Julie's Class Notes

Welcome to December! It’s almost unbelievable that we are in the last two weeks be- fore our winter break. We have been spending time learning about the Winter Solstice, and why the nights get longer up until that day. We have learned about the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the equator, the earth’s axis, why we have a.m. and p.m., and the earth’s rotation around the sun.

Of course, the students are full of questions about our celestial existence and never shy away from a conversation about things larger than ourselves.

We have been thinking about the ways that people made sense of natural phenomena before we had scientific explanations, and reading tales from around the world about the return of the light this time of year.

This week, with each Hayground class focusing on one part of a traditional story arc, we will compose our own Solstice Story, to be read together at Gathering before our win- ter break.