Frog Life Cycle Art

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The days are flying by in the Otter classroom! Over the last two weeks we’ve been quite busy creating frog life cycle art and Mother’s Day gifts. We’ve also been exploring chemistry through a variety of balloon demonstrations and writing persuasive pieces. We can’t wait to share some of our work with you at the Celebration of Learning this Thursday! We also enjoyed a delightful nature walk with our Seal buddies, built some amazing sand and water pathways, and observed that back legs have developed on one of our tadpoles.

Outdoor Construction with Tools

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Several weeks ago Otter and Sea Lion students discovered several fallen branches around campus. Students expressed interest in creating a structure with the fallen limbs. What started as simple interest has grown into a full-fledged cohort collaboration, filled with creative engineering, thoughtful problem-solving, and joyful exploration.

With careful supervision, Ms. Julie and Ms. Cassie introduced real tools—saws and hammers—along with the appropriate safety gear. Over the last couple of the weeks the children have been scavenging, planning, negotiating, and constructing with great enthusiasm. Pacific facilities and the landscapers intentionally preserved the structure for our students and several people in the shared community walked by and happily commented on it. It looks like the beginning of a magical tree fort.

In our indoor classroom this week, students have been using the microscope to examine insects and have been enthusiastically watching our tadpoles develop. We’ve been working on frog life cycle art, presenting science posters, playing math board games, examining maps, having interesting book discussions, and visiting the library. We also celebrated Earth Day with a lovely ELC picnic on Tuesday afternoon and got to admire and reflect on the process of creating our glass art with Ms. Lucy.

Tree Climbing Adventures and Science Posters

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Each morning we eagerly check our tadpole tank to see how our tadpoles are developing! We’ve noticed the tadpoles getting bigger each week and they are eating plenty of algae. They sometimes rest on the bottom of the tank and other times they can be found flitting around the tank or hiding in the log. Students express great concern for how the tadpoles are doing and are careful to have calm bodies around the tank. This week students created art depicting the tadpole stage of development. It’s fascinating to observe how students’ art pieces differ, even as the subject matter is the same. We can’t wait to showcase some of our artwork at next month’s Celebration of Learning! This week Mr. Mark visited the outdoor classroom to do a tree climbing demonstration. We were introduced to the western red cedar that grows in our classroom. Ask your child to tell you what the indigenous people call this beautiful tree. Mr. Mark demonstrated how to carefully climb in a way that keeps both the climber and the tree safe. Afterwards, students had an opportunity to try their hand at tree climbing. Students had huge smiles on their faces and felt empowered as they carefully climbed their way up the tree. Students did a fantastic job being gentle with the tree, careful with their bodies, and knowledgable about their own limits. Every child who climbed listened to their internal voice to determine how high felt safe for them to climb. Ms. Casey came in to play Qwirkle with small groups of students. Through this game students are learning to think strategically and use tally marks to keep score.  They are also practicing their addition and pattern-recognition skills. Ms. Linda came in to help students sew individual treasure bags. Thanks to Ms. Linda, our Otter students have gained much experience sewing and felting this year. Students were excited to discuss what they plan to keep in their treasure bags. Everything from gems to baseball cards! Mr. Greg came in to help students on engineering project kits too. In spelling this week second graders are learning about homophones and strategies to remember how to spell some common homophones. For our States of Matter unit students worked with partners to create science posters that described some of our more common states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. We had a fascinating discussion about whether or not gravity was a gas. Students argued passionately on both sides. It was an excellent opportunity to practice disagreeing with others (kindly) and presenting facts to support your viewpoints. After our animated discussion, students did some research to determine the scientific answer. We learned that gravity is actually NOT a type of matter, but instead is a fundamental force that acts on matter. After completing our science posters, we learned about public speaking and how to effectively share knowledge with others. Students worked to present their posters with loud, clear voices and in an engaging manner. Afterwards classmates gave them feedback. We used this sentence frame to guide our feedback. I liked how you _________. Next time you might want to try ___________. Public speaking can be scary and students are doing a fantastic job presenting their knowledge and receiving feedback from others. Both of which are challenging life skills; even for adults! About one third of the groups presented this week and the rest will present next week. We ended our week with buddy reading and a trip to the Pacific Library.

More OMSI photos from Mr. Mark

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We were incredibly lucky to have Mr. Mark and Ms. Julie make time to drive us to OMSI last week. Ms. Julie also led one of our field trip groups, while Mr. Mark documented some of our OMSI adventures. This field trip would not have been possible without Mr. Mark, Ms. Julie, and all our chaperones. Please enjoy Mr. Mark’s photos below.

April Fun

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It’s only the second week of April and the month has already been packed full of learning and fun! We’ve been raising tadpoles, exploring and creating with fuse glass, and immersing ourselves in our scientific studies at OMSI. In between these projects students have been hard at work on their mathematical studies. Second graders are learning all about measurement while first graders are learning to add and subtract double digit numbers. We’ve been practicing our math skills through playing Qwirkle, Mountain Raiders, and Knock Out. Our second grade mathematicians have really stepped up as a leaders and have been helping their first grade classmates after completing their own assignments. Teaching younger students helps solidify understanding for the older students and helps them practice leadership skills as well. It’s also great fun! All our Otter students are practicing leadership skills as they read with their preschool buddies on Fridays. Students are doing a great job reading with fluency and good expression. On Fridays we’ve also been visiting the Pacific library where the librarians make us feel most welcome and help our readers find interesting new reading materials. Mr. Greg continues to work with small groups of second graders on engineering projects on Friday mornings. This week students had the opportunity to visit the wishing tree on campus and leave a wish.