In a Montessori
classroom, the opportunities for curricular cross-pollination are many: a
teacher’s presentation may lead to deeper questions that enrich and extend; a
student-led study may pull from all areas of the curriculum before it feels
complete. Each content area is able to influence the others, depending upon the
medium required of the educational journey. Working together, the teacher and
child use the resources before them to create meaning from their academic
investigations.
There is, of course,
another plane to this interweaving of curricula - one that lies in the space
between the pages of our albums. At times, the studies we embark upon create
far more questions than provide answers. While we may be able to label, define,
describe, and share some parts of the universe and its rhythms there is still
great mystery that leaves us all in awe.
In The Winter
Solstice, written by Ellen Jackson and illustrated by Jan Davey Ellis, the
search to make sense of one such mystery is beautifully illuminated.
Chronicling ancient
people from Europe and North and South America, Jackson and Davey create a
feeling for how some of our forebears approached the coming darkness and
prepared for it’s hopeful return.
This time of year,
as the days get shorter and the air temperatures fall, we all can feel
something of a kinship for our ancestors. Can you imagine how the ancients must
have approached the changing of the seasons? What practices and beliefs were
created to explain the change, and provide for a return to what was hoped for?
Jackson’s writing
reads like a whispered story over a fire, while Ellis’ painting places us
beside people from many cultures as they share with us their way of knowing.
Older students can both grasp the scientific basis for the changing of the
seasons, and can marvel at how the ancients grappled with what must have been a
very tenuous and scary time each year.
Share this set of
vignettes with your students and staff. Allow them to explore that sense of
wonder that comes from trying to understand people from the past. Like we do
when discussing the Fundamental Needs, each new perspective on the human
condition brings the possibility of new depths to our learning.
Enjoy the reading,
and Happy Solstice!
The Winter
Solstice
Story by Ellen
Jackson, illustrations by Jan Davey Ellis
ISBN: 1-56294-722-2
Discover other
Winter Solstice related activities bellow:
(This review was originally posted on December 3, 2012).
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