New Year Newsletter

And we're off!!! We're already having a fun time back to school after a restful break. It's amazing how well this group gels; it's truly my favorite year teaching!!!

Red Light, Green Light, Sunlight!

Over the last two days the kids have played Red Light, Green Light for hours, all on their own. They make up their own rules, and an older child helps make some suggestions as they go. When a younger one gets frustrated (their rules are very stringent against any movement), they let him have a turn as the caller.

Monocots and Dicots

It's time for germination! Monocotyledons (the grasses, with one leaf springing forth from the seed) and dicotyledons (the other vascular plants, with two leaves emerging) are germinating together this week and the hills are already turning green! It's been great to have the rains returning. When we played in the redwood forest we noticed no dry spots on the ground at all, a perfect demonstration of how well these trees gather water on their leaves to water their roots, even when precipitation is in the form of fog.

Speaking of Rainwater...

One child asked if he could drink rainwater from an acorn cap. It seemed a harmless enough trial, so I agreed. He tried it and had a pleased look on his face for quite awhile... Before he decided to spit it out and announce in a disgusted fashion, "That's for squirrels!"

Bee Rescue

The children found a cold, wet bee that they thought was dead. When its leg moved they quickly discovered that it was alive. The sun had come out, so one of them took it for warming, helped blow and brush it dry, and offered it orange juice from her lunchbox. It worked, and the bee flew away. Amazing, right?!?!

I can't wait to see what other adventures we get up to in the coming days and months. We're so fortunate to have this beautiful parkland so close to home, and to be able to witness our weather cycles firsthand. I hope we can find some newts! :)

Outside School Openings

The application is up on the site (https://www.teachoutside.org/outside-school) and enrollment is available for:
-Remainder of this school year,-2021 summer camp,-2021 - 2022 school year.

A Zoom Presentation

Last month I presented a Zoom talk for San Francisco State students and faculty there and at other institutions, "Transformative Education in the Outdoors: Promoting Freedom and Choice in Early Childhood." If you're interested in knowing more about it, I put the notes and photos up on my site:
https://www.teachoutside.org/transformative-education-in-the-outdoors-promoting-freedom-and-choice-in-early-childhood

I hope you and yours are well, and you have as happy and healthy a New Year as you can!

Take care,

Heather