June 2023

To wrap up our spring season, we spent our last week completing our Shakespeare dioramas and preparing for our performance of Macbeth on our hand-built stage. For those who were there, I have no words to add to that experience of observing the children conveying this story in both its darkness and its light, its severity and its humor, and in such connection with each other, and with the audience. For those who were not able to make it, I will describe as much as I can. In just one week, the children were able to gather together their costumes, grasp and memorize lines, complete the stage and backstage construction, and work through all of the emotional upheavals that come along with a first performance, and its expectations. There were moments when I questioned how much I had asked of them, and how much they had asked of themselves. And then suddenly the school day was over, the wind died down, our velvet curtain closed, and the children waited quietly backstage for their moment to perform. 

There is no question that after our spring season of exploring Shakespeare, the children have a true and enthusiastic grasp on the stories of the twelve plays we read together. To then hold themselves in roles - some they desired and some they did not - and share the story with family, friends, and the community, with poise and confidence lifted the group into a new light. However, the element that shone through most brightly among the children was not their knowledge, or their confidence, but rather their openness to the community, namely the youngest members of our school community who came to watch their play, and inevitably found themselves on the stage during their performance, wide-eyed and full of wonder. Instead of shooing the small children off the stage, or guiding them to the side, the group fully embraced the little ones, gave them props and engaged them in even the most dramatic of their scenes. After many discussions of how the play was to be performed, and the weight, albeit joyful weight, that most everyone felt as the performance approached, the children were able to let go of so much of their vision of perfection for the sake of allowing the preschoolers to feel a part of what they had created. And the effect was felt across the stage, and across the audience. 

After the performance, the group sang the song they wrote on the ukulele with Laura, about their school. The lyrics are below, and if anyone has a video of the children singing this song, please send it along so others who were unable to be there can hear the magic they have created together in music. Some children continued with group performances of a Gillian Welch song and an Indigo Girls song, and then we gathered together for wood-fired pizza and play. It was a beautiful moment of connection for all of us as part of this community, guided always by these incredible children. 

Our week also included a final visit to Milokan, at least for now, but hopefully we will be back there in the fall season. We are so grateful for that space and for Rick and Rebecca and all that they shared with us in understanding rhythm, nature, and the vast world outside of our island community. 

As we begin our summer season, we will be welcoming Sienna and Lucien as regular students, and welcoming back some old friends, including Charlie Bird, who will be with us starting in a few weeks. We are planning on having a Shakespeare performance each Thursday, on our stage, and welcome you all to join. I’ll send out details on Wednesday, as it all is quite weather dependent.. 

Thank you all, and see you soon, 
~ Kaila


Woods School song:
We are the children of the Woods School, 
our classroom the woods where we play and
learn how to live off this land that we tend to and care for
We breathe with the trees
and when we sing we sing out to the seas

When we arrive in the morning
voices are coming from the yurt 
where we play family
bake bread and dry herbs for our own tea

Down in the valley below
always a project on the go
like digging tunnels underground
along to the sound of Bo-bo, 
barking as he chases hawks flying high in the sky

The garden
The hay barn
and all of our pals, 
The rocks and thorn tunnels
and Cherry Tree Lane
the Root-house is down by the Stream
where we sing and we dream

The lambs are born in the spring
In late fall we harvest the honey from our bees
and in summer the turbine casts shadows on the fields where we run free
And in winter we wait, oh we wait for snow impatiently….

We are the children of the Woods School, 
our classroom the farm where we play and
learn how to live with these animals we tend to and care for

The horses and the sheep
the donkey and chickens and bunnies

We breathe with the trees
and when we sing we sing out to the seas
we sing out to the seas
we sign out to the seas