You're My Black-Eyed Susan

Here are some pictures of the seed planting session last week. We hope the seeds will germinate soon and that we can plant them at the front of the school once the tough old turf is cultivated. If you're reading this and you can donate drought-tolerant perennials or if you can lend the budding Gardening Club a shovel and some time, we are looking to start working the land soon. Please drop a note in my mailbox, send a note through your child's teacher, or leave a comment here.

Thank you!

E. Hawkins

A little dirt never hurt.

Ta-dah!

Great to see French Immersion and English students coming together at our school. Oui!

Green Team member inspects his little pot.

The haunted watering can.

On semi-related note, I garbage-picked this watering can from a dearly departed neighbour last year. He had amassed a crazy collection of watering cans and now this one is being used in the Green Team instead of sitting in a landfill. Kingsley lived a good long life. He loved to garden and enjoyed a good laugh. He'd be happy knowing his can was in a classroom and that we're able to joke about the haunted watering can. Seriously.

Pass the haunted watering can!

Here's what you'll find in the Clairlea staff room. The staff put the compost bin at the front of the school to good use.

Take Your Family To Riverdale Farm

Riverdale Farm is a great place to spend the afternoon. Located in Cabbagetown on a 7.5 acre spread, you'll find farm animals and numerous species of wild animals and birds in the bird conservation area on the lower level. It's open to the public and free. Let your kids roam around Riverdale Farm and get their hands a little dirty. You can access the Riverdale Farm by TTC or car. For more information, visit http://www.toronto.ca/parks/riverdalefarm.htm

There's plenty to discover down at the pond. My son had fun playing by the creek and we discovered numerous toads and turtles - even a dead turtle. It was fun and educational.

Tulips and daffodils are in bloom right now. Get yourselves down there and forget about the rat race.

E. Hawkins

Plant Materials Needed

Hello,

Mrs. Brathwaite and I will soon be starting a Gardening Club. Our short term goal is to beautify the front of the school. We are asking people from the Clairlea community to kindly donate perennials. The front of the school is south-facing and soaks up a lot of sun. For this reason, we are looking for drought-tolerant plants that could withstand the weather and limited watering in the summer. Native plants, including grasses would be ideal, although we'd be grateful for any contribution, including soil and mulch.

If you are able to donate, please either send a note with your child to the attention of Mrs. Brathwaite or Ms. Hawkins. You could also leave your name and a way to contact you in the comment section below.

On a related note, I am looking for avocado seeds for a Green Team project. The kids have been busy with the recycling bins, but now that the weather is better, I'd love for them to be growing plants from seed and taking on other projects in the school.

Please send in your avocado seeds with your child to the attention of Ms. Hawkins. Thanks a bunch.

School Yard Clean Up

Last Thursday, Clairlea students took to the yard to clean, clean, clean. The field looks 100% better now. Let's keep it that way.

Great work, kids!

Photos From Earth Hour Day

Clairlea celebrated Earth Hour the whole day. Here are some photos documenting this beautiful day that kept power on the back burner, so to speak.

Mr. Knierim was all smiles before turning off the staff room photocopiers for the day. Teachers and staff managed to make it through an instructional day without worksheets while children rejoiced and trees raised their branches in praise.
These babies are usually treated like beloved friends. Today, they sat idle, like spurned lovers.
Not the set of a horror film, but the hallway on the second floor of Clairlea. We kept the hallway lights off all day. Only emergency lights were kept on. The hallways were a lot brighter near the windows as you'll see in the photos below.
Room 204 did a few green activities today. One such activity involved rummaging through blue boxes to find random texts that would be used to create "found" poems.
From trash to treasure, students got busy and created some highly entertaining and occasionally mysterious poems.
Plundered Forest Valley trip form becomes a curious poem. While the poem below has something to do with the word "March."

Thanks to students, staff, and families for making this day a green success.

Earth Hour & Last Child in the Woods

This Friday, Clairlea will be participating in Earth Hour. During the afternoon, staff and students will be asked to "power off." This means lights, computers and all other electrically powered contraptions will be turned off as a symbolic gesture. We can survive without electricity for a little while. I'm also hoping that this Friday we can turn off the photocopiers in the staff room and the upstairs resource room all day. We can do it!

When I was a child, I'd spend hours outside playing at the local parks, climbing trees and riding my bike around our neighbourhood. We were lucky enough to have a cottage where I learned how to fish and garden with my dad. I also learned not to fear nature. As a teenager, we lived on a street opposite the Scarborough Bluffs. I used to wander over to the grounds of the Guild Inn and write poetry and take pictures of flowers and trees. Nature was my greatest influence and it certainly brought out a creative side - much to my own surprise.

Several teachers at Clairlea have been inspired by Richard Louv's book Last Child in the Woods. Louv makes a very strong case that today's children are not spending nearly enough time outdoors as they should be. Here is a blurb from the back of the book: "This new edition updates the growing body of evidence linking the lack of nature in children's lives and the rise in obesity, attention disorders, and depression." Louve talks about how children today are being raised as "container kids," shuttled back and forth in cars from one indoor space to another, spending too much time parked in front of the TV or computer and not enough free range time exploring the world outside.

I am reading this book right now and as a parent and teacher, it's already forcing me to make changes in the way I spend time with our young son as well as my class at Clairlea. We will definitely be spending more time learning in outdoor classroom over the next few months. To read more about this book visit http://richardlouv.com/last-child-woods I may be including some of Louv's discussion points on upcoming posts.

Stay fresh and green,

Erin Hawkins

Our Love Affair With the Photocopier

As part of our mission to reduce paper waste, Mrs. Kumagawa has assigned each teacher a code number for the standard photocopiers. We do not require a sign on for the more energy-efficient Riso in the staffroom. Mrs. Kumagawa recently posted the January totals for the non-Riso copiers. I'm sharing the totals for the top ten teachers who used the least amount of paper. Many teachers were in the 1000-2000 sheet range, which is not bad. Some went up higher still. We all need to use photocopied materials in our classroom, but we can all try to cut down by planning ahead. Let's see how February will be.

Soon, the Green Team will be announcing a super throw-down: a trial run at a Photocopy-Free Friday. This would mean photocopiers would be shut down for the day to reduce energy consumption and reduce paper use. Teachers would not be allowed to use pre-photocopied materials either, unless it's an overhead transparency. Can we do it? I already hear fingernails scratching blackboards.

January Photocopier Totals

Chow 65
Knierim 255
Triggiani 365
Fahim 385
Demeter 421
Park 536
Vincent 801
Kryzanowski 829
Hawkins 866
Cano 932

Here's a reminder from the late, great Marvin Gaye.