Blog Archives

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

Weather Heats Up: Busy Week for Ecology

Ecology Field Trips

Monarchs Monitoring

Spring Field Trip Plans in Full Swing, Rain Continues

Spring is in Bloom

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