iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

A Nursery child draws an elephant with wonderful succinctness. A simple expressive line and perfectly judged areas of tone capture the imagination: “I’ve drawn it for you…It’s sitting down and feeling sad because it’s the last day of school…and his trunk is crumpled up” Utter Joy!

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Nursery child invites us into some thinking on shape and space: “I’ve made a face do you want to see? You turn the circle and the mouth can be happy or sad… But I can’t decide if square eyes are happier than triangle eyes!” We look, wonder and I see what he means. Joy!

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

“I’ve drawn the Taj Mahal by a beautiful rainbow river” ‘They’re so beautiful’ I respond “Do you know what the numbers are?” the child asks “The doors?” “No…they are the way I drew them, I started with 1, I did 2, and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and then I glued them on the river”

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

He follows up by independently sorting the Montessori beads on a study table. “I’ll put out ones, twos, threes all the way to 10” He counts in each denomination with growing fluency as he lays them out, stopping regularly to check & count 1-1 “When I get to 10’s I know them!”

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

“Those who desire to sing… find a song.” Plato. So much of teaching is finding your own voice: a voice that inspires learners to discover theirs, and sing boldly themselves. When I find my song, I’ll sing it with all my heart.

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

Nursery child simultaneously unpacks his thinking about number & the Montessori number bead box: “The 5’s go 5, 10, 15 4’s go 4, 8, 12 3’s go 3, 6, 9 I haven’t done 6’s but I think they go 6, 12: I’ve been thinking about it, and I haven’t thought about the 9’s yet” Joy!

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

A question that shadows every lesson: At what point does my hand, meant to lift, hold pupils back?

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

She returns bringing Grimms semi circles & The 100 Star Study Box to her play. She re-explores shape & space. She explains “I made a circle with 2 semi circles but I like semi circles on their own too!” “The rocket’s gone but can you see the two tiny houses - in the middle they’re sharing a star!”

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

I love it when the Independent learners turn me into a waiter ...you know: ‘Are you enjoying your learning?’ ‘Yes!’ ‘Can I get you anything?’

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

A nursery child explores the Montessori Shape Boxes. She intuitively engages with the properties of congruence, shape, colour, and magnitude, using them to create imaginative and varied designs: “I’ve made a rocket, and there are lots of stars around — every star is going to be different!” Joy!

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Play is a spark, if you let it out of the box it ignites ideas. New thoughts arrive like unexpected guests. Play wanders about our heads in ways we can’t predict and in places we forget to look. Imagination is refreshed. Best of all, it discovers things we could never dream alone.

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

EYFS child: “I’m studying number 10 on the Ten Study Rug” She wades playfully into cardinality, anatomy & multiple addition as her ideas unfold 10 plates are arranged into a picnic “In 10’s you get to 20 & 50 & 100!” “The Red Hands make 10 & mine make 20!”

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Nursery child plays on the “Number Ten Study Rug” with Numicon “You can make 10 with 5 and 5 and that’s fair but you can’t make ten with 6 and 6 “ “You can’t make ten with 7 and 7.” He laughs. “You’d have to squash a 7 down into 2 and 1 which isn’t fair … Or three!” Joy.

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Nursery child simply joins a cork with an empty tape spool and has a magnifying glass at Picasso like speed. Joy!

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

I see Play’s magnificent fusion of thoughts, actions and discovery as a form of thinking in itself. A primal language simultaneously abstract and concrete, relishing the unexpected, loved by mind, heart and body, and birthplace to innovation.

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Picasso transformed a bicycle seat and handle bars into a Bulls Head. It’s been said a child could have done it. I wonder, isn’t the point the other way round? We adults DON’T do it, anymore. Do we wish our children trade in these transformative powers for ‘adulthood’?

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

In the following days lots of Pink Boxes are made in the art room from junk modelling. “Look I’ve mixed the perfect Pink for the boxes” “I’m going to make a box for every word in the world so when I’m 4 I will learn lots and lots…and everyone can learn too”

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

He returns to the idea: “I’m making more ‘Study Boxes’ with words in, an ‘and’ box, with ‘ands’ in it, & a ‘School’ box” Each box he fills with the words. “Everyone can learn to write the words when they use the boxes… You use the boxes to learn words”

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Nursery child: “I’m cutting out paper ‘spaces’ & putting them in a study box” Spaces? “Spaces are things in-between words, if you don’t have them the words get jumbled up” Oh? “Word spaces are real and not real, I’m making real ones for everyone to use between words”

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Since my pupils are the main stakeholders in their learning, why plan it without them? And, if I want them to drive their own learning, the sooner they’re in the driver’s seat, the more prepared they’ll be when the road is theirs to travel alone.

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

There are so many reasons why ‘finding time for focussed play’ is a problem worth solving…

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

A Nursery child picks fresh leaves & daisies and lays them out with careful attention to position and 1-1 correspondence. She adjusts any spacial and numerical errors as she goes: “Squirrel is making a picnic, all his friends get one daisy each so they don’t squabble!” Joy!

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

Once the box is made it is continuously available for play, and ‘replay’ I’ve learned, through observation, that children will return to ‘play with the learning’ in different ways - exploring lifecycles, creating designs, narratives and story telling. Joy!

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

I make the resources alongside the children as they play so they see the ideas develop. They join in with the design, making suggestions & additions as I work. Often they play with the developing prototype & the learning grows. Below two children make suggertions by drawing out lifecycles as I work.

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

~ Great question Becky ~ I design & make academic resources for my pupils to play with. They contain the learning I wish the children to learn. Here is a “Ladybird lifecycle” study box I’m making in response to gaps in knowledge and a misconception that Ladybirds get more spots as they grow up…

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

The idea, attributed to Marcus Aurelius, that ‘the soul is dyed by the colour of our thoughts’ seems, to me, very powerful. We become ‘what’ and ‘the way’ we think. As a teacher it really hits home when I see 35 young minds awaiting the influence of my thinking…

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

A Nursery Child draws hearts, counting them as she goes: “There are 34 children in circle time and I’ve drawn all their hearts. I’ve got a heart too, so I’m drawing my heart as well” ‘One for each child’ I respond. “Yes” she responds “Everyone has one heart, we have to look after them!” Joy!

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

A Nursery child develops her skills in employing expressive line to capture our goats in the nursery garden. The goats potter about. “The ears drop down, the horns stick up” She observes, hugs and feeds them between strokes of the brush. “I want to make another drawing, and another, and another’

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

I want to slow the curriculum down so learning can breath, experiences can be savoured, thoughts turned over, ideas become realities. Why put my foot on the gas? Better to immerse ourselves in the broader landscape, enjoy the company, take the journey well, arrive richer.

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

EYFS child describes the creative process: “I made the stars by rotating triangles” “I like drawing inside shapes to make them all different. I love decorating the perimeter. It makes them like flowers. Flowers are shapes with petals!” Acrylic, collage, Pen on canvas.

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

“The best place to learn to drive is the driving seat.” my driving instructor told me, as I got behind the wheel. “The vehicle’s twin controlled.” It triggers the thought: What about a duel controlled pedagogy where we put our children safely in Learnings driving seat…

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

After 18 days crossed off the calendar, the puppet’s eggs hatch, & the child writes the puppet a card to celebrate: ‘I love Crispin hip hip hurray!’ He looks up & expresses the calculation that’s been formulating over time in his head: “Now we have 4 birds in the nest: Crispin & three chicks!”

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Nursery Child painting: “It’s a Rainbow Flower. You need a rainbow seed to grow it, just like any kind of tomato seed makes a tomato plant’’ Me: “An apple seed won’t do then?” Child: “No” Me: “Or an orange seed?” Child: “That’s it, you’re getting into this…I think you understand”

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

If I want to see the brilliance of a child’s thinking, it helps to turn the lights down on my own.

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

A Nursery child picks up a pen and captures: ratio, texture, shape, perspective, positive & negative space, direction, form, horizontal, vertical, parallel lines. What do we see? An Aloe Vera.

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Epictetus pointed out that nature provided us with two ears and one tongue. It’s such great balance, especially if you’re a teacher. So, why is it, when I’m teaching, I frequently end up with five tongues and one ear?

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Sometimes, with the of best intentions I oversimplify learning to the point where I rob the children, of experience in untangling it for themselves.

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Crispin the crow, our nursery puppet, lays 3 eggs, ready to hatch in 18 days. A child makes a calendar ‘with numbers to cross off’ whilst he waits: “I think 18 is 8 and 1” “18 is smaller than 80 ‘cus it’s on the way to 20 which is ‘ten ten’” “10 is on the way to 80 but it’s a long way to wait”

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

🙌 I hear you 🙌 souls need nourishment. I made myself a poster, along similar lines, for the doors and walls where I teach ~ to keep me on track!

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Nursery child excitedly comes in from the garden. He finds an adult. Child: “Look what I’ve found, I’ve found a ladybug.” Adult: “Ooh, how many spots does it have?” Child: “All of them!”

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

A nursery child independently explores cardinality and plays with variation in its expression. He unpacks a ‘Numerals Study Box’ sorting coloured Number Rods, Numicon, Cubes and Numerals. “Look at my number study” “I made four cubes, four holes and four stripes…and I’M FOUR!” Joy!

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

A Subitizing Study Box made from: an old broken box, fixed and hinged, 30 painted wooden squares from the hardware store, paint, dots and varnish. Nursery child plays repeatedly with the box & observes: ‘Numbers have got numbers inside - like bones! I can see numbers in my head and in my eyes’

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Nursery child explores mark making in pen and printmaking with the photocopier. With support she collages her work onto canvas. The results provoke repainting and renewed mark making until a design conclusion is found. She signs her work. Joy! (Paint, pen, collage on canvas)

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

My colleagues thought your opening thoughts were an inspiration. They loved Zoi’s mathematical daily routines & Robin’s wonderful explorations of block play. I walk my dog around the harbour & what do I see? An upside down house with people inside enjoying its dissonance and rotational challenge! 😂

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Nursery Child comes in from the garden: “A leaf has fallen off a tree but, that’s all right, we can fix it onto another tree. One without a leaf” Me: “Oh?” Child: “Another tree will look after it & the leaf will grow” Me: “On a new tree!” Child: “That’s how they grow so big…they help each other”

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Nursery child creates a beautifully executed & concise line drawing. He pauses, sits back, and scratches his head. I ask “What are you thinking about?” Child “What it’s like to be a snail with wings” Joy!

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Beautiful isn’t it! The gorgeous balance is achieved through exploring compositional collage. The children are taught to cut up drawings / prints & move the pieces around the composition until it looks great. The process develops a compositional ‘eye.’ Below is another child’s drawing ‘mid flow’ -

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

A helicopter hovers overhead, then flies off: “Where’s it gone?” I ask my 2 year old “It’s gone to see its mummy for some milk” I glimpse her minds eye. Note to self: Fully appreciate children’s thinking before bulldozing it with my own.

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Joolone @joolone.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

I would currently share Philip Guston!

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