Stone Soup

I have been teaching with this story for years, starting way back when I was first working as a summer camp and after-school counselor in high school and college. In fact, I can't even remember which group first introduced the story of Stone Soup to me, but whomever it was, I am grateful for the introduction. If you've never read this story, go pick it up and read it the next chance you get. It is a beautiful story about coming together as a community, opening your heart and working together for the common good. There are many versions of this classic tale, but I am partial to author and illustrator, Jon J. Muth's version, mostly because I think his gentle watercolor style so perfectly brings to life the feelings in the story. I personally just love all of his work, but Marcia Brown's version is also really great. Just before Christmas, I had the chance to share this story with my class and although they are just a bit young for it, I couldn't resist and at least a few of them really got into it and that's good enough for me. I asked the group at the end what they liked best and while some loved the illustrations, just as I do, many of them pointed out different veggies and ingredients featured in the soup as their favorite part. Since I am always looking for a chance to incorporate food into my curricula, I was naturally thrilled.

Whenever I share one of my favorite books with a class, I always pay attention to the bits and pieces they connect with the most and do whatever I can to bring those pieces to life, weaving them throughout the rest of the curriculum. With this story, I have often had each of the kids pick an ingredient to bring in and we've made stone soup together in a crock-pot as a class and enjoyed it for our lunch, which is always a huge hit. Cooking projects are one of my favorite ways to bring a story to life because they are so multi-sensory and therefore leave a much larger imprint on one's memory. With a story like this one, highlighting the strong messages of community and open-mindedness, I definitely want the memory to stick. I also love to cook with kids because they are usually fascinated by the process and eager to participate. Because I feel so gypped from not learning more (or much of anything) about food in school when I was young, I want to cultivate this interest as much as possible in my students. It baffles me that growing and preparing food, something so crucial to human culture and survival gets so neglected in most schools, but I suppose I'll save my feelings on the subject for another time because I could go on and on and I don't want to get off track from Stone Soup... If you are interested, however, check out my Kids in the Kitchen pinboard for more inspiration in food education.

Felt carrot, asparagus, and purple sweet potato I made for little K back in HI

Anyway, since my kiddos happened to be drawn to the ingredients involved in making stone soup, I thought, perhaps I will use this as an opportunity to finally develop a set of felt food for our play kitchen. Since not all of the kids were interested in this story, that tells me that instead of sharing it with the group as our circle-time read, I will next time offer to read it in the book nook with those who are interested, as a choice during our open work time. Most of the kids will wander over and listen at least for a little while each time I read it, while others will savor it again and again. Whatever their preference, all of them will inevitably be exposed to the ideas in the story as they work their way through the rest of the curriculum. By stocking our play kitchen with felt versions of the ingredients in the story, the kids will have the chance to incorporate Stone Soup into their play, and this has so many benefits from literacy development, to deepening their knowledge of food and the process of creating meals, to bringing the important message of community to the center stage, not to mention the exposure to different cultural groups in the mountains of the Himalayas. I think I'll take it one step further and capitalize on my class's budding interest in using scissors and invite them to practice cutting out pictures of food in magazines to glue down to a paper plate, making their own "stone soup" that they can take home. I swear, a few good stories can be a teachers best friend and savior, I don't know what I'd do without them.

Cultivating Community...via Craft Night!

K "washes" the tomatoes we harvested in her new play kitchen

With less than one month left in Hawaii, I have the curriculum for the farm preschool cooperative pretty much nailed down. The basic design for the school is drawn up, and the materials needed to fill the school walls are mostly pinned and bookmarked. So what am I doing between now and May 30th, our departure date? Well, that’s a good question. I have been spending so much time working on the curriculum and so thoroughly enjoying myself that it has left me contemplating the possibility of a return to school yet again to further my own education in a doctoral program for curriculum design and instruction. I’ll save that story, however, for another time. Anyway, now that the farm preschool curriculum is in solid working order, I am using my remaining time here in two ways. When I am not hanging with little K, I am kicking my craftiness up a few notches and putting together as many resources for the school as I can. As for my work with K, I am planning on diving right into the curriculum with her so that we can both experience it in action and so all you lovely readers at home can get a better idea of how an emergent curriculum works within our three focus areas (Social & Personal Responsibility, Agriculture & Sustainability, and Creativity & the Arts). I have a feeling this is going to be a busy and exciting month!

Things are really coming together for the farm preschool cooperative project in a way that I could only have hoped for. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to organize a craft day where all the families who are planning to join the preschool cooperative could gather and work on projects ranging from erecting the physical structure of the school to sewing more felt food and painting rock people, among other things. Last Friday night, a mini-version of this idea materialized unexpectedly when Heather, K’s mom, and I decided to spend our evening drinking wine out on the balcony overlooking ocean and sewing felt finger puppets based on a cute project I found on Pinterest. Before we knew it, over half the members of our farm community had gathered with us and we ended up stitching ten adorable little puppets shaped like owls, lions, bears, cats, and one not so cute looking elephant, whose eyes I just couldn’t keep from looking villainous. Craft night was such a success that we’re going to do it again tonight!

our inspiration from this seller on Etsy

Although it would certainly be easier to place an order with amazon along with all the books I’ve bookmarked to fill the library, it is important both in the Reggio Approach and our Reggio-Inspired curriculum that we instead take the time to engage in these group resource development activities. There is a heavy emphasis on cultivating self-sufficiency skills and community connections in the farm preschool cooperative, the later being of particular importance in the Reggio Approach as well. What better way, I thought, to start this preschool than by living and breathing the program’s philosophy into its very creation. When K and her friends walk into the finished school for the very first time, they will be introduced to each material and feel an immediate connection because these toys and this place was built specifically for them by people they know and love deeply. Right from the outset this means a greater respect for their communal belongings, an understanding of what is possible with a little creativity and resourcefulness, and an immediate sense of appreciation, love, and support. In my opinion, there is no better way to start school.

Not only was our craft night important for the kiddos and their future school, but it was important for us too, the adult members of the farm community. While our hands were occupied with felt, needles, and thread, we had the chance to share in one another's company and wind down from the week with the cool evening breeze and the sun setting over the Pacific ocean in the background. We enjoyed our drinks, a mouth-watering snack of cheesy baked artichoke bread that Jodi brought, and chatted about anything and everything. Even the guys on the farm got in on the crafting, impressing the pants off the rest of us who doubted they could even be baited to join. So what does our gathering have to do with the school, other than making resources for it? It sets the norm for the kids. K eagerly joined in, working on her own beginner sewing skills, soaking in the positive and enjoyable community experience until she was too tired to keep her eyes open.

Our DIY version of the puppets I pinned from Etsy

From experiences like these, K will always know what is possible when friends come together to work toward a common goal, but most importantly, she had so much fun crafting and so did we. Activities like this help set the foundation for a lifetime of deep and meaningful community connections, hard but enjoyable work, and a some creative resourcefulness. By joining in on our craft night, K is able to see what she will be capable of when she get’s bigger, that her needs can be met by her own hand, not just by her wallet. It was Friday night and the school hasn’t even opened yet, but already K is beginning to feel the benefits of the curriculum we have designed for it. This is quite possibly one of my favorite aspects of Reggio-Inspired education, it is firmly understood that learning happens all the time, and that potential to build knowledge and skill is present in every single moment of every single day. Learning doesn’t stop when one leaves school walls, and it doesn’t start upon return in the morning. Learning happens all the time across a multitude of settings and the purpose of school is to cross these disciplines, these contexts, and support learning as it unfolds naturally, helping each student to make the most of his and her unique life experience.

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The Reggio Approach, I think more than most other educational approaches, understands the importance of cultivating a sense of community belonging for children and their parents. Parent involvement, as Louise Boyd Cadwell points out in the prologue (page 6) of her book Bringing Reggio Emilia Home, “is considered essential,” and that in this approach, “parents play an active part in their children’s learning experience and help ensure the welfare of all children in the school.” I love this idea of involving parents as partners in their children’s education, it just makes sense. Whether schools admit it or not, parents are doing at least as much educating (for better or worse) than teachers are and therefore when the two parties are on the same page, understanding, collaborating and supporting one another, the educational experience can be so much richer and more powerful for the kids. In addition, when parents work together, be it in the classroom like they will in the farm preschool cooperative or joining in on community socials and resource development days, kids internalize these values and they become the norm they reference their later experiences against.

our inspiration for this evening's craft night!

By showing kids how to be part of a community, we are helping them learn to cultivate and appreciate this when they inevitably grow up and develop new communities of their own. It’s easy to do this here on the farm, probably easier than in other places, because there are four families living on this land and the Big Island of Hawaii, particularly the South Kona area where we are, is a very community oriented place. I grew up in a similar community-oriented place in Southern Vermont and after having lived in other places, I am grateful for having the experience to reference because when I lacked that connection I knew exactly what it was that I was missing and how to go about finding and creating it for myself. If you ask me, rebuilding the community connections that somehow got lost and minimized over the past few decades is one of the most important ways we can help prepare this next generation of young people for the future. The barriers that separate us from one another are a major hindrance of progress and it’s high time we begin breaking them down and work together to make our communities, our states, our country, and our world a better place. Our children’s schools present the perfect opportunity to show kids the power of a supportive, inclusive, and caring community.