​So,
dear friends, 
I find myself in this situation every year,
wanting to invite people to be attentive to the unfolding of the native plant community, 
the spring flowers resurrected from the cold of winter, 
and the cold mud, 
the ashes of fire, 
But usually, 
I get caught up in the other business of school and life, 
and find myself well behind the opening act of spring wildflowers.
This year, we have this weird gap, 
this weird opening and stasis,
this Halt! 
demanded by the virus,
that allows me to look and look again 
and send to you this  new message about what is emerging, 
in our midst, 
but only observable by eyes that are attentive, 
that seek to see, miracles unwinding. 

Today, in my front yard, 
the first blossom of Bloodroot, 
Sanguinaria canadensis,
poked its smiley face upwards. 
This flower is the quintessential child's idea of a flower:
a "daisy" smiling white petals and a yellow center.
Love for daisy's aside, 
this IS NOT a daisy, 
similar pattern but totally different life style.
Soon, it will grow WAY bigger,. 
shed its petals, and unfurl big, strange shaped leaves that will greedily absorb sunlight to recharge its subterranean storage batteries, to be ready for Spring 2021 (what faith!).
Strategy #2 for Sanguinaria is to produce seeds born in great bean-like pods. 
Who? What is pollinating this early early Spring bloomer???
The following from Flora of the Chicago Region,
a giant tome from Georould Wilhelm and Laura Rericha,
it is all in italics if you want to skip over:
Asclera ruficollis, a false blister beetle, commonly visits the corolla to glean pollen.  The following bees have been vouchered from the corollas, all of them female: Andrena carlini, Andrena dunningi, Andrena vicina, Apis mellifera,  Serafina callcerata, and Lasioglossum versatum...."

As you can see, some people are watching very closely this incredibly beautiful flower, so rare now.  It IS in our Waters School Garden, but only one or two. Look, search, carefully, protect. Ssshhhhhh. It will drop its petals in the first warm day, 
Later you will know it by its wonderfully shaped leaves. 



Not to spoil things but 1,2,3,4,5,6,other species are popping up.
In my front yard, 
Twinleaf, Jeffersonia diphylla,
the first leaves look like Venus Flytraps,
buds popping up, 50 or 60 in my front yard, 
similar to Bloodroot, 
but also ephemeral, short bloom time,
also seeded into Waters School garden. 
Look for it!

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​Finally, there is the almost hallucinatory way the ground is transforming from the grey black of soil into the blue, blue greens, pearly whites and purples as the tips Virginia Waterleaf, Virginia Bluebells, Golden Alexander,  Mayapple, Yellow violets, and a variety of sedges emerge carpeting the ground. Look for them!
Mr. Leki
from a distance

...but the leaves are out, the buds are forming, 
soon, soon....
In the meantime, 
check out a native plant in full bloom:
Silver Maple trees.
Look up!
If you have access to a first grader, ask them to show you a silver maple. 
It is always the first tree to bloom  in late winter, early spring. 
And, with the great sense of humor and creativity of nature, 
silver maples have separate male and female flowers on the same tree....
sometimes!
Some years, it's only male flowers, 
some years female flowers. 
Anyway, the thing you will see, 
if you look up as you walk around the neighborhood today, 
is a certain tree with bunches of flowers popping out, red, yellow and white, 
usually way up high. 
But look on the ground. Squirrels routinely prune these twigs for bits of fresh veggies.  The flowers are on the parkway lawns, like Dr. Suess snickety switches.  Hooray for first flowers.  Find and draw. The plant is:
Silver  maple 
Acer saccharinum. 

If you need more. 
right now the catkins of American Hazelnut are extending from skinny one inch long sausages, into fat sausages 3-4 inches long, laden with pollen. 
These are the "male" flowers of the species, called catkins. (ask you 1rst grader). 
This dangling caterpillar is preparing to release millions of pollen grains, a great and profligate over reach. Still, it is amazing to see the pollen lofted by a breeze. There is a tiny female flower forming now, too,
on the same bush,
deep deep red, tiny as the d in red. 
It will, if pollinated, 
produce the gorgeous and outrageous seed pod and cluster that is American Hazelnut. 
Draw now, and later, as the buds develop.
You might want to bring along a magnifying glass, 
to see the tiny details,
never a disappointment. 
We have other native plants that have separate male flowers, catkins:
Blue Beech, 
River Birch, 
and all the oaks. 
European Alder also has these prodigious danglers. 
Look for them along the bioswale on Campbell. 

Finally, finally, 
the first first plant up in my front yard looks just like tulip leaves, 
but they are NOT!
They are Wild Leek, 
Alium trichoccum.
If you are unsure, 
nip a tiny piece of the leave and smell:
Wild leek is definitely onion:
sweet, sweet lovely onion. 
At my house we harvest basketfuls of the leaves and cook them quickly, like spinach. 
It is easy to grow and quick to spread. 
The leaves come up in spring and die back quickly. 
In late summer, the plant sends up a stalk with a spherical cluster of white blossoms, no more than 12 inches tall, in the dark understory. 
These flowers in turn, transform into beautiful black pearls, the seeds. 
Look! Contemplate. Draw. Get to know these community members, 
Mr. Leki

Dear Friends, 
One week plus 2 days in!
I saw many families walking the school grounds, mostly distancing themselves from others. The gardens are a quiet blessing, a way station. The sidewalks themselves are becoming thoroughfares for people desperate to be outside. Take care.
I have been working on repairing the cold frames and raised beds, fixing fencing and tidying up the sheds.
Sooner or later we will be back to school and I hope the gardens will be in great shape.  If anyone would like to take up one of the many garden tasks, for solitary meditation, let me know. We need post hole diggers, pruners, debris picker-uppers, compost haulers. Let me know and I'll set you up.
It IS Spring. And if you walk the neighborhood streets you will already see flowers up and in bloom:
Narcissus, snowdrops, crocuses, etc. All these welcome dollops of color come from Europe and tend to be common and the first things up. But our garden is a haven for our own rare, native spring flowers. I thought it might be a good solitary activity for child and parent, sketch book or journal in hand, to search for, greet, and introduce yourself to each species as they unfurl. I will tell you what to look for, and their names. You search and draw and date and label.
I will tell you the first native that will flower (I think) 
Yellow Violet (funny name, like red blue)
Its science name is : Viola pubescens

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​Once it starts to bloom, you will find hundreds of them. You have to get down low and look very closely. The are gorgeous.  Most of our spring ephemeral wildflowers are woodland species. So look for them under the oaks. Please don't cross fence lines because many plants are starting to poke their heads up right now, and will be damaged if stepped on. 

I will try to lead you to other wildflowers as they appear. Maybe one a day, or one every other day.
If I see you in the garden, I will leave you to your own space, but  I will wave you a welcome.

Mr. Leki

Dear Friends, 
I've attached the collective poems of our three 7th grade classes, based on phrases they developed during their winter trip to describe the City,Sky, Lake and Shore. They are very powerful and evocative. Read them out loud over dinner!
We have finished the Winter Field Ecology Trips! Yes! No cancellations! No postponements. Yes!
Iv'e spend a good amount of time reading (with treasured volunteers) and responding to Mighty Acorns journals. We have finished 3 of 7 classrooms. It is fun and rewarding work that I hope to finish before the weather turns irresistible.
If you would like to help, come on any day next week, from drop off until 10:30. Or after 1:00.
I hope to start bringing classes out to the garden soon, and Wednesday evening community workdays will start next Wednesday (March 18) at 5:00 pm.
With Gratitude for your help and support,
Mr. Leki

Montrose Point 302
Montrose Point 305
Montrose Point 309

Dear Friends, 
This week will be mostly spent reading and responding to Mighty Acorn Journals and preparing trip maps for the 6th grade River tour. 
I will provide some very good coffee and tea for anyone that would like to work on these in the mornings this week.  It will be fun.

Also, if you are interested in learning about native ecology and prescription burns:

Riverbank Neighbors and Waters School Gardens will be presenting a workshop:

"Managing Native Gardens in the City: learn how certified crews conduct controlled, permitted burns of small gardens in Chicago."  

Thursday, February 27, 2020
Sulzer Regional Library
6:00 - 8:00

Presentations, Video, and Roundtable 
to share information about this invaluable tool.

Mr. Leki

​Dear Friends, 
With your help, we plowed through our winter field ecology schedule, snowy, mucky, windy, rainy: we did it. It feel so good!

It means winter is waning, 
and spring is nigh!
Gardens, and buds, and returning birds, and sunlight!

So, Wednesday, February 19, 2020,
Room 207, 5th Grade, will finish off our work and adventures in sauganash for this season. We will be cutting brush and piling it up to be burned on a coming Sunday morning (to be announced). Join us! Bus leaves at 9:30. Briefing at 9:30. Back by 12:30.
Wear Boots!!

Mr. Leki

​Dear Friends,
Three Field ecology Sojourns this week:
Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020, 2nd Grade Room 204 will walk to the Riverbank at Berteau to see what they can see, practice journaling and moving stealthily through the  world. Last week we saw a hawk, a gull, woodpeckers, cardinals, junkos, squirrels, goldeneyes, mallards and what we that was a Great Blue Heron but turned out to be two greyish plastic bags caught on branches by the toe of the river.  Please join us. We leave at 8:30 and return by 10:30!

On Wednesday Feb. 12, Room 201, 3rd grade will have their first brush cutting experience at Sauganash. It has been challenging, with great quantities of snow and mud and puddled water making a mess of everything. It was, an experience. And the kids did great and important work with very professional and sharp tools. 
We leave at 9:30 and are back for lunch by 12:30. Come early for a briefing and coffee.

On Thursday, Feb 13, 5th grade, Room 209 Mighty Acorns venture into adventure. The theme of their visit is population dynamics and the effect of unrestrained growth of deer populations. If you join us, you will no doubt get to see some of them. Leave at 9:00. Back at 12:30.

On Friday, Feb. 14, a group organized by the new Sustainability Chief at the BOE will visit Waters to have a look around our beautiful school to get ideas about how to expand composting, recycling and resource conservation to ALL CPS schools.  Feather in out collective hat on Love Day.

Friends of the River's Student Congress is coming up (Saturday Feb. 29.) Our choir and I will be singing there and doing river song workshops. It is a fun and informative way to spend a winter weekend morning. Please consider registering yourself and your child. It's at Von Steuben, so it is within walking distance.  Besides the choir, students and parents will be asked to self organize their attendance. Friends has been a 20+ year partner of the Waters Ecology Program, and I  would love to support this worthy event.

Mr. Leki

​Dear Eco-Friends, 
Three Beautiful, out of world experiences at the Lake last week. Beautiful, beautiful!  Our Friends of the Parks partner / teacher  Andrea taught us this beautiful Ojibwe song in homage to Water:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks5IIzYX3t8  

She reminded us that if we were born in Chicago that most of the weight in our bodies was Lake Michigan water!!
We are related to Lake Michigan!
Kin!

On Monday, I will be teaching Tree classes for the 1st Grade, and putting together the 2nd grade River trip journals....

...which happens on  Tuesday, January 28, 2020!
2nd Grade Room 111 will sally forth to the river at Berteau to look at Winter, Wildlife and Weather. Today, in this half frozen, half melted winter, I saw a great activity in our multi-cultural bird community: junkos, cardinals, robins, three species of wood peckers, chickadees, and  blue jays! A rainbow of birds. 
We leave school at 8:30. If you would like to join us, meet at the fish tank. Back by 10:30. The kids will sing you this song written by Yoko Ono and myself (well, I just changed a few words):
We're all water from different rivers,
That's why it's so easy to meet.
We're all water in this vast vast ocean. 
Someday we'll evaporate together!

Perhaps, you noticed a Water strand, a stream, a trickle and wave. 
That is because water is life, 
and we are asking our students to know this and become water protectors. 
Water is Life!

On Wednesday, January 29, 2020, 4th grade, Room 308, will travel to Sauganash to cut invasive brush, and witnessed the wonder of the woods in winter.  Join us for a briefing at 9:00 by the fish tank. Bus leaves at 9:30. Returns by 12:30.  Lunch will be at school. 

On Thursday, January 30, 2020, 4th grade, Room 307 does a repeat of the above. 
Please join us, and dress yourself and your child for the weather: cold and wet!

The best to all, 
Mr. Leki

​...and parents who find time time to help, 
and teachers working through the weekend to prepare, 
and students who get distracted from video games and school work,
to take note of the wonders of and dangers threatening our world....

Tomorrow, 
Tuesday, (yes) January 21, our 1st grade thespians will be performing for (and with) their classmates 
the Legend of Snake and Turtle, 
an origin story about Waters School and our gardens. 
8:30 Room 211
9:00 Room 208
9:30 Room 210

Right after that I will be teaching a class-prep for the 2nd grade, Room 111
(they will be going to the River at Berteau  Tuesday, Jan 28.)
They will be learning a new song, prepping their trip journals, and
creating (scientifically proper) snowflakes. 
If there is time we will also explore the endlessly amazing properties of H20:
surface tension, adhesion, cohesion, refraction...

Then, 
on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, 
the 7th grade will be braving our beautiful, magical, majestic, 
and priceless Lake Michigan
to Learn, and Experience why it is so special. 

please join us on the Yellow bus to be part of this adventure, 
details will follow.

Mr. Leki