EXPLORING OUR BIG BACKYARD! This past Monday while your children were out of school, teachers had a professional learning day in which we prepared for Student Led Conferences and did a variety of other things. One of those things was touring the woods behind Westchester with an expert in outdoor education from the Wylde Center. On this tour I got all sorts of ideas about how to use the nature trail space as an outdoor classroom to support our content standards, and wanted to let you know that between now and the end of the year, we will be visiting the woods frequently as I find ways to incorporate our learning into this space. Since parents signed permission slips for walking field trips at the beginning of the school year (which you all did), this covers walks through our woods (since we will be off of school property). Please know that we will not be crossing any roads, we will always have a walkie talkie and a first aid kit just like we do on the playground, and we will not take to the woods unless we have 3 adults with the class--which we normally do with Ms. Ivey and Ms. Curl and myself. If you volunteer for Writer's Workshop, be aware that we might be doing our writing outside some days, starting next week. Being in the woods makes persuasive writing about environmental topics all the more meaningful too :) Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this. WORMS, WORMS, WORMS! Last week an outdoor education expert from the Wylde Center (same person as above, Westchester parent Allison Ericson) taught our class a lesson on rocks and soils in the woods just past the playground. We got to dig up soil samples to compare them, look for decomposers (like worms), and examples of things that were decomposing (like old leaves and such). Well, it spiked a whole lot of worm talk in our class, and since then I have taken buckets, shovels, and magnifying glasses out to the playground daily where our kiddos are becoming work scientists. We've also been reading some books to learn more about our wiggly friends and why they are important for plant growth. LEPRECHAUNS??? Yesterday was quite exciting. In case you didn't hear about it, this is the short version. Though there is some skepticism going around, there is also belief that a leprechaun may have jumped out of the girls' bathroom ceiling, run across the floor, and climbed back up to the ceiling in the boys' bathroom yesterday while we were at lunch. He also left us some gold coins and a note. This of course sparked a hunt on the playground for evidence of his whereabouts (i.e. trash the kids found, which according to them could only have been left by a mischievous leprechaun). Then many children wanted to make leprechaun traps during center time, which involved a lot of sign-writing (shown below: "No traps", "Welcome leprechauns", and "Come inside leprechauns"), collaboration, and creativity in trap building. Marlowe and Kala decided trapping leprechauns was cruel and decided to secretly write letters to warn the leprechauns and tape them up in the hallway :) Then we all wrote our "opinions" about leprechauns during writers' workshop (whether or not they are real, whether people thought we would really catch one, how we feel about the idea of leprechauns sneaking around, etc.). Though I did not at any point tell the children that leprechauns were real (or not real...magical things are a touchy subject at this age), I did assure them that they definitely will not be back this year because St. Patrick's Day is over, so the hunt is off, and the traps are being taken down...and the footprints have been scrubbed away. COMMUNITY CIRCLE STUFF
Save the dates! Our class will be leading Community Circle on April 1st and April 22nd. We hope you can make it! I will try to remember to send out names of which students will be making announcements on stage for each time once we get that planned. The first date is the same week as Student Led Conferences, so if you haven't heard from me the week of the 1st, feel free to ask! Thank you to so many of you who have come to Community Circle this year! If you came this week or last, I hope you enjoyed moving up closer to our class since we did away with the backpacks. This definitely makes it feel more like a "circle", so thanks for squeezing in. I also want to thank you for your help with saying goodbye to your children prior to Community Circle so that they don't feel the need to jump up for a hug and kiss when it's time for parents to exit. Keeping everyone seated helps us transition quickly back to the classrooms to start our day. Since we are working on coming closer together and feeling more like a true Community Circle, I would like to invite you to join us when we are singing and dancing. Just to let you know, I don't ever know the PE dance either (I have my planning period when the kids have "specials", so a lot of the dances and songs from music are new to me on Fridays), but it's usually simple enough to catch on to by watching Coach Henry and the students. As for singing, lyrics are posted to help us all sing along. The more participation we have, the more it feels like a celebration of community. Thanks in advance for your support. I hope to see you there soon!
2 Comments
Christie Bell
3/18/2016 01:13:20 pm
I'm excited to hear the kids are going to get to do some learning outside! That is great.
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Shannon Eggleton
3/18/2016 08:55:16 pm
I so wish Max had been well enough to be there for the Day the Leprechaun Crashed the Class. ;) He would have been beside himself!
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