Equinox Studies Peacemakers by Julia and Cameron

 Julia and Cameron pose with material they are reading in class.

    Peacemakers change the world. Equinox House is studying peace makers such as Jane Goodall, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and others.
    Our teachers are reading us books and we are reading, too. Our reading groups are reading books about Jane Goodall and Martin Luther King. Jr. In kiva, we are also learning songs about the peace makers. We are writing facts, details and what we think about their activities. We used Google Docs with a partner. Partner 1 named the document and sent it to Partner 2. We had questions we had to answer. We also had to list the five best words to describe our peace- maker. You could show it to your parents by going to your email and clicking on ‘Documents.’ It’s better than Word because you couldn’t get that from home. And, more than one person can work on the Google doc at one time. A piece of paper might get lost.
    Cameron is studying Jane Goodall. Jane Goodall was born in London, England in 1934. Jane’s mom gave her a stuffed chimp and she named it Jubilee. When she was little she wondered where eggs came from so one day she went into a chicken coop and just stared at the chickens until one laid an egg. Her mother and father were so worried because she was gone for four hours. They called the police. Her parents were stunned to see a girl with lots of straw in her hair sprinting to them.
Here is a quote from Jane Goodall. “Teaching children to care for the earth and for each other is our hope for the future.”
    Julia is studying Martin Luther King Jr. He is famous for making peace for black people. The white people wouldn’t allow blacks to use the same water fountain or to go to the same restaurant. He thought the laws were unfair and he wanted to change them without violence.
He had a dream that black people and white people could be friends. He was assassinated in April, 1968. He was standing on a balcony when he was shot.
    All of the Equinox students are having a performance for parents about the peacemakers. They will sing historic songs, carry signs about famous peace makers, and read poems they have written. There will be instruments, signing and rapping.
   The show will be on Wednesday, Dec. 21st at 6:30 PM. They will sing, “Peace is the World Smiling, Turn the World Around and an Irish Blessing and more.

Equinox Studies Ecosystems

Daniel and Luca explore the Allen Brook.

By Dani Kasti and Cyrus Petra

Be respectful to the animals. If you are not respectful you are hurting nature. In Equinox, we are studying the forest, the fields, streams and rivers and wetlands. We divided all of the kids in Equinox into four groups. Each group learns about one ecosystem and then they move to another until you have been to all four.
We went to the Allen Brook with Ms. Ward. Cyrus did a project about the river. In our Science notebooks we recorded the weather, time and date. We divided into small groups. One went near the rocks, another went under the bridge, and the third went to the other side of the bridge. We listed things that we saw like soil, slimy rocks and plants.
We were trying to catch little creatures that lived in the stream by using nets. We put them in a cup or a test tube. A cray fish would go in the cup and a minnow in the test tube. We observed them and wrote in our Science notebooks. We brought them back into the classroom and looked carefully at what everyone caught. We measured them and wrote things like how many legs.
We also brought in rocks and put them on the scale to see the weight. We recorded this information in our Science notebooks.
Dani did a project about the field. In the field we were trying to find birds’ nests and birds. We were also trying to find different kinds of animals. We would draw them in our notebooks. Ms. Schoolcraft gave us a card with information about an animal. In the classroom we would pass around a ball of yarn. You would say your animal and you chose someone who tells his/her animal. If your animal eats their animal, you pass the yarn to them. We created a food web!
We also learned about producers, decomposers and consumers. A producer is a plant that gets energy from the sun, a decomposer is an animal that eats dead animals and a consumer is an animal that gets energy from a producer and a decomposer.
Everybody thought this study was fun because there were lots of cool activities.

Enrichment Garden Class Participates in Science-Art Collaboration

Having Fun AND Learning at The Same Time!

Danielle Urban & Shannon Loiseau

Equinox house third and fourth grade students worked with Andrew (The gardener), Ms. Baker, Ms. Amanda from Equinox, Ms. Milks, and the Garden Class student helpers  to use their math, science, art and team work skills to make a soap. They made a variety of different soaps using herbs, plants and oils.

One recipe that they developed contained yarrow, birch, lavender, ylang ylang, a bit of oatmeal, a drop of sage and a Shea butter soap base. Another recipe included birch, clove, wintergreen, oatmeal and an olive oil base. Although the classes developed different recipes, they were similar.

Some of the ingredients the students had to choose from were:

Herbs	Oils
Birch- Pain Relief Yarrow- Skin astringent (cleanser) Calendula- Skin astringent (cleanser) Oatmeal- Skin calming Rose Buds- Relieves stress Mint- Energizing Lavender- Calming scent Anise Hyssop- Scent Beet Root- Pink Color Ailonet- Red/Brown Color	Clover- Comfort and Pain Relief Rosemary- Awakening Eucalyptus- Cleansing Patchouli- Relaxing Ylang Ylang – Relaxing Vetiver- Grounding Wintergreen- Awakening

The students could choose one oil and a variety of different herbs and plants. If you want to make soap we would recommend to pick plants, herbs and oils that go well with each other.

We hope you have fun making your sensational soap!  Soap you later!