Mindful Minutes and Memories in the Forest Primes (K/1)

“As you walk, look around, assess where you are, reflect on where you have been and dream of where you are going. Every moment of the present contains the seeds of opportunity for change. Your life is an adventure. Live it fully.”

-John Francis, Planetwalker: 22 Years of Walking. 17 Years of Silence.

The Forest Primes continue to add one minute of silence each day to the time in their day referred to as The Mindful Minutes. This was inspired by the life and legacy of John Francis and has turned into a curriculum of listening / communicating without verbal language. On Friday, we enjoyed 42 minutes of silent play in the forest. 

One day last week when it was pouring and we came inside to do our Mindful Minutes indoors, we offered the Forest Primes an invitation to reflect on a memory from the year through drawing, painting and writing. The Forest Primes have done so much this year and it didn’t take them long to generate a long list. We continue to add to this list throughout these next few weeks and are considering ways that we can turn these illustrations into a memory book. It’s so fun when someone recollects a memory aloud and then others realize that they remember it too and the group experiences this moment of collective recollection. We were impressed by how far back they could recall and also the attention to detail that they gave to their art and writing. While indoors instead of listening to the sounds of the great outdoors we turned on some calm instrumental banjo music (John Francis was known for banjo picking) and asked the question,“What is something that happened at school this year that you don’t want to forget?”

Rowan: I remember relaxing.

Oona: I love when I was in the forest and we made the paths. 

Bea: This is when I made a zip line.

Ember: I liked when I ended my story.

Eligh: I remember that I made frisbees and I made them out of cardboard and I loved them so much!

Noa: I remember making paths out of leaves.

Oona: We studied edible plants with Alexis Nicole Nelson.

Gracie: Collecting sap with the Lumber Primes.

Psilas: I remember making the paths.

Noa: Number scrolls.

Eligh: I remember that we thought we saw a snake but it was actually a chipmunk.

Ember: Carving in the forest.

Xyla: When we jumped in the big puddle at the fun place.

Anaya: I made fairy houses with Gracie.

Oona: Creating a bar graph to show our hammock steps.

Jenny: When Val was reading a book about Wangari Matthai and a hawk flew into our basecamp and we got to observe it really close and decided to name the hawk Wangari.

Val: We made encouraging signs and hung them up before the hike on Mountain Day so the entire school could see them.

Oona: Writing in my journal at Fallen Oak.

Alicia: I remember making paths out of leaves.

Gracie: When we hung the tree.

Anaya: Rebecca hired my hammock.

Immy: On the first day of school Oona came up to me and said “hi” and I didn’t know Oona, so I thought this is weird but friendly.

Xyla: I remember when we first got the fishtank.

Rosa: I was jumping next to my hammock and it started to snow.

Rowan: Quiet time in the forest.

Ruby: This is the first time I saw Chippy. And this is his hole.

Florence: I was rolling big snowballs.

Ruby: The bunnies came and pooped on our bins.

Alicia: When we cooked on the fire.

Leo: When it was gushing rain.

Florence: When we made the number banner.

Noa: When we voted for the name of The Mountain Lion Rock before that we called it, The Crying Rock.

Immy: I sang a Taylor Swift song with Izzy at Talent All School. 

Alicia: We did cheerio necklaces for the 100th day of school.

Alicia: Noa and Xyla called me Emily in our game and then started calling me it all the time because I asked them to.

Rosa: Me and Xyla were standing by The Wall and trying to poke pinecones through, but our arms weren’t long enough.