Observing Nature

 

We are nearing the end of the school year, and for Teacher Appreciation Week the kids sang to their teacher, Ms Eichert, a song of thank you, and gave a gift to her. I was fighting back tears. Liza teaches with a huge reverence for nature, and both my children have been so lucky to have her influence. I love these photos because I can see how every child in her class carries a reverence of his or her own.

The Mary Collins School charter emphasizes an integrative approach around these two main hubs: environmental education and visual and performing arts. This class just performed the play Rumpus in the Rainforest where they learned the value of the Amazon to our world through song and drama. Here in these photos they were sketching their observations of a local ecosystem - part of a regular "walking field trip" throughout the year where the kids observe the changes in this watershed land near the school.