Fall and Winter Roundup

With our first "semester" under our belts, I wanted to share with you what we've been up to over the past 5 months. 

The Natural World: 

We were so lucky with the warm weather this fall that we got to spend lots of beautiful days on outdoor field trips to places like: the Montrose Bird Sanctuary, West Ridge Nature Preserve, Emily Oaks Nature Center, Bunker Hill Forest Preserve, as well as neighborhood parks and playgrounds. The kids got really into foraging on our adventures, and learned to make their own jelly!  We started with some more traditional foraged jellies like wild grape jelly, and rosehip and apple jelly, and then pushed the limits of what makes a jelly with some experimental lemonade jelly and hot chocolate jelly.  While some people are visual learners, auditory learners, kinesthetic learners, etc., I've learned this year that some of us (me included) are gustatory learners! 

One of my personal highlights was a day trip to the Magic Hedge at the Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary.  We made it extra magical by becoming a party of dragons, wizards, unicorns, and other fantastical creatures, then used plants to cast spells. Blue asters for water magic, white snakeroot for ice magic, yellow evening primrose for fire, pokeweed to make our enemies sick.  We observed some forest creatures like the black capped nuthatch, cardinals, and a variety of butterflies.

Culture:

We also took some great inside field trips, including seeing a play, and visiting the National Museum of Mexican Art for the Day of the Dead exhibit.  I was so impressed with how perceptive and engaged the kids were at the museum.  In preparation, we read a book about Dia de los Muertos, and the kids shared what they already knew about Day of the Dead.  One student shared that it's not about scary things, it's actually a happy day about celebrating ancestors.  We talked about some of the food, ofrendas, and other traditions used to celebrate.  At the museum, another student with a particular interest in geography told the rest of us about Mexico's changing borders over time.  We also learned about alebrijes, Cesar Chavez, Aztec myths, and more.  

Now that winter is upon us, we've been taking weekly trips to visit the various cultural institutions Chicago has to offer, and have greatly enjoyed our time at the Museum of Science and Industry, Field Museum, Brookfield Zoo, and are looking forward to more upcoming museum trips in the coming weeks.

Making and Doing:

We’ve made a lot of art! Painting, drawing, air dry clay, papier mache lanterns, making our own books, soap carving, an amazing fairy house complete with tiny fairy furniture, homemade board games and DIY puzzles.  Not to mention engineering cardboard marble runs, pattern block creatures and mandalas, block cities...

And so many science experiments. I love how with child-led learning, one activity can spontaneously turn into another type of lesson altogether. We were carving soap and had all these little soap shavings left over, so we decided to melt them down in the microwave and put them into some little heart molds. Well, some of the soap was scented and when it heated up, the smell was overpowering and the kids wanted to know why. So we reviewed states of matter, and some of the kids already knew that gasses expand more than solids and liquids. So we learned that when the gas has a smell to it, it fills up the room more than when a solid or liquid has a smell to it. 

Interdisciplinary Learning:

I love the opportunities for interdisciplinary learning at Blazing Star.  For example, one day we read Steve Jenkins' book Actual Size, about some of the biggest and smallest animals in the world.  We brought a ridiculously long tape measure to the park, and measured out what a 59' Giant Squid actually looks like, and drew it with sidewalk chalk.  Another day, the kids made an electronic instrument with circuits and gourds from our garden.  We talked about grounding wires, and how water conducts electricity, and experimented with making our bodies into circuits by holding hands in a circle and being able to complete the circuit and make music with the current running through one person then another.  Later that day, the kids were playing witches, and decided they needed to hold hands and complete their circuit for their spells to work!  

We've also done a lot of science experiments, including seeing what happens when hot and cold fronts meet, explored chemical reactions, and made ourselves into human scales on teeter totters.

Relationships:

For me as a teacher, it's so much more interesting and engaging to get to learn from my students as well as share my knowledge.  Being able to follow their interests and ideas along with offering my own ideas keeps things fresh, relevant, and interesting for all of us.  Most of all, I've enjoyed getting to know each student much more personally than is possible in a traditional classroom, and to be able to have authentic human relationships with each kid, something that's just not feasible with 25+kids in a classroom.

As far as student to student relationships, I love seeing how Blazing Star kids look to each other for help, for example teaching each other how to make paper airplanes, or kids who aren't reading independently yet asking another student to help them read something.  While traditional classrooms put much more emphasis on each student doing the same thing for themself, Blazing Star students spend most of the day collaborating.  And while there can be moments of conflict, having the time and support to navigate competing ideas or needs rather than an adult just "solving" all disagreements is, in my opinion, one of the most important things for young people to practice.  Ultimately, navigating conflict in a healthy way is not only an important life skill, it's at the heart of a healthy society and democracy, and will set kids up for a lifetime of meaningful relationships.

I look forward to visiting more outdoor adventures, learning, creating, and human connections throughout 2023!