Video Farmer Jim & The Kids!

Here is the link to the video
 "Farmer Jim & the Kids: A Story of Intergenerational Learning"

Centre for Early Childhood Education & Research: Mattermost

What is it?

UBC is piloting a chat tool called Mattermost. The Centre for Early Childhood Education & Research (CECER) is using it to support real-time communication and collaboration within the broad and interdisciplinary ECE community.
http://cecer.earlychildhood.educ.ubc.ca/mattermost/
Mattermost is easy to use. When you log in to access it for the first time, you will see a tutorial. This tutorial will walk you through how to send messages, upload files, and navigate between public channels, private groups, and direct messages. You can access Mattermost via the web or download apps for almost any device.

Photo Reflection from the Garden

I took some photos during the week I thought I would share. I used a manual, fixed aperture lens from 1974 with an adapter for my Canon 5d Mark III. Thank you for the wonderful week!

 

Feedback Survey / Course Evaluations

Please take some time to provide your feedback!

Credit students will receive the official UBC FoE Course evaluations.

Supporting Links for Outdoor Education by Belva

What a pleasure it was spending time with everyone on Wednesday. So many insightful and inspiring conversations. Let’s keep the conversation going between us and share those conversations with our parents and administrators!!

There was a request from many for some supportive links to highlight why the great outdoors is so important. I’ve compiled a list of some that I genuinely enjoy and found inspiring.

Something I neglected to touch upon was talking about the vestibular system and it’s importance in our development. I recognize that this may not apply to those with older students but it’s still fascinating to learn about all the same. Could also be an interesting rabbit hole to fall into researching the vestibular system and it’s development in the teenage years.

The Vestibular System and How it Works

https://www.growinghandsonkids.com/vestibular-system-affects-childs-behavior.html

This is a *great* article that gives some basic facts around the vestibular system and how it works. For example: spinning in circles activates the vestibular system. By activating this system it not only enhances eye motor function, because your eyes have to come into focus, it also calms the mind and allows children to focus better. So getting children to roll down hills is considered developmentally appropriate practice. I find mentioning this to parents to be very helpful and eye opening in regards to supporting the work I do.

Nature Deficit Disorder

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38094186

Richard Louv, author of Lost Child in the Woods, coined this phrase. It’s a thing. Understanding how nature affects us and the importance of it in our lives can also help parents to better understand that daily outdoor play is necessary. I spoke about the study done in a hospital where they had one test group in private rooms with a city view vs one test group in private rooms with a view of nature. The test group with a view of nature healed faster than those with the city view. As we spoke about terminology, this is also a great term to have in your back pocket. It’s sensible and is exactly what it says it is….nature deficit disorder.

Forest School Philosophy

https://novakdjokovicfoundation.org/forest-schools-child-led-learning/

This is a great article to share with parents about the base line of what Forest School is all about and why it’s critical in todays society. Again, there’s a lot of great language in this to better equip you when talking with folks.

Unstructured Play and Why It’s Important

https://www.mother.ly/child/how-unstructured-play-is-actually-so-important-for-brain-development

This just came across my desk yesterday and I LOVE it! It hits all of the big points about how simply playing is so so important. If anyone is in a play based center this is a wonderful article to send to parents that question if their child is learning anything. In my opinion this can apply to all ages.

There’s one more study I want to tell you about. Researchers took 2 groups of kids aged 8-10. For one year, they told test group A that during lunch and recess they could play on a playground with all of the bells and whistles. They told test group B that they had a large open area to play on with not much on it for lunch and recess. At the beginning of the year they tested the childrens social and emotional capabilities, imagination etc. AT the end of the year they tested everyone again.

What they discovered was this: Test group B was much better equipped to deal with negotiating between each other, their emotional control was higher and their imaginations had grown in leaps and bounds. Test group A on the other hand hadn’t developed as much over the course of the year.

Researchers attributed this to their environments. A playground is an informed setting that dictates actions whereas a vacant lot is an uninformed setting that asks the participant to create their own actions. I have experienced this time and time again. In fact, I wrote a blog post about it! You can check it out here: http://muddybootprints.com/2017/06/01/surroundings-make-a-difference/

I hope these articles help support the work you do and can assist you in educating those around you. Fear is huge and at the end of the day, society is learning to be fearful of the great outdoors. Knowledge is power as they say so keep digging, keep asking questions, and keep sharing what you know. And keep in touch!!!!

Belva

Barb Fay wrote us an amazing song!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jwCQAuxHzL0uFKmRr_Drl24YzHxtJZdb




Here are the lyrics:





Magic of the Garden- by Barbara Fay (to the tune of: It's a Small World)


We all arrived at UBC
To learn about garden ped-a-gogy (sing garden quickly)
From near and far
Here we all are to
Explore our outdoor world

Fennel, mint and lem-on balm for tea (sing fennel quickly)
Susan, Mari and Tat-hal-i
Poems, stories and songs
One and all sing along
Explore our outdoor world


Chorus
Ex-per-ience this tranquil space
See and smell, hear, feel and taste
Be still, be present with this place
Magic of-the - gar-den (sing magic quickly)

Guest speakers came with tales to share
Traditions, respect - get a bucket chair (sing respect quickly)
Putting faces to names - weaving, math, name games
Explore our outdoor world

Froe-bel's gifts new terms to share
Write our blogs, read the posts, take care
From beginning to end the gar-den our friend
Explore our outdoor world

Chorus
Ex-per-ience this tranquil space
See and smell, hear, feel and taste
Be still, be present with this place
Magic of-the- gar-den (sing magic quickly)


We talked of arts and outdoor school
And Belva Stone is OG cool!
Storyboard of dragonflies (sing storyboard fast)
Lots of laughs, flew right by
Explore our outdoor world

Man-i-festo writing to fireweed
The best lattes at The Bean Scene
Linden trees, poems of leaves
Sound-scaping with ease
Explore our outdoor world

Chorus
Ex-per-ience this tranquil space
See and smell, hear, feel and taste
Be still, be present with this place
Magic of-the - gar-den (sing magic quickly)

Bridge the gap 'tween old and young
Farmer Jim, the kids - what fun!
Tears flowed, his house sold
Just knock - be bold!
Explore our outdoor world


Leaf groups and walk for miles and miles (sing leaf groups quickly)
Fresh food on roofs and lots of smiles
Make some lunch, take a bite
Risky play - it's alright
Explore our outdoor world


Grab some gloves get your hands dir-ty
Helping hands for Em-ily
Mem-or-ies start to end
Orchard Garden our friend
Explore your outdoor world

Chorus
Ex-per-ience this tranquil space
See and smell, hear, feel and taste
Be still, be present with this place
Magic of-the- gar-den (sing magic quickly)

To the wonderful professors, guest speakers and my amazing group of
colleagues/friends- thank you for sharing this special time and place with me. ..I will
forever remember it and each of you. Best wishes in exploring your outdoor worlds.

Barb Fay (2018)

Thank you for your enthusiasm and feedback on the preview of the children's book! It will be available for purchase in early August. I would be happy to get in contact with those who are interested in purchasing a copy/copies. Please leave me your e-mail address and I will follow up with you, or feel free to reach me at brittnihagen@gmail.com

Eco Poetry!

Here is a brief description of eco poetry workshops that I lead -- feel free to adapt it to the needs of Please post your own eco poems from our workshop on Thursday in the comments here if you would like to.  The poems are lovely, and it's great to share these poetic sketches.
your class or group!

‘Ecopoetry’ is a term and a practice introduced around the turn of the millennium and amplified by the publication of works including the first edition of the literary journal Ecopoetics in 2001 (Skinner, 2001-9) and Scott Bryson’s edited volume, Eco poetry: A critical introduction (Bryson, 2002).Ecopoetry may be seen as a subset of ‘nature poetry’, but perhaps according to three overarching characteristics that Bryson identifies: “ecocentrism, a humble appreciation of wilderness, and a scepticism of hyperrationality and its resultant overreliance on technology” (Bryson, 2002 p. 7) – characteristics that are complexified in the same volume by Quetzenbach’s observation of “environment as a fundamental concern linking university and barrio, wilderness and city, feminist and agrarian” (p. 260). Ecopoetry has developed as a practice and poetics grounded in an acknowledgement and valuing of the ecological interdependence of human and more-than-human entities, a decentring of the human, and an attitude of humility, respect and listening.

On our poetry walk, we’ll treat the poems we write as quick sketches: a way of engaging with the moment, the place, our state of awareness as we notice different things and notice them differently. Like a sketch, each poem is made from an immediate impression, a not-too-filtered idea or experience, which may be developed into something else later, or left as a sketch. Our poem sketches may well be left unfinished as we continue on our poetry walk. These particular poems may become favourites or may be discarded at some point. That is not our concern as we write them – we are taking up poetry as a way to be here & now, as a means of noticing.


The poems may rhyme or not. They may take up a form like the sonnet, haiku, limerick or triolet, or be free-form. Do pay attention to the words you choose and those you choose to leave out. Roll the words around in your mouth and give them breath and voice. Poetry is an oral medium, and the words are meant to be spoken, chanted and sung. Try saying them aloud to yourself or a friend (or a tree or a rock…) That’s as good a guide as any to the feel and the rhythm of your poem.

Some starting ideas and prompts to try yourself & possibly use with your students:

• Look very close up at something small.

• Let your eyes range from low to high, or widely along the horizon.

• Let certain colours pop out at you or carry you away with their moods.

• Close your eyes and give attention to your other senses: touch, hearing, smell, taste.

• Choose something that draws you to it. Give your close attention to it. Imagine it were you and you it. Empathize with it, and imagine being it for a few moments.

• Find two or three things that you react to in very different ways. Compare your interactions and emotions with these things.

•Tell a true or imagined story that this place reminds you of.

• Move in ways that are not everyday for you – hop, climb, crawl, spin, stretch, lean, roll, squat down. Use your voice in unaccustomed ways – hum, growl, yell, sing. You can do these quietly or loudly. As these recall other experiences, perhaps from childhood, notice the emotions and perceptions they bring with them.

• Write a letter to someone, or something (the soil? A Brussels sprout?), or something intangible (the month of January?)

• Write a list, or an impossible recipe, or a telegram (where each word costs money!), or an email, or a tweet, or a math word problem, or…

• Start by choosing some specially intriguing words, perhaps delicious, luscious words, or ugly, bad-tasting ones, or shimmering words, or brutal words, or sharp words, or… Start with just these words and fill in a line of poetry. Fill in the poem around this line, which I you might repeat.

• Start with an overheard phrase of conversation & build the poem around that.

A 'Cook Tellling' Workshop: Food, stories, family and emotion

Food is more than just food or something to satisfy our nutritional needs. .Food brings with it feelings, stories, relationships, family, culture and community.

Dr. Henry Yu of the UBC History Department has worked with Chinese Canadian and Musqueam communities to elicit and document some of our community food stories. We will be reading one or two of them from this great book, Eating Stories.

I attended a conference workshop with Italian community educator Salvi Greco, who works with immigrant and refugee community in Italy and in promoting multicultural contact and understanding (in a country that is really very new to large-scale immigration!) Salvi and his colleagues have piloted a kind of activity he calls a Cook Telling Workshop, and we have experimented with it here in the Orchard Garden too. We'll be doing a version of this on Saturday, the last day of our Summer Institute. 

JoAnna's delicious vegan banana bread recipe

Thanks to JoAnna for sharing the delicious bread and the recipe!

From JoAnna:

Here is the recipe for the banana bread, it's very easy to adapt but I've written it out as I made it for this morning:


3 Tablespoons flaxseed powder
1/3 Cup almond milk, unsweetened (or plant based milk of choice)
1 1/2 Cups whole wheat flour (or substitute gluten-free flour)
1/4 Cup lucuma powder
1 Tablespoon mesquite powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 Cup melted coconut oil, plus extra for baking pan
2/3 Cup + 1 Tablespoon coconut sugar
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
1 1/2 Cups mashed very ripe bananas (~3-4 bananas)
1/2 Cup hemp seeds
1 Cup chocolate chips (optional, I used Zimt http://zimtchocolates.com/shop/bakers-delight/)


Preheat oven to 350*F. Lightly grease a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with coconut oil.


Mix the flax seed powder and the almond milk in a small cup and set aside to let the ingredients 'gel.'


In a medium bowl, combine the flour, lucuma powder, mesquite powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, blend the mashed bananas, coconut oil, 2/3 C coconut sugar, the flax 'gel,' and maple syrup until well combined. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in the hemp seed and the chocolate chips.


Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the remaining Tablespoon of sugar over the top. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the top is browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Let cool on a baking rack. Enjoy!

Eco Poetry postings

Hi everyone. Here's a place you can post your eco poems from today (in the comments section). Please be sure to include your name as author!

Friday 13: Please remember that we will meet at 9 am in room 1003 (basement) Scarfe Building, Faculty of Education.

John's Resource

If you would like a copy of John's resource please contact him at johnrmames@gmail.com

Poetry from Tuesday's Storytime in Scarfe Room 1210

Here are the poems we worked with today (plus a few more favourites!)


Many come from the 1960s anthology, Reflection on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle .  Here is a link to a few of my favourite poems from that book that we read from today.

The other poem was the chant of tree names from a British Orff music record from the 1950s.

Here is a link to the YouTube site with the audio recording.

And here are the lyrics -- could we create something like this with BC tree and plant names? Perhaps we could include their more original names in Indigenous languages....

Chorus of voices:

Pear tree, pear tree
Apple tree, apple tree
Sycamore, sycamore
Bramble bush, bramble bush.

Pear tree, pear tree
Apple tree, apple tree
Plane tree, plane tree
Bramble bush, bramble bush –
Holly?
Laburnum.

Single voices: 

Crocus.
Narcissus.
Fritillary.
Primula vera.
Jasmine.
Japonica.

Chorus:

Walnut.
Sweet chestnut.

Single voices:

Magnolia.
Lobelia.

Chorus:

Willow herb, willow herb!

Single voice:

Daff-o-dil.

Chorus:

Blackthorn, buckthorn, hawthorn, poplar!
Deadly nightshade.
Winter heliotrope.
Saxifrage.
Goldenrod.
ROSE.

Story time books we've read on Monday and Tuesday

Friday evening homework for Saturday July 14

Please read this article on Walking (as an ethnographic methodology) by Cristina Moretti, from the book, A Different Kind of Ethnography.

Food!

Food! If you  feel like sharing some food with the group here is a schedule that  would help us to do it.
We have bread and some crackers from Monday that we can finish up  for Tuesday morning.

Groups (1,2,3) Tuesday
Groups (4,5,6) Wednesday
Groups (7,8,9) Thursday
Groups (10,11,12) Friday

1) Barbara Fay- Sarah Adams-Nicole Stewart --

2) Katrina Cord -Tamara Billy--Erica Von Poser --

3) Martha Kovack- Andrea Millman -- Tracy Sirianni --

4) Claire Spofforth- -Brittni Hagen -Jennifer Maillet

5) Carley Tabbernor- -Teresa Jette -- Kayla Lajeunesse

6) Lesley Watts-Robinson --Kristin Meier- -Talia Bailey --Allyson Epp

7) JoAnna Rickard --Natalie Ann Chessa- -Emily Kay

8) Elizabeth McKenna --Amy Flett --Nikki Leeming --

9) Rojia Dadashzadeh --Erin Gilmour -- Kaylene Mauger --

10) Sharon Ferguson -- Aly MacKay -- Christal Kaczynski --

11) Jodi Allesia -- Kaitlyn Mellis -- Emma Burger --

12)   Alesha Gurr -- Allison Hardy-- Alexandra Ponkey

Thank you!

Thursday evening homework for Friday July 13

Please read the short article, Safety First by Maria Brussoni in Sitelines

...and take a thorough read through this website on playground design, The Outdoor PLAYbook

Wednesday evening homework for Thursday July 12

This evening we have a short NFB film by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer for you to screen:

Murray Schafer's "Listen" - https://www.nfb.ca/film/listen/

There's also this article about critical literacy that will relate to John Ames' guest teaching in the garden on Thursday:

Harste, Jerome, C. (2014). The Art of Learning to Be Critically
Literate. Language Arts, Volume 92 Number 2 -
http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/LA/0922-nov2014/LA0922Art.pdf

Tuesday evening homework for Wed. July 11...now added!

Tuesday evening's reading will be "Hopi's Story", from the book Natural Curiosity.  Here it is -- this is the link.

Monday evening homework: Thinking about the material world

To prepare for our work together on Tuesday, everyone should read this short ( 4 short pages) excerpt from Sharon Kallis (2014), Common Threads , and everyone should watch:

Fröbel video: The Kindergarten 2017 trailer (5 min)

Fröbel's Gifts (from the book Inventing Kindergarten -- Brosterman). Please read the one(s) Tathali assigned to your leaf group!

Then, take a look at:

Friedrich Froebel's Chief Writings on Education. Rendered into English by S.S.F. Fletcher and J. Welton London: Edward Arnold, 1912.


There are 21 sections to this writing from Froebel -- each group should choose 3 (or 4) they are interested in and each person read one of them.

Preparing for the first day of our Summer Institute in the Garden

Hello everyone! The first day of our Summer Institute is coming up soon!

In preparation for the first day, everyone should read the following article:

Dawson, K., & Beattie, A. E. (2018). Locating the educator in outdoor early childhood education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education,  1-16. doi:10.1017/aee.2018.24

Kate Dawson, one of the co-authors of this lovely piece will be the first of the guest teachers in our course on Monday afternoon.

We are also delighted to welcome ethnobotanist and educator Senaqwila Wyss to lead us in a session on Indigenizing the ECE curriculum in the garden in the second half of Monday afternoon.

From our course outline, here is a list of the things you should bring each day to the Summer Institute:

•a water bottle
•a commuter mug for tea
•a sun hat
•sunscreen
•closed-toe shoes or boots that can get muddy
•layers of clothes for all weather
•a light rain jacket with a hood (as umbrellas are not that helpful in the garden)
•(gardening gloves -- optional)
•any medication for special health needs (allergies, epipen, etc.), and let us know of any medical needs
•lunch and snacks every day
•a notebook and pen for taking notes
•a portable device if you have one available: smart phone, tablet or laptop
•a small backpack to put all this in!

You are also invited to bring along (later in the week) a storybook, poem or story to tell related to gardens and outdoor places. Your story or poem should be brief, should relate to early childhood education, and should include a way to involve learners through a simple activity.