Planting Vine Maples

On Saturday at the school garden/ playground work party I led a crew in planting evergreen strawberry and a couple of vine maples on the playground.

Planting with children is amazing.  They love the dirt, the worms and the work.  I was amazed at how quickly our project was done.  They wanted to do more.  Wangari Maathai knew the power of planting in leading the Greenbelt movement.  It does good on so many levels.  Her heart must have sang with joy often. That is how I feel when planting trees, especially with children.

After we had dug the holes for the young vine maples we took turns saying our hopes for the trees: connecting the present to the future, taking a moment to be thankful.

Crows and the Web of Life in Our Cities

In recent years there has been a plethora of books on Crows.  I read one of them a few years ago, by John Marzluff called Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans and it connected to and influenced my own observations of crows.  Since my boys have been born I have watched crows morning and night fly across the sky. I have taken note of where they sit and eat out my bedroom window.  I find gifts from them in our backyard.  What I didn't realize was how so many people have this connection to crows and to nature.

Now I have once again picked up a book on crows, called Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt.  It turns out she is a neighbor in my own city, Seattle.  She is also a naturalist...an urban naturalist as I consider myself.  I feel like I have found community.

There is a community of urban naturalists and we all have our own art and approach.  Another local urban naturalist that I follow is the Kelly Brennen who blogs at the Metropolitan Field Guide.  Her writing, art and links give me guidance and inspiration.  Then of course are the naturalists and organizations that I have taken classes from or worked alongside in the city.   This cadre of people: watching nature, taking actions to inspire others to see nature, and working to make change so that our urban communities grow and develop with conservation, greenery, and diversity.

Planting with Children

Yesterday I led a group of third graders in planting salal and sword fern in their school's new nature council ring.  It was  great to work with the children. They were so excited to dig and get the bare root plants in the ground.  They have been studying native plants so it was easy to connect to prior knowledge.  I asked, “What can native plants provide for animals?” and they made many suggestions from food, to shelter.  They also knew that the plants provide resources for humans from clean air, beauty and to making perfumes.  The latter is what one person attributed the missing needles on the playground's young grand fir.  We used that as a teachable moment, that trees can provide uses for us, but that we need to be careful when they are young to not stress a tree by pulling off it's needles.  This led perfectly into a discussion of photosynthesis and how we can care for our plants so that someday they can be big and tall.

Children exclaimed with joy with each scoop of dirt and with every worm.  There was also the satisfied looks and proud statements from the children after  having carefully tucked a new seedling into a home on their school grounds. 

Opportunities to plant and tend for the earth and their community are so great for children.  In doing so they see  how they can make a difference in their world.  They also learn how all our actions have effects.  

I love to plant with kids! The more often- the better. 

How Hospital Gardens Help Patients Heal - Scientific American

Having worked at a hospital, I agree with the research that suggests gardens help patients. They offer a place for peace and rejuvenation for staff, family members and visitors as well.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nature-that-nurtures/

March Toddler Tales and Trails

It was wonderful to team teach with the new Americorp Early Childhood Educator at the Nature Center.   We met together and planned yesterday and today it made it much easier for us to keep 15 or so children and their parents engaged in nature exploration.

Our topic today was salamanders.  However, we did not find any salamanders at Seward Park.  There may not be any.  But, we will continue to look.  In the meantime here is what we did to engage the youngsters in nature connection and play.

First the children entered and made a play dough salamander.  Then we read a few books: In the Small Pond by Denise Fleming and The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer.  In The Salamander Room a young boys brings a salamander to his house and in telling his mom how he plans to care for it- he connects his salamander to the web of nature.  

We shared a few poems and songs before heading out on our nature walk and exploration.  Along the native plant trail we had children and their caregivers look for things that salamanders need- where could your salamander live, what could it eat- many are mentioned in the book-and along this trail were leaves, decomposing logs, insects,  large stones and even small pools of water.  

Next we played a salamander game.

Finally we ended at the lake and dipped for water macro invertebrates as well as searched along the shore.  The kids found mostly shells and rocks, but had a great time scooping and exploring.  They also used magnifiers to investigate.

We ended with a couple of songs and a closing circle.

In Like a Lion

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.  Yesterday in Seattle was a “lion” day.  The winds were blowing and an occasional rain would pour down. My children said they had only two recesses - as the third one was canceled due to rain.  Luckily, the rain stopped by the end of the day and my husband and i gathered up the kites and went to pick up the boys. 

On the school playground after school kids excitedly watched as we unwound the kite tales and checked to see if the kite string was fastened and untangled.  Then the kids took turns and with  a bit of running the kites were unfurled to the wind and lifted.  Kids gathered gleefully shouting “my turn, my turn.”

“I have never flown a kite before,” said several of the children.   I was glad that we had brought extras. Soon there were three- four kids at each kite taking turnings, running raising the kite into gusts- watching them dance and then often tumble back to the ground.

A couple of the kites were of lighter material and once up stayed high in the sky.

Indeed this was a day of wind blowing, kids joyfully laughing and getting tangled in strings & soon more neighbors joining.  It was a great way to greet March.

This reminds me of how much fun wind can be.  Here are some other ideas for playing in the wind:

Get small wooded rings and tie on strings to catch the wind

Give out scarves for children to throw in the air and then catch

Make home made kites out of all sorts of materials- see which flies the best

Sing: Lets Go Fly a Kite from Mary Poppins