Forest Explorations Continued
/We are in the process of creating our own temperate rainforests. We took notes about what we noticed during our field study at the Tillmook forest. We are using our notes to construct forests out of remida materials. We took a campus walk to collect natural materials for our individual forest constructions. We are also collaborating to create a large forest in our block area. We are being sure to include a forest floor, understory, canopy, nurse log, and animals in our forests.
Last week when our college buddies visited they helped us add details about setting to our imaginative writing pieces. This week our college buddies helped us continue researching our specific plants. We read scientific articles about our plant species and used highlighters to highlight the most important information. Then we began to record information that we thought would be useful to include in our field guide. Ask your child what he/she learned about the plant he/she is researching.
This week we watched a tutorial about how to draw a tree. We continued to work on our fall tree art project. We also had a chance to glaze our tea mugs. Our mugs are in the process of being fired in the kiln for the last time before we can use them for our poetry tea time.
We used field guides to identify leaves and pinecones that we found on a recent nature walk. We are examining a variety of field guides as we prepare to create our own field guide.
Our salmon eggs hatched over the weekend! Seven eggs failed to develop, six still remain in their eggs, and the rest emerged from their eggs. Our salmon are now in the alevin stage of development. We have been reading and researching to learn more about our alevin. We also recorded an entry in our scientific notebooks today.
We were thrilled to discover ice in our outdoor classroom this week! We are hoping to explore the various states of matter more in-depth this winter.
In numeracy we continued our exploration of measurement. We’ve been measuring the paperwhite plants from Tilly’s grandma, among other things. Our tallest paperwhite has grown to be 8.5 inches! We’ve also been practicing writing equations with our number of the day. We are able to create and solve some tricky equations. We are fortunate to be able to continue our coding work with Mr. Adam on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Our days are filled with opportunities for learning, creating, and collaborating. It’s impossible to record them all… Just a few other explorations in the last week include examining slugs and spiders, constructing homes outside, meditating, creating our own Checkers games, reading books in Spanish, sharing treasures from home, and building bakery shops in our outdoor classroom.
