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

Week 1

10/1/05

I received the gift of being able to watch a child create an animal, and I was kissed by a Llama named, Mocha Almond Fudge. I walked in the rain without fearing getting wet. I enjoyed the feeling of the rain showering down upon me.

Week 1

10/04/056

I feel so blessed to be able to participate with the children at the Chehalis Tribal Center Head start and their teacher Suzanne Coombs.

Week 2

10/05/05

What a relief to be connected to all my project teammates and to have begun communication with them. Our plan is moving.

Week 2

10/07/05

I decided to take an adventure trip today and at least find the Skokomish Tribal Center. I was told that the Gifts Garden is located somewhere near the center. I was not able to find directions to the Tribal Center on the web so I felt I would be able to inquire from the locals about its location. I was very surprised how many people really had know idea where it was but they knew its general direction. Pointing their fingers in the air they would say, "I guess its that way somewhere." Eventually sometime after dark, I did locate the Tribal Center and I enjoyed a wonderful tour of the lush scenery surrounding this area, along the way. It is truly a beautiful place.

Week 3

10/12/05

I have made arrangements with Suzanne Coombs (Chehalis Tribal Head start teacher) to come and observe her students on Fridays from 8AM to 11:30 AM. She and I have had some interesting discussions on the phone pertaining to the development of our curriculum for the children.

Week 3

10/14/05

I began my adventure with the children (and their teacher and assistant teachers) of the Chehalis Indian Head start today. When I arrived I was first introduced to Suzanne's' co-workers and then the children. We spent time in the "circle" where we sang songs, and did some stretching exercises. We then shared breakfast together and the activities of the day began.

There are several stations in the classroom. I spent some time with children in the reading and drawing sections. I read some stories and drew some pictures with the children who were at these stations. Then we all returned to the circle to share more songs and have some lessons with the alphabet . After that we went outside to play.

I was able to observe the children riding various machines which they seemed to find the greatest enthusiasm for. After our trip outside we went back inside once more to the circle for stretching, songs, and more lessons. By this time preparations were being made for lunch and it was time for me to go.

Week 3

10/14/05

I met today with Liz, Robin, and, Stacey (and her son Hunter). We caravanned out to the Skokomish Tribal Center and the Gift's of the First People's Garden Site, where we met up with Sonja Gee.

I am so grateful to Sonja for meeting with us and providing some direction for our activities. She said we should cut everything back and, "put the garden to sleep for the winter." She also shared some stories about Bruce Miller and his dream of providing this demonstration garden for the benefit of his tribe as well as other tribes to use as a model.

She spoke of all the hard work and the struggles to maintain the garden and her own sense of loss at Bruce's passing. I was honored to be present and it seemed to me as if the elements were speaking. The wind picked up as we toured the garden and we were showered with raindrops and the dying leaves from the trees surrounding the garden.

Here are a couple of pictures of the garden before we begin.

Week 4

10/21/05

Today I drove down to observe the children at the Chehalis Indian Head start. When I arrived I noticed that Suzanne and the children were not there.Then I remembered that they were planning a field trip to a pumpkin patch on this day. I was planning to go but I failed to write it down in my schedule. I phoned Suzanne that evening to apologize for missing the field trip. She said that was fine. We also discussed the environmental lesson/activity I am in the process of planning and developing.

Week 4

10/21/05

I spent most of the day with the garden and Nostradamus (the cat who guards the garden). Nostradamus was my companion while I was weeding the North Bed and familiarizing myself with the many varieties of plants contained in the garden. He insisted on being scratched in a certain and precise way. When I failed to give him the attention he wanted he can be quite demonstrative (biting and clawing). Otherwise he was a purring and adventuresome garden guardian.

I noticed several areas (the berry patch and the prairie mound) that seem to be in need of some serious attention. There are some invasive plant species that seem to be infringing on the intended residents of these areas. I will be doing some further investigation to find out precisely what was intended for these areas and what sort of work can be done to restore these areas to their originally intended functions.

Week 5

10/27/05

Today I stayed in the background of the classroom in order to really observe the children.

They were preparing for the Halloween celebration being held the next day. I noticed when it was announced that it was time to make "worm pudding" that all the children quieted down and gathered together with their attention focused on the project.

Suzanne and I discussed my lesson plan and she provided me with a monthly example of the class lesson plan so that I can taylor the one I am working on to be in alignment with the current themes of instruction pertaining to her class.

Week 6

11/03/05

I arrived at the Chehalis Indian Head start today my only intention to drop off the draft of the lesson plan for Suzanne's approval; Since I arrived as the class was preparing for recess I was directed to take the children who were ready to go out, out. Which I did. It was raining and since there is a shelter over most of the playground the children can play outside protected from the rain. What I discovered is that some of them like to play in the rain, especially the puddles.

I had a delightful time watching them play and interact with each other. There is one little guy who was particularly fond of puddle splashing. He would willingly come in out of the rain when asked, then as soon as my attention was diverted even for an instant, he would be back at that puddle. He tried splashing from different directions and angles. He tried different stances and degrees of force. He was completely fascinated with that puddle.

Week 6

11/04/05

Well today some of us had great plans to go to work in the Garden. Unfortunately we were completely rained out. Robin and I did get together and started out, our intentions to tough it out and go work anyway. I thought we might try stopping in at the Goodwill and checking to see if they had any garden cutting tools, which they did not. So after we got back in the car, noticing that the rain had increased and we were both coughing still recovering from a cold that coincidently we both had, we decided maybe it would be better for both of us (health wise) if we postponed this trip until the weather cleared and we were both feeling better.

Week 7

11/6/05

I researched some potential grant funding sources for the Lunar New Year Celebration. I was able to find 4 funding sources that fit the criteria for this exciting celebration.

Week 7

11/10/05

Today was the day for the presentation of my lesson plan to the children in Suzanne's Coombs head start class at the Chehalis Indian Reservation. I was very nervous when I arrived and was put at ease by the presence of the children and their teachers. I started by reading a couple of stories to the group. One little boy was very interested and kept putting his face in the book as I was trying to show the rest of the children. He was so full of enthusiasm for reading. Next, we moved to the tables where we could get into the art portion of the project. We spread out the maple leaves I brought and glue. Nest we glued the leaves to the paper and then the children chose a colored pen and drew a picture of the leaf. All in all they seemed happy with the doing and the being involved in the process of creating. After we finished the art portion Suzanne called the children together in a circle and we all sang the tree song together. I left feeling a sense of gratitude to the children, Suzanne, and The Chehalis Indian Head start for allowing me the opportunity to spend some time with and learn from them.

Week 8

11/18/05

Leanne Owens, classmate who also happened to be doing her volunteer work at the Chehalis Indian Head start asked me to come observe while she presented her lesson plan to the children. I was delighted and she did a great job. She had prepared letters that are in the children's current curriculum and the children decorated the letters. They had some leaves but once the glitter came out that's all they wanted to use. They seemed to have as much fun as we did watching them.

Week 9

11/23/05

This was the most interesting day. I was thinking it might be a good day to go out to the garden since the sun was shinning. I thought to call Robin and ask her if she would like to go. Her phone was busy both times, so I decided to head out on my own. Now I needed to stop at the Co-op real quick to pick up some groceries. I usually go to the Westside Co-op and for some reason (sometimes I go to the Eastside to get eggs) I ended up going over to the Eastside Co-op and to my astonished eyes there was Robin. After making some arrangements we headed out to the Gifts of the First People's Garden. I was delighted to have companionship as it always seems to make the time there more interesting and rewarding as it did prove to be. As we neared Shelton we could see the clouds on the horizon and as we reached the garden the sun was fully covered by the clouds. We persevered and grabbed a few tools I had in the trunk and our notebooks, camera, etc. Robin spent time writing while I did some weed pulling in the berry patch. We had fun talking about the garden, the weather, and taking some pictures. The trip home was also nice and I felt a much needed sense of something akin to closure as the garden truly seemed to be asleep and this is what was asked of up in the beginning of this project. Sonja had asked us to, "just put the garden to bed for the winter" and our little scattered group had managed to do just that.