How is Your Child's Entertainment Like a Toaster? By Quinn Slotnick

Two notes to readers before we get into the meat of things here. I began writing this post about the joy and importance of woodworking at The Lake and Park School. As I started thinking about our experience with carpentry at school and researching the topic as a whole, I realized the importance of woodworking goes deeper than I gave it credit and it shares its importance with many other hands-on activities. These experiential activities also appear to be at least a partial counter to the detriments of a globalized and technologically advanced American society replete with mass-produced childhood entertainment.

My second note may be unnecessary, but I feel the need to mention that I am nearly twenty five and this writing comes from my own observation of children as a teacher, outdoor educator, friend, and babysitter, not as a parent or some all-knowing professional--who really is? That being said, this is my opinion and I believe that I have found something true and important. I hope you are able to find parts of this post  interesting, provocative and maybe even a little useful.

…

Caroline Pratt began her work in education at a very young age in the early 1900’s. Her school, The City and Country School, the name of which you may notice shares its structure with our own, and for good reason, still stands today as an important (and expensive) New York private school for children in nursery school to fifth grade. I can’t speak so much to the school as it stands today although I am sure it is lovely, but Pratt’s philosophy is timeless and important to all of the teachers at Lake and Park.

At Pratt’s “play school”, children learned how the world around them functioned. They watched supplies arrive in large crates at the city docks, saw large machines load coal into containers to be burned for fuel, and they talked to firemen, postmen, and other people who made their city run. After observing, questioning and talking with each other, they played, worked and wrote or dictated poems and stories to their teachers.

In play they pretended to be machines, family members, and the people they saw working in their city. In the blocks they built the New York piers. They worked important jobs in their classes that dictated their curriculum.  Actual jobs selling school supplies to other classes within the school led to investigations on erasers and where rubber comes from or trade routes in ancient times. Their work with the printing press led to poems about machines. Their imaginative ideas about the goings on in their larger physical space engaged them and inspired imaginative school work. Watching the loading of coal, a child came up with this poem.

The Giant Shovel takes a bite of coal and he spits it down into another boat

Then the coal wagon comes and takes his breakfast away from the boat

The Giant Shovel takes a bite and chucks it down into the coal wagon

Then another bite and then another bite until the coal wagon fills up

Then chunk a chunk chunk, away goes the bingety bang bang truck

This is an imaginative version of a real life event. It pertains exactly to what a child knows - eating, coal, vehicles, and still it holds the imaginative beauty in a child’s thought process. Pratt wrote that without the real life experience, this is not possible. A child’s imagination is linked to a true understanding of the world around them. Thus, a child with incorrect facts or one lacking in true experiences is missing something crucial. If their knowledge is not complete, then their imagination, as Pratt sees it, is not truly imaginative; rather, they may be humorous for the enjoyment of adults or may simply be confused.

This is the heart of her all-angle attack on fairy tales. Seriously, Caroline! What could be harmful about the creative and timeless stories children share?

She will tell you.

“The literary child may be facile with his borrowed ideas and phrases, but they are borrowed, hollow, without the vitality of personal emotional experience. A child who has shared an early morning sunrise with the birds has had an emotional experience  which the child who has merely read about birds and sunrise can never equal.”

She believes a child needs real world experience in order to gain an imagination that also reflects her/his understanding of the world. A child without first hand experience and with confusing fairytale ideas in its place, is even more disadvantaged. Such a child’s ideas are muddled and their thoughts are not their own.

Her hardlined philosophy on this matter is especially important in our current time, but too black-and-white and impossible to carry out. It is difficult to translate to the situation current children find themselves in for two reasons. The first is that the gears that turn our everyday functions are hidden far beneath the surface and the second is the prevalence of widespread, mass-produced, entertainment for children.

Let’s deal with that first reason. Pratt wanted her stories and her field trips to focus on the “here-and-now.” This is tricky for the children of Lake and Park for their “here-and-now” is neither here, nor now. We can’t watch lamplighters turn on the street lights as the sun goes down or machines dump coal into furnaces to run other machinery and keep us warm. Our world simply happens; We don’t see it or feel it. The lights work automatically, food arrives at our door and the internet has the answers to all of our questions, wrong as they may be.

To emphasize this conundrum, a man named Thomas Thwaites set out to make a toaster from scratch. Although he knew it would be complicated, even the cheapest toaster he could find proved to be almost impossible to replicate. Here are the “insides” of the cheapest toaster Thomas Thwaites could find.

Thwaites found one cheap toaster featured 400 parts and over 100 different materials

After speaking to experts in mining, metallurgy, plastic making, he found that no one could help him to mine the copper for a few wires, melt the oil for a single mold or smelt a small amount of iron into steel for one toaster. Our world exists on a high tech, globalized and mass produced order that is absent from us. Almost uncaring. As a consumer, we do not engage in the creation or facilitation of our world.

In this environment, it is more difficult to inspire children with views of the facilitation of our daily comforts, as was readily done in the early twentieth century.  They are still able to find that inspiration however. They love the garbage trucks, mail carriers and light rails in the city. Here we begin to see the first part of a solution to something that isn’t a problem in other contexts. If children are given the opportunity to step outside their houses and away from their screens and brought to places where people are working, or to natural places where life is happening, they may see real-world activity that helps them to put their own world into order and inspire their creativity. A creativity that Caroline Pratt might argue is stronger as it is based in true life experience and demonstrative of a truer understanding of the world.

The second reason her philosophy does not translate well to the world of today’s children, is the prevalence of entertainment trends. The fairy tales of Pratt’s day are more than stories in books now. They take many forms, penetrate into all aspects of children's lives and the sheer quantity of children's entertainment going beyond the here-and-now is overwhelming. Screens are everywhere, with movies cartoons and games, trends like Pokémon become clothing and merchandise in addition to being made into TV shows themselves. We also have games, social media phenomena and collectable trinkets, which may become markers of social status.

Much like the toaster, people far away produce pieces of Pokémon, PJ Masks, Grossery Gang™ and other trends for mass child consumption and all of these trends have been popular at our school. A very smart man couldn’t build his own toaster as our equally smart children are far removed from the process by which their entertainment is created, manipulated and delivered to their communities.   

Though their entertainment does not arise out of their own imagination, I do not think these popular trends in childhood entertainment are inherently bad. In fact I think they  can lead to positive peer interactions in addition to simply being a being a source of joy and allowing for creativity if used wisely. Putting these entertainment trends to good use means carefully positioning them in a child’s life where they are forced to use their own brain in conjunction with the trend’s ready-made imagination of its creators. The solutions to this diet of too much mass consumed entertainment must then come from hands on, experiential, self directed work such as clay, wood working, art and outdoor exploration with and without peers.

Outdoor exploration in the woods or the city, is essential as that is where kids are able to get the first hand experience that Pratt believed to be so important. They build an understanding of the world and their place in it with their own minds and with the ideas of their peers. Exploring their world must preclude and later, coexist with entertainment trends and hands-on art and building experiences. This is where children find the inspiration for the other pieces in their life.

Very Beginning Room students exploring the area around our school

Mass produced entertainment tool is an inescapable part of imagination building. If many children know about Pokémon they can relate to it together. They may go outside and pretend to be Pokémon trainers and catch each other or build Pokémon forts. If kids are playing together outside with a shared experience, their mutual knowledge can lead to high level play, creating broader social understandings, imagination and creativity. When mass-produced, child entertainment is placed in combination with a hands-on experience where children are using their and their peers’ minds in a real environment, the negatives of that entertainment can be turned on their heads.

Using a hammer is a skill that requires practice

Experiential activities such as woodworking or clay can be used similarly. These activities on their own are essential as they push children into taking their sense data - what they see, hear, smell and touch and combining it with personal experience to create art, tools or simply forms that reflect the work put into the process of making. Their minds and bodies are in charge. These activities are not always easy, children need to put many developmental pieces in order to build with new materials and to use real tools, but they do it with relish.

The Very Beginning may start to learn woodworking with hammering nails into stumps while the Beginning Room may start to put pieces together and add accessories. Soon they are putting pieces together logically from our standpoint and naming them as they see the products’ functions emerge: a car, a sword, a boat.

The process is difficult, but the results are tangible and rewarding. As a child works and gains new skills they see measurable progress.  Children can describe their work they have done and the skills they have learned to others and be proud of what they have accomplished. This leads to understandings of self-worth and a greater knowledge of practical skills.  

These important activities can be used in combination with entertainment trends as well. Kids can learn the processes of technologically simple, intellectually difficult tasks that also pose gross and fine motor challenges while creating objects or characters from popular vehicles of entertainment. This may connect them more to that piece of entertainment as well as to friends who enjoy the same thing. With enough real-world experience to leave the realm of prefabricated imagination the entertainment trends help not hinder their woodworking, clay forming, clothes sewing, baking, etc…

The children in the above photo took playdough and made concentric circles. They then labeled it as “rings of a tree”, someone knowing that one could use tree rings to count the years a tree has been alive.…

As a child I could look at the world through Lion King tinted glasses. I would understand the world around me because I could relate my experiences to those of Simba, Nala or Timon. This helped me to explain things. Without experiences where I was forced to ask myself or others questions to understand them the world would have been very confusing however. I was able to see that things happened for many reasons and I could explain the world based on personal experience as well as disney movies.

Caroline Pratt was too hard-lined in her philosophy. I believe fairy tales, Saturday morning cartoons, and widely enjoyed games are not a detriment to children if they are taken in moderation as well as in combination with experiential activities that push a child to think for him or herself. An anti-fairytale ideology comes from the seed of something important and how we decide to act on that kernel of truth now is essential to a child’s development. They must be able to understand their world, their minds, and also to imagine something beautiful beyond the present time and beyond their physical space.

We need the entertainment and the excitement both reality and a made-up story can bring. In our Seattle bubble, where life seems to be happening far away, we all need to my enthralled in stories and experience our own “here-and-now” and mold our experience with clay or put it together with wood in new and imaginative ways--we can learn and be inventive through hands-on creation with the people around us.

Further reading

The Toaster Project by Thomas Thwaites

(and similarly)

I, Pencil, My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read

Found here http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html#I, Pencil

And very importantly,

I Learn From Children by Caroline Pratt

A Study of Botany by Morgan

"What is a botanist?" Asked students and teachers in early September as we embarked on a long study of botany. Learning that botany is the study of plants, children and teachers considered how one could best study plants. 

"By going outside and looking at the leaves!"

 "By drawing the trees" 

"By getting some books about plants." 

"By finding some plant experts." 

And so we did. 

Curious about the variety of plant species living in our neighborhood, students throughout the school ventured through the neighborhood collecting leaves, seeds and sticks. We sorted our collections at school, pressed leaves and paged through colorful guidebooks to identify as many leaves as possible. Looking at a collection of colorful leaves and seed pods upon a white piece of paper made us realize how expansive plant life is. 

"I realized that when you look around and pay attention you'll find more interesting leaves." -Caroline

"I wonder how many different types of plants there even are." -Finn T. 

"I wonder how many flowers are in the world?"-Tillie

Each day, we returned from our walks with leaves and flowers we hadn't noticed before. The potential for discovery felt endless. So did the process of identification, which often required consulting several different books to find a leaf's identity. Being so patient with the process made us feel like scientists doing real research. 

 As we familiarized ourselves with plant families, we learned to characterize leaves by their shape, margins and size. We learned the difference between flowering and non-flowering plants as well as monocots and dicots. We learned about gymnosperms and angiosperms; seeds and spores. We counted the number of deciduous trees and coniferous trees on our walk to the park. How had we climbed, sat beneath and walked through these trees day after day without knowing their identities? We slowly grew to see the trees differently; as individuals. With this shift in our perspective, we also gained confidence and expertise in identifying a variety of species. With a closer examination of our collections, a flood of questions arose:

"I wonder how the first seed got to the earth." -Devin

"I wonder how flowers get their color." - Ken

"I wonder what plants eat." - Leah.

"The most interesting leaf I found had a leaf miner trail." -Gus S. 

"How did plants evolve for there to be such variety?" Wondered the North Room students. Awed by the monstrous size of horsetails and ferns, the students competed to find the largest leaf and traced the evolution of plants back to the carboniferous period. As we looked closely at the structure of leaves with magnifying glasses, we noted their small veins and considered their purpose. A study of the process of photosynthesis followed, which was read about and acted out throughout the school.  

"Why are so many plants green?" We wondered as we looked at the beautiful assortments of leaves we collected each day on walks to and from the park. We soon learned about chlorophyll and the anatomy of plants. We learned about the role of roots and how leaves absorb carbon dioxide as well as how plants communicate with one another. 

"Plants send out roots to sense the space around the so they can adapt to their environment." -Rhea

  

  

 Inspired by the work of Beatrix Potter, a beloved children's author and botanist, we sat between the flowers in our garden and quietly beneath trees in Mt. Baker Park and painted what we saw. Like Beatrix, we imagined characters such as Peter Rabbit, hopping into our painted scenes. Children in the North Room wrote stories in the style of Beatrix Potter and put on puppet shows of their favorite stories for the younger grades. 

 As we read the wonderful literature of Beatrix Potter, we also listened to the poetry of Margaret Wise Brown and Christina Rossetti that so frequently focus their words around the natural world. This poetry inspired countless illustrations and performances. Students in the North room wrote haiku poems to convey the transition from summer to autumn evident by the falling leaves. Big Room students wrote cinquian poetry to describe the characteristics and symmetry of leaves. Children in the Beginning classrooms danced and sang songs about leaves falling from trees.

"The sprinkling rain

falls in sheets of cold wetness

on slight, tinted leaves." 

-Ardin 

Curious about the actual work of botanists and what greater purpose their work serves, we visited the the herbarium at the University of Washington and visited with the botanist there. We wondered, "Why would someone want to be a botanist?" "Why is it important to study plants?" At the herbarium, we opened cabinets full of folders containing 23,000 different species of plants from around the world. We learned about the medicinal qualities of certain plants and the peculiarities of others. The botanist there explained how she carefully pressed the specimens to preserve them, which inspired the upstairs children to create their own collections of plants. We worked for weeks to collect, identify and preserve leaves of various types. 

"I learned that you can press a plant and keep it for a hundred years." -Thomas

With the leaves on the trees falling around us, it felt natural to head outdoors and engage with the leaves. The youngest children raked piles and transported leaves along the boulevard with wheelbarrows. 

Older children looked closely at the colors of changing leaves and created leaf art in the park with inspiration and guidance from the Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy. 

Others traveled to Pratt to learn how to make botanical prints with the guidance of local artists. Through the different forms of art created from found leaves, we wondered, "How can we capture the beauty of a leaf?" And, "What is it about leaves that feels so engaging?" 

Though our school-wide study of botany will come to end, our newfound appreciation for the complexities of plant life will remain with us throughout the school year and throughout our lives. We'll likely never walk through a forest again without a curiosity for the trees. We'll never look at a flower or leaf quite the same way. We've all developed an eye for the subtleties of nature. As Rowan put so nicely, the study of plants is never over: 

"I liked learning about plants and botany because there's always more stuff to learn about it. It's a whole cycle. It never gets old. There's never an ending. Nature will always be on the earth. Maybe someone one day will find a new plant that no one knows about." 

Dragonflies Cross Country

Here we are halfway through our fifth season of Cross Country at The Lake and Park School, and Dragonflies Cross Country has never been stronger! Well over half of our student population is participating in Cross Country this year, and the whole school spends time running almost everyday leading up to the Seattle Children's Marathon on November 25th. Our athletes are getting stronger everyday, and all of the practicing we do not only benefits them physically, but also contributes to their mental fortitude.

We perform deep breathing exercises as well as stretches before and after every run in order to warm up and cool down our bodies. 

The camaraderie and friendship of teammates has been inspiring! Due to the individual nature of cross country as we experience it, the athletes are left to compete with only themselves as they work to run relaxed and smoothly, and as a result, more quickly.

Perhaps most inspiring of all has been our community's rallying around athletes during the meets. We have seen our participants and their families cheering on others, encouraging runners from our school as well as children from other schools who are participating. It is truly a wonderful thing to experience that kind of sportsmanship in our athletic community! A sincere thank you to all the families who are making this such a special season. 

As we look toward our final two meets, we encourage all to keep a positive outlook and most importantly, have fun! Go Dragonflies!

Portraits of Character

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.               Martin Luther King, Jr.

Portraits of Character on display at the Madison Park Starbucks September 8 - 25

As this school year began, we thought it important to consider the character traits and virtues that each of us brings to the community.  Students were asked to reflect on one particular virtue they felt they brought to the school and why it was important. They were asked if their virtue were a color, what color would it be?  Each of these portraits, done in monochrome, seeks to embody a particular virtue that helps to create a positive learning environment and a supportive community for everyone. The accompanying poetry further articulates each person’s thinking.

Throughout each school year children use a variety of art materials to express their own thoughts about a particular subject.  Rather than instructing children in formal art lessons, art materials such as tempera paint, oil pastels and watercolors are carefully prepared to engage them and to welcome them to playfully investigate and explore the possibilities of each medium.  At times children are prompted with an open-ended question or provocation before they begin drawing, sculpting or painting. The children are honored to have their thoughtful work shared throughout the community. I hope you take the time to scroll through the paintings and read the students' writing.

I am forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the color black.

A swan swimming in the dark of night.

Black is a dark velvet dress.

Forgiveness is apologizing when you hurt a friend.

Night is black and day is white.

Black is the sound of stars at night.

Black in the color of a licorice jelly bean.

Forgiveness if the color of a moonlit night.

-Sophia

I am perseverance.

My color is purple.

Purple is the color of two,

A mix of red and blue.

Purple is a cloud at sunset.

A stroke of a pencil.

A small flower petal or a baby bird.

Purple is the last color of the rainbow.

Perseverance is the sound of the ocean in motion.

A fast movement that goes on and on.

Perseverance looks like a strong breeze

That never gives up and keeps rolling on.

A small tree that grows and grows

Until it’s wide and tall.

-Ayar

Red is the stop sign on the corner.

Helpful is the hand sanitizer in your hands.

Red is bricks on a building.

Helpful is toothpaste in your mouth.

Red is ribbon in a bow.

Helpful is doctors fixing bones.

Red is apples on a tree.

Helpful is water filled with fish.

-Harper

Honesty is the color purple.

Purple is the color of positive energy

that looks like people smiling.

Honesty is a shining light in a Broadway theater

While a show is going on.

Purple is the color of lavender

Like a flower in my garden.

Honesty smells like blooming flowers in spring.

Purple is the color of shimmering stars in a dark blue sky.

Honesty feels like a warm summer

After a dip in a cold pool.

-Madeleine

I am flexibility.

Fuscia is the color of a pink salmon’s scales

As it swims through the stream.

Fuscia is the color of a thriving coral reef.

Flexibility is learning from your mistakes

And keeping an open mind.

-Griffin

Creativity is orange.

Orange is a light that breaks through problems.

It is a beacon of hope through the bars that you hold.

It lights the pathway you want to take.

Creativity opens millions of possibilities

Just waiting to be used.

Creativity is what gets through problems or dead ends.

-Gus

I am helpfulness.

Helpfulness is gold.

Gold is a shining light.

Helpfulness is a torch in a black abyss.

Gold is the color of feelings deep.

Helpfulness is a light that guides you.

-Finnian

I am kindness.

Kindness is helping.

Kindness is friendship or a bird singing.

Kindness is giving.

Kindness is gold.

Kindness will help you;

Young, old, or a heart made of gold.

Gold is kindness.

Gold is valuable.

Gold is someone who feels the best.

Gold is helping and a crest.

-Max

Green is a tree in full bloom.

Friendliness is a vine connecting the two.

Green is a blade of grass

That stands out from everything else.

Friendliness is like a flower giving a bee pollen.

Green is a dot in a flower pot.

Friendliness is full of happiness and joy.

-Thomas

Courage is bright, courage is strong.

Courage is the good when the world has gone wrong.

Courage is red and a beautiful light,

Like the sun at sunrise becoming bright.

Courage is the fire that burns your soul,

Courage is the light in the darkest hole.

I am courage and courage is me.

-Jordi

I am consideration.

Consideration is the color blue.

Blue is gentle like water but powerful too.

Consideration is a kind and understanding virtue.

The color blue is like sky on ice.

Consideration is the squeak of mice.

Blue is the ruffle of a feather.

Consideration is a hug after bad weather.

Blue is always there, loving, living.

Consideration is there, kindness, giving.

-Pippa

I am joyfulness.

Joyfulness is the color yellow.

Yellow is the sun on the dragonfly’s wing,

Yellow is the rose, the first one of spring.

Joyfulness is gentle.

Joyfulness is strong.

Joyfulness is the only way to get along.

Yellow is the song that the whitest song sings

On the sunniest day of all.

-Maisie

I am confidence.

Confidence is the color green.

Green like the grass building up its

Confidence to grow.

Confidence is like a little bird trying to fledge.

Or a fish swimming upstream.

Green like moss on a piece of bark

Floating in the wind.

Slowly moving that green piece of bark.

-Julian

I am forgiveness.

Lavender is the color of purple and white.

Lavender is sunset in the waning light.

Forgiveness is loving after hurt.

Lavender is a fancy lady’s skirt.

Forgiveness is forgetting what a friend has done.

Lavender is night after the setting sun.

Forgiveness is the sound of a singing song bird.

Lavender is the smell of a rainbow after rain.

Forgiveness is the sound of a chugging train.

Lavender is a color strong and wise.

Forgiveness is a feeling of infinite size.

-Nadia

Orange is a bright color;

So is generosity.

Orange is tree leaves in fall.

Orange is like the everyday number 2 pencil.

Orange is like the cat who sits on the porch

In the sunlight of morning.

Orange is like Andy’s shirt.

It is like the electricity that flows through us.

Neon orange is shiny color like a diamond

Popping out in a cave full of gold.

The shininess of it makes the color stand out.

Generosity is when I’m willing

To give something in return.

I will do that at school this year

By noticing others when they need help

-Eli

I am trust.

Orange is the color of trust.

Orange is when the orange petals

Open up to the blazing sun.

While the orange leaves

Are falling next to the petals.

And trust is when your friend gives you a toy

That is made out of glass.

Your friend trusts you because you are truthful

But you might break it.

Trust feels like confidence because you have confidence

That the person will give it back to you.

Trust is orange because it is good

To trust the falling leaves.

-Keira

I am trust.

Blue is the color of trust.

Blue, the sky of forging woods.

Trust is the belief friends tell the truth.

Trust is yourself telling the truth.

Blue is the color of a running river stopping fears.

Blue is the color of a forest of bluebell flowers.

Blue has the feeling of joy.

-George

I am tolerance.

Green is the color of the breezy trees.

Green is the warm grass.

Tolerance is accepting your friends decisions.

Green is a frog hopping in the water.

Green is a lily pad on the floating water.

Tolerance is also when you don’t judge people.

-Elan

 

I am commitment.

I am black.

Black like a strong black tiger.

I am black as night with no light.

I am truthful and loyal.

I am black like a bat or a top hat.

Commitment is determination.

Black is blank and beautiful.

Commitment is determination.

It feels hard because you can’t do anything else.

You have to finish.

Black is the color of strength.

It is a thick, hard color.

-Ted

I am creativity.

Red is the color of creativity.

Red is the evening sky.

Creativity is the fresh fallen apple.

Red is the fox passing by.

Creativity is the mountains at sunrise.

Creativity is the root of all minds.

-Keefe

I am generosity.

Red is the color of generosity.

Red is the color of a fresh picked rose in the summer.

Generosity is love and friendship.

Red is the color of the blazing sun.

Generosity is the blooming of a new friendship.

-Rose

I am Creativity.

Black is the shade of a raven mid-craw.
Creativity is the Egyptians creating the story of the sun god, Ra.

Black is the end that spirals into nowhere.

Creativity is the face you saw that’s not really there.

-Ardin

I am blue

Blue is patience.

Blue is sadness.

I am blue.

-Noe

I am blue.

Blue is thankfulness.

Blue is courageous.

Blue is justice.

Blue is generosity.

I am blue.

-Yael

I am green.

Green is protective.

I am dark green.

As dark as an evergreen tree in the winter

Or summer or spring or fall.

I am green like the grass or a lime or a forest

Or seaweed at the beach or the leaves on a plant

Or your garden.

I am green.

-Caroline

I am pink.

Pink is lucky.

Pink is courageous.

Pink is kind.

Pink is mindful.

Pink is a board.

Pink is string.

Pink is red and white.

I am pink.

-Leah

I am purple.

Purple is kindness.

Purple is like grapes

Or like the dark sky at night.

I am purple.

-Tillie

I am green.

Green like a willow.

Green like fresh pine needles.

Green like a newly picked pear.

Green like old grass.

Green like a lily pad.

Green like a tree sprout.

Green like a brussel sprout.

Green like a piece of lettuce.

Green like cabbage.

Green like tea.

Green like an apple.

Green like a leaf.

Green like moss.

Green is energetic.

I am green.

-Finn

I am white.

White is active.

White is blank.

White is integrity.

White is respect.

I am white, like clear, my dear similarity.

-Teague

I am blue.

Blue is kind.

Blue is beautiful.

Blue like the sky.

Blue like the lake.

Blue is fun.

Blue is silly.

Blue like the Earth.

I am blue like the blue jay I saw in a tree.

I am blue.

-Lilia

I am red.

Red is kind.

Red like a cherry.

I am red.

-Theo

I am yellow.

Yellow is the color of happiness.

Yellow is the color of brightness.

Yellow is the color of energy.

Yellow is the color of the sun.

Yellow is the color of generosity.

Yellow is the color of our soul.

I am yellow.

-Devin

I am blue.

Blue is active.

Blue like the water.

Blue like stone.

Blue like the sky.

Blue like paint.

I am blue.

-Rowan

I am white,

Like your soul and spirit.

White is calmness.

White is energetic.

White is happiness.

White is sadness.

White is kindness.

I am white.

-River

I am green.

Green like grass.

Green like a leaf.

Green is active.

Green is energy.

I am green.

-Boden

I am blue.

Blue is purposeful.

I am blue.

-Leo

I am orange.

Orange like a tiger.

Orange like fire.

Orange is kind.

Orange is protective.

I am orange.

-Ken

I am blue.

Like the ocean and sky.

Blue is patience.

Blue is truthful.

I am blue.

-Ian

I am yellow.

Like the bright, blinding sun.

Yellow is kind and happy.

I am yellow.

-Rhea

I am yellow.

Yellow is funny.

Yellow is creative.

Yellow is exciting.

Yellow is surprising.

Yellow is loud.

Yellow is lightening.

Yellow is creativity.

Yellow is talent.

Yellow is imagination.

Yellow is me.

-Oliver

I am red.

Red is like a rose.

Red is kindness.

Red is generosity.

I am red.

-Lola