Dear Third Grade community,
I was so proud of their work presenting thanks for the sun, moon, and stars, our sections of the Haudenosaunee Address for our Harvest Assembly. Our block work has been focused on fibers, and I was worried at first that this would be too disparate and “thrown together.” I shouldn’t have worried! They came through and did a fabulous job, even choreographing some parts themselves. This year I can see that they have more inner strength to perform in front of a large group of people than they have in the past.
UPCOMING EVENTS
3rd Grade Parent Evenings,Wed, Jan 31, 7:00-9:00 and Wed, April 18, 7:00-9:00. Please reserve these dates on your calendar.
Yuletide Fest, Saturday, Dec 9, 4:00-7:00 at City Garden. Sign up to bring something or volunteer to work a shift.
CLASSROOM HIGHLIGHTS
We ended our fibers block with the exploration of cotton and learning the basics of dyeing wool using good old mother nature. Natural dyeing is a beautiful combination of science and art. It’s about botany, chemistry, and even a little bit of zoology. And oh, the colors that unfold! There is a magic in it that every third grader can appreciate. And the colors that come are always different, no matter how exact you are in your measurements. A living experiment of color. What color will it give us? What part of the plant should we use? And did you image the dye bath would smell so bad/good/like hay/like compost? And then the oh’s and ah’s that come when the final product is revealed to be the same or drastically different from your hypothesis.
Words to a Young Weaver – Noel Bennet
We are the Dineh, my child
With the earth we live
With the Sky we live
With the plants we live
We know their ways.
Heed well the plants, my child.
Learn the ways of each, my child.
Some you must ask for gently,
Pick their tips
Heat them softly
And they give.
Some you must demand of strongly
Dig through the rocks
Pound hard the roots
You will tire
And they will give.
Give to each as it requires
It will give to you, my child,
It will give to you.
We are the Dineh,
With the earth we live
With the Sky we live
With the Plants we live
We know their ways
Nature comes as it comes
Gives as it gives
We do not plan Nature.
We do not control Nature.
It is so in dyeing wool.
Receive your colors as they come.
Learn the ways of each.
Some plants dye strong enough alone.
Some take strength from other things.
The Ashes of the Juniper
The Minerals of the Soil
Give to the weak, strength, my child
And the colors that come are good.
The Red of the cliffs at sunset,
Will come.
The Yellow of the shimmering sand,
Will come.
The Green of the plant life around,
Will come.
The Black of the thunderclouds heavy,
Will come.
All good colors will come, my child.
All good colors will come.
And do not try to match a color of the past.
This is a new day.
This is a new plant.
The colors that come forth are many,
None will be the same
And each that comes is good.
And each that comes is good.