We are getting good at Spanish! Our students study Spanish for 15-20 minutes each day. At first, we only listened, so that we could begin to understand spoken Spanish. Now we are starting to learn to read what we understand orally. The children in the photos below are matching pictures with sentences. We are also learning the folk tale, Tres Cerditos, or The Three Little Pigs, in Spanish. The students are creating their own storybooks and will learn to read the story by the end of this school year. The literary language adds much to the study of conversational Spanish. On Friday, we went to visit with our senior friends at Wood Creek Apartments. These residents love to play games and win prizes. And guess what? So do children! It was a special time of service and fellowship with people of differing ages. As we looked on, the teachers commented that our students have grown significantly in their ability to be both gracious hosts and gracious guests this year. They have discovered the joy that comes when we step outside ourselves to serve others. Today we walked over to Art Blooms Studio to work on a project to commemorate the successful completion of our inaugural year. Students drew a self-portrait on clay tiles and began to paint them. Next week they will finish painting, then the tiles will be fired and mounted together to form a collage that will hang in our school.
We had several treats last week. First, Chelsea came with Tucker, a one-year-old Labrador who is training to be a service dog for the blind. Chelsea talked with us about her time with Tucker, in which she was responsible for teaching him basic obedience. We learned that you should never approach a dog that is wearing a service jacket, because that means he is working and needs to concentrate on helping his master.
While playing at home on Tuesday, Susanna found a spectacular insect in her driveway! Of course, she caught it and brought it in for Nature Study on Wednesday. With a little research, we found that it was an Eyed Click Beetle. If these insects are placed on their backs, they sit still for a few minutes. Then, with a loud "click", they bend their heads back and launch themselves into the air to turn over. Our beetle did this while he was in the jar, but when we put him on the table and tried to video this trick for your viewing pleasure, he was uncooperative (or tired!). On the same day, Brett brought in the skin of a copperhead snake that he found at home and mounted on a board for us to study. While the children did their paintings, we read about poisonous snakes in our area and learned that copperheads are more aggressive than other snakes, but their bites are generally milder, since they do not inject as much venom as rattlesnakes or cottonmouths. On Friday, we went to Catawba Science Center. It was, to quote Justin, "AWESOME!" We saw many specimens that are native to our area. We also explored principles of physics and played with technology. At least one cricket was eaten during the day!
We have been busy! Last Friday, we prepared a meal of lasagna, salad, and brownies for Dr. Joe Collins, who makes and plays mountain dulcimers. A parent sent in a hammer dulcimer for comparison. We picked kale out of our garden, and since it had bolted, we used the flowers for centerpieces. Dr. Collins showed us how the dulcimer works, and we sang some American folk songs. We also had a yard sale fundraiser on Saturday and cleared over $800! Thank you to all of you who donated and came out to support our school. It was great exposure in the community, since many people who came in had no idea there was a school there.
The students finished their art projects on a favorite artist. Now they are working on self-portrait tiles that will be put onto a keepsake board and hung in the school to commemorate our first year together. Can you believe it's almost over?! We are still enrolling in grades K-9 for the 2012-2013 school year. If you or someone you know is interested, call or come by!
Do you wish your child loved going to school? Do you wish she wasn't exhausted when she got home? Wouldn't it be nice if your son's afternoons and evenings were free for play and family activities, instead of tied up with a "second shift" of school due to hours of homework? Do you wish you could play more of a role in your child's education? We have been there. Here are a few other things we wished. We wished that our children's education took place as much outside the school walls as inside. We wished that they could learn real life skills like cooking, gardening, cleaning, and balancing a checkbook. We wished that they could learn to be active citizens in their community and to develop healthy relationships with others. We wanted them to learn more than the fragmented bytes of information found on standardized tests, and we wanted them to understand that "education" is a life-long endeavor; if you stop learning because you were handed a piece of paper, then that is something to mourn. We wished for all of those things, and so last fall we started Willow Tree Community School. Willow Tree is a place for kids to be active, because it is in their natures to be active and it is good for their bodies. It is a place for their minds to be stretched through the study of languages, literature, poetry, the arts, history, and current events. It is where they can explore science and math in an experiential way, so that they can understand the logic and come to see knowledge as interrelated. It is a place where they can encounter God in the ordinary, rather than seeing Him as divorced from all of the things in the world that there are to know. Knowledge is not something that is cold and distant to our students--it is something that is intimate and life-giving. At Willow Tree, parents are recognized as the primary educators of their own children, and they play an active role in the school. There is a profound sense of community as the adults rally around the students to help them grow in knowledge, wisdom, and character. Our parents have described the difference in their child's school experience this year as "from death to life". They appreciate that their children are valued as unique individuals. They love the fact that, while their children may come home and recount the story of Perseus and Andromeda, quote Shakespeare, or order their dinner in Spanish, they will not be stressed about grades or test scores. This is not a "standard" education, and for that, we at Willow Tree could not be prouder.
We are not wishing for a broad, rich, liberal education for our children anymore; we are living it. If you are a parent or grandparent and these ideas resonate with you, then you need to come to our next parent interest meeting this Sunday, May 6, at 3:00. There you will be able to see our curriculum and samples of student work, ask your questions, and talk to teachers and parents to get a feel for what we are all about. You may also like to browse other parts of our website or call us at 864-761-6484 to find out more.
We have been away for a few weeks to give our Lead Teacher time to finish writing her doctoral dissertation, but we are back now and looking forward to sharing lots of exciting things with you for the rest of the school year! This blog post will help readers catch up on a few of the things that have been happening around the school. First, our Form 1 students learned to subtract 4-digit numbers with trading! This video shows their first attempt, and it really demonstrates what a strong understanding they have of number and place value. They were not told which side to start on or to carry numbers. But it is very clear that all the hands-on activities have really helped them understand this concept! Next, we had kittens! Graymalkin is a neighborhood cat that showed up the first week of school. Every day, she would come and sit on the back stoop and wait for the children to come out to play. When it came time for her to have her kittens, she chose to share the experience with us. When we came in on Thursday morning, Graymalkin was obviously looking for a place to kit. We found a box and some old towels for her, and she moved in. On Friday morning, there were two kittens, one of which did not make it. Over the course of the day, she delivered three more. Since then, she has not moved them from the box on the back stoop. She even lets the children hold them! At three weeks old, they now have their eyes open and are scampering about a bit. On our last Outdoor Classroom day, we went to a farm belonging to one of our families to explore and work a little in the garden.
Last week began with the discovery of slug eggs during our weekly exploration of the edge of the woods at school. The eggs on the leaf are "duds", but the ones in the center picture contain embryos. We collected them, along with some of the surrounding mud, to see if they will hatch. On Thursday, Mr. and Mrs. Brame capitalized on the students' current interest in the Harry Potter stories by organizing a game of Quidditch for PE. This was a fun way to combine physical activity and imagination! Did you know that lots of colleges now have intramural Quidditch teams?! On Friday, we walked over to Gardner-Webb to meet with Botany professor, Dr. Tom Jones. He showed us some of the interesting and unusual plants that grow on the nature trail between the pond and Broyhill Adventure Course. One such plant is Bloodroot, which produces a white flower, and which is just starting to bloom. The roots of these plants have a red juice that Native Americans used to treat skin cancer. Scientists are now investigating their effect on melanoma. Another is the Princess Tree, which was brought over from China and now spreads and grows very quickly. Dr. Jones showed us several kinds of wild mint, as well as Bittercress.
The weather was beautiful last week! On Wednesday it was much too pretty to stay indoors! We took advantage of the sunshine by walking over to Gardner-Webb. There were not many signs of spring yet, although one Magnolia tree was beginning to flower. The students are into Harry Potter right now, so on Friday we divided into houses and prepared a special meal for our guest speaker, Coach Jim Corn. He spoke on southern culture during the 1960s, so we made "soul food": Chicken and dumplings, collard greens, cornbread, grits, salad, and peach cobbler. Our Form 1 students recently read a biography of Arthur Ashe, a famous African American tennis player who broke down the race barrier. Coach Corn played with Ashe in the 1960s, so he came to tell us about it. At that time, the races were segregated. There were different schools, different water fountains, and different bathrooms. They did not even eat together. Coach Corn talked about his experience when the schools integrated for the first time. He also told about how Arthur Ashe was not allowed to play at some country clubs.
We all liked the peach cobbler best, and some of us were surprised that we liked the collard greens. The grits were interesting because we had to separate them from the chaff. We discussed a couple of ways of separating mixtures, like sifting or throwing it up and letting the wind blow the chaff away, but in the end we decided the water method would be best. We covered the grits with water, and the chaff floated to the top, where we could skim it off. During one of our breaks, two of our students were found engaged in a Wizard's Duel while Abbie played referee!
Last Friday we went to South Mountains State Park for our winter visit. We went in the fall and learned all about how to identify trees by their leaves. Revisiting in winter allowed us to see things that were less visible in the fall. Last time, we saw that the Eastern Hemlocks were under attack by parasites. Unfortunately, those trees look worse now even after being treated with pesticides. The ranger was afraid most of them might be lost. We found the egg cases of the small beetle on the undersides of the needles. Among the new leaves we learned to identify were the Red Oak and the Tulip Poplar. We were able to review our knowledge of other leaves, such as Sycamore, Sweet Birch, and Red Maple from the brown, crunchy leaves we found on the ground. The Rhododendrons and Mountain Laurels looked the same as they did in the fall. The ranger told us a story about how he was walking in the woods once and thought he heard a stream close by. He walked in all directions trying to find it, before finally realizing it was the Rhododendrons. When the temperature drops quickly, they roll up their leaves to protect themselves, and it makes a crackling noise! It was great to be able to see the changes to the hiking trail from Fall to Winter. We will go again in mid-April to see the wildflowers in bloom. Maybe there will be Ladyslippers!
Today we finished Act 1 of Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's hilarious comedy about mistaken identity. Here is an account of what has happened so far (student narration):
There were two twins who were separated [shipwrecked during a storm] and each swam to different islands. One, named Viola, went to the duke to work as a boy even though she wasn't one. The duke sent her to Olivia because he loved her and asked if she loved him. She didn't, but she did love Viola, so she told one of her workers to give him a ring he had dropped and don't let him refuse to take it even though Viola didn't drop a ring.
We also began learning to read in Spanish today. So far, our study has been completely oral, and now we know why: Spanish spellings do not sound the same as English!
Our artist this term is Mary Cassatt. Today we studied this painting, titled Little Girl in a Blue Armchair. The students looked carefully at the piece, trying to imprint every detail on the eye. Then we turned the pictures face down and told all the things we remembered before making a sketch from memory. Then, just for fun, we made up stories about what might have happened to the little girl. Here are a few of the children's ideas. See if you can match your student with his/her story!
1) The girl's little sister got her in trouble and so now she's in a Time Out.
2) The girl is a super model posing for a picture.
3) The girl is relaxing while watching cartoons.
4) The girl is a space-time traveller who finds herself stuck in 1865 and is trying to figure out how to get home.
5) The girl got sap on her hand while playing in a pine tree and then touched the back of her head. She is now trying to figure out how to unstick her hand from her hair.
6) The girl has been playing with the dog and got fleas on her neck, so she is scratching.
Last week we enjoyed the warm, Spring-like weather by getting outside a little more. We explored the plants around the school and found two bird nests in the bushes. Several children studied how they were built and made sketches in their nature notebooks. Some of the students also chose to work on their hand crafts in the sunshine. On Friday we took a field trip to Historic Brattonsville, where we saw homes and other buildings from both the Revolutionary War and Civil War periods.
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