Volunteers are Fabulous!

Given the long stretch of heat since spring and the lack of rain, many of the plants at Caraway are surviving the summer only with a little help. Okay, a lot of help. We’ve lost a few plants that were not yet well established, but a crew of dedicated volunteers is watering to keep things alive and doing a great job of it.

Thank you volunteers!

Summer Nature Events

Looking for nature activities to do with the family? A great resource is Nature Rocks Austin. They provide lists of many different greenspaces and parks where you can explore nature. They also offer activity ideas, as well as a calendar of events all over the Austin area. Click on the events to get location and other information.

Have a great summer, Caraway! Get outdoors!

Well, Caraway, it’s been another great school year, with new habitat projects completed and a great focus on being green at school and at home. It’s been a delight being part of such wonderful changes and new outdoor learning opportunities for our students. Caraway’s Green Team continues with Richard Fowler at the helm, and he’s got great ideas for our beautiful habitat. Continue giving your support and volunteering to help — like our native plants, our environmental projects have room to grow, and it will take a team! I move on to middle school with my son, but you might still see me from time to time at Caraway.

Have a fantastic summer, everyone — be sure to get outdoors and enjoy nature. Take a hike, and I mean that literally! Don’t forget your reusable water bottle, hat, and sunscreen!

Mosaics, Art Beautify Caraway

Our school’s exterior has undergone a metamorphosis! The 5th-graders’ 2011 legacy project, two mosaic butterflies using art created by the 5th-graders themselves, show how much our Outdoor Wildlife Lab (the O.W.L.) and other habitat projects mean to our school. Did you know that Kathy Caraway herself loved butterflies?

Thank you to Ms. Conti, our art teacher, for planning this spectacular creation with our students, and thank you to Liz M. and all the other volunteers who helped bring this butterfly to life, so to speak.

Nearby, other mosaics beautify our Outdoor Wildlife Lab.

Tricia L. and her scouts designed and made the tiled art for our O.W.L. benches. The artwork shows hummingbirds, flowers, and of course our school mascot, owls. The bench tops are gorgeous!

The benches are a perfect colorful complement to the blooms in our garden. Thanks, Tricia L. and your student helpers, and thanks again to Liz M. for helping me do the final stage — the ever-fun grouting process! Another thank you goes out to the USFW Partners for Wildlife program for the funds we used to provide these benches for our outdoor learning center — the O.W.L. has become a fantastic wildlife viewing area for our students and our school neighbors.

While photographing the benches, I discovered this wonderful birdfeeder by the O.W.L. Could this be a class’s Earth Day project? Love it!

Earth Week Finishes With Recycled Hats and Green, Green, Green

Continuing Earth Week, Caraway held a spectacular “Hats Off to Recycling” parade.

Students from all classes donned hats made from aluminum cans, cereal boxes, grocery bags, newspapers, toilet paper and paper towel rolls, trash, and more — then they marched the halls to show off their creations to the rest of the school.

There were some really imaginative hats on display — I wish I could show them all, but there were so very many!

Fabulous hats, everyone — and way to reuse and recycle!

On the last day before Earth Day, which happened to be a holiday for the district, Caraway students showed just how “green” they are — it was Green Shirt Day, as well as Bike/Walk to school day!

Just look at all those green shirts!

Though I couldn’t get pictures of all the grades, I at least managed to catch Grades 1, 2, and 3 on the playground. But imagine if you will ALL the grades in all their green shirts — the hallways looked like spring leaves on a branch!

Caraway, you really made the Earth proud this week  — thank you to all the teachers, parents, students, and staff for everything you did that helps our environment and teaches others how to love our planet.

Remember, EVERY day is Earth Day — always THINK GREEN, Caraway!

Earth Week Highlights Continue

What a fantastic Earth Week we had at Caraway this past week! Kids and teachers all donning crazy sunglasses, far-out socks and shoes, super-creative hats made of trash and recycling, and green shirts for our spectacular Green Ribbon theme week designed to celebrate this wonderful planet we call Earth. But that’s not all — classes have been doing making fabulous posters to talk about recycling, caring for the Earth, and more. Check out some of the scenes around school, and stay tuned for pics of some of our super-green kids!

Caraway Gets Beautified for Earth Week

Thank you to all the many scouts who have been busy picking up trash, weeding, preparing new stepping stones, and working on a path for the wildflower meadow. Caraway is looking wonderful and is so lucky to have such hard-working students and parents beautifying our grounds and helping the Earth at the same time.

Fantastic job!

This Just In

We have Purple Martin eggs in two gourds now — a total of 9! It’s rather interesting — one parent couple keeps their eggs uncovered, while the other parent couple carefully covers their eggs with oak leaves. If you stop by to observe the Purple Martins,  you might get to see them swoop about collecting insects over the retention pond. It’s really fun to watch! Even when they are high in the sky, they are very much paying attention to what’s going on at the gourds. They are good parents!

Our Purple Martins Are Here!

We’ve eagerly been awaiting (and crossing our fingers for) the arrival of Purple Martins to our new gourds, and happily we’ve seen our very first ones this past week. But the best news of all is that there are eggs in one nest, too!

Purple Martins are members of the Swallow family, and they eat flying insects high in the sky. They are known for their dark feathers that have a purple sheen to them. This coloration is most obvious in the adult males.

Purple Martins spend the winter in Brazil and migrate back up to Texas and other area for their breeding season. They’ll head back to Brazil in July or so.

We’ve only opened up a few gourds so far, because we wanted to encourage the first few Purple Martins to arrive while discouraging invasive species like English House Sparrows and European Starlings. English House Sparrows are little and brownish, while European Starlings are iridescent black with bright yellow beaks and orange legs (Purple Martins have dark beaks and legs). Both are non-native “pest” birds that will attack and destroy the nests, eggs, and babies of our native Purple Martins, so we’re trying to keep them from establishing a home in our gourds, and we do this by pulling out their nest material as they put it in. If you see us removing a nest from a gourd, rest assured it’s the nest of a non-native and not-very-nice bird, and not one of our wonderful Purple Martins!

We have an adult pair of Purple Martins that have already laid their eggs. There are five white eggs in the nest. The mama bird laid one egg per day until she laid the fifth and final egg on April 16. It will take about 16 days for the young to hatch.

We expect the babies to hatch around the first week of May. We will keep you updated with pictures!

By the way, have you ever listened to Purple Martins sing? They have a beautiful voice!

Earth Week — Caraway is greener than ever!

Happy Earth Week! All week long we are having a special Green celebration at Caraway!

Monday, April 18: Wear sunglasses or crazy sunglasses: be on the lookout for ways to go green!

Tuesday, April 19: Wear crazy socks or shoes to kick out waste!

Wednesday, April 20: Wear a hat made of recycled materials.  “Hats off to recycling” – we’re having a parade of hats!

Thursday, April 21: Wear a green shirt, and bike or walk to school if you can!

Friday, April 22: NO SCHOOL, but it’s Earth Day!  Do something special for the environment with your family!

We’ll have our special Green OWL shirts on sale all week long in the morning near the main door. $10 each – child and adult sizes are available!

Thank you to all our classes participating in the HEB paper bag decorating for Earth Day. Your artwork and messages about protecting our planet are wonderful! And a big thanks to all of Girl Scout Troop 116 for organizing and running this activity! Here are a few of the many excellent bags given back to HEB for them to share with their customers.

Keep up the good work, Caraway Green Kids!