Diwali

Guest Author: Double Creek Student, D.

Diwali is the Indian holiday of lights. It is like Christmas because you get fancy new clothes, go to your place of worship, and stores decorate with lights. Diwali is like the 4th of July because there are fireworks. You make colorful clay lanterns, called diya, and paint them. You also put colored sand in fancy patterns outside of your door and bring good food to your neighbors. 

We made clay diya like the ones they make in India. I think that Diwali is a cool holiday that is similar and different from US holidays.

Birch Art and Science

                In late summer we collected some mature paper birch catkins (cone-like seed pods, technically flowers with no petals). Our plan is to plant a grove of birch to help stabilize the stream bank as we remove the invasive ivy.  Like many trees, birch seeds typically require cold stratification to break their dormancy. Each student designed a controlled experiment to see what factors influence germination rates. We must wait patiently for spring for most of the results. However,  after reading about an alternative method of germinating fresh seeds in water under bright lights, one student managed to sprout fall seeds in water. The germination rate of 4% isn't great, but three happy little seedlings are growing strong. (Can you spot them in the picture below?)  

                 We also brought birch trees into our art class. We used painter's tape to keep the trunks white while we made a watercolor background. Then we added details to the trunks. Some students experimented with shadows. Our resident preschooler explored a modern art rendition of the project. 

Pumpkins

Guest Author: Double Creek Student, J. 

On Thursday, October 4, 2018, five Double Creek (D.C.) students went outside for their teacher's latest art project: painting pumpkins!

 The pumpkins had been grown by two of D.C.'s students, T. and V.  When it was time to paint them, the kids took turns choosing the pumpkins, one by one, soon most of the pumpkins had been chosen.

Some silly pumpkins had been painted, as well as some scary ones. One of the students had not been able to get an orange one, as half of the pumpkins had been green, so she painted her pumpkin orange. One of the other students had done the same thing, except her pumpkin had already been orange. Some people painted their stem green, in other words, people made stereotypical pumpkins.

In the end, the final pumpkins had the following designs: A black pumpkin with a dark grey dragon, a highly pampered pumpkin stands out with its eye shadow and lip stick, some traditional jack-o-lanterns, a mottled pastel pumpkin, and a tiny globe pumpkin. Happy Halloween!