Opening Day on June 16 at the Sunnivue Farm Store offered an intense vision of beauty and idealism created by students from the W. D. Sutton School. The ten teenagers who attend the school had created a raft of flags that made their first public appearance that day at Sunnivue, flying from all sides of the porch at the store.
Teacher Leslie Tabler reports that the wide variety of courses that the students have experienced over the past couple of years has included attention to a number of projects creating change in the world. Out of this study the students formed the group Earthlings Creating Change, and the art installation seen at Sunnivue, which is called “Voices Soaring,” was one result (see photos below).
Another way that the students are taking action, and sharing across the globe their work and their message, is through their Earthlings Creating Change Instagram Account, “rethinkingtheworld.”
Visiting Sunnivue Farm has also been an important activity for the Sutton students over the past year. Leslie and her co-teacher Sarah Cullen tell us that they “value the experiential learning opportunities Sunnivue has provided, and are able to design cross curricular projects for students that they make curricular connections with and truly enjoy.”
For each visit Chris, with the help of Alex and Ellinor, has provided interesting and meaningful activities for the class, and the class members have in turn contributed through their work to the farm. They have worked on maple syrup production, trail grooming, picking wild grapes and making jelly, and planting onions. In a letter to Sunnivue, the students write, “Whenever we go to Sunnivue Farm, we are greeted by friendly faces and feel at home in the atmosphere that they create. . . .The knowledge that we learned at Sunnivue will be useful for day to day life skills. Our experience was positive, beautiful and overall amazing!”
The W. D. Sutton students’ visits will continue throughout the next school year.
With best wishes to all, and with gratitude to the Sutton school students and teachers,
