Opal School Blog
What do visitors focus on at Opal School?
Last month, a group of teachers and administrators from the Fishback Center for Early Childhood Education at South Dakota State University spent two days engaged…
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The Power of Story Part 1
“When we say ‘old friend’, what we really mean is, I know your story and you know mine.” ~Ralph Fletcher, Writing instructor/Author The…
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When you draw an object…
by Mary Gage Davis "When you draw an object, the mind becomes deeply, intensely attentive. And its that act of attention that allows you to…
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Making Sense of Transitions in US History
Transitioning from reenacting King Philip’s War to understanding the colonial period in US History or How does a deep dive into a time, place and…
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Making Sense of Transitions in US History
Transitioning from reenacting King Philip’s War to understanding the colonial period in US History or How does a deep dive into a time, place and…
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Researching Play in the Arboretum
by Hannah Chandler Part of our work in designing the playground has been rooted in understanding the work of design. What does design mean? How…
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Visitation Days Recap
Last week a large group of teachers and administrators – from across the West Coast, Los Angeles to British Columbia, and east to Alberta –…
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Exploring Balance
Teacher: I had a connection and wanted to bring this word back into our conversations. It actually came up first when we were thinking…
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Looking closely
In addition to questions related to documentation, the SDSU group came to Opal interested in learning more about how to help children create detailed observational drawings. It was spectacular happenstance, then, that some of the visitors and I came across Mary Gage working with a small group of students in Opal 1. We walked out of Opal 1 thrilled: We had witnessed a master class on just the issue we were hoping to come across.
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