Farewell to Mr. Bubba

/

Last Friday was Mr. Bubba’s last day in our classroom. Bubba is now officially a licensed teacher with a master’s degree! Students and families sent in balloons, decorations, and treats for our farewell celebration. Students planned a sneaky balloon attack on Mr. Bubba and then presented him with cards depicting their favorite memories with him. It was a bittersweet day.

Last week students also continued exploring our outdoor classroom gardens. They made detailed sketches and recorded their observations regarding the growing conditions required by plants in each garden area. In addition, students used digital cameras to take photos of the plants they are researching. Students took photos from a variety of different angles. During writer’s workshop students finished writing their expository books about specific native plants that are growing into our outdoor classroom.

Plant Explorations

/

This week students continued planting in our outdoor classroom and took care to water their plants on hot days. Students have also been doing much plant research and writing. We continue to be impressed with how much our students’ writing has improved this year! Our praying mantises are getting larger by the day and have been feasting on fruit flies and some larger insects now. Yesterday students worked individually or in partners to design an experiment to test what plants need to survive. Student scientists were careful to change only one variable in their experiments so that the results could be accurate. Today we began discussing the growing conditions that specific plants require. Students began to sketch and examine the requirements of plants in these five gardens: pollinator garden, meadow, pond, fern garden, and bioswale. We will continue this exploration next week. On Monday students added a new entry in their nature journals. This week we also spent a lot of time working on a top secret gift for our moms. We can’t post photos though, because we don’t want to ruin the surprise!

Butterfly Release, Tree Climbing, and Planting

/

On Monday we discovered that our painted lady butterflies had emerged from their chrysalises over the weekend. We closely observed the butterflies and noticed interesting markings that will help them camouflage in the wild. We learned about the butterfly life cycle and students created butterfly beautiful life cycle posters. On Tuesday students had an opportunity to gently hold the butterflies before releasing them into the pollinator garden. I was greatly impressed with the care and concentration students demonstrated as they gently allowed the butterflies to climb from one child’s hand to the next child’s finger. Several students had never held a butterfly before- what an amazing experience! A huge thank you to Ava B's family for sending in caterpillars for us to raise. On Wednesday Mr. Mark visited the outdoor classroom to do a tree climbing demonstration. We learned how to carefully and safely climb our western redcedar without harming ourselves or the tree. Students then had an opportunity to climb the tree under teacher supervision. We worked with Mr. Mark to carefully plant more native plants in our meadow and pollinator gardens. Our mason bees were buzzing around the meadow as we planted and some children were able to carefully hold these bees. Mason bees are gentle creatures and don’t sting. They are also excellent pollinators. On Thursday we learned more about the praying mantis life cycle and began our praying mantis life cycle sketches.  We have dozens of praying mantis nymphs in our enclosure and they are getting bigger each week. This week we spent time adding to our nature journals. During writer’s workshop several students started their native plant research projects. Other highlights this week included a library trip, reading buddies, a dance performance in the gazebo, Friday sharing, board game day, counting change at the Otter popcorn stand, and various constructions in the engineering sandbox.