Animal House

This week we decided it would be fun to grow our own farm pasture by planting a "field" of grass. I have never done this activity before, but was happily surprised by students eager to build a farm stable out of popsicle sticks once the grass grew. Skill such as "how plants grow" were learned, as well as "animal habitats", "sorting items (animals)", "forming structures using building materials" were met through this activity. 

"I am building a house for the pigs to sleep. They need a cleaner place to sleep because they are so dirty!" -Hayden

Shreyans said: "My sheep wants to eat the cow. Sheeps eat cows a lot!"

Bora said, "My cow is eating grass, your sheep only eats what is left over."

Ummmm.......

I'd say it's wrong, but it's really SO cute to see how interested our class is in Ms. Laura's impending due date :) These girls were pretending to need to go to the hospital to have their baby while on recess. Stronger connections have been made as we talk about what it's like to care for babies because Gabe, Rishabh, and Hayden's parent's have all brought new family members into this world this year, giving other students a clear idea of what it is like to help raise their siblings. What a fun real-life experience to bring to our young ones. 

Chemical Reaction

The class seems to be addicted to this chemical reaction! It is automatic and undeniable.... What happens when colored lemon juice is poured on to baking soda? It fizzes, bubbles, and oozes. It never gets old! This is one science project that is sure to keep kids busy for a good while! Aila says, "It looks like a lot of bubbles in a bath". She also asks, "why isn't it all the same color?" 

Sight Words

Sight words are the words that are most often used but often cannot be read phonetically. We practice them in class by using books with predictive text, in order to provide repeated exposure to  these words. The idea is that the more they are practiced, the more they become a part of our  memory bank!

Here you will see that Maliya has played Sight Word Dominoes with the words we have learned in class! Only the same words can touch each other at any end. Great job Maliya!!!!

Happy Children's Day!

All students made a windsock of a Koi fish in representation of success for all children on this special holiday.  Here, Yuito is making a "fish face" so that he can look just like his windsock! 

Happy Children's Day- a holiday in Japan to celebrate the prosperity of the future of all children! 

Chair Wash

Ever taken your car in for a wash? Our chairs need the same thing from time to time... With the FANTASTIC weather we had today we decided to do a little Spring cleaning by washing our chairs! Students mixed a solution of shampoo and water, using green sponge pads to scrub each char clean. Who knew this would be such a hit?! 

Let There Be Light!

I put out a station this week in which students could explore light, as well as the colors of the rainbow. 

A reflective tray was set out, along with other reflective materials such as mirrors, cd's, and metal, along with reactors like colored lights, solar lights, and prisms. I let students discover at their own pace the magic of what light can do. There were revelations such as reflection, rainbows, distortion, magnification, and color variation.

Eating the Parts of a Plant???

This week we learned that we often eat ALL parts of a plant... Ask/share with your children what the part of a plant is when they are eating it. I believe that bestowing responsibility and knowledge about our planet and its fruits help build a sense of responsibility on our newest generation! We had been naming the parts of a plant for a couple weeks when I introduced that we can also EAT what we grow!!! This was quite a revelation when we discovered what we grow: ROOT: carrot, SEED: sesame seed, STEM: celery. LEAF: spinach, FLOWER: broccoli

Earth Day

Today was planting day! Everyone had a hand in getting the plants we bought at the Nursery last week in to the ground, from adding fresh soil, arranging the flower placement, digging holes, to watering. 

Yuval and Sanaa helped to decide where plants would go!

Rishabh was eager to help clean the yard debris,  but even more excited to take an excursion to the dump to get rid of it!

Maliya and Sydney took an up close look at the root system of one of our plants.
"I've never seen yellow roots before"-Maliya

Bora was an amazing helper when it came to digging up holes in the ground! He says he gets lots of practice at home in his Mom's garden.

 While planting a garden was our class' Earth Day contribution, other rooms released ladybugs on to our playground to help eat any  unwanted aphids that may try to eat our plants for dinner! All this excitement was caught on the videocameras of Fox12 News and KGW8 News stations! Click here to read the article printed from Fox 12 News.

Nursery Field Trip

This year for Earth Day our class is learning about how to clean the air. Topics such as pollution, its causes, and how to clean the air through recycling and planting plants have been discussed on a daily basis. It is so important to instill a sense of responsibility towards Mother Nature in this young generation, and what better way to do so than to get them out into the community and see first hand how they can be a part of the solution!

We focused on flowers that will attract insects and butterflies, as well as tried to choose plants that will bloom at different times of year to create a year round garden. 

Duck Pond



The class had a blast at the Duck Pond! It is such a great place to go and "just be". On our journey we came across the ever popular Mallard Duck, the Wood Duck, and Red Winged Blackbirds.

The pond! We are so lucky to have this habitat right down the road from our school!



The Ducks were so eager to greet us, hoping we had food, I'm sure.





The whole class got an up close and personal view of these fantastic creatures





Nesting mother duck and her protective mate. He would quack if anyone got too close.



Everyone spent a few quiet moments drawing what they could see and hear.



Wind Study

 How can you create wind energy? After studying the element of wind Dishitha and a few other classmates went outside at recess to see if they could feel wind after discovering that if somthethin moves fast, a gust of fast air wizzes by. This was a fun in depth study where students also tested if items would move if blown by the wind of a hair dryer, as well as create items in the classroom that they could take outside to test if wind was present (items included homemade pinwheels, flags, a tree with moving leaves, and a lightweight house made from taped together paper).

Fairy tale week

Journal time Thursday morning: "Alright boys and girls, close your eyes. Now I want you to imagine for a moment that you are in a magical land where you have been turned into someone VERY special. You might be a Princess, a Knight, a King, or a Queen. You might even be a big scary protector, like a shark or a dragon! (everyone had their eyes closed and began to gain a slight smile in the corner of their mouth. I could tell in that moment that they could SEE who they became!) 

Imagine that you live in a far away land... Where are you? Amongst trees in a forest? Up on a hill? Under water?

Your house has turned into.... a castle!... What does it look like? Imagine how many towers your castle has, what shape your door is, and how many people live there with you. 

Open your eyes. I want you to keep that special vision in your head and go draw what you just saw and tell me your story"

This is Hayden's Castle. It is on the ocean floor, her family has turned into mermaids! She is the Princess, who is taking a horse drawn carriage ride (on the left side of the castle) to her new under water home.

Another castle activity: Students had to work as a team to build a grand castle using all the blocks from the Construction center. They got so creative and thought of every detail! I saw gates, motes, guardian animals who would defend intruders, the whole bit. So cute!

Rishabh made all three of the bears from Goldilocks and the Three Bears!

5 Senses

See it, hear it, smell it, taste it, touch it! That was our focus during this week of the 5 Senses. Here are a few activities we did to explore and experiment:

Items were put in socks and passed around the circle for students to feel. It was SO hard not to peek inside, but it was fun to guess what each item was! (see and touch) 

This was one of our musical jam sessions with the 

instruments  you all made as a family. We played a few memorable games, but the most fun was Simon Says- calling out sound groups to see what it sounded like using different sound combinations. (hear and touch)

Finally, we learned about our taste buds and sense of smell by exploring different foods. Students learned about the different types of flavors (sweet, salty, bitter, and sour) and ate a sample of each. How do you think Jake liked his lemon?? lol! (taste and smell)

Reading Buddies

We have begun reading buddies in our class! Each day after snack students meet with their buddy to read to one another for a few minutes out of a book that has been matched to his/her reading level.

Students change their partner each week to ensure that they meet with students of varying reading ability.

Some weeks students are paired with classmates of a higher reading proficiency, allowing them to see first hand that the more you practice, the better you will read. Other weeks your child will be the stronger reader, allowing  confidence building within themselves. Or children will be paired with a similar leveled reader to be able to share struggles and successes.

During this time each day I put on quiet music. Students are to read and stay with their partner until the music is turned off, at which time we will come back together as a group and share stories with one another about what we read.