Week Eight
Ms. Christine: Have you heard about the birds’ nests on the playground? So, so many….all healthy eggs and watertight nests to withstand the weather this weekend. I am unclear about what will unfold next week . . . whether we will have more eggs and more nests, whether we’ll have baby birds, or something else altogether. This collaborative project has forged new friendships and kindness. The Acorns have started a Kindness Tally where we are marking a tally mark for each kindness we notice while at school. I’m also hearing about kindnesses at home! While those don’t count towards our school tally, I’m delighted the children are noticing. Life Is Good at Silver Oaks.
Geography
Geography: Local
Geography: International
Geography: International
Geography: Personal
Week Seven
Ms Alicia: This week, we launched the Someday Playground Project. On Monday we went outside and did observations of the playground. On Tuesday, read The Someday House and wrote about Someday Playgrounds. On Wednesday, thought of questions about the project, wrote on postits and placed on our question anchor chart. And, on Friday, searched for “World’s Best Playgrounds” and “Worlds Most Fun Playgrounds” and started talking and writing about specific structures we would like to build. I discussed how much things in general cost with the 3-4 graders (i.e. what can you buy for $1, $10, $100, $1,000, $10,000, $100,000, $500,000, $1,000,000). Some had a good understanding of monetary valuing, and others are just learning. We had some discussions about building things yourself vs buying them. For example, the slide on the playground would have cost quite a bit of money if we’d bought it new and had it installed. However, Tim and Olga found a free slide, bought the wood, and spent many hours working on it themselves. In all, it cost about $100.
Week Six
Ms. Christine: The Acorns continue to connect to a personal narrative story. Also, we are working on upper and lower case letter recognition, phonics, spacing when writing, and punctuation. The children understand that a question mark at the end of a sentence means that your voice will get higher at the end of the sentence. We also chatted about what is a complete sentence and what is an incomplete sentence. I introduced vowels this week; the children know there are five vowels and that if a letter isn’t a vowel, then it’s a consonant. The group diligently worked independently on upper and lower case letter books.
A few of the books we enjoyed this week were:
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Science Thursday: Pollination
Both classes got to see a puppet show about a flower finding out about pollination from friends and eventually getting pollinated. We read From Seed to Plant and talked about how the whole purpose of flowers is to make seeds in order to make more plants. So the building blocks for your "birds and the bees" speeches have been laid!
We then talked about seeds and the different ways they can be dispersed.
By far the best part of the class, was when the kids put on their own puppet show.
- Olga (mom and scientist)
Science Thursday: How Trees Get Water
Every Thursday, Ms. Olga shares - as in demonstrates, then lets the kids have a turn - a cool aspect of the natural world. In this picture, says Olga “We were using a bulb syringe to pull water up straws that ran along the roots and stem/trunk of the cardboard plant to show the route water takes to get to the leaves in plants.”
Week Five
The newness of the first few weeks is beginning to fade, and the familiarity of daily routine is settling in. We teachers have found our groove in the classroom. The children understand our clear expectations, question us in areas that are not clear, and help us smooth over the kinks. Together, we are discussing challenges, successes, things we could do better, and changes that need to be made. We have been tackling some really big stuff (aside from all the core content stuff!). We spend 15 minutes each morning discussing and addressing our classroom culture and return to it throughout the day. For example:
What if my friend distracts me when I'm supposed to be doing work or paying attention?
What if someone says something hurtful to me or someone else?
What happens when I play an exclusive game?
Who created the classroom rules that are posted? How important are they to me?
How can I be silly and funny and also be kind?
- Ms. Alicia (Director, and lead teacher of the Oaks)
Week Four
I love rain. I really do. As a kid I would hunker down on our very old porch & tuck into a good book while it rained. If I wasn’t doing that, I was finding puddles a la the Morton saltbox girl with my brothers. (We all had matching yellow slickers and hats.) But really. Enough. Cue The Happy Dance that the sun was shining yesterday and we haven’t had any rain (yet) today.
Your kids love the rain, too. They love that the playground is a mud pit. As in boot sucking mud that most think is simply hilarious. I’m sure you do too because you’re enjoying all the laundry. Lots of digging, moving mud and water, sweeping, stomping and jumping. We did explore the creek this week, and as a result have made a minor creek rule: we may wade but we may not swim.
I learned yesterday that Muddy Boots was a contender for the name of our school. How marvelously apropos.
Ms. Christine (Lead Teacher of the Acorns)
Week Three
In the Trenches
A large-scale construction project is underway in the playground. It’s purpose is mysterious, yet urgent.
Math is happening.
And so is English.
And biology.
Week Two
Whoosh……did you see that? That was Week #2 flying by! We were busy, muddy, sweaty & happy!
This week the Oaks & the Acorns settled into routines. The natural progression of chaos to controlled chaos to calmness as the children become confident in the flow of our days together is a beautiful thing. The playground has been an active construction zone, complete with a break room to sit down; the job of foreman rotates through the crew. The children are doing real outdoor work digging trenches, moving dirt and setting up excavation sites. The slide has been a hot attraction; the children are learning about physics while using big muscles in a cooperative setting. The children invented their own games of chase with their own rules and the jump ropes were a hot commodity as those that can do it helped those who are learning. We explored beyond our playground and visited the glen and the mediation area. Some had a keen interest in exploring the creek. We celebrated two birthdays this week, too.
We spent a great deal of time last week discussing the rules of our school; both in terms of what the rules should be and why a rule may be important. This list evolved over the entire week as the children encountered various situations. Whittling down from our original list of 28 rules, we agreed that these five were the most important:
Be kind.
Be respectful.
Be safe.
Take care of ourselves.
Take care of our things.
Christine (lead teacher of the Acorns)
Week One
The first day of school was hard. The night before there was some anxiety, trouble sleeping, and complaints of nausea. And the next morning, there were some tears after drop off. Oh, I’m talking about myself. The kid was fine.
The first-day welcoming ceremony was lovely; a small parade of kids dancing through a gauntlet of worried parents, who threw confetti over them as they went, along with good wishes. Even so, it was hard to drive away.
Of course, after every pick-up, in the car on the way home, I’ve very gently grilled my daughter about her day. So far, here’s what I’ve found out:
Day One: In the playground, she played with a little girl in a grey tee-shirt. They rolled a ball to each other down the green slide. The tee-shirt had some glitter on it. She ate all her lunch, and especially enjoyed the cherries.
Day Two: She read a book to her teacher, just the two of them. The teacher with the long brown hair (Ms. Alicia, I remind her). The book was not too hard, and not too easy. And it was funny. She made a construction and a boy tried to knock it down. She cried, “stop!” and Ms. Christine came over to help. Two girls had an argument over a chair, and another teacher asked them to figure out a way to take turns. Eventually (new word), they did. Eventually, she ate all her lunch, except the yolk of the hard boiled egg, which she would like me to remove in the future. Eventually.
Day Three: The children went for a walk in the woods and found some ants, a toad, minnows swimming in the creek, and a turtle in a pile of leaves. Or was it a tortoise? Do tortoises live in Maryland? Do turtles hibernate? We need to look that up. She ate all her lunch, except the cherries, because now she’s tired of cherries.
Day Four: Ms. Alicia read the class a story about dinosaurs wearing shoes. My kid retells the whole story, using different voices for the various characters, because that’s how Ms. Alicia did it. “Your teachers are very playful,” I say.
“Yes,” says the kid. “Because that’s how teachers should be. Because kids need to play.”
She ate all her lunch.
There is no day five, as this was a short week, though it felt long. Every day, after school, she has spent the evening singing.
—Rachel
Opening Day!
Today was amazing! Alicia and I have dreamed about the first day of Silver Oaks for over two years now and today it happened! How wonderful to see our first class of students and their families gather at the school and start the year off with a celebration! Pick up was adorably sweet too with everyone buzzing around excited!
We seriously could not have done any of this without each and every one of you! This is such an amazing place and we are all so lucky to be a part of it. Thank you all so much for taking a leap of faith and trusting us with your children! We have come so far together and it's just going to keep getting better and better!
We will have lots of bumps along the road this year as we work to figure out how Silver Oaks will come together. The best part though is that we CAN work it out! Besides the community, this is my favorite aspect of a cooperative school---we can actually make change happen together.
More to follow along these lines but for tonight . . . thank you all so much! We are really doing this and it feels just right!
--Annette
Playground-in-Progress
No more weeds - instead, a slide . . .
. . . and a beautiful shade garden.
Special thanks to Silver Oaks Director of Operations, Olga.
Playground-in-Progress - the before photos
The playground in July - lots to do!
Plenty of weeds to whack.
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Welcome to Silver Oaks Cooperative School!
Hello!
Welcome to the blog of Silver Oaks Cooperative School. To share your thoughts, ideas, anecdotes, and photos please email me, Rachel Waugh, at pr@silveroakscooperative.org.