Cultivating Kids’ Curiosity at Harvest Feast

Dunking twine repeatedly into a coffee can full of hot wax, Matt Malsbury focused intently on his task. Dip, wait, dip, wait until he crafted two fat, lumpy candles.

After a teacher hung the candles to dry, the 9-year-old Thousand Oaks boy rushed to check out a friend’s waxy creations. Then he volunteered to clean up.

“That was fun,” he gushed, completing his final lesson before lunch. “I also did clay and rock painting, storytelling and leaf rubbing.”

At the same time, he learned about native American values including respect for nature and the importance of family. “That helps with history,” volunteered Matt, who had crossed arrows painted on his cheek. “It helps you to know what the Indians did back then.”

As a student in Conejo Elementary’s open classrooms program, Matt spent a day at the school’s annual harvest feast.

“We have a harvest feast rather than a traditional Thanksgiving to celebrate the traditions of Native Americans,” explained teacher Lori Peters. To prepare for the day, students made decorations, peeled 60 pounds of potatoes for mashing, cooked bread the hard way and baked pies.

“We teach cooperation, working together and a sense of community,” Peters said. “It’s a very special thing we want to do for our children.”

Rather than talk about Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims, students in the open classrooms had their faces painted and made sand paintings--all of which fits into the open classrooms’ mission of teaching students while letting them pursue their own interests.

Brittany Roberts, 8, was most interested in rock painting as she set down her red, white, green and black creation. “It’s a snake,” she said, “a different-colored snake.

With about 120 students, parents and teachers gathered at the Thousand Oaks Teen Center, there was plenty to keep the youngsters, ages 5 to 11, busy.

Mother Debbie Bavaro found herself at the face-painting booth, where children were temporarily decorated with symbols including bear claws, suns and eagles.

Bavaro pointed to the two most popular requests of the day--a double diamond symbol and an arc of sunshine.

“The children, surprisingly enough, have been picking [the symbols for] wisdom and constancy,” Bavaro said. “The strange thing is they all want wisdom painted on their foreheads.”