Birdhouse Clinic teaches good stewardship of earth
During LEAP’s annual Birdhouse Clinic in March, third-grade students worked alongside their parents and grandparents to build habitats for their back yards where birds can build nests and grow their families this spring. Some of the birdhouses will be hung at LEAP’s home, Dressel School, and become part of an outdoor observation area. LEAP, a program for gifted students, stands for Lindbergh Eager Achievers Program.
The Birdhouse Clinic is a class tradition dating back to the weeks following Hurricane Katrina. During that time, LEAP students built and shipped 100 birdhouses to partner schools in storm-damaged areas, for students to hang in their neighborhoods. Last year, they donated the birdhouses to the city of Sunset Hills, to provide temporary habitats for birds following the tornado that destroyed more than 200 trees. The third-graders consistently use the Birdhouse Clinic as a way to raise awareness of being good stewards of the earth, both at home, in the community and as a nation.
ECE students make pasta to learn about Italy
Students in the pre-K caterpillar room at Lindbergh Early Childhood Education made their own pasta from scratch as they learned all about Italy, following an in-depth study of the “Strega Nona” books by children’s author Tomie dePaola.
“Strega Nona” is a fictional story about a woman who uses her magic to help people. She hires “Big Anthony” to help her with her house and garden. When Strega Nona leaves town, she warns Big Anthony not to touch her pasta pot, but as soon as she’s gone, Big Anthony uses the magic pasta pot and serves the whole town pasta. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know the secret to get the pasta pot to stop bubbling and boiling, and the entire town gets covered in pasta. Strega Nona returns just in time to save the townspeople. Big Anthony must make everything right again, and has to eat the pasta so Strega Nona can sleep in her bed and the town can be clean again.
All 10 books about Strega Nona and Big Anthony take place in Italy. Students located Italy on a map, learned several Italian words, and learned about different places in Italy, including Roma and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
3-D creations draw inspiration from African makes
Kennerly Elementary School third-grade art students recently created three-dimensional masks inspired by African culture. Students viewed a presentation of photos showing various African masks, and discussed their uses and how they look. They also focused on geometrical shapes in the masks, as a tie-in to their current math unit. Next, the students drew their own masks on tagboard, cut them out, added decorations with markers, construction paper, and raffia, and made sure to include at least three different geometric shapes.
Leprechauns hide from Crestwood kids
Crestwood kindergarten students enjoyed setting traps to catch the leprechauns who frolic about in their classrooms every St. Patrick’s Day. Although they did not catch any leprechauns, the children enjoyed the “golden” treats that were left by the clever wee folks!
Middle school families explore new science labs
Truman and Sperreng middle schools invited students and their families to tour the schools’ updated state-of-the-art science labs March 15 as part of a new event that was funded by a Spirit of Lindbergh Teacher Grant.
Students and their families were treated to a pizza dinner and had the opportunity to participate in various lab stations. Admission was free, but parents and students were asked to donate one consumable supply for lab use during the year, such as cups, foil, baking soda, vinegar or plastic bags.
