Heterogeneous Classrooms Can Work, Karen Ames, ExEd Program

Recently my colleague and I had to present our feelings and findings about this topic as part of a mock parent-teacher conference assignment. We wanted to convey the impact of student, teacher, and parent concerns regarding the relatively recent reform effort to group heterogeneously. (Also known as “detracking”) The concerns ranged from teaching a variety of academic abilities, curricular pacing, assessment options, and student perceptions / motivation.

I discovered that this type of grouping involves much more than just rearranging students. To be effective, teachers must adopt a pedagogy based on evenly distributed learning. I feel that what “makes or breaks” heterogeneous grouping is whether or not the classroom teacher is grounded in this equity belief system. For it is the teachers’ philosophy that drives instruction and their “personal drive” or motivation is what is needed for planning. Planning for a heterogeneous classroom must be deliberate, purposeful, and inclusive of two best practices: awareness of Multiple Intelligences and implementation of Cooperative Learning.

If teachers of heterogeneous classrooms are to be successful in teaching a population rich in diversity (ethnic, linguistic, gender, academic) they must be able to acknowledge that there are different kinds of intelligence. By adopting the belief that children can be gifted in interpersonal, intrapersonal, kinesthetic, visual, natural, linguistic, and/or spatial intelligences, all students are put on a “level playing field”.

When curriculum is tailored to individual learning styles and built thematically, all students can participate and interact as contributors to their learning community. In addition, by differentiating instruction through modification of homework assignments and questioning techniques and scaffolding lessons, all students can learn. For me, personally, this seems much fairer than potentially crushing students’ self-esteem through the practice of tracking/ assigning labels throughout a student’s entire day.

My research also emphasized the importance of recognizing all student populations when promoting individual achievement. By being considerate of individual learning styles, classmates are set up to acknowledge the contributions of each member of their learning community. In this way, the “gifted” students aren’t just those who are “book smart”.

Teachers who just teach to their own preferred learning style are only able to reach a portion of their students, and thus do an injustice to heterogeneous classrooms. I feel that students benefit when teachers consider multiple intelligence components when they deliberately plan thematic units.

Heterogeneous teachers can also do something else to attain equity in their classrooms: implement Cooperative Learning practices. To be successfully run, one must implement five basic elements: positive interdependence (where the no one student can carry the weight of the group’s successes/failures); individual accountability (each student has a role/job to do); face-to-face interactions; social skills, and group processing. (Bennett, 1991). Inexperienced or teachers under time constraints often try to eliminate or pare down aspects of this theory, which often results in unproductive, possibly damaging results in the heterogeneous classroom because it strays away from equity.

It is imperative that teachers implement cooperative learning as it was designed so that group members can perceive the importance of working together and interacting productively in helpful ways. By utilizing procedural, communicative, and intellectual audience roles, no one child needs to feel the “pressure” to carry their group. Boredom is eliminated, classroom conversations become engaging, and children are developing important life-long skills.

It is my feeling that under the leadership of experienced, equity-driven teachers, heterogeneous classrooms are the ideal setting for fostering student achievement in a world that is complex and diverse.

What is the role of our schools in the nutrition of our students? Julia K. Pipeling, ExEd Program

In today’s school our role of what we need to provide for our students is always changing and growing. When it comes to nutrition our country as a whole is heading in a dangerous direction. As the obesity and health disease rates increase we need to really take a look at what we can do to help address this issue. The message about making good choices just doesn’t seem to be getting covered at home. But it is hard to think about adding one more thing that we need to cover during our already very busy school year.

As we took a look at the issue of student nutrition we found that the schools in our area seem to have a health class that includes nutrition in the elementary grades. They told us that they cover nutrition, the food pyramid and making healthy choices about snacks, drinks, exercise and food in general. However, when it comes to the middle school and high school age groups there seems to be some options for classes but they are options, electives, and so there is a population that is missing the message because they may not be taking these courses.

I talked with my high school and middle school students and they said that it is harder for them to make the best choices about eating healthy. When asked why they said that they have so many choices now where as before it was more monitored by home. They can choose to buy things at school and at the store where as a younger child has to rely on what their parents have at home. It left me feeling as though the healthy choices message just hadn’t gotten through in time and now that these students are some what on their own they aren’t choosing wisely.

There are many federal guidelines that mandate the way that we approach the food service in our schools. They recommend the types of food and beverages we can sell and outline which foods and services we can be reimbursed for from the federal government for our lower income students. And while it does appear that schools are following these guidelines somewhat, the fact remains that our students have choices and don’t know what to do with them.

I feel that it is our place to educate our young people as they prepare to move on into the real world and healthy choices around eating and exercising is part of that. We have a program here at my school that all seniors have to take. They cover things like renting an apartment, balancing your checkbook and filing taxes. We should look at fitting in a piece about nutrition and healthy choices.

The Presidential Radar, John Harmer, Experienced Educators

Education appears to be a blip rather than a focused coordinate on the radar screen of presidential hopeful candidates for any political party. None of the candidates have put forth a real plan. The war and economy are crucial issues that are in the forefront of many American’s minds. With the gas prices rising, the real-estate market declining, the economy will surely be a growing concern for us all. However, in a recent USA TODAY/Gallup poll, education ranked third in order of importance for voters. Each leading candidate has given their stance on education but with no firm proposal. One wonders if they are playing a political game of chess, each one waiting for the opponent to make a move, and then counter with a response. So I question if any candidate’s plan would be based on a sound educational plan or simply a rebuttal to an opponent’s viewpoint in order to win votes.

Healthy and heated debates, media interviews and reports about candidates who will be running our country serve a useful purpose for voters. However, when one hones in on the few words spoken on the issue of education by candidates, one can’t help to question as to whether they are competent in formulating an effective plan for improving our schools.

Senator McCain favors NCLB, particularly in holding schools accountable for student achievement. The punitive approach to schools needing improvement is counterproductive. The one-size-fits all approach to standardized testing is detrimental to our schools. I feel these one-dimensional tests do not accurately assess students, nor do they prove that a student (even a child that scores with distinction) is prepared for the next stage of life. NCLB has been scrutinized by many, many credible sources and stands little chance of being reauthorized without major restructuring. My point here is that Senator McCain supports holding schools accountable for student achievement; fine, there should be accountability, but in a way that authentically assesses each child and accurately measures schools and teachers for all that they do for today’s students. I think it is a contradiction that Republicans want less federal involvement (and spending) in education, yet want every school and every student to perform according to their standards.

Both candidates in the Democratic Party oppose vouchers that send students to a private school. Yet Barack Obama sends his daughters to a private school (another contradiction in my opinion). My point is not to necessarily trip-up candidates on their every word, but when words such as vouchers are used, I don’t feel confident that they know the implications on our public schools. School choice offered within the public schools seems to have many pitfalls and is simply not available to many children and their families. Candidates are using words such as accountability, choice, merit pay, local control and community involvement, some of which sound encouraging for the future of American schools. However, “sound” is the operative word. As of now the plan, or lack there of, for education reform in this country seems to be just political rhetoric. The American public needs a plan that has some substance, that is based on sound educational advice and truly benefits children. I feel we are in desperate need of a proposal that steers us clear of the NCLB wake and instills real confidence in our educational system. I believe that the invention of the next national education movement is imperative to our future. The next president needs to convey an educational plan which ultimately may lead to a future without war and struggling economies.

Celebrating the Gray, Christina Tutsch, Experienced Educators

In education, as in life, it is always difficult to find clarity in answers. We try our best, but the world exists in shades of gray. As I looked into the issue of freedom of speech, the opaque waters of learning became muddier.

My colleague and I decided to approach our exploration of freedom of speech in education through the role of religion, specifically the views of Young Earth Creationists. Young Earth Creationists believe that the world is less than 10,000 years old and was literally created as it is told in the Bible. We studied the controversy between Young Earth Creationists and scientists regarding dinosaurs.

According to scientists, the world is over 4 billion years old. Dinosaurs began to exist over 200 million years ago, reigned over the earth, and went extinct 65 million years ago due to a catastrophic event. After the dinosaurs went extinct, there were small mammals, amphibians and birds that survived; all which evolved into life as we now know it. Humans first appeared 10,000 years ago. Scientists measure the age of fossils, rocks, ice, and vegetation in a variety of ways, such as radioactive dating. All these different methods of measuring age show the earth to be billions of years old.

The Young Earth Creationist perspective is that the dinosaurs were created by God on the 6th day along with the other animals. They were brought onto Noah’s Ark during the Flood. After the Flood, dinosaurs went extinct because they were unable to adapt to the new climate. Young Earth Creationists believe that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time, arguing that dinosaurs existed less than 10,000 years ago.

These two perspectives both interpret the past differently according to different foundations. What is the truth? Is one view right and the other wrong? Or is the truth somewhere in the middle? While a great deal of science shows the age of the earth, science is continually evolving. At one point, scientists thought the world to be flat. We are continually learning new things about life. The past will always remain something of a mystery (as will the present, I suppose.)

There are other ways in which this search led me to thinking about the blurred lines. The First Amendment of the United States provides for separation of church and state. Is that the reality we live in currently? Is it possible to separate the beliefs of citizens and elected officials, or the choices leaders make for the people from their own personal beliefs? Decisions and culture are dictated by our foundational beliefs; for many people these are based in a religion. Where do we draw the line? At what point are church and state too connected?

As a result of the First Amendment and many people who fight for what they believe is right, many schools have abolished celebrating holidays such as Christmas and Halloween to protect the rights of those who do not take part in those events. I do not believe that people should be forced to celebrate a religious holiday. However, I do feel that it is important to expose children to a diversity of beliefs. To not celebrate any traditions is a loss for our children. As a result of this sterilization of celebrations, they are no longer based in religion. The religion has now become commercialism; we celebrate the acquisition of material goods. Presents are what all children celebrate whether they have a menorah above their fireplace or a Christmas tree in their living room. I do not know where to draw the line as to what we can celebrate and what might be considered overly religious. But, I do not think the solution is to abolish it all, as this may lead to the celebration of capitalism above all else.

It is my hope that we can celebrate the grayness between extremes, and that we can learn to understand many different perspectives, be open to new ideas and not feel threatened by them.

Nutrition in our schools, Sarah Winston, Experienced Educators

This past semester I took a course in Social and Political Issues at Antioch University. One assignment for the course was to research a topic with a partner and present it to our class. The topic that we chose was the role of nutrition in our schools. I presented the view of an administrator, the federal guidelines that are set for schools, and the curriculum that needs to be followed. My partner presented herself as a concerned parent of a fourth grader, who was played by her five year old confident daughter.

Through this research I learned a lot about the role of nutrition in schools and the history and purpose behind it. The National School Lunch Program that began in 1946 was designed to provide low cost or free lunch for school children. This program was designed to follow the dietary guidelines in order to insure that children are eating appropriate and nutritious food. These guidelines follow the food pyramid and make sure that meals have no more then 30 percent of an individuals calories coming from fat. By the end of the first year about 7.1 million children were participating in the program. By 1970, 22 million children were participating; in 1980, 27 million children; in 1990, over 24 million children, and in the year 2006, more than 30.1 million children received their lunch through the National School Lunch Program. The cost of this program has risen dramatically. In 1947 the total cost of the program was 70 million, compared to 8.2. Billion in 2006. In order for families to qualify for this program their income needs to be below 130 percent of the poverty level for free meals. Families with income between 130-185 percent are eligible for reduced lunches and families can not be charged more then 40 cents per lunch. Soon the breakfast program was offered due to the increasing number of students who came to school without breakfast

In 1966, the Child Nutrition Act, became the “Highest Priority” . This was due to evidence that poor eating habits that develop during childhood will follow into adulthood and have a potential to last a life time. It is important for children to learn the benefits of good nutrition and to make good choices as to what they eat. In 1993, the FDA required that the food industry needed to include saturated fat and dietary cholesterol on their labels so that the consumer would be able to know the health benefits or risks before they eat or drink the product.

The year 2000 was a big year for health objectives for the nation, and that was to “reduce fat intake” in Americans and the Educate America Act was designed to increase student knowledge of nutrition. This act provides students with health education and physical education to insure that they are healthy and fit. Children will be educated about proper nutrition, based on dietary guidelines form the food pyramid in kindergarten through twelfth grade.

The USDA established Team Nutrition to help schools implement the new requirements in school meals. This program offers training for school personal, helps develop and implement school polices that will make healthy food available, and develops and sends home monthly menus for parents. The [program also helps schools gain access to the community for nutrition services.

State curriculums vary in each state but they do need to follow the guidelines that are set by the government and there needs to be a planned and documented program of health instruction for students kindergarten through twelfth grade, a curriculum that educates a range of categories of health problems and their issues. These courses need to be taught be professionals who are educated in the field and there is encouragement for involvement of family members, health professionals, and community members. Most programs that have resulted in behavioral change have used teaching strategies based on the Social Learning Theory. This theory teaches students to put values on food and exercise, identifying the benefits of healthy food and exercise, and encourages them to taste different foods. The teaching staff should be role models for healthy choices while they are in school, empathizing the importance of exercising and eating healthy food.

The curricula educates students about alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, community environmental and consumer health, violence and injury protection, nutrition and physical activity, and personal health concepts such as family, social, mental and sexual. Students are assessed in their ability to set goals for a healthy life style, including assessing information and knowing how to find valid health information and services, making healthy choices, and decision making skills that will enhance their health, problem solving, and the knowledge of the core subjects.

Through this research I learned a lot about the history of the Federal Meal Plan, the Educate America Act, and the role of the government in setting guidelines for all our children to ensure that they are educated and have the knowledge of the importance of making healthy and nutritious choices.

Our Presidential Candidates…..Who Should We Trust? by Melissa Connor, ExEd/Critical Skills

As the November Presidential Election looms around the corner I have begun to contemplate who I want to be my President, both personally and professionally. The biggest question that pops into my mind with each candidate is can I trust them? Can I trust them to deliver on the promises that they are making on the campaign trail? Can I trust them to not make decisions based solely on flawed political polls? Can I trust them to turn our country around so that our children are not facing the same economic, environmental and educational crises that we are facing today?

I remember being home on maternity leave when NCLB was finalized. It appeared to be such a day of promise for our educational system as both Republicans and Democrats came together to do what was best for our schools, students and teachers. I was so hopeful that NCLB would create a superb educational environment for my first born. Now, let it be known, I had been out of the educational arena for a few years and was working in the private sector so I was not aware of the “uproar” NCLB was causing for our schools, particularly our teachers. From the outside I could not understand why anyone would be opposed to having only the best teachers in the classroom and to having our schools be held accountable in making certain our children were learning. Little did I know that it would loom like a toxic cloud over our educational system with disastrous implications.

Every Presidential candidate today supported NCLB when it was created. Every Presidential candidate has a plan to tweak, overhaul or eliminate NCLB – should we believe that this new and improved strategy will be better? Will they allow local districts more control over how their children are assessed? Will they financially support the latest and greatest federal mandates so that states can provide the best education possible?

Wouldn’t it be interesting if we could have a mixed ticket…..a combination of the Republicans view that the federal government should stay out of local decisions with the Democratic view that more money needs to be spend on education. Imagine the idea of less federal involvement with more financial support…just imagine what we could do!! Local districts would be able to create quality assessments that would assess their students for individual progress. Local districts would be able to identify where they needed to spend money for improvements and have the time needed to make improvements without the fear of being “taken over”, and teachers would be able to develop creative lessons and creative assessments that would engage students and encourage them to want to learn and to develop, both academically and socially. Just imagine the possibilities……….

Unfortunately my dream ticket will probably never happen so I ask myself – what is the next best thing? I have yet to make my final decision and probably won’t make it for quite some time. I just hope that when our next President takes office he or she will remember the promises they made on the campaign trail that got them elected as this is the only way I will ever have trust in our political system again.

“Curriculum in Abundance”, Kasie Enman, ExEd/Educating For Sustainability

As a part of our Educating for Sustainability course work, Lara Gleason and Lynne Cassidy wrote the following in response to Chapter 11 of Curriculum in Abundance, by David Jardine

What does this mean for our teaching? If we can see that dissecting a curriculum is synonymous with the society’s general sense of disconnectedness and unhealthy lifestyle, then we can remedy this through a more ecologically-friendly approach. “By adding that deep integration makes our lives and the lives of our students more ambiguous and difficult and, correctly understood, this is good news. It does not have the clarity and distinctness and quantifiable accountability of discrete curricular content in the same way that a wilderness area does not have the well-fenced rows of a single crop or the vaguely obscene uniformity or a replanted forest” (175). We see that by following this model, our teaching can be rich and mirror the interconnectedness of the natural world. We understand that in an integrated curriculum the “interconnections they have come upon are real. Its ‘wilderness’ is not disorder but an attentiveness to a deeply inherent order that is not of our own making” (176). There in an inherent wholeness in our world that we must honor and replicate in our education. So when we look upon a pine tree, or curriculum for that matter, we can immediately see its paradox of simplicity and complexity.

These comments, along with an accompanying reflective video that Lara and Lynne created, spurred on a series of connections for me. The two things from their video that really stuck with me were an analogy about a pine tree representing a great abundance of learning opportunities and a description of integrated curriculum as “wild”…

There is so much math, art, language, science, history (the list could go on) that can be inspired by a pine tree. Or, for that matter, by a blade or grass or an ant or that river that was flowing behind you in your video (again, the list is infinite here). If there is one repeating theme throughout Curriculum in Abundance it’s that there is an abundance of potential for all kinds of learning in everything around us. It makes me think of themed charter schools. My sister works with maritime-based charter school called the Paul Cuffee School. Their entire curriculum is centered around a maritime theme. Each subject area is linked to and tied together by this common theme. There is no shortage of opportunities for teaching math, the sciences, social studies, the arts, languages, etc. within this theme. When I think about this, I am both reassured and lost. It tells me that place-based education is a rich and doable way to teach. But there is so much richness in so many things around us that I don’t know where to start or stop, how to share this in a way that is manageable in our culture, how to do this well and sustainably.

The anthropologist in me (sorry, it was my undergrad major) can’t help but be frustrated by the knowledge that cultures from Native Americans (http://www.bama.ua.edu/~joshua/archive/aug06/Nathan%20Sherrer.pdf) to native Africans exist(ed) that have figured out this basic truth of life and sustainability, but are relentlessly stifled by the influence of a growing western culture. Why are these cultures, the models of sustainability with all their deep wisdom, the one’s being killed off? Why has western culture in all it’s unsustainability been able to take over? Shouldn’t there have been some kind of feedback loop shutting down the ways of industrialization? Maybe that’s what we are seeing now with the dwindling resources and climate change. Maybe the nature of this complex system of human cultures and human choices is that it will/needs to keep going until it reaches the point of bifurcation. It’s interesting, just last night while at my neighborhood’s monthly “girls night out potluck” a similar subject came up about how much our culture has changed due to the discovery of oil. Rachel Smolker, (biologist/author/wife of Berndt Heinrich/neighbor of mine – how’s that for a bio, yes I have some very cool neighbors), said something along the lines of how we are going to have to go back to how things were. She sarcastically added on, “It’s alright, I like the Stone Age.” Seriously though, something has to give.

All of this talk of systems thinking is bringing me back to Tom Wessel’s course and his book, The Myth of Progress. Native cultures, and pretty much every plant and animal organizm in nature is right in front of us with the lessons we need to learn. Somehow we have gotten away from the truth that education, culture, our world is a complex system. Somehow we’ve been convinced that the world can be made linear, predictable, controlled to meet our every human desire without any thought of all the other parts of the system. Teachers have been convinced that curriculum needs to be linear, predictable, and controlled. But “the bulk of the systems we see and interact with don’t function in this way… systems relating to progress – social, political, economic, environmental [and, I would add, educational] – are complex, and as such can’t be controlled in this manner. In fact, the more we attempt to control them, as the fall of Communism points out, the more we tend to force the system, through positive feedback, into an entirely new mode of operation. Control is a reality in a linear system, but in a complex system it’s simply a myth.” (Wessels, p.20-21

So how do we kick this necessary paradigm shift into action? Baby steps, massive bifurcation? I still don’t have all the answers, neither does Jardine, or Wessels, but I think the point here is that we need to stop thinking linearly, start thinking about the whole, the complexity, the “wildness” of it all. These are good things. This world around us is a master of sustainability. Wiser than any human. Let’s pay attention.

Submitted by Kasie Enman

Seventh Grade Rights of Passage, By Erika Danforth, Waldorf M.Ed. & Integrated Learning

One day on the playground, a Waldorf teacher was observing the movements of middle school children in comparison with their elementary school peers. “There was a distinct difference between the movement patterns in the youngsters after the fifth grade. Some of the sixth graders had suddenly shot up and were long-legged and lanky; they seemed to tip forward slightly from the waist up as they ran, and sometimes they stumbled. They had lost the grace of the younger children, and seemed to go abruptly from standing still to tearing around like mad, with no transition whatsoever.” (Koepke, 1992, p. 41) The changes occurring outwardly in the adolescents’ physical body mirror the transformation of their emotional body occurring within.

Historically, cultures recognized this transformation of adolescence as a significant rite of passage into adulthood. It was honored with ceremony and celebration. Today, while some indigenous cultures still maintain these initiation traditions, most children who grow up in Western society do not receive this type recognition for the transformation they are undergoing from the inside out. Some modern Western versions of initiation include adventure education and ropes course challenges that provide opportunities for social and emotional processing.

In the seventh grade at Waldorf schools, students study African culture. As part of their study, they learn about the tradition of initiation ceremonies for African boys and girls in different tribes, as boys prepare to be warriors and girls to be mothers and wives. One such initiation practice involved ‘trial by poetry.’

Seventh graders write their own initiation poems, following the powerful metaphoric format of the tribe. It allows the students to discover themselves through images and metaphors of the outer world. The format begins with the phrase, “Young Woman/Man you are:” and is followed by five metaphors. The short, well-defined format creates a canvas on which adolescents can express themselves. The writing is followed by a read-aloud, giving students the opportunity to share intimate insights with their peers into whom they are becoming. The following poems were written by Waldorf Teacher Trainees at Antioch in their study of seventh grade curriculum. Try it yourself…

Young man you are:

The warm tones lifting from a brass instrument

The spark of passion in a forest fire

A watchful owl over a field of workmice

A galloping steed on the desert of my life

An unspoken promise whispered into a lonely ear

By Aleshanee Aiken

Young woman you are:

A braid of joy, sorrow, and stardust;

A glass jewel held up to the sun;

Tears from a happy whale;

Crimson silk hidden beneath rough wool;

Laughter from a pocket of wind.

By Anna Scalera

Young woman you are:

A white lily about to open and blossom

The gentle breeze that calls everyone to play

The strong oak tree that gives shade to those who are weary

The harmony that makes the melody sound just right

A locked treasure box that is looking for the key

By Jen Davis

Young woman you are:

A ponderosa pine growing straighter and taller day by day,

An eagle flying high above the trees, able to see what is below her,

A wise wild iris who knows that it is best to grow in the sand and shade,

A mama grizzly bear that has the skill to defend her young from danger,

Young woman your strength is a mountain that can not be moved.

By Carrie Reuther

Young woman, you are:

A crop of lettuce gone right to seed

The mandala on the third day

The only boat on the river at dawn

An unmetered verse

And so many cups of coffee

By Greta Jee

Young woman you are:

A bud swelling in the spring

A ray of intuition dancing in the sunlight

A loom upon which the grandmothers weave

A cavernous womb, black as the night sky

The buffalo who faces the storm

By Erika Danforth

Cool Schools, Lynne Cassidy interview

Listen to a radio interview with Antioch ExEd/Educating for Sustainability student Lynne Cassidy about how students in the Roaring Fork School District, Colorado, will get a lesson next year on sustainability. A new energy-focused committee made up of teachers and administrators is starting to formulate plans to create a new curriculum and other learning tools that would incorporate sustainability into everyday learning. The committee is called, Cool Schools. Aspen Public Radio’s Marci Krivonen reports.

Nature Stories in the Waldorf Elementary Classroom by Carrie Reuther, Waldorf MEd Year-Round Program

In the Waldorf elementary classroom we use imagination to reach the students we teach. Instead of teaching new ideas to children about the natural world around them as a series of facts, we tell them stories. Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, believed that children learn best through pictorial representation; as Waldorf teachers we present much of the curriculum through story with many valuable facts imbedded in the narrative and description. The following is a sampling of a nature story I composed in my Waldorf curriculum class for kindergarten or first grade to explain the change of seasons from fall to winter.

The sun faded and the days had started to get shorter. The trees all around began to sing sweet melodies to Grandmother Wind. When the trees sang, beautiful colors appeared on them: crimson, rust, orange, gold and lemon yellow. These colors then awakened the leaf children who loved to frolic and play with Grandmother Wind. One of their favorite games was to see how long they could float in the sky with Grandmother Wind, before they would eventually tumble to the earth below. However, as the days became shorter the leaf children could not play as long during the day and began to argue about who would play when and where. When Grandmother Wind heard them bickering she was sad at the sight of their arguing.

“Have patience dear children. It is important your playing days are shorter now and you will soon know why.”

“When will we know why Grandmother Wind?” they uttered back.

“You will know soon enough,” she answered reassuringly.

And so it was that the leaf children kept playing and trusted that Grandmother Wind knew why their playing days were getting shorter and shorter. As the days continued many of the leaf children noticed they were tired more easily and did not want to play as long. The leaf children felt content to lie on the earth’s floor, because it felt soft and warm to them. They watched Silvia the Squirrel gather nuts and hide them in strange spots all over the meadow. The leaf children’s game now was to count all of the places Silvia hid her nuts. So, their play changed from that of the sky to that of the earth. When Grandmother Wind saw they were all comfortable lying on the earth she knew it was time to talk to them.

“Your blanket over the earth is very important,” she whispered to them. “Now Father Winter will know it is time for him to come. And soon enough he will tell the snow fairies it is their time to come. Without your help he would not know. Thank you leaf children, you are so dear to me.”

Just then Grandmother Wind moved more strongly about as she felt Father Winter approaching.