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

Date

Place

Reflections

9/29/05

Garfield Elementary

I had a wonderful chat with one of the secretaries of the school about our Harvest Festival (she showed me where the community bulliten board was so I could put up flyer for "HF" and any other events to come). We also discussed my options for student observation project. She gave me the name and number of the am/pm Preschool teacher that I will be working with.

9/29/05

Grocery Outlet

What a delightfully surprising experience this was. I merely went into the store to ask the manager for permission to leave a HarvestFestival flyer on the window and to let her know that it was possible that Hirsh and Heather would be coming by the next day to purchase about 20-30 pumpkins. Out of the blue, Cyndi (store manager), offered to donate $20 worth of pumpkins from her store. At .99 a piece, we had our twenty pumkins! It was such a gracious offer, I let Hirsh know. Later, Hirsh got back with me and I got the okay to accept. I went back to the store and was priveledged to meet Cyndi's husband and co-worker, Russ, who called Cyndi on the phone to verify our earlier discussion and the wheels were set in motion. Then I passed the torch onto Hirsh and Heather so they could pick up the pumpkins on Friday.

9/29-9/30/05

My yard, fields and forests around my house, various parking lots

Collecting leaves, pinecones and twigs for the craft table at the Harvest festival was actually a two day event for me.  I collected beautiful items wherever I saw them, coming and going from stores, schools or anywhere from my car.  I kept a bag in my car to keep them together.  I also went on two hunts near my home and around shopping center parking lots.  I found it amazing the different types of life I found in the wild around my home and in the structured beds of landscape in public view.

9/30/05

My living room

Drawing and creating art is one of my passions, so designing and carrying out the project of making the donation sign for our pumpkins from Grocery Outlet for the Harvest Fest was a time to play while working.  That, I think, is a very important part of working; enjoying what you are doing.  I’m hoping we all find a career that allows us to enhance our lives, not hinder and bring us down.

10/1/05

Organic Farm

We started out with a beautiful, crisp, sunny day but the rain finally won. So, although we were wet and rushed to get our craft, luminary and pumpkin carving areas ready to go, I think we (the Harvest Fest Team) had a great time. At my charge was the crafts table where children of all ages were using their imaginations to make masks, crowns and critters out of leaves, twigs, petals, pinecones, acorns, chestnuts, toothpicks, glue and paper plates. I periodically asked those students from A.E and the C., who signed up to work the craft table, to hunt for leaves and twigs or whatever they thought might help make some interesting pieces of art. Other volunteers made their own items for display to help people with ideas to get started. I noticed myself sometimes getting caught up in a project I was working on because I was amazed at all of the beautiful things I could do with these simple pieces of nature. But what I was most fascinated with were the children, the little ones would come up with an idea and were so focused, persistent and patient that I realized that I was doing something I usually didn’t do, letting the child work on his/her own until they asked me for help. In the past, I believe I was too quick to jump in and take over the project. This was especially enlightening for me. And the determination and creativity of these kids filled me with so much joy that the rain ceased to bother me at all. My daughter and her friend had a cold/wet time until they decided to hang out under the shed and have some fun scooping out pumpkin innards to make jack-o-lanterns. Unfortunately, their pumpkins were gone when they went to pick them up to take home as they were busy listening to music and eating oven-fired pizza YUM. Also were the other students of TESC that were coming up and watching and marveling over the tiny children and how they were so in tune with nature as art and our class in general. There were quite a few students who said they wished they were in our class and I don’t blame them. This is awesome!

10/4/05

Garfield Elementary

Talked with Jennifer Billings, AKA Teacher Jennifer, the am/pm preschool teacher at Garfield.  She gave me an idea of what they do in class each day as well as a bit of information on the individual care and lessons they give in the morning class, as opposed to set lesson plans, due to the fact that there are quite a few children with special needs in this classroom.  I also asked her if she could let me know a bit about what it takes to become a preschool or early education teacher.  She was very happy to share her background with me in this area as well as her special education training.  I was comforted in the way that Jennifer spoke in such a soft tone and really listened to me.  She was very knowledgeable and open.  This was another great learning experience.

10/6/05

TESC

Never having looked for a grant before, I decided I would do my research with my buddies at KEY in case I had any questions or needed any help. It turned out that I just had to log onto the Evergreen website and search for grants where I found a world of information, or at least links to that world. At this time I focused only on the school's Foundation Activity Grant because the due date for submission was only a day away! Then I passed the ball to my my teammates of the LNY celebration.

10/6/05

home/internet

Started searching the web for ideas for classroom project. Short on time at that time, I merely found some autumn crafts to retain in my memory. More searching to come, there is so much out there to find.

10/9/05

McDonald's, Olympia Library, my home

I had the most glorious day with my little 4 year old friend Katelyn. I met Katelyn last year when I took on the responsiblity of driving her to and from preschool. She is a beautiful Vietnamese child who speaks English well. She loves spending time with me as I do with her. Today's outing started at Noon when I picked her up to go to the library. When we arrived we were surprised to find it closed and had to wait 45 minutes until it opened. She was content with hanging out and playing on the bicycle rack and talking my ear off until I mentioned getting something to eat. "McDonald's" she quickly exclaimed! So we belted up and had lunch at the restaurant. She chose a happy meal with chicken nuggets, fries and oj. She is a girl who knows what she wants and she wanted the little doll with the "pink dress and hat", so that's what we got! I noticed something different about the Katelyn I knew the past school year. She minded me much better, in fact, she was very well-mannered throught our day together. She ate every bit of food she had and got up to throw away her own trash.

We then went to the library where she colored a picture for me (this you can find below). We then picked out several books and a few children's cd's to put in the basket I keep in my back seat, like we did last year, to keep her entertained on the way to school. Still at the library, I read her a couple of stories, she then worked on puzzles. She needed a bit of help at first but after a while she was able to figure them out herself. We then cleaned up, went to check out, where she excitedly got to check out her own books, then left for home.

We found the perfect book for her. She loves princesses and we found a Princess Craft book. I called her mom to ask if she could come to my house and work on some projects with me. We got the okay and went to my house. I pulled out the supplies we needed and we set up an area in the living room. We had to improvise, since I didn't have all of the supplies, but we succeeded and had so much fun. Two things stuck out while we worked together...as we put her crown together she said, "I love this art" as she giggled so sweetly. I was so touched and knew I had found an arts and crafts partner for as long as I wanted one. Then she really shocked me. Knowing Katelyn as I do, she has a tendency to take charge and has trouble at times sharing or thinking of others. But she was totally bent on making a crown for her friend, Michelle. But today, she showed a generous side that made my heart sing. Although she was jealous of her new baby brother's arrival, I think she has come to love him very much and learned that she must share his attention and that has rubbed off into other areas of her life. Sorry this is so long, but it was a long day with lots going on.

10/12/05

Garfield Elementary

First day at Garfield. Many helpers in this classroom. Some from TESC, some parents and the paraeducators that are always there, of course. Today was kind of a "get my feet wet" kinda day. Get the feel of the classroom, the teachers, the structure and the beginnings of getting to know the children. It was basically jump in and help where you can, being that they are preschoolers. The first hour or so is free time, which I think is great. It gives the kids a chance to make that transition from parent to teacher much easier. Each table is set up as a different station so they can choose the activity they would like to participate in. Today's jewel for me was watching Daniel use deductive reasoning to figure out where a certain"peg-it number board" piece went. I was also happy to see these youngsters playing so well together. If they did not want to share, they usually changed their mind fairly easily, with a little help from a teacher. Teacher Jennifer is incredible with the kids. As I mentioned above (10/4), her soft tone coupled with her warm smile keeps the figgity preschoolers fairly calm. Her method of correction is simple, stern but not harsh. I was impressed.

Michelle is the other little girl I drove to school last year and Katelyn never hesitated to take something out of Michelle's hands if she wanted it, and sometimes if she didn't.