Another Busy Week

Even though the kindergartners only had 3 days of class this week, we had full days packed with fun. The kids did an amazing job on Tuesday night for our Kindergarten Music and Art Show. They can all be very proud of their hard work creating art and singing their songs. It was a joy to watch them on stage! On Friday we were able to be in the audience this time for a musical concert from Dave Keller and blues musician Johnny Rawls. With the beautiful weather we had, the show was played outdoors. It was quite the "dance party"! During Writer's Workshop, we have begun writing reports on our Vermont animals using research that was completed with the help of our 2nd grade buddies. We are focusing on how each animal moves, what it eats, what its covering is, and where it lives. A final highlight from our week was a walk to the Kellogg Hubbard Library to do their "Story Walk" of Mary Had a Little Lamp by Jack Lechner and Bob Staake. It was wonderful to get outside and look for signs of spring along the way! Enjoy your spring break! I'll see everyone back on the 29th!

Vermont Animals

The kindergartners have each chosen to be one Vermont Animal for the rest of the school year. When we go out on ECO days, we will often refer to the children by their animal name rather than their given name. On our ECO day two weeks ago, we saw hawks flying overhead and the children ran to tell the "jumping mouse" and "white tailed mouse" to watch out for the predator. Today at ECO the children continued the discussion we are having about if they think their Vermont animal could survive at Harrison Field and Forest. We went to four different areas of the space: the field, forest, ridge line, and vernal pool. The children sketched and wrote about what they saw and if each space would or would not make a good home for their animal. Tomorrow we will meet with our 2nd grade buddies from Mrs. Quinn's class. The 2nd graders will help the children read non-fiction text about their animal and answer some simple questions such as what their animal eats, what it looks like, and where it lives. We will use this information to begin writing a report on our animal. Ask your child to tell you more about their Vermont animal!

The Scientific Method

Hopefully you have already heard about the owl pellets that students dissected last Friday. We began our lesson my talking about the steps scientists take when they are trying to learn more about something. After reading a few books about owls, I showed them an owl pellet but did not tell them what it was. I told them that it was their job, as scientists, to ask questions about it and hypothesize what it could be. Some students predicted that the object was an owl pellet. Others said it was fur, and some thought it was a mouse. The next day, I gave one pellet to each small group of students and let them explore. We talked about how they would be finding bones, and I explained the names of the major bones and where they are in our bodies. As they found the bones, they highlighted them on a chart. After about 45 minutes of fully engaged exploration, we had quite a mess to clean up! Yesterday, we worked on documenting what we found and determining if our predictions were correct. We will be having Four Winds next Wednesday and the lesson will be centered around owls and pellets as well, which will give students a greater understanding of owls and another opportunity to explore a pellet!