Notes from Mr. Leki

At Long Last ...

6/10/2018

... we have entered our final ecology week!

Monday and Tuesday, June 11 and 12, 7th grades, Room 301, then 303, will travel to Montrose Point via CTA to learn about lake food chains, go fishing, and groom the shore and dunes to create artwork. We leave at 9:00 a.m., both days, and are back by 3:00 p.m.

Wednesday, June 13 we hold the First Grade Tree Olympics, in which teams from each classroom tackle 50 tree questions about our school yard trees. Anything above a 46/50 is considered (by me) to be a champion score. Parents wishing to peek in on this extraordinary event, are welcome to join us.
Room 211 at 11:30 a.m.
Room 208 at 1:15 p.m., and
Room 210 at 2:15 p.m..
Good luck!

On Thursday, June 14, with the help of our Pizza Elves, we will be making pizzas with the 8th grade class,
tossing a garden salad,
and mixing up some extra-ordinary rhubarb juice, and Aronia juice.
The pizza oven will be warming all day, and activities will begin after lunch. Will they still be hungry? (answer: Yes!)
Can you help out?
Pizza and juice reward.

My best thanks to you all,
Mr. Leki

More Outings and Celebrations This Year

6/6/2018

Dear Friends,
Finally, with a break in the field ecology schedule, we've been able to schedule garden outings for classroom.
Four today! Planting, lettuce tacos and silent reading. Beautiful day, beautiful kids.
Tomorrow, Thursday, June 7, there are two more outings.
At 10:30 a.m., 4th Grade Room 204 will visit to do as above.
At 1:15 p.m., 8th Grade, Room 211 will be out to do various other arduous tasks:
moving compost to a new squash hill;
installing a new bench plank to replace the decrepit old one by the fire circle,
and to install one more length of split rail fencing.
Any extra supervisory help would be greatly appreciated.

And on Friday, June 8, Field Day, – I know already saturated with requests for volunteers –
we will be treating our fantastic ( actually, fantastic and other) Recycle Captains to a pizza lunch with garden salad, fresh fruits and Waters organic lemonade (Rhubarb and Aronia). I am seeking help from 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. to set up. serve, fetch pizza, and clean up. Anyone game? These are Lil Cesar's pizzas, not Rick and Co's, but the kids will love it anyway.

Heads up for next week:
Monday and Tuesday, June 11 and 12,
Room 301 and Room 303 respectively
will visit Montrose Point to fish and learn about Lake food webs.
Wednesday, June 13 is the First Grade Tree Olympics.
Thursday, June 14 is all-day – 8th grade will have their pizza, aronia lemonade blast with the help of dear alumni parent Clayton Miller.

Days fly by ...

Mr. Leki

Weather Heats Up: Busy Week for Ecology

5/28/2018

Next week in ecology goes like this:

Wednesday, May 30, Room 308, 5th grade tries again for its last Sauganash Mighty Acorns trip. They will be thinking about the prospects for natural wild places: which species will carry on, and which will fade into dissolution? It depends on us, it seems. What will we do?
Hmmm. What will we do?
Briefing at 9:00 a.m., boat leaves at 9:30 a.m.
Picnic lunch at 12:15 p.m. Back to school at 1:15 p.m.

Same story as above for Room 307, 5th grade, Thursday, May 31.
They will be thinking about the prospects for natural wild places: which species will carry on, and which will fade into dissolution? It depends on us, it seems. What will we do?
Hmmm. What will we do?
Briefing at 9:00 a.m., boat leaves at 9:30 a.m.
Picnic lunch at 12:15 p.m. Back to school at 1:15 p.m.

Friday, June 1 (finally!) Room 310, 6th grade is off to their old Sauganash stomping grounds to do water quality testing. So, fun! Join us, please.
Same drill. Meet at 9:00 a.m., bus leaves at 9:30 a.m. Back at 1:15 p.m.

Sunday, June 3, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., Riverbank Neighbors will be working at the river between Berteau and Montrose.
These workdays are so joyous! So healthy! So rejuvenating!
There will be some work for all ages,
including drawing flowers,
and offering coffee ( at the beginning, and pizza, at the end).
Please join us for this deep deep plunge into healing our world.

Mr. Leki

Ecology Field Trips

5/20/2018

Dear Friends,
My titles for these emails are becoming a bit threadbare.
But the native plants are happy for the weather,
as are the cold weather agricultural plants: lettuce and kale and chard and spinach!
This week's ecology schedule is another 5/5,
five trips in five days.
May the heavens hold the rains till the afternoons.

Last Friday our 6th graders, after a picnic lunch, found themselves on a giant grassy field with time to spare, but no soccerball, football, no frisbie or nerf ball.
The grass had just been cut. And in no time they organized themselves to collect reat armfulls of the fragrant stuff into a gigantic pile which they then burrowed into. They threw piles of it at each other and rolled and lolled and buried each other in it, under the shady arms of the gigantic trees.
It reminded me of a recent Joffrey Ballet, about a Midsummer celebration of Nature and Love. It began with 50+ dancers on stage,
in synchrony,
grabbing,
swirling,
tossing giant armloads of fresh hay into the air and at each other.
It was lovely,
and they captured the energy and spirit of our students beautifully.
The Joffrey hay-throwing was interrupted by a thunderstorm.
Ours was not!

Monday, May 21, 7th Grade Room 301, will take the CTA to Montrose Point to study lake ecology, go fishing, and do some work/art at the sand dune. We leave at 9:00 a.m. and get back at around 3:00 p.m. Please consider joining us. Bring a lunch and bundle up because it will be chilly out there,

Tuesday, May 22, 2nd grade, Room 111, makes the trek to the Berteau Street site of Riverbank Neighbors, to get to know the spring wildflowers, migrating birds, and the meek creatures that occupy the bottom muds. We strike off at 8:30 a.m. Join me by the fishtank after drop off for a description of the specifics. Back at 10:30 a.m..

Wednesday, May 23, 3rd Grade, Room 202, is off to Sauganash to get their first look at our native ephemeral flora, and to learn how to draw and weed without damaging these rare and precious relects. Meet at the fishtank at 9:00. Bus leaves at 9:30 a.m. Picnic lunch, and back to school at around 1:15 p.m..

Wednesday evening is our weekly Garden Night, 5:00 p.m. until dark. This week we have the special Literacy Night at school. We will have piles of picture books available for parents and kids to take to the garden to read. We'll have a jolly fire going. We will also have a table of garden / ecology / science give-away books for adults and kids.

Thursday, May 24, 4th Grade, Room 207, will visit Sauganash to look look closer into the morphology of our spring flowers to discern the similarities in the patterns of their design, and to pull invasive weeds that are crowding them into extinction.
Meet at the fishtank at 9:00 a.m. Bus leaves at 9:30 a.m. Picnic lunch, and back to school at around 1:15 p.m.

Friday, May 25, 6th Grade Room 305, returns to their Mighty Acorn stomping (not actually stomping) grounds, Sauganash, to conduct water quality tests, to assay the benthic animal community, and to stroll through the preserve and journal about their thoughts about the state of our River.
Meet at the fishtank at 9:00 a.m. Bus leaves at 9:30 a.m. Picnic lunch, and back to school at around 1:15.

Saturday, May 26, Riverbank Workday from 12:00-2:00 p.m. A chance to plant and weed, to draw and learn, to make friends and witness the unpredictable wonders of the riverbank. All welcome to join us.

Mr. Leki

Monarchs Monitoring

5/16/2018

Dear friends,
Today, on Wednesday May 16, I saw my first, second, third and fourth Monarch butterfly.
The first was at Sauganash.
The second and third at Waters.
The fourth at the riverbank.
A hopeful sign?

We are a part of an international monitoring group.
They ask people from Mexico, Canada, and United States
to go online to document sightings of adult monarchs and larvae.
I have been very uneven in doing our reporting.
Is there anyone in our school community (youth or adult)
that would like to be in charge of this activity?
With my help?

Mr. Leki

Spring Field Trip Plans in Full Swing, Rain Continues

5/14/2018

Dear Friends,
I embrace whatever weather Mother throws at us.
So you will hear no complaint from me about potting Mother's Day Marigolds with snow falling and artic breezes tearing through the gardens,
nor,
will you hear me complain at midweek when temperatures rose above boiling,
and the Sun roasted every unsheltered living thing.
I am good with all of that.
Thank you Mothers.
Thank you for your courage and energy,
your exhaustion and despair,
your care, and caring.
Thank you.
Thank you waters community for the surprises staff were gifted everyday this week:
the physical (piles and piles of food devoured and dissappeared)
and the emotional support, messages public and private of love and appreciation.
For my part I ...
... am excited about each dawn, and the prospects for what will happen.
This morning, for example, is Chicago River Day,
and we are organized and ready to do lots of work by the River,
and host a big work crew.
But, the morning arrives rainy and cold.
We wonder who will show up.
We will drink hot coffee, and set up the tent.

Monday, May 14, 7th Grade Room 303, was set take the CTA to Montrose Point
to go fishing! With the help of the IDNR and Friends of the Parks,
many of our students will have their first experience hooking a fish.
We are going after round gobies,
an invasive "accidental" that lives on the bottom and likes to eat native fish eggs.
We are studying the Lake Michigan food web.
When they catch a gobie
we toss them onto the sidewalk where they are eaten by gulls.
Food web in action.
After lunch we go down by the beach and dune,
and in groups, scavenge the land for human and natural detritus,
ribbons with spent balloons,
tiparillo tips,
bones and feather...
The students create a canvas in the flat sand
and arrange the items to make some sort of statement
which they present to their fellows.
They always end up interesting, sometimes stunning:
like the barbie doll leg attached to the ribs of a large fish.
So far we have no volunteers to accompany this group.
We only need one to meet the requirement of a 10:1 student adult ratio.
Please consider joining us on this all day adventure to the wilderness just down the road.
We leave out at 9:00 and return at 3:00.
This outing has been postponed due to rain and will be rescheduled.

On Tuesday, May 15, 2nd Grade Room 205 will walk to the Riverbank Neighbors site
on the east bank of the River south of Montrose
to learn about the spring flower community
and to have a look at the humble creatures that inhabit the hidden world of the riverbottom.
We leave at 8:30 and return at 10:30.

On Wednesday, March 16, 4th Grade Room 204 is
off to Sauganash to have a close look at the working parts of our native spring flowers
and pull weeds. Bus leaves at 9:30 and returns at 1:15.
Meet by the fish tank at 9:00 for a briefing.

On Thursday, March 17, 3rd grade, Room 201 goes to Sauganash
to study the Spring Ephemeral plant community,
to seek out invasive weeds for pulling,
and to learn the woodcraft of walking amoungst the plants without stomping on them!
Bus leaves at 9:30 and returns at 1:15.
Meet by the fish tank at 9:00 for a briefing.

On Friday, May 18, 6th Grade, Room 309,
returns to Sauganash,
dons waders and ventures into the riffles to seek out life in the river.
They will also conduct chemical tests
and do stewardship work in the preserve.
Picnic lunch after.
Bus leaves at 9:30 and returns at 1:15.
Meet by the fish tank at 9:00 for a briefing.

Saturday, May 19 is International Migratory Bird Day, at LaBagh Woods.
Our local Bullfrog Community Choir will be singing to the plants and birds at 10:00.
At the same time there is a community work day at Montrose Point at the dune.

And on Sunday we shall rest!

Mr. Leki

Spring is in Bloom

5/9/2018

Dear Friends,

We had a lovely visit to the Riverbank yesterday with 2nd Grade Room 203.
We saw herons and hawks, turtles and goslings.
We saw bluebells, mayapples, yellow violet and violet violets, golden alexander, marsh buttercup, redbud and woodland phlox.
We found tiny creatures that inhabit the riverbottom: scuds, snails, sowbugs, worms, daphnia, zebra mussels and whilygig beetles! When we got back Erica Smith set up platform microscopes in class so the kids could view these beauties up close. Thanks Erica.

On Thursday, May 10, 4th grade, Room 209 is off to Sauganash to look closely at the native flowers, to count their petals and stamen and pistils. They will search for flowers with three petals, four, five, six, eight petals and more. Each flower with its our perfect architecture. Careful, don't step on them!
We will also be pulling invasive weeds and having a picnic lunch on the grassy field.
Please join us. Meet at the fishtank at 9:00 a.m. Bus leaves at 9:30 a.m. Back by 1:15 p.m. or so.

Saturday is Chicago River Day and Riverbank Neighbors is hosting a workday at Berteau Street. But we can't find any wood chips. Our sources have dried up. Does anyone have a wood chip connection?

Mr. Leki

Spring is upon us and ...

3/19/2018

...Today,
Monday, March 19, 2018,
1st grade will do its tree studies outdoors,
doing bark rubbings of three trees:
locust,
ash,
and sycamore.
Please join us to wrangle these young scholars,
to keep them off the street and out of dog-do.
The schedule is as follows:
211 ~ 11:30
208 ~ 1:15
210 ~ 2:15
40 degrees, clear skies,
Let's Go!

Tuesday, March 20, 2018 is the Spring Equinox,
a magical,
worldwide moment,
when day and night are in balance,
when, planet wide,
the Sun rises exactly East, and sets exactly west.
Join Riverbank Neighbors to mark the event
at 5:00 until ???
on Tuesday,
AFTER VOTING!
We will gather at the "Farm" 2549 Hutchinson.
Bring food, drinks, cheer, news, songs and poems.
We'll have a nice fire going,
and tables and some chairs.
There was a mink sighting this morning,
and last night a Great Horned Owl serenaded us.
Who knows what else!
Join us,
Mr. Leki

Final Field Trip for the Season

3/5/2018

We began the Spring 2018 burn season with a successful and wonderful
burn of the riverbank at Berteau Street.
The winds were right,
the local talent was available,
the burn went great.
More coming up,
on the riverbank and at Waters. Stand by!

Our last winter ecology trip is scheduled for
Thursday, March 8, 6th grade Room 310,
tries again for the river tour to
learn the secrets of the human / river / Lake interaction.
Join us on this all-day excursion through 5 towns,
the beauty and the down sides or our metropolis.

Mr. Leki

Waters Media Lab Garden Movie

3/1/2018

Dear Waters School Community Gardener Friends,
We would like to invite you to a film showing.

Thursday, March 8 – Waters School Annex 6:30 p.m.
RSVP to Mr. Leki

These are student-made films from the Waters Media Lab,
under the direction of our Julie Peterson,
These are films made in years past
(2005-10)
by our students who filmed,
starred,
directed,
and edited under Julie's guidance,
documenting our history,
our school,
our community,
our struggles,
our joy.
They are so fun to watch
and beautiful.
They they are full of truth,
and serendipity,
and reality,
and love
and flesh and blood.
They are a "Time-machine" transport into a history that is too quickly is forgotten.
There are enough films to watch for 5 hours.
But we are going to select 40 minutes worth.
Bring popcorn.
We'll have organic Waters aronia juice to wash it down.
We'll make time for comments and discussion.
Soon spring will be here, and we will be drawn outside to work and life.
But, let's take this opportunity to gather up together ...

Julie adds:
... to see the old films and glimpses of our past
old students,
old happenings.
the deer,
the hawk,
the community;
the many people who built the garden
and who look to it as a place where their heart connects to the earth.
Try talking to our old students about it.
They have been invited.
Students who shed a tear asking if they are welcome to come back.
A young man who says the old field house is where he first learned
that "white" people could be nice.
There's a deep history.
I made those films because I love this place,
the people,
the land
and by holding a
mirror up to show the community as its best self,
it seemed to help people to acknowledge each others good work,
and to help people love each other.
In reality, the videos are shaky,
have many obvious mistakes,
and half of them are unfinished.
Too much raw footage!
And as time went on computers crashed,
hard drives stalled,
and obsolescence set in.
If only we'd been using linux then.
But we hadn't met our linux guru/pizza chef friends yet.

Volunteer Needed
Special Plea:
We are looking for a technically skilled person to help us make sure the film showing goes off without a glitch:
computer or dvd player talking nicely to the projector,
beautifully displayed,
good sound,
etc.
We would like to be able to focus on giving context
and facilitating discussion about the content.
Please let us know if you can help.

Thanks,
Pete Leki

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