WPNS News

Dear Oak,

I wonder if you ever feel like you just have to boom, and before you even have time to think — BOOM. Sometimes it’s booming energy that just bubbles up. Sometimes something surprises you, and your body needs to boom. Sometimes you’re working on something, and someone feels too close. Maybe they’re going to mess it up, and your body needs to boom.

Maybe you’re worried that someone will mess up your friend’s thing or that they won’t do what your friend asks. It feels like you have to do something!! And boom! Sometimes there’s a sound that is just aarrggg! And boom! Sometimes, someone else’s body boomed you. And boom!

Yikes! I don’t like the feeling, and I especially don’t like booming. It’s scary, and I want us all to be safe. Some of us get the boom feeling and don’t boom or hardly ever boom. Our bodies are just different. Bodies are cool.

What’s also cool is that eventually, with lots of play and just right help and love, we all get to where we don’t boom or hardly ever boom. I wonder what you do when you feel like you just have to boom.

Love,
Teacher Michelle

Dear Mulberry,

We started the day with Morning Meeting. It was wet and drizzly, so we met inside to do the morning news. We headed outdoors to check out the new table configuration and test out its dryness and suitableness for listening to books. As we were reading, the sun came out.

And there were glorious puddles for jumping in. I wore my tall rainboots with chickens. They should be called puddle boots because they are exactly what you need for the biggest splashes.

You tried to trick me into jumping into the puddle on Mud Mountain. “No way!” I just knew I’d get stuck in the mud and no one would ever get me out. Later you asked to make the hole on Mud Mountain even bigger. I wonder if anyone tried jumping in.

Love,
Teacher Michelle

Dear Oak,

There was the rock trap, trapping any bikes that wanted to speed around the bike path. I was cold. Riding a bike really fast could heat me up from the inside. Moving rocks could heat me up from the inside too. I started to rebuild the trap.

Two of you came to test this new trap laughing as you proved it couldn’t trap you. I was determined though to build it stronger and higher. Then it would trap you. Soon others came to help me build or help you escape the trap.

You told me you wanted to stop playing the game. You wanted the bike trap and accepted that we could rebuild that whenever you wanted. You went off to play some new game. In the meantime, the Halloween Cat had arrived. And the trap builders kept building.

Love,
Teacher Michelle

As Teacher Tom says, “Play is like love. It’s difficult to define, but I know it when I see it.” In play, children have the space to ask and answer their own questions, to pursue their own investigations. Play can be a conversation between children.

Today, I observed a child who has been coming to Rainbow School since infancy in conversation with a child who started Rainbow School in January. I came closer wondering what they were talking about as I hadn’t seen them interact previously. I could never plan for the sophisticated growth and development happening in this conversation — social/emotional, language, communication, and literacy, to name just a few. Plus, it’s delightful. Enjoy!

Dear Mulberry,

I was tired from making the rock trap. The stones were heavy. I’d gone to sit on the pillow hill and lean against the snuggly. I found a lovely place to rest my back, and just as I was settling in, my back rest moved and I found myself falling. I felt grumpy. I complained. Then the back rest reappeared.

Again, just as I was feeling cozy, the back rest moved. I felt extra grumpy and complained more loudly. Suddenly, my back was supported again. This time there were three supports. It was cozy but wiggly, and I felt something hard behind me, something not cozy or comfortable.

I got up to find a different seat, one with a back rest that didn’t keep moving.

Love,
Teacher Michelle

Dear Oak,

It sprinkled, light drops, here, there. Then it rained heavy drops enough to hear it falling on the roof, on the ground, all that water for making Mud Mountain muddy. You gathered in a group on Rainbow Mountain. It seemed that even with lots of rain, it wouldn’t fill Mud Mountain Lake fast enough. You made a plan.

You grabbed the hose and began to pull it from the house to Mud Mountain. You directed others to unspool the hose more. Then, you directed them to turn on the water, explaining your project of filling up the lake in Mud Mountain. There was a problem.

No water came out of the hose. You saw a crimp in the hose and asked for help. Then two more. Still no water came out. Suddenly it rushed out in a gush and you ran with the hose to Mud Mountain, so the water wouldn’t spill into the safe area.

Later, someone else helped me work on building up the dirt in the wet spots and puddles in and around the safe area. We worked hard together moving dirt.

Love,
Teacher Michelle

Dear Mulberry,

Mulberry is kind. You washed off a found treasure and brought it back to the finder clean. You divided up the vehicles you’d collected in your basket to fill an empty basket of a friend. You exclaimed, “You’re my best friends!” to two others that you were painting and taping with. You traded a blue truck for a purple truck because you knew that the other person liked blue. These are just a few of the kindnesses I overheard or saw and can remember. I wonder what kindnesses you remember.

Love,
Teacher Michelle

Dear Oak,

“I don’t think that’s a dinosaur track. You know the animals with horns like this.”
You made a swirl with your fingers near your head. I said, “Ram.”
“I think that it butted its head against the ground here.”
It did look like a ram had hit its head against the ground.

Later we came to another track, a really, really big track.
“That’s a dinosaur track.”
We wondered if other marks were dino footprints from the same dino.
“I’m starting to feel a little bit worried.”
You said something about thinking it was a TRex print, and I felt a little worried too.

Love,
Teacher Michelle

Dear Mulberry,

Today there were five. That’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, all five fingers on one hand. The tire swing fits four. Five is one more than four. Four is one less than five.

Two were spinning on the tire swing. Three more ran over to join. All five wanted to go on the tire swing. Two got on. Now there were four on the tire swing. But what about number five?

Three on the swing wanted to spin. One didn’t like to spin. It made their tummy feel funny. One of the first two decided to get off and have a snack break. The one that was waiting got on.

Now there are four on the tire swing and one having a snack. They began to swing.

Love,
Teacher Michelle