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

I volunteered (with notepad nearby at all times) in the afternoon after the kids had had lunch. They had gone on a fieldtrip in the morning and were quite tired. I had a group of 4 boys to do an activity out in the hallway called 'scrounge art'. It's sort of a free for all with supplies parents have donated - like paper towel tubes, egg cartons, misc. tubing, plastic, netting, foam, popcorn and so on. It is all set up at a station in bins so they can help with cleanup at the end. It was amazing to see these little guys (5 & 6 yrs) learning the limitations of glue and kiddie scissors, when there imaginations had no bounds. We worked on other way to attach this to that. They created 'Bendo Dudes' and many things to accompany them. After that it was time to join the class again. Wendy started to read them a book. When the kids quickly deteriorated and grew very restless, she quickly changed gears. She asked if everyone would just rather take a nap now. After the kids were all adjusted to there own 'space' she did verbal relaxation methods with them - some were quite responsive - then when they seemed relaxed she went into a long detailed story - tailor made to their age group. After, they all joined together in the circle on the floor in front of Wendy and she asked them questions about the story - like, what did you see, where did you go, how did you feel. I loved it. It brought to mind the Waldorfian class we had that adressed the needs of young children about nurturing the senses.

The theme the class is working on this month, or this fall, is shelters. There was a huge piece of paper taped to the front board with an ongoing list of different types of shelters. Wendy reads them differents stories on shelters and the kids extrapolate for the list. Some shelters were perhaps good choices and some were not so good. What I mean by this is the story she read this week was called "The House that Bob Built". It was a mansion and it leaves a "huge footprint" on the land and it is for only one family. So, environmentally speaking this would not be a particularly good choice.

I loved seeing all those tiny young things again. It floors me how trusting they can be in a positive environment. I had one little girl attached at the hip before the end of the class and when class was over, she put her arms up for me to give her a big, big hug.

This week, and the next two weeks I will be helping out in the mornings instead of the afternoons.

Wendy had a fairly large piece of white paper taped to the board and was showing and explaining line by line how to draw a symmetrical house. Then she drew, and this was like magic, no kidding, she said, a sidewalk straight out the front of the house with steps. The kids were at their tables also drawing. This weeks theme had gone from what types of shelters can they come up with to what are shelter good for, what are as many uses as they can come up with. This was on a new list of huge paper next to the other one listing the types of shelters.

She talked about the foundation of a house and had the kids brainstorm why you wouldn't want the house (wood) in direct contact with the dirt - lots of good answers.

During "free choosing" time they could decorate their houses with anything they wanted - chimneys, flower beds, telescopes, etc....

There was math to help the kids with, recess, snack, sharing time by the selected kids for that day and always story time. This morning it was "Architecture A-Z", and some other fictional story about someone's house.

While talking with Wendy after class I thought it natural to somehow tie in shelters, my activity with the kids and the environment. Strawbale houses came up and piqued our interest. I have started doing some research on them. Maybe for our class project we can build mini strawbale houses in class.......

Today was buddy day. Kids from the 5th grade came to buddy up with the youngers on their bird house building project today. The kid's really loved building their own wooden swallow birdhouse/shelters. Another project was making houses out cut out construction paper pieces glued to one large (12"x18") piece of paper - one of their goals was to fill up as much of the paper as possible.

Wendy had lot's of projects for the parents to do to help her facilitate what she does with the kids. We also had plenty of time for one on one help with children. So much of what Wendy (and Options) can do is dependent on parent participation. If she doesn't have the help, the curriculum looks really different, not as rich and diversified. It feels really good to be supporting the Options philosophy again. When we see what can happen with even one parent volunteer a day, it seems a shame and a burden to make Wendy, or any other teacher have to try and get everything in all by themselves.

During class I was able to re-think my activity with the kids. The straw-bale houses was just too much, too disconnected from our program. A parent had recently brought in a wonderful little "faerie shelter" from all natural, collected materials. I loved it, and talked to Wendy about having the kids make one of their own. It is a go and it is a better link to what our program (AE&C) and to what Wendy wanted to see - that being something that tied in with what the kids were already doing, which is studies in shelters.

Worked on a project that Wendy needed to have done that had been on her list a long time. That was getting a big box of books that parents/kids can check out in order, logged onto a form and set up for checking out.

Planned lesson/activity for the kids on building faerie shelters. Typed up a letter to send home with kids the next day of planned activity and donation of supplies.

This school feels very high security. I was in the main commons area waiting for Heather and looking through my camera, just to get a feel for what the 'view' was. Pointing this way and that, but not shooting yet, when a woman came up to me and asked what I was doing there. I told her and also asked if it was okay if I took pictures. I could tell that that was what she was somewhat alarmed bymy presence,( a passing student had asked if I was taking her picture and I said I was just pretending right now). So the deal was I could not take photos without the kid's permission. Heather had shown up at the just the right moment and told her co-worker that I was okay. Hmmmm. I got all checked in at the office and Heather and I went off to the class where she was doing her activity. She had to ask permission for me to take photos. I had only two young women say no, absolutely not! I wondered if it was their background or what. It could have easily been that. But in this case they were having bad hair days and Heather directed anyone who didn't want to be photographed to sit on the other side of me. I respected this and was able to carry on with my observation.

Heather's activity was on the essentials of a hiking backpack. At first the kid's look totally bored. She had them sit in a circle close in - something different from their norm. She had a backpack in front of her and had given them an outline of what the basic areas of need were. Her enthusiasm and comfort with these teens was amazing. She never missed a beat. She interacted with them drawing them in to the discussion. She had all the props neatly organized into ziplock bags of the appropriate size and went through the why's and what's of the different items needed on a one to two day hike. The kid's became very engaged and had their own ideas on why things go wrong, what could prevent them and why Heather's goodies were indeed essential. I haven't ever been in this sort of environment before. I was not sure what to expect from teens in an alternative high school. I knew a little of the demographic group that attended. I guess I assumed that they were all troubled or in trouble kid's trying to finish high school. I did not ask many questions about that, I just observed them as people, obviously older than Wendy's kids, and Heather's interaction with them. I'm sure the kids got something out of it all and their attention held with genuine interest.

First off I have to say how much I loved the Diwali celebration. Yes I liked the Day of the Dead too, but this was a different kind of good energy. I was extremely uncomfortable with the circle dance and felt painfully awkward. But I perservered and ended up having a great time - even got the hang of the dance!!! The activities were very, very user friendly.

Then we were able to meet in our project groups, which always feels like a gift to me now. Ben, Heather and I were the only ones able to meet. We ironed many details of the presentation outline. We are going to start out as a group on the LHG, then present our individual pieces based on the actual project of gardening and curriculum work. Different ratios for each person's level of comfort. Ben, Natalie and I all want to do some history of the garden, plants and perhaps 5 mini plant monographs.

Wendy introduced my part in the class for the morning. I was to read a book on Faerie's first thing. Oops, Wendy read my book the previous morning. We had to do a quick change of gears. She found another book on faeries - but it wasn't exactly a story, so I really had to wing it.

Robin Smalley came to be my observer. We all went up to the activity room - another parent volunteer had set up all the supplies! After a short description of the actual activity and a show of the model, the kids were more than ready to go. It went quite well and the kids had a great time. They glued moss to the base and collected things from the buffet of supplies to use as walls or protection. We ended up realizing that it went more quickly when we used a hot glue gun (Adults only!) than when we used cold glue. They also learned the limitations, as they will over and over again, the large pieces did'nt fit too well on the small pieces with only a dot of glue. One boy wanted me to just saw here and add some wood there. I loved it. Told him I knew his dad would help him with this (as I know his dad and this is exactly what his dad would do also).

We got through half the kids. Robin was a great help, as was Jennifer, the other parent volunteer. I plan to return next week to see the other half through.

When we were all assembled in class later, Wendy had them thank me profusely and give me a round of applause. I felt very honored. Then she asked them details about the houses, such as did they think that their shelter would attract faeries. I loved that. I had completely forgotten that part, I was thinking activity, process and finished result. They may put them in their yards now or not, they all had opinions on why and whether they might add stuff later.

Then in a couple of weeks, Wendy has planned to have a parent come and make faeries with them.

Today was the final phase of Heather's project with her kid's. It was drizzly out and she worried they wouldn't want to do it and especially that they would not have any fun doing this scavenger hunt. When we walked in the classroom where kids are all at computers, I heard a couple of "oh my god's" and accompanying groans. Heather was not deterred. A couple of kids refused to participate and went back to their screens. Heather had raced around the campus - not too huge - and hidden pictures of the objects that had been placed in ziplock baggies - she thought of everything. Then they were divided into three groups and got their clues, which were riddles. It went really well. They got wet but they did have fun and thought about what you need to take on a short hike. More importantly what it took to work as a team for a few minutes.

Heather's rapport with this class and the kids in her culinary class is wonderful!!! She's a natural leader.