the impulse for action and work...

"The impulse for action and work makes the child hammer and knead, scrawl and cut whatever falls into his hands. It is the office of education to come to the assistance of this natural striving which is the child's work of development." - Education by Work 1876 by Bertha Von Marenholtz-Buelow

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop, the first grade students worked on puppets and were disappointed that they were not able to finish them in a single class period. My fourth grade students wanted to make things from their own imaginations. One used sketchup to draw 3-D creepers and zombies from Minecraft. A new student wanted to make a box so that he would (like the other students) have a place for his desk items. Another wanted to make a birthday present for her mother. All could be done in woodshop, but the activity kept me too busy to take any photos of the children at their work.

This afternoon my middle school students wanted to make their own tools to use in the woods. After the first below freezing days of the winter season, the bugs die down, and the snakes are in hibernation, we open the woods surrounding the campus for play. Children join non-exclusive groups and build forts. Suitable sticks are always at a premium and serve as currency. This year, for the first time, they decided they need tools, and asked that they be able to make the tools themselves. So as some made signs and tool racks, another made a wooden mallet. More will come a week from Tuesday when we return from Thanksgiving break.

Make, fix and create...