by Renee Owen | Oct 20, 2011 | Director's Blog
Oral storytelling is a rich tradition in the human race, and an important aspect of the curriculum at Rainbow Mountain. Reading stories from books is valuable, but when a someone tells a story orally something magical happens. They storyteller has no book between her heart and the children, so she is sharing openly, without any barriers. The children are not distracted by trying to see the pages or photos, nor can they rely on the photos to tell the story. This increases their listening skills and their imagination, as they create their own pictures in their heads. Oral storytelling is an important precurser to reading for very young children, as it helps them develop comprehension and plot development.
Ruth Shackelton is our storyteller at Rainbow Mountain Children’s School. She tells a story almost every day to one of the classes. Teachers often ask her to introduce a unit with a story. For example, at the beginning of the author’s unit in second grade (when students write and illustrate their own books) she tells a story about the first time humans communicated in “writing.” Her repertoire of stories is endless, and her storytelling style rivots the children’s attention. (See all eyes on Ruth in the photo above).
by Renee Owen | Oct 4, 2011 | News
Exploration; it holds excitement and adventure even when done from a third grade classroom. The 3rd grade Eagles recently set off for a global trek. First they studied their maps, longitude and latitude, landforms and continents. Then they packed their sunglasses and toothbrushes and set off to study all the various biomes and the differences between them. They compared human structures, animals, plants and climates within the biomes. After all the data and craft supplies were gathered the Eagles formed small expedition teams and constructed models of the Sahara Desert, the North American grasslands, the Amazon Rainforest, the Ocean (I think it was the Pacific) and the Arctic. They placed them on the flat earth (their classroom carpet) in the correct locations, added an equator and invited the rest of the school to travel the world in 15 minutes. Here are the highlights:
by Renee Owen | Sep 27, 2011 | Director's Blog
Research within schools has shown that the time spent on social curriculum – on team building activities, class meetings, character studies, and the like, which promote social skills—is not time taken away from academics. By training children how to get along with one another, they can actually focus better on the academic tasks they have to complete because they are less distracted by, and less anxious about relationships with their peers. At Rainbow Mountain Children’s School, we take it one step further. As a holistic school, our social curriculum isn’t an “add on.” It’s completely embedded, and it’s regarded as being at least as important as the other domains: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
by Renee Owen | Sep 23, 2011 | News
Are you ready to feel more joy, peace, and confidence in parenting? Do you want to find new solutions to old problems? Do you want to learn how parenting can be easier?
You’re invited to join Michele Bryan, Positive Discipline Facilitator and parenting consultant, for a Positive Parenting introductory meeting Monday, 26 September from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at Rainbow Mountain Children’s School.
Positive Discipline is a respectful, non-punitive approach to parenting. It teaches parents how to balance kindness and firmness while encouraging children to become more responsible, achieve self discipline and problem solving skills. Ultimately, you will create an atmosphere of joy, cooperation and mutual respect.
Michele Bryan is a former Rainbow Mountain preschool teacher and was an active parent in the Rainbow community for ten years. She was trained in Positive Discipline as a teacher and for the past ten years has supported families with her Positive Discipline classes at multiple Asheville schools.
Free childcare is available. Please call Michele at 280-4722 to reserve a space and childcare if needed.
Classes begin October 3rd.
by Renee Owen | Sep 21, 2011 | News
Rainbow’s second grade Cheetahs, as part of their thematic unit on community, have been busy designing what they envision as a peaceful town to live in.
After learning about communities they discussed and decided what a peaceful town would look like. Then they partnered up, and with much imagination, compromising and possibly negotiation, drafted their ideas into a large map. Soon after the plans were approved and all permits attained they started construction, building their Peace Towns with cardboard boxes, paper and paint. They then added people and plants and all kinds of extras.
“The project was completely student driven,” says Sheila Mraz, the second grade teacher. Each building needed to be an example of peace. One Peace Town had a grocery store that gave food away and a farm which showed a family having dinner because there is peace in a family. Another town had a non-religious school where no one’s holidays would be more important than anyone else’s.
Today, in honor of International Peace Day, Rainbow’s second grade invited the other classes to come tour their Peace Towns. It was well received and even a fifth grader was overheard to say he would like to make his own Peace Town. Following our second grade Cheetahs, we can all make our town, a more peaceful town.
