Pooling and Picnicking

It was a perfect day to spend outside with our families eating, socializing, and swimming! 

Champion Handprints

The official point of a first grader transitioning to the big world of  multiplication, chapter books, and more grown up teeth in second grade is the first grade champion handprint. They leave a little piece of their free spirited, anything is possible, ear to ear grins on our K-1 wall. We will always remember their faces, little hands, and hugs as we pass those handprints each day in the hall. Leaving our building is hard not only for you as you watch your babies grow and enter the big world of 2-5 (or 1-8) but on us too. We love those little beings as they run in each day with big stories to tell, their looks of adoration because at this point in their lives their teachers can do no wrong, and their sweet innocence. We care for them as they are our own, we spend more time with them during the week than with our own children. They truly do mean the world to us. But we give them back to you, rightly so, and hope we have left some kind of impression on them that will last through their years. So please, send pictures and holiday cards, let them write letters, and bring them back to visit. Watching them grow would be such a privilege and honor. Thank you for trusting us with your children!

Pond Life

How do you learn about life cycles in the wild? Is there a better way than jumping right in the pond and catching your own bugs for observation?  I can't pretend that this might not be one of my favorite parts of the year!!!

After we discussed life cycles and went on a scavenger hunt in the woods last week, we decided to dive deeper! We caught backswimmers, snails, dragonfly larvae, etc and brought them in our classroom!! Don't worry, we will return the bugs to their home in the pond on Friday!

The kids were beyond excited catching aquatic life with their nets and using charts to determine what they caught! One of the students already asked if we could write down observations during writing this week...

We could not have done this without the amazing Sandy Willmore of course and....Molly and Luke Klingele who volunteered ALL day to help out the other first grade classes too!! Luke was in my class two years ago and is a veteran at catching water bugs!!

CAMP WOLF

For the remainder of first grade we will be spending our time together as CAMP WOLF! The kids chose the name and created a flag for representation. Thanks to Lucy and her incredible artwork on the wolf! Each day we will read, write, and do math in camp related activities! The kids are reading just right books in their sleeping bags, going on hikes to learn about lifecycles in the wild, writing camp stories, and researching animals found near campsites as few examples.

Last week we spent time in Swickard Woods singing around a real campfire and learning how to make fire using flint, char cloth, and metal. Ask your child about the rain song! Thanks again to Sandy Willmore for the authentic experience!

S'mores!!!!!

What is camp without roasting gooey marshmallows and sandwiching them between delicious Hershey's chocolate and crunchy grahams??? Our campfire was a tad different than your typical campground or  backyard firepit! We used tea lights in a bowl of rocks but we still had metal skewers for roasting!! We dimmed the lights and voila- CAMP!!