When the Montclair Cooperative School re-opened on Friday after Hurricane Sandy many of the children arrived from homes without power. First Grade Teacher Amanda Marchesani and Assistant Teacher Lindsay Goldberg knew that the children needed a way to process their experience. First they shared their stories – then they used different means of creative expression to record the images in their heads.
As a group, the class created a mural using torn paper and mixed media. First, they created a neighborhood with houses along a street. Then they added things that they saw during and after the storm.
Can you find the things the first- graders saw? They saw:
- fallen branches
- hanging tree branches
- a tree on a car
- cars lining up for gas
- broken power lines
- raindrops & water
- trash and leaves in the wind
- broken bikes and toys
- pieces of roof
- halloween decorations in the water
- satellite dishes on the ground
- fallen crane
- caution tape around fallen trees
- broken cones
- broken garbage cans
Next, they wrote a poem:
On Monday We Had a Hurricane
Too loud……noisy wind,
With the banging of the branches,
Sticks everywhere,
Wind report: “Branch falling in the road!”
Trees falling on trees,
A HUGE tree falling on a HUGE house,
My christmas tree fell down,
A tree falling on a window and breaking it
Scared of hearing thunder and seeing lightening,
A really loud bang in the night.
Power out while playing a game on the computer
And power out before bed
Friends come over,
Sleeping in my living room in the dark
A safe family.
~Written by the first graders at the Montclair Cooperative School
Alumni whose schools were still closed stopped by for the Friday all-school assembly. Dewey Gelnaw-Brickley, class of 2010, brought a friend who had not been to the Co-op before. As they were leaving the assembly Dewey’s friend said “Now, this is a childhood!”
This is really neat – these students will always remember and appreciate being given the time and space to thoughtfully share what was happening in their world as they re-started school. It is an example of great teaching that will go beyond this event – just imagine the trust and confidence in the classroom those children will have!