The Bill Passed!

Thanks to all of the "city council members" who attended our meeting last Thursday.  We presented the Public Pier Bill as well as our model of what we thought Pier 15 should have under this proposed law.  After some serious discussion, presentations from both the high rise developer and our committee, and a Q&A session with the creators of the bill, it was voted on.  It passed - 15 to 4!  I'll post more photos with captions this week, but didn't want to leave our readers hanging about the fate of our vote.

In other news, the year is winding down in second grade.  We're spending a lot of time reflecting on our favorite parts of this year, talking about our hopes for next year, and realizing how much we've grown this year.  Tomorrow we will be visiting the third grade classes to ask the teachers and students questions about third grade and tour their rooms.  I can't believe we're almost third graders!

Public Pier Bill Open Forum

The Pier 15 Plan

Developers proposed building two large, luxury high-rises on Pier 15.  While it has been abandoned for a long time, not all citizens in District 3 were fans of this plan.  We took their concerns to City Council and were told to return on June 19th with our own plan.  Both the high-rise developers and the staff at the Make the City Better Show will be presenting their models and ideas for the future of Pier 15 at 1:45pm on Thursday, June 19th.  

To create the plan we wanted to present, we first worked in our NYC government departments to figure out what we needed to include in a public plan.  The Department of Transportation said we needed a bus stop, bike paths, a subway station entrance, a boat dock, cross-walks, and lots more.  The Department of Sanitation voiced the need for a compost pile, trash cans, recycling bins, hand-dryers in the bathrooms, and more.  The Department of Health urged us to include water fountains, bathrooms, food carts/stands that sold healthy food options, a vegetable garden, and places for people to exercise both young and old.  The Department of Parks and Recreation said we needed green space, play grounds, a swimming area, many trees, and park benches.  The Department of Animal Care and Control wanted a dog run, a pet medical center, green space and trees for wild animals, and free bags for pet clean-up. 

After each department planned their ideal pier, we came together with our hundreds of ideas and created one large plan.  

Then we got to work.  We saw the model's base for the pier on the West Side Highway and began building what was needed.  We labeled the larger items on the model and then created a map key for the small items that showed up repeatedly on the map (such as bathrooms, trashcans, and water fountains).  

We'll share the finished model on our blog after we present on Thursday.  The developers will also be presenting - we'll see which plan the citizens choose for Pier 15!

Pollination

Our brassica plants are growing so quickly!  We are charting their life cycle and we were all stumped about what happened after they grew flowers.  How do they make seeds?

We did some reading and learned that pollination was necessary for our plants to create seeds.  We don't have (thankfully) any bees or too many insects in our classroom, so we did the next best thing - we did the pollinating ourselves!  We worked in pairs to pollinate our plants using a q-tip.  We then added to our observation papers to keep track of what is happening to our plants.  I wonder how/when seeds will appear on our plants!

Sirovich Senior Center

On May 30th we had a visitor to our classroom - a parent came to discuss her work with the Department for the Aging within the NYC government.  We know a lot about how the Parks and Recreation Department helps people enjoy the city, and this was a great time to learn about how another department helps people over 60 years old enjoy the city as well.

After doing a Q&A, we walked to the Sirovich Senior Center on 12th Street.  This center is open to all members of the New York City community over 60 years old.  We toured the center and saw lots of great amenities - from indoor gardens to art studios, from dining halls to dance classes, from cooking classes to Tai Chi, the seniors were busy at the Sirovich Senior Center!  It was a great tour and we learned so much - especially from the seniors themselves!  We learned a TON about ceramics from a group working on beautiful pottery pieces and we even learned a folk dance with the senior dance class.

Listening to our guest speaker before going to the Senior Center 

We observed Tai Chi classes.  The auditorium
was soon used for a folk dancing class that we
were able to participate in.

Listening to the director of the center talk about
upcoming events and activities

We learned so much from these three seniors who all taught us
about pottery and the art of patience to create something beautiful

American Ballet Theater

Today we headed to Lincoln Center's Metropolitan Opera House to see the American Ballet Theater's Young People's Ballet Workshop.

The American Ballet Theater Company put on a great show showing both principle dancers, dancers in training, and even public school students.  All of the pieces were inspiring to us as dancers, especially those choreographed and danced by students from local schools - including students our age!

We had a great day experiencing the ballet and enjoying dance.

Growing plants without seeds

Over the past few weeks we've been exploring, observing, and growing plants that start from seeds.  We have brassica flowers, wheat stems, and green grass growing all around our classroom - and they all started from seeds.  Today we heard that you can grow plants without seeds!

Some of us thought of some great examples - an onion left in the drawer too long suddenly sprouts new growth!  A potato full of eyes suddenly has buds on it after it is forgotten in the bin!  These plants are growing - without a seed.

Today we talked about a plant we often see around the East Village - ivy.  We see it climbing up buildings, spiraling around poles, and clinging to large patches of dirt.  Yet we knew that roots were the plant-part that held plants steady.  Which must mean that stems can grow new roots!  We decided to test this theory.

We made cuttings of ivy that included stems and leaves and put them into water.  If they start drawing in the water like a root does, maybe roots will begin growing!  If they do, we'll be able to plant our new plants in soil and watch them grow.  We'll be observing these cuttings over the next few weeks.  How exciting!