Snowflakes and play practice

/

Last week we were excited to get some light snow flurries. The snow didn’t last long, but we had fun sliding on the bridge, making miniature snowballs, and sipping cocoa.

We’ve been busy working our play, The Fastest Draw in the West. Last week Otters picked parts, edited the script, and designed costume plans. Then we started designing props and the set. This week we are finishing up the set and practicing our lines.

Lucky Luke- Ivan

Handlebar Henry- Henry

Tall Tan Tim- Landon

Wishful Wendy- Roxinny

Dapper Dave- Max

Notable Nancy- Carina

Dainty Diminutive Danna- Tilly

Elegant Elaine- Margaux

Blacksmiths- Juliana, Leone

Tumble Weed Throwers- Maiya, Ella

Cacti- Sawyer, Neil

Lights/Stage Manager- Nora 

In numeracy we’ve been examining the hundreds chart to find number patterns that we can use to solve addition, subtraction, and multiplication math problems. We are practicing using tally marks to record large numbers. We have been playing Qwirkle with our parent volunteers. Last week we completed money pre-assessments to get ready for our unit on money. Many students have been working on double digit addition and subtraction. Others are working on addition/subtraction story problems. Today we used addition and multiplication skills to determine how to quadruple the measurements to make fake snow for our small worlds table. 

Otters have been experimenting with a variety of building materials and challenges. Here were some of our challenges:

  • Build a tower with one cube as a base

  • Build the tallest tower you can

  • Build the most interesting structure you can

  • Design a structure with a side platform

When designing structures our engineers must collaborate, modify their designs, demonstrate creative thinking, and overcome many challenges. 

Last week we read books about Martin Luther King Jr and then we wrote about our own dreams for the world. 

There’s never a dull moment with these playful, creative, and intelligent Otters.

Salmon Release

/

When we returned from winter break we discovered that our salmon alevin had developed into fry. Most of their yolk sacs had been used up. Our salmon were officially ready to be released into the Tualatin River.  We observed the fry and completed our last salmon entry in our science journals. 

We used different art media to depict the fry stage of development. (A few students used water color for their illustrations. These will posted when they have finished drying).

Then we spent time learning about the fry stage of development and reading about the terrific journey our salmon would take to get all the way to the Pacific Ocean. We used a map to follow their journey from the Tualatin River to the Willamette River, and then into the Pacific Ocean. We talked about the challenges our salmon would face along the way and we wrote our hopes for our salmon. 

On Tuesday we took a field trip to Rood Bridge Park to release the salmon in the Tualatin River. We used an infrared thermometer to test the water temperature of the river. We were excited to discover that it was 45 degrees fahrenheit, which was within one degree of our tank at school. This would help our salmon fry acclimate to their new environment. Students took turns releasing salmon, a few at a time, into the river. Once we had a released all the salmon we gathered in a circle to share our hopes for our salmon. Then we split off into small groups led by parent volunteers. In our small groups we spent time exploring the forest, listening to nature, reflecting, and engaging in small group discussions.

Flat Stanley Launch

/

We recently finished reading the book Flat Stanley about a young boy who becomes flatten when a bulletin board falls on him. In the story Stanley is thrilled to discover that as a flat person he can do interesting things like fly through the air like a kite, and slip into envelopes to be mailed across the country! After finishing the book, students worked in groups of three to design their own flat people. They gave their flat people names and wrote a letter from the perspective of their flat person. Our flat people will be mailed to friends and relatives around the world. Our Flat Stanley hosts will send us digital photos of their adventures and will write us letters back. Through this project we will have an opportunity to learn about geography and other cultures. We will also have a chance to practice our literacy skills as we read and write letters. Currently we have Flat Stanleys on their way to Arizona, Washington DC/Finland, Galapagos Islands/Ecuador, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. As soon as we receive these Flat Stanleys back, we will send them on to their next location. You can let Ms. Aja know if you have other friends or relatives who would like to host Flat Stanleys. We will continue this project for most of the year so that we can learn about many different places. 

  • Flat Pickles was created by Leone, Ivan, and Maiya. Flat Pickles is heading to Arizona, Italy, Ohio, and then Gearhart. 

  • Flat Rose was created by Max, Juliana, and Carina. Flat Rose is heading to Washington DC, Finland, and then Ohio.

  • Flat Jeffery was created by Margaux, Landon, and Henry. Flat Jeffery is not pictured because he was already in a suitcase headed to the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador. Next he will head to  Washington.

  • Flat Stanla was created by Tilly, Roxinny, and Sawyer. Flat Stanla is headed to Ukraine and then Australia.

  • Fred The Girl was created by Ella, Neil, and Nora. She is headed to the United Kingdom and then Saudi Arabia.

Robot Day and Preschool Reading Buddies

/

It was great to be reunited after winter break! Students came to school this week eager to share stories of their adventures and excited to see their friends. On Monday morning two students happened to bring in robots to share with the group. Several students eagerly shared that they too had robots at home. This sparked a student idea- why not have a robot day where students could teach others to use their robots? Together we looked at our classroom calendar and decided that Wednesday would be a good day for “robot day”. On Wednesday morning during project time student engineers were able to share their robots with others. They showed each other how to use coding programs to give their robots commands. Several robots could move and speak. We even had a flying robot! 

This week during numeracy we’ve been finding interesting ways to show different numbers. For example, we can represent numbers using pictures, base ten blocks, tally marks, equations, and story problems. In small groups our mathematicians got together to explore the number 72. They created posters to share their thinking with the whole class. This week we also learned how to play a new game called Qwirkle. This game requires strategic thinking and logical reasoning. Students used tally marks to keep score. We also learned how to solve Japanese number puzzles called KenKens. KenKens require students to use logical reasoning and provide students with practice solving basic math facts. Plus they are tons of fun! This website contains printable KenKens that you can use with your whole family- adults included! 

Today we started a new buddy reading partnership. This time Otter students have a chance to be the “big buddies” instead of the “little buddies”. Each first/second grader was partnered with a preschooler from the Dolphin class. Prior to meeting with our buddies Otters spent time thinking about what types of books might be captivating for preschoolers. Then we talked about how to read with expression and good fluency. We discussed how punctuation, pictures, and contextual clues help us know how to read a page with good expression. We talked about not reading too fast or too slow. Then we practiced reading the books we chose. We were so proud to be able to read to the preschoolers. Every Friday we will spend 15-20 minutes reading stories with preschoolers. We will alternate between reading with the Dolphin and Shark preschool classes. These buddy partnerships will provide an authentic opportunity for Otters to practice reading with expression and fluency. They will also provide us with practice at being good leaders and role models for our school community. 

At our small worlds table students collaborated to create stories about arctic animals in winter. Other students worked together to complete a winter puzzle. Engineers used Widgits to create interesting three-dimensional structures and patterns. We took our weekly trip to the library to find new books for our book bags and to find picture books to read to our buddies. Students brought in books from home to share with the class. 

Bread celebration and Davis Good-bye

/

On Thursday Henry’s mom, Mollie, came in to make rolls with us for Friday’s Bread Celebration. On Friday we gathered as a whole school to hear the teachers read “The Little Red Hen” and enjoy bread baked by all four classes. We sampled white bread, pumpkin muffins, gingerbread, and dinner rolls. The bread was delicious and the time spent with our community was even better.

This week we read about holiday traditions from around the world. We wrote about our own family traditions and shared our traditions with the class. 

Today was Davis’ last day with us before he moves. We watched a slideshow of photos of Davis with his Otter friends. Then we presented him with his first grade memory book. Classmates came up to read Davis the letters they wrote him. We ended our time together by singing So Long and We Wish You Well. We will miss him very much. We plan to keep in touch through letters. Today we also had a disco dance party and indoor snowball fight with the Whales. We love being playful with our friends. 

We had a game day this morning and practiced counting our money at the popcorn stand. We collaborated to build a large rigamajig structure and we have been keeping a close eye on our alevin. We did a guided story with meditation movements with Ms. Jessica that allowed us to envision what the salmon release will be like and we thought about our hopes for our salmon. We also tidied up our classroom and scrubbed our tables so that we will come back to a fresh, clean start in the new year.

Water PH and Coniferous Tree Identification

/

This week we learned more about the salmon life cycle and salmon migration patterns. We learned that in the wild some types of salmon lay 4000 eggs, but only two will grow up to be spawning adults. This week we tested the ph balance of our water. We learned about the ph scale that ranges from 0 to 14. We learned that alevin prefer a water ph that’s close to neutral. We used testing strips to find that the water in our tank was right around 6.5 or 7, just as it should be . We started with 180 eggs and only 9 have failed to develop so far. We are anticipating a release on January 7th.

This week we continued spreading joy and showing appreciation for the people around us. We talked about how our lives have been affected by so many different teachers at the ELC- preschool teachers, kindergarten teachers, aftercare teachers, Ms. Jessica, Ms. Debbie and Mr. Mark. Our students are fortunate to have so many teachers who care deeply about them and who help them grow. Students showed their appreciation by delivering cards and baking cookies. We also wrote cards and baked cookies for Marisela and Officer Kimberly. Marisela helps keep our classroom looking beautiful and Officer Kimberly helps keep us safe on campus and assists during our fire drills. Otter students also wanted to spread joy to children who are in the hospital. We wrote cards to cheer up children who will be spending the holidays in the hospital this year. We talked about how lucky we are to have healthy bodies and to get to spend the holidays at home. We helped the wildlife in our outdoor classroom by filling the bird feeders to ensure that the birds have enough to eat during this cold season as well. 

Stacey, a biology and environmental studies professor at Pacific, came in to talk to us about trees this week. We learned about gymnosperms. Gymnosperms are plants whose seeds are not protected by fruit and their name means “naked seed”. Conifers are a type of gymnosperm. We examined the leaves from several different types of conifers. We learned that conifers can have needle-like leaves or scale-like leaves. We went on a campus walk to examine various species of conifers. Ms. Stacey told us about some plant adaptations that allow conifers to survive through harsh winter conditions. We also talked about how trees in the forest help salmon, and how salmon help the trees. 

In our outdoor classroom this week students experimented with making maps, running a sushi stand (with sushi made from remeda materials), and creating three-dimensional characters using centimeter cubes. We also found a new kind of spider. We need to get some spider identification books to help us figure out what type of spider it is.

Alevin Art

/

Here are our finished alevin art projects.

Leone’s dad, Michele, came in to bake biscotti with us. He taught us about measuring ingredients for recipes and we discussed the metric system. He used a recipe that has been around for 500 years! We talked about Italy and about different counties we’ve visited. We wanted to make this recipe for our parent volunteers. We are so appreciative of the time, energy, and talent that our Otter parents pour into our classroom community. Our parent volunteers give science presentations, volunteer at our field trips, read with us, help us with writing, teach us math board games, teach us coding, help us sew book bags, teach us Spanish, cook with us, etc. The list goes on and on. It’s difficult to express the depth of our gratitude for our volunteers, but we decided to try. We wrote cards to thank our volunteers and gave each a sample of biscotti and a handmade heart ornament. We hope our volunteers know how much they are loved. The rest of the biscotti we enjoyed during our poetry tea time. Our pottery mugs were finally finished and able to be used during the celebration. We enjoyed reading both familiar and new poems during our tea time. Have a wonderful weekend!


Volunteering at Free Food Market

/

During this season of giving the Otters and Whales teamed up to help distribute food to community members in need. Pacific’s Center for a Sustainable Society has a free food market each month. This month Otters and Whales were greeters during the food market on campus. We said hello to the people shopping for free food and gave each shopper a handmade ornament and card designed by our students. One of the food shoppers exclaimed, “this ornament makes me so happy that I want to cry!”. College students who were helping distribute food met with small groups of ELC students to answer questions and describe how the food bank works. It felt so good to spread love in our community. We have been talking about what it must feel like to not have enough food to eat. We discussed how hard it would be to work or go to school if you hadn’t eaten any food for dinner or breakfast. It was beneficial for students to see how the canned food they helped collect in October goes to help real people who are hungry. We also talked about how extremely lucky we are to have access to healthy foods on a daily basis. Back at our outdoor classroom we’ve been sure to fill up our bird feeders to keep our local birds fed this winter too.

This week we have been learning more about the alevin stage of salmon development. We read several books and used websites to find new facts about alevin. Students used the artistic medium of their choice to depict the alevin stage. Then they wrote down a fact that they found particularly interesting.

We celebrated Jayne’s birthday on Monday! We are so happy to have her as an honorary Otter student this year. Although she’s not officially an Otter, she joins us for many field expeditions, projects, and learning activities. In math this week we are working on being able to quickly add 1, 10, or 100 to numbers without using our fingers. We continue to practice math facts through salmon temperature unit calculations, measurements in cooking, and through a wide variety of math games. In writer’s workshop we are finishing up our imaginative story unit and are in various stages of publishing our stories.

Season of Giving

/

This time of year vibrates with energy and excitement for students. As a class we’ve been discussing gratitude and ways we can show appreciation for the people around us. Together we brainstormed a list of people for whom we are grateful. We talked about ways that we could show our appreciation. Of course at the top of our list is our parents and families. We spent time this week creating special gifts for our families. We wrote a thank you letter and baked cranberry bread for Marisela, who diligently cleans our classroom each day. We wrote thank you cards to Evie, whose donations made the Cedar classroom possible. We made heart ornaments to distribute to the families who will visit Pacific’s December’s Free Food Market on Monday. We also created a thank you card for Terry, who was kind enough to give us a block of clay and fire our mugs for us, twice! We sent a birthday card to Ivan’s nana who came in to lead music-making sessions with us this year. We will continue to spread kindness this season and beyond.

We were excited and a little nervous to discover a new insect in our outdoor classroom this week! Some students were nervous because this insect had strong, pincer-like jaws and was raising its tail in a threatening manner. Several students mentioned that it looked like a black scorpion. We ran to get our guide books from the cedar classroom. We discovered that the insect is most likely a Ocypus olens, or Devil’s coach horse beetle. Through our research we learned that this beetle raises its tail and secretes a foul-smelling odor from white glands in its abdomen when feeling threatened. Although this beetle is not poisonous, it can give a sharp bite so we decided not to pick it up. What fun to have an opportunity to observe this beetle!

Several readers have recently found books that they simply can’t put down! Treasured reading time is one of our favorite times of day.  We visited the Forest Grove library on Tuesday and we’ve been reading about the salmon life cycle and migration patterns this week. During our chapter book read aloud we are continuing to read Roald Dahl’s The BFG. We have been discussing interesting strategies that Roald Dahl uses in this story as we write our own imaginative pieces during Writer’s Workshop. For our word work we’ve been studying the igh vowel word pattern. We learned to spell right, night, light, high, and bright. Then we discovered that if we can spell bright, then we also know how to spell brighten. And brightening. It’s fun to find word patterns! We also worked on memorizing the sight words once, of, and saw.  Ms. Marissa came to read us a book in Spanish on Wednesday.

Our paperwhites bloomed this week! The fragrance is lovely and the white flowers feel so festive and hopeful. When Tilly brought in the paper whites, they were only two inches tall. At our latest measurement the tallest paper white is 15 inches tall! Several student artists were inspired to paint these beautiful flowers this week. 

This week mathematicians measured and recorded the growth of our paperwhites. Second graders have also been working on calculating the temperature units (TUs) of our salmon alevin. Incubation time for salmon is measured in TUs. A temperature unit is 1° Fahrenheit above 32° F for 24 hours .  Our mathematicians recorded the daily temperature of the tank, and used subtraction to determine how many degrees over 32.  This number is the daily TUs. The daily TUs were added to our running total of TUs accumulated from previous days. Fall Chinook salmon eggs generally reach button-up stage and are ready to be released when the cumulative TUs reach between 1590 and 1700 TUs. These daily calculations will allow us to predict when the salmon will be ready to be released. Students have also been practicing mental math facts and we’ve been doing one, two, and three digit addition/subtraction. We’ve been playing Sequence Additon, Dino Math Tracks, Sump Swamp, Allowance, Zeus on the Loose, Clumsy Theif, and Yahtzee to practice our addition and subtraction fluency this week. We’ve also been solving story problems on the Bedtime Math website.

Our days continue to be filled with multiple opportunities to collaborate,  problem-solve, and exercise our gross motor muscles. We were excited to welcome Sawyer to our classroom community this week. Have a wonderful weekend! 



Eyed Egg Art

/

Today we read more about the salmon life cycle. We created drawings of the eyed egg stage of the salmon life cycle. We’ve been exploring different art mediums and techniques over the last several weeks- tempera paint, water color, oil pastels, sharpie markers, and colored pencils. Student artists had the opportunity to choose the art medium they felt could best convey their ideas about the eyed egg stage.

Today was our last official day with our college buddies. They helped us finish researching our plants and writing our field guide pages. We presented them with cards we had created for them. We will miss our teacher buddies. It’s been an amazing collaboration with Pacific’s College of Education.

We explore math concepts daily through paper and pencil calculations, manipulatives, board games, and projects. Today we did some tricky math to calculate temperature units to predict when our salmon would be ready to be released. Many of us played board games during choice time and/or numeracy centers today. During Writer’s Workshop we worked on finishing our field guide pages and then worked on our imaginative pieces.


Stone Soup

/

The excitement was palpable today as students arrived ready to prepare and feast on stone soup. We started the day with chopping our vegetables. We learned proper knife handling technique and made sure to tuck our fingers as we chopped. We read three different versions of Stone Soup today. It was interesting to compare and contrast the details in each.  As a whole school community we listened to Mr. Mark read his favorite version of the story before we sat down to enjoy a school-wide feast. We enjoyed feasting with old and new friends.  Here were some of the comments overhead during the feast: 

“I used to not like celery, but now I do. I was like, ‘man, that’s too minty’. But now it feels pretty good.” ~Leone

“I ate two bowls! My tastes have really changed.” ~ Landon

“That was so good!” ~Roxinny

“It was okay. I ate one bite of potato.” 

We are truly grateful for the students, teachers, and families who make up this loving community. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break. 



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. 

Tillamook Forest Field Study

/

Last week we ventured into the Tillamook Forest for an in-depth field study. Our young scientists rotated to four different stations and went on a short hike to a fish overlook area. Here were the stations students visited: 

  1. Nurse Log - We practiced noticing tiny details as we examined nurse logs in various stages of decay. Students used macro lens to get a closer look.

  2. Animal Homes Exploration- We examined the types of animals that make their home in our coastal temperate rainforests. Students located the homes and habitats of various mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, birds and fish. We also read the book Where Would I be in an Evergreen Tree?

  3. Tree Identification- We learned how to use a dichotomous key to correctly identify a variety of evergreen tree species. Students explored characteristics such as leaf/needle shape, bark, etc.

  4. Layers of the forest- Students discussed the characteristics and layers of a temperate rainforest. We recorded notes about what we noticed on the forest floor, in the understory, and in the canopy of the temperate rainforest as we climbed the fire tower. We also discussed what life would have been like for the “cloud girls” who were lookouts in the fire tower in the mid-1900s.

(More photos to come as I received them from teachers and parent volunteers)

More photos received 11/26…

Photosynthesis Song and Forest Stories

/

In October during writer’s workshop we focused on writing personal narratives. We practiced zooming in on small moments from our lives and telling those stories with interesting details. This month students have decided to try their hand at imaginative writing. On Tuesday we checked out several imaginative books from the public library. We spent time reading fantasy books and compiled a list of what we noticed about those stories. A common thread in the imaginative stories we read was magic! Students were excited to create their own fantastical stories. During our morning project time students can spend time at our small world forest table creating imaginative stories that take place in the forest. During writer’s workshop, they then record and illustrate their stories. 

During our daily numeracy centers groups of three to four students visit each math center.  Students have a chance to visit all the centers throughout the week. At our teacher center this week we worked on using different tools to measure lengths, widths, and heights. We used rulers, centimeter cubes, and tape measures. Students worked in partners to measure very large objects, such as the length of the outdoor classroom! Our measurements are getting increasingly accurate and several mathematicians choose to continue measuring things during our outdoor choice time each day. At the addition center this week students used OSMO Numbers to practice quickly adding numbers to 20. Students are working on mental math strategies and are getting quicker at figuring out the sums of 3, 4, and 5 addends. At our number building center students designed structures using the place value blocks. After designing and sketching their structure they had to determine how many unit cubes were used in the construction. Students needed to make trades as they counted their cubes (ten individual units equals a rod. Ten rods equals a hundred flat. Ten hundred flats equal a thousand cube). Students are becoming increasingly proficent at building numbers into the thousands. At our board game center students played the Allowance money game or Sequence Addition with a parent volunteer. 

Our book bags are finished! Please take time to admire your child’s book bag as it comes home each day. Students worked hard to measure, cut, and sew these bags. They are extremely proud of their hard work. A HUGE thank you to Mollie and Evan for helping us with this large project. This week several students chose to join a book club. In book club a small group of students all read the same book and then meet to discuss what they read. One group is reading Magic Tree House Dinosaurs Before Dark. Another group is reading The Boxcar Children. Yet another student is doing a pen pal book group where the children agree on how much to read each day, then write letters about what they read. The pen pals are reading Malala: My Story of Standing Up for Girls Rights. More students will join book clubs as the year goes on. As always, we loved our Wednesday afternoon Spanish read aloud story with Ms. Marissa. 

This week we started reading Can You Hear the Trees Talking: Discovering the Hidden Life of the Forest By Peter Wohlleben. We learned some of the specific parts of plant leaves. Did you know that leaves have structures called stomata that are similar to mouths? The stomata can open and close to allow CO2 and oxygen to pass in and out of the plant. Stomata can also close up when it’s hot and dry to prevent water loss. We breathed on the windows in our Cedar Classroom so we could see how we release moisture when we breathe out. It’s pretty amazing that plants can create their own food through photosynthesis. We read books about photosynthesis and watched a video clip describing the process. In the video clip there was a short song about photosynthesis. It got stuck in our heads! Several students wanted to create a band to sing the song for the class. The students formed a band and practiced the song during their outside choice time. The class loved it so much that we added the song to our poetry binders as our poem of the week. This week we also began using field guides to identify the leaves and pinecones that we found on our nature walk. In addition, we are currently working on a tree art piece. Leone taught us the technique for drawing realistic looking trees. During our explorations Davis found some interesting patterns on the logs in our outdoor classroom. We think the paths were created by insects but we need to do more research.

Photosynthesis Song 

Give me 6 water

6 carbon dioxide

I take that and look what 

I do on the inside,

sunlight as my engine,

I can’t wait to send*, 

the glucose I make,

chuck 6 oxygen as waste

I’m chloroplast 

Photosynthesis is my task

It’s a blast

And I’m jazzed

Why’d I tell ya?

Because you asked

(*original song lyrics said “taste” instead of “send”. Carina pointed out that leaves don’t technically taste, so we changed the lyrics to make them more scientifically accurate).

During project time this week we continued our exploration of coding with Mr. Adam using the Ozobots. You may see some coding sheets come home with your child in his/her cubby. Ask what the color coded instructions mean. Each color code instructs the Ozobot to perform a different command. This week we also wrote letters to our friend Kayla, in Australia. We found where Australia was on the map and globe and thought of questions to ask our pen pal. 

Plants, Forests, and Salmon Eggs

/

As we delved deeper into our plant research, several more questions came up. Students wanted to know how plants eat and how they breathe. Students have been bringing in interesting leaves and pinecones. This week we began to learn about (and review) the process of photosynthesis. We are discussing how and why trees change colors. To answer these questions and others, we will visiting the Tillamook Forest next week for field explorations. Today we went on a campus walk to identify trees and their leaves. A few students remembered some of the tree names from their explorations in the Whales and from their home experiences. For others this was new information. Several students were wondering why (most) conifers don’t lose their leaves. This week we will studying trees and general plant processes in addition to our research on our specific plants. In our indoor classroom several students used wood blocks and forest animals to construct a dramatic play forest.

Last Wednesday we were thrilled to receive our salmon eggs! We started a science journal to record our observations of the eggs. We have been reading books about salmon and the salmon life cycle to learn more about the eggs. 



Plant Questions and Measurement

/

When we started our plant research last week, we started by brainstorming what we wanted to  know about the plants in our outdoor classroom. We compiled the following list of questions:

Plant Questions

  • How far down do roots grow? 

  • How many roots does it have?

  • How many leaves does the plant have? 

  • How tall is it? 

  • How big are the leaves?

  • How many creatures live in the plant? 

  • Do the roots eat? 

  • What does the plant look like in different seasons? 

  • How tall is the plant in different seasons? 

  • How much moisture does the plant require? 

  • What type of environment does it like? 

  • How much sun/shade does it need? 

  • How big is the seed? 

  • How does the seed travel? 

  • Where did the plant come from? 

  • Which plants are eaten by creatures in the outdoor classroom? 

  • What do animals do with plant seeds? 

Then our researchers thought about what tools they might need to conduct their research. We compiled the following list of tools: 
Resources and Tools Needed 

  • Microscope

  • Magnifying glass 

  • Shovel

  • Collection sheet (“beat sheet”)

  • Books

  • Field guide

  • Rulers

  • Measuring tapes

  • Cameras

  • Art supplies

After we knew what we wanted to learn and what supplies we would need to do so, we were ready to start our research.  The first questions to answer were how tall is it and how big are the leaves? In order to answer these questions we first needed to learn how to measure things. We talked about how scientists use different tools depending on what needs to be measured. Students looked at the size of their plant and leaves and decided whether they needed rulers, tape measures, yard sticks, or another tool to do their measuring. One of the plants that needed measuring was a Western Red Cedar- it was quite tall! Even a measuring tape wouldn’t do the trick. Mr. Mark showed our young scientists a method for calculating a height estimate using knowledge of angles and triangles. We will continue to practice our measuring skills during small math groups this week. In addition to measuring our plants, we also began taking photographs and examining the plant leaves. We played plant BINGO on Friday to become familiar with 16 of the specific plants growing in the outdoor classroom. We will continue our research this week and next week.

Pumpkin Art, Literacy and Sharing

/

Over the last few weeks we have been exploring different art media and techniques. Last week our artists combined multiple medias to create fall starry sky paintings.  We started with pencil line drawings, then outlined our drawings using oil pastels. We used the oil pastels to make textured grass and swirls in the sky. Then we used blended tempera to paint our pumpkins. When the pumpkins dried we added yellow and white oil pastels over the tempera to create depth and portray the moon shining on the pumpkins. Lastly, we brushed watercolor across the sky. This entire process took almost a week. We talked about how adult artists often take days, weeks, or even months to finish an art piece. Persistence and patience are important skills in art, and in life. Please be sure to admire our finished art pieces in the entrance area to the Otters indoor classroom.

Our college buddies continue to visit us each Monday afternoon! Together students and college buddies have been exploring various genres. One week our college buddies helped us read new poems, complete word work with the poems, and add poems to our poetry binders. Another week the class did a choral reading of a scientific magazine. Then college buddies worked with Otter students to find children’s magazines that were the right fit to add to book baskets. Buddies discussed strategies for reading magazines including reading captions, headings, and diagrams. Otters also have multiple opportunities to read stories and graphic novels from their book baskets with their buddies. How lucky we are to be a community of readers with access to great mentors and teachers! 

Not only do we have the opportunity to learn from our college teacher candidates, we also learn from each other on a daily basis. Students frequently bring in interesting news articles, photographs, or materials from nature to share with the class. In addition, students share their mathematical thinking and their writing pieces with one another. These informal daily presentations allow Otters to inspire one another as they gain practice in presenting information in a strong, effective manner.

Our Tuesday afternoon library visits have been busy and productive! Each week when we visit the local library we choose a book or two for our individual book baskets. We also select books needed to complete our classroom research projects. Our library card currently has 87 books out! Recently we’ve been checking out books about plants and salmon to aid us in our investigations. Today we also checked out several fantasy books to launch our Writer’s Workshop exploration of imaginative writing.

Plant Research

/

We are starting our in-depth research about plants in our outdoor classroom. Each Otter chose a plant to research. We developed a list of questions we wanted to learn about our plants. We will spend the next couple of weeks conducting research, doing scientific sketches, and finding out the answers to our questions. We will be publishing our research findings in a book or field guide poster.

Juliana- Purple Coneflower

Nora- Salal

Landon- Western Red Cedar

Leone- Kudos Gold Hyssop

Henry- Large Leaf Lupine

Ivan- Willow

Ella- Blanket Flower or Clover

Neil- Yarrow

Max- Oregon Grape

Carina- Horsetail Fern      

Maiya- Big Leaf Maple

Davis- Incense Cedar Shrub

Roxinny- Sedge Grass

Margaux- Milkweed

Tilly- Sword Fern

Halloween

/

Our Halloween was filled with festivities. In the morning we read Halloween books, dissected pumpkins, and counted hundreds of pumpkin seeds! We are working on our estimation skills and were quite surprised by the number of seeds in some of our pumpkins. We worked in small groups to determine the best way to count the seeds. Many groups decided to group the seeds in tens and then hundreds to make the counting more efficient and accurate. After lunch we took a walking field trip to Scott Hall to deliver the canned foods we collected for the Boxer FoodShare. We got to add our cans to the collection of food and hear about how the foods would be used. We also got to admire a display about Dia de los Muertos. Roxinny’s mom was able to talk to us about this Mexican holiday. Back at the ELC we sang our Halloween songs in front of the school before participating in our annual Halloween parade. Whew, what an exciting, fun-filled day!

Wetlands Restoration

/

Our young scientists were excited to be involved in an authentic wetlands restoration project at Blooming Farms last week. Blooming Farms has been working with Clean Water Services to determine the steps necessary to transform a portion of their farmland into a wetland habit. Our students have been studying wetland ecosystems and are developing a deep understanding of why wetlands are so important. Not only do wetlands filter toxins out of our water, they also help prevent flooding, and provide habitat to a diversity of plant and animal species. The ELC is excited to be able to contribute to this project throughout this year and in the years to come. To jump start our restoration project today, our young environmentalists rotated to different stations where they were involved in researching, restoring, and reflecting. Here are the stations we visited:

  1. Removing Invasive Species and Planting Willows- At station one we worked on laying cardboard over the invasive blackberries that had been cut back. The cardboard will help prevent germination and stop the blackberries from returning with a vengeance in the spring. The cardboard will be covered with bark chips or soil and the area should be ready for planting native wetland species in the spring. At this station scientists also planted willow starts.

  2. Build a wetland- Students made scientific observations of the area. Then given what they know about wetlands and the plants and animals that make their homes in a healthy wetland, they planned out what they think the site needs. They sketched their ideas and plans for what the wetland will look like in the future when it’s finished.

  3. Cattail Investigation- Scientists investigated the parts of a cattail and discussed the unique characteristics of a cattail that make it perfectly suited to the wetland environment.

  4. Becoming a Wetland Bingo- Students used their observational skills to find plant and animal species that are already calling this area their home. Students found green tree frogs, cattails, mushrooms, willows, dogwood, insects, and more.

  5. Story and Snack- Students also had a chance to rest and reflect on their learning as they listened to story and enjoyed snack outside.

Thank you, Blooming Farms, for letting us be part of this exciting restoration project!