The Rookery

It may seem strange to reflect on the closing of our year back in June when our momentum at this point in the summer is urging us toward September (why do the stores put "Back to School" things up in July?!)  But the end of the year is closely linked…

The end of the school year always moves so quickly — I often return to the blog and realize how much has happened that I didn't have the chance to share with you.  With all three of my kids off to the same camp (summer Village) and them not needing…

Yesterday afternoon, the Herons took advantage of a sunny few minutes at the end of the day to play "Alaskan Baseball."  It's a silly game and we were pressed for time so I didn't explain it very carefully, figuring we would get it as we went. Because of this confusion…

Whole school brush hauling. A different kind of education. A hallmark of progressive education is the education of the whole child.  We strive to nurture a child's academic, physical, emotional, and creative growth.  Our honoring week is a celebration of this growth, the high point of our year.  And then, every…

Our project check list.     Today was our first day of presentations and the sigh of relief was almost audible.  It was so exciting to see the long months of project time come to fruition.  The Herons (and all of the 4/5s) have been working so hard to wrap everything up.…

Many thanks to Mr. Roehl, J.R.'s grandpa, who came by the Wednesday before break to help us tap the maple tree out in front of the school.  We learned a lot about how to safely tap a tree and got to share some of our tree knowledge with him!  Over…

     Today we took a bit of time out of our regular math routine to celebrate the wonder of math.  It was Pi Day (3/14) and we gathered together to wonder at the number that is pi — it may be an irrational way to spend the morning, but hey.…

One of the challenges (and joys) of teaching Forest School has been creating curriculum on the fly (no pun intended) to match the weather.  Two weeks ago, I had planned to have the Herons sketch the square foot patches they had chosen last fall – the popsicle stick markers were…

"It's useful…actually." these were the words of a fifth grader when talking about our puberty education talks.  Someone had erased that part of the day from the schedule and I took that as an opportunity for the class to talk about how challenging it can be to talk about puberty.…

Heading Home – The Herons, Fall 2016 Our yearly auction is coming up and I know you are inundated right now with reminders and raffle tickets and invitations.  Please know, we wouldn't have an auction unless we needed to.  We are a public school.  Public schools should be truly free.…