Self Portraits, Art Studio, and Herb Garden

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What a creative and hands-on week we’ve had together!

Early in the week, Mr. Mark helped us plant an herb garden. We planted mint, lavender, rosemary, and more. Students are now carefully watering and tending to the plants. When they’ve grown bigger, we’ll be able to harvest them to use in recipes—and maybe even a little potion-making fun!

We also had our first art lesson with our art teacher, Ms. Casey, this week. We had the bonus support of Ms. Lucy and Mr. Gary for our artistic explorations. Together we talked about the many kinds of studios—dance, gymnastics, clay, paint, glass, and art studios—and began the exciting project of creating our very own art studio in the classroom. We explored and played with loose parts in our new art studio. Students experimented with the properties of different materials, using them to represent themselves, build fantastical forests, and design imaginative creations. It was wonderful to see their creativity come alive! Students also played and explored the possibilities of different writing utensils. They discovered that crayons are excellent for shading while markers can be great for highlighting. Students played around with creating all sorts of lines, shading, and patterns using different writing tools. Small groups of students also went on a nature walk to collect interesting natural materials to add to our studio.

This week we also had our first music-making session with Ms. McKenzie and put the finishing touches on our self-portraits. One of the best parts was trying to guess which portrait belonged to which classmate. Families, see if you can guess which portrait was created by your child!

It was such a joyful week of artistic endeavors, creativity, and curiosity.

Building Community

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Our second week together was filled with learning, creativity, and community-building. We continued getting to know one another and practicing our routines. Students shared their All About Me posters with the class, which was a fun way to learn more about each other. In Writers’ Workshop, students worked hard on their individual stories. As students finished stories, they shared their published pieces with the class and received a compliment as well as constructive feedback from their peers. We are practicing how to both give and receive feedback so that we can all grow as writers. Science was extra exciting this week! Mr. Mark discovered a huge nest of stinging insects in our cedar classroom. Our outdoor classroom had to be closed for multiple days (we played on campus instead), but Mr. Mark brought us a specimen to examine under the microscope. After researching, students came to the consensus that the insect was a type of wasp called a yellow jacket. Mr. Mark wore a bee suit and tried several methods to remove them—and after much effort, he succeeded! Now we can safely play in our outdoor classroom again. Davis also brought in a snake skin, which we examined closely under the microscope. During word work time we reviewed short vowel sounds and the floss rule. We practiced spelling words with partners using whiteboards and learned how to check each other’s work. On Friday, we took a practice spelling assessment and discussed how these checks help teachers know what students already understand and what they need more practice with. We also worked on our penmanship and writing conventions. Our classroom is becoming more colorful, too! We created beautiful illustrations to accompany our daily schedule and continued filling in our September calendar, coloring in the days that have passed. In art, we began detailed self-portraits. A handful of students finished theirs this week, and the rest will complete theirs next week. Each day we wrapped up by giving shout-outs to classmates who embodied our community values through their words and actions. It was a joyful, busy week of learning and community.

First Week

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It’s been a fantastic first week! We spent our days learning new routines, building our community, and exploring many fun activities together. We worked together to discuss what’s important to us and created our community values—a special guide for how we want to treat each other and our classroom (see below). We also spent time playing with playdough, exploring outside, doing bubbles, and learning to use watercolors—all while getting to know each other and reviewing classroom rules and procedures. In math we began our math books and learned a fun game called Snap It to practice our math fact fluency. Juliette shared a story about losing her first tooth, which was the perfect launch into writers’ workshop. Ask your child to tell you about the story they are writing. We also began our word work studies to refine our penmanship and practice reading and spelling challenging words. We learned a yoga routine to help our calm our bodies, and we practiced being still and focused during our guided meditation time. Finally, we had a joyful celebration for Leighton’s birthday. It has been a wonderful week of learning, creativity, and community-building. We can’t wait to see what next week brings!

Otter Community Values 


In our class, everyone is welcome, included, and heard. We are kind, curious, and joyful. We take care of each other and our materials. We make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. We use tools to solve problems peacefully, and we never hurt or hit. 

We are 

mathematicians,

writers, 

readers, 

scientists, 

artists, 

explorers, 

engineers &

music makers 

Together we learn and play outside every day.