No pumpkins? No problem

It is my favourite time of the year! Autumn is my ultimate favourite month. The oranges, browns, reds and above all the change in weather. It brings me so much joy to move away from the heat and embrace myself in cosy jumpers, fluffy socks and knee high boots. It is no surprise that I love this season more due to the fact that I enjoy celebrating the gloom, the spook and the creepy twangs of Halloween. Love it, love it, love it!

BUT... what do you do if your munchkins are not interested as much as you? This year our beginnings started with nothing but vrooms, piqq, crash, boom, bang. All I hear and see are cars, vans, trucks and anything that goes vroom. The interest is obvious and one not to ignore. It is more important than my pumpkin fantasy, and it is more intriguing than my spooky goosebump stories.

I still have in mind a thing or two on how to integrate the season within their likings bit I can never impose something which is not of interest to them as yet. Yes I miss the time in which I surround myself with spiders, ghosts, witches and monsters, but with the Emergent Curriculum I know I may dig deeper in such projects on other days. It does not have to be NOW and it is OK. It does not have to be done just because it is trending and I am fine by that.

Moving away from the practices of timing my weeks to make ends meet with a season and adapt my projects accordingly is far long gone. My weeks are not counted upfront to how long a theme would take place. Our projects are only available until the inquiry stops being of an interest. The theme itself can extend into other new schemas, leading us to more questioning, more inquiry and challenging our inquisitive selves.But they are young, I can easily persuade them right? Wrong! I tried it and it doesn't work that way. What sense is there in pushing them into something that is of no interest to them, knowing at the end it would become a struggle for both them and me?

A few years back, (during an open day event to be exact), I believed that with some persuasion and lots of energy, I could make my students curious about a topic which I wanted to cover in order to prepare us for a school event. Result... Nothing but sheer gloom, frowns and for outcomes? I got minimal achievements. Did I present it with full enthusiasm? Yes. Was I prepared with resources and information? In abundance. Has it been taken from the student's interests? No... And here is when I failed. It was the longest two weeks ever. We dragged along just to make it "appealing" during an open day, but was it long-term? No. The activities of the event were indeed memorable and definitely unforgettable, but the theme around it was nothing but a piece of unworthy information that allowed little to no new schemas to accommodate and assimilate. Hands down guilty of falling into a trap that took me back to my own childhood school years. The years when I had little to no say in what I wanted to learn and here there u was, repeating it myself with my students.

So why bring it up now? Why not earlier? Because seeing all the beautiful work being shared by local and international individuals reminds me of how much I love this season, how much I enjoy exploring it and how much this year I have to give it a miss. I therefore remind myself that YES it is fine, all will be well and nothing else matters other than the interests of my beautiful students. They have a right to voice out their opinions, they have a right to speak up and be heard. While my heart is heavy to give the orange and black a miss, I can't wait to see what more we would get ourselves into with our current theme.

From previous years I've learnt that witches may be interesting in February as much as in October, Spiders can be as curious in Easter as much as in Halloween. The sky is the limit with the Emergent Curriculum and that is why it is more than just fantastic, it is essential!