Green Space Work Day – April 15th

Everyone is welcome to come out and help beautify our school on April 15th at 10 am at the Green Space Workday! Please bring gardening/work gloves.

BIG, BIG Green Space Work Day: Saturday, August 7th 9am-3pm

Green Space Work Day THIS SATURDAY, August 7
Right now, we have about 20 families signed up to volunteer on Saturday, but we could really use even more help, so, if you’re available, come join us.

Do you like to build? We’ll be building a stage, and assembling a greenhouse, tables and storage units.

Do you like to paint? There’s painting to be done.

Do you like gardening? We’ve got lots of dirt and mulch to move.

Can’t do heavy lifting or physical labor? We’ve got kids to entertain and smaller jobs that need to be completed.

The work day is from 9-3 so you can come for any time period during the work day. Please bring any tools you have. We’re especially looking for drills with screwdriver attachments, wheelbarrows, and, we really need a front
loader if you’ve got one! Remember to bring your own work gloves and drinks, sunscreen and snacks for your family, too. Please RSVP to Lisa Berman at lisaberman@rocketmail.com or 314-773-1995.

Thanks everyone for an awesome green space work day!

Mille mercis to Profesor Joey, Madame Chou Chou (Elizabeth), and Madame Danielle for bringing their families to participate in today’s work day. It was pretty awesome and rewarding (as you’ll see in the photos). Along with currently enrolled families, new families and SLU’s APO service fraternity chapter, our crew doubled the size of the topsoil/wood chip area, assembled and placed three benches, made decorative spider webs with glass beads, assembled the weather station, stocked two storage bins with building materials and bird watching/weather station materials, painted rocks for building, made plastic flowers from old milk jugs (bring some in to add to the collection!), added the final touches to and relocated the nature art table, put locks on all of the storage cabinets and added a new coat of weather sealant to them.

The outdoor science classroom includes myriad manipulatives for inquiry-based learning. The weather station storage includes: a weather vane, rain gauge, outdoor thermometer, wind meter, bird feeder, upright weather station, water blocks for building, sand blocks for building, 6 pair of binoculars, 5 bug viewers, a set of 18 color paddles, and 2 sets of acrylic prisms. Wow!

Next Saturday our volunteer carpenters will build the stage and hopefully we’ll get the bike rack installed as well. We may have other small projects/staging tasks, so contact Lisa (lisaberman@rocketmail.com) if you’re interested in lending a hand.

The link between play, recess and bullying?

The New York Times published an interesting Op-Ed piece yesterday that draws some conclusions between the lack of natural childhood play and the increase in bullying in elementary schools.  We talk often at our school about how our children don’t have the same opportunities for free outdoor play as we did growing up.  Not having a traditional playground has led our students to create more than a few innovative recess games, but our staff and families are busy planning for more installations to inspire collaborative play and inquiry.  Voting for our KaBOOM! playground video competition ends March 31st.  This is a great way to support our work from afar– vote daily for the SLLIS playground.

If you’re in St. Louis, we would love for you to lend a pair of hands and strong back as well!  Our first work day for the outdoor science classroom is Saturday, April 10th.  This space will include a tree house, green house, small pond feature, weather station and bird-feeding station.  Contact your room parent to volunteer.  New families for 2010-11 are very welcome to volunteer as well, contact Lisa Berman lisaberman@rocketmail.com for more information.

SLLIS one step closer to KaBoom! playground

We have been invited to advance to the next round of consideration for a KaBoom! Playground installation.  Woohoo!!!  If selected, we will mount our biggest single day volunteer opportunity to date to install our new play structures this school year.  Think Extreme Home Makeover type big.

How can you help us now?  Community support is a big part of the award consideration process.  Visit the official KaBoom! website, create a profile and become a member of the SLLIS Playground Project.

SLLIS applying for KaBoom! playground grant: photos needed

Our Green Space task force is hard at work on a new funding opportunity: a KaBoom playground installation. SLLIS has begun a project for consideration and will find out this spring if we have been selected for this exciting opportunity.  If selected we will begin a massive volunteer campaign to support our Build Day.

How can you help support our application?

We’re making a video to help us win a grant to build our playground. Please send ANY pictures you have that can be used in this video. Pictures should be from any Green Space work day or of kids playing on the playground during school. Please only send pictures if you would allow them to be shown on the web. E-mail pictures to lisaberman@rocketmail.com.  We’ll publish a link to our video as soon as it is available.

Monsanto Foundation establishes Outdoor Science Classroom at SLLIS!!

SLLIS was awarded a grant for $14,282 from the Monsanto Foundation to establish our Outdoor Science Classroom.  We are thankful for the support of Deborah Patterson, President of the Foundation and the vision of her Board of Directors.  Most foundations do not fund start-up entities and we look forward to building a strong partnership with Monsanto as we grow.  This grant will fund the initial work for the Outdoor Science Classroom and we will continue to raise funds to complete this amazing addition to our students’ learning space. Ultimately the space will qualify as a Nature Explore Classroom from the Arbor Day Foundation.

The Outdoor Science Classroom was designed by the Green Space Task Force. We are very thankful for all of their commitment, vision and physical labour that was the catalyst for this grant.  Get ready for a series of spring semester work days to bring this vision to life!!!  Bravo!

Green Space Work Day: November 21

Please come help us take care of some needed maintenance of the Green Space. We need a lot of help to remove the hay and a large portion of the wood chips and then lay down more dirt and replace the wood chips so that the concrete parking barriers are fully covered. Other jobs include staining,  caulking and installing the outdoor storage units, weather proofing the nature art table, completion of painting the roadway in the wheeled toy area and more. Please bring paint brushes, paint rollers, shovels and a wheelbarrow if you have one. To make the work day more manageable for families, we’re asking that you sign up for a two hour block of time instead of the whole day. Choose 9-11, 10-12, 11-1 or 12-2. RSVP to Lisa Berman at lisaberman@rocketmail.com or 773-1995 or on the sign up sheet in the lobby of the school. Children are welcome.

Final Fall Green Space work days

Our fall has been very well spent building our outdoor play/exploration space for our students.  It is truly amazing what a small group of dedicated individuals can do.  Many thank yous to Lisa Berman who continues to organize this effort.  A special thank you to SLU students who joined our forces for their annual Make a Difference Day.

Consider donating a wheeled toy for our play area

The Green Space Task Force is seeking donations of new wheeled toys for the outdoor science classroom and play area. The items were chosen because they meet one or more of the following criteria:

• teach a concept in physics
• develop upper body strength
• and/or do not require use of a helmet

We can’t put out any toys until we have at least 8. Here are the options with websites that have the best prices:

• Junior Whirly Wheel $49.99
• Classic Row Cart $74.99.
• Plasma car $49.99.
• Pedal roller $64.99,
• Razor A Scooter also available at Target $29.99,
• Trilingual traffic signal $29.95
• Trilingual railroad signal $39.95

If you have another suggestion, please contact Lisa Berman at 773-1995 or lisaberman[at]rocketmail.com before purchasing. You can have your item delivered to the school. We can assemble any item. Thank you for your support.