Can you imagine a house where every person, animal, insect and item is welcome? It’s at OES and it’s called The Everybody House.
In September, within the first few days of school, the children in Ms. McAuley’s Kindergarten class showed a deep curiosity with the earth. This curiosity fueled an interest that has sustained the class, and much learning, throughout the year. One very popular discovery was mud. Not necessarily the substance itself, but the fact that one could BUILD things with it. The Explorers in Room 2 couldn’t imagine a better way to honor our community on MHCSD than by creating a semi-permanent structure made with their love, hard work, found objects and, you guessed it, mud.
Our friends Jane Gray and Frances Michaelson, natural builders and our helpers on this project, met us on the playground right after school began. The first thing we had to do was make some Cob. What is Cob, you might ask? A combination of clay, sand, straw and water. Once the ingredients were together, kids kicked off their shoes and jumped (and jumped and jumped and jumped and jumped) in it to a chorus of “One, two, look at you, look at you. Three, four, jump some more, jump some more”. Next, the kids took medium mud-pie size dollops and mushed them in to the foundation of the structure. These efforts led to wakes of dirt under finger and toenails, and very happy kids. These efforts will also lead us to The Everybody House, a child-sized play house on the Beginning School Playground, which will be filled with playful children and their laughter for (a few) years to come.
OES Lower School Service Learning 