All teens interested in joining WiseBodies KNOW class (high school age students) are invited to the final summer Open House gathering, on Monday August 15th at 6:30pm - 9:00pm, here at WiseBodies in Chatham.
This is an educational evening, as well as a final sign-up for the full-year class, which begins Monday September 19th, and continues through most of the school year, with holidays and the month of February off. KNOW classes will be held each Monday of the month, 6:00 - 8:30pm, and are paid through a sliding scale.
Teens, you are invited to arrive August 15th, on time, at 6:30, for cold drinks and pizza. We'll eat, hold class, sign up for the year, and leave with a fun homework assignment to do before we come back together on the 19th of September.
Please email me at wisebodieshudson@gmail.com if you're interested in joining this large, fun, very friendly class!
Circle Girls + be boys = Circle bees
Circle Girls and be boys join forces the first Wednesday of each month, forming the newly-named "Circle bees"! Thanks to Ma1, also called Teachie Mae, we now have a logo for our joint class.
Yesterday, our second joint class, was filled with excitement, some positive anxiety, and plenty of good energy.
We worked hard, from lighting our candle at the beginning of class, to blowing it out at the end.
Between the lighting and the blowing out, we realized that, with a month since our last class, we'd managed to remember each other's names; no small feat for such a large group!
We answered a "Gathering Question", served each other yummy food, sang Happy Birthday to 4 birthday celebrants, and tried on a few group-bonding games.
Circle bee kids realized it's fine to have a group game not work out; that we can talk about this, change focus, and try on a different game. These kinds of discussions are important to us; we get to take the the discussion outside WiseBodies to larger world experiences.
Parents joined us - we made a Huge Circle, entirely filling the room! - and we all worked together to come up with long lists of characteristics considered stereotypically "male" and "female". We talked about which stereotypes are negative. We talked about how most of the stereotypes we came up with fall under heterosexual norms. We thought about how stereotypes for Gay/Lesbian/Transgender/Bisexual norms might look different. We'll return to this conversation.
We finished our very full, exciting class by reviewing all we'd accomplished, and by looking forward to next month.
Fabulous work, Circle bees!
be boys, a joyful bunch
be boys practiced generosity by making a get-well card for a missing mate, then taking this and a bag of our popcorn up the street to hand-deliver to their friend's bedside.
the be's are preparing for a major game of Jeopardy, so are busily playing games to learn facts about the creatures they've been studying. If asked, be boys can tell you answers to the following: *which creature is lead by one female, who births all male progeny, progeny which can transform to female when a new leader is needed? *which creatures add spermataphores to each other's backs? *which creatures lay their eggs only on the full moon?
They've memorized this, and plenty more!
In addition, be boys worked with maintaining focus on their learning while also filling their classroom with good humor - their natural emotional stance. They did a beautiful job; teachers and students had a joyful time together, and learned plenty.
Great class, be boys!
What a week! Science kids led the way.
WiseBodies was filled this week with children, parents, and visitors. We were a flood of movement, quiet, depth, laughter, games, and plenty of learning.
Science and The Body children now are able to describe - and paint! - all parts of a lily's stamen. If asked, they'll let you know Lily flowers are in the same family as garlic, onions, tulips, and daffodils. They'll also let you know the plant family lilies belong to is the Liliaceae...and they can spell that for you!
Science kids are working on understanding that social interactions that have gone awry can be re-attempted, re-configured, and re-done.
They also are working on figuring out what it takes to allow their circle to grow and change. We're paying attention to the kind of heart-focus that's neeeded to offer what they love - their circle! - to newcomers.
Good work, Science children!
be boys pre-thanksgiving
be boys are beginning their travels into the human body, even as they finish their studies of the New Mexican Whiptail Lizard, the Clownfish, Centipedes, Ducks, and The Great Blue Whale.
be boys are completing their unit on creatures by preparing for a big, supportive, group-test to show they've Mastered Interesting Facts about the reproductive and sexual systems of these creatures.
We hope all parents will join us for our epic game of Jepardy! Invitations coming soon!
In addition to finishing artwork for the large posters about the creatures they've been studying, be boys and teachers focussed on Gratitude.
We pondered gratitude, answered questions about gratitude, shared gratitude with one-another, and prepared for the coming holiday which honors this necesary and nourishing quality.
Science Kids and Turkeys
It's that time of year, almost 3 months into our school year, when kids have become such a rooted, connected, generous gang, that they can begin to take more responsibility for what and how we learn.
Here's an example: When we wrote our haiku this week, one child volunteered to be "the teacher", another to the "the scribe". I sat back.
While I sat back and observed, the children wrote, not one, but two haiku.
Here's one:
The turkey gets stuffed.
We are grateful for many things.
We also get stuffed.
The children report these are their favorite poems thus far.
In this week of thanks, we gave thanks. And, rather than painting, the children requested cozy time with reading-aloud.
While they cozied together in pillows and blankets, I read aloud The Gardener.
I can say, because we've spoken this aloud, that all of us are grateful for the time we share together.
In This Circle Girls, finally together!
With our late start, related to many of our girls being on sport teams, and last week's shared class with the be boys, it's taken us awhile for Circle Girls to arrive. I'm happy to report that, as of today, it felt like we finally have. We've arrived! We were able to recognize this good feeling.
My guess is, had you joined us at the end of class, and seen the girls puppy-piled, snuggled with blankets and pillows, you also would have known we've happily found home with one-another.
The girls and I figured out descriptive words that fit our personalities, that also begin with the first letters of our first names. The girls were on point when they came up with words like luminous, amazing, and compassionate. Since we're working with the concept of Speaking Up and Being LOUD this year, we increased the volume when repeating back the supportive descriptors.
We laughed as we played group-building games, including passing our linked bodies through our hoola-hoop, and un-knotting our clasped arms.
The girls spent time writing in their journals. Each of us drew a page that included all our names and birthdays. Many of us drew our names, together, inside a large heart.
We wrote about how we felt today, being together.
We built a very cozy nest to settle into while we drew on the blueboard. Mothers arrived, and helped us with the work of figuring out what body parts are very comfortable saying aloud.
Much too soon, it was time to hold hands and sing our finishing song.
Gorgeous work, Circle Girls. I'm looking forward to next week!
be boys know their creatures
Ask a be boy about ducks, or blue whales, or female kangaroos, or many other beings, and they'll tell you some very interesting facts.
We've been studying creatures, far and wide, to gain comfort and good humor in the wide-range of reproductive and sexual systems.
be boys also easily can talk about how boys get trained to be "boys", and what can happen when we let down those guidelines.
We've begun studying one of the many book in our library, randomly choosing page numbers to begin conversation. It's a good test of the skill our teaching crew has with handling spontaneous topics! So far, so fine.
Parents joined us at the end of class for a bit of conversation about our wonderful shared class last week, when the be boys joined the In This Circle girls. Shared class suddenly is beloved! We're looking forward to the first week in December, when we'll have our second, shared class!
Excellent, thorough and fun work, be class.
Liliaceae
Science and The Body children worked and played hard today, both inside and out.
The children chose to focus on Place for their haiku, coming up with lines that creatively changed words with 3 syllables to 1. Smart re-construction.
We ate, then went outside to play a game that required working together, and trusting one-another. The game involved blindfolds and a very long rope!
When we came in, we discovered two ticks had joined us. We got to look at them under our magnifying loupes. How many legs does a tick have?
The children painted another plate for their botanical books on the Lily. They learned that the botanical name for Lily is Liliaceae. They learned that onions and garlic, tulips and daffodils also are members of this botanical family.
We gathered with parents and siblings to talk about Trust, and to describe what we'd explored today.
We finished by sharing our haiku and blowing out our candle.
Great work, Science children and families!
Science Kids Plant, Paint, and Figure It Out
Science children arrived today, filled with joy.
The children acknowledged our growing closeness by starting class with comments like "It feels so warm in here." and "It feels really comfortable today." When asked why they thought it felt like this today, they had many ideas, including that we're getting to know each other better. Yes! We talked about how, 7 weeks ago, none of us knew everyone in our group, and how most of us knew only 1 or 2 others. We talked about how we are consciously and conscientiously building community. We talked about how this takes time and thoughtfulness.
It was the boys' turn to write our haiku. They quickly came up with a 5-7-5 haiku that was funny and well-constructed.
Today's weather drew us outdoors; we spent time in the garden, planting tulip bulbs. We talked about how flower bulbs store energy, how they are able to re-flower for several years, how they require time in the dark and cool in order to re-bloom.
The children continued their botanical plates by painting sepals and petals.
Parents and siblings arrived; we met in the pillow room for a beginning group conversation about stereotypes of "Girl" and "Boy".
The class shared our new haiku; we said it aloud several times, and ended class by singing Happy Birthday to 2 students and 1 parent!
It was a wonderful day, Science Families!
Science Kids Start Botanical Books!
Science girls and boys were so happy when they arrived to class today! They came right into the kitchen, helped set the table, pour each other herbal tea, check in about their week since we last were together.
We lit our candle, then wrote an extra-long, extra-wonderful haiku:
Red leaves falling and swirling, The light spreads so fast. Leaves are so bright and pretty. Little leaves falling quickly. The candle is warm. What a beautiful fall day! Candles burn brightly. Go visit WiseBodies class!
The children already have created a lovely book of 5 haiku!
We gathered to drink our special herbal tea. One boy commented that he finds the tea relaxing. Yes! We'll learn more about the plants in the tea, but calm relaxing is precisely what the herbs in the tea offer.
We ate apple crisp and compared family recipes. One student's family adds cardamom, another oat flakes.
The children were introduced to gorgeous Lily flowers. We looked at paintings and drawings botanical artists have made of flower parts. We agreed we would each make our own botanical books, filled with our own paintings and drawings of flower parts.
Today we focussed on petals and sepals, figuring out how to tell which was which.
Each child picked a petal or sepal to draw, decided how to lay out their page, and began their drawings, including the flower's name and part.
We finished with parents, telling them about our afternoon, reading aloud our haiku, and passing around our circle-pulse.
What a wonderful class, Science girls and boys; thank you!
Circle Girls are Back!
We had a wonderful first day back!
The girls served each other tea and applecrisp, talked about their schools, reminisced about summer, figured out some of the likes they share, and made themselves at home.
We spent our first afternoon together enjoying several different kinds of introductions, including learning each other's names. The girls painted their names on cards that now hang from our classroom walls.
Also in our classroom, we made a chalkboard web of just a few of the things we've discovered we have in common. It's fun to see the beginning of the web of connection that we'll create throughout our year together.
New this year is the fact that two of our long-term girls have become high-schoolers! They have agreed to step into leadership roles, for which they are very well-prepared.
The first day of In This Circle always marks a special moment at WiseBodies. It's a moment when girls, together, begin to set their own agenda for a year of girl-led, community-building and learning.
And, actually, the girls already have begun to express their girl-power by insisting that they set our start-date. Each year, In This Circle girls request that we begin a full 5 or 6 weeks after the other WiseBodies classes, so that they can fully participate in school sports.
Yes to girls claiming the right to create their own calendars, participating in sports (or not!), and deciding when just the right time is for...well, for just-about everything we do together.
Here are just a couple of the questions we'll draw attention to this year:
In how many parts of the world, including our own homes and neighborhoods, are a girl's right to speak-up challenged and sometimes prevented?
In how many conscious, and unconscious ways, do adults, girls, and boys participate in quieting and silencing girls' voices?
These questions will be explored in all our classes, and particularly here, in our all-girl class.
We'll also explore the ways and places girls' voices are encouraged, how we can participate in this encouragement, and how we can make sure girls' voices are heard here at WiseBodies.
At the end of class, mothers joined in, helping to lead us in movement and stretching, and joining us in singing our class song.
We're a full and wonderful circle again this year.
Great job, In This Circle girls!
BE Boys and their TA's
Today was pretty special here at BE class: with Isa unable to teach, and with virtually no notice, WiseBodies Teaching Assistants, Mae and Aidan, took over class.
They did a spectacular job.
BE children continued to gain skill in gathering their energies to form a solid group, put double-named animal cards together in order, and learned a whole lot about lizards!
They played a game of Concentration!
The students had a chance to read from our WiseBodies library. They practiced ways to engage in all-inclusive community play.
Parents and siblings joined in at the end, to learn with and from BE students, and to help increase our Whole.
In addition to all the joyful sounds resounding through our little school, I later learned I had been gifted with Get Well notes from students and Assistant Teachers.
Well done, BE students!
Mae and Aidan, you are spectacular teachers. Lucky us, lucky world. Thank you.
In This Circle Girls Begins Tomorrow!
And I can't wait.
It feels like forever since our last class.
And this year we have 3 new students!
See you soon, girls!
Science Children!
Science children welcomed their 5th week of class with good spirits and liveliness.
We keep remembering, out loud, that we have just begun meeting one-another, and that we get to focus on that alone for as long as we need.
In some ways, this approach sums up the work we do here at WiseBodies!
The children and I spent more time with our loupes, this time taking a peek into the seeded center of apples. The children noticed all kinds of wonders: 5 points! (Except the cool recognition that one apple had 4 points. We're looking at the possibility that differnce = cool.) Crystalline structure to the flesh! Many 5-pointed structures buried deep within the apple's flesh!
We discussed the fact that the entire apple grew from an apple flower.
We talked about creatures that might have pollinated our apples: honeybees? moths?
We wondered what pollen is.
I suggested that we might have grown from flowers! The children laughed. I asked them to ponder it, even though it might be silly. If we had grown from flowers, from what flowers might we have grown?
Our time in the Pillow Room included lots of games that help us get to know one-another better, and a special game that helps us work well together.
Parents joined us, and we got to play get-to-know-you-better games, all together.
We had a very joyful day. Nice job, Science Children!
BE boys and The Forest
Last Tuesday was the kind of day all beings needed to be outdoors. And so BE boys, teaching assisitants, and I took apple crisp, popcorn, water, cups, dishes, a tablecloth and made our way to the forest.
We left a sign on the door, to let parents know where we were.
We left a popcorn trail for parents who might also be hoping for time in the forest.
The kids led, hiking up the steep hill. Their task was to find our "spot" for the year. Up we went, settling into the perfect forest alcove, where we created a comfortable outdoor classroom.
Mae and Aidan led us through our opening exercises and games. We do these every week. The excercises and games help us connect, once again becoming our strong circle.
We ate, fully enjoying eating outdoors.
The kids were given three minutes to run as far from we teachers as possible. Within seconds they were completely disappeared into trees, leaves, the deep ravine, the steep hills.
We called Time!, and back they came, impossibly quickly.
We settled into deep conversation about Ground Rules, what we're learning this year - and why - and how we're doing growing into our circle. We talked about our first joint class with In This Circle, coming up in three weeks. The teachers let the kids know they'll be responsible for leading the first joint be/In This Circle class; this caused great excitement.
We agreed that we're all very, very happy - lucky! - to be together this year.
Science and the Mighty Seed
Science children spent Monday afternoon learning how to use a jeweler's loupe to focus in on aster flowers, calendula seeds, moonflower parts, and the petals of zinna flowers.
Our kitchen lab was filled with the "oooh's" and "aaaaah's" that come with scientific discovery. Hidden worlds were opened.
The children also practiced bringing focus from individual self to the collective self. We're figuring out how to be present in our group's circle when we don't have a table between us.
Parents arrived; the circle grew bigger. We were able to recognize the increase in discomfort as the circle enlarged to include even more people we don't yet know very well.
We're practising paying attention to our experiences as they change.
Tea time!
New and current In This Circle families joined WiseBodies today for a tea and watercolor party.
Girls, little sisters, and mothers all painted our impressions of a bouquet of zinnias gifted WiseBodies by a Science and The Body family!
While we painted, we got to know one-another a little bit more. We shared memories from 4th grade, drank herbal tea, and had a tour of the classrooms.
In This Circle begins two weeks from today!
It will be exciting to welcome back families for whom this will be their third year, families for whom this will be their second year, and brand-new families who will be joining a quite magical circle!
Recognizing Comfort and Anxiety
Be kids worked hard last week.
Imagine being 12, 13, and 14, and being given the opportunity to focus in, moment by moment, on one's level of comfort and discomfort.
We spent a good part of last week's class doing just that, supporting one-another to take the time to really check in to figure how we feel.
We've begun also to practice skills that can help increase comfort when we're feeling anxious.
We did some simple, full-body stretches.
We realized that, even though we use it every day, most of us don't know what kind of toothpaste we use. You might wonder what that has to do with thoughtful sex education...ask a teen from be!
We continued our study of insects, birds, fish, and mammals, with card and word games. We're learning some very unusual and interesting facts. Our understanding of the wide variety of sexual and reproductive habits and processes is expanding.
We began focussing on our Ground Rules, which will continue as an important and on-going conversation.
Parents joined us, which felt warm and comfortable. Be students got to share what we've been up to. We finished with the fun hand-game that is the mark of the end of be class.
Great work, be.
Painting, in the Forest
Children arrived, early enough to have a moment in the front garden, enjoying the swing and the front porch.
We gathered indoors, to light our candle and create our very first haiku. The moon, splendid the night before in her fullness and eclipsing, was in our hearts: our poem was filled with Moon.
We followed the Moon with our first journey to the Forest, each girl and each boy with something to carry. We held baskets of apples, painting supplies, a tablecloth, a very large bowl of popcorn, and good spirits.
Settling onto the forest floor, we set up our temporary home. After many apples and much popcorn, we thought through and answered two questions. We talked about learning to take space with our voice, expressing our thoughts and feelings.
Each child learned to use a loupe, looking at calendula flowers and seeds, leaves, our hands, the forest floor.
Loupes focussed on calendula seeds, we painted them in watercolor.
Packing up, we returned to our classroom where we met family members busily painting the calendula seeds on watercolor paper we had left for them.
In our very large closing circle, the children shared their Moon haiku with family members. We repeated the poem twice, all together, ending our fine afternoon.