Week 1 Update - Mr. Kyle’s Dragonflies
Greetings everyone!
This is Mr Kyle and I'd like to fill y'all in on our first day at Farm School. It was a calm and beautiful beginning to what I feel confident will be a memorable, fun and refreshing Fall season for your children.
Just before 9am, the start of class, we played a sound game with a singing bowl to tune in. Each student sharpened their hearing by listening to the bell's ringing until the sound faded from the air. This dropped everyone in to a space of quiet respect.
Then, to learn each other's names and move our bodies we played a game of animal charades; this activated the students' imaginations and connected them more fully with one another as each child took turns saying their names and silently acting out the motions of their favorite animal.
Once movement and bell ringing were done I laid out the agreements and intentions to follow for our semester of Farm School.
Some examples of these include:
Yes, I will be kind with my words and actions.
Yes, I will follow my guide's voice and assistant guide's voice when instructed.
Yes, I will ask my guide or another adult before picking any of the plants growing on the Farm or in the forest.
Yes, I will stay with the group and ask my guide before leaving for the bathroom or any other reason so I can go with either my guide or the assistant (Lillian, she's awesome!)
Yes, I will carry and use all tools and materials safely and kindly.
Once all had agreed to these I outlined the basic rhythm for our days at Farm Camp, which always includes snack at 10, lunch at noon, a farm chore, activity, craft and story. I let them know our specific schedule for our first day and played a hydration game with the students to ensure all were well hydrated before we left the woods for a scavenger hunt under the open sun.
Unfortunately two of the students had no hat or sunscreen, so parents please remember to pack your child's hat each time they come. As well as search for items on their scavenger hunt sheets, the students got to meet the Farm, almost all for the first time. I showed them the compost piles, chicken coop and composting toilet ("But how does it flush?" one child kept asking!)
Before lunch we had our story, an oral legend I told from the Native American tradition, that teaches the struggle and rewards of patience, perseverance and devoted hard work.
The story follows the work of an old woman who lives in a cave at the edge of the sea. Her work is twofold: to keep stirring her soup pot so the seeds of all future forests of the earth don’t burn, as well as to weave a beautiful blanket from thread and porcupine quills. There's a rascally but beloved black dog who unravels her weaving just before the moment of completion and a moment of reckoning while the old woman regards the fantastic mess on the cave floor. The story ends positively, with the old woman seeing the inspiration for an even more beautiful blanket, picking up a stray thread, and beginning to weave it all over again.
After lunch the students enjoyed unstructured free play for twenty minutes. We played a structured game of "robber bee finds the hidden honey" and then dived right into our daily craft: making paper crowns. Each child had a chance to decorate their own crown with drawings around the paper band and found objects in nature (mostly leaves).
We played another game, "What Time is it Mr Fox" and then cleaned up. Some of the students wore their crowns out to the playground to meet and play with the 5-6 year olds. They had free play for the last half hour of the day, finishing at 2pm.
On the note of pick up, parents, please plan to arrive punctually at 2 pm each Friday. This helps the overall flow and timeliness of the Farm and school immensely. Thank you for raising such wonderful and intelligent children, for trusting us with their safety and for giving them the gift of learning out in nature's green embrace.
I look forward to a creative, fun and refreshing Fall season at farm school. (We’ll remember to take more pictures next week!)
Kyle Matthews
