“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Charles Dickens These two weeks after fall break have flown by! The students started off with a mask project where they decorated masks and wrote either a paper or a work of fiction about their masks. There was also plenty of Halloween prep…
This week was very full of amazing activities, surprises, and birthday celebrations! The weather continues to be absolutely beautiful. We started off the week with the addition of a playhouse/clubhouse for the school. The students spent most of Monday morning outside having a picnic at Bear Creek, and in the clubhouse, and have dubbed the clubhouse…
This week the weather was absolutely glorious, so we found ourselves trooping out to Bear Creek as often as possible. The students made salamander “hotels” (we learned that salamanders are excellent creatures- they eat so many pests!) and caught crawdads. Back at White Owl lodge, students played badminton and continued archery. There was a lot…
This week was a challenge due to the weather. Kids need exercise, but when it’s over 100 degrees outside- what do we do? The answer: SLIP N SLIDE! We ended up pouring most of the soap we had in the entire school building to reduce friction, but it was WORTH IT!!! Soapy, happy kids were…
This week at Tsula was about enjoying the gorgeous “faux fall” weather we have in Tennessee. The students were very interested in tree-climbing. They started off in a pine tree,but soon found an amazing Maple tree which they dubbed “The Owl’s Nest”, and now we have big plans for a tree-house. All the kids took…
This week, we continued with many of the activities we’ve been doing including morning check-in, sewing, archery, gathering, hiking, identifying and our math and new science class. Some of us also did some individual activities including “L” kite flying and “J” using the LOGO programming language to have a robot read a story he had…
We had the addition of a new student this week, which is always wonderful- it’s amazing to see what new kids offer to the class, in terms of novel games, ideas, and attitudes. We spent more time indoors this week than we have in previous weeks, because now every student has roller skates and there…
We had another wonderful week, and it wasn’t all easy. What you won’t see here in these weekly summaries are the details of interpersonal dynamics. I omit those details out of respect for the safe space we’ve nurtured as we co-create our community. And, while the details of our interpersonal interactions are not crucially important…
This week was amazing in so many ways. We went on daily woods walks which gave us a lot of opportunities to observe and interact with nature, including identifying many different plants and animals. We focused some this week on leaf patterns and shapes. Many of those walks were to a site we call “Strider…
We wanted to do so much and so little this week! So much, in that we wanted to nurture a forest-like feeling for our shared learning environment. So little, in that we wanted to leave plenty of room for our activity to flow from the intersection of our wants, needs, and interests with what was…