Nobody Ever Told me it Would be Like This!

Everyone I know is learning to drive this year – my cousin Sharon, my friend Ruth, my colleague Jennifer.  Even my seven year old nephew Jakobi has been begging for driving lessons.  So I may as well also join that esteemed rank.  I announce my proposal to my youngest sister Shirley who’s been driving for years.  Shirley agrees, but nobody ever told me learning to drive would be like this!

We get ready right after supper and lucky for me we’re in the season of slow summer sundowns.  “Can I come along, I’ll sit in the back,” begs Danaea, a third grader who lives next door.

“Sure, why not?”  Quick as a bunny, she hops on and we drive to the orchard, Shirley, Danaea and me.  Shirley sits in the driver seat, in case we meet someone on the way!

We switch seats at the first apple tree.  For the first round or three, Shirley’s instructions aren’t overly specific or lengthy.  Perhaps she’s too busy dodging, being swayed this way and that…

Anyway, nobody ever told me a road could be so narrow!  The orchard road is more like a fox trail than a road.  Well, twin trails with a wide swath of portulaca growing in between.  Is it even possible to keep the tires on those thin paths? On further analysis, I decide it must have been made with bike tires in mind, skinny speed bike tires, in fact!  That road has some straight sections, but I’m constantly having to turn left, right, left, right again, narrowly missing some, but not all of the natural features along the way! 

And the turns!  Nobody ever told me they could be so sharp!!  And they appear when you least expect them.  I grip the steering wheel as we approach a corner, start turning and turning and turning.  We make the turn just in time and keep turning – in circles, even though we’re already on the straight road.  Wordlessly and a bit breathlessly, Shirley grabs the steering wheel and whips us back onto the road again.  It’s a good thing I brought her along, or else, who knows how long I’d be spinning in circles.

Neither did anyone ever mention that there could be so many obstacles beside the orchard road!  Why ever would anyone make a road alongside the La Salle River with just inches between the road and the river?  So treacherous! Luckily I missed that obstacle.  I’m all for going green, but I wouldn’t want to go swimming in algae, even if I could swim. 

There are trees along one stretch.  Fortunately we miss most of them, but unfortunately ram into an apple tree.  Just one!  It whips back and forth in unison with our heads, like a wheat field during a tempest.  I guess there’ll be a few less apples to pick in autumn.  Hmm, maybe I should suggest this picking technique to the apple pickers.   

And the cornfield?  They may as well have planted that crop in the middle of the road! Let’s just say that first row wasn’t quite so lucky!  “We’re scraping the first row of corn,” Danaea warns from the back, anxiously hugging the rail opposite the cornfield.  We whip by, shaving off several sturdy stalks that tumble like a nudged row of upended dominoes.  It’s a good thing we’re growing fields and fields of them, I appease myself.  They shouldn’t miss that row. 

“Even though the road appears straight,” Shirley finally finds her voice, “you still have to gently turn from side to side periodically so you don’t displace the entire landscape.  If you turn a bit to the left, you have to turn that much to the right.  And… whatever you do, don’t over compensate!”

“Now you tell me!” I retort.

“Time for you to learn how to reverse,” Shirley suggests.

Reverse?! I’m just barely staying in the middle of the road going forward!” I mumble to myself.

“Okay,” I obediently reply, stepping on the brake at the corner. 

 A few days later my friend comes for a visit. “Catherine, do you want to take Elma on her next driving lesson?” Shirley asks hopefully.

“Why?” Catherine asks.

“Nobody ever told me teaching someone to drive would be like this.”

Please note: This story is loosely based on a true happening.

Numbers in Nature

What do you do when your class size doubles over night?  You have to really think outside the box!  In my case, it was involved going outside the classroom.
Last Friday our kindergarten teacher attended the annual MTG conference, so I was left with her seven Ks in addition to my seven first and second graders.  What to do with those 14 squirming little bodies all morning along?
I decided to take them out to look for numbers in nature.  After partnering each kindy with a first or second grader, I provided each pair with a plastic bag and we set out to collect stuff we could count.
Since were in the midst of fall, we found brightly coloured leaves.  Elm Rivers has very few oak trees; however, our biggest one gave us tons of acorns and we brought back almost more than we could count! We found small discarded potatoes at the potato shed. (since we had rain a few days before, harvest was on hold).  By the la Salle River the students noticed cattails and of course wanted some.  As I walk over to pick some, one of the Ks screamed for me to stop!  She was under the impression that cattails grow in the creek, not along the edges.  I assured her I would be careful to stay out of the water.

Each of us brought along amid-morning snacks, so part way through our search we stopped to refuel.  We gathered at the granaries and enjoyed our munches!
Other objects we collected were a variety of pebbles and plants and even a few Asian Lady beetles.
After we arrived back at the school, each kindergartner and first grader picked an item from the collection.  I took pictures of him/her showing as many fingers as items.  I hope to print produce and numbers in nature book for  our class library.

Black Swallowtails

Black swallowtail chrysalis

Last Fall, during our carrot harvest, our ladies found a caterpillar amongst the carrot tops.  Someone brought it to our house.  Shortly after, my sister Shirley worked in her herb garden and found another one crawling on her dill plant.  We brought them to school where they soon created their crysalids for the winter.
Over the years we've raised countless monarch caterpillars, but this was our first for this type of caterpillar.  Upon doing a bit of research, I discovered that swallowtails lay their eggs on carrot, dill, parsley and fennel plants.
Now, what to do with swallowtail chrysalids during winter? I learned quite a bit from  Joyful Butterfly.  We placed ours chrsalids in a plastic jar and stored in in the fridge  until the apple trees and lilac bushes started blooming the following spring.

Newly hatched butterfly

I was surprised that it would take two weeks from the time they were placed in room temperature to turn from pupa to butterfly!

Wings dried and expanded

 Oh the excitement we had when we came to school that Monday morning to discover a special springtime surprise!!

Being passed from hand to hand

Feeding on lilac nectar before taking flight!

Aren't those hands-on life science projects just the best?!

Maple Sapping Time

Maple Time

My sister Sonia has been maple sapping for five years or so.  Since she began this annual early spring project, I've wanted to include my students in the process, perhaps make some kind of hands-on lesson out of it. 

My students have seen Sonia out and about tapping trees and collecting sap, so they naturally wanted to share what they'd observed.  My nephew Jakobi has even helped Sonia, so of course he shared some long-winded stories.

Other Articles on Maple Sap

My sister Linda has posted several articles on Sonia's maple sapping on her blog which you can read here.   She also wrote an article on this topic for the Manitoba Cooperator.  The link here will take you to here blog and there you'll find the link to the Manitoba cooperator article.  Scroll down the the Crossroads section to page 29 to read it.

Maple Books

Each spring during maple sapping time, I dug out my books on maple sapping.  Sometimes I read one to my students but didn't do much more.  This year my planning is working out!My grade 1 & 2 students are just working on the social studies unit Canadian Communities.  One of the first topics in this unit is Aboriginal contributions and lad-de-da -- maple syrup!

We started our maple unit by reading and comparing the following books which are all set in different time periods:

• Maple Moon by Conniebrummel Crook;
• At Grandpa's Sugar Bush by Margaret Carney and  
• A Day at the Sugar Bush by Megan Faulkner.  

 

Our Maple Projects

Next, we joined Sonia in every step of the process from drilling, to collecting the sap, to hauling wood scraps from for commercial carpenter shop, to finally cooking the sap into maple syrup.  We enjoyed several tasting sessions as we worked on this project: raw sap, hotdogs cooked in sap, maple butter on toast and waffles topped with whipped cream and maple syrup.

To commemorate this special event, we created a class book entitled Maple Sapping at Elm River Colony.  This book that outlines the entire process as well is the graphed results of our favourite maple treats.   We've added it to our class library where we can now boast of four maple sapping books. 

Cardinals Come Calling

Chalk Pastel Cardinals

January weather can be rather bleak at times, so at Brennan School we added some brightness to our hall bulletin boards with these cardinal art projects.
The idea I used for my grades 3 - 8 art classes came from Paint Night.  There aren't any written instructions at this site for this project, so we did the following:  We worked with chalk pastels on grey construction paper.  We first used our palest blue on its side to cover the entire background to get a greyish-blue winter sky effect.  Next, we select a medium blue pastel to create the trees in the background / distance and our darkest blue or purple for the tree branches in the foreground.  Lastly, we drew the cardinal and berries with our brightest red. 

Handprint Cardinals

After drawing and colouring tree branches with regular wax crayons, my grades one and two students used their hands to print (paint) cardinals onto the branches.  I found this idea at Mrs. P4s Art Room.

Salt Dough Cardinals

Finally, not to be outdone by the big kids, our kindergarten students created their birds on salt dough.  I used this Simple Salt Dough Recipe.  They had a great time first playing with their dough, kneading, rolling and shaping it.  Their final result - a personal touch, with their hand print. 

Advice from a Cardinal Poster & Bookmark

In my google search for cardinal projecta, I stumbled upon Advice from a Cardinal, a lovely image of a cardinal perched on a tree along with his advice.  I printed this out and displayed it with all of our projects.


I also used something similar to create  Valentine/Bookmarks which I gave to our students and staff for Valentine's Day.  My intent was to combine "I Love to Read", art and Valentine's Day and I believe it went over well.