Saturday I participated in – Connect the Dots between Extreme Weather and Climate Change – and a River Cleanup in several locations on the West Branch of the Housatonic River. Sponsored by Berkshire Environmental Action Team and the Housatonic Valley Association.
Some of what we saw was disturbing, some beautiful.
This is what you get when you cross adults with a the assignment–make a 3-D cell. Wow! Good job biology students.
For our first exploration with paper mache we rolled up some newspaper into balls, covered them with a couple layers of brown packing paper and paste. Then cut them in half, surgically removed the newspaper guts. Paint was added, the mouths were glued on and then it was designing time. Horns, ears, teeth, hair. Chomp, chomp. They all did a great job.
The kids took their first tries at puppet shows about water. Basically this is a practice for the big show. The kids started by making finger puppets from paper mache, painting and decorating them, drawing out a storyboard, and writing short scripts. Now they are ‘hooked’. Which was the plan all along. Photos to come.
I finally had a chance to see Meredyth Babcock, AKA Dr. Marmalaid, in her Watershed Waltz performance. The puppets were great. Content relevant and the music was wonderful, but of course it was written by Joanne Spies. Bravo!!
Check out the trailer to their show:
I’m working on some big puppets for the parade and experimenting with materials. I like to use natural materials and recycled materials. So I took the bags the newspaper is stuffed in on rainy days, cut them into little strips, pulled them through the holes of an onion bag and the effect is fluffy orangeness.
Also I think this would make lovely flowers for Easter hats. Don’t you?
This week we did some chlorophyll extractions from rye grass growing out in the garden. Chlorophyll is the chemical in plants that give them the green color and allows them to absorb energy from the sunlight.
The kids had a chance to be scientists!
After school took a week off, but this is what we’ve been up to: Singing about Dr. Augie 
and learning about insects and making scarabs! Gorgeous work kids!!
This week the after-school kids took on ‘photosynthesis’. They made origami flowers, looked at plants and plant material and plant cells through the microscopes and drew what they saw. We even had a chance to see cytoplasmic streaming. Next week they will be planting table top gardens with master garden lady Linda Wagner from Outside In Education.
