Arts, Environment and the Child: Walking the Wheel of the Seasons

The walk to the Organic Farm was such a fulfilling experience in itself. The beauty of the Evergreen campus continues to awe me each and everyday that I am here. Participating in the Harvest Festival with my fellow classmates and the few children that were there was a time filled with rain, laughs, and a sense of community. It is so rewarding to feel a part of something larger than myself.

There is nothing more engaging than watching children “hard at work.” Today I observed the class making art out of beans and pasta. Each child was given the same set of directions, yet each one went about creating their masterpiece’s in a completely different way. A few slopped as much glue as was humanly possible onto their cardboard, followed by the random placement of a couple split peas and three or four pinto beans. Others would squeeze out a thin bead of glue and painstaking place elbow noodles side by side. Some would look around to see what others where doing and ask if they were “doing it right,” while many just set about doing whatever suited their fancy. It is so fascinating seeing different personalities come out through art.

Today what was intended to be a “product” oriented art project quickly transformed into a “process” oriented project. Continuing their study of different types of homes from around the world, the students were divided into 3 small groups to make a specific type of house. I was placed with the kids making igloos. I paired them up and gave each one a task (some rolling the dough, some cutting the dough), and amazingly each child was completely cooperative and did their task without any discussing. However, the dough was much too soft and heavy and soon collapsed. Not a single kid seemed to notice or care and they just went about decorating their igloo. Forty-five minutes later the kids had to be convinced to leave their igloo and get ready to go home.

Field trips were always so memorable for me as a child, so I was very excited to be able to go to the corn maze with the OCS (Olympia Community School). The confusion and chaos that ensued was great. Kids were screaming, parents were lost, it was unusually hot…but above all, everyone had a lot of fun. We found all six checkpoints and everyone made it back in one piece.

Connection made at last. It was great to finally meet as an entire group to discuss what is going to be going on in the Roosevelt School Garden. We all met at Beth’s house to meet one another and start planning. It feels like things are now under way and I am really looking forward to start working in the garden.

The frantic rush at the end of the school day combined with lots of fabric, glue and scissors makes for a very intense time of observation. Today the kids were creating family portraits out of felt and other scrap fabric. The multi-step process seemed confusing to quite a few students and constant explanation of the directions was required, but once everyone began cutting and gluing, beautiful families emerged. This experience brought awareness to the importance of prepping materials and having step-by-step instructions.

The work begins…Due to a severe cold I decided that it would be best if I priced garden tools over the internet and make phone calls to stores with specific questions. I found a lot of useful information and e-mailed Beth and Sonja an itemized list. I spoke with Beth over the telephone and she seemed pleased that they will be able to make some decisions about tools.

Home Depot and I had a very pleasant bonding experience this morning. I got to go and buy tons of supplies for the garden (15 hand trowels, 15 hand cultivators, 3 shovels, and 6 pairs of gardening gloves). Today was also my first time at the garden!! It was cold and rainy and lots of fun. We got a lot of “prep” work done, from laying out a new bed to weeding the entire space to leveling the beds. It was very rewarding to get so much done before noon on a Saturday. Being able to work with the others in my project group, for the task we were assigned was extremely beneficial in making me feel like bonds were finally starting to form and we were doing something worthwhile. I hope to have many more experiences like this one.

Finishing touches were made on the family portraits today. I find myself completely mesmerized by each child’s interpretation of their family. Some cut out heads, arms, legs and clothing in realistic colors, while others created blue heads and pink hair. A few even drew out their entire family on a single piece of fabric and glued that to the paper. I noticed that the kids that have pets felt it was EXTREMELY important to include them, and they tended to spend the majority of their time crafting the animals, making the pets much larger than their family members.

This week each student chose a nocturnal or crepuscular animal to study. They will be spending lots of class time, as well as a bit of homework time, researching this animal. And in order to help the kids keep organized, each child got to make a folder to keep all of their nocturnal/crepuscular work in. The folder that they got to make was in the shape of an owl (a nocturnal animal, how fitting) and they got to trace the shape, cut it out, and decorate it. It was pretty entertaining to get 10 kids at a time to understand that there were only 3 stencils and they had to be patient until they had a turn.

After the fretting, stressing, and worrying, came the agitation, irritation, and grumbling and that was followed by a little bit of chafing…but at last I have been able to calm myself down and begin moving forward with my curriculum work. I feel the most grounded in my work at the OCS and have placed that at the center of my curriculum development. The study of nocturnal/crepuscular animals is where the most emphasis is being put right now and after some discussion with the teachers at OCS (Jessica and Becky), I have decided to do an art activity integrating that. Although my work at the Roosevelt garden won’t be directly linked to my art activity, I will be incorporating animals (which are a part of nature).

Most of my observation at OCS has entailed art projects, however, today I was able to see a science lesson.   The students were taught about different parts of the eye, what nocturnal animal and human eyes have in common and what parts of the eye are different. It was very fascinating to see how both the teachers were able to take complicated anatomy and translate it into something children as young as four could understand. This lesson was followed by an amazing mural project.   The kids were asked to create nocturnal/crepuscular animals using only scrape paper, scissors and glue.   A little convincing was required to get some of the more timid kids to believe that they did not need to use pencils to draw their animal out first, but soon everyone was cutting up a storm.   Owls, hedgehogs and bats appeared in bright colors.   Stars, campfires, and 3-D trees also come to fruition.   It was so neat to watch what each child came up with.  

The joys of sorting out recycled art materials…one big pile of stuff, 15 rowdy kids, and a few storage bins. The kids have been collecting items to be used for recycled art over the past few weeks, and today they got to sort them out. There was a whole lotta energy in the room. They sorted plastics, woods, shiny things, soft things, natural objects and more. While the sorting was going on the kids were able to continue creating creatures and landscapes for the nocturnal animal mural. I felt that the extra adult presence that I provided while all this was going on was very helpful in keeping things somewhat under control.

At last I am feeling some sort of relief in regards to the curriculum work. I finalized my activity and gave it the name “Nocturnal Animal Scratch Art.” I experimented with a few different art materials and did a couple sample pieces just to make sure that the activity works the way I thought it would. I was also able to make a supply list to give to the teachers. Now all I have to do is wait until it is time to do it in the classroom.

I feel like I have some celebrating to do! Things went super great today. “Nocturnal Animal Scratch Art” went off without a hitch. I got to OCS about a half hour early to get all my stuff set up and go over with the daily plan with Jessica and Becky. They had decided to make this “Wacky Wednesday” an all around art day. The kids were split into four groups and spent the day rotating among different art stations (the recycled sculpture station, the independent mural making station, the torn paper poster station, and the “Nocturnal Animal Scratch Art” station). All doubts and fears that I had about my project and my ability to “teach” it to the kids evaporated within about 2 seconds and I just had fun with it. Each group appeared to really enjoy making scratch art. They listened quietly while I was giving directions, they jumped into the activity with enthusiasm, and each child completed at least one piece of work. I was concerned that some of the kids might loose interest half way through, but luckily that was not the case. I even heard one student say, “I wish we could do this all day long.”

It is nice to have a chance to just sit back, reflect, and write about how my Nocturnal Animal Scratch Art project went. I am curious to find out what the teachers thought of my lesson plan and execution of it.

Along with a running nose, freezing fingers and numb toes the few hours that I was able to spend at the Gifts Garden was slightly overwhelming and very rewarding. When we first arrived at the garden I was amazed by how different it looked from the last time I was there. The cutting back of most of the beds has such a different to the appearance of the garden. Fallen leaves covered most of the garden making the untamed plants seem like giant piles of leaves. The sun was shining and birds could be heard all around. Stacey began taking pictures at once as I just stood there trying to take it all in.

After some reassurance from Stacey, I began to cut down some beds with my not-so-sharp scissors. It took me awhile to feel comfortable, I wasn’t sure exactly what I was supposed cut back and what I was supposed to leave. I switched to pulling weeds along the walkways until I got enough confidence to go ahead start working on the beds. About halfway through I wandering into the Meditation Garden and sat on the bench for a few minutes. It was so nice to feel the sun on my face and listen to all the sounds around me, the birds and wind. I resumed my work with a renewed sense of purpose. At last the cold was too much for Stacey and I so we headed back to Olympia. I left with a calmness and satisfaction that I did not have when I arrived.

Each day that I am at OSC I am flabbergasted by how much I truly enjoy just being around the kids. They never cease to amaze, charm, and entertain me. Today the students presented their nocturnal animal posters and research to the entire school. I was forced to hide my laughter when one child referred to the smell of durian fruit as “rotting flesh.” I also got to see a girl that is somewhat quiet and reserved absolutely light up when she gave her presentation on snow leopards. It was great to hear the kids complimenting each other on their work and see them so interested in what their peers were saying.