Wetlands Unit
/This week we have been busy exploring the properties of clay. We are experimenting with creating shapes and different textures. We will be using clay in the coming weeks to create pieces for a class project that will be fired in the kiln. This week we visited the library and learned how to use the library computers to find the books we want. We are continuing to work on finding books that are a “just right fit”. We also checked out books about the wetlands and about raccoons. We want to learn more about the midnight visitors to our outdoor classroom. Our college buddies visited us during writing time on Monday to help us start our new Small Moments unit. We are working on writing non-fiction pieces using interesting details. We are continuing to work on penmanship and writing conventions as well. This week with Ms. Julie we started working on a class garden project. We had to do some difficult math (6X3X3) to figure out how many feet of hooping material we will need. We worked in small groups to write a letter to a local company asking for a donation of supplies. In addition, we invited the Whale class into our classroom community to begin our wetland unit. We brainstormed what already know about wetlands, and talked about what types of animals make their home in wetland. We discussed our upcoming field trip to Blooming Farms to work on our wetlands restoration project. In our outdoor classroom we are becoming excellent observers. We are taking the time to notice small details, record our observations, and form hypotheses. We found more tracks in our sand box this week and found three new kinds of insects in our outdoor classroom. We are documenting our findings to use in upcoming classroom projects. We also had the joy of celebrating our first class birthday this week! Happy Birthday, Margaux! On Wednesday morning we worked in small groups to design collaborative structures using natural materials in the outdoor classroom. Groups are designing a castle, a home, a fire pit, and telephone booth. It takes a lot of social negotiation, problem-solving, and gross motor muscles to build these structures in teams.
