Class G loves Fall at the Land School

by Andy

Each elementary classroom has a connection to the rural campus. This fall Class G has gone the extra miles to come out three different times. Each visit was different.

On September 14th the whole class came out to do food preservation. They divided up into groups and each group got to do two different food preservation activities. My groups processed tomatoes to make roasted garlic tomato sauce.

That was a full day. We also dried paprika peppers, harvested beans, and processed garlic and onions. It was Class G's introduction to the Land School for the year, and it was also an introduction to the idea of "stewardship." When Class G comes out, some of the time is about giving back to the Land School. 

Stewardship was a big focus of the Class G three-day trip on October 4th,5th, and 6th. They had the goal of getting the rural campus ready for the Harvest Festival on Saturday October 7th. The projects included: processing all of the rest of the onions and garlic (including braiding the soft neck); bringing in all of the pumpkins and washing them all; washing all of the squash; harvest all the apples for cider pressing at the fest; cleaning out the coop and the pen and giving the Red Barn a tidy; making a lot of signs; setting up the greenhouse as a market area; and much more! 

But the Class G trip was also a chance for the children to deepen their connections to each other and the land. It included hikes, games, stories, and lots of fun. We had a lot of food that came straight from the garden. We got to have a pizza party with wood-fired pizza! Thanks to Rachel and Bavani for preparing the meals!

One of the special things they did was spend a whole day with an adult, sharing a "joy" that the adult has. There were groups connecting with the animals, doing earth art, connecting with the bees, making hay wreaths, and my group got to spend the day with me doing light building projects. We learned how to use the drill, handsaw, tape measure, draw knife, and electric sander. We took on two farm projects that needed our skills. First we needed to build a roost for some new chickens that were coming that evening (Thanks Morris!). So we went out to the woods and found dead ironwood trees and pushed them over. We brought the trees back to the long barn and cut them up and used draw knives and sandpaper to make them smooth and round. Then we screwed them together with some added braces to make a roost that we could hang in the coop. In the afternoon, we made a hay storage box out of old plywood. Now the chickens can't poop in the sheep and llama hay! We had to test the box by standing on it and sitting in it!

Then on October 12th we hosted Class G again. This day was all about exploring on the land. The goal was to divide into small groups and spend the whole day hiking. Each hike had to include a solo sit, and the students had a few pages to guide their experience of the solo sit that had prompts for drawing, observing, and writing. 

My group went all over the Land School and ended up in the sleeping woods for the solo sit. It was amazing to see how much nature was present when we slowed down enough to experience it. I was surprised by a ruffed grouse about ten minutes into my sit. It had been there all along! One thing I loved about taking the whole day to explore was that I got to say yes a lot. Can we run through the pine trees? Yes. Can we go to the nest? Yes. Can we see where the maple trees are that we tap? Yes. Can we go through the corn field? Yes. Can we play thicket? Yes. Can we check out this culvert? Yes.     

 These were just a few photos. If you have some photos of the Class G fall 2017 visits that you want to share, please send them to me and I can add them to this post.