Aack! Time is Running Out

In the latest classroom newsletter I mentioned how aware I've become that our time together in this class in drawing to a close.  I'm struck by how much I still want to experience with this group!  We seem to be busier than ever with many of the things that have brought us joy throughout the year: contributing to the garden, learning with our big buddies, and deepening our friendships. Below you can see us learning about Addie's passion for painting and the celebration of Diwali with Vyaan- two fantastic Candle Days.

On Friday before a big Orchard community weekend, we had Explore time with our big buddies.  It was challenging and inspiring to make a tower that was taller than Mr. Wright!  Some Kindergarteners took that idea and decided to make a fort big enough to get inside.  

When the weekend arrived the fun didn't stop.  Below you can see a glimpse of Veggie Printing at Spring Fling.  Many thanks to the PTO for putting on a great, inclusive event.

And on to Saturday for the first (hopefully annual) Garden Work Day!  Teachers, parents, students, former students, one Mr. T came out to lend a hand reading the garden beds and putting in some new plantings.  It was so encouraging to see us working together and making a big difference in all the growing spaces.  A big shout out to all who helped.

This last picture is from earlier in the week when our class went out to thin the radishes.  If you are interested in helping care for our gardens this summer please get in touch!

More Candle Day Learning

Candle Days are a super way to learn little bit about a lot of things.  We don't all have the same talents, passions, interests, expertise, or cultural background and that's a good thing because it means we can learn from one another! Recently we learned about Skiing from Maren, Dolphins from Oliver, and Yoga from Hannah.  These "family shares" really enrich our classroom. They are always meaningful and memorable.

"We Are In Community..."

The title of this post is a reference to a line in the Orchard School song- "here we are, all together, we are in community...".  This feeling was so present during the preparation, running, and take down of our Spring Tag Sale.  You may know that the proceeds from the sale go directly to fund our gardens, but unless you've worked on the event you may not know how inspirational it is to see everyone pitching in to make it happen.  The event is just ONE of the ways that we teach environmental responsibility or the importance of taking care of the earth.  In the case of the Tag Sale, it's all about REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.  A group of highschool freshman, led by two seniors came to help cart items and sort clothes for the sale.  They also spent time in the classroom helping each K student to make a paper mache model earth.  Stay tuned for a future post when you can see the finished products!

Connecting with Kindergarten Age Kids in Tanzania

Friday, May 3rd was the day of our long awaited Skype meet up with a school in Tanzania!  Our friend Miss Libby, who has taught in Tanzania, was instrumental in helping us create this relationship. Our Librarian, Mrs. MacDonald, was key in helping us navigate the tech connection. To help us get ready for "meeting" our new friends Libby came to our classroom to talk to us about the specific village in TZ where the children are from.  Here you can see her showing a picture of a village house and also what a girl in TZ may wear.

This connection is one that begin with the idea of giving, way back in February when we collected gently used books for the children in the school.  Since then we have participated in their Paper Plate Project where student's in TZ draw "what they see out their window" on a paper plate to send to us and we did the same to send to them.  This prompted us to formulate some questions to ask during the Skype session and to learn some words and numbers in Swahili! On the day of the Skype, the children in TZ were excited to learn that it was one of our student's birthdays and they sang her "Happy Birthday"!  We were excited to learn that there was a student in their class named Rachel, just like in ours.  We sang them the Orchard School song and they sang us a song about counting fingers.  The virtual meet up highlighted similarities among 5 and 6 year olds around the world!

Let's Catch Up- Candle days and Panting Veggies

It's been a while since I posted and our class has been involved in several important events.  In this post I will try to capture the spirit of what's been going on.  Right before our April break we had the first of this year's Candle Days and Connor taught us about his family's passion for legos. 

We also went out to the garden to plant radishes with our fifth grade buddies.  You can tell from the pictures that it was pretty chilly but we were thinking ahead to sunny days and fresh veggies.

 

Once we returned to school after the break we deemed it time to plant the peas! 

Spring Has Sprung!

It's been officially spring for a few weeks now but with the temperatures finally climbing we are able to add more outdoor time back into our learning.  This week we "planted the seeds" for this- pun intended!  Inspired by one student's "signs of spring" sharing from March, we delved deeper into the life cycle of a seed and here you can see Bronagh showing the children how the seed we planted at sharing time is on it's way to becoming a new bean plant.  We followed this up with a sequencing activity.

Speaking of getting outside more, on Wednesday we watched our 5th grade buddies in the culminating activity from their Star Base Program... the Rocket Launch!!!  "How long until fifth grade" was asked more than once that afternoon.

And of course, I can't miss an opportunity to share how the children are learning more and more from one another all the time.  Below you can see children reading to one another from their "just right" book packs, and friends putting their heads together to create more "vowel power" with their vowel shields right close by.

How do you measure, measure a year?

Any musical fans out there may think the title of this post sounds a little familiar... As I look back over recent pictures it seems as though they all show how much the children have progressed in their ability to work collaboratively.  In Math we've been exploring different ways to measure length and weight.  Below you will see children working in pairs and as table groups to measure tape lines on the floor (in the standard unit of "craft sticks") and bundles of pencils and crayons in the standard unit of "bow tie pasta".

As we challenge ourselves to make our writing stronger, we've been looking to inspiring author Kevin Henkes (Chrysanthemum, A Weekend With Wendell, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and more) for a model of how to use "juicy" words and interesting details.  Here you can see table mates becoming more familiar with Henkes' style.

An important event in the last week or so was our final Farm to School session with Miss Meg. The program will continue with a different educator next year. Meg has been a motivated, dedicated, and knowledgeable food educator in the district for two years. In her last lesson she taught us about cacao, a plant native to the Dominican Republic where her mother is from.  We were able to try an authentic version of hot chocolate with a Vermont twist- it was sweetened with maple syrup!  A perfect tie in to our recent field trip to Shelburne Farms.  We learned all about the molinillo (wooden wisk tool). Take a look at what one student thought of the taste... thumb's up!