A sealed aquarium containing a jack-o-lantern and an uncut pumpkin was set up in the Glover Library on November 15 to study the process of decomposition or "rotting". This week the tank has been moved to the front lobby. Stop by and take a look at how far these pumpkins have gone. Click here to see some pictures.

The first issue of Milton Outdoor Classroom’s new teacher curriculum newsletter, The Classroom Naturalist, is now available! The newsletter, created by Glover Outdoor Classroom co-coordinators Margaret Eberhardt and Janet MacNeil, will provide monthly curriculum connections to the outdoor classrooms.  The focus of the first issue is on decomposition and includes several hands-on activities, including the Rot Race (an activity that involves watching the decomposition of a pumpkin and a jack-o-lantern sealed in an aquarium in the Glover Library). Each issue of the newsletter will also feature the Plant of the Month (a native plant that appears in the Glover Outdoor Classroom). November’s plant is the bayberry.

Meet at Glover to pick up the lanterns that the children made in Art Class.

We will parade around Turner’s Pond with our lanterns illuminated.  Your child’s lantern has a tea light candle glued to the bottom. If you are uncomfortable using a candle, you may bring glowsticks or a small flashlight. The lanterns have been tested and are safe. They are the same types of lanterns used in other towns and by the Tucker School.

Bring a flashlight to have with you during the walk.

Wear sturdy walking shoes and dress appropriately.

Help Us Finish the Patio in the Glover Outdoor Classroom!

In early September, we were able to install half of the patio gathering place in the Glover Outdoor Classroom. This was made possible by funds raised during the Twilight Cocktail Party at the Muse’s home last spring and several generous Giving Tree donations. The patio will be a beautiful meeting place for classes and small concerts/plays, etc. in the center of our beautiful new courtyard.

 We need $4,000 to finish the rest of the patio. Please help us raise the funds so the courtyard won’t look incomplete!

 There are three ways that you can help:

 1.    Buy an engraved red brick for $75. The 4-inch by 8-inch brick can be engraved with up to 2 lines of text (24 character spaces/line).

 2.   Buy an engraved blue stone paver for $150. The 11-inch by 11-inch blue stone pavers can be engraved with up to 4 lines of text (26 character spaces/line). (Click here for pictures of the bricks.)

 3.   Contribute a donation for any amount to the patio fund.

 In the spring, the red bricks will be used to create paths in the outdoor classroom, and the blue stone pavers will become part of the patio itself.  If you’d like to see samples, a display is set up outside the gym.

 Just think how great it would be to honor a special friend, teacher, or loved one with a personally-engraved brick, or perhaps immortalize a favorite quote forever in the Glover Outdoor Classroom!

 You should have received an order form in the backpacks. However, if you need another copy, they are available at the display (outside the gym) or you can download it as a pdf  file below If you have questions, contact Janet MacNeil, 617.698.7013, janetmacneil@comcast.net.

In addition to the plantings in the courtyard, we were able to install half of the patio gathering place (click here for some pictures). This was made possible by funds raised during the Twilight Cocktail Party at the Muse’s home last spring and several generous Giving Tree donations. The patio will be a beautiful meeting place for classes and small concerts/plays, etc. in the center of our beautiful new courtyard. Thank you to everyone who made it possible!

We hope to raise the remaining $4,000 needed for the rest of patio via an engraved brick fundraiser this fall. Look for more details in the PTO newsletter and at the Harvest Festival, or if you’re interested in contributing, contact Janet MacNeil, 617.698.7013, janetmacneil@comcast.net.

Remember all of those trees, shrubs, and plants that many Glover families donated to the Giving Tree last year? They have started appearing in the courtyard (click here to see)! Due to the generosity of many, many people, we have been able to transform the courtyard in the last few weeks. A. Thomas & Son did a terrific job bringing in boulders, creating the patio, and planting all kinds of trees and shrubs. Next time you stop in at their garden center, please be sure to thank them for their hard work. We also appreciate the patience of Mrs. Brathwaite and the janitorial staff while this work was taking place.

Thank you to all who donated to the Giving Tree and helped us create our state-of-the-art outdoor learning area. The teachers and students are thrilled with the possibilities provided by this new space.

The following additional families made donations to the Giving Tree after the last PTO newsletter went out last spring (in order of donations made):

Hilary Hoge and Nick Deveau, Glenn Pavlicek and Anita Penta, The Schiffmann family, Mary and Brendan McLaughlin, Hanh Nguyen, The DeAngelis family, Inger Kwaku, The Carroll family, Mary Jean & Joe MacNeil, Mary Grassa O'Neill, Dane and Jackson Matejka,
Abilgail Gray (who gathered Giving Tree donations in lieu of birthday gifts at her birthday party last spring)

Thank you very much!

If you haven’t had a chance to peek at the pumpkins in the Glover Outdoor Classroom yet, you’re missing quite a sight (click here for peek). The six varieties of pumpkins that the Glover students planted last June are thriving! Beautiful pumpkins of all sizes and colors are taking over the Farm Garden.

To celebrate our pumpkins, we’re planning a Harvest Festival and Pumpkin Parade in October. Check the PTO newsletter for upcoming details.

Thank you to all the Glover families who helped water the pumpkins over the summer (under the coordination of Margaret Eberhardt and our pumpkin specialist Karen Hainline): the Bly family, the Bridgeman family, the Eberhardt family, the Frye family, the Gorfinkle/Murphy family, the Hainline family, the Kiley family, the Malmstrom/Newman family, the Mullan family, the Possi family, the Rusnock family, and the Tran/Day family.

The first pumpkin made its appearance this past week and the pumpkin plants are growing out of their boxes! A huge thanks to the summer watering team! Check out the pictures here .

In May 2004, each grade voted on which type of pumpkin they would plant in the Glover Farm Garden (part of the Outdoor Classroom). Each teacher was provided with a colorful display and information about the pumpkins to help the students make their choices.

The raised beds in the Farm Garden are now ready for pumpkin planting. Thank you to Terry Driscoll of Will Sand for donating the soil! Also, a huge thank you to the team that hauled the the 300 bags of soil into the courtyard: Adam Gilmore and Garron Carvalho.

Glover Outdoor Classroom coordinators Janet MacNeil and Natalie Albers want to thank everyone who came to the Twilight Cocktail Party on May 15th. It was a wonderful evening filled with great jazz (provided by the Milton High School Jazz Combo), food, and company. We especially want to thank our generous hosts, Vickie and John Muse, and the core planning team who worked on putting the party together under the coordination of Mary Truslow: Rick Malmstrom, Katie Marsano, Jenny Pinkus, Lynne Stack, Rachel Wohanka, and Leslie Zimmer.

Many thanks also go to everyone who brought food, donated refreshments, and helped behind the scenes, including: Cathy Bly, Lauren and Eric Brennan, Beth Buckley, Katie Carroll, Anne Comber, Jan DeAngelis, Karen Hainline, Meredith Hall, Anke Herbert, Lisa Huban, Bunny Marquardt, Polly Martinson, Elizabeth Mozek, Barbara Nathan, Annie Perlick, Beth Richards, Kara Russo, Maura Sargent, and Thu-Hang Tran.

We also appreciate the terrific support of the Glover PTO who gave us a $500 grant to go toward party costs, Maura and Forbes Sargent who donated Red Sox tickets for the silent auction, Mrs. Brathwaite for donating Principal for a Day, Alison Corcoran and BJ’s Wholesale Club of Natick for donating refreshments, and Rebecca Smith of Konditor Meister for donating desserts.

Using a $1,000 grant from the Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom program, the Outdoor Classroom team has started creating the Farm Garden in the new courtyard. The Farm Garden consists of 5 raised beds and will be used to teach the Glover students about different food crops. Due to the efforts of Rick Malmstrom, the raised beds are now in place in the courtyard! Take a look at them next time you drop by the school. Many thanks to AVO Cedar Fences in Stoughton for donating the cedar used to build the beds, and Terry Driscoll of Will Sand in Canton for the soil that soon will be coming.

The May 15th Glover Outdoor Classroom Twilight Cocktail Party will be the last chance to give to the Giving Tree. If you haven’t had a chance to RSVP for the party, there’s still time, or you can drop in at the door. The Twilight Cocktail party will be held 6:00 to 9:00 PM at the home of Vickie and John Muse (16 Herrick Drive). It’s going to be a great event with music by the Milton High School Jazz Band and lots more info on what’s been happening in the Glover Outdoor Classroom. (RSVP to Rachel Wohanka, 179 Hinckley Road--$25 per person in advance, $30/person at the door.)

In the mean time, we want to thank all the generous Glover families who have donated to the Giving Tree so far. Without your support, we couldn’t make this unique learning experience happen for our children. To date, we have raised over $6,000—a good start toward our total goal.

In addition, the Glover PTO has donated a mobile cart for nature exploration tools (binoculars, clipboards, magnifying glasses, etc.). The cart is located in the library so that teachers have easy access to whatever they need before they head outside to explore with their classes! Thank you so much to the PTO for this very useful gift!

Finally, if you have Giving Tree tags that you haven’t had a chance to send in yet, this would be a good time to send in your checks. We’re in the process of determining what we have the funds to buy. Thanks!

As a follow up to our fall 2003 bulb planting project, all Glover students participated in spring nature activities during Library classes the week of May 4th. It was great to see the kids doing nature sketching in the Outdoor Classroom, exploring flowers up close with jeweler’s loupes, studying the parts of flowers under the microscope, and perusing the Glover Outdoor Classroom web site (click here to see some pictures).

Thank you so much to Mrs. Henry for helping us coordinate and oversee the activities and to Mrs. Brathwaite for her enthusiastic support. Also, many thanks to Margaret Eberhardt for creating fun take-home handouts for the students, and Bunny Marquardt and Patti Mullan for coordinating the parent volunteers.

We had a great group of parent volunteers to help out with the nature activities: Megan Adley, Donna Baker, Jane Bennett, Deirdre Berg, Anne Comber, Connie Corcoran, Beth Davis, Jan DeAngelis, Erika Donahue, Doris Drummond, Margaret Eberhardt, Donna Farmer, Janet Gilmore, Ann Gioioso, Jean Graham, Polly Glynn, Karen Hainline, Meredith Hall, Kerry Hayes, Beth Hess, Lisa Huban, Kathy Huntington, Mary Joyce, Bunny Marquardt, Polly Martinson, Cathy Matejka, Elizabeth Mozek, Patti Mullan, Barbara Nathan, Carolyn Newman, Diana Onishuk, Annie Perlick, Beth Peterson, Laura Phelan, Kathleen Potter, Carol Rosner, Rosemary Roulon, Denise Ryland, Maura Sargent, Beth Schiffman, Elaine Shiffman, Mary Truslow, Adele Van den Bosch, Mary Jane Walsh, and Leslie Zimmer. Thank you!

Finally, we’d like to thank the Milton Jr. Women’s Club who gave us a grant that allowed us to buy the jeweler’s loupes (in addition to other materials), and Peggy Rusnock and Cedar Grove Gardens who donated flowers for our student explorations.

On May 3rd, Charlotte Albers (a youth education specialist at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia) held workshops for all Glover teachers. The focus of the workshops was how to engage students in the Outdoor Classroom with easy activities for indoor and outdoor learning. Charlotte explained the Outdoor Classroom plan to the teachers and provided lots of great teaching ideas. In the future, we will be providing more teacher training sessions geared toward how to integrate the Outdoor Classroom into the Glover K-5 curriculum.

We want to send huge thank you’s to the following parents who came in to substitute for the teachers while the teachers attended the workshops and to Mrs. Brathwaite for coordinating everyone. Without the help of these parents, we would not have been able to provide this valuable teacher training. Please thank them next time you see them!

Mrs. Rulon (Mrs. Lemelman’s class)
Mrs. Bridgeman and Mrs. Fitzgerald (Mrs. Mary McCarthy’s classes)
Janet Gilmore, Kathy Fagan, and Mrs. Ingraham (M. Rogan’s class)
Eileen Neret (Mrs. Turner’s and Mrs. Alcarez’s classes)
Diana Onishuk (Mrs. Caggiano’s class)
Anne Comber (Mrs. Curran’s and Mr. Beston’s class)
Carol Rosner (Mrs. Griffin’s class)
Maura Sargent and Adele Van den Bosch (M. Leite’s class)
Vickie Muse (Mme. Nguyen’s class)
Beth Davis (Mrs. Spinks’ class)
Liz O’Neill (Ms. St. Sauveur’s class)
Ada Rosmarin (Ms. Murphy’s class)
Maureen Connors (Mrs. Carole McCarthy’s class)
Kathy Huntington and Mrs. Graham (Mrs. Warner’s class)
Mrs. Charlebois, Mary Jane Walsh, and Laura Phelan (Mr. Hendrick’s class)

We also want to thank Margaret Eberhardt who helped coordinate the workshop events and did a terrific job organizing a delicious breakfast and lunch for the teachers while they attended the workshops. Refreshment contributors included: Karen Hainline, Peggy Rusnock, Lynne Stack, and Thu-Hang Tran. Thank you! Finally, many thanks to Lori Henry for helping set up curriculum guide, book, and nature exploration tool displays for the teachers to view.

The bulbs planted last fall are popping up all over the place. Click here for a few pictures but if you get a chance, come and see for yourself.

With this spate of warm weather over the past week, some of the bulbs planted in the courtyard last fall have decided to take a peek (and it's still a few weeks until spring!). They are along the north wall next to the library door enjoying the warm southern exposure of our winter sun. Click here to take a peek.

You may have noticed that the Giving Tree is no longer in the Glover Lobby. A family of mice decided to make it their home (the “Living, Giving Tree”) and so the tree had to make a quick exit. Guess they enjoyed munching on the paper mache! Even though the tree is no longer standing, you can still donate to the Giving Tree via our website (click here). We have put up a less mice-enticing Giving Tree exhibit in preparation for the Glover Anniversary Celebration in March.

The response to the Giving Tree has really been wonderful. We’ve raised about $4,000 of our $30,000 budget so far. But we still have a lot of trees, shrubs, nature exploration materials, teacher curriculum guides, children’s nature books, etc. to buy!

We’d like to thank all the families who have donated to the Giving Tree (click here for list).

Special thanks to Lawson Buckley who asked for Giving Tree donations instead of gifts at her birthday party. With the $300 that she raised, she was able to buy some really special items for the Outdoor Classroom (including a plant press, a trellis, a boulder for the Geology Rock Garden, and several trees/shrubs). Thank you Lawson for giving such a lasting gift to Glover!

We also want to recognize Brownie Troop #4161 who donated the money they raised last year on Girl Scout cookies to buy a special yellow birch for the Outdoor Classroom. Thank you!

Finally, we want to extend a warm thank you to the Tucker Community. As a gesture of appreciation to the Glover School for our gracious welcome and accommodation of the Tucker students and faculty this year, the Tucker PTO has presented a lovely copper birdbath to Glover for the Outdoor Classroom. Thank you to all Tucker students and parents—we’ve enjoyed sharing our school with you this year!

The Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom program has awarded the Glover Outdoor Classroom a $1,000 grant to create a Farm Garden in the new courtyard (click here to see the grant site). The Farm Garden will consist of 5 raised beds and will be used to teach the Glover students about different food crops. In the spring of 2004, parent volunteers will construct the raised beds and the students will plant pumpkins for harvesting in the fall.

Through the Pumpkin Project, we hope to enrich all areas of the curriculum: