End of Year Gratitude

originally published June 20th
 
Hello all,

I hope that everyone is settling into their summer routine. It already seems like a while ago that school ended, but before we get deep into the summer days I wanted to recap the last few days of Fiddleheads and share some photos.

First of all, there is so much gratitude to be handed around. Thank you all so much for being part of the school community this first year. I am so grateful for all of your support and your presences. I'm so grateful that Amy and Cassie came along to help with this first year. I'm so grateful for the beautiful school year and school community that we all created. I'm so grateful for the amazing resource that is Mt Tabor Park, and for all of the trees and herbaceous plants and birds and bugs and animals that made the richness of our school year experience possible. If you would like to show some gratitude to Mt Tabor, you can do so through the parks program, and through Friends of Mt Tabor.


We had some very exciting last days of school. First, thanks to everyone who came out for the end of school potluck. If anyone has any photos of this gathering that they would like to share, that would be welcome. Second, I want to share some news about our caterpillars/butterflies. All of them hatched out! And the timing was amazing. The first one hatched out between the end of school on Friday and the potluck Friday evening. The second one hatched out during the potluck. Most of the rest hatched out over the weekend and on Monday. It's about as close to magic as we can get in the real world to witness caterpillars turning into butterflies. As much as I read about it, I have yet to find a complete explanation of what goes on in there. It's a mystery, with so many beautiful parallels to our own lives, and it was wonderful to get so up close and personal with this mystery together at school. On Tuesday, our very last day of school, we let all of the butterflies go during morning circle. It was very poetic to reach into the habitat with a stick and guide them out one by one to flutter up into the blue sky as all of the children were excitedly gathered around. The last chrysalis was unhatched still at circle time, so I hung it on a rose bush, and when we got back from the park that too was hatched out and empty. During those last hours at school, that last butterfly hatched and flew out into the world. What a perfect ending to the year.

The last two days of school we focused on volcanoes, particularly our beloved Mt Tabor. We looked for volcanic rocks (there are lots), and we did some guided imagery and imagined Mt Tabor during the time of it's last eruption, some 35 million years ago. It was indeed a much warmer, younger and different earth then. We climbed all of the way to the top and looked at where the crater used to be, and imagined the lava that was once deep inside. Back at school, with much excitement, we built our own baking soda and vinegar volcanoes in the sand pit. It was a fun and messy way to pass the last couple of days at school, and to deepen our connection to our own place by imagining it at a different time.

Thanks again for a beautiful year. I wish you all a full, beautiful and restful summer!
Best,
Jessica