4/22/2015

A clean slate for Earth Day

"You can always start the day over," we told the students. You can come into school with a new attitude. Or, more pertinent to this blog, you can always have another breakfast.

Let's start off with a clean slate. We will ignore your past as part of a billiards table. You have the opportunity to become something entirely new. Think of it as a career change, or a witness protection program. You are about to be repurposed!




  • Being the chalkboard monitor was the most desirable of all elementary school classroom jobs back in the day. It was even better than being line leader. You got to stand outside and clap the erasers.



  • Pool table slate can become pathways, chalk drawing or water painting surfaces in the children's garden. 



  • Pool table slate is pretty darn heavy, but brains beat brawn. We moved the pieces in a zigzag fashion, corner to corner rather than trying to lift them. We slid the slate into the pickup on an old banner, and pulled the banner to slide the heavy slate back out of the truck.



  • Maybe women moved the Easter Island statues into place. As a single woman I've moved major appliances and awkward queen-size furniture using the zigzag mode. It gets tricky going up or down stairs, but can still be accomplished. 


Rocking, rolling, pivoting, rotating. Developing these mental skills isn't easy, but there are many spatial intelligence challenges for kids and adults to try in daily life,

The rain in state falls mainly on the slate. Our billiards buddies will likely get a heavy shower tonight.

We moved the pieces of slate from a living room to a nature learning area across town. We'll decide by committee just how to repurpose them. Will they become a path? A chalk drawing surface? A water painting center? Will it take years to decide?

© 2013-2015 Nancy L. Ruder

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