Reflections from Becky
TRANSITIONS
It is already that time of year when we begin moving into the beauty of fall in New England; then suddenly find it’s time to prepare for the long winter ahead. This time holds many transitions, including the adjustment to back to school schedules and the volume of daily interactions but also the loss of daylight and the changes in weather. In addition, this is a time when we are transitioning constantly into new ways of coping with this pandemic. At the best of times, transitions are hard for some, and can be very challenging for many
- but transitions are something we are conscious about and do gently at Riley.
This is also a significant transition year for our school; a bridge year out of the darkest days of the pandemic, and into the plans for celebrating Riley’s 50th year. We can begin to look forward and to identify those things that we lost and want to reclaim, and reflect on those things that we have learned from the enforced constraints and quiet time of the past two years.
We have missed having you as families on campus… special events, fundraisers, dances, performances and volunteers, or just taking walks together. While we are not ready to open the campus fully yet, we have been grateful for the presence of Tori and for Spring and John helping us in the classroom. Tori Marsh (Otto’s mom) will now be joining the team in Wade Acres every Monday, and several days a week. John Petersen (Riley’s Dad) will be helping the Lower School transition back to afternoon classes after exploring the woods and stream and mud… necessitating lots of changes of socks, etc! In the days ahead you will be getting more information about Trunk or Treat, about our T-Shirt Contest (Thank you John for organizing) our 50th Anniversary planning and our next Parent Community Zoom chat. I’d love to hear from you if you have ideas or ways you’d like to participate with us this year.
Born of necessity in the early days of the pandemic when small pods were mandated, we moved to a group scheduling model for the first time. This year, the sections (last year’s LI - to MII) have been renamed so as to better reflect identities rather than “levels”. Beginning with the youngest in Wade Acres we have : Magnolia and Junipers, Willows, Maples, and Birches, Spruces and Pines, and Hawthorns. We retained the group scheduling model, but this year hope to reclaim some of the flexibility, and fluidity that has always been a hallmark of Riley’s personalized programming.
The past, too, new children and faculty have had the opportunity to meet one another during a week-long visit. That time has always allowed us to get a good sense of how to schedule a child upon enrollment. And, children each spring experienced Transitional time… when they could begin to participate in classes with older children as they Transitioned from Wade to Lower to Middle, and Middle to Upper. And again, this transitional time is different for each child and determined based on a wide range of skills and readiness for increased independence and demonstration of intrinsic motivation and responsibility for learning. We now feel comfortable giving children that chance to transition gradually and gently.
Initial consideration for groupings were determined loosely by age but final placement is more specifically about creating a balance of personalities, opportunities for collaborative work, and approaches to learning. The goal being that each child is placed in a grouping, with all things taken into consideration, so that they may have the greatest support for personal success and growth of confidence. In a normal year the movement between groups would be more fluid; not marked by what appear to be traditional, hierarchical practices and the ages would be more mixed. This year we can again begin to customize and personalize children’s schedules… perhaps one group for Math, another for ELA or Natural Science. These are changes we may make to balance out the dynamics of a class or to meet an individual child’s need for more (or less) of a certain subject. As an ungraded school, it is important to remember that all our classes are mixed ages, and the movement from one “ School” or one group to another should not be seen as an endorsement of being “advanced” or “behind.”
Now that we have settled into the year, some of these transitions and adjustments may begin to happen. Please remember that any of these changes are ones we make gently and thoughtfully with your child. The faculty and I will always welcome questions and conversations about your children. Reach out to any of us, at any time to set up a meeting or a call.
I hope that each of you are beginning to fall into an easy routine that gets you here in the morning; stress free, well fed, with all the extra gear and having had plenty of sleep. That is why our morning check in is a full 15 minutes and that class doesn’t begin until 9.
(Call the Admin line at 207-691-4005 if you are going to be later than 8:45)
Please be gentle with your morning selves and be sure you have everything you need (and that it is labeled).
My door is open,
Becky
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Middle School English Language Arts with Michelle
What a whirlwind few weeks! It feels simultaneously like we’ve only just begun the year and yet also as though we’ve been back on campus for much longer! What a strange contradiction! In the realm of Middle School ELA, no matter the time that’s passed, it’s been packed with juicy language arts work!
The Birches, (ask your child !) have been eager to practice forming their letters and reading their choice of books. In the middle of each week, they hear an Aesop’s fable and retell it the next day in their journals with an illustration.
The two Middle School groups, Spruce and Pine, do a similar exercise but generate their own summaries of Wabanaki creation myths accompanied by illustrations by those so inclined. They are also working on their handwriting; proper formation to aid flow for the Spruces and cursive for the Pines.
All three sections have been generating their own vocabulary word lists picked out of their reading books and worked with in subsequent activities. Word searches have been created using the list and crosswords and jumbles are to follow.
Next week, the Pines will begin their first group reading book, Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard. Pine class also got to try out my experimental language arts Jeopardy! and have asked for more, so there will be more of that in the future! (Does anyone have 3 desk bells or Staple Easy Buttons?)
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Wade Acres Juniper classroom
with Lindsay and Mia
It has been a joy getting to know the children! In the first weeks of September we have been exploring the classroom and our campus, and learning the expectations and boundaries inside and outdoors.
Everyday we meet for Reflections from 12-12:30, we gather as a class around the rug and have Gather/Circle time. During the month of September we have had two letter friends join us, Ally Alligator (A) and Beverley Beaver (B). When introducing a new letter, the children combine their learning and interests around the animals, such as bringing them with us on our adventures, thinking of other words that start with that particular letter, journaling, printing/tracing, recognizing, and much more.
The leaves are certainly starting to fall! So far, we have collected leaves for sorting, graphing, name recognition, and collaging.
The children love to explore our woods. The Hideaway, Fortville, and bike trail are their favorite places to go. Last week we spent a few days learning about the mushrooms we found along the bike trail. The Jack O’Lantern mushroom is one of their favorites. There have been several more we have identified. Ally the Alligator came with us on the bike trail and the children were eager to show her the mushrooms they had found. The children loved going to the Hideaway and building a dam for Beverley Beaver. Some worked independently, while others worked together.
Having Art class with Tori and Anna has been wonderful! Tori spent one class introducing pastels and watercolors. Anna and Mia took them on an adventure into the woods to find nature items for their own portrait making. The Juniper classroom will be starting their full schedules next week! They will be going to different buildings for Art and Music and Theatre, and to use the Library. It will be special for everyone to have these 4 year olds more involved with our campus and programs.
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Notes from
The
Lower School
with Hattie and Ethan
In the Lower School, during the past couple of weeks, we have had lots of fun getting to know each other through many games and activities. We have been talking a lot about our core values as a community; kindness, caring words and actions, gentleness to each other and our environment, and play. Getting back to school and interacting with so many people and personalities is tiring and requires practice and reminders in these first weeks and will set the tone for our work together in the weeks and months ahead. For example, we focus on cooperation and teamwork as we all group together to build a fire in the woods, each person gathering some dry sticks to add. We are also working on remembering how to be responsible for all of the belongings that we bring with us each day.
I am very proud of how quickly they have all adjusted to the school routines and Oh! how they have grown since last spring!
This year is different from last year in that the children travel throughout the campus independently in smaller groups and much more often. The small groups that we have arranged are really lending themselves well to some more focused work time. Each group has ELA (English Language Arts) and Math at least three times a week, as well as Science, Art, Performing arts, STEM projects, and plenty of time for exploration in the woods, fields and all over the beautiful campus. We will begin greenhouse projects in the next couple of weeks and are working on getting the woodshop ready for some woodworking classes.
Language Arts will look a bit different for each group. Some things we have been working on include: A review of letter recognition and sounds, a large emphasis on rhyming words and noticing the beginning, middle and end sounds and letters within those rhyming words (sometimes when we become “detectives” we can spell and read words we never thought we could), and handwriting with the appropriate formation and pencil grip.
Buckwheat the bunny is a source of inspiration for creativity, as well as a gentle friend to sit with quietly. He wanders freely around the classroom when we are inside working; during playtime he leaps excitedly in the air, and during Reflections he may come right over to the children and give them a curious sniff. During Reflections we have the opportunity to stop and take a bit of a rest, listen to a story, and have quiet discussions. One day, one child was delighted to see how in sync Buckwheat was with our schedule as we observed him sound asleep and “flopped” (in his happy place) on the floor. “Look! Buckwheat is having Reflections, too.” The children have enjoyed building mazes and tunnels and burrows for him to explore; the possibilities here seem endless and we are just getting started! He brings us a lot of joy and the children have all taken the responsibility of caretaking for him quite seriously.
The year is off to a wonderful start, and Ethan and I are so excited about spending the year with this lovely group of children.
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Hawthorns with Alicia (Upper School):
In the Upper School Humanities group, the children have been learning about the Indigenous Peoples of Maine, exploring their past and present. Our field trip to the Abbe Museum provided them with an understanding of how Native Americans were viewed in the past and how they would like to be viewed today - from the Wabanaki perspective. The children also participated in a digital program by the Abbe Museum that explored the history and culture of the Wabanaki. Our field trip to Friendship provided them with hands-on experience with archeological techniques as well as learning about how the artifacts found relate to how they lived. The children watched Dawnland, which is a documentary about Maine’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s historic investigation into how children of the Wabanaki were taken “to save them from being Indian.” The themes we are exploring through this documentary and our studies of Indigenous Peoples include identity, decolonization, reconciliation, and culture. We will be reading Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac, which is a novel about the Navajo Marines of World War II.
As part of their ELA program, they have independent reading books and journals, weekly vocabulary, and writing prompts. They work together to learn their vocabulary by writing vocabulary vignettes and acting them out. We will be working on persuasive writing in the coming weeks.
It has been such a pleasure to be with this group of children and I look forward to where they will take their learning this year!
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Math with Ginger
Starting a school year in the woods at Tanglewood and just being with the children is the most beautiful event. It gives both children and facilitators time to just be together, no expectations, just social time to learn about each other and to rekindle or begin to develop relationships. It is relationships that make Riley the school that it is. These relationships continue to bloom and grow on campus in more structured settings through playing and learning. In Math classes, this is seen through spontaneous games using math facts or skills practice or when surveying peers to determine favorite Halloween treats, or trying to figure out how distance affects visual perception and is it constant or a ratio or proportionally predictable? (We couldn’t figure that out but had fun trying!)
The Spruces are exploring base ten concepts. We produced a school year calendar to learn time concepts, and are working on solving story problems.
The Pine class have begun their personalized math programs and are learning about surveys and data collection and how to use and express it. (More to come so watch your emails for their results.)
Upper School children, (now referred to as the Hawthornes) are also beginning their own personal programs. They have taken a beginning of the year assessment which they will repeat in the spring and use to benchmark their own progress and define their own programs and goals. We have worked with using measurement strategies for perspective, explored the Fibonacci Sequence, and are currently exploring the metric system.
We have done so much and we have only been in school for a few weeks! We have hit the ground running!
Art with Leith
A Hawthorn visit with Alicia and Becky to the Abbe Museum and its collection of art and objects created from natural materials gathered here in the place we now call Maine set us on a path of exploration on the Riley campus. Can we locate and harvest our own materials to make art on school grounds? What might that look like?
The children and I have been getting to know each other and getting reacquainted with the campus on a series of foraging walks. While searching for pigments and materials, we have had some wonderful conversations about color, where it comes from, and how we can use it to express ideas. So far, we have made three colors of our own ink and been building a map of our resource locations. All the Spruce, Pine and Hawthorns have all helped as we measure, mash, boil, stir, and strain our own Riley inks. Now that it is made we have enjoyed playing some group drawing games with the finished product.
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Natural History/Cultural Studies with Alicia
Pines. Energy! The Pines have a lot of it, so they are harnessing some of their own energy to explore all the forms of energy! To kick off this exploration the children made solar cookers and experimented with materials and design to cook a marshmallow. Several of the cookers reached temperatures just under 140 degrees fahrenheit. They have just started an exploration into sound and have been given a challenge to create two of the same objects that will produce different pitches. We will continue on to explore other forms of energy such as mechanical, electrical, light and thermal.
As part of their Cultural Studies program, the Pines are teaming up with the Spruces to create a society. This experiential/role playing program will have them creating many aspects of a society: government, laws, art, customs, technology, language, etc.
Performing Arts with Deb
I am loving the small groups this year, and the opportunities to get to know individual children and all of their wonderful strengths! I’m sure anyone checking out our youngest classes is thinking that all we are doing is playing, but we are exploring using our bodies in space and in relation to each other. We are also trying many different movements, and using our imaginations to create who we want to be. We started the year off reading Max Lucado’s book “You Are Special” which I have had several requests to read more than once. We have also read some poetry, and use the rhyme and sound words, like “clickety clack goes the train” and “pitter patter goes the rain” to link rhythm with rhyme, gearing us up for rhythm games in music. We have also played movement games such as “Chop, chop, chippity chop” and “Five Little Ladies.” The children are learning about sounds, and rhyme and using their bodies to show the action. Even the older children have experienced a bit of this, although we move through many of the exercises more quickly! We have also spent some time remembering how to use our “singing voice.” It’s so nice to hear children singing outside! We have imitated whale songs, and practiced using a lighter, higher voice until we have had a chance to work those vocal muscles.
With the older children, Pines, Spruces and Hawthornes, we have had fun learning some theater improvisation games, and learning about each other at the same time. One of my Wednesday classes is Pines and Spruces together, which gives us a chance to play some games that require larger numbers like “Streets and Alleys” and “Slow Motion Tag.” Games that get them moving are always a hit. We have some bucket drumming supplies and have started to learn about rhythms and sounds using cups and instruments. One game that is quickly becoming a favorite is “poison.” Ask your child to explain Poison to you! We are having fun trying out new things and learning more about music and theater.
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A Call for Volunteers
We would welcome help with many things.... Campus projects.... Fundraising efforts AND, someone to PRODUCE our monthly Riley Notes in the last week of each month and the Whims mid-month on Constant Contact.
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We miss seeing you on campus - but you can follow us on Facebook!
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