Kindergarten Newsletter (99)
Kindergartners love the Fridays we have spent at Agraria, because it combines the best aspects of our hikes in the Glen and the freedom to explore they have in our own forest classroom. Due to rising numbers of viral cases in our community, Agraria is closing to group use, so this past Friday was our last visit for awhile. The children made a morning hike plan that included all their favorite stops--the garden, where there was still dill, basil seeds (they taste like candy!), and sage to experience; the maze, where they can find their own way to the trail to the Persimmon Circle, where we had snack; the feeder creek, which was still running and finally yielded a shell find; and the chickens. In the afternoon, we hiked on a new trail to Jacoby Creek, where the children found fossils, quartz, and an old farm wheel. The children and I are hopeful that we can visit again this spring and observe these familiar places in a new season.
Creek play at Agraria--"It's like swimming with your clothes on!"
Written by Lindie KeatonKindergartners made a plan for a second visit to Agraria. The day was one of those unseasonably warm Ohio fall days--windy and with clear skies. The children wanted to visit the chickens, hike again in the maze (an area just past the big barn) and visit the creek. Along the way, we discovered an area that had been cleared to make space for a persimmon tree to get more sun. Someone had arranged log pieces like benches around the persimmon circle--the perfect place for our morning snack. The children explored the undergrowth, mostly honeysuckle, and began clearing dead wood to make space for club houses and to hang our hammocks on a return trip. The rest of the morning the children spent along and in the creek which was no longer dry! Kindergartners discovered which rocks were best to step on for keeping dry feet and which parts of the creek were deep enough to go over a Kindergarten rain boot.
In the afternoon the children were able to divide their time among several places--the garden, where there was more herb tasting; the barn, where all the tables and chairs had been put along the walls, leaving an immense space for running; and of course, the creek again, where one intrepid Kindergartner decided to remove her boots and socks, roll up her pants and go wading. Soon many children were barefooted and wading in the creek. "It's like swimming with clothes on!" declared one Kindergarten wader. We made sure to walk by the chickens, who we were told are all named Prudence, to say good bye, until our next Agraria visit!
Last Friday Kindergarten had our first visit to Agraria, Ohio's first center for regenerative agriculture. Agraria, a project of the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions, feels like a sister to Antioch School, also founded by Arthur Morgan. From their website: "Agraria is an educational and research center that explores and demonstrates the benefits of regenerative practices at multiple levels—from the environmental, economic, psychological and social, to their impact on human health and well-being. . ."
Plans for our visit there began, after our hike to the creek in Glen Helen, where the children found shells. Some of them wanted to keep the shells, but because the Glen is a nature preserve, we don't collect items there. Agraria has natural areas that the children can explore and (within reason) collect items to bring with them. We hiked through fields, gardens, meadows, and woods. The children spent a long time in the morning and the afternoon exploring a mostly dry creek bed. They collected interesting rocks, flowers, and hedge apples. They smelled and tasted herbs from the garden--basil, dill, and oregano. They are already looking forward to a return trip!
Blazing new trails in forest Kindergarten this fall
Written by Lindie KeatonKindergartners are in our forest classroom 100% of the time this fall. It's the best place to be, as we are working extra hard this year, due to the pandemic, not to spread germs. This group of children is helping establish our routines, our use of space, and ways of adapting our traditions. For color days the children have signed up to create a poster for each color to display at the entrance of forest classroom on the appropriate days. Once the color day has past, I'm then hanging the posters on the windows facing the cycle circle side of the play ground, where everyone at school can see them.
This past week the children made plans for two hikes. On the second hike they went all the way to Meatball Rock, which is one of the longest out and back hikes we generally do in Kindergarten. This is definitely a hiking group! A Kindergartner made a request for a lesson on pocket knife use this week, and a small group joined for instruction and then whittling time in our fire circle area. By the end of the week, the children had gotten interested in constructing shelters in the forest classroom, using sticks, an old wooden pallet, some twine and cord, and wood planks Brian had in the art/science room. MJ brought a child sized saw that several children used to cut some larger branches to more manageable sizes. The structure, which they call a fort, can only fit two children. There are several ideas on how to accommodate more--make it bigger, add more rooms, build a neighborhood. It's an ongoing project, and I'm very interested in where it will take them.
This group of Kindergartners spent their first week engaging in activities together--sand construction and riding the merry go round were two favorites. They enjoyed several short hikes around the Antioch School and Antioch College grounds. We found and identified many types of insects, plants, and trees. Cicadas and katydids are very plentiful this year! Our read aloud books have been about making friends and exploring the outdoors. In the afternoon we have been reading the traditional Anansi (spider) stories from the Ashanti people in Ghana and traditional stories told by Arizona Indian children. The children have made plans for celebrating shape days next week and are looking forward to more hikes!
The children were unsurprisingly delighted to be together last week. They did quite well with our new routines--outdoors all the time, masks, giving each other more space, and hand washing. Starting with their first visits on Wednesday, they began making plans. One Kindergartner requested stickers to take home, after using stickers to decorate his cubby name tag on Wednesday, so there were stickers along with note cards, a little blank book, glue, scissors, and crayons in the lap desks for everyone's first half day. Each group made a plan to play on the cycle circle side of the playground, spent time exploring our forest classroom and utilizing the materials in their lap desks. One group began thinking about where we will hike. The best news about hiking is that the Glen will be opening on Wednesday! I can't wait to see how this group will come together in our full Forest Kindergarten mode!
Here at The Antioch School we celebrate and cherish each individual. Our website says, children ". . . walk their own learning path, as fast and as far as it may go. . Each person is trusted as a learner " Our greatest contributions, though, are often made as part of a group.
This year was the fourteenth in which I had the privilege of spending time with a group of Kindergartners. For thirteen years prior to this, as I have watched, each group has spontaneously come together in May to culminate the year by creating something big--all of them, together. I don't share this with any group during the year. I don't interfere with what they create. And year after year it happens--sometimes at the very last minute or sometimes planned over the course of the school year. Kindergarten children have created original plays, rewritten popular musicals, composed their own music and dance, shared their gifts in a talent show, performed reprises of the Younger Group's circus, and designed and helped build a straw bale playhouse on our playground. This happened for Kindergartners at The Antioch School before I was the teacher--my own son's group performed their own version of the Older Group's musical from that year. It is something that is in these five and six year olds, and that if adults are brave enough to stand aside, the children, as a group, will bring out.
If I would have known at the beginning of this school year that our time to be physically together as a group would end in early March, my greatest disappointment for the children would have been believing that they would not have the time to come together as a group in May, as the thirteen groups that proceeded them have, to create whatever amazing, synergistic group wonder was in them.
In November, this Kindergarten group, inspired by the Younger Group's Halloween play, wrote their own play and decided to perform it for parents and the entire school. I was amazed at their boldness, the size and breadth of their endeavor. Never had something like this happened so early in the Kindergarten year. In hindsight, I am even more amazed at their uncanny, unconscious, or perhaps just serendipitous timing. If a standard curriculum was imposed here, none of this amazing work would happen, and if I had been imposing a schedule, the children this year would have missed out on this group event entirely. For me it has been the best lesson in the importance of the teacher following the lead and readiness of the children and given me even greater respect for the wisdom of the group.
So, as this school year ends, I leave this group with much love, gratitude, and respect, and I leave all of you with some of their finest work--
The Haunted City Pet Store Goes Wrong
By Antioch School Kindergarten 2019-20
Characters
Bald Eagle, Rose—Ayla
Kitten, Zephyr—Layli
Butterfly—Kyeu
Bad Guy Ogre—Naomi
Superhero Cat, Tornado--August
Peregrine Falcon, Turbo—Cong Cong
Dog, Tornado—Colt
Turtle, Slash—Leon
Unicorn, Uni—Raelin
Superhero Cina—Antonia
Princess Eleoda—Ahnika
In a city in a pet store where things always go wrong, there was a ghost tree where a bad guy Ogre lived.
A cat named Zephyr jumps out and tries to make the Ogre nice, but he wouldn't listen.
The superhero cat, Tornado, breaks out of his cage. When he tries to shoot his double power saw it bounces back, hits his shield and bounces onto the ground, sawing a tunnel into the ground.
Most of the animals, except Tornado cat, jump into the hole to hide. One of the animals didn't go into the hole and hided somewhere else. That was Uni. The bald eagle, Rose, stayed out of the hole, too, because she was brave.
And then the peregrine falcon, Turbo, zoomed out of the hole and zoomed into the sky.
Tornado dog dug the hole deeper and made a cavern for the animals to live in.
The turtle, Slash, slippery slipped out.
The Superhero Cina and Princess Eleoda come and get the ghost tree and the bad guy Ogre to be nice.
The pet store and the city transform into two houses.
The End
The Kindergartners enjoyed ice skating at the Chiller last week, and I always enjoy seeing how they approach learning something new (which ice skating is for many of them)--some head right out on the ice, others hold the wall or someone else's hand, while others just observe. Everyone comes away with more experience to build upon next time.
More...
The Kindergarten Giving Tree tradition dates back further than my time at The Antioch School, but I am told that once there was a tradition of the Kindergarten getting a Christmas tree. (The Christmas tree tradition itself was borrowed from a European pagan tradition originally.) Eventually, this didn't seem fitting, as not all families celebrate Christmas, so a more inclusive tradition was established about 20 years ago. The Kindergartners still get a tree, but it is a giving tree and each group decides on a cause and something school families can give to help. Over the last decade or so Kindergartners have asked for hats, mittens, and scarves for those who don't have any; food for the local food bank; clothing for those who lost their homes in a hurricane; supplies for injured birds at The Glen's Raptor Center, and money to provide third world villages with pumps for clean drinking water. This year the children decided to ask families to bring food for those who can't afford enough and to ask families to help stop pollution. Their letter is below.
"Dear Families and Friends,
Please bring gifts of food for the people who (don't) have enough money for food and can't buy it. Put the food under the giving tree. We will put the tree by the front door.
Build less things with pollution. Don't build so many factories.
Make sure you don't forget to bring the food.
Thank you.
Kindergarten"
The Haunted City Pet Store Goes Wrong--A Kindergarten Play
Written by Lindie KeatonThe Haunted City Pet Store Goes Wrong
By Antioch School Kindergarten 2019-20
Characters
Bald Eagle, Rose
Kitten, Zephyr
Butterfly
Bad Guy Ogre
Superhero Cat, Tornado
Peregrine Falcon, Turbo
Dog, Tornado
Turtle, Slash
Unicorn, Uni
Superhero Cina
Princess Eleoda
In a city in a pet store where things always go wrong, there was a ghost tree where a bad guy Ogre lived.
A cat named Zephyr jumps out and tries to make the Ogre nice, but he wouldn't listen.
The superhero cat, Tornado, breaks out of his cage. When he tries to shoot his double power saw it bounces back, hits his shield and bounces onto the ground, sawing a tunnel into the ground.
Most of the animals, except Tornado cat, jump into the hole to hide. One of the animals didn't go into the hole and hided somewhere else. That was Uni. The bald eagle, Rose, stayed out of the hole, too, because she was brave.
And then the peregrine falcon, Turbo, zoomed out of the hole and zoomed into the sky.
Tornado dog dug the hole deeper and made a cavern for the animals to live in.
The turtle, Slash, slippery slipped out.
The Superhero Cina and Princess Eleoda come and get the ghost tree and the bad guy Ogre to be nice.
The pet store and the city transform into two houses.
The End
This year's Kindergarten group loves word play and a good joke. Here are some of the ones that I've heard lately (shared with permission).
- The books The Hungry Thing and The Hungry Thing Returns have been a favorite of some of the children, because of the non-sense rhymes the Hungry Thing always says instead of the word that is meant. One recent morning in the Kindergarten a child said, with a twinkle in their eye, "Lindie, my plan is to go to the. . .mathboom."
- A pair of Kindergartners found a way to combine a high five game with Green Eggs and Ham in an improvisational word play during snack one afternoon.
First child: Up high
Second child: No
First child: Down low
Second child: No
First child: To the side
Second child: No
First child: Would you, could you with a fox?
All the children: Laughter
- On our walk back from the Wellness Center last week, the children were running ahead to a stopping point (a game we call directions). I was walking behind. They were stopped at a fence post by the end of Herman Street, when they all began pointing up the street and literally fell down laughing. When I caught up they exclaimed, "Lindie, . . . (they could barely get the words out, they were still laughing so), Lindie. . . the chickens crossed the road!" They fell down again laughing uproariously, and when I looked up the street there was indeed a small group of chickens who had recently crossed the street there--the physical embodiment of so many jokes.
- Inspired by the chickens, a Kindergartner told this joke: Why did the chickens cross the road? To get to the duck's birthday party!
It's going to be a very fun year!
The Kindergarten met in our forest classroom for our first Forest Kindergarten morning last Monday. It was a lovely, sunny morning, and everyone found their way down from school or was dropped off along Allen Street, where you can see the entrance of our forest classroom from the street. Children explored the forest classroom in small groups or chatted with MJ at the fire circle, while we waited for more of our group to arrive. We started with news around the fire circle (no fire, as it was such a warm day, but some of the children are already looking forward to one). After each of us had a chance to share about something, the children made a plan for our first hike. An experienced Kindergartner explained some of the usual Kindergarten hikes--shorter hikes are the rocks and the cave, longer ones are meatball rocks and the Yellow Springs, with the creek hikes being somewhere in the middle. The children decided to hike to the rocks first and hope to hike to the cave next. The group made easy work of their hike to the rocks. Although a few children expressed concern with how far apart the group stretched along the trail, I thought they stayed very compact for a Kindergarten group on their first hike. When we arrived back in our forest classroom we had one of our traditional Forest Kindergarten snacks--granola bars and string cheese. Then children spent the remainder of the time playing and exploring in the forest classroom. Some children are discussing wanting to build some kind of house there. It seems some summer visitors may have used a lot of the former stick houses that children had built as fire wood. I am looking forward to seeing how the children will manage to rebuild.