Lunch With the Pre-K

Dear Friends-

I walked out to the Downstairs playground this afternoon, and there were all of our pre-K students eating lunch with Anne and Evan. They had been outside since 9:30 that morning, and were taking a well-earned break for some food and drink before… staying outside some more!

The children and their teachers were all sitting on the stone patio that they had built together last fall. Beyond them was the massive series of spiral stone mazes the students had recently created out of pavers left over from the patio project. Next to the second spiral were a series of stakes, indicating spots where the kids and Evan had just planted bunches of young native Witch Hazel, Highbush Cranberry, Toringo Crabapple, and Gray Dogwood. They are hoping to plant and cultivate native species of pollinators all around the campus.

The children and teachers were literally sitting in an environment of their own making. They sat on bricks they had laid. They were looking out at a beautiful Andy Goldsworthy-esque spiraling environmental art piece they had created that nestled with the flowering trees they had been planting that very day.

As they ate their meal, the kids were talking about how interesting it was that the Z in Ziti makes the same sound as the X in their friend Xenia’s name, but that the X at the end of Max’s name makes a slightly different sound. They were totally absorbed in this conversation, and barely noticed me as they worked together to unravel the knotty strands of foundational literacy.

As I walked away from the picnic, I realized I had been grinning ear-to-ear the whole time.

Be well,

Ben