...but pizza making and BAC Garden pot luck postponed because of expected rain.
8th grade will make pizzas tomorrow.
Volunteers can:

• Help get oven hot 8-11
• Set up 11:30
• Make pizzas 12:20
• Clean up
• Bring toppings, plates, napkins, cups

Into the Wild!

Mr. Leki

Dear Friends, 
We're comin' around to the end of this school year.
Who would believe it?
On Monday, June 10, we blast off to Sauganash with 6th Grade, Room 305, to do water quality chemical tests. The students all get to enter the river in waders to collect creatures that live in the river bottom. And they will get to re-visit their beloved Sauganash, to wander through its lush greenery, to find a spot to sit, and to reflect on what they have learned about the river this past year.
We leave at 9:30, we picnic at 12:15 and should be back to school by 1:30
I hope you can join us!
The same trip will go for 
Room 310 Wednesday, June 12, and
Room 304 Thursday, June 13

Tree Book!!!!!!!!!
It's time to assemble 90+ "Field Guide to the Trees of Waters School"  for the first grade. 
I need 90+ volunteers (Just kidding)  Let me know if anyone is available to help, at any time.
I believe the Tree Olympics will happen on Monday June 17. It would be great to have the completed books  available for that date. 

Tuesday, afterschool from 4:30 until 6:30 Waters will be hosting a Citywide Gardening workshop!
And Wednesday afternoon, June 12, 8th grade will be making pizzas and icy juice beverages  to eat and drink. The pizza oven will be fired up!
After school Waters' BAC (Bi-lingual Advisory Committee) is hosting a pot luck in the garden. Pizza and music may be involved with that.... overlapping into Garden Night, with pizza! and work!.

Let's get it Done!
Mr. Leki

Hey Friends,
Come help us plant potatoes tomorrow with room 105, Kinderkids. 
The ground is ready to accept little spuds. 
Today's kinderplanting day was postponed by TESTING and rain. 
I prefer rain!
We begin at 11:20.
Come early for a strategy session. 
Potatoes! Potaoes!Potatoes!
Mr. Leki

Dear Friends,
Crazy!
We're running out of time!
Riddle:
It grows under the ground.
It grows w/o a sound.
They're purple, pink and while. 
Delicious when you bite....
Answer?
This week I scheduled all three Kinder classes out to the garden to plant potatoes!!
I was prepping the soils today and I was flummoxed that the whole cycle has come around again.
It is so wonderful. 
Last Fall 8th grade hauled our compost to the Kinder potato bed.
It has lain there since, covered with straw. 
The soils I turned today were rich and friable. 
We prepare for the kids by rolling out a long pad for them to kneel on. 
Each kid gets one spud and a hand trowel.
Kind of stingy, but still challenging. 
The other two stations are a read aloud station (teacher),
and a compost bug exploration station (sorry bugs!)
Room 108 arrives at 11:15. 
If you can help out, 
come to the garden a few minutes early so we can get organized. 
Room 105 visits at 11:20 Wednesday,
and Room 107 visits at 1:15 on Friday.
Many Thanks.

Wednesday Night is Garden Night. It is a delightful and fruitful time together,
without which we could never, never keep up such a beautiful place. It goes from 5:00 until dark.

Thursday, June 6, we hope to finally take 2nd grade, Room 111 to the riverbank to explore its wonders in Spring. We leave at 1:00 and return at 3:00. It is a walking trip. 
If you can assist, please come a few minutes early to strategize. 

Friday, June 7,  is Recycler's Luncheon, wherein we will serve our hard working Captains pizza, fruit, garden salad, and juice. They have done a great job all year, 
and have been asking about this luncheon since the last one in November!.
I usually start prepping food at 10:30 and someone fetches the first pizzas at 11:00, all in the Conference Room.  Please come and experience these very funny and responsible kids.   

Happily, 
The rain has let up during the time of our trip to Sauganash.
It will be fabulous!
Join us, 
Mr. Leki

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=41.9466&lon=-87.7027&unit=0&lg=english&FcstType=graphical

​This week's starts with a bang on 
Monday, May 20,  with the 3 first grade classes coming to the garden for three tree activities:
1) Family History in Annual rings, wherein the kids fill in the annual rings on a piece of paper, with event that have occurred in their and their families lives: births, moving, broken arms, etc. This is to help them with the idea that the growth rings travel backwards in time from the newest one, under the bark, to the first circle in the center.
2) Planting trees. The kids get to choose seeds from three different trees to plant in a pot. By the time the school year ends they should sprout their miniature, bright green distinctive leaves.
3) Tree medallion necklaces. The kids will choose a "cookie", a slice of the trunk (or branch) of a tree, sand it, oil it, have a hole drilled in it, have a loop of brass twisted through it, and a string to produce a beautiful medallion necklace about the same age as these kids. 
These activities need lots of help. I hope some of you can join us.
Room 205 8:40
Room 208 11:30
Room 210 2:30

On Tuesday, May 21, 2nd Grade Room 111 will walk to the Riverbank Neighbors site to
1) do weather station,
2) look for and draw spring wildflowers;
3) look for and ID riverbank trees,and
4) look at, draw and ID bugs that I have gathered from the river bottom.
I gathered them from the new 
"riffle" at River Park, that replaced the old dam.  If you have not seen the site recently, take a walk. It is spectacular, and is going to be more spectacular
in the future. 
We leave at 1:00 and are back by 3:00.
Come 15 minutes early to go over plans.

On Wednesday May 22, 5th Grade, Room 207 will have their last trip to Sauganash to consider how the fate of our natural areas, and our world, are dependent on the decisions we make everyday. They will also be pulling weeds and exploring. 
Join me at 9:00 in the Conference room. Bus leaves at 9:30, picnic lunch at the Grove, back to school by 1:15 or so. 

Thursday's Trip for 3rd Grade Room 211 has been re-scheduled for Tuesday, May 28.

We continue to feverishly remove plants from the Snake and Turtle Gardens and are still hoping that the construction team will take time to move some of the bigger trees and shrubs so that they are not destroyed. Garden Night Wednesday, 5 - dark. 

Hope to see you, 
Mr. Leki

​Dear Friends, 
Seventh Grade is going a-fishing this week, at Montrose Point.
On Wednesday May 8, Room 309,
Thursday, May 9, Room 302, and
on Friday, May 11, Room 311.
This is a lovely and relaxed trip, 
on the CTA!

First we have a slide show about Lake ecology and food webs.
Then we fish in the harbor for Gobies. 
Our host, Friends of the Parks, asks us to invite plenty of adult helpers
to help supervise.
After lunch to are off to the dune and beach
to do an art / ecology activity. 
Back by 3:00.

Saturday is Chicago River Day.
Riverbank Neighbors and Waters School is a host site,
meeting at Berteau and the River at 9:00.
Join the fun and help steward the river back to health.

Mr.  Leki

Dear Friends, 
Tomorrow at 11:30 1st Grade Room 208, and
at 2:30, 1st Grade Room 210
will venture around the school to do bark rubbings of three of our trees. 
Sounds simple, 
but I ask you to imagine how many times a small, 1st grade student, can drop their clip board,
or release their rubbing sheets to the wind,
or spin out of control like a dustdevil because someone else got to go first. 
Welcome to 1st grade. 
If you can lend a hand, it would be greatly appreciated. 
It is all good fun, 
and one more way to know the trees.
Thanks, 
Mr. Leki​