Have a Great Summer

It Takes a Village...

It takes a village to make a fence...

Joanie and Nancy asked a group of interested students to design fences  to protect tree pits. (Why?  Fourth graders have learned that tree pits can act like mini wetlands absorbing and filtering rainwater.  That's a big deal when rain water run off can wash pollutants into our water ways and overload sewage treatment plants.)
Too many fences too few trees led to the idea of having each fourth grader designing one picket to make a fence.
Their teachers--Joanie, Nancy, Elissa, and Dolores--led the work.  (With some false starts by Barbara...lettering should be read from top to bottom...limit the number of words...)
Sen and Matt built the frame and cut and painted the pickets made from a recycled lattice screen.
Johanna gathered the materials.
She helped fourth graders amend the tree pits and plant in them.
Sen put the pickets up.
Dave and Mazda added compost to the tree pits.

The beginning of a new tradition?
We have three more unprotected trees!
It takes a village.

Wash Day ...

Who knew that kids would love to launder work gloves?  Besides Maria Montessori...

Fourth graders laundered work gloves as part of their gardening work.  First graders completed the job during recess.

BNS Golden Shovel Runner-ups

$2500 will go towards pulp trays and gloves for a new year of reducing waste!
Thank you Stacey Sperling and Johanna Esteras for your work on the proposal.
And, of course, thanks to the entire community for recycling, reducing, reusing, repurposing, refusing, resparkling...and a few more R's.

Here's the link:

Golden Apple Winners

Tree Pit Workers

There is something to be said about working outdoors in nature, even if it just a small square of soil.
Look at these pictures of Elissa's fourth graders...

Hope and Ua star in "Danielle the Dolphin Talks to Sophie the Seal" at Ecorama

Puppet Show Script

Hope:  Hi.  My name is Danielle the Dolphin.

Ua:  And I'm Sophie the Seal.

Hope:  And we're here to talk about global warming.

Ua:  I blend in with the sand in the ocean and when the fish come close I grab.

Hope:  But that sounds easy.  What's the problem?

Ua:  The water is getting warmer...and my prey are moving away to colder water.    I'm hungry.

Hope:  That's like my problem.  I eat squid and fish that live in the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean.  But it is not so cold and my prey are dying.  I'm starving.

Ua:  I have one more problem.  Where I sleep it's melting.  Becaause the sun reflects on the ice and the ice melts and then there's no where for me to sleep.

Hope:  I also have a problem sleeping because I need cold water to sleep.  But since the water is warmer, I can't sleep.

Both:  If you want us to stay alive...then use less fossil fuel.

Ua:  Use fewer cars.

Hope:  Use more solar powered buses.

Ua:  Use fewer factories.

Hope:  Use less grills.

Ua:  How do YOU think YOU can help?

Hope:  Thank you for watching.

More Plumb Beach Pictures

Intrepid 3rd Graders  planting sea grass...photos sent by Candace Grace, parent.

Diane and Malika's  students  braving the elements in order to stop erosion.

Staying dry was impossible even with an umbrella.

On the bright side:  No need to water the plants!

Next year's third graders:  will they see a lush field of sea grass?

Monarch 1 News

Jade:  Good afternoon. I'm Jade Pinnock.
Lauren:  and I'm Lauren Jackson.
BOTH:  This is Monarch 1.
Lauren:  Monarch butterflies, also knows as kings of the butterflies, reign supreme when it comes to migration because of their awesome traveling skills.
Jade:  Monarchs don't hibernate.  Some people think it's because they will get too cold and die.  So they have to migrate to a warmer place:  Mexico.
Lauren:  For a monarch to travel from Washington, D.C. to Angangueo, Mexico would depend on temperature and wind conditions.  Usually, it would take about two months.
Jade:  Monarchs know to migrate because of day length, temperature, and maybe the age of the plants they eat.  There might be other reasons they know when to migrate, too.
Lauren:  Monarchs can survive short periods of freezing weather, but not long ones.  Snowstorms won't always kill monarchs, but if they get wet they will freeze.
Jade:  Monarchs fly over oceans, sometimes; but it could be that they were blown across it.  Monarchs can be blown off course.  Or maybe they meant to fly over.  But they can be found on islands or oil rigs in the ocean.  They could die flying over the ocean.
Lauren:  Although scientists aren't positively sure with this answer, one monarch was caught 265 miles away from where it had been released the previous day!
Jade:  The amount of butterflies that fly together varies at different places and times.

Lauren;  Because of CLIMATE CHANGE, it's hard for monarchs.  If temperatures are higher than normal, the monarchs might consider leaving Mexico early. 

Jade:  But that might be a problem for the monarchs, because their food, milkweed, might not be ready to eat when they're here.  We hope scientists will solve this problem.

That's all for now.  I'm Jade Pinnock. 

Lauren:  And I'm Lauren Jackson.

BOTH:  Thank you for watching Monarch 1.

Neither rain nor....

Third graders return to Plumb Beach to plant sea grass.  

Just as storm threatens to intensify, last plants are put in place.

Not a Garden Ornament...

It's a real dragonfly...id'ed by Louis and Mikey in The Front of the School Rainbow Garden

Snapshots of Ecorama 2013

Jordan, Jylene, Ruby, April, Sage, and Zoe singing about CO2...

Chickens

Harvesting lettuce

Grown-ups serving grilled bread and lettuce

Louis helping Tish blend juice

Rain holding off allowing

Solar ovens both manufactured and...

 kid made to make nachos and s'mores.

Students teaching students through poetry

and song

and a news cast...

Attentive learners

Irrigating greens with see-through pipes.

Irrigating is fun.

Using words and pictures,

Games,

models  and 

puppet shows to teach about the Earth.

Luna's Sun Song

Save the Earth

 by Luna Bernard

I love the way the Sun just shines.

I love it. I love it.

I love the way the Sun just shines.

If you want to help the Earth, turn off

The lights when you leave the house.

It’s how we can save money and power.

That’s what it’s all about.

Saving power is better than wasting it.

 The Sun helps more than we think.

 Sometimes in life we got to think before we waste anything.

So we can do our part.

We can make a solar power oven.

 We can make smoothies with a bike.

 Just step in and just do your part.

Ian's Blog on Climate Change

Electricity Poem by Sam

Electricity,
Electricity,
It lights up
our city.
Some people
think it's good but it actually is not
Nor is it a good thought
It pollutes our Earth,
And pollutes our dirt.
It's enough pollution to make a huge giant skirt
Electricity
It lights
up our city.

Satchel and Stokely Rap on Climate Change

Hey everybody
Here's a tale
About why renewable energy
Shouldn't be put in a pail.

The fossil fuels are hurting the animals
The poor little polar bears are living on ice cubes.

Stop burning coal,
It's bad for the environment.
The environment.
The environment.
Yeah!

The carbon dioxide that's in the air.
Polluting the earth like it just doesn't care
The water level rises and melts the ice..
Now
That's not nice

Stop burning oil,
It's bad for the environment.
The environment.
The environment.
Yeah!

Renewable energy is the big new thing
So hey
The hydro, wind, and solar powers
Don't let out as much CO2 in an hour
Now you see why I plead
For you
To stop using fossil fuels
They are bad for the environment
Yeah!!

Sam's Powerpoint