"Today we are doing an interesting experiment," explained Ms. Flaherty, our head worm farmer. We are going to see how much we can learn just by observing. Does anybody know what that means?"
"Looking," offered one of the kindergarteners in Ms. Breneus's class, and she was exactly right.
Before the kids took an up-close-and-personal look at the red wiggler worms in their worm farm, Ms. Flaherty read them a book to explain more about what they would be looking at. The kids learned that worms have no eyes, no ears, no legs, no arms, no lungs, but that they are still very well suited to live their lives digging through soil. Or, in our classroom, digging through coffee grounds and wet newspaper.
Instead of legs, they have bristles on each segment of their bodies that help them move. Ms. Flaherty moved a Slinky to show them how having so many segments lets the worm turn and maneuver.
The kids already knew that worms need to stay moist. So they each sprayed a piece of paper towel to get ready for their temporary guest.
Then they each got a worm and a piece of apple. Since the red wigglers love apple peels, the kids wanted to see if they would wiggle their way in the apple's direction.
Then it was time for each student to do exactly what scientists do. They learned by looking. The observations came fast and furious.
"Mine is a real wiggler."
"Mine is hungry. It's moving toward the apple."
"The bristles are so tiny!"
"Mine is staying in the coffee dirt. Maybe it's scared."
"It's so soft," says one scientist, carefully touching his worm."
"Mine loves its worm tunnel," said another, "but he didn't stop to eat some. Why?"
That's science for you: It raises as many questions as it answers.
Eddie Murphy is one of the Facilities Coordinators for Boston Public Schools. It's his job to help maintain and improve several schools in the system, including the Perkins School. He is also a member of the Navy
Reserves.
Mr. Murphy is being called up and sent to Afghanistan, where he will be for the next year and a half. He recently came to the Perkins for a meeting with Principal Brawer. Although he didn't know it, he was also coming for a surprise presentation from our two third grade classes, who wanted to thank him for his help and wish him well.
It started with Anjonelys introducing the
Pledge of Allegiance song.
Ms. Lynch was ready at the keyboard to start the music and lead the song.
Mr. Murphy, Principal Brawer, and Ms. Bishop salute
the American flag during the Pledge.
They weren't alone!
The third graders and Ms. Alert were all behind them singing the Pledge of Allegiance.
Danelle recited a poem the class dedicated to Mr. Murphy.
Next came the second song, America the Beautiful.
Mr. Murphy got a goodbye package to take with him.
Good luck, Mr. Murphy! Stay safe.
Mrs. B's Wellness Warriors have done it again. The kids entered a contest sponsored by Boston Moves for Health. The Perkins School only has five pedometers (a pedometer is a little gizmo that measures the distance a person has walked or ran), but five were enough. The kids shared them to measure how much they moved in gym class. Sometimes they were running. On wet or slippery days, they walked around the schoolyard. They even measured the push-off steps they used to glide when they were learning to ride bicycles with the Boston Bikes program.
Do you know what? A little bit of skipping here and jogging there really adds up. Getting exercise and feeling healthy is prize enough, but the Perkins School managed to come in second place in the contest.
Here is the chart of how many steps we managed to take in a month. Finding the total would be a good math problem for our upper classes. Yes, this is just addition, but those numbers of steps are really large! Okay kids, those of you who are learning estimation, is our monthly total of steps more or less than a million?
One thing we do know is that our average of 832 steps per student got us a prize of $500.
What is going to happen with that money? According to Mrs. B, our gym teacher, it might go to buying hockey sticks for the school. Another possibility is that Mrs. B will buy enough pedometers for all the kids to use them. It's fun to measure your steps and makes you want to take more of them.
Also, says Mrs. B, "our kids really wanted to participate. They are team players. They wanted to win for their school."
So keep up the good work, kids. Maybe you will be able to win again and buy both!
Mrs. B, our gym and wellness teacher, is on a roll. Boston Bikes, track team, pedometers AND another essential part of wellness--nutrition. After all, it's not just moving your body that makes it healthy; it's what you put in it as well.
Mrs. B signed up for a program offered by University of Massachusetts Extension Nutrition Education Program. As a result, Ms. Carole, a Nutrition Educator, came to the Perkins. She spoke to all the kids about the magic in food and the need to eat right. Protein, grains, vegetables, beans, seeds and nuts, dairy, fruit--these foods that are good for you are called "everyday foods," she told them. Treats are fine too, but in much smaller amounts.
To remind the kids of the foods they should eat most of (and in what proportions or amounts), Ms. Carole gave each student in every grade a picture to color.
All too often drawings and pictures get thrown away, even when they contain important information.
Not this time. Mrs. B made sure that every one of those pictures were laminated. That means it was covered by plastic so it wouldn't bend too easily and would stay clean. In fact, it became the perfect placemat for lunchtime. Now the kids have a daily reminder of the foods that will make them healthy--and, keep them that way.
It's been a while since the red wiggler worms set up housekeeping in Ms. Breneus's kindergarten classroom. In fact it was time for our gardening expert Ms. Flaherty to check in on them, to make sure they had everything they needed to be healthy and as happy as worms can be.
Off came the cover, so Ms. Flaherty could look at the wigglers. She wasn't the only one who was curious. The worms seemed to be okay; they were indeed wiggling.
One boy asked to hold a worm. He had to learn to be gentle and not squeeze.
He enjoyed it so much that Ms. Flaherty decided all the kids should have a chance. Next week, she'll come and the kids will get to look closely at the worms like scientists and learn through observation. Maybe we can bring some magnifying glasses so they can really get a good peek.
Ms. Flaherty explained that we didn't want the paper to dry out--or, the worms either. So each student who wanted to could spritz the paper one, two, three times.
As Ms. Flaherty circled the room giving the kids turns, other students drew pictures of their new class pets. Here is Emanuel's.
Brianna did a fine job too.
The kids knew the idea behind Plimoth Plantation, the historical living museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where modern people dress in the clothes of long ago and interpret the past. That means you can ask them about TVs and they will look puzzled. Or mention President Obama and they won't know who that is, or even what the United States is, because they are living in 1627, seven years after the Mayflower arrived in the New World.
All our third graders saw a replica, or copy, of the Mayflower. They were able to study it outside...
and in.
In the village, it took our kids a little while to get used to the fact that modern people were buried so deep beneath their costumes, that visitors felt as if they were talking to someone who had actually lived in Plimoth almost 400 years ago. These modern people had studied so much that they could answer any questions the kids had.
Once the kids understood that, the questions came fast and furious. One group cornered a village resident for at least minutes. What does he eat everyday? What is he building (a house). How does he use his knife? What was it like coming over on the Mayflower? Was it scary?
They moved on to a women tending her garden. Was she angry at King James, they asked. Not really, she said. Royals do not pay much mind to common folk such as themselves. The villagers had much more anger toward the leaders of their church. They left England, in fact, because they were not allowed to worship the way they wanted to.
The kids learned that this woman also tended her farm animals: cows, sheep, and chickens. Then one student asked if it was possible to be a cow and a bull at the same time. The woman smiled a little. "Well, maybe we'd call that situation a steer," she said.
The kids listened to a man from the Wampanoag tribe he told them how he was making a mishoon - the Wampanoag word for boat - by using fire as a tool to hollow out a tree.
What did Wampanoag kids do? What kind of games did they play long ago? Our Perkins kids got to check out the homemade dolls and toy mishoon they would have used.
That was cool, but the fact that amazed them most of all was that in this Native American culture, there was no breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There was always food on the fire, so people could eat whenever they were hungry.
This was an amazing trip into the past, but it was part of school as well. Each of our students had a journal. They all had to sketch the Mayflower, label its parts, and compare the lifestyle of the Pilgrims and the Native Americans.
The long ride back to South Boston was much quieter than the one to Plimoth. The kids had a lot to think about. Also, they were pretty tired. It had been quite a day
The Perkins kids left for the long Thanksgiving weekend thinking of turkey, stuffing (and, of course, a mini-vacation). Now, however the kids also knew that other Americans had different fall harvest holidays to celebrate.
Ms. Jannette Vanderhoop is a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah / Gay
Head on Martha’s Vineyard. She came to talk to the Perkin kids about what it means to be a
member of a Native American tribe – in the present 21st century and at the time
the Pilgrims arrived in North America in the 17th century.
Her book Cranberry Day explains the major thanksgiving festival the Wampanoag Tribe celebrated long before the Pilgrims came to their land. In the old days, the celebration of the cranberry harvest was three days long. Nowadays it is just one, but it is still lots of fun. Kids don't go to school. Elders of the tribe share stories of the past with them and everyone eats a feast--including cranberries, of course.
Ms. Vanderhoop also brought some of the cloths and traditional jewelry her people used to wear.
After she left, the kids had their own celebration; many classes turned much of what they learned into beautiful bulletin board displays.
Ms. Leverett-King's class demonstrated that the cranberry can be used for another purpose besides food and a good way to get enough vitamin C.
It can also be used for painting!
