Tuesday, February 2 
2nd grade Room 210, is off to the Riverbank at Berteau to witness the river in winter. Please join us after drop off so I can brief you on the trip, and you can hear our song "We're all Water".
 
Wednesday, February 3 
Mighty Acorns, Room 204, 3rd grade, is off to Sauganash to inspect scat, follow tracks, break dance in the frozen wetlands, and clear invasive brush. Join us, if you can, at 9:00 by the fish tank. We leave at 9:30, back at 12:30 for hot lunch.
 
Thursday, February 4 
Mighty Acorns 3rd grade Room 202, ditto the above. 
 
Friday.... sleep in, if you can. Read a good book. Have a mug of tea.
Check in on your neighbors. Plan a delicious dinner. 

​Thanks to all, 
Mr. Leki

Dear Friends,

ECOLOGY PLAY
Monday, January 25,
First/Kinder Performance – 8:30 a.m.
Tomorrow The Legend of Snake and Turtle is going to be performed by a crew of actors from the 1st grade, for the three Kindergarten classes. The play takes about a half hour. In between, everyone switches roles and costumes. It is an easy-going, low key production requiring alot of imagination on the part of our audience (in large supply with kindergarden kids). Yet and still it is very helpful to have an extra set of hands (or two) to contain the excitement of our actors. 
Let me know if you can help. We will also perform for 1st grade and 8th grade later this week.
 
ECOLOGY TRIPS
The weather looks to be great this week.
I had four trips scheduled. But the Friday, 7th grade trip to Lake Michigan had to be postponed because the Corinthian Yacht Club is installing new floors. We will re-schedule soon.
Last week we had two Mighty Acorns trips. 
For the first we had lots of volunteers, maybe eight!
The next day we started with zero, but like sun breaking through the clouds, three volunteers came out of the mist in answer to my prayers.
We had two great trips, with beautiful snow and lots of work done. 

Tuesday,  January 26,
2nd grade, Room 203 – River at Berteau
Students will check out the river in winter: birds, foot prints, scat, seeds, and who knows what else. Join us right after drop off, by the fish tank.

Wednesday, January 27
4th grade Room 207
Students will cut brush and explores Sauganash. Meet at 9:00 a.m., leave at 9:30 a.m., back by 12:30 p.m. for hot lunch.

Thursday, January 28
4th grade Room 209
This class hits the road for the same trip as above. 

COMPOST SORTING LINE
Volunteers Needed
Being away from school means I can't help supervise the waste sorting line in the lunch room. Reynaldo has picked up the ball, with the help of our dear Right-at School supervisor Jessica. But starting tomorrow, Reynaldo is on vacation for three weeks!
Help! Starting at 11:15 a.m. and staying for at least 20 minutes would be a huge help. Let me know! I'll be there tomorrow until 11:30 a.m..

VIDEO LINK
Ancient Garden Workday
Follow the link below to see a lovely re-found short film about a long ago garden workday where we weeded and created a sidewalk weed museum, planted raspberries and celebrated with food and music.  
The film was made by our CAPE / SCALE sponsored Media Lab, shot and edited by kids. Julie Peterson directed. Original music by a neighbor friend. See if you recognize anybody! 

Garden

Thanks to all, 
Mr. Leki

THE REAL STORY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR'S FINAL YEAR 
Tavis Smiley makes the point that Dr. King is routinely remembered for his "I have a dream" speech at the March on Washington. But Smiley suggests that the real greatness, the tempered steel of King's commitment to truth and justice shone most clearly in his last year of life when he came to the conclusion that civil rights without economic rights, civil rights without a job, without access to education, was a hollow victory. He realized that the the twin pillars of racism and militarism, so starkly evident in the reality of the VietNam war, were leading our country to "moral bankruptcy". He made these pronouncements at the Riverside Baptist church in New York one year to the day before he was assassinated. Many of his advisors and allies pleaded with him to hold off on his criticism of the war, that it would harm the civil rights movement. Whole groups of religious leaders  and mainstream media blasted King as a traitor who was misleading his people. The Nobel Peace Prize winner became an object of scorn from commentators throughout the land. 

But King persisted and proceeded to form the Poor People's Campaign, to forge a multi-racial, multi-ethnic movement for Peace and economic justice. Tho the death threats came in daily, and the FBI hounded and sought to destroy him, King went on with great courage.  His last stop, so symbolic, was to help sanitation workers in Memphis. 

I think about the courage that it takes to walk into that wind, up the mountain, over the sharp rocks, to turn your head from the jeers and catcalls,  to lead your people towards the Promised land. 

That is the quality I find most amazing and rare. I hope our kids hear that story. Not just King as the triumphant leader of the fight for civil rights, but as a person stood courageously for peace and economic justice. 
 

"Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.
When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair,
and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights,
let us remember that there is a creative  force in this universe,
working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil,
a power that is able to make a way out of no way
and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.
Let us realize that the arc of the moral universe is long,
but it bends towards justice." ~ MLK
 
Mr. Leki

​SAUGANASH FIELD TRIP
Room 310 – January 13
Cancelled
We have decided that the weather predictions are too extreme for our kids to go out to Sauganash tomorrow. 
We have to keep in mind the "least of these", 
the skinniest, least well dressed, least hardened to deal with extreme cold. 
I wish it was just 10 degrees warmer, because I love for kids to see the cold 
and the new-fallen snow, 
the tracks, 
and to realize their own comfort under these conditions. 
Oh well.
Stand by. The new date is set:
Thursday February 11.

        – Mr. Leki