Inside schoolroom spaces,
children
see
hear
touch
move freely
experience
discover
and respond!
As children engage with schoolroom spaces, learning becomes an active pursuit rather than a passive process.
Schoolroom spaces provide opportunities for the child to practice deep concentration.
Schoolroom spaces offer activities that are self-correcting for our little ones so that they may work on developing confidence through competency. Schoolroom spaces are organized to encompass an age span. It is wonderful when the younger child experiences the daily stimulation of older role models, and wonderful when the older child beams in the responsibilities of leadership. Students not only learn with each other but also from each other.
Schoolroom spaces offer opportunities for observation. The process of investigation and discovery motivates the child.
Schoolroom spaces provide opportunities for the older child to make choices for independent research that will spark curiosity, stir up the imagination and avoid the doldrums.
Schoolroom spaces elevate the child’s work.
Inside schoolroom spaces learning blooms.
Van Gogh chimes in, celebrating Da Vinci Summer II:
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
Can’t make it to the art museum this summer? Well, create your own museum at home!
This is a perfect impromptu activity for the patio or driveway. All you need is space, inexpensive sidewalk chalk, a box of chalk pastels in a lovely range of colors…and a bunch of friends.
What’s great about this project is that you get to own an original installation of art until you decide to have the artists close the exhibition with a few squirts of the hose!
Step 1
Prepare the surface using inexpensive sidewalk chalk. We used white because Van Gogh’s sunflowers are bright.
Step 2
Draw what you see. This is a terrific opportunity to practice observation skills.
Step 3
Color in the negative space (the background). Begin with colors slightly darker than the painting you are copying. This will add depth to the finished work.
Step 4
Begin to fill in the details. As you do, be sure to experiment with colors. Don’t use a single color. Use a range of analogous colors (colors that are neighbors on a color wheel) to simulate the rich layering that a painter such as Van Gogh might use.
Step 5
Layer and layer until your composition is complete.
Step 6
Make some lemonade and invite the neighborhood to your very own street painting festival.
Most of all… enjoy the process!
I am so excited for fall! It's true, I am actually excited for the first day of school! While I love teaching all subjects. Language arts is near and dear to my heart.
When our children are young, we teach them to decode (read) and to encode (write) language. This work, in fact, is a complicated task that spans at least three years of our child’s education.
We teach the child that letters—abstract strokes on a page—represent sounds. String those sounds together and you get words. Place words in just the right order on that same page and, well, now you’re talking.
From here the child learns to define, punctuate, to structurally order words on the page according to the rules of grammar. The child might not be able to define exactly why, but soon will discover that words strung together just right are delightful!
Remember Mother Goose?
Blow, wind, blow! And go, mill, go!
That the miller may grind his corn;
That the baker may take it,
And into rolls make it,
And send us some hot in the morn.
And Robert Loius Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses?
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.
My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more.
Remember when syntax was a wonder before it was a chore? We crush wonder when we belabor rules at the expense of discovery. Reading and writing is so much more than decoding and encoding.
How do we encourage our children to care about the work of reading?
How do we encourage our children to care about the work writing?
We encourage them to be curious. We encourage them to care about their ideas.
Many years ago, curiouser and curiouser, I had an idea.
How could I teach my children the valuable “HOW TOs” of reading while simultaneously encouraging their curiosity? How could I teach them the valuable “HOW TOs” of writing while simultaneously allowing them to shape their big ideas?
This quest has developed into an extended family passion—Blackbird & Company Educational Press!
I have found that books are terrific mentors, but I have a support team too. Following are some of them:
For phonics I use Explode the Code and a fun new online version.
With my older children I use, Vocabulary from the Classical Roots.
I love Easy Grammar (have used it for dozens of years).
When we teach our children that reading and writing is not a chore but an opportunity, we empower our children to delight.
Last week Søren decided to copy a Van Gogh drawing. He pulled out a sketchbook, sharpened some pencils and spent an hour studying line and texture, shape and value.
The result is stunning.
This reminded me of the wonderful creative journey my friend Sandra set her son, Joshua, on a challenge to “Draw 100 Faces.”
And so, the challenge is on. Only for Søren, the challenge verbiage has been transformed, “Make a book. Not just any book. Make a book of 100 heads.”
Some of the heads will be studies of famous artist’s drawings. He started with Van Gogh. He moved on to Paul Klee. Tomorrow he might try Da Vinci.
Some of the heads will be drawings from life. Today Søren drew himself.
But some of the heads will be straight from Søren’s imagination. These are the drawings I am especially looking forward to.
The goal is a drawing a day for 100 days.
And the reward?
Why, the book of course.
– Kim
California history projects
Our Waterhouse cooperative school began in Kim’s 900 square-foot, flat roof house. We hosted a diversity of characters during those early years. There was Mikalya, the darling recumbent student who taught us about her individuality as she practiced handwriting. Here was a six-year-old who could have been employed developing elaborate fonts. When it was time to journal she spent hours and hours crafting her name in script, but this was no ordinary script, this was script straight from her imagination. The term “fanciful letters” embodied the personality of the child.
Then there was Evelyn, my daughter the Kindergarten student who contentedly spent hours tracing illustrations from an entire book. Stopping to consider the academic standards involved in this task, Kim and I realized that in this single activity Evelyn not only met, but transcended certain state standards. Tracing complex illustrations, Evelyn developed her fine motor skills, strengthened hand-eye coordination, became aware of the connection between images and words, thought deeply about character and plot development and, perhaps most importantly, completed a complex task that was personally meaningful. Fast forward to high school, Evelyn would capture that certain something that made Mikayla Mikayla in the lines of a poem, “Dreamer Girl dangles / Her feet through downy clouds / Wiggles her toes over the earth / Beaming.” I have no doubt that her ability to make this profound observation about Mikayla’s individuality is in part due to the observation skills she learned to attend to as a child.
Reminiscing on our accomplishments during those first three years in San Luis Obispo borders on poetic:
• Pumpkin quilt
• Pysanky eggs
• Embroidery and soap making
• Rug hooking, and yes, basket weaving
• Ceramic snowmen
• That cool woven stool that took so much time
• Yarn dying and hand crafted knitting needles
• Pinwheels and the tee pee
• Lewis and Clark and US history quilt
• Little stone houses
• California quilt
• Woodshop class and glass mosaics
• Cooking cakes, breads and pies
• Taffy, cookies and Parker house rolls
• Crater experiment with marbles and flour
• Volcanoes and mapping the systems of the human body
• Bean sprouting and butterfly hatching
• Monarch field trips
• The rat maze and the rabbit’s chariot
• NASA launch and the Smithsonian
• The Saint Louis Arch
• Tide pools and deserts
• Piano keys plunking at all hours and the rat a tat tat on drums
• Pumpkin patch about a thousand times
• Elephant seals and beach clean-up on Earth Day
• Rug hooking
• Mark Twain’s childhood home
• Wilder girls in the hand sewn prairie dresses
• Visiting the pizza kitchen
• Over and over to the LA Science Center and the Natural History Museum
• Faith Ringgold slide show and giving her gifts
• Zoo trips and the whale watching boat
• Del Monte Café and the Santa Barbara Mission
• Teddy Roosevelt and the 13-year-old expert in NYC
• Civil War Sites, amestown and Williamsburg
• Clipper ships and Carnegie Hall
• D-Day and the beaches at Normandy
• Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Pigs, horses, goats, bats, iguanas, elephants
• THE GETTY!
• Misty of Chincoteague
• Mount Saint Helen’s National Park
• Timelines and maps
• Medieval history, War, and the ancient world
• Chinese history and the history of Israel
• Chumash Indians and the California Gold Rush extravaganza
I will never forget that first year we reserved the Community Room at our public library for a little open house, a time to help our students celebrate their accomplishments. My brother-in-law, Mark had one comment, ”Evelyn did more work in Kindergarten than I did in all of elementary school.”
– Sara
The most inspiring and fun-filled day of the whole school year is our annual Salon des Artistes. Reveling in all that been created throughout the year we celebrating and affirm the work of each young poet, filmmaker, artist, and writer. AMAZING!!
A great story has something for everyone.
As a kid, I was jealous of Claudia. I mean what girl wouldn't want to stowaway in an art museum? And not just any art museum, we're talking the Met!
“Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her pack. She didn't like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere.”
This is the precise passage that captured my imagination as a young reader, and if I am being honest, it still intrigues me. In fact, I spend my days encouraging my students to grab hold of this concept of “running to somewhere.”
When we mentor with books, great characters, like Claudia, give young readers a reason to press into their imagination.
“Some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up and touch everything. If you never let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you.” — E.L. Konigsburg
This past year, I explored The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler again with my 5th grade reading circle—five boys. It was fun to watch them connect with different aspects of the story. While they unanimously disliked Claudia (she's a girl after all), they identified with Jamie. My youngest son Søren had this to say, “I liked the mysterious statue. Remember when Claudia and Jaime snuck a peak of the angel? I liked that part mom.”
I could not help but smile when my budding artist decided to sculpt an angel in the style of Michelangelo for his culminating project. Søren's imagination was not sparked in the same way that mine was as a child and this is a good thing, is precisely what I love about great stories.
So Søren dove into what inspired him, found a Michelangelo(ish) image on his own to fashion his sculpture after. I did not have the heart to tell him that it is not a Michaelangelo in the midst of his creative process. I am glad that he discovered this on his own when he decided to do some research on the angel like Claudia and Jamie who went before him.
Now I know there is bias here, but in the end, I believe Soren's original work of art made of aluminum foil and paper towels surpasses the work being studied!
Søren's buddies thought his angel a masterful work of art. They even checked the base of his statue, just to make sure it was not a Michelangelo!
– Kim
Summer is a great time to acquire some habits that have been deemed extracurricular, habits that I believe are not supplementary at all, but a vital part of learning.
Making recipes with your children provides them the opportunity to learn basic cooking skills that will serve them the rest of their life and is a perfect time to show them some science.
Home Economics is my passion, so here goes…
To begin, choose a recipe that is simple and delicious. Next, decide what specific science topic the recipe will allow you will explore.
Soooo, let’s make some Sparkling Sugar Kisses! These yummy meringue cookies are easy and fat free. This recipe below is from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion.
Making meringues is the perfect gateway for a little lesson about eggs.
Eggs are composed of the shell, which holds the egg inside. Shells are produced in a range of amazing colors because they come from different breeds. While it is terrific fun to explore shell color, any color will do when it comes to making meringue.
Just inside the shell is the membrane.
When you crack open the egg you will see the yellow yolk sitting inside the albumen.
Out of the shell, fresh eggs stand up taller and firmer on the plate. The white should be thick and stand up around the yolk. The yolk should be firm and high. A less fresh egg will be runny and flat.
The chalaza, it’s the white cord that holds the egg in place inside the shell. There is an air cell between the shell and the membrane that grows larger with age.
Eggs are evaluated by passing them over bright lights where the interior quality can be seen. Grade AA eggs have a firm white and a thick round yolk and perfect shells. Grade A has “reasonably” firm whites and perfect shells. Grade B has thinner whites and some stains on the shells.
Now to the subject of sizing eggs. The size does not refer to the dimensions of an egg or how big it looks. Size tells you the minimum required net weight per dozen eggs. So Jumbo eggs have 30 oz. per dozen, ranging all the way down to Peewee eggs which have 15 oz. per dozen. Most standard recipes call for AA large.
The best thing about eggs is that they are high in protein, vitamins, and minerals.
Now on to the making….
To make a proper meringue you have to do a few things to ensure success.
Always begin with room temperature eggs because when you whip them more air can be incorporated so the volume will be bigger. To warm them fast just place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes.
Make sure the mixing bowl and whisk you will use to whip the whites are clean. Wash them in warm soapy water to degrease. Fat will coat the ends of the egg white’s protein, which greatly diminishes the whites ability to hold air.
Now you are ready to separate the whites from the yolks. Strain them through clean fingers! Most recipes for meringue call for a little salt and cream of tarter to help the molecules of whites hold onto water and air molecules—chemistry in action!
To beat the whites, use an electric mixer or whisk them by hand. Either way the whites go through several stages.
The first stage is a puddle of clear liquid. As you begin to beat, a puddle with foamy air bubbles will emerge. Eventually the whisk begins to leave tracks in the bowl. To test which stage your whites are in simply lift up the beater out of the foam. If a point forms and falls over immediately, you’re looking at soft peak. From here 15 to 20 more strokes will bring you to medium peak, and another 15 to 20 strokes to stiff peaks. Be careful, don’t over beat the meringue because liquid will begin to separate out from the foam and you’ll end up with grainy, lumpy looking whites.
Meringue calls for super fine sugar because it makes a less grainy meringue. To make your own super fine sugar simply give it a good spin in the food processor and the crystals will get super finer!
Make sure not to add the sugar too soon in the beating process. Start adding gradually somewhere between soft and medium peaks.
By the way, this recipe calls for vanilla, but I flavored mine with peppermint extract. You can even crush peppermints to add to the batter. Be creative!
– Sara
Sparkling Sugar Kisses
Yield 2 dozen // Baking temp 250F
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tarter
• ½ cup (31/2oz) sugar, superfine preferred
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or the extract of your choice
• Coarse sugar
Preheat the oven to 250F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
In a large, very clean, nonplastic bowl. Beat the egg whites until they’re foamy, then add the salt and cream of tarter. Add the sugar gradually, continuing to beat until the meringue is thick and glossy, and forms stiff peaks. Beat in the vanilla at the end.
Drop meringue by the tablespoon onto the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle each with coarse (or colored) sugar. Bake for 1 hour, then turn off the oven and let the kisses cool in the unopened oven (don’t peek!) for 11/2 to 2 hours, or until they’re dry and crisp all the way through. Remove them from the oven and store in an airtight container.
It you use a tablespoon cookie scoop, don’t heap it; level it off; to obtain the correct size and number of cookies. For fancy meringues, pipe them onto a sheet using a pastry bag and the tip of your choice.
Variations: Stir in ½ to ¾ cup mini-morsel chocolate chips after the vanilla.
“There are several words that sang above the rest in my high school science classes.
From botany, photosynthesis is the one.
From marine biology, Echinodermata and Coelenterata.
From chemistry, stoichiometry.
And, from cellular biology, mitochondria captured my imagination.”
So begins the lesson.
"Mitochondria located in the cytoplasm are little energy factories within the cell. These amazing organelles enable respiration, which allows the cell to move, to divide, and to thrust their unique purpose. Mitochondria can have different shapes depending on the cell type. Because they contain their own DNA, ribosomes and can produce their own protein, mitochondria are only partially dependant upon the host cell."
What I set out to explore with my students is the fact that mitochondria possess a double membrane, an outer, which is smooth, and an inner, which possesses many folds called cristae which exponentially increase membrane surface area.
“All living cells have mitochondria. But it is amazing to consider that typical animal cells have up to 2000 mitochondria… in each cell!”
I wanted to take their imagination on a journey between these folds.
“Folds give mitochondria their unique potential; enable the organelle to be highly productive. Cristae take batches of sugar and oxygen and produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate)—cell food.”
At the beginning of the year, science began by exploring the idea that science and art are uniquely connected.
Leonardo himself reminds us, “All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.”
My hope was to connect the exploration of mitochondria to the unit we had just completed on the human nervous system. We explored the potential of individuality as we explored the brain—human potential, genius. And here another potential to bridge the gap between learning information and sparking individuality presented itself, this time on a cellular level.
“So today, to continue our exploration of mitochondria, we are going to watch a film about origami.”
Yes, origami.
The students gathered round the TV. I popped in the DVD and set out to accomplish some administrative goals.
Not far into the film I overheard the little group letting out amazement. I was not surprised. But soon I witnessed something that caught me off guard. One-by-one individual students from the group ranging from the 5th through the 11th grader, got up to grab a stack of paper.
They were folding.
The film did not provide a directive to viewers. This was not a "fold-along" film. These students were engaging in the task spontaneously.
Being inspired is magnificent.
During the next biology workshop I provided instructions and large pre-cut squares of paper for the students to fold a hyperbolic parabola. This, to reinforce the film’s message that even paper has hidden potential.
“Folding paper is work. But your work is not in vain. Your work utilizes a fraction of potential. And the paper will never be the same.”
Dare I say, neither will they?
I think mitochondria is one of those words that will stick.
