FEBRUARY
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
Happy Black History Month! A few weeks ago, Erica sent an email with a curriculum update so I would like to highlight everything else in between. This past month was filled with lots of art, love, tradition and inspiration.
Valentine’s: This is a popular holiday to celebrate at Orchard because the kids get to decorate their own heart shaped cookie as well as fill each other’s Valentine’s boxes with sweet notes and trinkets. The kids made gorgeous multimedia art with elmers glue, watercolor and chalk pastel.
The cookie decoration was too enjoyable and messy that I forgot to take any pictures. Thank you to Kerena (Jordan’s mom) for providing the homemade cookies and buttercream and thank you to Jessica (Siena’s mom) for making us red and pink icing to decorate. Toppings provided included: strawberries, whipped cream, tiny chocolate chips and sprinkles. The kids also gave and received many Valentine’s from their penpals in other classes.
Chinese New Year: We were fortunate to celebrate Chinese New Year (year of the Ox) on the first day of the new year celebration. This holiday, celebrated in China and in other Asian countries lasts two weeks, making it the longest holiday! We discussed several fun facts about this holiday, made paper lanterns, did a step by step of an Ox, learned the Chinese character for Ox and kept a bit of Orchard tradition alive by parading through campus with drums, tambourines and shakers scaring away any evil spirits lurking with our noise, chanting ‘Gung Hay Fat Choy’! Even though we weren’t able to get in our dragons it was a lot of fun.
Art class: Besides the holiday art created the kids enjoyed lessons on blending (but not over blending) colors as well as adding texture with brush techniques with watercolors and made sweet portraits of bunnies.Another fun project was drawing the “Impossible Triangle”, also known as the Penrose triangle, an optical illusion first drawn by Swedish artist named Oscar Reutersuard in 1934. Not only was it fun it was another opportunity to practice creating three tones with one colored pencil. In honor of Black History Month, the kids enjoyed an art lesson with tempera paint inspired by Alma Thomas. With the leftover paint from the project the kids created their own freestyle painted paper to use for another class. I’m so glad we did because this past week the kids made a fun collage using the paper created and made a sailboat with mountain ranges in the background while learning about contrast. With the foreground and background (the lake and mountains or tree line) in mind, it was a challenge to make sure your subject (the sailboat) contrasted in texture AND color. They used now painted paper as canvases too. The reason I chose sailboats so it coincided with a science project they are still working on! These came out lovely.
Black History Month: After an introduction to the history of this month long recognition of African American contributions and inspirations we learned of many incredible leaders, inventors, freedom fighters and more. The artists I highlighted were Alma Thomas and Jean Micheal Basquiat. We heard short stories about Rosa Park, Harriet Tubman, Simone Biles, Valerie Thomas and more! We drew pictures of items used in everyday life created by African American Inventors such as: Robert F. Fleming Jr., who invented the guitar in 1886, John L. Love (I love his name!) invented the pencil sharpener in 1897 as well as Garrett Morgan, who invented the traffic light in 1923. So many more incredible contributors to mention, definitely more than a months worth!!! We had beautiful discussions on equality, freedom and human rights and still feel like the battle for equality continues. We feel that BLACK LIVES MATTER. ❤️❤️❤️.
Other wonderful moments: We took a hike up to the redwood grove this month to see if we could make a toy like the Southwest Native American children did, a horse made out of sticks and string (they used vines, but we used a few rubber bands and yarn). It was challenging for most but extremely enjoyable to build and create, surrounded by beautiful redwoods. In leadership class we took a few rakes and garden tools to clear up the trails in the willows. During one of our peculiar wind storms a few areas shifted with fallen branches and blocked a part of the trail we take coming down for pick up. We, as a team, redirected that part of the trail, cut back blackberry vines, protected our wild mint patch and raked the trails free of slippery, dried leaves. Seeing the instant results after some dedicated clean up time made the class feel very proud! I finished reading to the class Ronja the Robbers Daughter and moved on to read The Night Fairy….which were almost done with too! At recess we’ve been having some epic soccer games. It’s a wonderful time to practice communication on the field, practice encouraging your teammates and getting great exercise. I recently got my hands on a bunch of gently used badminton rackets, so I splurged on new shuttlecocks! When it’s our turn to have recess on the lower playground (where the badminton net lives) we will all have a racket to play with and practice while we wait for our turn to play matches. On Thursdays I offer a sewing elective and Erica started offering Crochet and Knitting. The students get to choose!
Next month: study on Explorers and intro to world geography, reading Holes by Louis Sachar (everyone will receive their own copy of the book) and yearbook elective with Rosy every Friday starting soon, and spirit week!!! In student council we decided on dedicated a whole week of spirit days for the whole school to participate in. More details coming soon!!
We’ve had crazy weather, more downs with all the ups, school canceled a few times, but all in all, the kids are resilient, continue to go with the flow (however strong the current is) and show up everyday filled with positive energy. Your kids are awesome, thank you!!!!
