Welcome to 2023! We look forward to sharing many special times together…
November 5th – Blending in AND Standing out
It was a delight to gather today with such an open hearted and happy group of children. Their response to our theme was beautiful. As we went around our Gathering Circle commenting on whether we felt we preferred to blend in or stand out or both, children were very thoughtful. Many opted for being blending in types of people though a few shared that they liked to stand out when with friends or family and especially if being funny enough to make others laugh.
After our story and a chat, children then completed a picture sheet about blending in and standing out. I loved the honesty of their further responses. Many children now acknowledged times when they liked to stand out – like when they were the best at something or doing a concert or sharing with their class about something they knew a lot about. Aren’t we all a bit this way? But maybe not brave to say so? The honest reflection of children is refreshing for sure.
These are the books that book-ended our gathering. Both highlighted in different ways how being human has many aspects to it and that opposite qualities can integrate within us to help us be fully ourselves.
Our theme continued with craft activities about the animal kingdom and how some creatures can camouflage themselves and some can choose to stand out. As one child said; “Both can be important at different times.”
Children did camouflage colouring, made nature scenes, and decorated wooden butterflies in bold or subtle colours. They also had the option to make cards for others that said “I notice you when…” as a way of sharing our appreciation for the subtler ways those around us might be showing up in our lives.
September 10th – Spring and Happiness!
Hello readers! It’s been a while since I posted as I missed a couple. It it has also been a little while since we gathered… and now here we are in Spring! We regathered happily in sunshine…and that Canberra thing of a nippy breeze!! But we still enjoyed some of our favourite Spring activities such as planting seedlings and making cereal threaded bird feeders.
As well as the change of season, our inspiration today came from two lovely books that explored the shapes in nature and the importance of a little greenery in our lives. We were also inspired by the art of Lisa Houck – we worked together to put together a puzzle of one of her pictures and then made our own collages.
We had a lovely time reconnecting… we began by sharing something that had made us a happy recently… and then we concluded by sharing an idea for how we could spread happiness to others in the coming week…
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May 7 – Stillness
We have been enjoying the presence of pandas at Kaleidoscope and hearing all the stories with the panda character ‘Stillwater’. Today two new panda friends joined us and we had much fun deciding on possible names… still to be finalised! Jon J Muth’s stories are delightful, and rich in meaning and wisdom.
Based on of today’s stories, we thought about ‘Stillness’. Everyone shared a response to the question ‘When is a time when you are still?’. There were many lovely thoughts… I am still when: I’m snuggled under a blanket, I’m listening to something quiet, I’m tempting an animal to come close, I want a bird to land on my hand for seed, I’m waiting for sleep to come, when I’m hiding…
We made yoga pebble towers, trying to select pebbles and balance three or four in a stack. The sound of the pebbles, the feel of them and the joy of decorating them made for a peaceful time.
Our craft activities included making colourful figurines that could be posed in various still positions, including yoga poses! Some children made scenes inspired the slow, cheery pictures in the story ‘Slow Down World.’
We had a lot of fun playing a statues game at the end of our session and concentrating very hard on being very still!
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April 20th – Autumn and Apples!
Our panda friend named Stillwater, gave cuddly comfort to many children this afternoon… and his story book inspired our activities. ‘Zen Ties’ is all about apples and haiku poetry and how showing kindness can lead to surprising kindnesses being received. We used all of our senses to experience an apple…slowly…before munching them!
Our other story reminded us that a slow day (or afternoon) is nurturing for us…and that is what we enjoyed today…
We had a very relaxed afternoon making felt apple tree bookmarks and fun apple characters. As well as eating apples we had applesauce on pancakes!
The most wonderful part of the afternoon was writing Haiku poems. Children enjoyed the poems in the story and had lots of fun counting syllables to work out how to make a haiku poem. Here is a selection of the poems created…WOW!
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April 2nd – Remembering
Through the stories we shared today, children were invited to reflect on their special memories and how we feel when we remember things that are important to us. Memories can be such a gift to us, anchoring us, comforting us and making us smile. Memories help us to retell stories that shape our lives by linking our past with our present and guiding us into our future.
The two books are well worth borrowing from the library for another read!
The art and craft activities for responding to these stories included:
Bunting with things we want to remember…
Lift-the-flap pictures of things we remember when we are doing one thing we enjoy whilst recalling another experience…
Necklaces and bracelets with beads to represent memories…
Revisiting good memories helps us feel positive. Taking time to recall how one experience reminds us of another can help us feel connected to our own stories and to people we hold in our mind. Sometimes we have memories we need to let go… and this is important of…. But focusing on our life giving experiences enables us hold on to our sense love and belonging.
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March 5th – Constant Goodness
It is easy to react to life and describe things that occur in terms of good luck and bad luck. But what if, instead, we stayed grounded in those things which are sources of constant goodness, those things that rarely change, or change very little, and stabilise us. When grounded we can respond to life with openness and recognise that all things can work together for goodness if we look at life through eyes of loving hope. Even events that could be seen as unlucky might surprise us!
Stillwater the Panda told us a story today about a farmer who had caring neighbours who liked to exclaim about things that occurred by saying ‘what bad luck’ or ‘what good luck’ and yet he always said ‘maybe’. The story showed that sometimes a misfortune led to good fortune…or one event changed another event and how we responded was what mattered.
Children made little message bags for themselves – inside each bag they put bits of paper with words that described constants in their lives. Here are some of their idea of things that they can count on:
trees, birds singing, love of family, being a big sister, our breath, the ocean, air, my friend, songs I like, my Aunty, flowers, a yummy snack, stories…
Our next story ‘Frog Finds a Place’ (by Sally Morgan & Ezekiel Kwaymullina) was the delightful tale of a young frog who saw a moonbeam in its pond and decided he longed to live up with the moon and stars. After many attempts to get to the moon – and failing of course – he sought the advice of the wise owl. Owl told frog to look closely at the water and sure enough there was the reflection of the starts and the moon. Frog jumped happily into the water and swam amongst the light, realising that what he had sought was right there, with him all along.
Children also made mobiles of stars and the moon in different phases. We talked about we can look up into the night sky and remember the constancy of the heavens above us. (To be finished at home!)
To end our session we quietly coloured to the sound of peaceful music – warm and cool colourings of the moon and sun. We committed to paying attention to the places of constant goodness in our lives.
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January 26th – Calm and Kind Beginning
With holidays coming to an end and our school term about to resume, our focus this afternoon was what a calm and kind start might look like.
We began in our gathering circle by thinking back over the holidays to a moment when we felt fully relaxed and calm, peaceful and happy. We pictured this moment in our imaginations and committed it to memory. Then we went around our circle and shared our picture with words. Some described beach times, gardens, trees, being with a pet, river swims, enjoying books and other such moments. We talked about how reliving these moments in our minds and through sharing, we release happy chemicals into our brains and that doing this can help us. When we feel worried about something, we can bring these special memories to mind and feel calmer.
Reflecting on our days can help us share good moments and find our way through tricky times. We made placemats to put at our tables with ideas for ways to talk about our days.
Our first story today is the poignant tale of a little dog who thinks his name is Sad because he feels so unloved. (‘Sad, the dog’ by Sally Fussell). Luckily, a new family move into his house where he has been left behind and he is the best thing to happen to the little boy who adores him and names him Lucky. We talked about why it is important to be named to help us belong and why it matters for us to say each other’s names with warmth. To help us remember this, one of the craft activities was making origami puppies…
Our other activities included decorating wooden hands to be coasters and making one for a friend who might enjoy the joke ‘Would you like a hand?’ 😉
Some children wrote letters of welcome to new friends. Other children enjoyed relaxation activities such as playing with kinetic sand and reading books.
A new character has joins Kaleidoscope this year – a panda named Stillwater who comes to us with a wonderful series of books by Jon Muth. Stillwater arrives in the home of some children and tells them special stories children. These stories are based on wisdom stories from ancient traditions, and offer insights for our lives. The story suggests that Stillwater could turn up your door any time! Perhaps a metaphor that wisdom can be available to us when we are still enough to listen for it. Everyone enjoyed taking turns hugging the cuddly panda. Today’s story helped us think about surprising kindness and how the simplest, beautiful things are free.
We finished our time together with a Kaleidoscope tradition called ‘Turning worries to hope’. To do this we think of the coming days and instead of expressing what we are worried about we express it as a hope. Children’s shred that they hoped they had kind teachers, familiar friends, happy days and a good time at school. We acknowledged that together we hold each other’s hopes.
Kaleidoscope 