For a while now, Primary students have been asking about the buckets that are kept in the classroom’s outdoor shed; most of them were gone. Today, everything that had been missing was brought out and placed in the middle of our morning meeting. Primary teachers explained that when items aren’t put away, it shows that the work is not important. If a work isn’t important, we don’t put it out as a choice. We were all stunned to see how many outdoor works had been left out.
After a group discussion, students expressed that the items are important. They agreed they could show how important they are by putting them away when finished. A few children wondered if it would be a good idea to reduce how many loose items could be used at at time, from five down to one. Everyone agreed to try one work at a time and to talk again in the future to see how the care of our outdoor environment is working. If it’s going well, the class might decide to change how many things could be chosen. We finished our morning meeting by dismissing the students one by one to pick an item from the middle of our meeting space and mindfully place it back into the shed. As each child carefully chose something, the room was silent.
McGuffey is proud to uphold high standards for responsibility and independence. Primary students as young as three years old know they can solve problems and work together as a community to make their environment and school a better place.
