September 13, 2016

This week in Morado, the children became oriented to the classroom and were inspired by the first Great Lesson, “The Story of the Universe.” You may enjoy watching the “Powers of Ten” with your child as further inspiration:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=eames+power+of+10&view=detail&mid=1F9980E1934E859E41CE1F9980E1934E859E41CE&FORM=VIRE
 
We gave a variety of key lessons to inspire wonder and further discussion, including an impressionistic experience of the Big Bang (Great Radiance) we call the “subatomic zoo”, an impressionistic view of stellar nucleosynthesis, a demonstration that air takes up space, a demonstration of matter changing state as its temperature changes, the story of Wegener’s idea that became the theory of plate tectonics, and a discussion of the differences between atoms, molecules, and cells.  (Not all children had every lesson.) We read some creation myths and told about Cascadia, the piece of land which docked onto North America.
 
We also talked about how to identify emotions in ourselves and others. Using a curriculum called “Zones of Regulation”, we introduced 4 zones in order to understand how our alertness level interacts with emotions: Green includes emotions that make it easiest to learn such as calm, focused, curious. Yellow includes higher-energy emotions, both positive and negative, that require care if you’re going to learn while feeling these—anxiety, excitement, and confusion, for example. Blue includes low-energy emotions like sad, weary, and bored. Red is the highest-energy emotions, including elation, terror, and rage.
 
Have a good weekend! We hope to see you at the Back-to-School Barbecue this Friday.
 
 
Ben, Mary, and Nune