Fun Run
/We had a blast at the fun run today! A huge thanks to all the parents who organized the event, volunteered their time, cheered us on, and collected donations.
Wetland Explorations
/This week students worked with partners to learn about a wetland mammal, reptile, or amphibian. Partners worked together to research their animal and then create a riddle and artwork to showcase their learning. For this project, I intentionally assigned students to specific partnerships. As I assigned students to work with specific partners I kept my learning goals for individual students at the forefront of my mind. For some students the main goal of this project was to demonstrate flexibility in thinking and the ability to collaborate with another child. For other students, improving their penmanship was a main goal. For still others, a main goal was letting go of total control and being able to take others' ideas into account. For still others, I was hoping to provide an opportunity to read challenging scientific texts or to practice scientific drawing techniques. A main goal for all students was to demonstrate persistence and learn how to give and receive clear, specific feedback related to their drawings. We watched this video about giving specific artistic feedback. With their partners, students had to decide who would do each part of the project. As you can imagine, much learning took place as students negotiated their roles and solved the challenges that arose. This cross-curricular project involved reading, writing, science, and art. Student artists did several drafts of their animals, each time receiving direct feedback from their partner to improve their drawings. Students demonstrated terrific grit and perseverance throughout this project and are excited to showcase their work at our riddle walk on Saturday. This morning we took a field trip to Fernhill Wetlands with the Whales. At Fernhill we saw many kinds of wildlife including nesting birds, nutria, a baby frog, and a garter snake. Scientists helped us use scopes to get a closer view of the wildlife. We learned how to use the Merlin Bird ID app to identify birds and we created layers of the wetland art pieces with chalk pastels.
Plant Art
/We couldn’t ask for better weather for our outdoor explorations this week. Students planted their rainbow garden flowers and continued caring for the native plants they added to our outdoor gardens. We discovered that the baby birds in our bird house have hatched and we observed the mama bird feeding her chicks this week. We counted two baby bird heads popping out of the nest, and we suspect that there may be even more babies hidden in the bird house. We will continue our careful observations next week. Students spent much time climbing our western red cedar and creating concoctions in our mud/clay kitchen. We identified several types of spiders and bees in our meadow and pollinator garden too. One of the highlights of our week was a visit from Timofey (one of our former classmates). Otter students delighted in spending Wednesday afternoon with Timofey and were excited to show him our climbing tree and new cedar tower structure. In numeracy students have been solidifying their grasp of coin names and values. They love practicing their coin counting at our Otter ice cream shop and our Friday popcorn stand. During writers’ workshop students added illustrations and covers to their plant books. They also created art pieces depicting the native plant they’ve been researching. On Thursday evening Otter students were thrilled to host their families at our annual Spring Celebration of Learning. Other highlights this week were celebrating Jace and Addy’s birthdays and spending Friday afternoon at the Forest Grove library.
