by Admin | Apr 11, 2017 | Blogs
School for the First Grade Jellyfish began as usual this morning with stations of building blocks, coloring sets, puzzles, and games neatly contained on each of the four-person tables. Bowie and Judah were busy building extraordinary creatures that turned effortlessly into whirring machines, a forrest of trees, and then finally into the flying contraptions pictured below with their amazing ability to land upside down and hang from the “ceiling”. Next came a special centering. Every first grader grabbed their sturdy sketch book and a pencil on their way out the door, as they prepared to spend some quite moments centering with their tree. Children drew the images that came to them in the silence as well as creative representations of the trees they’ve been tracking throughout the changing seasons. As soon as she had sat down at the base of her tree, Jett sprung back up and ran to her teacher. “My tree is flowering, Ms.Itiyopiya! Look!” she said. After ten minutes of relaxed mindful presence with their trees, the First Grade Jellies gathered around the candle Ms.Itiyopiya had lit in honor of nature and waited ceremoniously for their teacher to blow out the candle, signaling the end of centering and the beginning of a bright new spring day.
by Admin | Apr 11, 2017 | Blogs
Australian children’s book author and comedy writer, Andy Griffiths, took Rainbow first through fifth graders by storm this morning. His childlike imagination coupled with his hilarious kid-oriented sense of humor brought the Rainbow auditorium to thunderous laughter. Throughout his presentation about his journey as a writer, comedian, and story-teller, Andy never missed an opportunity to engage our students’ imaginations. In preparation for his visit, Rainbow students drew upon their creativity to design the treehouse of their dreams, taking inspiration from Andy’s wildly popular Treehouse series. One of the treehouses in his series has “a bowling alley, a see-through swimming pool, a tank full of man-eating sharks, an underground laboratory, a vegetable vaporizer, and a marshmallow machine that shoots marshmallows into your mouths when it detects that you are hungry”. It is with this delightful absurdity, that Andy Griffiths and illustrator Terry Denton, have captured the attention of young readers around the world. Our young readers were smitten and eagerly lined up to get their books and bookmarks signed. If you’re looking for more Treehouse books we suggest you buy them from our local children’s bookstore, Spellbound Children’s Bookshop, who helped organize Andy’s visit to Rainbow. Thank you to Andy and his team for making this morning exceptionally hilarious, enlivening, and inspiring for us and our students.
by West | Apr 7, 2017 | Blogs, News, Rainbow Institute
When planning daily centerings Rainbow Community School (RCS) teachers strive to align the lessons, practices or activities with one of RCS’s spiritual, social and/or emotional learning goals. One of the longest standing spiritual learning goals (see below) recognizes celebration, tradition and ritual as sacred acts- acts that offer our students links to other cultures, ancestors and the past while laying a foundation for their future.
Class and Community Celebration and Ritual: Shared celebrations, ceremonies and rites of passage that empower students to be a part of an integral community
These shared celebrations, ceremonies and rites of passage are held as sacred and in some cases magical. They are symbolic and are infused with great care and reverence. Some specific milestones include Move Up Day, The Rose Ceremony, Mysteries Council, Graduation, school wide monthly gatherings that align with seasonal celebrations and Birthday Celebrations.
Recently I was invited into the 1st grade classroom to participate in a centering honoring a birthday. Our students experience at least once collective centering each school day, but for one very special centering each year, it becomes extremely personalized- The Birthday Celebration. As we know, a birthday is such a special and exciting event in a young person’s life, this special day holds a different, personal meaning than do other holidays or celebrations. Birthdays are celebrated for various reasons, from honoring or reflecting on personal growth, to acknowledging new opportunity, to encouraging fellowship. We may associate cake, ice cream, presents, parties with them but at Rainbow this personal milestone is meant to invoke a sense of the sacred- The child is cerebrated as a uniquely spiritual being.
Rachel, the lead teacher opened the centering circle by lighting the candle for “Judah and his new trip around the sun.” She first asked the kids to bring awarenss to their bodies by “finding a space that was grounding for them.” She then help to guide them in three deep breaths by ringing a chime between each breath. As the kids engaged in these typical centering rituals, the energy of the room settled into a more mindful state.
Rachel continued,…”We have all been part of Judah’s life for many days…many of us met Judah the first day of this school year, others have known Judah for many years now. We are also blessed to have two people in the circle that have known him for his entire life and we welcome Judah’s parents. Regardless of how long we have known him, we have all come to love and appreciate him and would like to honor him with appreciations.”
At this point Rachel asked the kids to warm their hands by rubbing them together and then invited them to cover their eyes so that they can fully picture Judah’s face and invite a sincere appreciation to the front of their minds. As the appreciation circle began, she reminded them that “when we speak from the heart, we point our hearts at the person we are speaking to.” The appreciations, as well as smiles and even happy tears began to flood into the room. Judah’s parents were also invited to tell Judah’s birth story and to share pictures and memories through the years.
Rachel has, for years, been carrying on a 1st grade tradition of a birthday bead necklace. At his time, she asked the children to choose a bead from the basket and to think about a wish they have for Judah as he embarks on this next journey around the sun and let the bead represent a wish they have for him during this next trip. Each student strung his/her bead onto the necklace and named the wish. As a closure, Rachel reminded Judah that he was loved by his 1st grade family and if there were every a time that he needed to be reminded of the love that surrounded him to wear the necklace so that his heart could be filled.
by West | Mar 20, 2017 | Blogs, Rainbow Institute
There are certain stand out elements of the Rainbow Seven Domains Learning Model that have huge impacts on the culture of the school, the daily centering practice is one. This morning ritual serves to awaken the spiritual center of each child, opening pathways to learning. This whole class activity than has an opening and closing ritual with an activity in the middle. The activity can include mindfulness, but also extends into other aspects of contemplative and spiritual learning with experiences that can integrate with the academic curriculum, social/emotional learning, creativity, kinesthetics, and students’ connection to the natural world. The learning targets for each centering are inspired by the spiritual domain learning goals.
As a centering begins, the classroom is filled with ritual and reverence. These rituals vary from classroom to classroom but the essence of centering is such that the students gather in a circle on a rug, the space is set with intention, the lights are dimmed, a chime or bell invites silence, reverence fills the room, a pause is taken for audible breath work, the invitation of fire through candlelight is summoned- this begins the sacred work of the day.
by West | Mar 10, 2017 | Blogs, Rainbow Institute
I am sure you have actions or behaviors in your day that you could categorize or label as habitual. Consider one or more of those for a moment. For example, brushing your teeth, or filling the tea kettle, putting food in the dog bowl before you are off to work, etc… Do you consider these as sacred HABITS. I am going to assume that you don’t likely bring intentioned awareness or a mindful presence to these on a daily basis. Or that you don’t pause to give reverence to those actions. I wonder what would transpire if you did?
When something becomes habit it has the tendency to lose its power, its meaning, and its impact. As you may know from previous centering reflections- ritual, rites and ceremony are embedded into RCS’s curriculum and culture in various forms. These show up in class meetings, centering practices, celebrations, and everyday when the kids unite in a food blessing.
Recently I joined grade 4 for a two-part centering in which the teacher introduced the word “invocation.” Invocation is a sentence, poem or prayer that calls our attention from the ordinary into the sacred.
Many RCS classrooms invite the sacred into the classroom through morning verses, songs, and regular recitations. However, blessings are one invocation that serve as a sacred ritual in every classroom. They happen each day before snack and before lunch. The blessing leader chooses from the blessing wall or list and then leads his/her classmates. Often they are followed by a minute of food honoring silence.
The introduction of the word invocation opened the floor for a discussion guided by these questions … “What makes something sacred or special and why do we pause for a blessing?”
The discussion led into an extension activity in which the kids shared their own family blessings and brainstormed general elements or characteristics that make up a blessing. This brainstorm then led to some personal journaling in which the students were asked to draft an original blessing to be added to the list of blessings. This was the teacher’s way of bringing the power back to something that had lost its spark while also empowering the students to take ownership over daily rituals.
Something done everyday can become habit if we make an effort to revisit what meaning it has. It we don’t pause or bring some intentionality back into it. This is like adding water to thirsty and drooping plant- it brings the life, the enthusiasm, the perk back into it.
How can what we do at RCS inspire your own personal or professional work? Consider these questions.
What in your life needs to be watered?
What rituals have become habit?
How can you breathe life back into them?
by Admin | Mar 2, 2017 | Blogs
In the depths of winter, as the school year wound its way back through January, our Kindergarteners learned of the bear’s hibernation, the geese’s migration, and the rabbit’s adaptation. How do we, as animals, respond to winter’s harsh demands? Do humans hibernate, migrate, or adapt? Depending on your community and career, you might do all three!
During winter some beekeepers migrate south with their hives. Although as humans we can’t achieve the hibernation status of a depressed metabolism, a lower body temperature, and a falling heart rate, we do experience similar tendencies to cozy up, stay inside, and feed off stored foods; in our case we store pickled vegetables and smoked meats, instead of fat in our bodies, but the principle remains the same. Finally, we adapt. We adapt by growing layers of fur in the form of coats and scarves and mittens are . We adapt by turning up the heat and eating steaming bowls of stew and soup. By understanding themselves as part of the animal world, our students grow up with a systems-thinking approach to environmental sustainability.
The other species of animals who live alongside us, are not just obstacles standing in the way of human civilization, nor are they just cute oxytocin-boosters meant to entertain and love us. Animals serve as reflections of our human experience here on planet Earth. Grounded in their bodies and in their purpose of survival, animals can teach of us of the simplicity of the present moment. What are the basics of our lives? How wholesome do we feel in the simple routines of eating, sleeping, moving our bodies, and gathering in families?
In the pictures above, Kindergarten Assistant Teacher, Doreen, dramatically hides the Mama bear in her cave, where she’ll stay hibernating until spring flowers open in late March.
