Haiku Poetry

This week we read Wabi Sabi, a picture book about a cat trying to understand the meaning of her name.  From Japanese culture, the term wabi sabi refers to a way of seeing beauty and harmony in what is simple, imperfect, natural, modest and mysterious. It may be better understood as a feeling rather than as an idea.

The story is told in Haibun form, in which pieces of narrative connect the events of the story and set up the haiku poem on the page. Haiku are short, traditional Japanese poems that, in English, have a first line of five syllables, a second of seven, and a third of five again.

The book also has some beautiful artwork! The pages are filled with blended color backgrounds that have detailed cut paper images layered on top.  It also opens from top to bottom, which is different than most of our books and makes it that much more intriguing.

Inspired by this beautiful piece of children's literature, the kids are working on creating their own version of Haibun Haiku. They began creating dramatic background papers using tissue paper that bleeds and blends its colors when water is applied. From there, construction paper was used to cut out images for the foreground. Finally, a Haibun Haiku set was written to go with the artwork which included a paragraph to set up the Haiku poem inspired by the picture. These amazing art/literary pieces will be on special display at our upcoming Poetry Slam!

Check out the pictures below which show this work in process:

Erosion Solutions

This week we completed our plans to solve the problem of the eroded path by the Lilja School Trail. We took our teams down to the site earlier in the week with measuring tools, iPads and clipboards in hand to do a final assessment of what our plan recommendations would be.  Then kids worked with their House Table teams to brainstorm ideas and collaborate on a final plan to present.

Most teams' plans started with addressing the existing drainage pipe underneath the path meant to cope with snow melt run-off and rain that streams down the hill.  All teams identified a problem with the pipe determining it is either clogged or broken, and made recommendations to clean it out, add a strainer cap, and repair any damage to make that pipe more efficacious.

Another common step in most plans was to replace the gravel, rocks and soil that had been washed away. Some teams thought it was advisable to put the granite barrier back in place to shore up the mix of gravel and soil. Thinking ahead to maintaining the repaired path and preventing (or slowing) future erosion, teams included the additional step of planting grass so that the roots can help hold the new soil in place.

Pictures of their plans are included below. We were impressed with each team's collaborative approach to problem-solving and their methodical approach to solving this real-world issue. Our next step is send these plans to our DPW team for review. We are excited to get together with them and fix the path together!