Creating tie dye garments is a treasured annual fall tradition at the ELC. Thank you, Mr. Mark, for investing the time and energy into creating this amazing art experience for our young learners. And thank you for the lovely photos as well. Our Otter artists were thrilled with their creations.
We were able to start using our Cedar Classroom (gazebo) this week! We invited Mr. Mark in to give us a presentation about native plant species and talk to us about the intentionality he used when designing the gardens in the outdoor classroom. We took a tour and counted five gardens in our outdoor classroom- the tree garden, the fern garden, the meadow, the living roof, and the bioswale. Mr. Mark told us he used the acronym STEMSS (Sun, type, environment, moisture, size, and speed of growth) when deciding what to plant. We will begin our in-depth research of the the plants in our outdoor classroom gardens this week. This week we also collected new beautiful leaves for our oil pastel leaf art project.
Our college buddies visited us during Writer’s Workshop time this week. We worked on wrapping up our unit on personal narratives and student authors each picked a personal narrative to publish. Our college buddies helped us go through our publishing checklist, which involved adding details to words and pictures, polishing up our penmanship, checking for correct capitals and punctuation, and designing a cover. We were excited to add 15 new published stories to class library this week!
We continued our clay explorations by beginning work on our tea cups. Student artists used their knowledge of clay to sculpt and shape their own tea cups. These tea cups will be fired in the kiln, glazed, and used during our poetry tea times this year.
During numeracy this week we learned how to play addition war with our parent volunteers. We are working at our fluency with number facts 0-20. We are also working on memorizing our doubles facts (3+3, 8+8, etc). We played a gross motor game that involved practicing our doubles when we visited Ms. Aja’s math center. We continued drawing code for Ozobot during project time this week.
Ivan’s nana, a music teacher, came in to lead a music making session with us this week. Ivan’s nana and mom taught us a new Halloween song and the accompanying motions. We sang and played instruments. We love when our parent and grandparent volunteers share their time and talents with us.
Of course we spent much time savoring books together, as usual. We took our weekly trip to the library, chose new books for our personal book baskets, and finished our class read aloud of Wishtree.
We finished our partner interviews this week. As a class we developed a list of questions we wanted to learn about each other. Then students were partnered up with a new friend to conduct the interviews. We learned lots of interesting facts about our friends.
We got to celebrate Ella’s birthday this week! Ella used the smart board to share photos and stories from her infancy and toddlerhood. We presented her with a birthday book filled with birthday messages from her friends. We loved celebrating this sweet, compassionate girl.
Mr. Mark finished washing our tie-dyed fabrics this weekend and we got to take home our new art. Thank you Mr. Mark for your hard work in making this wonderful ELC tradition happen.
We ended our week together with our annual Celebration of Community. Otters were excited to show their families around their learning spaces. What a joy to be part of such a loving community.
Each day our morning starts with project time. This time is important for students to be able to pursue projects of interest, collaborate with peers, and solidify their literacy and numeracy skills. During project time students are also introduced to new activities and potential hobbies. This week on Wednesday Mr. Evan showed us how to use a sewing machine to sew our book bags. For many of us, it was our first time using a sewing machine- what fun! Our books bags are nearing completion. We can’t wait to start using them to bring our books to and from school. This week during project time student engineers worked with Mr. Adam to learn how to draw coding instructions for the Ozobot robot. Several other engineers worked on designing a jail out of Rigamig blocks. In addition, students spent time practicing reading and writing their “ar” words and playing a Dinotracks game that involves building numbers and solving math problems in the thousands.
Each afternoon Ms. Julie visits our class for half an hour to lead us in meditation, music and movement activities, or to help us with classroom projects. This week with Ms. Julie we continued our plans for our winter garden. Students did math to calculate how much tubing we would need for our garden hoops. Last week we wrote a letter to a local company asking for the tubing. Landon’s family company was kind enough to donate the tubing and this week we got to measure and cut the tubing to the correct sizes. We will be discussing as a class what to do with the extra tubing.
We continue to spend time outside every day for whole group work, collaborative projects, investigations, and free choice time. This week we went on a campus walk to admire the beautiful fall trees. We collected the most gorgeous leaves we could find to use for a class art project next week. Yesterday Mr. Mark showed us the inside of the Cedar Classroom gazebo and answered several of our questions. The Cedar Classroom gazebo is beautiful and almost ready to be used on a daily basis! We ended our week together outside at the Plumpers Pumpkin Patch. It was great to see so many parents, grandparents, and siblings there.
Yesterday our college buddies visited and we worked on reading a funny poem called “I’m a nut”. This afternoon we were able to video chat with our friend Kayla in Australia. She told us a lot about the climate and wildlife in Australia. She’s seen kangaroos and quokas. She’s gotten to hold a koala! We were surprised to learn that it’s spring time, almost summer where she is. We were also interested to find out that while it’s Tuesday afternoon here, it’s already Wednesday morning in Australia! We miss our friend and felt so excited to get to reconnect with her!
We are becoming keen observers and curious researchers. This week in the Cedar Classroom we found more slug eggs and several slugs. An Otter found multiple squished praying mantises over the weekend and shared the photos on the smart board with the class. We also found several aphids and other bugs we have yet to classify. In the coming weeks we will begin using field guides for our research. Another Otter brought in sunflowers for us to examine.
We continued small group work with our parent volunteers this week. We used the sewing templates we measured last week to cut out the fabric for our book bags. We are almost ready to begin sewing! With our coding group the second graders learned how to draw instructional code for the Ozobot robot. The first graders will have a chance to work with Ozobot next week.
We continued our wetlands research this week. We talked about how wetland plants are incredibly beneficial for the environment. Many wetland plants can actually filter toxins out of our water systems. We used celery stalks and pink “toxins” in the water to show how the plants can filter toxins. We also collected debris and litter in a jar of water. We poured the polluted water over a smooth surface (like our paved roads) and then over a piece of astroturf that represented wetland vegetation. The wetland vegetation trapped so much of the debris! The smooth surface trapped none and the pollution then flowed into our lakes and rivers. We read wetland books and wrote down new facts that we learned. Stacey came in and talked to us about non-native plants and invasive species. We talked about how fast-spreading, invasive species can be problematic to our ecosystems. We talked about how species can spread and we discussed how we will work on removing invasive species during our wetland restoration field trip next week.
During our weekly trip to the library we chose new books for our book baskets. Mr. Nathan read us a story about celebrating differences. We are getting increasingly proficient at choosing books that are the just right fit and we are getting to know our local library much better. We can now find several favorite series and categories of books. A couple second grade readers decided to both try reading the same book from the Dragon Masters series. It’s so fun to find new books to enjoy with friends!
We celebrated a special birthday this week! The birthday girl shared photos from her infancy and toddlerhood. We presented her with a book filled with letters from classmates. Our penmanship and illustrations are looking beautiful! At the end of the party the birthday girl taught us a fun new Japanese singing game! It may just become a class favorite.
Our days in the Otter classroom are filled with fun, learning and laughter! The dramatic play activities during free choice time in the Cedar Classroom have become increasingly complex. Students are using large stumps and pieces of wood to create complicated structures and worlds. They spend time collaborating, negotiating and strategizing to construct their stories and games. Together we are growing a community of compassionate, collaborative, and curious learners.
As we continue our exploration of wetlands we’ve been reading several scientific texts. We’ve talked about features of scientific texts such as table of contents, glossary, and captions. We talked about how these book features can help us learn more about our topics of study and help us find information quickly. Please point out table of contents, glossaries, and captions in the books you read with your children.
This week we’ve been discussing ways in which wetlands are beneficial to our ecosystems. We did a demonstration where we had block houses near wetlands (sponges) and we watched what happened when torrential rains came. The wetlands actually soaked up all the water to prevent homes from flooding! Then we reenacted a situation where developers built a concrete parking lot (gray tray) over the wetlands. Without the spongy wetlands to soak up the extra rain, the homes were flooded.
In our outdoor classroom we continued working on our small group structures. Several groups added in fabric elements and used their structures in dramatic play events during outside choice time. We also found interesting looking eggs under a stump this week! We used online resources and photos to determine that they are slug eggs! We found another white egg sack that we have yet to identify. We are constantly working on our observational skills and using scientific resources to make predictions and find information.
On Friday morning we had our first Author’s Celebration. Students worked together to decorate the classroom. Then we met in an Author’s Circle. An Author’s Circle is completely silent except for authors reading individual pages from their books into the circle. After everyone has read a page, then we break off into partnerships to read our stories in their entireties. During this time listeners can ask the author questions about the stories. After hearing each story listeners give the author a compliment about the story. Student authors read their stories to multiple listeners before meeting back together as a group. Students were invited to add their stories to the class library as we all cheered. Of course, Ms. Aja gave a toast to all our authors and we celebrated with sparkling apple cider. What a great way to end our week together. Have a fabulous weekend!
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.
Our first poetry tea time was magical. Students decorated the classroom for the occasion using natural materials, fabrics, and candle light. We browsed through poetry books and picked our favorites to share with the group. Then we enjoyed chocolate chip cookies (baked by us!) while sipping on orange hibiscus tea and listening to poems read aloud by Ms. Aja and Otter volunteers.
Earlier in the day we found more raccoon tracks by our pond and worked on publishing our writing pieces. We also had our game day this morning where we played board games and purchased popcorn from the Otter popcorn stand. We are getting better at counting money each week. We started measuring and cutting out our templates for our book bag sewing project. Have a wonderful weekend!
We are finding so many interesting creatures in our outdoor classroom this week! We found a ginormous praying mantis. We are guessing that it was one that we released at the end of last year. Some of us got to hold it. We also found a moth, spiders, and a bee. On Tuesday we found animal tracks near the pond. We noticed the plants were scattered too. We hypothesized about what type of animal could have been visiting the pond at nighttime. We referenced an animal track book to try to determine who left the tracks. Then we looked at the footage from the outdoor classroom video camera to see if the visitor was caught on tape- he was! It was a raccoon. When we visit the library next week we will check out some books about raccoons. We are speculating about where the raccoon is living. This week our parent volunteers started! We are lucky to have so many parent volunteers this year. We have parents to read with children and play math board games during numeracy. We also have a parent teaching children some basic coding concepts, two parents working on book bag sewing project, and several parent guest speakers about various topics. A parent came in today to read us a hilarious book in Spanish. Our college buddies visited to read with us Mondays and we took our weekly library trip on Tuesday. In Writer’s Workshop this week we are working on publishing our stories. We are talking about how we fix up our writing when we publish. We talked about adding details, checking sentences for capitals and periods, and being sure that our writing is legible. We learned our Otter class song this week and added it to our poetry notebooks. We also discussed what makes a good leader. We worked in teams to create skits about what a good leader looks likes and what a good leader DOESN’T look like. Students enjoyed acting out their skits in front of the class.
Today was game day Friday! For check-in Otters were invited to purchase popcorn from our popcorn stand. Different Otters were charged different amounts for their popcorn, depending on their experience with counting money. Otters were doing tricky math as they counted by fives, tens, and 25s. We had a special meditation time with the Whales today before heading to the Peace Gathering on campus. At the Peace Gathering we held up our peace posters. We talked about how when we all come together, our voices can be amplified. We talked about how peace starts in our own bodies and then can spread to our schools, community, and world. We estimated how many people were in attendance. Most of our estimates fell in the 100-200 range. We also got to meet the organizer of the gathering. On our way back to school we made a peace circle and sang songs of friendship, peace, and love. It has been an exciting week. May you have a weekend filled with rest, peace, and much family time.
We have been busy Otters this week! We’ve been reading and writing, planning and organizing materials for our Remeda studio, learning to upload and review our photos/video, building numbers, adding large numbers, building structures, creating art, and reading lots and lots. We took our first field trip to the library where Nathan showed us how to find books at the Forest Grove Library. He reminded us how to choose books that are a just right fit and explained the Dewey Decimal system. In our outdoor classroom we found an interesting looking green spider. We took photographs so we could identify him using our field guides. A team of students designed a wooden hot lava obstacle course that has inspired much fun and laughter. We continued to talk about our brains and our nervous system. Today we got to do our first collaborative project with the Whales. We read a book about peace and brainstormed what peace looks like, sounds like, and feels like. We worked in teams to design posters depicting peace. We talk about how we can bring to our bodies and to the world. Tomorrow we will be joining a campus-wide peace gathering.
It was an exciting morning in the Otter classroom! We have new books for our classroom library- including books about the human brain, graphic novels, and new mysteries! Mr. Mark found a squished praying mantis that he brought in for us to examine using the proscopes. We were able to examine the anatomy of the praying mantis up close! Several artists continued to work on their three-dimensional art pieces. During numeracy today we started our new math groups. In the Otter classroom math groups are flexible and ever-changing as we explore new math concepts. Right now we are practicing becoming fluent at our math facts. Our math groups today played addition board games including Pop!, Sum Swamp, and Zeus on the Loose. One math group used iPads to play the Mathmateers app that involves building a rocket, going on math missions, and solving math problems. Another group worked with Ms. Aja. In the Cedar Classroom we found a living praying mantis during our outside explorations! A couple students were actually able to hold the praying mantis before it flew away. This afternoon our college buddies came to read with us. This year the Otters are collaborating with teacher candidates from Pacific’s College of Education. Each Monday these teacher candidates will come read with us as we work on various literacy skills. We are so excited about this collaboration!
Happy Friday! On Friday mornings students are invited to bring in board games to share with their friends. Students learn so many skills through playing board games. They learn strategic thinking, problem-solving, number fluency, reading, mental math, and more. They also have a chance to practice winning and losing gracefully- important life skills! On game day Fridays the Otter Popcorn Stand is open for business. Otters may purchase a bowl of popcorn for the price on the menu. Otters use class money to pay and the price changes as Otters become more proficient with money counting. Today the price for a bowl of popcorn was 25 cents. Students who are just learning about coins were asked to find and name the coin that represents 25 cents. Otters who have had experience counting money were asked to show different ways of making 25 cents or were asked to pay with a higher amount and predict the amount of change they would receive. We will continue to practice our money counting skills each Friday at our popcorn stand. Today we also worked together in partners or small groups to create a class poster that depicts ways we can calm our bodies down when our amygdala makes us want to REACT. Each student is practicing being able to access his/her prefrontal cortex to reflect instead of react when feeling stressed. Today we also learned how to upload our photos independently. We each have our own album on our desktop computer to save our own photos and videos. We are working on being independent with our tools in the Otters classroom.
Today we discovered that several of the photos we’ve been taking were turning out blurry. We decided we needed to explore more features on the cameras. We learned how to hold the camera really still and how to hold down the shutter halfway to take clearer photos. We also practiced zooming in and out. We found it very difficult to take photos of bugs because they are tiny and always moving! We also continued to explore the various filters on our cameras. We experimented with using flip video to shoot videos. During meditation/music time with Ms. Julie we played the drums today. We began creating All About Me collages to represent ourselves and our interests. Ms. Aja continued to meet with students to match them up with books that are a “just right” fit.
Today we used Proscopes to examine natural materials and bugs we collected with our beat sheets. Juliana brought in the model of a brain for us to explore as well. We continued to learn about the amygdala, hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex. Students began to learn how to take notes by drawing words or sketches to represent their ideas. Ask your child to explain the functions of the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. We also did a choral reading and created illustrations of the song “Make New Friends”. This song/poem will be the first one in our poetry notebooks. We will continue to learn new poems and add them to our poetry notebook as the year continues.
The last couple days we’ve been exploring the features of our digital cameras. Students quickly learned how to zoom in and out and view their photos. As they explored further students found various filters and effects on the camera. They were able to take inverse photos and shoot video. Below are some examples of our student photography.
Today we continued our exploration of the question Who Lives in Our Outdoor Classroom? We used a scientific collection sheet (“beat sheet” ) to collect samples of insects and bugs that live in the bushes and shrubs around our outdoor classroom. To do this student scientists held the edges of the collection sheet under a bush as another scientist gently shook the plant/tree. We discussed how to show respect and care for the plants as we carefully shook loose the insects that were living there. We examined the bugs and insects that fell onto the sheet. Afterwards we returned the bugs to their homes. Tomorrow we will continue our explorations using the collection sheet, magnifying glasses, and Proscopes. We will also be using field guides to identify what we find. In Writer’s Workshop today several authors chose to use the document camera to share their work with the class. Specifically they were sharing strategies they used to make their writing interesting that other authors could also use. We discussed using sound effects and speech bubbles, writing scientific texts, telling stories from our lives, and writing graphic novels. During choice time engineers designed a projector using rigamajig pieces. Other engineers designed a doll house for Calico Critters and a couple new beautiful sculptures.
Today we began learning how to use our digital cameras. We are working on taking photos of the life in our outdoor classroom. Throughout the year students will use digital cameras and video to document their learning and share their ideas. In numeracy today we began learning how to play the following board games: Zeus on the Loose, Pop!, and Sum Swamp. We are practicing number fluency with addition and subtraction. We are also working on adding numbers up to one hundred and above. Some students are working on being able to add three and four digit numbers with re-grouping. In Writer’s Workshop we worked on telling stories from our lives. Instead of using Writer’s Workshop to draw pictures of rainbows or easy-to-draw shapes, we use our writing time to tell interesting stories or convey important information. Ms. Anna’s first day was today too! She is a student teacher who will be teaching in our classroom on Mondays with Ms. Aja.
It’s hard to believe that our first week of school has already come and gone. This week we focused on building community, connecting with new friends, and exploring our classroom environments.
During project time this week student engineers collaborated to build an intricate Rigamajig structure using gears and pulleys. This structure continues to be a work in progress. We read a book called The Most Magnificent Thing about a young girl who overcomes many obstacles and frustrations in her building. Our engineers could relate to the frustration! We discussed how engineers have to be persistent and innovative. Our engineers made multiple adjustments to their structure to accomplish their design goals. It took many redesigns and much collaboration. I’m so proud of their persistence! Other engineers used Legos, Quadrilla, and Tegu blocks to design their structures. Students experimented with Snap Circuits to build electrical pathways that resulted in light bulbs turning on, spinners flying through the air, and alarms going off- what excitement! Artists in our art studio used sharpie and water colors to capture the beauty of orchids. Several students chose to buddy read, write stories, or create art pieces using our remeda materials. On Friday several students played board games during project time. During numeracy this week we learned how to play a new game called Zeus on the Loose. This game involves adding numbers to reach 100. We are working on number fluency and mental math strategies.
Today we played our mystery bag game! Each student brought in an All About Me bag that contained four objects that represented his/her life and interests. As we examined the items in each bag, we ventured guesses as to whom the bag might belong. After we all had a chance to guess, the mystery person would reveal him/herself and then have a chance to explain the significance of each item. Students used clear, assertive voices to present their items to the class and answered questions from audience members. It was a fun way to get to know one other better while also practicing our presentation skills in an informal manner.
Each day we spend a large chunk of our day outside in the outdoor classroom. This week we discussed how scientists make detailed observations. We looked at examples and non-examples of quality sketches. We also discussed how to properly use a magnifying glass as a scientific tool. Students each found an interesting natural object in the outdoor classroom and drew a realistic, detailed sketch of their object. We will continue to practice this skill throughout our scientific studies and research this year. We also began exploring the question Who/What Lives in our Outdoor Classroom? We found evidence of several insects and plant species already. In the coming weeks we will be learning more about the specific species and discussing the ways in which we can care for these species that share our space.
In addition to our structured explorations in the outdoor classroom, students also have free choice time in the outdoor classroom each day. Just like our indoor classroom, the outdoor classroom was intentionally designed to support and extend student learning. In the sandbox students are creating waterways and experimenting with foundational physics. They are gaining hands-on experience with erosion and waterways. Of course much social learning also takes place in the sandbox as students determine what to build, how to build it, how much water to use, and who gets to pump the water. It’s evident that these students have built a strong foundation in social skills and problem-solving as they negotiate and assert their needs. We will continue to practice these important life skills throughout our time together as Otters. During free choice time other students built structures out of natural materials and used these structures in their dramatic play. Still other students chose to develop their gross motor muscles as they ran, jumped, and climbed.
We are a community of readers! We have read alouds sprinkled throughout our day and we end our days together by sharing books. This week we worked as a class to determine what categories of books we would like in our classroom library. Then we spent time reading books individually and in partners to determine how to categorize each book. The categories students decided upon are fiction, history/places, science, animals, poetry/art, funny, Mo Willems, math, community, gaming/graphic novels. In addition to our regular classroom library that’s organized by category, we also have an entire leveled library of picture and chapter books. Students are always welcome to borrow classroom books. I just ask that they return them to school each day so we’ll have them for Treasured Reading time. I hope to instill a lifelong love of reading in my students and I would love for them to become voracious readers!
Clearly our Otters have been hard at work exploring, reading, writing, negotiating, and making new friends this week. I hope you all have a wonderfully restful weekend and we’ll see you on Monday.
It was a fabulous first day of school! We had so much fun reconnecting with old friends and meeting new friends. During Writer’s Workshop time today we wrote about our hopes for the year.
”I hope for lots of science” -Carina
“A lot of art” -Ella
“I hope to do chemistry” -Henry
“I hope we have lots of building time” - Davis
“I want to learn about fish” -Ivan
“More free choice and art and iPads and science” -Juliana
“To have lunch outside” -Landon
“I hope to do more science” - Margaux
“I hope we do stop animation” -Leone
“I hope for new books” -Maiya
“I went on a nature walk with my mom. I want to do nature walks” -Neil
“Learn about ostriches” -Max
“Salmon” -Nora
“I hope we see lightning” -Tilly
“I hope for more exploration” -Roxinny
I think it’s going to be an adventurous year!
