A new year greets us with glorious snow and bitter cold, a fast-spreading Covid variant, and complicated. If calculations to keep ourselves and our students safe and healthy. If we have enough stamina (and great clothing) we could do all of our school activities outdoors and freeze the aerosol covid droplets as soon as they leave our breath. I have been busy scheduling our winter field ecology trips with the hope that we will get past this latest surge. Part of that preparation is giving our students some background in staying warm, insulation, and energy conservation. Last year a teacher told me that they were studying heat transfer, and so I spent some remote learning time exploring terms like convection, conduction, radiation, evaporation, etc, in our winter clothing choices and in keeping our homes warm. https://www.watersecology.org/wp-content/uploads/Heat-Transfer-in-human-1.jpg https://www.watersecology.org/wp-content/uploads/Heat-transfer-in-home-1.jpg
Principal Rutkowski has reorganized the Waters School website to make access to the ecology program (watersecology.org) and my up-to-date field ecology schedule. I hope this will make it a bit easier for volunteers to plan to join us on our explorations. Thanks Mr. R!
This is the holiday season and there are many faith-based celebrations to share. But, the Solstices are Planetary Moments, events recognized by humans (and non-humans) everywhere since we gained consciousness. It is a moment that brings into our consciousness our place in Space, in the Solar System, our relationship to the Sun, and the uncanny forces of Gravity and momentum. On December 21 I will celebrate the Solstice with a fire to represent the beginning of the return of our Sun, and a sparkling cold beverage to remind me of the cold days ahead. I’ve attached a little story I wrote last year. I hope you can share it with the kids on Winter Solstice, 2021. The best to you, and us all in the new year, and thank you for your help and support,
Mr. Leki
Winter Solstice
P. Leki
Long time ago,
before Hanukah,
and Christmas,
and Diwali
and Kwanza.
In fact, before humans roamed the Earth,
the planets and the Sun did their dance,
circling around and around each other,
in a tipsy celebration of Time.
On Earth, creatures big and small,
plant and animal,
watched the dance carefully.
And they noticed that at a part of the year,
the days started getting shorter,
And the Sun didn't come up so high into the sky like before.
A Snapping Turtle was talking to a Great Blue Heron.
"Feels like there is a chill in the air. I'm thinking about taking a deep breath and hunkering down in the mud for a long nap."
Heron looked with her big eye and said:
"Well, I ain't doin' that! Get's too cold. I'm out of here. Goin' south"
A nearby Black Willow said, in a creaky tree voice:
“Happens every year, this time. Days get short,
my leaves fall off, I suck in all the chlorophyll I can handle,
and take MY rest, too."
But alot of animals worried, especially the young ones.
A Skunk said to a Possum:
"You notice how each day gets shorter?
And the Sun keeps sinking and sinking?
Now what if, I'm just saying, what if it kept sinking and the daylight disappeared totally?
Then what?
Then what? Why, you'd freeze, and I'd freeze. No Sun, no heat."
"What we gonna do Skunk?"
Skunk scratched his head, and neck, and tail, and then said:
"Let's talk to Bur Oak"
"Scuze us! Hello! Scuze us ma'm”, Skunk said to Bur oak.
Nothing.
Possum and Skunk looked at each other, and Possum began to cry, then wailed : "Yahhhhhhh"
"What? What?" said bur oak, wakened from the start of her winter nap.
"What is it?"
Skunk and possum explained about the days getting shorter and the Sun going down further, and it getting colder....
Bur oak groaned a cranky groan, like a mom or dad might do when waked up by a whining kid in the middle of the night.
"Now, why do you think you got those nice fur coats??? All stylish and warm? Do YOU think YOU are the first people to go through a Winter??? Have you noticed that EACH day the Sun is slowing down as it lowers itself in the sky?"
Skunk and Possum looked at each other, a little embarrassed.
"No" said Possum, "We didn't. We were busy playing. I was hanging by my tail. And Skunk was spraying her perfume on a coyote. We just noticed the Sun and got to thinking..."
"Well", said Bur oak, "pay attention. In a few days it will be the Winter Solstice. The Sun will stop its journey to the south. The days will STOP getting shorter. And slowly, gradually, the Sun will start back up into the high sky, and the days will get longer, and, in a month or two, you will start to feel the first warm breath of spring.
Possum and Skunk looked at each other.
"But how do you know????" asked Skunk.
"Go on away with you. You know how old I am??? I been through this for more than 350 cycles and I can tell you, for sure, this is the BEGINNING of the END of Winter. Oh, there will be cold days ahead, wind and snow. But there's no stopping it. Spring is on its way."
Skunk and Possum's eyebrows shot up. "Yeah! Let's go and play. You play dead," said Skunk. And I will play perfume counter...."
"Oh my" Bur Oak moaned. "Let me sleep"
What Bur Oak predicted, came to pass. And each year after, Skunk and Possum shared this wisdom with their own worried children. And instead of worrying, on the day of the Winter Solstice, they danced and sang, and ate and drank, watched the Sunset, and the Moonrise, and the stars circling in Space.
December 15, 2020
Dear Friends, This week 2nd grade will perform the Water Cycle necklace activity
(Rooms 203 Monday, Room 204 Tuesday, and Room 202 on Wednesday).
Classes begin at 8:30 and last about 90 minutes.
This is a kinetic demonstration of the random flight of a water molecule through nine possible places where water is found on earth: ocean, clouds, glaciers, lakes, rivers, soil, groundwater, plants, and animals. So we create nine stations, each one equipped with its own unique die (singular of dice) and a bowl of beads. The students start at one of these stations carrying a cord, knotted at one end. They take a bead from the bowl and thread it onto the cord. Then they roll the die. The die tells them where their water molecule will go next. For example, from ocean to cloud. The student goes to the cloud station and threads a cloud bead, then rolls the cloud die. It might land in such a way that it instructs the student to go to the cloud. That means the student stays at the cloud station, threads another bead, and rolls again. The student rolls 20 times, creating a unique trail, a unique story about the motion and experience of one water molecule in this world. After twenty rolls, we attached barrel clasps on each end of the cord to create a necklace, suitable for gifting or keeping. The students also write about their molecules’ journey. Part of the profound meaning of the water cycle is its endless dynamism, a masterpiece of recycling. We can tell the students with a good degree of certainty that some of the water molecules currently in their bodies were once in clouds, glaciers, dinosaurs, and spiders. Truly we are all part of everything in this living world. Another wonderful realization is that the water cycle is powered by two fundamental forces: the Sun to raise the water to the skies, and gravity to return it to Earth. Also, the great flow of waters from the Mississippi into the Gulf carries with it the taint of our civilization: eroded soils, fertilizers, and chemical pollutants of every sort. The Water Cycle, Mother Nature, bails us out by evaporating that spoiled water, thereby distilling it, and returning it to us as pure, drinkable water. How lucky can we be? One can imagine 30 students cycling through nine stations, rolling (throwing) 9 large dice, threading beads, and accidentally letting their beads slip from their cord. It is very kinetic! Volunteers are greatly appreciated. If you can help, you will witness a very fun and important lesson. I teach the kids a song about water and us. I borrowed it from Yoko Ono and added my own verses.
We're all Water
(Ono / Leki)
We're 90% water
We're like the plants and algae,
We're mostly water
We're 90% water
Like the surface of our planet
Our Mother Earth.
(Chorus)
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.
We're cousins to the glaciers
The raindrops are our aunties
Because we're water
We're like the streams and rivers,
The lakes and ponds and oceans
Because we're water
(Chorus)
Hope you can join us!
Mr. Leki
I was in the garden Friday and I was watching the squirrels build nests. What amazed me was two things: they were not building nests. They were building A nest. A half dozen squirrels worked together like on an assembly like crawling up and down the giant oak tree trunk to the ground, and then stuffing their mouths with comical bunches of oak leaves before scrambling back up. THEY WERE ALL WORKING ON ONE ENORMOUS NEST! I remember these same squirrels this spring, living up to their names, playing with abandon: chasing, leaping, chittering, and often falling from on high, landing with a thump and exhalation. Those same juveniles are now mature, cooperating to build this beautiful big nest, which I assume they will share with each other as a cozy winter mosh pit. The other thing was the unusual fact that squirrels were in multiple colors: black, white, grey, and brown! I have never seen that before.
wrapped roses
Speaking of cooperating creatures in the garden, on Thursday the Autumn opened up a warm sunny window for a group of garden volunteers: Meredith, Rob, and Poppy, to carefully wrap and insulate our ornamental roses to protect them from the upcoming bitter cold and the hungry depredations of rabbits in late winter. These roses bloomed beautifully this year, but have suffered through winter for many years, and many have died and been replaced because we never got around to these “care” precautions. Well done and thanks!
straw bales
On Friday morning, with the use of a SUV provided by a long-time gardener, and the offer of a strong back from Nathan, another gardener, we were able to “rescue” seven straw bales used as ornamentation by some local, Lincoln Ave bars, from the dumpsters. These bales are now stored in the garden in one of the empty compost bins where they can be kept dry and mouse-free until next spring. Then we will use them to mulch our planting beds to maintain moisture, prevent soil-born plant infection, and tamp down weeds. Good job!
MA journal response
During this hiatus between field trips, I spend a good deal of time doing post-trip lessons with our Mighty Acorn students (3-5th grade) . With fourth grade, we compiled data and created charts in our journals about the plant communities of Sauganash. These amazing plants self-organize into distinct communities based (at least partially) on the specifics of their preferred habitat (soil moisture level, and ground sunlight levels). Describe to me the plants that you see, and I can tell you what ecosystem you are in! Smart plants!
We compiled the data on our simulation game that described the dilemma of animals and plants that find themselves stranded on “islands’ of natural land surrounded by “oceans” of development. It is an astonishing demonstration of how small and isolated “islands” have a hard time maintaining biodiversity, a measure of ecological health. samples of MA student work. After these lessons, I will come and collect the journals and spend many hours reading them and responding to them. This is one of my joys, a “best practice”, to be able to give students feedback, instead of a grade, to give them encouragement, and correct “errors’ in fact, or spelling, through a conversation on the page. Students love to read what the responders have written. They are writing for an audience, they connect with the broader community, and that is a very positive thing. So check my calendar and join me for coffee and a pleasant morning of journal response.
6th river lesson
I will be visiting all three sixth-grade classrooms this week to continue our study of the Chicago River. This week we will be looking at the old, historic, glacially created river, and how it has been altered over the past 200 years. It is an amazing story, mostly hidden from the general view. I hope this knowledge of river history, and its resultant environmental degradation will inspire our students to be better stewards of our natural world than previous generations have been.
2nd river lessons
I will be visiting with the three 2nd grades before winter break to teach about the water cycle, our river system, and the amazing journey of water molecules around the Earth. This lesson includes our adaptation of the Yoko Ono song: We’re All Water! It also includes an activity that results in the creation of a beaded “necklace” that represents the unique, probability-based, process that moves a water molecule from ocean to cloud, to glacier, to groundwater, etc. WE WILL NEED HELP WITH THIS ACTIVITY as it involves lots of dice rolling around, and beads being strung. Look for the call out!
I scheduled to visit with the Kinder-kids, these free spirits at the beginning of their “formal” education. I wanted to teach them two songs that went over well last year, during remote learning: a Woody Guthrie medley of”Put Your Finger in the Air”, and “This Land is Your Land”. I am always amazed at how little ones will absorb a song like air, like they already knew it. I also did a participatory reading of “The Fight Between Quiet and Noise” the little book I wrote and illustrated to raise awareness of how Noise infiltrated our lives.
You may have heard a strange distance gobbling from somewheres up on high in the past few days. I have. So did my little neighbor girl. She said, “Look Mr. Leki Gobble Turkeys”. High, high overhead they hovered, in ranks of 30, 40, 50, sometimes circling, catching the wind, and then streaming again southward. She thought they were turkeys fleeing Thanksgiving. But they were Sandhill cranes making their annual pilgrimage to Florida. The sound of their chorus is unforgettable. They were probably heading to the Jasper-Pulaski Wildlife area in Indiana, a roosting and resting sight. There, the birds congregate at dusk, to spend the night in collective safety. The sight of them arriving there from all directions, coming in for a landing with their long legs extended down, and the great collective roar of their voices is a great hope-giving uplift. It is a marker of the season, Fall passing into winter. Another sign is the crunch, the feel and sound of soil beneath your feet after the first hard frost. The soil “puckers” as bits of moisture freeze and expand, opening tiny cavities in the ground. It is the perfect time to sow native seed: the tiny crevices offering winter protection and await a blanket of snow.
For the past month, egged on by the shortening daylight, the trees are undergoing their almost magical transformation: the life-giving, energy-harnessing chlorophyll is being broken down, and stored safely in the tree’s trunk and underground, to be re-assembled in spring. Left behind are the other pigments: the Carotenoids, yellow and orange, and the Anthocyanins ~ purple and red.
That’s what I’ll be teaching the First Grade today, our first-in-class lesson in our year-long study of trees. I wrote this song during remote learning, to raise our awareness and appreciation of chlorophyll:
Tiny Green Machine
Chlorophyll Breakdown (Lyrics)
By P. Leki
Chlorophyll is green
A tiny green machine
It lives inside of leaves
And makes food for the trees.
When Autumn comes around
The chlorophyll’s broken down
It flows into the trunk
And underneath the ground.
That’s the way it works
That’s the way things go
That’s the way things end
That’s the way things grow.
A blessed holiday to all,
Be well, and
Stay well.
Mr. Leki
Fall is truly falling, with bluster and a chill, a sprinkle of rain, and dust of snow.
Many things are wrapping up, including the garden and the riverbank.
Several families came out to the riverbank stewardship day on Saturday, and I am still hoping that we can get the 8th graders out to do stewardship in the Garden and to eat roasted potatoes and drink spiced apple cider. If we can set a day this week, I hope we can get some help supervising and cooking and all. I am meeting with the first-grade teachers to start up weekly tree lessons. I am meeting with the 4th-grade classes to review the plants that live in each ecosystem at Sauganash.
On Wednesday, November 17, Report Card pick-up day, parents will be able to have a look at their child’s ecology journal, from 3-7th grade, while waiting for your teacher conference. During the week I will start responding to student journals. If anyone would like to help learn “journal response”, to read and write back to our students, please let me know. I have 240 Mighty Acorns journals to read. Coffee?? Cookies??
I am looking for a used Weber (or other) grill to use with classes coming out to the garden during this chilly season. I am also asking for everyone to keep an eye out for straw bales that we can retrieve to use as mulch next year.
We made it through our Fall Field Ecology schedule without mishap or cancelation. More importantly, our students and volunteers were able to experience the tremendous beauty and power of our wild natural places. What a difference from on-line learning. Heartfelt thanks to the scores of volunteers who made these adventures possible.Our Harvest Day potato / cider / firepit storytelling was postponed until tomorrow, November 1, 2021 for pre-K through 2nd grade. Today I will be cutting and wrapping potatoes in the garden at 3:00. Want to help? Bring your favorite knife and cutting board. We need to prepare 300+ servings! I am relieved to have dedicated volunteer fire keepers / potato chefs ready to light the oven early tomorrow. Because of the postponement because of rain, the issue of additional volunteer help is unsure. We will need help buttering and salting potatoes, getting our little ones seated, serving hot cider and generally watching over things. Can you help? The schedule is attached here, disregard the Field and Face painting activities.
One reflection, during this lovely, mysterious time of year: Our 5th grade Mighty Acorns ecology lesson is about Habitat Fragmentation and Biodiversity. It explains that the disruption of vast, connected ecosystems results in our protected natural areas looking like and acting like islands in a sea of development. One way we judge the health of a natural area is by keeping track of the number of species living there. Higher species diversity signifies ecological health and resilience. If diversity drops over time, the preserve is in trouble and our management techniques are inadequate. One ecological rule of thumb is that islands (preserves) that are larger, and closer to each other will likely maintain biodiversity better than those that are smaller and farther apart. We were running a simulation game in the picnic grove last Thursday, in a light drizzle. We were on the 20th round of this game when the kids let out a shriek. They pointed to a very large buck white-tailed deer in flat out pursuit of a large doe. They thundered across the grove like racehorses. I’ve never seen anything like it. We joked that they were looking for a bigger island to live on. Which brings me to Welles Park and the grubs. The thing about monocultural lawns is that they lack resilience. The ideal is to have one species of grass growing to the exclusion of everything else. This means that if some insect or disease is attracted to that species of grass, they can tear through that community like those deer racing through the grove. And they leave behind…. nothing. The same goes for corn and soybean fields. To maintain those monocultures, endless pesticides are used. These are unstable ecosystems constantly in conflict with Mother Nature’s determination to create bio-diversity. So, rather than be grossed out by the grubs, we should consider these vast grass plantings, and remember that the grubs have contributed their copious waste products (and many of them, their own bodies) to that waste area. Birds have eaten them and left their own waste, enriching the open ground. Maybe now is the moment to plant a perma-cultural forest of edible fruits there. Grubs create a problem in low diversity ecosystems. Why not diversify and, as a bonus, create a space to involve neighbors in agriculture and the harvest of delicious food. The grubs have raised our consciousness!
Anyone with information is asked to call Area Three detectives at (312) 744-8266.
We have been told that she suffers from dementia and wandered away from the location. She also primarily speaks Spanish and only knows a little English. No phone or other identification on her. Her physical description from the day of the disappearance is beige/khaki pants and a brown winter jacket.”
Maria’s husband, and friends and family are out looking for Maria and have put fliers around the area. Pedro and Maria were Waters School parents and Pedro was on the LSC in years past. They were also part of our Waters Ecology and garden community. Maria was a teacher at Near North Montessori.
Please reach out to the police if you have any information. Lets keep Maria and her family in our hearts and hope they find her very soon.
Dear Garden Friends, This is IT! This is the last Garden Day for 2021. What a year. What a memorable, challenging, and wonderful year. Bucket loads of appreciation for the endless joyful help and energy you all contributed. Tomorrow will be a wrapping up. There will still be things to do later, but there is something very satisfying about putting away the things that make the garden, straightening out and ordering. I was thinking it would be amazing to have a Mid-Winter Garden day in the Annex, where we do maintenance on our wheelbarrows, and tools, fix or toss broken tools and sort through buckets to see what is hidden there. And after, a fire in the pit, surrounded by snow. So we will meet from 10:00 until noon, then gather around a fire for food, music and friendship. I wanted to share with you a little story of the season that I wrote. I’ve already shared it with the ecology volunteer list, but wanted to also provide it to our gardeners and families, as an alternative to the often horrific bloody mayhem that is offered up in the broader culture during this mysterious, poignant time.
Oh hushed October morning mild
Thy leaves have ripened to the Fall
Tomorrow's wind
If it be wild
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call
Tomorrow they may form and go.
Oh hushed October morning mild
begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief
Hearts not averse to being beguiled
Beguile us in the way you know
Release one leaf at the break of day
at noon another
One from our tree
one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist
Enchant the land with amethyst
Slow,
slow!
For the grapes sake
if that were all
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit
must else be lost
For the grapes' sake along the wall.
O hushed October morning mild
Beguile us in the way you know
Begin the hours of this day
slow.
This beautiful poem by Robert Frost was put to music by former neighbor and dear friend Doug Lofstrom. It was performed and recorded by the Bullfrogs Community Choir and is shared below. This is what our students, parents and teachers have been enjoying these past few weeks in our wild places. This next week will mark the finish of our Autumn Field ecology schedule. Nineteen trips to experience the wild. Many thanks to the scores of parents and volunteers who have and will share these adventures with our students.
Monday, October 25, 10:00, 1st Grade Room 210 are slotted to visit the garden to harvest potatoes and study trees. Unfortunately, at this moment, there appears to be an 80-90% chance of rain. If so, we will reschedule. Happily our potato harvest is excellent and enough to supply all the students who will visit the garden during Harvest Day (Friday, Oct. 29).
On Tuesday , October 26, 2021, 7th Grade, Room 305, will travel to Montrose Point to be introduced to the Lake and Dune, their ecology and origins, hosted by Friends of the Parks, and the Corinthian Yacht Club. Last week, my co-leader, Andrea Dennis, from FOTP, reminded our students, as they contemplated the swelling waves and sparkling waters of the Lake, that we are part of this ecosystem, our very bodies are connected to the Lake’s waters. Please join us for this adventure. The bus leaves at 9:30, and we return at 1:15. Bring a healthy, waste free lunch to be enjoyed harbor-side.
On Wednesday October 27, 5th Grade Room 318, and Thursday, Oct 28, Room 319 will visit Sauganash Prairie Grove as Mighty Acorns. They will be studying Habitat Fragmentation and its effect on biodiversity. They will take part in a simulation activity that will help explain why larger natural land masses located closer to each other will tend to sustain higher levels of biodiversity. They will also explore Sauganash, and collect rare seed. Join us at 9:15 for a briefing on the day’s activities. There will be a picnic lunch on site. Back by 1:15.
Friday, October 29, is Harvest Day at Waters. We will be hosting Pre-K to 2nd grade in the garden for our home grown, organic, baked potatoes, with hot cider, around the fire circle. I will share with the students a story that, I hope, helps explain both the mystery of this season, and why it is celebrated around the world. I invite anyone who is able to help me prepare the oven, the campfire, the cider, the potatoes, to cook, and serve and settle our little ones for the story. I will be visited by 10 classes, one at a time, starting at 9:15. It is a marathon of potatoes and stories and smoke and cider. Please let me know if you can help.
Here is the link to the 3rd story of this Halloween,
The foto below came to me as a surprise, a telephoto candid by former Waters parent, restoration ecologist, and well known bird expert Jeff Skrentney. This group of 4th graders are learning about the plant communities that live in the slough and flood plain wood.
