Today I challenged my students to go outside and experience nature.  They were to go out and frolic and commune with nature.  We had been spending the past few weeks studying the Transcendentalist mindset and reading the writings of Emerson, Thoreau and other Transcendentalist writers.  They were to find an element of nature they found beautiful.  Once we returned to the classroom we read a portion of Walt Whitman’s Songs of Joy while reflecting on their natural element.  When inspiration hit they were to write their own song of joy.  It was a blast seeing these teenage kids running through the grass, playing tag and acting like grade schoolers.

I started pinning some of the things the students found on my bulletin board.  The students started taking it upon themselves to put their own piece of nature on the board.  By the end of the day this is what it looked like:

I hope I taught them to rise above.  It was a great day.