Invention Week 2

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Here are some of the things our Otters have been up to this week…

  • Finn has been studying and designing maps for a Pokeman region he’s creating. He’s also been planting seeds.

  • Henry has been inventing games, making clay figures outside, and building with Dominoes and Legos.

  • Landon has been playing in a grassy field, working on his toy invention, reading Harry Potter, playing multiplication bump, and writing letters. He also invented a nerf basketball game.

  • Max decorated an Elephant and Piggie Egg

  • Carina finished the book Crenshaw, played hopscotch, and practiced writing contractions.

  • Ivan invented a balloon launcher.

  • Sawyer made a Rube Goldberg contraption.

  • Max invented a car that can actually stick on the window.

An Otter invented a cup game. Each cup is labeled with a different number. After you throw the ball, you add up the points on all the cups you knock over. Player with the most points at the end wins the game.

Max created a Rube Goldberg contraption that ended up depositing Grover into a box.

Neil and Jayne invented a Rube Goldberg Contraption to get marbles into a cup!

Margaux invents a Rube Goldberg contraption that reveals a birthday poster for her dad.

ELC alumnus, Katie, creates her own Rube Goldberg contraption using marbles works and train tracks.

Carina invented a Rube Goldberg contraption that deposits an egg into her mouth- yum!

Landon invented a game called “foam basketball”. Each hoop is worth a different number of points and you play by bouncing a foam ball and trying to make it in one of the hoops. First one to twenty points wins!

Invention Week 1

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Our Otter classroom has moved online while Oregon school buildings remain closed. This week we are learning about inventions. We are studying famous inventors, reflecting on important inventions in our lives, and creating our own inventions. I’ll add photos and videos here as I receive them from families.

This week Ms. Aja read us The Most Magnificent Thing. Just like the protagonist in this story, Otter inventors quickly learned that mistakes are an important part of the design process. Building and creating takes much trial and error. Mistakes are excellent opportunities to learn. In fact, our brain grows the most when we are making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. Otters demonstrated incredible persistence this week as they designed, modified, and redesigned their contraptions. Check out some of our cool confetti launchers below!

Check out this chain reaction. We will be learning more about these types of inventions next week when we create our own Rube Goldberg contraptions.

Of course, Otters are having all kinds of other adventures at home this week as well. Thanks for sharing, Otters!

Mr. Mark was able to do some planting on the roof of our Cedar Classroom last weekend too.

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Spreading Joy

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Across the world, people are staying home to keep each other safe. Let’s spread joy by decorating our windows, sidewalks, or doors.

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.

~Coretta Scott King

Outdoor Classroom Planting

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Otters were planning to do some weeding and spring planting in our outdoor classroom in the coming weeks. Mr. Mark and his wife, Ms. Pamela, kindly stepped-up to take care of the space in our absence. They weeded the meadow area and planted several new plants. A huge thank you to Mark and Pamela for helping keep our community spaces beautiful, maintained, and thriving.

Week Two Spring Break Photos

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Here are photos of what Otters have been up to during our second week apart. (I’ll post new photos here as I receive them from families.) You can view photos from our first week of break here.

  • Henry saw a fox in his blackberry bushes! He’s also been building, playing outside, and washing cars.

  • Ms. Aja’s kids have been building with connector cubes.

  • Max saw a blue heron at the wetlands! He’s also been biking, reading Captain Underpants, enjoying Scholastic videos and articles, and building with Jenga blocks.

  • Carina did a FaceTime piano lesson, played with a neighbor’s new puppy (with social distance from owner of course), has been practicing soccer, and left cherry blossom messages for neighbors.

Happy Birthday!

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Dear L, 

Happy, happy birthday!!! We love your stories, your deep thoughts, and your beautiful art pieces. We can’t wait to celebrate with you when we all return to school. Our community is a better place because of YOU. We hope your day is filled with happiness, sunshine, and quality family time. 

Hugs, 

Ms. Aja and the Otters 

Extended Break Week 1 Photos

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Here’s what some of our Otters have been up to during the first week of our extended break…

-Building Leprechaun traps

-Doodling with Mo Willems

-Sidewalk chalk art

-Knitting

-Math

-Logic game called Rush Hour

-Buddy reading with siblings

-Making “Stone Soup” in mud puddles

-Journaling

-Fuse beads

-Researching Ireland

-Painting shamrocks

-Playing Dragonwood

-Baking

-Nature walks and hiking

-Exercise

-Writer’s Workshop stories

-Helping with yard work

-Sawyer’s family returned from their Arizona trip

-Biking

-Obstacle courses

-FaceTiming friends

-Creating a “collageosaurus”


Trout Release

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We were disappointed to not be able to take our field trip to Hagg Lake to release our trout last Friday. Mr. Mark was kind enough to be sure our trout got safely released. Here are photos and video of the release.

Rock Cycle and Geode Cracking

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Ten days ago we started our rocks tumbling in the rock tumbler. It was fascinating to hear students’ predictions about what might happen after rocks were tumbled for 25 days in the tumbler. Here are some of their predictions:

  • “They will combine into one huge rock. It will be bigger and crumblier.”

  • “The bumpy ones will be smoother because they will bump into each other and the little pieces will come off.”

  • “They will come out shiny, smooth, sparkly, and about the same size.”

  • “They will be one big rock but not dirty anymore.”

  • “When they bump things will become smaller. Little rocks will come off.”

  • “They will be shinier because they will be thrown around. And a little smaller because sand will be grinding them.”

  • “Edges will be smooth. Rocks will crack and spilt into two rocks. Pieces will crack off.”

  • They will stick together to make a stone. They will be smooth on the outside with sharp edges at core. Crystals will be inside.” 

  • “They will be smooth, shiny, and clean. I have a rock tumbler.”

  • “The rocks will become bigger because they will be squished together in tumbler. They will be dirtier because the dirty rocks will smooth together. They will still be sharp.”

  • “Not as dusty. Still small. It looks like it will shine them.”

  • “They will be rounder because they will be tumbling and the sharp parts could break off and get flattened. They will get cleaner.”

On Tuesday we got to remove the rocks after they had been tumbling with coarse grit for 7 days. We washed the rocks and examined them. We noticed that they are getting smoother and shinier. Then we put them back in the tumbler with water and fine grit for another 7 days. We can’t wait to see what they look like next.

Last week we learned more about the rock cycle. Students had a chance to actually imagine themselves as a rock. As a rock, they visited different centers where they rolled dice to experience different geologic events. As the rocks eroded, melted, erupted, compressed, and compacted they moved through the rock cycle and became different types of rocks. Students had a chance to become sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks during this simulation. During this activity students closely examined each of these different types of rocks and read more about each type. Then students created rock cycle posters to demonstrate what they had learned. 

Juliana gave a presentation on geodes and brought in geodes for students to crack. Adam helped us crack the geodes using a chain pipe cutter. Students were thrilled to discover what the inside of their geodes looked like. Thank you, Juliana and Adam, for the fun experience and for the geode keepsakes!

Last week each Otter chose a rock or mineral to research.  Students shared their research with the class and created a reference page about their rock/mineral to add to our class field guide book. 

Neil came up with the idea to create a new obstacle course in the outdoor classroom. It started small and quickly grew as nearly every Otter joined in the fun. By the second day of working on the obstacle course it covered almost our entire outdoor classroom. The obstacle course included some big challenges, including rolling parts- what fun!

Other highlights of the week included adding a mason bee home to our outdoor classroom, drawing, growing salt crystals, reading Elephant and Piggie books in Spanish, playing games outside, and coding on the iPads. 

Geology and Currency Explorations

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This week students had a chance to examine and share their currencies from all over the world! Students noticed interesting similarities and differences. Our currency examination led to more research questions, such as "who was Queen Elizabeth II and why is she on so much money?” “Why is Ben Franklin on our money?” Why does this money have a hole in it?” When we go to the library next week we are planning to check out some books to help us answer some of our questions.

This week we started learning about how different rocks form. We learned about sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. Students organized into three small groups, with each group being responsible for researching and presenting about their assigned type of rock. Students created posters in order to teach others about their type of rock. Their posters included diagrams, interesting facts, examples of that specific type of rock, and information about how that type of rock forms. Students shared their posters with the group and were able to practice their presentation skills. Landon’s grandpa brought in some examples of sedimentary rocks and showed us how to use rock excavating tools to find fossils in shale. He even showed us a Trilobite fossil that is millions of years old! This week students also learned how to conduct an interview. They read books about rocks and formed additional questions that they wanted answered. They interviewed Dr. Wolfe to get answers to their technical geology questions. This week we also examined a rock tumbling contraption. We discussed the mechanisms of the machine and made predications about what would happen if we tumbled rocks in the tumbler for 24 days! Then we picked some rocks and started our rock tumbling experiment. Students also completed a Venn diagram to highlight the differences between a life cycle and the rock cycle. We will continue to learn about the rock cycle and about specific minerals next week. Student engineers and artists created new rock structures in our block area.

One of our highlights this week was welcoming a new student to our classroom community. We are so glad you are here, Finn! We also delivered canned foods to the Boxer Food Share, continued working our graphic novels, read with Shark buddies, met Juliana’s uncle from Chicago, and learned more about a Japanese celebration called Hina Matsuri, or Girl’s Day. Have a wonderful weekend!


Geology Explorations

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More photos from our geology explorations last week… Thank you, Mr. Mark, for the photos!

Dr. Seuss Day

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Dr. Seuss Day is a favorite ELC tradition. Dressed in comfy pajamas, students from all the ELC classes rotated to six different centers around the school. Students had an opportunity to explore in multi-age groups. Here are the centers that each group visited:

  1. Ooblick exploration and feet painting art in atelier

  2. Green eggs and ham in Dolphin classroom

  3. Reading Dr. Seuss stories in creative play room

  4. Thing 1 and Thing 2 puppet show in Whale classroom

  5. Designing Dr. Seuss hats and Wocket in My Pocket characters in Shark classroom

  6. Bubble exploration, outside play, and fishing outside in piazza

Thank you you to the many teachers, ELC administrators, and parent volunteers who made this day possible! (And thank you to Mark for the photo documentation).

Japanese Exchange Students Visit

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As our Flat Stanleys continue to traverse the globe, Otters are learning more about other places and cultures. On Friday we had the opportunity to visit with some exchange students from Japan. The Japanese exchange students taught us how to write and say our names in Japanese. It was fascinating to see how different characters and names look in Japanese. They also taught us how to count to ten in Japanese. In addition, we were able to interview the Japanese exchange students to learn more about life in Japan. We were fascinated to learn about the food, buildings, and businesses in Japan.


Geology and Mary Poppins Jr. Play

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Landon’s grandpa came in to show us his extensive coin collection last week. He has collected coins from all over the world.

This week we had the opportunity to watch a local production of Mary Poppins, Jr. at Theatre in the Grove. We were so impressed with the acting, singing, set design, and sound effects. As actors ourselves, Otters could appreciate the amount of hard work and practicing it takes to put on a performance- especially a performance that is an hour long! What a treat for us for us to get to attend this play. 

We are currently immersed in our study of geology. We now have hundreds of rock samples in our classroom. Several adults have loaned us their special rock collections- collections that have taken years to acquire. We have been examining the rocks and talking about how rocks form. We learned that geologists classify rocks by the way they form. We are learning about sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. We did a science experiment to create our own sedimentary “rocks”, and an experiment to that involved making a peanut brittle volcano to see how igneous rocks form. We read about rocks and began formulating questions to ask during our interview with a geologist next week. In addition, we created pet rocks to use in our imaginative play and in our story writing. Our rock unit will continue over the course of the next two to three weeks. 

As a community of readers we continue to spend ample time each week reading. We visited the library this week, read with our Dolphin buddies, and enjoyed reading in the beautiful sunshine.

Other highlights from this week include Scratch Jr. Coding with Adam, purchasing ice cream in the Otter ice-cream shop, and examining our trout alevin. Otters are becoming increasingly skilled at finding the mistakes that teachers intentionally leave in the morning letter each day. We are having some great conversations about spelling, word patterns, grammar, and punctuation. Otters have been using logic and strategy to play Mancala and Dragonwood. In our outdoor classroom this week we found some beautiful butterflies. We are using field guides to identify the insects we find. In writer’s workshop we are continuing to work on our graphic novels. We have been developing characters and plot, and using rulers to sketch panels. There has been a happy buzz during writing time as students excitedly share their work.

Mesquite Pancakes and Rock Sculptures

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Flat Pickles returned from Arizona along with a recipe for Mesquite pancakes with prickly pear syrup. We had quite the feast as we learned about Arizona. Thank you to Aunt Polly for sending the special ingredients!

This week we started our exploration of geology. We collected rocks, developed questions, checked out rock books, and created rock sculptures. We can’t wait to learn more about the science of rocks!

We got to read with our Shark buddies on Friday afternoon.

We also celebrated a special birthday this week!

This week students were particularly interested in learning to play Mancala and continuing to play Dragonwood. We also took some beautiful nature walks on campus and enjoyed some intense games of tag. Landon’s grandpa came in to show us his huge coin collection as we study different types of currency. I’ll post photos after I receive permission. Have a wonderful weekend!

Centenarians Visit

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This week we celebrated our 100th day of school together! We spent time talking about the number 100, the word root cent, and about what life might be like in 100 years. To explore the idea of 100 more deeply, we invited in several guest speakers who are nearly centenarians. We got to ask our special guests questions about what life was like when they were in first/second grade. We talked about the changes in technology, schools, and culture that has occurred over the last several decades. Our guests regaled us with stories of their childhoods. We learned about old-time items like paper dolls, records, phone booths, and cars that started with a crank. They talked about what life was like without modern technologies and told us what it felt like to be nearing 100 years old. What an amazing experience to get to share time with these wise and loving guests.

 

Valentine's Day

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This week our mathematicians have been hard at work examining, counting, and learning about money. Their Otter restaurant is open for business and they’ve been using their knowledge of coin values to pay for their meals and make change. We’ve been examining money from all over the world! Next week we will create a graph of where all our currency is from. We will also be having a guest speaker come in to share his coin collection with us. We can’t wait! 

Otters each wrote 17 valentines for their friends and teachers in our community. They also created their own valentine mailboxes. Otters followed a recipe to make sugar cookies for the celebration. On Friday afternoon we distributed our handmade cards and decorated the cookies we baked. We enjoyed watching a friendship slideshow while eating our cookies. Then we spent time reading and admiring the cards we received from one another. It was a sweet celebration of friendship and community. 

Ms. Julie helped us harvest our winter kale and Swiss chard this week. The winter garden beds we created worked great and we harvested enough greens to share with the other classes in the school.

Other highlights of the week included examining interesting rocks, learning about Ukraine, having a special lamb visitor, learning to play Dragonwood, and meeting several new undergraduate volunteers who will be helping in our classrom each week. We are excited to have more teachers joining our Otter community! 

The Fastest Draw in the West

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The Otters are thrilled to present their play, The Fastest Draw in the West. We presented this play to the school and to our parents on Friday afternoon. Otters felt proud of their hard work and excited to share this reader’s theater production with the community.

The Fast Draw in the West CAST

Exploring Ecuador

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This week we used atlases, the globe, and Google Earth to learn more about the destinations of our Flat Stanleys. We also used Google Earth to find our homes and school. Flat Jeffery was our first flat person to return to school after spending a couple weeks in the Galapagos Islands and other parts of Ecuador. To celebrate his return we learned about Ecuador. We read about Ecuador, examined coins, and found Ecuador on various maps. We also cooked an Ecuadorian soup that contained potatoes and quinoa.  Several Otters thought the soup was delicious and asked for seconds, thirds, or even FOURTHS! We also created Ecuadorian sculptures called Masapan.

During our numeracy explorations this week students were given various math problems to solve in any way they could. They were invited to share their thinking on the easel and take turns being the teacher. We celebrated mistakes as opportunities to learn. We discovered that one single math problem could be solved in many different ways! Other mathematicians continued to explore the concept of multiplication by creating Magnatile arrays. Students discovered that multiplication problems can be solved by thinking of multiplication as repeated addition, as multiple groupings, or as arrays. We also did money pre-assessments this week. We are solidifying our knowledge of coin names and values. We will be counting change and learning to make change. Otters decided to create an Otter restaurant to gain practice with counting money. Students worked in small group teams to construct the restaurant, make menus with prices, display the food, and create the restaurant name and signs. We are so excited to play (and learn!) in our restaurant next week. 

We were excited to read with our Shark buddies this afternoon! Otters are becoming increasingly fluent in their reading and are excited to share their love of reading with the preschoolers. We also visited the library to choose new books for our book bags and books to read to our buddies. We got books about trout and about rocks for our upcoming units. In addition, we collected some more books written by Mo Willems to use as mentor texts during our Writer’s Workshop author study. We are learning about Mo Willems and are beginning to incorporate some of his strategies in our own writing.

In addition to studying Mo Willem texts during Writer’s Workshop this week, we also began working on our valentines. Each students is writing a valentine for every other student in our community. Students are drawing pictures on their valentines during our daily chapter book read aloud. Creating valentines allows students to write for an authentic purpose, to express themselves creatively, and builds community. We can hardly wait to exchange cards next week. 

We had the pleasure of celebrating two birthdays this week! Birthday students brought in photos to share with the class. What fun to share their stories and memories with friends! We presented the birthday children with a birthday book written by classmates and enjoyed fruit popsicles. We also had a dance party. 

There are so many magical moments of learning and discovery each week- it’s nearly impossible to capture them all! A few more highlights included discovering ice in the outdoor classroom, students bringing in books and photos to share, making magic snow, finding fungi, reading about unicorns, creating a rigamajig skateboard, constructing bridge obstacle courses, playing Harry Potter outside, and learning to code with the Scratch Jr. app.  Of course one of the absolute highlights of our week was practicing and performing our play. Video and photos from the play to be posted soon. 

Trout Eggs Arrived

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Our trout eggs arrived last week! They are in the eyed-egg stage of development. We were able to ask questions of a volunteer from the Salmon and Trout Enhancement Program. Through raising trout eggs Otter students will…

  • Make scientific observations

  • Utilize scientific tools to assist in observations

  • Design and build tools to assist in dead egg removal

  • Collect and analyze data

  • Utilize Venn diagrams to compare and contrast salmon and trout characteristics and life cycles

  • Read and write about trout and their life cycle

  • Engage in a field experience and trout release at Hagg Lake

  • Demonstrate a desire to explore, care for, understand and conserve resources as a steward of the natural world