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Mathematics
Mathematics: Math is seen as another language. We could call the subject “numeracy” in keeping with “literacy”, which may more accurately reflect our understanding of the subject. Children need practice in mathematics in order to build confidence, and they often do best when the approach to the subject allows them to grow their sense of number over time. A “spiral curriculum”, one that keeps returning to certain basic concepts while at the same time pushing outward, meets the needs of most children. We work with math standards established by the National Council of Mathematics and draw our resources from the Miquon Math Program, Bridges Mathematics Curriculum, Math Their Way and Marilyn Burns material.
Sources that Inform Our Curriculum
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The Curriculum in Action:
Students Write about Time
Home / Curriculum / Physical Education and the Outdoors
Physical Education and the Outdoors
Physical Education/ The Outdoors: We engage in a wide variety of gross motor activities. We run down the Boulevard in September in preparation for Cross Country meets. Running continues through October and November, as children are involved in “mini marathon” runs near campus, with the culminating event of the “Seattle Kids Marathon”. The whole school goes to Crystal Mountain for ski and snowboard lessons during January and February. Throughout the year everyone is encouraged to learn to ride a tricycle or bicycle, to join in jump-roping with a teacher turning the handle before learning to hold one’s own rope, and to roller skate. When we are physical, we are often outdoors. We can be found at the lakefront, the garden, hiking at Seward Park or just jumping from one stump to another under the cedar trees at Triangle Park.
Sources that Inform Our Curriculum
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The Curriculum in Action:
Taking the Classroom Outdoors
The following article was posted on the Ampersand, Lake and Park’s school blog, on April 24th 2014.
On a sunny, spring morning a 6-year-old boy kneels in the P-patch holding a treasure in his closed hand. The surrounding gardens, forest pathways and native trees block out the noise from the nearby urban streets and make this small garden a quiet and sacred space for the birds, insects, mice and children within. With his free hand, he carefully reaches into a kale plant and removes a plump potato bug from its leaves, placing that one next to the other in his enclosed hand. This young Lake and Parker explained to me that while the “roly poly” bugs meant no harm, they weren’t good for the kale plants and had to be moved to the forest for the birds, which would also keep the birds out of our garden beds. He loved kale, so this type of work was important. From his explanation, it was clear that this boy, growing up in an urban area, understood the complex ecological cycles that connect our tasty kale plants to the insects to their predators, from simply being free to play in a natural space.
Earlier this spring, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Richard Louv. Many of you may be familiar with his powerful arguments supporting a movement to connect children, families and their communities to the natural world. During his lecture, he presented a collection of evidence to illustrate the connection between experience in the natural world and children’s ability to learn.
Many of Louv’s words were inspiring, particularly as he spoke of the benefits of free, unstructured play outdoors. As an educator, one benefit of outdoor play that struck me most was how children’s attention span increases substantially after just 20 minutes of time in the natural world. Stress and anxiety levels also drop within minutes of seeing green Espaces. I was alarmed by the ever-increasing statistics of screen time in the United States. With some children spending as few as 30 minutes in unstructured outdoor play each day and up to 7 hours a day in front of a screen, I realized that educators have an incredible responsibility to create successful learning environments outdoors. How can we reconnect to rural life, to the source of our food and to natural cycles? How can we facilitate relationships with the wild? “I believe that growth is inspired by a sense of wonder. One of the first windows to wonder is the natural world.” -Rachel Carson
I thought of Lake and Park School frequently as I listened to Louv’s lecture, and felt proud of our program’s keen understanding of the educational value the outdoors has to offer. Our school is one where children work on their lessons in an outdoor classroom, study rainfall patterns as water flows down the Horton Hill steps and discuss the importance of sustainability as we use recycled materials for our art. Our school is unique in its prioritization of integrating the outdoors into our curricular explorations every day, rain or shine. Our families are also unique in their support and enthusiasm as we continue to develop our rich possibilities for outdoor learning.
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In those moments when we realize that nature has a life and structure of its own, independent of the human hand, we are struck with a sense of wonder that begs further inquiry and exploration. There is something about our biology that subconsciously seeks immersion in nature. As I observe Lake and Park students immerse themselves into our nearby natural worlds and reach a rich and genuine qualityof play, I find myself wondering how, as a school, we can continue to nurture and encourage the relationship between the natural world and ourselves. How can we best use our nearby natural environmental to their fullest potential?
While we frequently attempt to create stimulating, inviting, freeing and private places for children to play indoors, the varied environments nearby offer refuge, freedom, discovery, challenge, joy and wonder.
Garden Time
We are so fortunate to have a garden within a short bus ride from our school. As a small part of the greater Coleman Park P-Patch, our experiences at the garden often lead to discussions about the greater community. Last week, the big room students visited the garden and attempted to map the larger P-Patch. Suddenly, the garden as they knew it expanded greatly, as they considered the hundreds of other garden beds, the impressive variety of veggies, herbs and flowers within these plots and the surrounding forest full of native species enclosing us. The development of their sense of place feels invaluable as we continue to interact with our surrounding community.
The garden helps students gain respect for the natural world and one another as they learn how much time and energy it takes each seed to mature and as they learn how different insects, birds and mammals live and interact in our garden and how all are needed to maintain balance. The students are learning a valuable lesson; that it’s possible for land and people to coexist harmoniously to provide food and energy in a sustainable way.
Park Time
Our most frequently visited outdoor spaces, Mt. Baker Park and Triangle Park, give us ample opportunity to freely play and explore. In the fall, I traveled with the Kindergarten class to Mt. Baker Park’s brook after studying the art of Andy Goldsworthy. We were inspired by his place-based natural art and set off to create our own sculptures using treasures from our natural setting. The children’s attention and focus was impressive and inspiration seemed to continually evolve as they found new pieces of nature to integrate. Our understanding of symmetry, balance and color gained an entirely new dimension.
In early winter, we revisited a forested area near the brook to build fox dens after reading The Fantastic Mr. Fox. We remembered our nature art as we worked with our fox families to build shelter from sticks, mud and rocks. This endeavor helped us learn how to communicate, develop decision making and problem solving skills, as well as think creatively as we played “foxes”. These are just a few examples of the endless possibilities for art, literature, dramatic play, science and exploration that these nearby green spaces offer.
Beach Time
While forests, gardens, dirt and grass are so special to play in, playing in water takes on a different quality. There’s something about its unpredictable yet reliable nature that leaves us perpetually wondering and anxious to get our hands and feet wet.
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During our nautical explorations, we constructed numerous boats and rafts and tested their strength in Lake Washington’s waves. Using shovels, we carved waterways in the sand and let our boats float underneath stick bridges.
After our study of eagles, we were determined to locate them in our city. Blessed with fish-filled waters nearby, we were thrilled to find a pair of soaring eagles while playing at the beach one afternoon. Not only does the nature of water and sand provide a playful and sometimes therapeutic environment to explore and build, its setting also serves as an excellent place to watch local wildlife.
When I reflect back on my own childhood places, I discover key pieces of my identity that were forged by my experience in those early years: an appetite for adventure, a comfort with the unknown, the creativity to make fun with whatever is at hand. And what was at hand? Nothing “special” for many years: trees, water, sand, leaves, mud pies, a tree house. But by todays standards, what was previously seen as common, has become rare. One lesson that frequently sings out is that modest pockets of nature can offer expansive palettes for play involving the opportunity to manipulate and interact with elements in the natural environment.
As spring approaches and we spend more and more time outdoors with the Lake and Parkers, I leave you with this quote by Luther Burbank:
“Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water-bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud-turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, brooks to wade in, water-lilies, woodchucks, bats, beeds, butterflies, various animals to pet, hey-fields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries and hornets; and any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of his education.”
-Morgan
Winterim: Crystal Mountain
The following was posted on the Ampersand, Lake and Park’s school blog, on March 7th 2016.
After the last ice age, hunters in remote regions of what we now call China, strapped long pieces of spruce wood to their furry boots. They attached horsehide to the bottoms to help them gain traction as they maneuvered uphill on slick surfaces. With a purpose to hunt elk to sustain their villages through the winter, they traveled in small groups into the snowy mountains.
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Though their purpose for skiing differed from our modern one, perhaps we share a timeless sentiment that Jordi touches on in his writing:
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Grateful for the accumulation of snow this winter, Lake & Park students and educators set aside three Wednesdays in January and February to visit Crystal Mountain.
We awoke and arrived to school early on each of these days to make the two hour journey away from Seattle and into the Cascade Mountains. We passed time on the bus with puzzles, books, songs, rounds of “20 questions” and counting bald eagles. At Crystal, the children were divided into small groups of mixed-age peers and sent into the snow with knowledgeable and playful ski and snowboard instructors.
Following the guidance of their instructors the children learned how to balance, how to go, how to stop and how to safely ride a chairlift. Aside from developing the knowledge and specific skills necessary to direct a pair of skis or snowboard down a snowy mountain, our days at Crystal Mountain were filled with such rich moments of discovery.
We built confidence and self-reliance through overcoming fears
“The thing that surprised me at Crystal Mountain was that I skied down the steep hill without falling over. And that I made it to the carpet without falling…”
– Ken
“I was surprised when I went off a jump because I didn’t know I was going so high.”
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-Finn
“I was scared to go on the gondola. I felt air! But it was fun.”
-Ardin
We learned to enjoy the challenge that comes with pursuing a new physical endeavor
“I was surprised when my teacher asked me to do jumping jacks on skis! Snow kept spraying in my face.”
-Keira
“The most memorable moment was when my skis popped off and I flew into a pile of snow and tasted it.”
– Liam
We enjoyed the company of and leaned on our friends for support
We paused to enjoy our natural surroundings
“The feeling of the wind and the sun and the snow felt good.”
-Leah
“Up on the chairlift, ice and snow blow.Sometimes if you are careful,
The snow will feel warm.”
-Finn
“Snow feels like glistening
white crystalized water
slipping through your
hands.”
- Gus S.
“In the silver mountains a skier flies
through the midnight black shade.”
- Keira
We departed with hopes and dreams for future adventures
“I hope we can go on a bigger chairlift next time.”
- Ian
“I hope that next time I can ski backwards down the whole hill.”
- Harper
Before departing the mountain after our final lesson, we all boarded the gondola and floated to the summit at 7,002 ft. Blue sky greeted our arrival and framed a striking Mt. Rainier that sat majestically just across the valley. As Rose said, “I could see all the other mountains in the Cascades!”
Before departing the mountain after our final lesson, we all boarded the gondola and floated to the summit at 7,002 ft. Blue sky greeted our arrival and framed a striking Mt. Rainier that sat majestically just across the valley. As Rose said, “I could see all the other mountains in the Cascades!”
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- By Ken
Cross Country
Students have the opportunity to participate in a city-wide cross country experience in the fall. Events happen at Upper Woodland Park. We look forward to our fourth year of participating.
