Reflection Workshop Example

The following originally appeared in Community Works Journal

At a Vermont Rural Partnershop reflection workshop, kindergarten teacher Jenny Blackman ruminated on a recent snowshoe trip she took with her class: How easily children can be drawn into curriculum of place when their natural curiosity is engaged and they make their own discoveries! Jenny’s poem reflects how children’s questions can lead naturally to a study of local history and an imaginative encounter with the past.


The Cellar Hole
by Jenny Blackman, Belvidere School

The Cellar Whole! The Seller Whole! The Cellar Hole!
We’re going there.
We’re looking for it.
It’s in a meadow we discovered when David said
“Let’s go this way.” Snowshoes made it easy.

The Cellar Hole... What is it?
Will we fall in? Is it
dark inside? What’s in it? Who dug
this hole? Why did they need a big hole?
What happened to the old house? Can we
find anything left from the house? How
did they move those big stones?
What did the house look like?

Who? Who lived there?
Names? What were their names?
And what happened to them?
Were there children like us?
Did they go to school?

William Winthrop lived there
in 1870. We’ll find out more.
We’ll ask Shirley. We’ll ask Martha.
We’ll find out. We’ll dig down. We’ll
sit in it. We’ll be there and imagine.