So, I was trained as a Key Stage 2 teacher (7 to11) at Edge Hill University over thirty years ago: in those days you had to choose between being trained as a #teacher of what we used to call - Juniors or Infants.
Since then, I have taught Year 6 a trillion times and every other Keys Stage 2 age too. However, until last week, I had never taught #EYFS (for the uninitiated, that stands for Early Years, Foundation Stage).
I'd always been too scared if I'm honest.
Well today, I started my second week of teaching #Nursery and beyond the early morning screams, cries, giggles and questions, when the Nursery dust settles, I am constantly blinded by the magic moments that bubble-float in every second.
Nursery is like Oz: they're both Worlds of Imagination where things come and go so quickly.
To be at the helm of this new Ship of Wonder is a total joy and privilege. I'm sailing uncharted waters once more, just like I did as a child. It feels kind of special.
At 51, I had forgotten what it was really like to be three or four years old.
But now, every single day, I am given a precious and rare gift: through the glassy-eyed, post-toddlers of 2022, I am allowed to revisit the glassy-eyed, post-toddler bundle of hope I once was in 1974.
Little did I know, I could rediscover a ghost bridge that spans almost 50 years; a bridge that's still strong as stone.
Life is a circle, that's for sure...
I once learned: if I'm brave and want to find pastures new, I have to face the troll, be wise and cross the bridge.
I now teach: if you're brave and want to find pastures new, you have to face the troll, be wise and cross the bridge.
Here's to Nursery...
I'm 3 again!
The 'Nursery Learning Curve Trilogy' of poems about Nursery life go something like this ...
Empty Cardboard Box
Get busy!
It’s Friday afternoon
and the best toy
this Friday afternoon
happened to be a box
I’d just taken
the new drying rack
out of
Three year olds
quickly made
a disorderly queue
and nearly learned
to take it in turns
They clambered inside
the empty box
and filled it with wonder
without even trying
There were no instructions saying:
“This is how to play,”
or
“This is how to learn,”
or
“This is how to show grown ups
what living in the moment
Is all about.”
But that gaggle of giggling
three year olds
hid themselves
inside the box
and pulled down the
cardboard flaps
above their
sparking brains
Next
we delivered each child
in turn
as a secret parcel
to our next door neighbours
in Reception
and everyone realised:
The parcel
that no one ordered
expected
or paid for
was the best gift
they would receive
all day
all week
all year
Mark Bird
We Became Unicorns
This morning
ten tiny humans
woke up
and came to school
for the first time
This morning
one old teacher
woke up
and worked in Nursery
for the first time
This morning
twenty two hands
reached out
and tangled their fingers
for the first time
This morning
the almighty Universe
magicked trepidation
into trust
for the first time
This morning
we all put pointy shells
on our foreheads
and became a blessing of unicorns
for the first time
This morning
we grew unicorn wings
and agreed we would fly
beyond the sun
for the first time
This morning
our maiden unicorn flight
will go down in history
as what we did on our first day at school
for all time
Mark Bird
Things Happen So Fast Around Here
(First day of Nursery)
I had only known you
for a few hundred seconds
of life
when you found a cuddly dog
in a box of tattered toys
in a cupboard
you weren’t supposed to go into
You took my old hand
and led me to rescue her
“Her name is Carla,” you said
which was also the name
of your nursery classmate
that you’d just made
play dough doughnuts with
You threaded beads onto
two pipe cleaners
One was a collar for Carla the dog
One was a bracelet for Carla the girl
You gave Carla the girl her bracelet
She didn’t smile as she fried a plastic egg
but she must have liked it
Because you and new friend Carla
made a string lead for Carla the dog
and took her for a walk
to the sand tray
while holding hands
Brandon, Kaysha and Koa noticed you both
and dropped their dinosaurs
a long way from their builder-tray home
and said, “Can we make Carla Dog a bed?”
All five of you found a cardboard box
that had just been emptied of glue sticks
and sat in a circle on the carpet
making multicoloured blankets
out of tissue paper
You let Carla put Carla to bed
while the rest of you
shared a bag of raisins
Best friends for minutes
Before all five of you
stumbled and tumbled off
in different directions
to create new worlds
Mark Bird

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