Pennies for Peace! Stone Soup.

YAY! We did it! We managed to raise $169.00 all in the name of Pennies for Peace. What an enlightening journey we have gone through! Much like Ollie was sharing with his parents when we initially began the project, maybe, one day our students might make a trip to see the schools that we have helped build. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Parents, friends and above all students of SK, thank you for taking this project so seriously and opening your hearts, and your piggy banks! THANK YOU:)

On Friday, our class went to TCF Bank to exchange the pennies that we had collected since April. Oh, what joy the students had seeing the pennies go down the express exchange teller. The numbers went

up and eventually the machine was overloaded and help was called for. We got to see the inside of the machine; what a treat it was for the children. The biggest highlight for me was to see the children all screaming when they got to see the 100 dollar bill, "Hey, it is Ben Franklin," they screamed. Then they hugged each other and said "Yay, a group hug!" Well, Baskins Robbins was next door, and I wanted to give them a special treat. You can only imagine what followed after...enjoy some of these pictures.

Whoops! Nearly forgot, we happened to have a pretty exciting day even before the trip to the bank... we had  a feast of Stone Soup ( prepared by our class)and bread baked by Susans' class.The whole school joined us!  Please, excuse how randomly placed the pics are, I was just so overwhelmed with joy I had to share these a.s.a.p!!

 

The Secret Garden!

"I really enjoyd bing at the Garden. it was beuetafull. i think Joeina wort really hard on the garden. the roses were just like in my dream, and all the other flowres wher like my dreams too." writes Amelia, who is sitting peacefully and reflecting the serenity of the Secret Garden. The others are admiring the roses and sketching on their clip boards. They come back to school and make more drawings.

This morning we were able to visit and explore an English Secret Garden. Yes, Joanna's peaceful and exotic garden! My students and I were delighted to get a tour and learn about numerous plants names and examine their seeds. It was beautiful to see the students exploring the paths, looking at the lily pads and fishes and petting Eclipse (cat), listening to the tranquil flow of the water. The highlight was listening to Joanna narrate a story; How the Whale Became, by Ted Hughes. (Did you know the whale was originally a plant in a garden?!)

What an incredible journey we have covered, this past month, with plants and growing things.

Joanna, we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts, for taking us to visit your Secret Garden.

This is a tour that will stay with us for a long long time I'm sure......