The Rookery

Plot the Garden

 

 

 

 

We have continued work on our roof garden.  I have been very excited by how the theme has taken shape.  On Tuesday, we set out to map our gardens.  We wanted to be able to see how much our plants had grown (or which plants we lost) over the summer.  To do this, of course, we had to know what we had planted, where it was and how big it was.

Test gardens at the University of Minnesota use wire grid to measure plant distribution and growth.  We set up the same system on our plots by measuring 5 cm intervals and taping string across the plot.  We began to draw our plant maps to scale on graph paper.

Unfortunately, a single day on the roof top loosened all of the masking tape we'd used.  We needed a better solution.  The Herons found the answer.  They drilled holes at 5cm marks using drills borrowed from the Village wood shop.  Then they pulled wire through the holes and secured it.  The result was a permanent grid that we'll be able to use next September to look at how our plants fared.

The students' work has been very self-directed and at conferences many fourth graders have talked about the garden and continuing work on it next year.

About the May Pole

Even though I see the fifth graders practice the May Pole over and over, I'm always moved when they dance for our larger community.  There, with their parents and the rest of the school present, they re-enact their time at Prairie Creek.

They begin with us in kindergarten as individuals.  Beautiful and unique but quite alone - like the ribbons held taught at the beginning of the dance.  Then, slowly at first then with increasing speed, they begin to come together.    Over and under, they support and are supported by one another.  They weave a community, a cloth much stronger than any individual strand.  The cloth too is beautiful, and in it, one can see the the individuals - they are not lost themselves, just become a part of something larger.

A grandfather at May Day told me he was expecting that we would unweave the May pole as part of the dance.  I hadn't thought much about it before, but I think it's important that we leave it woven.  Our fifth graders are about to venture into a wider world...but the connections they've made and the friendships they've woven will remain and continue to support them.  The cloth will stay whole, just like our May pole.

Digging In

On Tuesday we got an opportunity to plant our first trial plots.  We are using some railing planters that are shaped like an inverted "v".  The hope is that we can use the lower parts as a miniature cisterns for catching rain.  We've put a wicking medium over the cisterns and some potting soil over that.

The students want to be able to measure the growth of their plants so they decided to place a string grid over the garden and sketch it and measure each plant in centimeters.  They are using plant markers to identify each of our different test plants.

They want to collect data about the temperature, humidity and rain fall out on the roof.  We'll set up a miniature weather station on Friday.  We'll also try a second kind of trial plot.  This one will only have the wicking medium, water holding mulch and a top coat of pea gravel.  A third trial plot will have a soil and mulch mixture.

We are all very excited to see what happens.  To me, this is the best kind of science (and learning).  Everything we're doing has a purpose.  We don't know what the outcome will be ahead of time.  It's real.

 

 

 

 

Never a Dull Moment

 

Hens and Chicks

The week or so after honoring week is traditionally a time to wrap up in the fourth and fifth grades at Prairie Creek.  We reflect on the work we did on the personal project and we honor the work of others by writing letters to each other.  We prepare for conferences and write about how we have grown over the past year.

 

But this year, instead of taking a breather, the Herons chose to launch several new themes.  I am astonished by their energy and their initiative.  I hope I can keep up.

A crew of students has decided to create a newspaper.  The idea came at about 2pm several days ago and by dismissal an entire staff had been assembled and story assignments handed out.  Students asked to use the iPad to record interviews they were conducting with teachers about class pets.  (It's as though they had read this recent compelling argument for technology in the classroom)  They also did some investigative reporting about some missing sushi erasers.  The first edition has yet to come out (alas, production can be difficult when you don't touch type) but the editor assures me they are on track for their publication deadline.  Cathy, Amy and I are hoping they take their noses for news into village -- the federal government often pays handsomely for newspaper reporting.

Not satisfied with just one new theme, the Herons have begun to dream and plan a roof garden.  Inspired by a mention of cucumber frames in Alice in Wonderland, the Herons came up with a spontaneous list of what they would put on our roof - eggplants, potatoes, strawberries, a pond, chickens, bee hives...the list went on.  Several students did some initial research to find out what kinds of plants might grow on our roof.  They measured the space we might have and brainstormed a few ideas.

Today, Josie Rawson (a Heron parent who also has a master gardener certification) came in to answer students' questions.  We are right at the beginning of our process so I wasn't sure what to expect but it was a wonderful conversation.  Students asked Josie questions about what kinds of plants might grow well and she helped them identify possible challenges of our roof space as well as its advantages (turns out it's perfect for growing native cacti.)  We have a plan to collect data to help us figure out what environment we have and which plants might thrive.

At one point, Josie mentioned the humble plant "Hens and Chicks" as something that might be impossible to kill.  The Herons got very excited.  More details were uncovered.  This miraculous plant thrives in drought conditions, needs very little soil, can take being soaked from time to time, likes temperatures from below zero to 125 degrees.  It just got better and better.  Then they found out that the plant reproduces by making little replicas of itself, can be divided every month or so and sometimes even has the "chicks' fall off and blow to a new location where they take root.

Plans firmed up.  Maybe we could each have a little trial garden to put our plants in.  Maybe a mentor and a mentee could share a plot.  Maybe we could make books with our planting experiments and those could be passed down along with the plots to new Herons.  Maybe when 5th graders graduated they could get some a cutting of the Hens and Chicks to start a new garden.

Plans got bigger.  Maybe we should put a track in so we could move the different plots closer to the windows for care.  Maybe we could put in a fence so we could go out on the roof (we'll contact the insurance company about that plan.)  Maybe we could put in some rain barrels.  Maybe we can make a system to direct the water off the roof.

One student asked excitedly at the end of the day, "Is this our new theme?!?"  "Sure..." I said, thinking about Village which is starting on Monday.  Usually that is all consuming but if any group could make our roof garden trial work it's this one.

Looks like we're in for an exciting May.

Taking Things Apart and Putting Them Together

Reflecting on the past week, it feels more like a month.  Was it just last Monday that no one had presented their fourth or fifth grade project?  Amazingly, yes.  And that's not all the Herons were up to, either.

More Questions than Answers

The months of hard work paid off this week as students presented their fourth grade and honors projects.  I was struck by two things as I watched the presentations:

    These students, especially the fifth graders, have developed expertise.  In many cases, they are now the most knowledgeable person in our school regarding their topic.  As a teacher, that is an exciting thing to see.  I am often humbled during honoring week as I watch students share information so fluently and confidently, names and facts flowing from them as though they had been born knowing.  Of course, it was not innate knowledge but hard work that enabled such demonstrations.

     The students present for about a half an hour but they are an audience for three days.  By Wednesday, even I can feel tired but these 9,10, and 11 year olds were able to formulate thoughtful, interesting questions the whole time. The ability to learn something and wonder more is so crucial to success in today's world.  The personal project begins with questions and, when done well, ends with more questions whether posed by one's audience or posed to oneself.  In some of the presentations I went to, the time spent answering questions sparked by the presentation exceeded the initial presentation's length.  Both the questions and the presenters' ability to deftly respond made me very proud.

Elise has written a lovely post about personal projects from the K/1 perspective.  It's fun to read and realize how much our 4/5s have learned.

Taking Things Apart

The Herons surprised me by their passion for taking things apart this week.  I had several reminders as they left on Friday to "get better screw drivers" this weekend.  (And so I have.)  So many modern devices work as though by magic.  It's very fun to peek behind the curtain, as it were, and discover the mechanics of common objects.  So far, we've found worm gears, magnets, buttons, motors, and circuit boards.  Many of the motors we can re-animate by attaching them to a battery.

The Herons' curiosity is by no means sated.  If you have any broken electrical devices we welcome them (no screens, please, as they contain lead).  We're also looking for a lamp to add a cord switch to.

Putting Things Together

I am very, very thankful for the gift the Joe Chvala and the Flying Foot Forum gave to the Herons on Saturday night.  Prairie Creek was able to work with Flying Foot last year as part of an arts grant.  This year Flying Foot invited us to perform with them and Joe came back to our school as a volunteer to prepare us.

It was not easy.  I sat in on one of the three days of rehearsals and found myself overwhelmed by everything the students were being asked to do.  The dancing was hard, the language was hard, the singing was hard...and it was all happening in our gym, without the set and without the performers who would be joining the Herons on stage.  I scheduled extra rehearsals and at each, the Herons assured me they had things under control.

Indeed they did.  What a thrill to see them shine on stage this Saturday.  They were so grown up.  Not only did they know their parts, they were filled with energy and stage presence.  And they were performing for a packed house of people they did not know.  Wow.  The night goes down as a highlight of the year, if not my career, at Prairie Creek.

Simon has written a great post, too:  Curioser and Curioser

So Close!

The post-it note on which I keep topics I want to mention in a blog has gotten embarrassingly full.  Our days are very busy right now and there are so many moments in the day I think, "Oh!  I want to share this!"  The moments pile up quickly and the time needed to do them justice begins to lengthen.  Tonight I'll chip away at the backlog a bit.

Phoning Home

 

 

 

 

 

We had an unexpected block of time open up on Tuesday and I brought the Herons to our meeting area, gave them about 12 old phone handsets that had been sawn in half and challenged them to make them work.  Using what they now know about series circuits (one continuous pathway for the electrons) the Herons were able to figure things out -- they could talk into one end and a friend could hear it with the other end.  Many students began to link up with other working phones to make party lines.  More modern phones are like black boxes - they work by through the invisible electronic magic of circuit boards.  The analog technology of these phones is easily understood and played with.  You can make the magic happen.

 

 

STEM education

A stem and leaf plot is a specialized kind of data display with which you can compare quantities quickly like a bar graph but also look at individual data points.  I am not sure I have ever seen one used outside of a math workbook but they are interesting, especially given our focus on puzzling things out.  I knew that the students would initially be confused but that, because the content was something they understood (height in inches) they would be able to figure things out eventually.

    I created a stem and leaf plot of Heron heights in inches and asked them to figure out the maximum height in our class, the minimum, the range, etc.  At first, students jumped to conclusions.  The minimum was "O" (because that was the smallest digit on the plot).  I stopped them, was there someone in the class who was zero inches tall?!  Where?!  (We all laughed at the idea of an invisibly small classmate.)  It is so important that students learn to think about numbers at all times in context.  Divorced from context, numbers have little (if any) meaning.  I told them the minimum height and asked them to re-examine the plot to find where that number could have come from.  Pieces began to come together, "Oh, the stem is like feet and the leaves are like inches!"  We considered that...one of the stems was 6.  That would mean there were some students who were six feet tall.  Hmmm...

 Students soon realized the stems were the 10s place and once they had figured out how to read the graph, they were able to answer the data landmark questions in quick order.  Those of you who notice such things will realize that I made up the heights on the chart above.  The Herons decided to create a graph with their real heights.  It turns out that all of the Herons were at least fifty inches tall!

I could have just told them how to read a stem and leaf graph, of course.  But then, I would have also had to teach them how to read every other kind of graph and, because new ways of displaying data are being created all the time, I would have had to anticipate the future, too.  The Herons are instead learning how to use what they know to make sense of something new.

So Close

    This is a very busy week of project work.  Fifth graders are putting the finishing touches on a few things but their main job has been to mentor their fourth grader through some very new and very challenging learning.

All of the fourth graders wrote their rough drafts independently (including an intro and an "outro" as they've decided to call the final paragraph).  They then shared their work with a fifth grader and with me to get revision suggestions.  Organizing ideas is a very challenging skill and many drafts got color coded and shuffeled around as students grouped similar information together.

They all identified information that would be best taught through a visual.  Many students drew a visual information element such as a map, a scale drawing, a visual glossary or a diagram.  Students carefully crafted captions for each image they had chosen to use and they worked to share useful information in the caption.  They also learned how to use color to frame images and captions and how to create a neat visual display that was easily legible.

But wait, there's more!  We learn about things in many different ways.  Students had written their information for those who learn by reading, and they had created a visual to teach people that way.  Now they had to distill their information into an oral presentation.  They re-read each part of their papers and created "talking point" notecards to remind them of what they wanted to say.  Students struggle at first because they want to write down every word they will say -- which makes it very difficult to teach naturally.  Instead, with practice and a lot of modeling, they learn to create prompts for just the pieces they really need to stay on track in their presentations.

    Finally, students consider how to engage their audience with more hands on learning.  What can you do that will help your audience really understand an element of your topic.  One child is having students try their hands at pointillism for her project on impressionism.  Another is dressing up audience members with the adaptations of various deep sea animals.

Whew!  It's always very exciting when fourth grade parents come to see their children's presentation.  For many, it can be a revelation.  Fourth grade is really the cusp of being a big kid capable of big kid thinking and doing.  The fifth graders have done a remarkable job supporting their mentees as they work through this very challenging project.  (In fact, today there was an impromptu list on the board of fifth graders who were available to help anyone who needed it.)  The fourth and fifth graders can't wait to teach you what they've learned.

 

 

Going Solo

The few days before spring break, I asked the Herons to practice the dances they had learned with the Flying Foot Forum.  I will be honest -- my expectations were not high.  I had video taped our last practice with Joe so we would be able to review things later and during that rehearsal, the kids seemed hesitant and confused.  Many didn't take their eyes off of Joe the whole time and were a beat or two behind him in the dance.  I braced myself for a rough review session -- especially since I had only been present at one rehearsal and did not know the dances myself.

Then the Herons amazed me.  They sat down in the "audience" where they begin their pieces and ran them all the way through -- reciting not only their lines but everyone else's. (In fact, at one point I urged the children to be louder and they said, "We're not supposed to say this part...it's Joe's part!")  Occasionally they would hesitate and work together to remember a part.  By the end, they had all of the moves, they knew everything.  This was after a week of not practicing.  What was going on?

As we've been talking about a lot in our electricity unit, surprises are a good thing.  When the unexpected happens, it gives us a chance to ask questions and learn things.  An experiment that works exactly as you expected it to is a little boring.  An experiment that does the unexpected -- now that's worth exploring.  Scientists love surprises.  Can they reproduce the results?  If they can what is causing the unexpected result, what can they learn.  (In the spirit of "Choose Your Own Adventure" Books you can skip to paragraph 5 to find out more about one of our failed electricity experiments. Or you can go to paragraph 4 to find out what this has to do with our Alice in Wonderland dance)

I found myself reflecting a lot on the surprising competency of the Herons.  How had they moved from stumbling dependence to competent independence?  Time was one variable.  They had had some time to digest everything they had learned in the compressed lessons Joe had taught them.  But that alone didn't explain it, especially since we had not practiced in the interim.  The only other variable I could think of was Joe.  When he was in front of them, they used him.  Part of their brains were trying to remember the dance but part of it was watching Joe.  When they went back and danced without him, they had to figure it out themselves.  They had a single focus.  They pushed themselves.  They dug into their memories and make sense of things themselves.  Without an expert in front of them, they had to take a leap from the comfort of the nest.  It was exciting to see them fly and it was a very important reminder to me that sometimes the best thing I can do as a teacher is to step away and allow children to put the pieces together by themselves.  When a child says, "I don't get this." I can ask, "What do you get?  What's you hunch?" and let her find her own way.

Sometimes as a class, we're left to explore surprises together.  When I tried to demonstrate a leyden jar, nothing happened.  I had hyped it up, of course, telling the class they were going to be able to get a huge shock and then...nothing.  Believe it or not, I like it when this happens because I get a chance to demonstrate how I handle failure.  In this case I laughed and then asked them what they thought we should do.  We read the instructions together...we seemed to be doing everything right.  We tried the experiment again, just in case our failure was a fluke...nothing.  Next we tried a second source - in this case, a YouTube video made by a science museum.  There were subtle differences in the sequence and the position of the leyden jar.  They also used different materials.  I quickly went to our basement to get what we needed.  (One student asked, "Is there anything that isn't in our basement?")  We tried it again.  ZAP!  Success.  Could we recreate our success?  ZAP!  Yes.

Yes.

Data Driven

Data analysis and understanding is a crucial skill for being a modern citizen.  People misuse statistics all of the time, and without a fluent and deep understanding of data collection, design and analysis, it can be easy to be deceived.  Being able to read graphs and understand the data they represent is a first and important step in being a critical consumer of information.

Data handling lessons begin in kindergarten at Prairie Creek when children make simple bar graphs to represent responses to class surveys.  By fourth and fifth grade, students are able to create circle graphs, line graphs, and pictographs and choose what type of graph is best for communicating the information they want to get across.

Deciphering graphs is equally important.  The Herons will be working with a variety of graphs in the coming days to puzzle out what they mean.  We started with the one of my favorites from the New York Times weather page.  I gave them the page which has a series of these graphs for about twenty cities around the country (this one is today's from New York City - it's the only one available on-line):

Students worked in pairs.  I gave them no initial instructions except that the newspaper doesn't come with a teacher who explains everything to you so I wanted them to figure out what the graphs meant by themselves (the printed paper has a sample graph with the explanations above, but the city graphs don't have the explanations repeated.)  After they had figured out how to read the graphs, they wrote two questions about them.

It took students a while to figure things out.  Many didn't see the explanatory graph until they'd been working for several minutes.  Some got the gist of the graph but didn't unpack it completely (there is a lot of information embedded in these little bars).  Soon there were hoots of triumph as kids pieced things together.  Then the comparing started - hottest, coldest...fourth and fifth graders have a deep and abiding interest in records -- the tattered state of our Guiness Book of World Records is evidence.

We gathered to share questions. Some were the quiz show type questions I had expected:

• What was the high temperature in Washington on Tuesday?
• What's the coldest it's ever been in Minneapolis on March 12?
• What city has the warmest average temperatures right now?
• What is the average of all of the high temperatures on these graphs?

Others were deeper questions:

• How did they come up with the idea for this graph?
• How long does it take to make it?
• How do they make it?  Do they use a computer?  (I was intrigued by this one and did some research - see program here)
• Why does Minneapolis has a 60 degree range on the side but San Diego only has 20 degrees?
• Hey, I thought these were all state capitols, but they're not.  How do they choose the cities?
• Why are there four cities from Florida?

While I should have expected these deeper questions, I hadn't (this is test prep season and I had some pre-assumptions about the direction of the lesson).  Of course, I was thrilled.  These questions highlighted a curiosity and wonder that could lead to new places.

The factual questions were important, too.  We got a lot of practice working with the graphs while we answered them and many students more fully explored the graph features they hadn't fully understood when working independently.  Indeed, I've spent years looking at these graphs, fascinated by the seasonal changes (I always celebrate when Minneapolis's temperature range shifts up a new 20 degree bar) and geographical anomalies (you want boring?  look at San Diego's graph.)

Looking at graphs and data with your kids is a great habit to get into at home.  It takes very little formal teaching.  You puzzle out what the graph means together and then ask a single simple question, "What questions could you answer using this information?"

This technique comes from a math curriculum I use parts of called "ThinkMath"  Finding questions to ask demands a much deeper level of thinking compared to passively answering simple questions asked by others.  I hope you get a chance to try it out soon.

 

 

Prairie Creek Slopes and Great Introducitons

We have gotten to the sweet spot in the year when getting the skis on and hitting the slopes (well...slope) can happen during our regular PE time.  The Herons are experts at getting into their skis by themselves and they are capable enough to get a fair amount of skiing in during a half hour.

On Monday, we took advantage of the new snow and headed out to the far end of the fields.  The slushy bits proved very interesting to some students.  Others practiced their down hill skiing, perfecting their balance and, in some cases, finding ways to head down hill cooperatively in trains.

Today we headed out again and had a great time at the hill nearest school.  The students set goals before we head out -- some work on their gliding motion, others work to get into their skis independently, some work up the courage to go down the hills, others work on using their poles more efficiently.  Setting goals has become a regular part of our PE practice this year and I've found it's really accelerated students' growth.  They are able to identify key skills in an activity and they work diligently to improve.

Cross country skiing is one of my favorite PE activities because it is truly a life long sport.  Many Prairie Creekers participate in nordic skiing and getting started early will ensure this is an activity they can comfortably engage in for many, many years.

Here are two videos of us - shot on my antiquated cell phone.

  

We had a great mini-lesson today on introductions.  I shared 9 different introductions from old Honors Projects, magazine articles and non-fiction books.  We categorized the introductions by the "author moves" they used -- questions, interesting facts, rich description, second person, humor, unexpected information.  The students developed the categories we used.  Then we identified the purpose of an introduction -- to bring the reader in, to set the tone, "it's an appetizer, it gets you hungry," it shares a little information but not too much, it lets you know what to expect.

I couldn't have come up with better categories and ideas -- and that's the point.  Using inductive reasoning is a powerful tool.  Instead of being told what a good introduction is or does, students develop these ideas for themselves.  The cognitive work involved in developing categories is much more engaging than simply memorizing categories someone else has made up.  Because students have done the work of organizing the information within their heads, the work is much more meaningful.

Making Memories Together - It Takes a Village

I know that you've been hearing a lot about the auction.  Deadlines for this, envelopes for that...it's easy to get bogged down and fatigued by the details.  (Donations are due now and RSVPs are due by the 14th)

But I wanted to take a moment to take a broader view and reflect on why I'm very glad I am able to teach at Prairie Creek and why I am grateful every day that my sons are able to be students here.  It's a special school.  For almost thirty years, we've held true to core values that have become increasingly rare.

Every day, my children (and I) get to work in classrooms in which memorable learning happens.  They are having experiences they will never forget.  One day is not the same as the next.  They have been given voices in their learning.  They see themselves as agents of change; they can make things happen.  Their creativity and their curiosity are nurtured.  They have become better friends and better leaders.  They are respected and treasured as unique individuals.

Looking over the newsletters their teachers have sent, I am filled with gratitude for the experiences they have had.  Learning at Prairie Creek is exciting and special.

I was chatting with a former student recently - he is a high school senior and getting ready to make the next steps in his life.  He began to reminisce about the pioneer fair we had been a part of together when he was a second grader in the Lindens - 10 years ago.  He not only remembered that we had had a fair, he remembered what he had been doing there.  Then he remembered the sod house that we had tried to build (using math based on 9" virgin prairie sod bricks vs. 2" commercial sod rolls - oops).  He also remembered the goats a parent had brought in.  He remembered trying to spin wool.  He remembered his two classmates who had studied medicine and convinced some fifth graders to rub stinging nettle on their arms so they could be cured.  He remembered everything.

Those experiences are special.  Sadly, they are not happening at every school - even though every kid deserves to be taught in memorable ways.

So thank you for everything you do to make our school work.  Families give countless hours of time supporting what we do in the classroom.  I am astounded by the talents that parents and community members share with us.  Families make sacrifices to support us financially, too.

In a perfect world, public education funding would be so generous that people would think the idea of fundraising was ridiculous.  Alas, our world is not perfect and as a charter school, we do not have the power to raise levies like other public schools.  Instead, any money we receive beyond the state funding comes from fundraising and grant writing.  We are careful stewards of the money we receive.  Fundraising does go toward our operating budget but it also ensures memorable learning by subsidising field trips, funding residencies, and making it possible to provision a dynamic curriculum.  (It's a lot cheaper to study the same thing year after year!)

When I set out to create our silk road curriculum I had the freedom to get everything I thought we needed to immerse the students in the experience.  Books, silk cocoons, pomegranates...the list of supplies was lengthy but the hands on role play made the Heron's learning come alive.  In fact, they were disappointed when they found out that the culminating event was, indeed, the culmination.  The point is that without the financial support of our community, we can't deliver the vibrant curriculum that leads to truly memorable learning.  

Your support and the support of families before you has ensured that Prairie Creek is a special place to learn and grow.  Thank you.