We have heard a steadily increasing chorus of bird song each week at ECO so this past week we decided to focus on birds.  Most students now know the familiar call of the red winged blackbird and we have been lucky to see and hear an abundance of them in the ECO field.  The ovenbird has also been quite vocal in the woods with its "teacher, teacher" call.  Last week we also learned the song of the chestnut-sided warbler - "pleased pleased pleased to meetcha" - and were lucky to see and hear one right next to the trail as we walked in and out of the forest.  In the woods, Carrie set up a bird scavenger hunt with pictures of common species hung throughout our site.  Children had a great time finding the pictures and using bird guides to indentify the different species.

We always follow our ECO lesson with forest choice time.  For the past several weeks we have had a mud kitchen available. This has been a big hit, with lots of lovely cakes and muddy drinks created and served!

 Our latest science unit "Pushes and Pulls" is focused on forces and motion.  We began this unit by reading a book about pushes and pulls and brainstorming examples of pushes and pulls we use each day.  It turns out examples abound once we start thinking about it, esepecially on the playground and in gym class.  On Friday we rotated through three stations experimenting with motion.  In the first station, children were challenged to use blocks to make a marble run to test marbles of various sizes and weights.  In the second station they used blocks to put a marble in motion and change its direction.  For the third station they experimented with chain reactions, using dominoes and kiva blocks.  While our main focus was learning about motion, this also provided a great opportunity for working in teams.

 This week we were joined virtually by two students from Harwood's "She's the First" group, which sponsors girls in Ethiopia and Uganda who are the first in their families to attend high school.  Rubi Murphy and former WES student Lucy Sullivan read our class the book Malala's Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai, about the author's own experiences as a girl in Pakistan and her wish for a magic pencil to change the world for the better.  Although she never gets a magic pencil, she realizes she can bring about change using a real pencil and her written words.  Children enjoyed hearing the story and were particularly aghast at the notion of girls being unable to attend school in some parts of the world.  Thanks to Lucy and Rubi for sharing with us!

 For the last several weeks we have been working on opinion writing.  We began by talking about what an opinion is (what someone thinks, there is no right or wrong answer) and compared opinions to facts.  We have spent lots of time at the start of our day playing "Would You Rather..", expressing our opinions by moving to one side of the room or the other, and then sharing reasons for our choices.  We play this game with a wide range of questions from "Would you rather play in the snow or the mud?"  to "Would you rather have Piggy or Elephant come to your house?"  This is a fast-paced game that kids love to play and it has provided lots of practice not only thinking about opinions, but also backing them up with evidence.  

Once we mastered this quick way of sharing opinions and reasons orally we moved on to writing our opinions.  Kindergarteners have strong opinions which they love to share! This has made for some very focused writing.  Some of the topics we have written about have included favorite seasons, recess versus choice time, and the best pet.  We have also written opinions in response to several books, including "Henry and Mudge" by Cynthia Rylant and "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" by Mo Willems.

 Wow, did we ever have a fabulous first day in the forest!  I think it was particularly significant for Carrie and me, as we have both spent many years visiting the site but hadn't been their since last December.  The warm weather was an added plus!

Our focus for the day was spring.  We began in the lower field talking about birds that have already migrated back to Vermont, including red-winged blackbirds, which were visible and vocal all around us.  We talked about the message they were giving with their call of "conk-la-ree" and who it was intended for.  Right now it is the male blackbirds that have come back and they are trying to assert their territory in anticipation of nesting.  There message is telling other males to kindly go to a different space! We played a red-winged blackbird tag game before heading into the woods.

While we ate our snack in the forest Carrie told a story called "Spring Defeats Winter."  Children were invited to create their own spring wands, followed by time to explore our forest space. We ended by choosing sit spots, a place that we will visit each week where we can sit quietly, listen and watch the forest, sip tea, and write in journals.  We are looking forward to many more fantastic weeks of ECO in the woods.