written by Shingobee guide, Amanda O’Dowd

After a long hard winter, spring is finally here! In Shingobee we have done some spring cleaning and we rearranged our classroom. We have also been studying plants, trees, and herbs. We have had some special guests that have come to talk to us about their work in farming, herbology, and maple sugaring.

Miles Rosenthal's mother, Courtney Tchida, visited our classroom to help us plant spring seeds that will be planted in our school garden and used in our cooking at the end of the school year. Her father, Dale Tchida will be joining our class to discuss how to make maple syrup. Hadley Musselman shared her knowledge of herbs with us, too: she helped us make tinctures and salves. Finally, a group of our students went to the Como Conservatory to observe the plants and visit the rainforest area.

All of our studies around plants have led to further investigation of lavender, chamomile, elderberry, valerian, and many other fun herbs! We are excited to watch the leaves return to the trees, the grass turn green, the flowers to come up and to grow our own food!