Leadership

We have continued to move through the science of the senses, in an attempt to draw the kids attention to mindfulness. They dropped watercolor paint into big jars of water and watched as the paint slowly made cool shapes in the water and as the different colors gradually combined to make new colors. We talked about the benefits of mindful seeing and when this is an important thing to do (while crossing the road, a surgeon performing an operation requiring ultimate attention to detail etc) and we talked about when one might combine mindful listening and seeing (an animal tiptoeing through the forest and not wanting to be noticed by a predator). Next we'll move onto mindful smelling. We've also begun practicing mindful breathing exercises with eyes open or closed depending on personal preference. The class has yet to master a few seconds of silence without silliness! But we'll get there, I think. Anyway, it's a good exercise. Some kids are naturally really into it and some have trouble disconnecting from the brain (that would be me included.)

We had our "sharing" picnic in Roxaboxen and invited the kinders to join at lunch time and the firsts graciously shared leftovers with them.

We tried to develop a list of rules for Roxaboxen but we were only able to reach unanimity on two rules regarding stealing. We'll keep working on this and I'll post a photo of our rule board when we've completed this task. So far it's been good practice with voting, with group discussion and a good insight into just how difficult it can be to reach compromise and a decision that all 10 kids feel good about.

For our community service component of leadership, the firsts took on the heavy (literally) task of moving all of the alpaca fencing from near the garden to beyond the merry-go-round. Older kids joined at recess but all the firsts stuck with the project and then seemed to feel a special satisfaction when we let the animals out to free roam. We used the fencing to block off the road.