Dear Friends of Russian Hill School,
We are enjoying the colors of spring here at Russian Hill School. We are also loving being out in nature and learning more about how plants grow and how they help us and how we can help them!
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Help us celebrate the past 40 years and support the next 40! As Bonnie, our founder, has always encouraged: let us spring forward into the future!
Preview the stunning student art and if you can join us tonight June 5th at 8pm on Zoom for our annual art celebration & auction.
From the RHS Classroom
In the classroom, RHS students are learning how to care for their very own plant through succulent propagation.
Plants are crucial for not only for our health and survival, but for the health and survival of our planet! This project will give each child the opportunity to grow their own succulent plant through propagation and will help them to experience a personal bond with nature. In this project, they will get to design a special pot for their plant, learn how to care for it to facilitate optimal growth, and they will come to understand the importance of developing connections with life in the natural world.
Propagating Succulents
Runtime: 7:20 / Activity Meter: 4
Propagating succulents is a fun experiment to try at home with your child! Succulents grow in dry and sunny climates, and are an excellent plant for children to care for because they require very little attention, but often grow in unexpectedly exciting ways!
Propagating plants is the process of growing new plants using a parent stock. When it comes to succulents, propagation only requires a healthy leaf from a mature plant, a pot of soil, a spray bottle filled with water, and some patience. In this video, children will see beautiful footage from Teacher Christine's succulent garden, they will learn about the magic of a plant's growth cycle, and will be inspired to recreate that wonder at home with the help of a parent or guardian.
Supplies needed: a small terra cotta pot, glue, q-tip (or something to use for painting with glue), sand, findings from nature (described in step 2), small strip of paper, pencil, soil, a succulent leaf -- e-mail us and we will send one in the mail if you do not have easy access to succulents)
Steps:
1. Pluck a leaf or a few leaves from the bottom of a mature succulent plant
2. Place the leaves in a window sill for a few days until their wounds have healed over
3. Fill a pot with soil and place the leaves on top
4. Put the pot in a brightly lit space and spray with water when the soil is dry
5. In about 3 weeks, your leaves should begin to sprout with roots and you will start to see a baby succulent grow!
6. Carefully remove the dried leaf from the baby succulent
7. Enjoy watching your baby succulent grow and grow!
Color Walk
Runtime: 9:46 / Activity Meter: 3
A Color Walk is a great way to open our senses and pay attention to the world around us. Join Teacher Stephanie as she discusses primary, secondary, and neutral colors, and embarks on a Color Walk of her own to see what Spring colors are appearing!
Extended Learning: Go for a color walk of your own! What color do you think you will see the most of? What color do you think you will see the least of? Try to find as much of your favorite color as you can!
Dramatic Play Theme: Fairy Tale
This Dramatic Play Theme, “Fairy Tale" was made by Teacher Lesly. Fairy tales are a great tool in encouraging creativity, problem solving skills, and helping children make sense of the world around them. By using fantastical representations of their surroundings, children are able to explore different emotions and perspectives, story sequencing and structure, and the differences between “real” and “make believe”.
Resources
1. Plant a Love of Nature in Your Kids:
Here’s a taste from this insightful article: “Parents are besieged with advice on reducing screen time and encouraging outdoor play, and extended time outside has many benefits. But even a single, seemingly ordinary moment can inspire a lifelong conservation ethic.”
2. The changes to life during Covid are plentiful. Even with the opening up that is happening slowly there are many disappointments to manage around playground desires, birthday celebrations, limitations to or when seeing grandparents and friends, and the changes to planned holidays. Here is a useful article from the Child Mind Institute on how to help your children manage these disappointments. In the article you will find a hopeful idea from Dr. Madeline Levine regarding potential growth out of this crisis: "Hopefully this experience will make that muscle of tolerating disappointment more robust, says Dr. Levine. “I think that’s the message that parents need to be aware of, which is some iteration of, ‘I think you can handle this. I know it’s really hard, but you got this.”