Forest days for the Mice class at Levana School thanks to sponsors
Since the beginning of the year, they have been a regular sight at the Rodder Maar, the mouse class of the Levana School. Levana School is a school from Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler that specializes in holistic and motor development and has been split between two locations in Neuwied since the flood disaster. This means a much longer journey for the children and correspondingly long periods of sitting on the school bus. In order to spare the children this for at least one day a week and also to offer them more opportunities for exercise, the idea was born to organize a fixed forest day. Since January, the school buses have been taking the pupils directly to Rodder every Tuesday, where they are met by their teachers in the youth rooms of the old school. As at Levana School, there is first a morning circle where everything important for the day is discussed. Afterwards, the rucksacks are put on and the children walk to the Rodder Maar. Here, the "mice" fortify themselves for the day's adventures with a picnic in the tippi. They then hike through the forest, climbing, romping, playing and discovering exciting things and small creatures in their natural environment, such as ants, stag beetles or tadpoles. Depending on the season and weather, there are always new opportunities and nature is experienced with all the senses. The children float self-built rafts on a small pond, watch a farmer at work, build a seesaw out of tree trunks together, calculate with pine cones ...
These great experiences, which the pupils in the Mice class can have every week, are only possible thanks to committed sponsors. The municipality of Niederzissen provides the youth rooms free of charge, the energy costs are financed by the Rodder Citizens' Association and the Waldorf Volunteer Fire Brigade Support Association helps to finance lunch, which the pupils cook themselves with their teachers in the old school.
A special highlight for the Mice class was the overnight stay in the old school at the end of June. After a trip to Klotten, the children did not go home, but to Rodder. At the end of the day, they had a barbecue here and invited their sponsors to join them as a small thank-you. Despite the thunderstorm, it was a lovely evening and the first overnight stay as part of the class community was a great experience for the pupils in the Mice class.
Now it will be quiet around Rodder Maar again for a few weeks, the "mice" are on summer vacation. But after the vacations, everyone agrees, they should go into the forest again regularly. (T. Densing)
