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.

For several weeks we have been working on letter sounds and formations using the Fundations program.  So far we have worked on the lower case letters t, b, f, m, n, i, u, c, and o.  Children are eager to practice what they have learned and as we are adding new letter sounds and formations they have been writing more and more of their own words during writing time.  In addition we have started learning sight words, focusing on I, the, a, and is, because these are either in our morning message each day or they are words we use a lot in our writing.  Some students have been using this new knowledge to write books with repeating patterns, for example "I see the..." or "I am..." modeling the emergent reading books that they have added to their reading bags.  Children have been practicing the strategies of pointing to words when they read, using pictures to figure out unknown words, and in some cases using the beginning sound to read a word.  They are enthusiastic about practicing the new skills they are learning and it is very exciting to watch their progression.

Thank you to everyone who was able to come to Open House!  It is always exciting for children to share their classroom and provide a glimpse of their time spent at school.

Yesterday morning our class was fortunate to have the opportunity to vote on dog tags for the town of Waitsfield.  Jen Peterson, Waitsfield town clerk, graciously came in and gave a brief explanation of the voting process.  After checking in with Jen, each child voted on shape and color for the dog tags before placing their ballots in the official ballot box.  We counted the votes immediately after so children would know the results.  The next round of dog tags will be gold shields!

We have had fabulous ECO days the last two Wednesdays.  Last week we broke into small groups and created "insect hotels".  Today, after learning about insect parts (thanks to Zach who modeled these for us), each group used items found in the forest to build different insects.   We also chose sit spots today, an individual place that each child will revisit each week through the year to write in their ECO journals and enjoy a few quiet moments before we return to school.