Early last week the Kindergartners noticed some of their Older Group partners playing a game in the gaga ball pit.  The pit has been in disuse over the past few years, so this is the first time they had seen anyone play gaga ball.  An interested group of Kindergartners gathered around the outside of the pit to watch.  In a short time, some of them asked if they could play and were welcomed into the game.  Quickly the Older Groupers decided that some of the rules should be altered to accommodate their Kindergarten friends.  For example, Kindergartners didn't have to sit out until they were hit with the ball three times instead of just once. 

     When the OG went inside, the Kindergartners continued the game pretty much without a hitch.  This is quite an accomplishment for children this age, as you might know, if you've ever played a game with a six year old.  Such games generally involve an every shifting set of rules that always result in the six year old winning.  Yet here they were taking turns, sitting out, and waiting for the next round to join again.  

     The bigger challenge came when the Kindergartners decided to join the Younger Group in a game of gaga ball a few days later.  The Younger Groupers, being closer in age, expected the Kindergartners to compete as equals and follow the same rules.  This took a bit of adjustment for some Kindergartners, but they did it.  

     Now gaga ball has replaced freeze tag as the Kindergartners favorite game.  The call of "Gaga ball!" results in most, if not all, Kindergartners running to the pit to join.  Some Nursery children have even begun to join in as well.  And a big cheer from Kindergartners always goes up when the OG arrives--their friends who introduced the game in such a supportive way.

     Last week Kindergarten made soup for the 100 year reunion harvest soup supper.  When we harvested the pumpkins from the school garden, some of the children had expressed interest in cooking something with the pumpkins.  I had a recipe for pumpkin corn chowder that seemed perfect for making soup with pumpkin, while we were celebrating gold and orange days.  

     We started with the smaller pumpkin.  A few interested children watched me cut it in half.  Then they scooped out the pulp and seeds into a bowl.  Another couple children picked the seeds out from pulp, setting them aside.  I took the pumpkin home to roast (our school stove having an untimely malfunction) and the seeds were cleaned and left to dry.  The next day, some Kindergartners brushed the seeds with oil and salted them.  We roasted them (in the toaster oven) for a snack that was tried and enjoyed by most Kindergartners. 

     Some Kindergartners had a knife use lesson and helped chopped red peppers and onions to be ready for sauteing the following day.  The children liked cutting the peppers, but decided the onions were a bit too strong.  Some of the same children and a few newly interested vegetable choppers cut the potatoes the day we put the soup together to cook in the crock pot.  The sauteed peppers and onions made the room smell delicious, and as the soup simmered and cooked over the school day, the smell made us very hungry for our afternoon snack of soup and crackers!

     We took our time and made the soup over several day, and not unlike the soup, the Kindergarten group, over time, is blending together into something new, too.  As the individuals change and season, together the group is becoming more than the sum of its parts.  Sometimes, like when cutting onions, there are tears, but they're on their way to being warm and comfortable together, like a bowl of good soup.

     This was our first week of Kindergarten.  The group was busy getting acquainted and reacquainted with each other, exploring our spaces, and subjects in which they have interest.  They were learning which friends like to join in rich imaginative play, which friends like to practice on the monkey bars, and which friends like to dig in the sand.  They were finding out who is a ready partner to accompany someone on a walk up to school and who likes to help out when needed on jobs or when packing up at the end of the day.

     They were learning which trees are for climbing in the forest classroom, where to get the key for the trike shed and how to unlock it, and how many apples we need for eight Kindergartners, when we cut the apples into fourths for snack.  They were figuring out which books go in the fiction section and which go in the non-fiction section.  They were very interested in our field guides, especially the one for reptiles.  We read books together about the moon and about the history of life on earth--the moon is several billion years older than the oldest life on earth we discovered.  They enjoyed finger plays and songs--The Monkeys and the Crocodile and Five Green and Speckled Frogs.  The Hungry Thing and The Hungry Thing Returns were fiction read aloud favorites that got the children exploring word play with rhymes. 

     Several children liked to count using the dates on the calendar.  Two children worked together to put up the numbers for our September calendar.  After deciding to take turns putting each successive number in place, one of them observed, "I'm counting by two's!" 

Afterward the same child said, "Let's have a contest of who can find the most things."  The other child agreed and began picking up sticks. 

The first child grabbed a handful of leaves from the ground and said, "Time to count!  How many do you have?" 

"One, two, three, four. . . four!" declared the child with sticks, who then asked, "How many do you have?" 

"I have 122," said the child with leaves.  The child with sticks laughed and said, "Let's do it again!"

     On Thursday the children came up with a set of agreements that they all felt was important to follow.  Here is what they are:

1.  Listen to each other.

2.  Stop where the trees are right there--all around.

3.  Don't hit each other with sticks or throw sticks at each other.  Find space with a stick.

4.  Don't run with bare feet, only in a hammock or in the sand.

5.  At group time, stay with the group, unless you have a plan with Lindie.  Don't walk with strangers.  Stay with Lindie and the teachers and the school people.

    

Brian Brogan, our beloved art/science teacher, retired at the end of this school year after serving at The Antioch School for 21 years.  Below are some of the children's words of appreciation for Brian.

Kindergarten Remembers Brian

I remember the pretend explosions we'd do with him.

I remember painting and doing the explosions and drawing Valentine's Day things with him and dressing up and when we stealed Brian's glasses and hid them.

I remember painting.

I remember this time we used this poison to make black and when Brian used the little light as a memory eraser, and when Brian set up his alien guy and I took away the box, and the drawing robots.

I remember when we made the spy glasses.

I remember when we did volcanoes.

I remember when we made slime, and when we made the spy glasses, painting, and when we did a puppet show and Brian came and watched, and when we were the last ones sometimes we'd eat lunch in the art/science and played with Brian while we were eating, and when Brian showed us the sap from the tree that he was going to make into syrup.

I remember glazing and robots.

I remember dancing in the art/science room.

Antioch School Kindergarten 2021-22

Each year during our last week of school, Kindergarten composes a poem together.  Here is the poem the group wrote about this year's experience.

Kindergarten Remembers

We remember the first day of school.

We remember going in the forest classroom.

We remember going on hikes--all the hikes--to the rocks, to Meatball Rock, and to The Raptor Center.

We remember doing plays.

We remember when we all went to the ice skating rink.

We remember going to the zoo.

We remember the week the Kindergarten visited the Younger Group.

We remember going to Strawberry Nook.

We remember going to the Younger Group outdoor classroom.

We remember playing--playing Harry Potter with Carrigg and Marley, playing with Baker and Camo--playing.

Antioch School Kindergarten 2021-22

May 24, 2022

     It's hard to believe that Kindergartners are moving into their last month together.  A traditional part of this transition is to join in some activities with the Younger Group (YG) during the week that the third year Younger Groupers are with the Older Group at the theater preparing for the performance of their musical.  So last week the Kindergartners joined the Younger Group each morning for their morning meeting with many Kindergartners sharing.  On Monday they took a joint hike together with the YG showing the Kindergartners a new hiking destination in the Glen.  Already Kindergartners are asking to return.  Each group hosted the other in the forest Kindergarten and YG outdoor classroom on Tuesday.  Kindergartners loved seeing the tree house that's under construction, the hollow stump, and the swinging vines in the YG's outdoor space.  On Wednesday, joined by Christine, the Kindergarten and YG children picked dandelions together for the traditional spring dandelion count.  In pairs and trios, they picked dandelions in the field by the prairie for five minutes.  Then everyone moved to the porch to count how many they had picked.  Elaina helped each group record their number, and then together they completed the long addition problem to get the grand total--1244! On Thursday Kindergarten children had the option of joining YG for folder work after morning meeting.  All the Kindergartners selected some pencil and paper activities and set right to work throughout the YG room.  We ended the week by traveling to the theater to watch the amazing performance of Annie by the OG and YG thespians.  It was an inspiring, tiring, and full week!

     Over the course of this school year, three distinct, yet similar dramas have played out.  Here's what happened. 

     I.  The first time it happened, Kindergarten had spent the day at Agraria.  We set up our circle area on clay benches that sit under a flat roof held up by four posts.  As we were packing up for the day, some Kindergartners were playing with a stuffed cat--tossing it in the air and catching it, when it landed on the roof.  The children let the rest of us know.  Many ideas were suggested.  Could Lexi or I reach it?  We couldn't.  How about a ladder?  We didn't have one.  A stick?  As we were searching for an appropriately long stick, Lexi went to the barn and returned with a long butterfly net.  The children cheered and commenced taking turns using the net to rescue the cat.  No Kindergartner could reach it.  I took a turn, while the Kindergartners backed up far enough to see the cat and direct me to move the net toward the cat.  I was able to almost, but not quite reach the cat.  "Lexi!" the children suggested.  And she did it--using the net, she pushed the stuffed cat off the roof.  The children cheered again!  Success!  A Kindergartner and his stuffy were reunited!

    II.  A month or more later, some Kindergartners were attempting to toss their stuffed animals through the basketball hoop on the cycle side of the playground.  They cheered each animal that made it through.  When a large stuffed dog got stuck, a Kindergartner tossed a basketball at it from below, until it was dislodged and fell to the ground.  A short time later, against all odds, a small stuffed dog, who had made several successful trips through the hoop, got its collar hooked on the metal upon which the net hangs.  There it stuck.  Basketballs repeatedly thrown, bumping it, failed to bring it down.  A hobby horse was retrieved from inside, and Kindergartners took turns trying to get it loose using the horse to no avail.  A couple of Younger Groupers stopped nearby and observed.  The Kindergarten children asked me to try to get the dog down.  I turned to the Younger Groupers, "Would you like to try?" I invited.  Without a word, one of them approached with a small smile, neatly jumped up, grabbing the hoop first with his hands and then with one hand and his feet.  With his free hand, he unhooked the dog's collar.  He jumped back down with the stuffed dog in his hand and was surrounded by a cheering cluster of Kindergartners.  Another heroic rescue!

III.  After winter break, Kindergartners were spectators to another stuffy rescue.  This time, while Kindergarten and Nursery children were on the porch eating snack, a few Younger Group children, at the far end of the porch, were playing a game of throwing a stuffed cat, attempting to get it high enough to touch the underside of the porch roof.  In a demonstration of physics and force, on one throw the cat ricocheted off the underside of the porch roof and onto the roof of the building and out of sight (from our perspective).  The Younger Group children quickly conferred.  They needed a ladder and a grown up to get on the ladder and get the cat.  Off they went and returned a short time later with Nathan, who looked at the roof where the cat had disappeared.  He wasn't sure the ladder would be high enough, but he would bring it and see.  More Younger Group children gathered waiting.  Elaina joined them.  They began backing out onto the grass, until they could see the stuffed cat's position.  Nathan brought the ladder, climbed as high as he safely could, but couldn't quite reach.  He disappeared into his office and emerged with a grabber.  With directions from the Younger Groupers, he used the grabber to knock the cat down to the porch.  The Younger Group, Kindergarten, Nursery--everyone present--erupted into cheers and applause.  Yet another successful stuffy rescue!

     "Real world problems", generally meaning an assignment that has implications in the real (as in adult) world, is currently an en vogue term in some educational circles.  It includes projects like raising funds for relief work, collecting data for scientific studies, and studying and proposing solutions for societal problems.  This type of work has its place at The Antioch School, though the impetus for it comes from the children.  Stuffies getting stuck, however is an actual real world problem for children.  They created it and are most invested in solving it.  As an adult, I avoid tossing items I value towards high roofs.  I observed each of these incidents as they developed and made a conscious choice not to interfere.  My work as a teacher is to support children in doing and learning from hard things, not to prevent them from experiencing them (serious safety issues aside, of course).  Figuring out what to do when stuffies get stuck can help children know they can do hard things--together with their community.  I choose and love to be a teacher here, because it's a place where children scrap their knees learning to roller blade and have conflicts with their peers.  And yes, it's a place where stuffies get stuck.

     Many years ago Antioch School Kindergartners would cut a Christmas tree to decorate for school.  Since not all families and children celebrated Christmas, they decided to make it more inclusive.  After all, the tradition of bringing greenery and evergreen trees in during this dark time of year dates back to the earliest solstice celebrations, long before Christmas was celebrated.  They called it a giving tree, and the Kindergartners would choose a cause for families to donate to and the tree would be decorated with items for that cause.  Some years it was hats, mittens, and scarves.  Other years items for hurricane relief, food for local food banks, and even items for the birds at the Raptor Center were placed on and under the tree.  Last year, when we weren't in school in person during December, we weren't able to make plans about a tree.  I never know for sure what each group will do with this tradition, but without a recent memory of it, I wasn't sure if it would be of interest this year. 

     Additionally, the group had been very busy finishing number days and writing a play together.  The beginning of the play flowed easily, and act one was written in one sitting.  Several sessions later, though, act two hadn't been concluded.  With much discussion and sleeping on it, the children concluded the writing of their play in about a week.  That work didn't leave much lead time for discussing a giving tree.  I introduced the idea the next week.  The children wanted to get a tree, but beyond that were focused on the play.  After sleeping on it, I realized that several things about getting the tree would need to be adjusted this year to make it work.  It also dawned on me that a tree played a pivotal role in the end of their play.  The next day, when we were discussing the tree, I just asked, "Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?"  Immediately, one of the Kindergartner's eyes lit up, "The tree could be in the play!"  And so the impetus for getting the tree shifted and came into focus for the group. 

     The afternoon we went to the Yellow Springs High School Forest to get the tree was partly sunny and not too cold.  The children were full of enthusiasm.  "We love this camp!" they declared as we set up around the fire pit at the School Forest.  When we started towards the planted spruces, pines, and firs, one child immediately had a suggestion.  "We should get a tree that's not too tall, so we can carry it."  At each tree that someone declared was the one and someone else declared wasn't, they were able to add to their list of characteristics.  But there were still a lot of trees that weren't too tall, with needles not too prickly, full branches, branches not falling off, and not too short.  Then one child added, "It should be in the shape of a sugar jar."  Then she explained the shape--a round bowl like body with a handle sticking out on top.  This really helped narrow down the choices.  The final thing they needed to come to a decision happened when I got busy with something else--I don't remember what exactly, maybe tying my shoe or helping untangle Penny's leash.  At that point, I heard a Kindergartner say about yet another tree--"How about this one?"  And a moment later they all announced to me--"This one!"  Time and space are sometimes all that are needed to come to consensus, and they had done it! 

     The tree currently is residing in our indoor classroom.  It's easiest to move it out to the outdoor stage for play practice from there.  So far the children have decorated it with a name tag saying "The Sugar Jar Tree" and a series of short poems written on paper and hung on the branches.  Perhaps a giving idea will come up later, or maybe it won't.  Perhaps a new tradition is being forged.  Time and space will tell.

     Each year around Thanksgiving the Kindergarten has written a poem around gratitude.  Daily gratitude is part of our school culture, and we often express appreciate for each other's help, work, and talents.  During the pandemic, I have seen this gratitude grow, as we've come to realize how precious our time together is.  Below is this year's Kindergarten poem of appreciation.  Each child had the opportunity to dictate their sentence to me, and I wrote it down.  This is the what they created.

Thankful

I am thankful for nature.

I am thankful that our whole community is stopping the big germs.

I am thankful for my family.

I am thankful for the sun.

I am thankful for the rain.

I am thankful for Kindergarten.

Antioch School Kindergarten 2021-22

 

 

Some children share many details of their days here at school, when they get home, while others process these events more internally. The question of "What did you do today?" may bring a flood of words, a shrug, or an answer of "I don't know." or "Played" or even "Nothing". So I thought I'd share some observations I've made over the last several weeks on what the Kindergartners are doing here each day. The children are very busy here at school. Here is what I am seeing. Their large motor activities have included monkey bars, the hanging bars, digging in the sand, riding trikes, swinging in the swings, tire swing, and hammocks, building with sticks, and raking leaves. There was some intense work last week on the teeter totter figuring out fulcrum, weight, and balance. Small motor activities have included lots of drawing, writing, and crafting. The fairy house has had improvements and repairs made to its roof and walls. It's been equipped with camping supplies and is currently being decorated for Christmas. There's been lots of cutting, stapling, gluing, and taping--especially taping. The children have used grass, onion grass, leaves, sticks, paper, string, rocks, and bones as craft materials. They have been burying and unearthing items, including bones, a fork, and a cement block. Their imaginative play has included being various animals, fairies, robots, super heroes, families, and a stuffy birthday party. They have also put on monologues for each other in a theater they created in our meadow. The monologues are a mix of stand up, mime, vaudeville, and a lot of slapstick. Many of the children are reading and making pattern predictions on our job chart. Some are exploring numerals and numbers using our calendar, even making their own calendar pages. Some children spend time each day looking at or reading books to themselves or others. Several children dictate notes to family or friends or stories for me to write for them. Some of these stories are shared with the group at our story time. While some of these activities are done in a solitary way, most are done with others. As a result, children are honing their skills each day as they figure out how to make plans together; share resources; negotiate and navigate differences and problems--there is a lot of this inherent in imaginative play, where they are creating whole worlds together; explore inclusion and exclusion; identify and share feelings; and set and reset boundaries as they do the mutual dance of learning to set firm, fair limits and learning to respect them. All of this takes a great deal of self-awareness, evaluation, and control. It also takes a great deal of energy, and this group is doing it beautifully all while managing the task of keeping themselves comfortable in an outdoor setting. It's a lot--I can't wait to see what they'll do next!