May 01 2012
Tomorrow, all four classes will be planting in our three large garden boxes in the side yard of the school. We will be doing this rain or shine (providing no lightening or thunder). Please make sure your child is dressed in clothing that can get a little dirty! If you have gardening tools to share, make sure they are labeled with your name on them and send them with your child. We look forward to this very fun and dirty day!
One of our garden boxes.
May 01 2012
Regan checks out the hens!
This morning, our class excitedly went outside to check to see if Thelma, Louise, or Dottie had left us any gifts. To our disappointment, they had not laid any eggs, but our class did not give up on the girls. Later in the afternoon, we went to check again, and low and behold, we had one, beautiful brown egg! We aren’t sure which hen laid the first egg, but the class talked about figuring out which hens lay which eggs.
The kids were also enthralled with a new provocation in our room this morning. Yesterday evening, the storm knocked down a small bird’s nest in my yard. Unable to put it back into its place, I brought it in for the kids to see. Next to it, I placed a question, “Who lived here?” The kids were encouraged to use watercolor pencils to tell the story of the nest. There were some incredible stories, I can’t wait to see what the kids come up with tomorrow.
Carriea's picture tells the story of the wind knocking down the bird's nest.
Who lived here?
Ruth, Messi, and Regan create stories about the nest.
May 01 2012
We have started a new unit of study in Writer’s Workshop. Today we started talking about letters. I posed the question, “What is a letter?” The kids shared from their own experiences. The kids brainstormed what you could do with a letter. They shared why you write letters and how you feel when you get letters. We ended our chat encouraging the kids to write their own letters. I was so impressed to see so many friends going straight to the message center to write letters to other friends!
Tyler writing away!
Reid is writing a letter to Max.
During Free Choice today, we were working away on our play. This afternoon, J’Nayla and Raki worked very hard on the sound effects. I know that the kids really respect the work of others, but there was a moment today when I saw it come to life. The two girls were recording the sound effects but each time they recorded they would also pick up background noise. After a quick chat they decided to ask the class to be silent when they were actually recording. (Asking this during free choice is typically unheard of in our class.) J’Nayla explained it was for the play and almost instantly the noise stopped. The girls were then able to record and get all the sound effects they needed with little problems. After this moment, I could tell how each student felt about the play and about J’Nayla and Raki’s work. They needed that part to be complete too and were ok being silent for a few moments to help out with their work. 🙂
J'Nayla and Raki were excited about their sound effects!
Apr 30 2012
What an exciting day! This afternoon, two of our generous parents, Mr. Newbold and Mr. Reiberg, were generous enough to build three, 4×10 garden boxes. The boxes are beautiful and built of rot-resistant cedar. We can’t wait to plant in them on Wednesday. Remember to send your child in clothes they can get dirty for the big planting!
Zek reads our Beautiful Chickens book in ancicipation of our coop.
This morning, I was greeted by friends shouting things like “CHICKENS!” and “Do they come today?!?” Friends were so anxious to meet our new hens. This afternoon, Andrew Brake from Naptown Chickens brought us our beautiful coop and three, lovely Rhode Island Red hens: Thelma, Louise, and Dottie. We are lucky enough to have this opportunity thanks to Mandy Owens and Carly Swift, Jett and Hutton’s moms and the owners of Just Pop In! Just Pop In! was kind enough to fund this project for our school. This afternoon, each class went outside to learn a little bit about our new friends and how to care for them. The plan is to have each class share the responsibilities weekly. We also talked about some chicken rules we will need to follow to keep Thelma, Louise and Dottie safe as well as ourselves. Because we don’t want to frighten them, we will try our best to talk in a soft voice around the chickens and not touch them. We are so excited to see how much more we are going to learn about our new friends!
The girls! Meet Thelma, Louise, and Dottie.
Apr 30 2012
We had an exciting afternoon today. After recess, our class got to go meet our school chickens! The kids were very interested in the chickens and had a lot of questions. We will all be exploring together as we care for these animals in our school.
Two of our school chickens!
Mr. Andrew Brake, from Naptown Chickens explained the chickens to our class.
After the chickens we celebrated March and April’s birthdays. Raki and Tyler worked together to make our cupcakes!
All of our friends are happy about the cupcakes!
