Getting Wet and Dirty: Green Recess with Kindergarteners

As part of Kindergarten's water study, Johanna will lead a green recess filled with the wet stuff. Each K class will have recess with Johanna once a week.  Here are pictures from the first one this year.

Some kids used water to help the farm plants grow.

Some opted to draw with chalk and use brushes dipped in water to change their drawings.

Others got really dirty...How did this happen?

It all started with some soil, digging tools, and some water...

Clean up was almost as much fun as making the mess.  Water!

Thanks to Valerie for the amazing photos.

Fencing

This beautiful vine beautifies a fence at BNS.  Neighbors have been collecting seeds to start their own cypress vine.

Astronomy...A Fifth Grade Maya Lab

Students draw a line to show the length and angle of their shadow.

Students noticed that as time passed the shadows changed.  it no longer bisected their shadow. Could they create a way to tell time using those shadows?  Using found materials they tried to do just that.

At the end of this lab, students realized that shadows change...but what is causing this change?  Is it the sun or the earth that is moving?  During the second part of the lab, students will use models to try to understand what makes day and night and seasons.

Weaving with Weeds

First graders remove weeds from bed reserved for fruit trees.

They also work to loosen the soil.

 And then later, during recess, other first graders use those weeds to weave.

Students directed Johanna to add more strings.

They saw that the weeds kept falling down...

So they decided it was better to work from the bottom up.  

P.S. Johanna visited school early one morning and saw camera shy\ birds feasting off of the seeds.

An Island of Hope

Last year fourth graders learned about how humans can work to reclaim a body of water such as the Gowanus Canal.  This year they got to see environmentalists at work.  They got to see a floating island launched into the Gowanus.  

Amanda's and Laurie's kids are cheering some rowers on.

What  are they dragging with them?  A floating island.

Voting for different features  to be placed near the Gowanus using tictacs...green for good idea,  orange for so so idea, red for not a good idea. No one wants a parking lot. but playground got a mix of votes.

What is the job of the domed sections of the island?  Ask a fifth grader.now.  Ask a fourth grader later in the year!

 Will be anchored in canal close to 7th Street near the Smith and 9th Street Station.

Thank you Gowanus Canal Conservancy.

And a special thank you to Jessica Roberts of Balmori Design Associates for inviting us to share in this amazing experience and for the terrific photos. 

Gowanus Canal Conservancy Site

Balmori Site

Fifth Graders Begin to Notice and Wonder about the Pollinator Garden Beds

Is it a monarch?

Is it hurt or just resting?

What is inside of the pods?

What are these on the undersides of the leaves?