If you could only see ,,,,,,

Our meal times!

For each meal at Nature's Classroom, students are given an entire hour.  Yes, an entire hour with 56 students and 12 staff members (that includes CMS staff).  At first that may sound crazy but if you could only see how enriching and wonderful it is.

All meals are family style (large serving bowls and platters, passed around with "please" and "thank you").  Kids take turns setting the table, serving the food, clearing the table, and WASHING the table.  EVERYONE must get permission from the server to get up and ONLY ONE PERSON at a time is allowed to leave the table.  There are absolutely no devices or distractions.  Everyone is either participating in or listening to the conversation.  Each table has one to two adults.

Halfway through the meal, we play a few rounds of Stump the Staff - students vs adults/teachers.  There are guidelines but it is basically a trivia competition using questions that should be accessible to anyone (so I can't ask "what was the name of the very first dog I ever owned?").  It's fun to see what the kids know and they have asked some very challenging questions.  After that we do some type of whole group game or activity.  There are so many connections being made.

So if I had my way, we would dedicate more time for kids at all meals.  The connections being made are strong, with the presence of adults it opens the door for conversations regarding respect and diversity, and it's a great way to bond.  I hope you get the chance to try it at home as well.

And, of course, they could teach you about ORT and make you perform the ORT song, hahahahahaha.