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K-5 Science Specialist (MacArthur Elementary)
and Trail Teacher (Hi Hill Outdoor School)
Reprinted from the Spring 2002 Southern AEOE Newsletter
Every Byrd Baylor book is written beautifully for the outdoor science curriculum. Her books focus on conservation and appreciation for our natural world. Using her literature on the trails, I discover that my students become more aware of the experiences we embark on.
The Way To Start A Day describes how people all over the world celebrate the beginning of each new day. All over the world, the sun is honored in different and unique ways distinctly by anyone so in tune with the beauty around them. The book begins.... “Go outside and face the east and greet the sun with some kind of blessing or chant or song that you made yourself and keep for each morning.” One must sing, lift their hands, pray, and/or play instruments. Baylor takes us to Peru, Mexico, the Congo, China, Japan, and Egypt..
It is a well-written book that allows us to see diversity in different people in different ways. I have used it to teach biodiversity. After reading the book, we discuss different living things in the mountains where I teach in the summer and how each organism has a niche, a role to fill, in the cycle of life. I have used it on the first morning, Tuesday, of the outdoor forum. We discuss how we start the day at home in the city and compare it to how we start the day at the outdoor school. Sometimes I take the students on an early morning hike before breakfast and, after reading the book, we share through a chant, poem or song, how we would start a day. There have been some very powerful celebrations during these early morning rituals.
I love Byrd Baylor's style of writing because she is so AWARE of her natural surroundings. That's what I'm wanting my students to leave the outdoor science experience with, an awareness of who they are and what their role is in the grand scheme of our world.