Rituals, processes, and traditions help define a family and community. They make our lives feel meaningful. You can probably remember something in your own life that feels so distinctive you might be able to smell, taste, or see it right now.

In the lives of the children at the Spark Studio, there are a few systems and traditions that the learners look forward to every day/week/season. They bond the learners together as they remember these special events year after year, laughing about funny stories, and wondering what next year may bring. Learners also perform daily and weekly rituals such as the ‘Good Morning Song’ that is sung in English, Spanish, French, and Hindi, and the ‘Gratitude Lunch Song’ that is sung every afternoon followed by “Bon Appetit, enjoy your lunch!” with so much excitement, or having community meetings to discuss studio guardrails and grace and courtesy.

 Maria Montessori knew the importance of the child understanding their place in the universe. She said that the child from 0-6 makes the sense and order of the world around him and placed emphasis on the Tendencies and Sensitive Periods to give us more insight.  She knew the impression that a daily routine or tradition can leave on a child’s heart is very special and said, “The things he sees are not just remembered; they are part of his soul.” The rituals and traditions we begin with young children are more than future memories; they are like seeds that grow into our deepest understanding of ourselves.

 We are sharing a list of some systems and traditions that we have in the Studio. This list will evolve as we will observe the learners and continue to ‘follow the child’.

• Processes 

• • The Inside and outside charts (for in-studio and spark play)
  • Clock book
  • Calendar
  • Helper’s Chart
  • File folders for works and paintings
  • Mindfulness activities (refer to the relevant post here).

• Rituals and Traditions

• • Birthdays- where we rotate around the sun and make wishes
  • Thursday Mindful Walks
  • Friday Movement Day
  • Art and Crafts activities- leaves and bats works during fall; snowflakes and Aurora Borealis works for winter; we decorated our own kites; we wrote our wishes for the new year prior to the new year and added them to the fire during winter solstice celebrations and so many more!
  • Group snack/lunch during Thanksgiving,
  • Discussing the spirit of giving- (this year we made and sent bookmarks to the children at the Dell Hospital, for the guides, our campus neighborhood, and our parents), 

Enjoy some relevant studio pics on this topic below.

 

Spark Play at Ascent is a loose parts-play model that consists of unprescribed parts such as wooden blocks, large tubes, barrels, tires, planks, tarps, scarves, milk crates, wooden stumps, sandpit tools, sandbags, and much more. Landscaping components such as the hills, tunnels, the A-frame, the gaga ball pit, sandpit, water tank, and pumps are used regularly to facilitate play.

Post lunch, the learners head outdoors and start Play which is usually around 12 noon. They choose to play amongst these many areas available to them, often also hopping from one to another, or choosing to stay immersed in one with their group of friends or by themselves. They still follow their inner rhythms, seasons, and calls, just as the self-driven morning work cycle. They get over an hour (about 1.40 hours) of Play every afternoon. 

 A great benefit of Spark Play is that it gives learners daily opportunities to practice building the muscle of cooperative play (shifting out from co-play).  This often breeds conflict as the young heroes practice communicating their ideas and plans, practice sharing, and navigate interpersonal disagreements. At Spark Play, guides continuously model and facilitate conflict resolution with the children who in turn practice using powerful and empowering language repeatedly. 

This post will be followed by Part 2 of the flow to dive deeper and get more insight into this part of the day of the learners. Until then, enjoy the pictures and this quote from Dr. Maria Montessori –

Play is the work of the child.

 

 

 

 

Mindfulness definitely needs no introduction with it being such a buzzword this decade. So many of you were also intrigued by the ‘how and what’ of our Spark Mindfulness Area, so let’s jump straight into what mindfulness looks like for the Spark Learners. 

Mindfulness for us is to find our calm, reset our bodies, take a step back, and pause. It can be a break or a calming strategy outlet. It looks like all of the below. 

• Reading a book in the library to take a pause. 
• Using the tangible breathing prompts – Star, Box, and Palm Breathing when BIG feelings visit us, when we are tired, or when we just need to pause. Oh! and also Blow on the Pinwheel for an elongated exhale that is ever so calming…
• Using the calming strategies jar- to help us choose a strategy and take a brain break. Some of these include- counting to 10, looking outside, taking a walk, drawing a picture, taking 3 belly breaths, etc. 
• Paint a picture in the painting area- to bring us back to the present moment and also see the interplay of colors and let loose our imagination. Switching to our left brain for a bit.
• Using the meditation pillow to close our eyes and find stillness. 
• Using the mindfulness desk to look at the Grace and Courtesy book, to stare at a candle or at the hourglass to bring us back at the moment. 
• Relevant books, circle time discussions, and In-studio & Spark Play experiences also add to this area on a daily.

 

We know that habits formed early in life will inform behaviors in adulthood, and with mindfulness, we have the opportunity to give our learners the tools for being peaceful, kind, and accepting. We also speak of how our tiny neurons help our brain grow and learn to integrate a growth mindset and tie it into mindfulness even further. Our mindfulness area has visitors by the minute, and all we know is it truly completes our experience in the studio. 

 

With today’s post, we share a peek into our Spark Playtime of the day. Spark Play is an integral part of our learners’ time in their space. They choose from small loose parts play, large parts (think- large planks, blocks, ladders), sandpit area, other in-built structures like the stumps, swinging ropes, tunnels, hills, and the orchard. Each area comes with a particular focus in mind in that they are more and less conducive to different types of play.  We often think of that in reference to play that encourages ‘feet on the floor’ vs ‘feet off the floor’, gross motor vs fine motor movement, etc. Today we highlight – the Sand Pit Area!

Since the introduction of the sandpit this year, it has definitely been a place of action and learning. Guides are strategically placing themselves outside the sandpit to hear and note the great growth in communication that happens while learners communicate critical thoughts.  The water from the pipe runs down on the hill course until it reaches the sandpit, allowing gravity to create another fascinating object for the children’s observations… On most days, on average, there are around four-five parallel plays going on in the sandpit area, with four-five different groups. Some days the members within the groups change and some groups have had the same members for weeks. We’ve not only witnessed some interesting decision-making, conversations, and conflicts but also, so much of creative-thinking and strategizing. Learners have banded together in various ways for their creations; From building dams and digging tunnels to making canals for the gushing water. They make sand-castles and dig until they reach the bottom of the pit. They are experimenting with using the white strips you see below as pipes and making courses for the water. Their experiences have ranged from wanting the same equipment to not wanting water in their section, to, also wanting water in their section!  They bring in the math and the science, engineering, and technology, language, and love all at once, all so powerfully through hands-on learning. They make sure to fill this daily experience with some heated moments, heartbreaks, tough conversations, and buckets and buckets of fun. This is why, they flock there again the next day, and the next, and every day, without a doubt.

With grateful hearts, 

Spark Guides.