Our Wildwood, Winter 2018, Volume 42

baskets filled with new kitchen or bathroom goods, while others pooled their resources for one big-ticket item—a brand-new refrigerator. The Dolphin Pod’s choice to buy an assortment of housewares required a field trip—to IKEA! Armed with a budget and accompanied by parent volunteers, the Dolphin Pod went shopping. Each family group chose a room to outfit, while parent volunteers assisted with accounting and ensuring groups came in under budget. One field trip highlight, according to Tahnee, happened when a group spent all their money on a couch without

they can do things to help people in their community.” For Wildwood’s 5- and 6-year-olds, helping meant raising money to purchase household goods and furnishings for ASOH based on the organization’s wish list of needs. And fundraise they did. Spring break was rife with lemonade stands and bake sales. At one event, seven Wildwood families sold baked goods on trendy Abbot Kinney Boulevard and raised nearly $400. At school, the Dolphin Pod handcrafted and sold cards, poems, and small potted plants. Then each Pod chose how to spend the money they raised. Some put together gift

groups” to create fictional family members and stories using wooden dolls and make-believe rooms they designed out of cardboard and construction paper. To teach inclusion, the teachers added surprises. “One member of your family is in a wheelchair,” Dolphin Pod teacher Tahnee Muñoz told one family group. “Now you have to design a space that would make them feel at home in this area.” The kids maintained their groups throughout the year and experienced the ups and downs of family dynamics. “It was wonderful to watch them negotiate how everyone’s ideas were going to be included,” Francesca says. Halfway through the year, the teachers threw the kids a curveball. “Do you know there are people who don’t have homes?” Francesca asked them. “And there are people who have a space, a house, somewhere to live, but they don’t know what it is to have a home?” It was time to begin the social justice piece of their work. “With social justice work, it’s always our intention that the kids feel as though they’re empowered to help others,” Tahnee says. “They’re powerful, they’re problem-solvers, and

LEFT: Dolphin Pod students block-build their “family group” homes.

CENTER: Whale Pod’s Sebastian C. makes a diorama.

RIGHT: The Dolphin Pod takes a field trip to IKEA.