by Riaad Etheridge, Agriculture and Living Environment Teacher 

The Green House was finally completed last month, with drip irrigation pipes installed into the boxes on the roof garden. Future projects will include an irrigation system for the green house itself and increasing the planting space vertically on the roof garden. The Agriculture classes of 11th  and 12th grade students were relieved to have a greater surface area to plant their seeds and transplant their germinated seedlings into the boxes on the roof garden. There are well over 16 varieties of crops planted and growing in the green house, including collard greens, tomatoes, Swiss chard, lettuce, eggplant, cilantro, beets, carrots etc. This type of work helps students to gain experiences in their Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE) projects which is an important component of the Agriculture Course. These crops are all grown organically and there have been a lot of challenges already with pests and nutrient availability to the plants.    

Students researched how to plant and grow their crop organically and how to prevent pests and diseases from attacking the plants. Students are presently building pest traps to catch pests that are attempting to invade their crops. Some of the plants like cucumbers and summer beans are flowering and many students are awaiting the moment when their plants will be harvested or produce fruit. Congratulation to all the students who made this year the biggest crop ever produced in the Greenhouse! Many thanks to Con Edison who provided the grant for the extension of the greenhouse.

We also want to thank our Board of Trustees, and the members, staff, students and parents who came on Saturday, June 2nd for the Board Day of Service.   Flowers were planted, weeds were pulled and the space was spruced up and cleaned.  This was all done in preparation for the Renaissance garden being a part of the Jackson Heights historical garden tour this year.  All of our Jackson Heights neighbors were very impressed and excited by the work of our students in the organic garden, so be sure to check it out! 

Our garden fundraising campaign is off and running as well.  Be part of a lasting legacy by sponsoring a brick, bench or planter.  The form can be found on our website at: http://www.renaissancecharter.org/support/campaigns. 

Spotlight On...  New Teachers at Renaissance  

Career Day and Leadership Fair 2012 

Cluster Updates

During Rensizzle Week K-4th graders worked with Architect Howard Stern on built-environment projects.  The second graders created famous NYC buildings, and in the weeks following Rensizzle have created their own expanded city using those buildings as a starting point.  Daniela wrote to Howard that "The kids were upset because they needed a bridge to connect to the Puck building and were fortunate enough to have Renay lend us one that her class made with you!"   Junior city planners are learning early the art of collaboration and cooperation!

Second and Third graders enjoyed themselves at the Big Apple Circus at Cunningham Park on May 31st, and Third and Fourth graders are looking forward to visiting the Queens Zoo at Flushing Meadow Park on June 8.  2nd through 4th graders will be working with instructors from the NYC Hall of Science on June 11 and 12, learning about light and electricity in fun, hands-on experiments.  Third grade will also be going on a trip on June 18 to meet Dr. Lou Sorkin, arachnologist at the American Museum of Natural History, to investigate spiders as a follow-up to their unit on the novel Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White.    

Congratulations to the 4th Grade who collected over 89 pairs of eye-glasses as part of Pearle Vision's charitable giving program: Helping The World See.  They won the pizza party for the class who collected the most!   

501 students are finishing up their Civil War exploration through music, drama and journalism--becoming newspaper reporters who created news articles from the perspective of a northerner or southerner.  In math they are preparing themselves for 6th grade by conducting math experiments investigating negative numbers, and creating their own science experiments based on their own inquiry questions.  

The 6th graders who attended Nature's Classroom had a fabulous time, enjoying good weather and the beautiful Adirondack scenery around Lake George at the Silver Bay YMCA camp facility.   

   








They are now looking forward to the Annual 6th Grade Broadway Play and Sleepover! They will be seeing "GODSPELL" and returning to the school for that all important bonding event that is looked forward to all year!  

The Middle School recently concluded their End-of-the-Year trip at Boston, Massachusetts.  It was a mix of educational/historical (Salem Witch Museum and at Boston Freedom Trail) and recreational (Six Flags New England) activities enjoyed by the 54 students and facilitated by 7 chaperones. This is is a cycle of trips being offered as part of the middle school experience. Next year's trip will be more geared towards nature, adventure, and teamwork.    

The 7th & 8th graders who stayed behind enjoyed day-trips and a field day.   

 In 7th grade ELA, students are wrapping up a writing unit on feature articles. For this writing cycle, students did research and conducted interviews on topics they were interested in, ranging from how to take down your opponent in Judo (thanks to Rensizzle!)  to the best place to get lunch in Jackson Heights.  Students will finish this year by selecting the two pieces that represent their best work as writers and the two pieces that reflect their best work as readers and will create a portfolio that will follow them to 8th grade.  

The high school AP Human Geography class is planning a NYC walking trip to analyze how the concepts they learned in class apply in the real world.  Like real geographers, they will be conducting fieldwork to look at NYC's industrial past in Long Island City, see the ramifications of income and geographic transition on the Upper West Side, investigate recent Mexican Migration to NYC while enjoying marvelous food at  El Paso Taqueria in the Bronx, and observe experiments in housing redevelopment at West Farms, and finish up with Taiwanese migration in Flushing.  What a great trip!