We had another fantastic and thankfully dry ECO day.  Our focus was on fire building.  Ask your child to tell you about the three kinds of sticks we used to make our fire.

A regular and much anticipated part of each day in our class is sharing.  On most days there are several children who have something to share.  This is a great opportunity for the child sharing to practice speaking with a loud, clear voice, using details to describe what he or she is sharing.  At the same time other children are practicing really listening by sitting quietly and looking at the speaker and making sure that they are thinking about what the speaker is saying- listening with their whole bodies.  After a share three children are called on to ask a question or make a comment.  We have been working on formulating thoughtful, relevant questions and making specific comments.  (Instead of I like it, I like it because ...) Children do not have specific share days for now, but we have decided that one share each week is reasonable.  We have talked about appropriate things to share – a book, a special object such as a rock, something we made.  We often use someone’s share as a greeting object, passing it around the circle as we say good morning, and I am particularly fond of telling shares, that require slightly sharper listening as we make a picture in our minds.  I have asked children not to bring in overt toys, although I appreciate the gray area around this and it has led to some interesting and thoughtful discussions.   If it’s a really cool lego creation that someone spent lots of time making can they share it?  What if it’s kind of a toy, but it helps you practice writing? For now the system we have seems to be working well and children are getting lots of practice both speaking and listening.

Below are some photos of children playing math games.  This is a fun way for them to work on math skills as well as the social skills involved in playing a partner game (being a good sport and having fun are most important.)

As we continue to learn about living things we have shifted our focus from animals to plants. While plants, like animals, need certain things to survive, we are noticing some key differences between plants and animals, especially that plants make their own food. We have been exploring plants with our third and fourth grade partners. A couple of weeks ago each pair found a plant to examine, draw, and label, roots and all. We then planted corn seeds in clear cups so we can observe the plants as they grow. We use our science notebooks to draw and label our observations. It is especially nice to have our partners with us when we use our notebooks, as they share many of the strategies they have already tried, for example making two drawings showing different perspectives. Our ECO theme this week was leaves, a very important part of the plant we have learned.   During ECO children also had some time for free exploration. It is fascinating to watch their ideas unfold when they have the time and space to let their imaginations go. I saw lots of creative problem solving and team -work as children worked on a variety of projects in the woods.

                                     

During reading time, instead of reading to ourselves we sometimes have partner reading.  To ensure that children read with a variety of peers partners are chosen randomly using pictures of our nature names.    Many children have started calling this time "animal reading".  Each partner chooses several books and pairs of children look at one book at a time, making sure that each partner gets to share one of his or her chosen books.  Children really enjoy this time, when they get to spread around the room and enjoy books with a friend.  I also think they enjoy the anticipation of seeing who their random partner will be on a given day.

Some photos from our ECO adventure today, another fantastic morning in the forest!  Children worked in small groups cording, twisting fiber into rope, first with yarn and then with strands of milkweed.  We also added journal writing to our time in sit spots, an amazingly quiet and peaceful way to end our time in the woods.