the project so far...

Today Ellen and I went through the project so far... what have we been up to... how does it compare with what we thought we would be doing in the project... well we have seen that the maps making process took much longer than we had anticipated, but has given the children so much in return ... pride in showing each other where they live, connection with home and preschool, as the maps were drawn first with their parents at home and then built in 3D and followed by us as a preschool group. All but one child came with a map, and despite many reminders, a map did not come, but fortunately the child lived next to another child in the group and we were able to incorporate this nicely, ensuring that there was no feeling of exclusion. The map making and following has given the children new skills which they have applied already in other areas of the project... Square Design.

We have now at the phase in the project where the next step needs to be made... we know what the children would like... now we want to find out about what others think... the children have thought about this as a possibility and later this week we will start asking some of the people in the sheltered housing/retirement home what they think, as well as sending some questions home with the children to ask their parents...

Will we need to make a new design for the Square?

We are also up to date with the log books and ready to start using them... we have placed them in a new location in the hope that it will make it easier to get them and be more spontaneous in their usage. We can but try...

The documentation files have been sorted... there was just so much story of what Vinden has been up to that instead of two files there are now 10 - each project, mini-project,  as well as philosophy, nature, theatre/stories/language and the atelier has a file of its own now... with the aim that should we return to any of these projects in the future we have a reference of what has already been done and said, and also the files stands ready to receive continued documentation, the continued story of learning, play and exploration.

Tomorrow we lift the question of Through the Eyes of the Child project seriously with the children, as something we will be doing. So far it has been mentioned, and we have talked about the children in Canada, but they have not really got to grips with it as they have been so filled with the project and each other at them moment. They have been getting the hang of the camera... so the next two weeks they will be trying to catch the image of what they, as a group, want to communicate to the world!! I can't wait to find out what they want to say!!

I finish off with the photo of the day...
as I mentioned on my FB page... it was really hard not to play with this myself. But I managed!!