The Rookery

Recently, I took my sons and a friend up to the Science Museum for an afternoon.  We began outside in the "Big Back Yard" area, hanging out at the stream table.  And hang out we did.   We spent more than an hour diverting the water here, making giant lakes…

Today some intrepid gardeners and I finished up the test plots and put them out on the roof.  The current question is whether or not we should have Simon water them during July if it doesn't rain much.  One of our criteria is that our garden should be able to…

I hope that many of you will be able to come to Prairie Creek's first annual volunteer appreciation event this Wednesday morning.  Even if you aren't able to come, please know how grateful I am of everything volunteers have done for the Herons and the school this year. I feel…

        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…

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.…

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…

  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…

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…

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…

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…