School Bells – Current Affairs – Grade 1 – Week 7
As always I am excited to meet with the first grade class. This week we are to discuss Susie’s concerns about whether we treat the trees mean and if they help us breathe. The students are arriving now.
Me: Good morning class.
Class: Good morning Mr. Jim Me: I hope everyone had a good week. Did you?
Class: Yes!
Sam: Do we have cookies Uncle Jim? Me: Yes, here is one cookie for everyone. Tara and Tommy will you pass them out please?
Tara and Tommy pass them out.
It does not take long before everyone has inhaled their cookie.
Me: Today we are discussing Susie’s concerns. Susie will you remind us what you concerns are?
Susie: I think we are mean to the trees. My brother says that they help us breathe and if we keep cutting them down to make houses we will not be able
to breathe. This week he said that trees talk to each other and other plants. Is that true?
Me: This sounds like an environmental issue. Does everyone know what the
word environment means?
Sofia: That means everything around us?
Me: Yes, that is the meaning. So that includes the trees, the animals, the air and everything.
Tommy: Even the ants?
Me: Yes, even the ants and the flies and everything.
Sue: Ugh!
Me: So, Sue question related to how parts of the environment help each other or if they help each other. She particularly wants to know about how our relationship with the trees.
Sam: That sounds funny Uncle Jim. It sounds like the tree is a person.
Me: Yes, we usually think of just having relationships with other people. Let’s get back to Sue’s question about how we treat trees and how they treat us. How do trees help us?
Ahmes: My mom said we get oxygen from trees and trees take in the bad stuff the car - stuff from cars.
Me: The carbon monoxide and other things that are bad for us.
Steve: That stuff you breathes when you get behind some cars. Makes me sick.
Me: Yes, that is the carbon monoxide or CO2. How well do trees help?
Tara: The provide shade.
Susie: We tie our hammock to them and take a nap.
Sam: They provide homes for birds and other animals.
Tommy: We have apple and pear trees. They give us food.
Sofia: Some of our house is wood but we have to cut them down. Is that mean Mr. Jim
Me: Good question Sofia. If we cut too much then it is not good for the trees or the environment.
Ahmes: If we cut all the trees they cannot help us breathe. S
usie: Do they talk to other plants?
Sam: We were listening to a program that said they do talk in a way to other plants and others plants and things talk to them. Do they speak Egyptian, Syrian or English Uncle Jim?
Me: That is funny Sam. Actually I read on a web site (ecology.com) Suzanne Simard, whose job is a forest scientist at the University of British Columbia and the people she works with have discovered that trees and plants do communicate with each other. There is web of fungi, sort of like our brains which allow them to talk back and forth. When one needs something they often share water or food.
Steve: Do our brains have fun. fung..
Me: Fungi Steve. We have parts of our brain that connect other parts. Trees and plants use a different material but it does the same thing.
Tommy: Don’t our brains have Wi-Fi?
Me: Oh that is good Tommy. No we have to have physical parts so allow the different parts to connect with each other and the same is true with plants and trees.
Sue: So it is not mean to cut some trees?
Me: No, actually, sometimes there are too many trees and we have to cut some of them so the others can live. If we put all the kids in this class in one little cardboard box none could live. Sometimes we can move trees but we have to take some of them out or their will not be enough food for any of them. On the other hand, if we take them all out, nothing does well.
Sofia: But if a family has too many children to feed we do not kill some of them.
Me: No, but we may need to help them or sometimes some of them go to live with another family member.
Tara: Can I talk to a tree?
Me: Well, yes and told. If we mistreat anything it affects everything else. Just think of what happens if one person in the class is mean to someone else in the class. Does it then feel bad for everyone? T
Tara: It is like you can feel it or if my mother and dad are in a bad mood when I come home from school I know right away.
Me: Perhaps that is the important lesson for today. Everything affects everything else. The trees helps us and other plants. Other plants help the trees and us. What we do affects the trees and the plants, everyone in the family and everyone in this class. Native American know that all the parts of the environment – plants, people, animals –are important. If you used a tree for wood, a canoe and something else you only took what you needed and you gave thanks for the tree. They believed that if they good care of everything in the environment it would take care of them. Do you think a family works the same way?
Sue: if we take care of each other we all do better?
Me: Very good Sue. Maybe after today every time we see a tree, a plant, or an animal we will think of them being our friend and talking to each other as well as sharing oxygen and other things with us. Good job everyone. Thanks. Steve and Sue would you hand out one more cookie to everyone? Next week we will talk about friendships. What are they? How do we feed them?
Class: Thanks Mr. Jim.
Everyone finishes their cookie.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Me: have a wonderful week.
Written September 28, 2016
As always I am excited to meet with the first grade class. This week we are to discuss Susie’s concerns about whether we treat the trees mean and if they help us breathe. The students are arriving now.
Me: Good morning class.
Class: Good morning Mr. Jim Me: I hope everyone had a good week. Did you?
Class: Yes!
Sam: Do we have cookies Uncle Jim? Me: Yes, here is one cookie for everyone. Tara and Tommy will you pass them out please?
Tara and Tommy pass them out.
It does not take long before everyone has inhaled their cookie.
Me: Today we are discussing Susie’s concerns. Susie will you remind us what you concerns are?
Susie: I think we are mean to the trees. My brother says that they help us breathe and if we keep cutting them down to make houses we will not be able
to breathe. This week he said that trees talk to each other and other plants. Is that true?
Me: This sounds like an environmental issue. Does everyone know what the
word environment means?
Sofia: That means everything around us?
Me: Yes, that is the meaning. So that includes the trees, the animals, the air and everything.
Tommy: Even the ants?
Me: Yes, even the ants and the flies and everything.
Sue: Ugh!
Me: So, Sue question related to how parts of the environment help each other or if they help each other. She particularly wants to know about how our relationship with the trees.
Sam: That sounds funny Uncle Jim. It sounds like the tree is a person.
Me: Yes, we usually think of just having relationships with other people. Let’s get back to Sue’s question about how we treat trees and how they treat us. How do trees help us?
Ahmes: My mom said we get oxygen from trees and trees take in the bad stuff the car - stuff from cars.
Me: The carbon monoxide and other things that are bad for us.
Steve: That stuff you breathes when you get behind some cars. Makes me sick.
Me: Yes, that is the carbon monoxide or CO2. How well do trees help?
Tara: The provide shade.
Susie: We tie our hammock to them and take a nap.
Sam: They provide homes for birds and other animals.
Tommy: We have apple and pear trees. They give us food.
Sofia: Some of our house is wood but we have to cut them down. Is that mean Mr. Jim
Me: Good question Sofia. If we cut too much then it is not good for the trees or the environment.
Ahmes: If we cut all the trees they cannot help us breathe. S
usie: Do they talk to other plants?
Sam: We were listening to a program that said they do talk in a way to other plants and others plants and things talk to them. Do they speak Egyptian, Syrian or English Uncle Jim?
Me: That is funny Sam. Actually I read on a web site (ecology.com) Suzanne Simard, whose job is a forest scientist at the University of British Columbia and the people she works with have discovered that trees and plants do communicate with each other. There is web of fungi, sort of like our brains which allow them to talk back and forth. When one needs something they often share water or food.
Steve: Do our brains have fun. fung..
Me: Fungi Steve. We have parts of our brain that connect other parts. Trees and plants use a different material but it does the same thing.
Tommy: Don’t our brains have Wi-Fi?
Me: Oh that is good Tommy. No we have to have physical parts so allow the different parts to connect with each other and the same is true with plants and trees.
Sue: So it is not mean to cut some trees?
Me: No, actually, sometimes there are too many trees and we have to cut some of them so the others can live. If we put all the kids in this class in one little cardboard box none could live. Sometimes we can move trees but we have to take some of them out or their will not be enough food for any of them. On the other hand, if we take them all out, nothing does well.
Sofia: But if a family has too many children to feed we do not kill some of them.
Me: No, but we may need to help them or sometimes some of them go to live with another family member.
Tara: Can I talk to a tree?
Me: Well, yes and told. If we mistreat anything it affects everything else. Just think of what happens if one person in the class is mean to someone else in the class. Does it then feel bad for everyone? T
Tara: It is like you can feel it or if my mother and dad are in a bad mood when I come home from school I know right away.
Me: Perhaps that is the important lesson for today. Everything affects everything else. The trees helps us and other plants. Other plants help the trees and us. What we do affects the trees and the plants, everyone in the family and everyone in this class. Native American know that all the parts of the environment – plants, people, animals –are important. If you used a tree for wood, a canoe and something else you only took what you needed and you gave thanks for the tree. They believed that if they good care of everything in the environment it would take care of them. Do you think a family works the same way?
Sue: if we take care of each other we all do better?
Me: Very good Sue. Maybe after today every time we see a tree, a plant, or an animal we will think of them being our friend and talking to each other as well as sharing oxygen and other things with us. Good job everyone. Thanks. Steve and Sue would you hand out one more cookie to everyone? Next week we will talk about friendships. What are they? How do we feed them?
Class: Thanks Mr. Jim.
Everyone finishes their cookie.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Me: have a wonderful week.
Written September 28, 2016
RSS Feed