Longhouse School

I’m not really supposed to post as per my uni mentor until I catch up on Longhouseschool.blog. But today was exceptional and I am happy not to skip it.

Our Track run is now 6:30am and we have a full house. The students take running very seriously and this includes warm-ups and cool downs. First and second graders!!! They range from .5 to 2 miles of walk-runs or straight running. Doesn’t matter and they are having fun.

They complain that they stink when they finish and there’s no place to swim or wash because of the construction. They are right, they do stink, and so do I. There is one shower in the Dewey House and they patiently take turns to use it. We have to find a better way.

Breakfast is always “continental.” Porridge or grits, cornmeal cakes or farmer’s bread with cheese, cold cuts, and left overs from the prior day’s lunch. It’s not Honey Nut Cheerios.

After breakfast…

Warm-ups: Kids do independent reading/writing and they like “trading cards” with their sight “free” words.

Appetizer: We do a good hour of ELA/Math workbooks with some kids being pulled into groups for skill work. Today we skipped Project Time and Community Studies because of our trip.

Max: The kids meet with Max. Today, from a safe distance, he showed us all the 6-feet deep holes that were dug yesterday. He let us peek at the heavy metal pipes that will be placed in the holes. “The hardest part is making sure we are highly accurate. Otherwise, when we plant the vertical skeleton into them, they won’t be the right size for the glass modular windows–either they won’t fit or they will leak cold air from the outside! Next, we cement the pipes into the holes. They will be a very strong foundation for the rest of the enclosure.” He also showed the kids the compressor, the intake heat pipes for warming the pool water and the outtake pipes for removing the cold, the pump that keeps the water flowing, and the insulation that keeps it from freezing.

The kids know how to take notes now! Perhaps it’s in invented spelling, maybe “free” words. And they annotate their notes with sketches. They like sharing their work with each other–so it’s reading and writing. The teachers do the same. But the kids prefer to look at their work than ours. Especially a couple of them attract attention. It’s not that it’s skilled artwork, but somehow there’s emotion in their illustrations that the kids feel.

We hopped into the bus and off to the town we went. The kids love “Nature Nancy” who is actually the librarian here. Today’s agenda was to walk to a grove of “gingko” trees in the town.

Some student comments:

“They are still so green!” “They are the greenest of all the trees this time of year.” “Look how the light shines on them, and how the leaves dance with the wind!” “This tree is different from the others. It grows up straight and skinny!”

We took a break for a picnic lunch. Dee had brought corncake for everyone and various toppings. We knew we were delighting in acorn butter! That’s right! We’ll tell them later how to make the next batch. To warm them up, we filled hot cups with stew which they enjoyed. Again, Ms Dee had added very small chopped pieces of fish. Don’t ask, don’t tell! You know when you win when the kids ask for seconds. Apple slices for dessert.

After lunch we went into the library’s “activity room” where Nature Nancy had set up painting stations. She talked about mixing colors and how to make greens that matched what they had seen. She gave them small rectangle pieces and they painted. On Monday we will make our Gingko tree!

From the library, back to the ice-skating rink. Yes, I am tired!!! And I have more work to do!