Glimpses into the first week
When people come to visit Opal School, we often hear the question, “What does all of this look like in the beginning of the year?…
Tag: playful inquiry
Building nests together
Opal School has a long relationship with Alise Shafer Ivey and Pedagogical Institute of Los Angeles. We’ve admired and contributed to the important work that…
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…
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…
Working Within Our Intentions
At the beginning of this year, we posted the intentions letter that we craft to focus our attention, activate our eyes and ears as the children…
Play, school, and the future of jobs
As much as I find good reason to treat anything that comes out of Davos with a measured dose of skepticism – and as resistant…
Unpacking Compassion
“Empathy is a gateway to compassion. It’s understanding how someone feels, and trying to imagine how that might feel for you — it’s a mode…
Reflecting on Leaning In With Curiosity (Part Two)
In my last post, I told the first part of our story of using Playful Inquiry to create conditions for children to lean into making sense…
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…
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…