in august, our arrow explores group took a field trip to the design studio of hable construction, aka hableland! designer susan hable and studio manager hope hilton showed the children different paintings and textiles and talked to them about exploring the world of color. then, they handed over paper, paint and brushes and everyone got to make their own wet-on-wet watercolor creation! the results were beautiful. thank you, habel construction!
we hope everyone has had a good summer!
we recently took a field trip to the west broad market garden, on the ground of the former west broad school...we had such a great visit...so inspiring!
rebecca ennis, farm manager, led our crew on a tour of the farm...we tasted tomatillos, planted fava beans and even played with their maypole. we also got to meet ms. ethel, who is a longtime garden volunteer...what a great day we had!
we also made a donation to the garden as a thank you for letting us come visit! consider supporting them, by volunteering or making other donations...
we had another great excursion as part of our ongoing arrow explores series, this time to r.wood studio. the littles had so much fun making clay beads with rebecca at our spring party, we decided to continue the fun at her studio...they first toured us around the studio and showed us each step of the process of making their beautiful handmade dishes: rolling out the clay, firing, then glazing them. then, everyone was able to make whatever creation they could dream up: tiny plates, more beads, a dragon, and even a shipwrecked boat. we finished the day with a refreshing honeypop! fun indeed!
we had another fun-filled day of exploring recently, this time with the folks from wild intelligence. sarah, jason, and ann came to arrow to lead us on an urban hike. we gathered into a circle out back, in the arrow garden.
sarah set the tone for our morning by describing a story from the book, tom brown's field guide to the forgotten wilderness...then, we meandered up the sidewalk and over to our next batch of greenspace, the grounds of the historic camak house across the street.
underneath the tall oaks, the children and adults all played simple games that taught us awareness and agility. then, we began our scavenger hunt...some things were realtively easy,
but some things were harder like the snail's trail- but, alas, we found one on a large stump!
it was great to watch everyone looking for these things, while the street traffic could be heard in the distance and as the UGA football tailgaters were walking by. 
next, we crossed the large intersection at prince and pulaski to make our way to our last stop, the backyard garden and stream a few houses down.
we walked in the stream and found animal tracks...a racoon maybe?
then, we made a 'nest' and a few of us pretended to be hawks looking for each other. we ended the day by creating a large web out of yarn that we passed amongst each other as we recounted our favorite parts of the morning.
we will definitely rendezvous with wild intelligence again...this was a very special morning!
for the second field trip in the arrow explores series, the arrow families went to make light drawings in the backyard studio of rinne allen, a photographer here in athens, who also is a co-founder of arrow.
the children and parents circled 'round a low table and watched as rinne showed them some examples of light drawings... of snakeskins, flowers, and lace. then, they wandered around the garden and collected specimens for their own light drawings: fig leaves, daisies, ferns, and other greenery. each of them made 2-3 prints each and they all turned out really well!
at the end of the day, each child got another stamp in their arrow passport...
