Kindergarten had some very important decisions to make this week--our first one together as a group.  We have two new guinea pigs, and they needed names.  The children came up with a list of ten or so names--almost the same number as children in the group. 

     "How will we decide?" I asked.

     A small group of children quickly agreed on the name "Fluffy" for the rough-haired sister of the pair and suggested voting.  Another child, singly attached to the name she suggested, shook her head, "I'm not comfortable with that.  That means my name won't be used."  A child who had been in the Kindergarten last year suggested using a counting rhyme, but this was also rejected.

     "We have to compromise," another Kindergartner declared.

     "What does that mean?" I asked.

     "When no one says 'No'", he explained.

     "It sounds like you want consensus," I supplied.

     So over the course of several days and nights to sleep on it, the group continued to talk, shift, and coalesce around agreement on the names.  Eventually, through compromise, they arrived at consensus.  Some Kindergartners thought we needed more pets to name--more guinea pigs or perhaps frogs.  They decided some of the names could be used for our fish.  A Kindergartner pointed out that she has three names, so a guinea pig could also have more than one name.  Here are the names the children bestowed:  rough-haired guinea pig--Fluffy; smooth-haired guinea pig--Becky Toothpick; catfish--Demoned; reddest Mama fish--Lilly; tiny baby fish--Snuggly; other tiny baby fish--Cuddles.

     Each year I have spent with Kindergartners at Antioch School ends with the entire group participating in a culminating activity of the group's own design and choosing.  I never know what it will be, but in twelve years, it has happened without fail.  This year included.  The children performed their long-awaited Kindergarten Circus the day before the last day of school.  It was "epic, amazing, awesome", as circuses are known to be, and it was entirely and wholly theirs. 

     On the last day of school, after enjoying a wet and wonderful afternoon of water day activities, the children brought their towels back to our room.  They spread their towels out in our library to create our own beach for our very last story together.  As I was reading, one Kindergartner very quietly began moving through the group, giving each of the other children a hug.  A second began the same, though somewhat less quietly.  At this point, I stopped reading, as some children expressed that they were distracted by the hugging.  I offered that I could see the hugs were important and asked if we could finish the story, and then have time for hugs.  That is what we did. 

     Below is a poem the children created together earlier in the week, as we reminisced about our favorite memories from our time together.  Enjoy.

Kindergarten Remembers

We remember. . .

When we gardened the first day,

swimming

That time when we went to the pumpkin patch, and we were on a tractor,

Picking green apples at Peifers, and also my dad being there,

Forest Kindergarten when we did a lot of Mine Craft battling, but we weren't battling real people,

Making a big house in the forest,

Going to the creek in Forest Kindergarten,

Having pizza in Forest Kindergarten,

Bay Blades,

Ice skating,

Rip sticks,

Playing games.

Kindergarten

May 22, 2018

     By the last week of April spring weather finally made enough of an appearance that we began to see evidence of it in wild flowers blooming in the Glen.  The Kindergartners spent daily shared time with the younger Younger Groupers (YG'ers) that week.  (The older YG'ers were at the theater with the Older Group, working on their spring musical.)  Our YG friends joined us in Forest Kindergarten, where the group planned a hike to Meatball Rock via some of our favorite Glen landmarks--The Rocks, The Cave, the dinosaur's eye (a rock formation with a hole), and the lemon squeeze (where the trail cuts through two large blocks of rocks that form the cliff).

     Along the hike, we looked for wild flowers and discovered many more in bloom than just a week ago.  We saw Dutchman's Breeches, violets, May apples (not blooming yet), twin leaf, toothwort, spring beauties, toad's trillium, and bluebells.  The garlic mustard was coming up, though not blooming yet.  Some adventurous souls tasted it.  There was interest in trying a recipe I have for garlic mustard pesto, so we made a plan to try that soon with plants that we gather at school.  When we arrived at Meatball Rock, some YG friends gave others a boost and several Kindergartners made it to the top of Meatball Rock for the first time this year.  We enjoyed a snack together, before heading back to our forest classroom. 

     On a morning later that week, a couple Kindergarten children came in from the tire swing side of the playground. 

     "We found something!  It's alive!" they announced excitedly.  "It's a rat!"

     It did look like a rat, but was in fact, a baby squirrel so young its eyes were still shut and with only a thin covering of fur on its body.  It had fallen from one of the trees and was lying on the ground.  While I was trying to recall the advice the Older Group had received from a wild life rescuer, when they made a similar discovery a few years ago, another Kindergartner knew just what to do.

     "My mom knows medicine.  She's still here.  I'll get her to help," he declared, as he ran in to notify his mom, a midwife. 

     In no time, I had retrieved a long strip of parachute cloth to fashion into a sling.  Our midwife held the squirrel safely in the sling, while we found some extra stuffing from our recent sewing projects and used a leftover sock from a sock puppet project and some rice to make a warming bag.  Then our midwife mom climbed into the tree and hung the sling with its soft, warm bedding and tiny squirrel, as high up in the tree as she could safely reach.  We left it and played on the cycle circle side of the playground for the rest of the day in hopes that the mother would return to retrieve her baby.

     Alas, at the end of the day, the baby squirrel was still in the sling and had become quite cold.  Nathan, our school manager, had tracked down a wild life rescuer, Kim, who would take our orphan squirrel baby to raise and then release into the wild.  Kim informed us that squirrel mothers can only physically retrieve the very smallest squirrel babies and that our orphan was already too big to have been carried back to the nest.  The cold baby warmed up on the car ride and was active and healthy by the time she reached her new home.  Her name is Violet, and we look forward to getting updates on her progress.

     Sharing can be difficult, and for five and six year olds, it is a skill that often needs practiced again and again.  Sharing trikes, block construction,  space in the room and friends is something Kindergartners work on daily.  One might be the loneliest number, but three can be one of the most contentious, and spontaneous activities where all the children in the group take part often don't occur until sometime in the second half of the year. 

     Just this past week, this year's Kindergarten group began making big strides in this area of development.  Ironically, about the time they started organizing themselves as a whole group for an activity, one child articulated it well.  I had been supporting this child in a couple of interactions that morning that involved allowing a third person to join in play with two who were already involved.  Numerous reminders were needed, which involved interrupting the play.  Finally, in frustration, the resistant Kindergartner declared in a curmudgeonly six-year-old way, " . . . (at) this school it's just include, include, include!"

     "Yes!"  I responded.  "You've got it!"  I find it best to ignore curmudgeonly attitudes and fortunately for my work life, find them endearing.  Within the week, Kindergartners began to play a super hero game that inevitably descended into physical play fighting that became too rough for several participants.  "Your bodies are growing so fast," I explained.  "Sometimes it's hard to know your own strength right now, so this isn't working for everyone.  How can you play this, so that everyone stays safe and comfortable?"

     "We could play freeze tag instead," one Kindergartner suggested.  The group immediately agreed and decided to use their new favorite who's it rhyme, Blue Shoe, to find who would be it.  After a short time playing freeze tag, a problem with the plan emerged.  There was no agreed upon method for changing who was it, and the first it was getting tired of the role.  At that point, someone suggested just regular tag, so that who was it would switch with each successful tagging.  All the children were happy with that and almost every Kindergartner and some YG'ers joined in the game.

     When we called to go inside and get ready for snack, the children came running and gathered in our library.  All of them arrived before me, to their delight.  "This is a surprise," I told them. as this group often takes a bit of time to transition from playing outside to our clean up meeting inside.  They were beaming, glowing with energy from their game, as they all sat close in a circle--together and included.

     Due to the holiday calendar in January and one Monday snow day, we hadn't had a Forest Kindergarten morning since winter break.  Last week during snack, one Kindergartner lamented, "We haven't been in the woods."  So we made a plan for a Friday hike in the Glen with Brian during our art/science time in the afternoon.  We decided to hike down to the creek.  The children liked the idea of wearing snow pants and being able to slide in the snow down the trail.  They also were interested in looking for a barred owl, whose nest I had been by over winter break. 

     Much to their delight, temperatures on Friday warmed the snow enough to make it perfect for snow ball making.  A few of us were even able to see the owl peeking out at us from its spot in the hollow of a tree, before it decided to fly away.  The children marveled at how different the Glen looked under the blanket of snow and laughed at their inability to recognize familiar landmarks on the trail.  They greatly enjoyed throwing snow balls in the creek, discovering that they floated, rather than sank, and eventually grew smaller and smaller, until they melted entirely and disappeared. 

     Once we returned to school, the children made plans for additional outside time on the playground, before snack, so that they could build with the snow and enjoy a few more runs down the sledding hill, before the weekend thaw.

     Early this past fall, a returning Kindergartner inquired during a Forest Kindergarten hike, "Can we go to The Raptor Center again?"

     "We can make a plan," I affirmed.  At the time, I envisioned a spring hike to The Raptor Center, as the previous two Kindergartens had done.  Through the fall hikes, though, this group showed their capacity for and interest in long hikes.  They like setting challenges for themselves and persist in meeting those challenges.

     December came around, and it was time to make plans for the school giving tree.  This is a Kindergarten tradition which began decades ago with the Kindergarten cutting a live Christmas tree for their room.  Eventually, the tradition expanded to include everyone, whether they celebrate Christmas or not.  The tree became a giving tree and is set up near the front of the hallway for everyone to enjoy.  The Kindergarten still selects and cuts the tree.  This year the group hiked to the Yellow Springs High School Forest to cut our tree. 

     The Kindergarten also decides on a worthy cause to which all school families are invited to give.  This year's Kindergartners chose to ask for donations for the birds at The Raptor Center.  Here is their letter to families: 

     Dear Families,

     We  need money, suet cages, small and medium carabiners, select-a-size paper towels, dish sponges with green scrub sides, Dawn dish soap, plastic grocery bags, and Petsmart or Lowes gift cards for the birds at The Raptor Center.  We need the stuff by December 13th.  There's going to be a tree near the front door.  Can you please put the stuff under it?

Love,
XOXO
Kindergartners

     The children planned to hike to The Raptor Center to deliver the donations.  A few days before the scheduled hike, the children brought all the items left on or under the tree back to our room to sort and count.  With great pride, they made trips back and forth and filled our tables with the donations.  They especially enjoyed counting the money and several of them had donated from their own penny banks, giving them lots of sorting, stacking, and counting practice.  They raised almost $300 in cash and gift cards and a table full of paper towels, suet cages, carabiners, and other items to help the rehabilitating birds.

     On our hike, the children were excited to see areas of the Glen that we, as a Kindergarten group, had not been to yet--the new, wooden bridge, the water fall cave, the Yellow Springs, and the Cascades.  At The Raptor Center, they got to see three owls--a screech owl, a barred owl, and a barn owl--up close during a program given by Director, Rebecca Jaramillo.  We also got to view the resident birds housed outside with Rebecca as our guide. 

     "Why is this one here?" the children asked of each bird.

     "Most of them were hurt by cars," one child noted.

     The children proudly gave Rebecca the collected money, which I had carried with us in the group backpack, and they eagerly unloaded the other items from the cars, when parents arrived to take us back to school.  Rebecca told the children they could come back and visit whenever the Center is open.

     "We will," they declared.  "We'll be back to check on the birds."

     The seed was planted on one of our early Forest Kindergarten hikes this fall, when one of the children wondered aloud if there are otters in the Glen.  As we hiked along we talked about what kind of habitat otters need--one near water--and how there used to be otters here, before so many people came here to live, but there haven't been any for a very long time.  I mentioned that there are some animals that used to be gone or rare here that have come back, like coyotes and great blue herons.  I also shared that one species that returns before otters return are beavers.

     "Are there beavers in the Glen?" one inquisitive Kindergartner inquired.  As a matter of fact, there are.  Two years ago a Kindergarten group became interested in looking for signs of beavers in the Glen.  We hiked as far as we could into the south Glen, but had to turn around before finding any.  Eventually we found some beaver-chewed trees on a hike in John Bryan State Park that year.  This year's group decided that they wanted to venture into the south Glen to look for signs of beavers, too.  We began planning.

     I did a test hike to see how we might make the crossing at Grinnell Road near the covered bridge.  We studied the Glen Helen trail map to see how far the hike would be.  I talked them through the new obstacles we would encounter--a road crossing with guard rails on either side and a recently fallen tree to climb over shortly after the road crossing.  We made arrangements with volunteers to pick us up and shuttle us back to school from the parking area near the covered bridge.  This would be the farthest hike from school a Kindergarten group has taken. 

     The weekend before our hike was rainy.  It rained most of the day Sunday and much of the night.  It rained a lot.  There were flood warnings, but we decided to hike as far as we could.  If we ran into too much water, we could always turn around and hike back to school.  We took what we call the creek overlook trail.  It has many small feeders and water falls.  They were spectacular!  When we stopped at the creek overlook, we were in awe.  The water rushed by below us.  I asked the children to stay back from the edge, and they did.  I wondered, as they looked down on the foaming brine, if they were thinking, as I was, "dreadful sorry, Clementine".  

     We hiked on and shortly before approaching our road crossing, we came upon three beaver-chewed trees.  We could feel the rough imprints of the beavers' teeth.  I hadn't come across these on my test hike, though I don't know how I missed them.  It was clear to me by then that the one beaver-chewed tree I had seen on this side of the road during my previous hike was now somewhere in the middle of the very swollen creek.  As we continued on, the trail ended or rather it continued into the creek.  We could see the road, though, so we took a deer trail to reach it, farther up than we had planned.  The trail for the rest of our planned hike was clearly underwater, so we altered our route, following the road for a short way--single file, holding the guard rail for safety--to reach the parking area.  I contacted our volunteer drivers.  We were sitting on our tarp, sketching in our Glen journals, when they arrived.     

     The children were proud of reaching the covered bridge--at least reaching where we could see it.  We plan to return there to complete the second part of our hike, as my grandmother would say, Lord willing and the creek don't rise. 

     This year's Kindergarten group has completed our first month, September.  It is my third fall in the forest classroom.  There are some familiar fall rituals, like extensive burr removal needs during our first few Forest Kindergarten mornings, until the children learn which plants to avoid or have done most of the seed distribution.  There are flowers to be picked in the forest classroom.  The honeysuckles are sporting their red berries.  We haven't seen a puff ball mushroom yet, but I am hopeful that we will after our next rain. 

     On our first Forest Kindergarten morning, the children found some painted rocks left by a former Forest Kindergartner, as a welcome gift.  We put them in the bone museum to be enjoyed by all.  Late this week, another former Forest Kindergartner shared a special stick with me that he had found in the Younger Group's outdoor classroom.  We admired it together, and I feel really fortunate that the children have been able to carry their forest classroom experience forward. 

     This group set a goal of hiking to Meatball Rock, which is the farthest out and back hike any Kindergarten group has ever made .  This group likes a challenge, and they take things on quickly, I am learning.  On the advice of an experienced Forest Kindergarten classmate, they decided to proceed incrementally.  First hike to the Rocks.  Next hike to the Cave.  Then hike to Meatball Rock.  It took us two tries to make it to the cave. After learning that more of us need to carry water, we made it to the Cave last week.  They have also decided that they want to hike down to the creek, while the weather is still warm, so that is the plan for our next hike.  Then it will be on to Meatball Rock!

     After our return from the Cave last week and a snack of cheese and granola bars, the children spread out in the forest classroom and got busy.  Some of them discovered that the mud was just right and set up a mud pizza shop near the lean to.  One child found a thin rectangular piece of sheet metal that had washed up from the ground with the rain.  A small group installed it on one side of the lean to, stacked sticks along it, and used it to create a small second room at the back of the lean to. 

     The morning ended with some regret that we didn't have more time.  This is a common beginning of the year occurrence, when everything is new, including the ability for the group to, over time, plan for as much time is needed on activities.  "We can come back," I reassured the Kindergartners.  "This is our forest classroom.  It will be here for us to come to again and again."  And we are all looking forward to it.

     Children come home from their early days in Kindergarten here very tired!  Some children exhibit new behaviors that may be positive or negative, and sometimes experience new behaviors from their fellow Kindergartners.  What is going on and how is this Kindergarten different from other settings a child may have experienced?  I tried to answer these beginning of the year questions at last week's parent orientation.  Below I'll summarize the information.

     One of the big differences in our Kindergarten is that children have large blocks of time to organize their own activities.  Rather than having two to three periods of ten to twenty minutes a day of "recess" or play time (if they are lucky), the children only have two or three ten to twenty minute periods of time a day when I or their peers ask for their attention to things outside their own plans, things like a story, song, yoga, or a meeting to make group plans.  A child may still decline to participate in such group activities, however their choices during these times will be more limited in order not to disrupt the ability of the rest of the group to participate. 

     The children have a great deal of freedom here, but are asked to exercise a great deal of responsibility in managing that, so that the group and the school community work for everyone.  Just managing their own time and keeping themselves within the physical boundaries often require children to exercise new parts of their brains.  We don't have fences, and that is intentional.  It can be tiring work stopping yourself "where the trees say 'stop'", as we say in Kindergarten and Nursery, but it allows children to develop self-control and a sense of trust.

     Something else we work with a great deal at the beginning of the year, is laying the foundation for mistake making.  Children often need to re-orient themselves to the idea that mistakes are more then okay, they are an opportunity to learn.  We welcome them and always have time to allow a child to self-correct or to work together to solve the problem.  I could use my authority, as an adult in a group of young children, to encourage the children to avoid mistakes and conflicts.  Children this age still prioritize pleasing adults, but this would only postpone the work and the conflicts just get more weighty if the children are older and haven't learned the skills to solve them. 

     This idea has to be integrated with the guiding principle of Kindergarten (and really the whole school) that everyone must be safe and comfortable.  Just as the children are learning their physical boundaries, they are also learning social boundaries--how to identify when they are feeling uncomfortable or unsafe and how to express that.  We expect mistakes will be made, but we also expect the children to participate in making amends and solving the problem.  When those situations occur, we stop and take care of it with the individuals involved.  The children eventually learn to do much of this work themselves, but as the teacher, I am always here to support the safety and boundary setting learning.  It's amazing how skilled the children become at this once they internalize the concepts that everyone will be held in positive regard, and everyone will be allowed their feelings and the time that it takes to work through them to be ready to talk, listen, and solve the problem. 

     There are many individual meetings that go on daily this time of the year between small groups of usually two to four children over issues like, how to play a chase game so that everyone is safe and comfortable, how to share space, how to share limited resources (right now this group is working hard at sharing a few favorite pairs of roller blades), how to say what you need instead of using your body or being physical, or how to say what you need instead of something hurtful or uncomfortable.

     Here is one group problem that the children solved together this year.  After our afternoon snack, it is job time.  Kindergartners take turns putting away sand toys outside, feeding our class guinea pig and our fish, and washing our table after snack.  Children who don't have a job, generally use this time to read/look at books on their own.  After jobs, we gather together for songs, stories, and a final yoga pose before it's time to go home.  The problem was that many children who didn't have a job or completed their jobs were leaving the room or getting items out that had been put away for the day, so that Becky could clean our floors in the evening.  This was creating extra work for me and cutting into our time for songs and stories.  I brought the problem to the group and asked them what would work between snack and songs/stories time, so that our room stayed ready for evening cleaning, and we could have time for songs and stories.  Immediately they generated a list of workable ideas. Here is what they said,

"Afternoon after snack to do list:

• Jobs
• Read a book
• Draw at the little table
• Rest (in the quiet space, on the bottom steps, in a rocking chair, or make your own space with a pillow and quilt in the library)"

     I wrote it down, and they have been following it with great success.  I am looking forward to encountering many more problems with this capable group of problem solvers.

     Though the year has only just begun, the group already has made a week's worth of plans! Some children returning to the group want to revisit some favorite activities from last year, so we will be venturing out onto the golf course (field behind the tire swing side of the playground) to launch our stomp rockets and writing plays. Many of the children were interested in more play dough making experiences after we made cooked play dough last week. We will be making play dough mixing blue and yellow coloring and making edible play dough. We will also be making ice.

     The year promises to be fun and full with this energetic and engaged group!