Sarah MacPherson
Materials In All Phases of The Writing Process
The kindergarten and first grade children in Cottonwood have been preparing to publish stories about characters that they invented and developed over time. These characters…
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Listening With Intention to Go Big
The weeks leading up to Winter Break provide teachers with a unique opportunity to pause and reflect on the work that our learning communities have…
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Inventiveness emerges through the tangles found in play
At a recent meeting Opal teachers were asked to reflect on the ways invention has emerged in their respective learning communities this year. Using a…
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Love, Play, and Mail
“In play, children begin with their own set of premises and learn to follow through, step-by-step, scene by scene in the complex process of creating…
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Reworking Scary Experiences Through Play
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] A child’s play is not simply a reproduction of what they have experienced, but a creative reworking of the impressions they have acquired. –…
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Why Put Our Ideas Into the World?
The Cottonwood Community of kindergartners and first-graders has spent the last several weeks preparing to publish small moment stories that children have written from their…
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Exploring the “We That I Am” Through Character
“A child’s most sought after goal is to recognize himself in others, and to find in others parts of himself.” -Loris Malaguzzi At the beginning…
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Valuing differences through Brain Buddy work
As a primary team, we have organized our intentions for the school year around the idea of the “We that I am.” One of our…
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Serendipity, distraction, and meaningful metaphor
In her research on serendipity, Pagan Kennedy describes three different groups of people by the way they respond to unexpected moments. The group that she…
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Collaboration and Community
One of the goals and expectations that the primary team pinpointed in our intention letter this year was, “to develop strategies that contribute to the quality…
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