Author Visit!

In an age when media devices dominate our world we in our small community are blessed to have an active and responsive independent book shop that works hard to put books in the hands of teachers to inspire the next generation of readers. One amazing service (and let's identify it as an incredible gift!) that they have provided this fall are visits from well known children's authors to the local schools. One special visitor that spent a morning at Cornwall School was Ashley Wolff. Ashley grew up in Middlebury, attended local schools, studied at RISD, and is now building a home on the lake. She enthralled the children in grades K-3 with her story about becoming an artist and a book author. She enlisted the talents and ideas from the children to create a storybook complete with illustrations that adorns the primary hall wall. It has thrilled me to see the impact of her visit through the writing and drawing of the Primary children. They have taken her message of "keep on drawing; the more you draw the better you become" to heart!

First Graders posing with Ashley Wolff. They are holding Bear and Miss Bindergarten as well as a collection of Ashley's books.

The School Garden

We harvested potatoes on a beautiful October day.

Two first graders "dig in" to find every last potato! They were used for potato salad for lunch the next day.

Over the years many of us at Cornwall School have put great effort into helping children develop a sense of place using a school garden has the vehicle. As you might imagine this has been met with varying degrees of success. In the ideal world I have visions of spending sunny spring afternoons outside with my firsties digging in the dirt creating homes for the tiny seeds which will grow into lush and productive plants ready to be harvested (again by the children) when we return to school in the fall. In reality Vermont springs are unpredictable, often cool and rainy, which almost always translates to clumps of Addison clay on the bottoms of boots and an unsatisfying experience. This past year the kinder teacher spent incredible amounts of time enlisting many volunteers to prepare a new garden spot that included a combination of raised beds and room for garden rows of sunflowers, potatoes beans and squash. Her efforts paid off! When we returned in the fall the beds that we planted were producing and the garden was adorned with brightly colored banners created by the children. We look forward to next spring when we can build on this positive start and maybe, just maybe, the sun gods will be with us!

First and Second Graders visit Shelburne Farms!

On Wednesday Nov. 19 we traveled north to Shelburne to participate in a program called History of Farming. This is always a much anticipated trip because we work hard to prepare for the visit. We feel fortunate to be invited back as this trip has consistently been successful and fun, a hard-to-beat combination! We spent time beforehand in the classroom reading books about farm life in the olden days. One such book is titled, Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall. Through the pages in this book we caught a glimpse of what it might have been like living and working in a time before modernization.  It was a blustery, cold November day on the Farm but the children were outside most of the day grinding corn to feed the chickens, walking the goat, scratching the pigs, and lifting hay bales. Vermont kids play and work outdoors - no matter the weather!