The Garden School Tattler

Good morning! Another fine day. Although it's been unseasonably hot, it's been dry and I think a lot of us are kind of enjoying this. I'm still looking for the fog, rain, overcast blustery day, but this will do for now. Today will be another 85 degree day, so shorts, shorts, shorts, please!

On Friday, we had a visit from PBS. Steve Burger came by to record the kids about their thoughts on the creative process. We had an art class, and then the kids were free to build, or do art as they wanted. It was a very productive morning. Steve was fascinated by the children's ability to work and to play at that work. He spoke to a lot of the kids about what they had done, and then he followed the boys into Miss Amy's classroom to talk about their building a house on the carpet. He was very interested in the Garden School's core curriculum - the arts.

I told him that no matter the standards, a child is MUCH more likely to be a better student who has a lot of art and music, because most school work is a matter of "what to do" to get it right. Whereas art is a matter of "how to do" and the question "how" lends itself to more depth of thought, more possibilities, more creativity, a broader ability to tackle any problem. That's why we do art in the classroom every day, and we try to make our art projects as open ended as possible.

The program will air on November 11. More details later.

This week our theme is Columbus and the Native American. We will look at Columbus's voyage and what he discovered when he got here. We will look at the Native American as a stone age person and what that means in a world that was rapidly changing.

On Thursday, we will go to Angel Mounds for a tour and then go out to Fortress of Fun for a picnic before returning to school.

This week we will be sampling some Native American foods a la Americana. Watch the meal binder in the front of the school for details.

Another exciting week.