It began with Miss Joya lovingly planting some basil plants over the summer with her children. She tended them regularly, a true testament to exactly how much time she spent in her classroom over the summer months. By the first week of school, they were just exploding.
Since our school mission includes sustainable agriculture and free play in nature, we thought it would be a great idea to involve the students in some way. Here is how it went: Read more
Play: The single most significant factor in determining our success and happiness.
–Stuart Brown, M.D.
I recently had the pleasure of supervising the Elementary recess period. Despite the fact that it was the middle of December, it was 65 degrees and there was not a coat in sight. The Elementary play area is approximately four acres, so the children were fairly spread out.
I was immediately invited by Zoe and Piper to participate in their aerobic workout. Great….. Just what I needed! Read more
These chickens have enriched our lives so much since they came to our school. To begin with, the children hatched them out in their classrooms, carefully monitoring the temperature and checking the humidity of the incubators. They candled them and got to see through the shell the living, moving embryo contained within – an embryo that is similar to a human’s for a period of time. That was an amazing lesson! They got to witness the tiny chicks’ great effort to get out of the shell, and what happens if they cannot.
The children displayed tremendous empathy when one chick struggled to survive for the first 24 hours. They organized heat lamps, shavings, water, food, and shelter as the chicks grew. They built a small fenced area for them to run around in daily. It was great. Read more
We were honored by a visit from Harvey Ussery yesterday, widely known in these parts as the “Chicken Man” for his vast knowledge of and advocacy for the birds.
He spent more than an hour answering the children’s questions. Then he taught them to clip the wings, herd the flock, and the proper maintenance and composting of the litter in their coop. They learned that the covering on a hen’s ear matches the color of her eggs, that hens molt every fall and don’t lay at the time, and that our roosters were not nearly as aggressive as the children thought.
Now our flock is appropriately confined to a large fenced area and roosts in their coop at night. This morning, the children saw the result of their care: The first egg laid in the grass. Believe it or not, it has already been cooked and eaten!
We already knew the school year would be unlike any other: getting ready for a move, new teachers in the classrooms, new friends to meet and families to welcome.
But then there was the crowing.
Peeking into the Elementary yard in mid morning revealed two roosters and five hens happily scavenging for bugs in the grass, up on the porch poking around, and having a stared own with Charlie the dog.
“They’re looking for people,” Miss Edel explained. “They’re very social.”
That need would soon be met with multiple daily visits from the children, feeding them, cleaning their pen, changing their water, repairing the fence.