March has brought a bounty of beautiful blooms and spring growth to the Farmstead. The spring growth has given the Littlest Learners opportunities to practice noticing things about the new season. From large things like how the mountains have started to have color as the trees began to grow buds, to small things like how we are noticing tiny spiders appearing all over the place. The diversity of the flowers that have bloomed have given us chances to compare similar things such as: how some crocuses are white and some are purple, but they always have a white line running down their leaves. As the students begin to master identifying one type of flower, another type blooms and adds a little bit more challenge as the students are ready for more to learn.
Celebrating the growth has provided chances to practice using math skills as students excitedly count all the new flowers they can see that day. They have been joyfully counting the number of petals, the number of leaves, and even the number of flowers on a specific plant.
As the creatures have been awakening with the warming temperatures, we have had many opportunities to practice showing empathy. It is amazing to see the kids as they discuss where best to build a shelter for the salamanders. They get a chance to think about what a salamander might need and want in a shelter and build it while keeping another creature’s perspective in mind.