The kindergarten class learned how to make a solar oven this week and as you will see, the process was at least as interesting as the end result. To kick things off, teacher Audrey Goodwin-Arpin (who readily admits to never having made one before herself!) asked a series of questions to get the students thinking, and followed the online directions given by a sustainable living website. Please note that safety was priority one at all times, although you wouldn’t necessarily know it from the conversation.

Audrey: Here we have some boxes. I’m going to need your help. Who can tell me which box is going to be on the outside?

Kids: That one!!

Audrey: Why do you think this one is outside and this one is inside?

Kids: Because this one’s bigger!

Audrey: Here are our instructions. Who can tell me what the first step is?

Tyler: Take the knife and cut it!

Audrey: Is that something children would do or an adult would do?

Kids: An adult would do!

Audrey: We can also try with scissors. Which one do you think will work better, knife or scissors?

Aris: I tried it before and the knife works better than the scissors.

Audrey: Why do you think the knife would work better?

Kids: Because it’s sharper!

Audrey: Try using scissors.

Aris: I don’t want to try because I already know the knife is sharper.

Deka: My mom doesn’t let me use scissors because I used them once and I almost cut my finger off.

Aris: I don’t want to do it! I already know!

Deka: I don’t want to cut off my whole finger again!

Zanzi: I can use the big scissors.

Deka: If you make me cut with scissors, my mom is going to kill me!

Jacob: I wish we could keep the cardboard that we got.

Audrey: Let’s check the next picture.  What do we need to do?

Kids: Crumple up the paper!

(Crumple, crumple, crumple)

Kids to Carol: Can I have one?  Can I have one? Can I have one?

Audrey: We need to make the bottom black, but we are not going to use spray paint. They say in the instructions we can use black paper, too. Why do we put black paper on the bottom?

Deka: When you put black, the sun goes inside the black.

Genoa:  Black is a very hot color. It’s the hottest color.

Audrey: Does anyone remember why black is very warm?

Tyler: The sun is not a darker color, so if the sun is light, it breaks the black to make it hotter.

Aris: I think because black is a hot, hot color and dark. Like this kind of dark color (points at pants) makes my legs hot.

Audrey: The color black absorbs the heat. Think about a sponge. If you put a sponge in water, what happens to the sponge?

Kids: It absorbs the water!

Aris: It gets kind of heavy because it has water in it.

Audrey: The color black absorbs heat. It just kind of sucks it in. So that’s why we put black at the bottom. The next step is the tricky one.  What do we need to do?

Kids: Tinfoil!

Audrey:  We need to find the shiny side of the paper. Is this the shinier side?

Kids: Yes!

Genoa: Because it’s shiny, it’s really absorbent!

Audrey: What do you think we’re going to do now?

Kids: GLUE!!!

After much collaborative gluing, the class ended up with a homemade solar oven. However, because the weather hasn’t been hot enough for it to work for the past several days, they’ve decided to wait and put it to use once things warm up. You’ll be glad to know that every member of the class still has all their fingers and toes and Audrey is happy to provide the website link to any parent or community member interested in creating their own solar oven. But, if that seems like too much work, just ask one of the five year olds. They’ve got it down!

Love. Peace. Joy. Adventure. Beauty. Power. What would a painting based on one of those themes look like? It might be a castle, or a heart with wings, or a pathway leading through rolling hills, depending on which one you pick. Working together, students in Eve and Jonathan Wood’s classes have chosen a word to focus on and an image to represent it on canvas.

To begin the process, they’ve brainstormed together and sketched their ideas. Painting will continue for the next few weeks. Look for the end results during the live auction portion of the Phoenix Rising School Art Auction Fundraiser on June 24^th.

To view a photo gallery of the beginning stages of this process, click here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/110934773891617159253/ArtAuctionPainting?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJDOpoawkJPMowE&feat=directlink

The middle school students got, well, schooled this week – by a group of kindergarteners, no less. After reading “Our Class is Going Green”, a book written by another group of kindergarteners, Audrey’s class was on a mission to clean up campus and spread the word. “When they were done with the book, they wanted to go outside and pick up garbage,” says Audrey. “One of them said, ‘We should go tell the big kids to pick up their trash.’  So we used recycled materials to make posters on ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ and plastered them everywhere.”

Next was a visit to the middle school, where the students presented their posters, plus a few words of advice. “You can’t just throw trash on the floor,” said Deka. “Just now when we were coming in we saw a bunch of garbage out there, and we picked it up.”

“Don’t just color a tiny little box or a little something and say you’re done,” Jacob told them.  “That’s just wasting paper.”

“If there’ s not enough room to do any more coloring, there’s this thing that’s called ‘reduce.’ You turn the paper around and use the other side,” said Deka.

Reducing water consumption was also a hot topic.  “When you put water on your toothbrush, you have to turn the water off and then you brush your teeth, not just leave it on,” Tyler informed the class.

“They’re really into it,” says Audrey. “They take it very seriously.” The class’s next step is to create their own book about the three R’s. Meanwhile, Alexa had the last word.

“If there’s trash outside, pick it up.”

To view a photo gallery, click here: https://picasaweb.google.com/110934773891617159253/EarthDay?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLGW8p6epv67twE&feat=directlink

Justin Bieber, Dr. Seuss, JZ Knight and Seabiscuit. These were just a few of the topics chosen by Phoenix Rising middle school students for an extensive research project that culminated in a series of presentations this week. Here’s what they had to say about their topic, what they learned and why this person, animal, thing or mythological character is a hero.

Why did you pick your topic?

Evan: Because my first topic, which was Suzanne Collins, was a bit too difficult for me so my mom came up with the idea of Dr. Seuss.

William: I picked World War I because it was cool – a big event.

Airies:  I wanted to do something that I liked and was interested in, and I liked Facebook.

Natasha:  The reason I studied and presented the redwood tree was because I narrowed it down to two choices. It was cats and redwood trees, but I know a lot about cats, so I decided to do redwood trees.  I had a lot of fun presenting and making people laugh.

Chambolion:  Because you and my mom gave me the idea when I was very upset about having to do another presentation. When you said Michael Jackson, I thought it was a good idea. I love dancing and so I decided to do him, which turned out to be a good thing.

Astroleah:  I picked German Shepherds because first, I have two German Shepherds of my own and I really like them and I know they do a lot.

Kaylyn:  I picked JZ Knight because I was trying to figure out somebody that I wanted to do. I was sitting in my living room and thinking, “Who is a hero that has an autobiography that I could get?” and my mom said, “What about JZ?” I thought, “What a great idea!”

Daniela:  I chose Seabiscuit because he was an American legend and he inspired me a lot. I like horses.

Lilly Faye:  I was thinking really hard about a topic and having a hard time. I was thinking about movies, and then I was thinking about movie creators, and that’s how I picked Walt Disney.

Galeon: I picked Justin Bieber because he’s my hero.

Naimah:  I chose my topic because I like cars. I like how they look.

Jainkoa: I picked the kakapo parrot because it is on the endangered species list. It’s almost extinct.

Noah:  I picked Barack Obama because he’s the President of the United States. I thought people should know more about him.

Trajan: I picked Jason and the Argonauts because I like Greek mythology and I was studying Hercules, but I know so much about him, so I decided to research Jason and his adventures.

What was the greatest thing you learned?

Evan: Probably that Dr. Seuss was afraid of children. I thought it was kind of funny. He didn’t have any children, of course. And he made children’s books. It’s kind of surprising.

William: The during World War I, the Russians were still using cavalry, like lancemen, while the Germans were using tanks. They had a pretty low level of technology.

Airies:  That Facebook is the biggest social networking site in the world, not just America.

Natasha:  I knew that redwood trees were really tall and everything, but I didn’t know that they can live up to 2,000 years and they can hold more than 1,000 gallons of water.

Chambolion:  One thing was about all of the contributions Michael Jackson made. He gave sixty million dollars to help fight AIDS.

Astroleah:  Something that I learned was that German Shepherds work with the police and there were a lot of German Shepherds that were used in World War I.

Daniela: A lot of things that happened in Seabiscuit’s life, like the fact that he was in 89 races and only won 33 of them.

Lilly Faye:  The greatest thing I learned was about how Walt Disney thought of the idea to invent color movies with sound.

Galeon:  I didn’t learn much because I already knew everything about Justin Bieber, but I like to share things with others. I did learn time management. I normally have a hard time finishing projects on time, but this time I made a little schedule and had everything due at a certain time. I just made it due in my head, and then I actually got to it, so I finished on time.

Naimah: To me it was interesting that the Mini Cooper wasn’t a Cooper in the beginning – it was just a Mini. Later on they added the “Cooper.” I really like Mini Coopers.

Noah:  I learned that Barack Obama moved to and from five different places. First he lived in Hawaii, then he moved to Indonesia, then back to Hawaii, then to Seattle, then back to Hawaii and then to New York. That’s where he went to Columbia.

Trajan: I learned that Jason was a hero to Romans and Greeks.

What did you consider heroic about your topic?

Evan: Dr. Seuss helped kids learn and learn to read.

William: After World War I, it became more about how many guns you had instead of how strong you were. It changed warfare. Before that, it was all charges but by World War II it was more about bombs.

Airies: Mark Zuckerburg created a really great website; what would anyone do without Facebook?

Natasha:  Redwood trees can be used for wood products like screen doors, tables and furniture, but mostly they’re a hero because since they’re the tallest, they could probably absorb carbon dioxide and put out oxygen. Without any of these trees, we wouldn’t be doing so well. We’d be sick all the time. I think trees are a hero.

Chambolion:  A lot of black musicians weren’t treated as well as white musicians and Michael Jackson really changed that.

Kaylyn:  I consider JZ a hero because she’s donated a lot of money to college funds and she’s really, really helpful, especially to young people.

Daniela: To me, Seabiscuit was a hero because back in the day he helped people during the Great Depression. He was a symbol of joy and hope. Also, a lot of people thought he couldn’t do anything, but he really could.

Lilly Faye:  Walt Disney wanted to uplift people’s spirits because of the Great Depression. He is my hero because he wanted to make people happy by watching good films.

Galeon:  Justin Bieber donates a lot of money to charities, and he had a dream and he didn’t give up on it. And he’s extremely hot.

Naimah: The heroic part of cars is that they get you places.

Jainkoa:  It’s the only bird that has a lek breeding system. It’s nocturnal, and it can’t fly.

Noah:  Because Barack Obama brought change to America.

Trajan: Jason is my hero because he did a lot of stuff that no man could do.

When you’re four years old, few things in life are more exciting than baby bunnies. Except, perhaps, baby pigs. And baby cows. Or baby sheep. Throw in a rope swing, a few hay bales and a climbing rock designed for someone just your size and it’s paradise, otherwise known as Sara Foster’s house, where the Pre-K and Kinder classes spent a memorable afternoon this week.

Many parents came along for the ride and got to meet Sara’s assembly of doves, rabbits, sheep, cows, chickens with punk rock hairdos (check out the pictures), pigs, pigeons and a very large dog named Sasha but referred to by everyone as “Mudge.” Sasha will be visiting the Eve Wood’s class at PRS on Thursday to act as stand-in for the lookalike mastiff in the “Henry and Mudge” stories by Cynthia Rylant, a popular series for young readers.

Many thanks to Sara for allowing a small army of little folks and their parents to descend upon her peaceful farm. Also, thank you to Lilly the Very Tolerant Pig for letting everyone pet her, including a one year old child. To view a photo gallery of the visit, click here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/110934773891617159253/SarahSHouse?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNfJ-42v2LbEXQ&feat=directlink