pinduli convinces all the animals to make up for their harsh lashings.   The story reveals many spiritual truths about choosing your words carefully, friendship, anger and talking harshly to others.

I love this book, and have used it in many settings from kindergarten to sixth grade. As an educator, I will select this story if I need reinforcement to drive home lessons about circumstances that may have happened on the playground or the classroom.  I like to make up games to enhance the spiritual points in the story. This is also one of my favorite stories about teaching children the law of magnetism and the secrets of friendship. Loyalty, kindness, acceptance, and appreciation of others are all high ideals we want to instill in our children.  This story can help in that endeavor.

I have had the wonderful opportunity for the past 17 years to work with Eastwest Bookshop of Seattle, a spiritual, independent bookshop that is able to order books, make suggestions, and serve as a guiding light in selecting high quality spiritual books for children and families.  We are very fortunate to have such a quality store that is in tune with the principles of our Living Wisdom School. Eastwest Bookshop of Seattle will order any book that you might need in a timely fashion and offer you the opportunity to browse through books in their family section. It has a warm, nurturing environment that will welcome you home to the magnetism of spirit, beauty and truth.

Happy reading, friends…until next Friday.