A Day in the Life: San Mateo Erdkinder, A Spring Day at the Farm

A Spring Day at the Farm

We worked at Green Oaks Creek Farm last Friday. One of the farmers gave us a refresher on harvesting strawberries.

This student gets to grips with the cart, transporting strawberry flats and baskets.



At lunchtime, we took our bag lunches up into the tree house.

We had a little down-time to play on the swing before getting back to work in the afternoon.

Here, we are weeding and chopping back some of the explosion of growth since our recent rains. The ornamental garden in used for weddings, and the farm is getting ready for a few of those coming up soon!

While we were weeding, we found a beautiful, furry caterpillar.

We had a great day!

A Day in the Life: San Mateo Erdkinder

Our class walked to Coyote Point to enjoy the warm spring weather, launching our upcoming unit on Marine science. We were so excited to get out of the classroom and into the "real world" of science! 

We practiced observing, recording, and identifying species in the environment, like Leonardo DaVinci, who spent much of his adolescence recording specimens in the woods. 

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to observe and document many shoreline birds feeding in the tidal zone. 

It was a beautiful day, and we loved taking the time to serenely connect with nature. 

Attention PRINTS Parents: Spring Break March 31st through April 4th

Dear PRINTS Families,

As a reminder, school will be closed for Spring Break from Monday, March 31st through Friday, April 4th.
Classes will resume on Monday, April 7th.

Thank you for your attention.

Attention PRINTS Parents: Parent-Teacher Conferences Friday, March 21st and 28th

Dear PRINTS Families,

Just as a reminder, the parent-teacher conferences will be held on 2 consecutive Fridays: March 21st and March 28th. Free childcare will be provided during your conference time.

Thank you for your attention.

A Day in the Life: San Mateo Erdkinder

A Spring Day at The Farm with the Erdkinder Community



St. Patrick's Day found us at the farm. It was a very bright, sunny, but COLD day, with a fresh prevailing wind blowing on to the land off of the ocean.

The farmers have been wanting to collect and study the insects living in the strawberry beds to better understand insect inhabitants and possible infestations that could damage the strawberry crop. Strawberries are vital to the economic health of Green Oaks Creek Farm as they are the most profitable annual crop for the farmers.

 We worked with partners to comb the strawberry beds and collect insect samples.

We then examined the insects using The National Wildlife Federation's Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America. Here, we are working with the new farm manager, reviewing all of the bugs we collected in vials and petri dishes.

We were able to identify many of the insects collected: Bordered Plant Bug, Darkling Beetle, Nine-Spotted Lady Beetle, Lubber Grasshopper, Luminescent Click Beetle, Common Pillbug and Pantropical Jumping Spider.

On the way back to school, we stopped for 15 minutes in Half Moon Bay at the Carnivorous Plants greenhouse in Pastorino Farms.

We were amazed by the variety of insect-consuming pants to be found and the way nature has evolved to provide so many species of plants. The photo above is just a tiny selection that shows a Pitcher Plant (speckled green and white) and a variety of Sun Dew. The green house is definitely worth visiting if you are heading to Half Moon Bay!

A Day in the Life: San Mateo Erdkinder

The Erdkinder Students Enjoy Using Their New Technology!

The Science Fair is dominating the EK curriculum right now, and multiple experiments are underway. There is a tremendous sense of purpose in our environment right now as students work on their research papers to support the projects, plus setting up and troubleshooting the experiments themselves.

A huge bonus has been the arrival of our new iPads from CK-12. As you all know, our PRINTS ErdKinder students won these pieces of equipment by coming third in the CK-12 national science competition. The tablets have been a boon as all of the students are using them to conduct research and record their science fair observations.

In these photographs, you can see the students engaged in their research.

Our new keyboard cases really extend the functionality of the tablets tremendously. We acquired the cases by selling one of the five iPads we won. The money we got was then used to purchase the four keyboard/cases.

We are all very thankful to Mr. Billy in the office and Ms. Riihimaki for making it easy for us to get going with our new technology.

Sometimes we use them just... to read....

The EK students

Attention PRINTS Parents: Half-Day Friday, March 7th

Dear PRINTS Families,

This Friday, March 7th, all classes except those for the High School level will end at 12:30 pm. Lunch will be served at 11:30 am. Childcare is available for those enrolled in the No-class Childcare Package.

Thank you for your attention.

A Day in the Life: San Mateo Erdkinder's France Projects

 The Erdkinder France Culmination Projects

Last week, we Erdkinder students presented our finished projects to wrap up our journeys into France! Over the course of the last six weeks, our investigations have encompassed reading the classic text The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, deepening our learning about the French Revolution, and we also watched Les Miserables and the Sofia Coppola movie about Marie Antoinette. The students completed a wide variety of individual projects on topics such as French lavender, Madame Tussaud, The Enlightenment and Treasures of the Louvre, to name but a few.



 Working on designing our presentation boards.

 Thinking about how best to arrange all of the work about French Lavender

  

 Our titles are important - they help our boards make a statement!

 Our EC visitors learned about the history of champagne! Champagne is a very important and iconic French product recognized and valued all over the world.

 France is also known for its haute couture; the French fashion industry really began during the reign of Louis XIV with Marie Antoinette becoming a major influence on fashion in the run up to the French Revolution of 1789. Millions of jobs are created around the world through the fashion industry.

 The strange yet compelling story of Madame Tussaud! She was an artistic genius in her own right, even though the start of her career (collecting heads from beneath the guillotine) may seem somewhat gruesome. Her story is an incredible aspect of French history that resonates today with millions of people visiting her waxworks museums worldwide.

 Here we are reading about the treasures of the Louvre Museum - the most visited museum in the world!

 Parents and students visit and learn about the wide range of topics we researched.

This project is on the Enlightenment and how it propelled a generation to revolution both in Europe and the American Colonies, leading to the War of Independence in the "New World."

Attention PRINTS Parents: San Mateo Community Involvement Nights March 6th, 25th and 26th

Dear PRINTS Families,

Our March Community Involvement Nights will be held as follows:

• All levels – March 6th at 5:30 p.m
• EC – March 25th at 5:00 p.m
• HS – March 26th at 6:00 p.m

The CIN this Thursday is entitled "Developing the Mind for Well-being; a dance between children and adults." This CIN is open to all levels and we encourage you to join us!

The EC CIN on March 25th will be on Leadership.
The HS CIN on March 26th will be the students' Science Fair.

Thank you for your attention! We look forward to your participation!

Attention PRINTS Parents: Presidents' Day, Monday, February 17

Dear PRINTS Families,

Presidents’ Day is Monday, February 17th
School will be closed to honor all U.S. Presidents.

Thank you for your attention.

Attention PRINTS Parents: Staff Development Day, Friday, February 14

Staff Development Day, Friday, February 14th

Classes will not be held due to faculty and management professional development. Childcare is not available for this day.

Thank you for your attention.

A Day in the Life: San Mateo ErdKinder Spring Festival preparation

Getting Ready for the Spring Festival!

Last week, the Erdkinder students spent a lot of time finishing up their innovative costuming for the dance "Resilience" in our Spring Festival celebration. As always, in an authentic Montessori environment such as ours, we give students significant latitude to be innovative - which by its very nature means that obstacles arise, problems occur, and there needs to be the space and commitment from the teachers and guides to allow students to resolve issues for themselves.

 Here, the students are using UV "glow" paint to make designs on their black clothing so that these will be luminous under the UV lights onstage.

Checking our props and costumes are complete: the students are 100% responsible for ensuring that they have everything they need for the celebration. Each is given a grocery bag to collect and keep all of her costumes, props and accessories. Each student organized these in advance of and during transportation to the event.

Costumes drying in the classroom. Note that the closet door is open... as students finished painting their clothes, they went into the closet and shut the door. Then, they turned on the UV light to check that their painting was thick enough to glow properly. They were very focused on ensuring that the end result would be the best quality they could achieve for audience enjoyment and the satisfaction of a job well done.

The head covering was difficult to achieve. After trial-and-error, large opaque black tights were procured. They were then cut up and converted into head stockings. Tape was then affixed to the face portion of the head stocking in pairs of geometrical shapes: square, circle, triangle, etc., to symbolize how we need to work together to problem-solve and develop resilience - the theme of this year's celebration!

 And - even though all of this was happening, there was still time for our regular work. These students are working on European geography.

 This week, the students had to do some trouble-shooting on the community's Bokashi composting venture. It was a pretty smelly job, but all plunged in with a great attitude. Our compost collection needs to be "recalibrated" to ensure it is correctly balanced.

Finally, to end an exciting and varied week, a representative from NAEP (National Association of Educational Progress) came and administered national "STEM" testing for what is called the "Nation's report card". All of the older students (equivalent of 8th grade), were tested for their understanding of math, science, engineering and technology concepts. Here he is with our students - a retired high-school band teacher! - explaining how to conduct the testing using the NAEP's online testing tool.

Even though we do not "teach to test" at PRINTS, we always welcome the chance to have the students experience testing...after all, for us it is a practical life lesson!

A Day in the Life: San Mateo Erdkinder Spring Festival Preparation

Making props for the Spring Festival!

A Day in the Life: Friday in the San Mateo Erdkinder Community

This is just a quick snapshot of pictures taken in a three-minute period. As usual, students are working on a variety of different assignments and projects, in between being called to lessons. In addition to this, the EK is also: rehearsing for Spring Festival, making props and costumes, and busy with language arts, grammar, spelling, geography, science and gardening. There's never a dull moment!

Working on math review before a test

Learning math tips from our teacher.

Working on Creative Writing based on the French Revolution

Researching the history of French couture

Wow. Madame Toussaud was a really interesting person ...who knew?

Reviewing math

A Day in the life: Doing our part during California's drought: Collecting graywater!

This week, children at the Emeryville campus have been discussing their observations about the unusual weather this winter and how it is much warmer and drier than usual. We talked about what the word "drought" means: how there isn't enough rain and the rivers and lakes and reservoirs are low, and there isn't much snow or ice on California's mountains. One child concluded that this meant that "there wouldn't be any ice to melt in the springtime, and that's bad, because the plants and animals need it." This led to suggestions about what we could all do to help California conserve water as Governor Brown has requested. "Well, we could stop watering the garden, because that uses a lot of water," one child offered. "No, because then all the plants would die," another said. We then arrived at the idea of saving the water we use in the classroom for Practical Life work and lunch clean-up instead of pouring it out. When we go outside at 1:00, we pour the water from the graywater bucket into watering cans and use them to water the plants in the Sensorial and Vegetable Gardens. Thursday and Friday of this week, our class re-used eight gallons of graywater in our garden! We invite you to continue this discussion at home, and even to consider a graywater collection bucket of your own.

We have already continued the discussion across campuses. Children in San Mateo have discussed all the different ways in which we use water. They discovered independently that there are a lot more ways in which water is utilised than one might initially think. Drinking, bathing, washing... these are just some ways in which we use water. Paying attention to how we wash our hands and utilising a graywater bucket like our friends in Emeryville are simple ways we can conserve water. We are trying to think of more ways in which we can conserve, so hopefully you can help us brainstorm more ways at home!