One of our favorite artists, Andy Goldsworthy, also lives in Scotland. We took a look at some of his work using natural materials as inspiration for our own creations. We split into two teams and came up with some natural arrangements, making sure to use only elements from nature. The kids made a realization that … Continue reading Learning about Andy Goldsworthy’s Art
We spent hours in the park! Running across the fields and slopes, we imagined ourselves in Scotland where we visited the Scottish Highlands, rode on some Highland cattle and looked out for the Loch Ness monster. The group absolutely fell in love with a wonderful spot by a vernal pond, where we set up camp. … Continue reading Park Time!
Today we traveled to Scotland, where we discovered the famous ecovillage of Findhorn. This successful community creates their own energy using windmills, grows much of their own food, and runs their own natural waste system that mimics wetlands. We got to watch clips from a documentary about Findhorn to see what life looks like there.
What is Permaculture anyway? Permaculture is a set of design principles that helps humans to work with nature to create healthy and balanced living webs that produce as little waste and as much natural abundance as possible. Waste is only considered waste if it’s not used! Permaculture design mimics patterns found in nature that use … Continue reading Permaculture
Similar to our aquaponic system, wetlands provide multiple benefits to an ecosystem. Considered the “kidneys of the earth”, wetlands not only filter water of pollutants, but also provide habitats for animals, reduce flooding, and decrease soil erosion. Feeling inspired, we then created our own wetlands making sure to include elements to represent producers (plants), consumers … Continue reading Appreciating our Wetlands
After introducing ourselves with our talking feather, we visited Mexico to learn about the chinampas farming design that was used for hundreds of years as a means of producing an abundance of food with little input. These finger-like “floating gardens” make the most of the complex interactions between water, plants and creatures to create a … Continue reading Learning about Aztec chinampas farming and setting up an aquaponics system
There is nothing quite as grounding as working with soil! Spark explorers got to get their hands dirty first thing in the morning by re-potting our tomato and cucumber plants. We also started to sprout mung bean seeds in a dish and predicted how long it would take for them to grow.
We met up with Kyle in the park for a fascinating background story on Prospect Park and Litchfield Villa. We even had a chance to go into the lobby of Litchfield Villa to observe its old architecture.
Oh the wonders of water! Our bathing suit-clad Spark explorers had a blast beating the heat with some refreshing waterplay in the backyard! While some of us sprayed water at the rainclouds, others cleaned windows, made “slushies” full of flowers and leaves, hosted tea ceremonies, created dams, dunked water on their own heads, and watered … Continue reading Waterplay!
Kyle, our guest teacher, visited us in the yard to teach us the word for “water” in Kanji. We used ink to try out our calligraphy skills! Kyle then had us choose our own water carrying vessels, in which we carefully passed water from one friend to another. We took our vessels and created water … Continue reading Making Zen Water Gardens
