During the warm spring weather of late January and early February, we found ourselves wanting to work outside. I introduced the children to the work of Andy Goldsworthy, a British sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist, who creates site-specific, often transient pieces. On his website he details his philosophy:

“I enjoy the freedom of just using my hands and "found" tools -- a sharp stone, the quill of a feather, thorns. I take the opportunities each day offers: if it is snowing, I work with snow, at leaf-fall it will be with leaves; a blown-over tree becomes a source of twigs and branches. I stop at a place or pick up a material because I feel that there is something to be discovered. Here is where I can learn.”

Together the first graders and I looked at some of his pieces in the book, Passage, and then watched some clips from his documentary film, Rivers and Tides. I highly recommend it if you are unfamiliar with his work. Sitting in awe and incredulity while listening to Andy’s calm voice describe how he “must do this work,” the children became inspired to look at nature in new ways. We took ourselves out to the Kindergarten Lawn during our Thursday Theme Studies time to see what we might find. They explored with small rocks, large stones, long leaves, and fallen flowers, among other materials. Some worked alone, others with partners. One group spent the following week building and rebuilding a stone path lined with camellia petals (and then practiced their conflict resolution skills after finding out that the kindergarteners had been destroying it each afternoon).

We were struck by the groundedness that had overtaken the classroom by the end of the day. We had the calmest Closing Circle of the year, and we knew it was because of the time the children spent outside. They had been present in their environment, had the freedom to explore their own creative ideas, and they were artistically motivated in their work. Any conflicts that arose were easily solved and flexibility was at its peak. This was mindfulness, literally, in action.

After the success of the first session, they clearly needed more time to develop their original ideas. When asked what they would do if they had more time, they shared ideas like, “I would make my sculpture more colorful,” “I would try to make it taller,” or “I would use new materials.” The following Thursday proved to be as beautiful as the previous, so after watching a little more of Rivers and Tides, we headed back outside for part 2. The children brought out their Observation Notebooks to plan and/or to sketch their designs upon completion. We took a museum tour of everyone’s work at the end, noticing their choices of materials and design structures, as well as hearing about their building processes. Interestingly, many of their designs incorporated radial symmetry, a design technique we had studied during Building Choices in the fall.

Happily heading in at the end of the day, we heard comments like, “I wish we could do this again,” and “I’m going to go home and create Andy Goldsworthy sculptures in my backyard!” The beauty of his work and the accessibility of materials make his style irresistibly appealing to children.

During recesses, several children have chosen to continue their work. A few had discovered that they could use the fallen “berries” from the olive trees on the K Lawn to paint, which eventually led to many river stones and a large branch being transformed to black. Interestingly, the children had studied the olive tree as part of their habitat unit in science during the fall. Yet no one made the connection, even upon prompting, that these berries fell from the olive trees above. (I will say that many of the olives we had studied had been mostly green in the fall.) Eventually, we took a trip back to the original olive trees we studied down by the forts and collected a few fallen olives. The looks on their faces were priceless when I asked them, “What do these remind you of?” …“Berries!”

For our third and final building challenge, I upped the difficulty level. We traveled down to the Lower Meadow to see what other kinds of materials we could find. I gave them time to work and explained that the end goal of the day would be to work together to build a community structure. Off they went to explore for about ten minutes with friends. After sharing their discoveries, they worked to agree on how they could build a LONG structure incorporating their various ideas. They decided on a location and the self-selected leaders began to negotiate their ideas. Other children worked quietly alongside; some were interested in the structural design while others contributed to the aesthetics.

Click here to watch a six-minute video of this three-day study and get a visual sense of the children’s creations.

We have a field trip in the planning stages to visit Andy Goldsworthy’s new installation in the Presidio, called Wood Line! It will be such fun to see this new piece and perhaps be inspired to create some sculpture nearby.

Returning to our nature art study, our class revisited the work of Andy Goldsworthy and stopped to think about his comment -- "There are always these obsessive shapes in nature you can't forget." We noticed how Goldsworthy used similar shapes using many different materials. We also considered our own reflections from our previous experience -- particularly the thought that building with nature required unique techniques. We returned to our work with three questions in mind.

• What are the "obsessive shapes" we see in nature--how can nature's shapes, lines, and patterns inspire us to experiment and create? What clues do they give us about our natural world?
• What different techniques can we use to work with these natural materials?
• What else do we learn about our natural materials through designing and building with them?

What  shapes, lines, and patterns do we discover in nature?

We noted the pattern--alternating short and long
lines--radiating from the center of this tulip.

Our new look at nature sparked metaphorical thinking and a more sensory investigation of the natural objects around us.  Students began to see arches in long grass, play with movement, create sound, and marvel at the structure of the trees, leaves, and stones.  They began to consider familiar objects with fresh eyes.

"It's like the leaf has a skeleton."

"In the leaf you can see flowers or hearts.  When you see these two shapes together, you see them different."

What techniques can we use to build and design with nature?
Through their process of creative building and design, students naturally tested numerous techniques.

Weaving and Carving

Stringing and Hanging

Hollowing and Filling

Framing                                                   Decorating

Layering with similar and contrasting materials

Dissecting

and

looking very closely

While we celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day last week, the first grade classes have been learning about his legacy throughout the year. In the first few weeks of school, we read the book Martin’s Big Words to inspire a reverence for the power of words. We collected strong words that resonated for the first graders -- fairness, happiness, peace, friendship, kindness, and understanding. We also collected other important words of our own and created word walls at home. King’s words became a bridge to the power of ideas in our own reading and writing.