Next Step Adventure :: mindful, creative, fun approaches to help people and organizations reach the next level
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I am excited to present the Clean and Green Kindergarten Program Guide. Thanks to Keep Iowa Beautiful, the Waste Commission of Scott County and Character Counts! in Iowa, we are ready to pilot it in Davenport Public Schools. The guide is flexible; it has engaging activities for the classroom, afterschool and summer programs.
Each of the activities can stand on its own, but it is more powerful if used as a comprehensive unit. During this pilot year, we’ll collect feedback from as many people as possible, and change the program guide in response to your feedback. Watch this Web Site for online surveys, send feedback to Martha McCormick, or add your comments to this post itself.
The Clean and Green Kindergarten Matrix of 20 activities is based on the Common Core Standards for Mathematics, Life Science, Social Studies, Literacy and 21st Century Skills. We used the Four Keys of Character Education–safe, challenging community, self study, other study and public performance–as the other axis of the matrix to assure that we help teachers incorporate best practice in their classrooms.
Please check out the Clean and Green Kindergarten Program Guide. Download and try the lesson plans. Here are some of our favorites–
The summer after my daughter LucyKate graduated from college, we wrote a daily Haiku. It was a really fun way to recap the day, or put our hopes and dreams out there for the universe. The traditional basis for Haiku is nature; I’d compare our Haikus to droplets, poems sparkling in the sun. Soaking into moss.
Here is an opportunity for kids in Kindergarten through 12th grades to try their hands at creating droplets, streams or rivers of words or art. River of Words is a free, annual, international poetry and art contest on the theme of watersheds for students K-12. If you don’t know what a watershed is, you’re not alone. I learned not so long ago. The entry deadline is December 1, 2010.
The Grand Prize for the River of Words contest is an all-expense paid trip to Washington, DC to attend an award ceremony at the Library of Congress, and inclusion in an annual poetry book of winning submissions. Every child, group or young adult that enters the contest will receive a personalized “Watershed Explorer” certificate. Kids enter on their own, through schools, or through organizations like 4-H, Campfire, Boys and Girls Club or Scouts.
River of Words could be an enhancement to your existing program, a creative stand-alone project, or a great opportunity for students to add to their individual artistic and creative portfolios. It could also be used as a small portion of a larger science project, art project, or research project. An educator’s guide for curriculum for instructors is available.
Take a few minutes to create your Haiku, ballad or picture!
I’ve been working with the Next Step Advisory Board to develop my company’s mission and values. It turns out that Next Step values creativity, partnership, and fun! Who knew?!!!??
One of my Board members sent me a link to a video done by TheFunTheory.com. They developed several strategies and then took videos to test their theory that fun can get people to change. Hmmmm, how many applications can we find for that?
The video most closely tied to my current work is the World’s Deepest Trash Bin; I’m working with Keep Iowa Beautiful to develop a program guide for Kindergarten, First and Second Grade teachers to lay the groundwork for kids to learn about volunteering, the environment, character and keeping their schools clean. The lesson plans are nearly done, and have a good share of fun built in.
I think my personal favorite is a strategy for getting people to use the stairs more than the escalator. It reminds me the giant piano scene from the movie, Big; I might just have to watch that movie again real soon. There are 35 pages of entries into The Fun Theory’s contest to find other ways to use fun to get people to change their behavior. Which do you like best?
A major highlight of my growing up years was the weekly (Really? Weekly?) trip to the library. We had two–Covina and the Los Angeles County Library in West Des Moines. The LA Library opened when I was older, and seemed just huge. Mom read to me and my brother every night long after we could read to ourselves. Then I went to bed and read to myself. The book I remember best was Palace Wagon Family, about the Donner Party crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
I just got home from the AVID (Authors Visiting In DesMoines) launch of Sara Gruen‘s new book, Ape House. Gruen’s talk was wonderful. It’s a good thing, since I am running on 4 hours of sleep in the last 24. As soon as I finish writing this, I’m going to bed with my new copy of the book. Ape House is a novel loosely based on the Great Ape Trust right here in Des Moines. It’s not an easy place to visit, but Gruen’s talk certainly piqued my curiosity.
The AVID book launch took me back to the libraries of my childhood. When we spent summers on our grandparents’ farm, the Bookmobile dropped off the only books available at the little store in Woodlawn. I’m sure Braxie’s business really picked up when our family was visiting!
I loved going there with grandpa to pick out another week’s worth of books. He usually bought me an orange soda too! I got in trouble many times for hiding out on the couch with a book when there were tomatoes to be canned.
So, tonight I got in touch with my inner “Library Geek” and intend to stay that way! What are YOU reading?
Last week I rebuilt my “pondless waterfall” for the third time. I’ve lost the illusion that it’s the third and LAST time. Gardening is all about the process. A potential home buyer asked my friend if her garden was finished; that was a deal breaker. Here was a neophyte–a garden is never finished. My art teacher says the only true beauty emerges from process; gardens are evidence of that.
After the garden workshop in my backyard Tuesday, Carol and I talked about criteria for selling our homes. I told her the old neighbors to my back interviewed potential buyers to find out if they would tend the garden to their satisfaction. The new neighbors have done well; that garden has flourished and is constantly being improved and expanded. I’m vigilant about keeping the creeping charlie from creeping through that fence!
Saturday my daughter and I planted eight shrubs and perennials for fall interest. Yesterday morning they looked like they had always been there. That’s a wonderful compliment: when Bill Dirkx saw my pond for the first time, he asked the same thing, “Hasn’t that always been there?”
September and October are the months for putting your hope in the ground. I bought some quick growing greens so we can have fresh salads into frost. I still have roses and bulbs to plant. I won’t see any results of that investment for six months, but I am excited about planting anyway. Winter will go faster, knowing there will be daffodils.
I’m working with Keep Iowa Beautiful and the Waste Commission of Scott County to provide educators with a program guide and resources for teaching…
…all organized around the Iowa Core and Common Core Standards. I’m using this post to run things by the Steering Committee, get reactions and involve them in pulling it together. I’ll make changes to the resources and continually update the committee as the program comes together.
Help us stay on task by posting comments to this page. Here are some of the resources we used to develop the program guide.
It’s been just over 2 months since the first ever Iowa Outdoor Youth Summit; at least two young Iowans attended the Outdoor Nation Youth Summit and Festival in New York City, and summer is here with especially surprising weather. Here it is the 4th of July and summer officially half over. Impossible; my garden isn’t even all mulched!
So far I’ve gone for a few bike rides, enjoyed some ice cream cones and visited the Des Moines Arts Festival. Twice. I’ve helped facilitate The Ultimate Family Challenge where Culture Inc. took 12 families to Pilgrim Heights for the first weekend of June. It was especially fun to see the kids enjoying the out of doors. Here are some outdoor updates–
I grew up in southern California, and have often been asked what I’m doing in Iowa. But I’m proud to live in a state with such a strong history of civil rights, fairness and equality. Iowa again blazed this trail through extending the right to marry to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. This controversial Iowa Supreme Court decision follows a pattern established many years ago.
The Fort Des Moines Museum celebrates the heroes who brought gender and racial equality to the United States Army during World War I and World War II. The Museum honors the U.S. Army’s first officer candidate class for African American men in 1917, and the establishment of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC’s) in 1942. Videos show an African American soldier and a WAC (Women’s Army Ausiliary Corps) telling about their training at the Fort and their lives overseas.
The Museum hosts meetings, parties and offers educational programs.
Polk County Conservation is collecting input from the public about renovations for Yellow Banks Park in the southeast part of Polk County, and for Thomas Mitchell Park in Mitchellville, the eastern part of the county. You can fill out a survey here–
…and you can see the survey results here–
My next birthday is one that ends in a “0” and requires a significant celebration. Last week I was told that this, my 60th year, is one of extraordinary challenges and opportunities in areas I’ve been exploring all my life. One of those areas is fear of heights. Learning to climb poles comfortably was a huge step toward conquering that fear, but now I’m thinking about skydiving on my birthday. I’m not sure I can do it; jumping out of a plane requires REAL courage–like that of some of the women I’ve studied during March–Women’s History Month.
Like Elinor Smith, who was born just a few years before my mother. Both of them were born before women were allowed to vote in the United States. Smith set a number of aviation records when she was still in her teens. She got in trouble for at least one of those records, flying under the four bridges that spanned the East River in New York City. Ms. Smith died at 98; her obituary on National Public Radio described her as a woman who started flying lessons when she was ten years old! I had never heard of her, but for a while she was more famous and accomplished than Amelia Earhart.
It might be hard to believe that women did these things nearly 100 years ago, but women have been flying since 1784 when Elisabeth Thible went up in a hot air balloon. Such achievements did not come easily. Women have fought for the right to do them. Winged Victory is a great place to learn more about the fight, as it was and continues.
During the long winter, I read a book called “Gone to Soldiers.” One of the characters was a woman who ferried planes from factories to air force bases. The women were never recognized as military personnel until 1977! They received few benefits for their work, but they loved to fly and wanted to contribute to the war effort.
Here’s hoping that each of us can learn to fly in her own way!
