We have had a busy and exciting couple of weeks.  Last week during ECO we celebrated dandelions and had a chance to taste dandelion greens cooked over a fire (with a little maple syrup and tamari).  We also worked in groups to build mini-maps of the forest, including a hidden treasure (red bandana).  Each group then studied another group's map to see if they could find the treasure.   Children loved both the map creation and searching for the hidden bandanas.  This week we used natural materials to make ink and also had time to explore in the stream.  We found several interesting critters.

We were thrilled to have two cecropia moths emerge from their cocoons this week.  We are hoping for several more in the coming days.  We set them free with wishes for safe journeys.

Finally, everyone loved the school-wide boat challenge, the opportunity to work with other children and adults, and of course the ice cream!

After quite a few weeks of hard work we have finally wrapped up our informational writing about our nature name animals.  Kindergarteners were asked to revise some of their pages for this project, which is something we haven't spent a lot of time doing this year, but a task they will spend more time on in first grade.  Completing all of the pages took a lot of perseverance!  Everyone loved working on the accompanying project, creating the animal's habitat in a box, and then making a model of the animal.  Each child will have an opportunity to share with the class and then the books will be sent home along with the projects.

During ECO this year we have been very fortunate to be joined by Mary Colleen Sinnott, who initially came as an intern with North Branch Nature Center and had so much fun she kept coming.  Wednesday was her last day with us as she has other commitments this spring.  She generously wrote a song about bees to share with us and also gave our class several cecropia and prometheus moth cocoons.  We will be eagerly watching these over the next several weeks.

We have begun our final science exploration, states of matter, paying particular attention to solids and liquids.  We have compared jars of solids and liquids, noting some differences between the two:  solids keep their shape, while liquids take the shape of the jar and when we pour them, liquids flow easily, while solids generally do not.  On Thursday we explored water using eye droppers, which was lots of fun.  I heard lots of excited exclamations and children made interesting discoveries.  We noticed that the drops always have rounded edges and if two drops get really close to each other they "jump" together to form one bigger drop.

On Friday during technology kindergarteners did a project on signs of spring.  You can view it with the following link:  https://voice.adobe.com/a/7XA0O  Enjoy!

I hope everyone had a wonderful vacation!  On Friday this week we ate lunch together in the classroom as part of our celebration for getting 50 class tallies.  We earn tallies for a variety of things from working very quietly to cleaning up quickly and efficiently.  We also get a tally any time the class receives a compliment from another adult in the building and recently we have been earning them for being especially kind and inclusive.

We are wrapping up our informational writing about our nature name animals.  Yesterday we made collage covers for these.  Using pictures of their nature names children looked for shapes that they could cut out and put together to create a picture.  Next week we will begin a project to go with these.