Monday Fun-day

 

"It's a beehive.  The things in the middle are the flowers" CF

Hmmm, do bees take the whole flower into the bee hive?

That question was enough for you to pause and think about your work.  From there you created a second part of your work.  

"This is the pollen" CF

"This is the bee going into the beehive." JL

"This is a flower for the bees of springtime." ESE

What is in the Spring sky?

"Pollen" RM

hahaha!  You are right!  And you made your teacher laugh!

We are adding a new layer to the watercolor work we did so long ago.  What can you draw that lives in the Springtime sky?

We saw insects of all sorts!

And then the scissors and glue came out and our friends were so excited!

As we get ready to move our Kindness Cube into the hallway the need for signs became evident.  These friends today created invitations to hang in our Community Space.

This simple invitation of loose parts sparked a conversation filled with creativity and excitement.

Tell me about this.

"It's the materials for our spa." RM

Wow.  What are the things you would need to have a spa?

"Cucumbers!" MT

"Face Masks"

"Robes to make you comfy."

"Water in a bucket for your toes." MT

"Orbeez too to make it feel good!" CG

"A massage stick." MT

"At least two of them."

"Make up."

"Nail polish" JI

"Face mask rollers"

"Shhhhhh!  Spas are quiet!" MT

It was a sweet morning of work in the room and we are excited to share our learning with you.

Bees are buzzing!

Did you know that all the worker bees in a nest are girls?

Do you know what happens when there are two queens in a hive?

Do you know if there be too many bees?

Do you know if a stinger on the nose or the back?

Do you know how much money one bee can make?

Did you know bees have "nectar pockets?" (or pollen baskets...)

Do you know the difference between a hive and a nest?

Birch room is Bee Smart. 

As we deepen our study, what we know and learn grows too. 

Earlier this week, Ms. Nicki brought in all the bee things from her childhood neighbor's hive. The honeycomb and hive traveled all the way from Iowa. 

The honey was made from the flowers in her old backyard!

As we study more questions are asked. More questions for us to search for answers!

How do you get the honey out of the hive?

How do you find the queen?

What does the smoke do?

Do all the bees sting?

What kind of bees make honey?

Does honey always taste the same?

I wonder how we can find the answers...

spilling Kindness.

This morning we talked about creating a list of kindness words.  We read once again the book Be Kind and listened carefully for the kindness words we heard.

We wrote words like

Share

Listen

Cooperate

Compliment

Then we read about how kindnesses can multiply and spill out into the whole world.  What a perfect segue to Walking Wednesday.

So, as we headed out we asked our friends 

How Can we spill our Kindness into our whole community?

We paused on the sidewalk among several businesses and wondered how we might sprinkle our kindness to all of our community.

We continued on our walk and spent some time exploring the Sculpture Garden.  On the way back we paused on the opposite side of the road to wonder again how we might spread kindness in our community.

"We could give hugs." JA

"We can tell those people over there." ESE

And then we heard the most amazing idea ever.

"We can draw hearts and fill them with our juicy words." CF

What are some of the juicy words we might put inside these kindness hearts?

How are we going to put all of this amazing kindness on the sidewalk?

"We need some chalk." MS

Chalk was a great idea...or...was it?

"If it rains it will all go away." CG

"We can put them here in the shade under the cover." RM

We love the way you are working as a problem solver!

Community Kindness!

 We have been working on our kindness cube for quite some time now.  Today as we gathered for a meeting we made an observation.

"Our kindness cube is SO beautiful.  And it's hanging over in the corner." Ms N

That was all it took for a morning filled with amazing learning to spark!

"We could move it here." (pointing to a new spot in the room)

"We could take it outside." - Hmmmm, we have had it outside before.  Today is SO windy.  I'm worried about our beautiful cube on such a windy day

"The beads would all fall off." ESE

We talked about words that include everyone.  

"Community" RM

Is there a way everyone in our community can contribute to our kindness cube?

We heard some friends suggest we hang our kindness cube in the hallway.

This is the hallway.  How about here?  There are even hooks already there!

"What if they don't come this way.?" MT

We decided to walk to the other hallway and ask some of the classrooms there if they would see our Kindness Cube if it were hanging outside our classroom.

Ms Beth in the Willow room confirmed that the never come in our hallway.

Hmmmm.  So our hallway wouldn't be a good place for the Kindness Cube.

What about THIS hallway?

Well, OUR hallway wouldn't see it then.

So we continued our walk through the school to search for the perfect spot to hang our cube.

Wow!  You are thinking about a space that every classroom in our building comes.

Is this a space that our whole community comes to?  Who is in our community anyway?

"Kids!"

"Teachers!"

"Ms Charde"

"Mr Robert"

"Mr Kevin"

Those are ALL members of our school community.

I wonder, do all of those people come in this space?

I bet Ms Charde NEVER comes here!

We found the PERFECT space for our Kindness Cube!

If we hang it here everyone will know exactly what to do right?

"NO!"

Well, how can we let everyone know about our cute?  How can we tell them we want them to share in our kindness?

"We could make a sign!" CG

And so it continued...

What should our signs say?

"Be kind everywhere." RM

"Keep the cube safe." CG

"This is for our whole community." JI

Those are beautiful ideas that let everyone know to treat our Kindness cube with respect.

And once again, your teachers made a noticing that sparked the NEXT level of learning.

"If I saw this beautiful cube I would think 'WOW! I wish I could do that!"

"They can do the cube!!!!!" CG

You mean we can invite EVERYONE to add kindnesses to our cube...our WHOLE community?

"Can you draw kindness?"

""What word means kindness?"

Stay tuned for the next chapter tomorrow!

Forest Monday

Forest....Monday?

Absolutely!  We looked at the calendar this week and recognized that we would miss our forest day.  We noticed the forest would be empty today so off we went! 

Our usual forest days are filled with friends from another classroom  Today was just us.  It felt like a different place.  Though no one overtly stated they noticed, we could tell there was a shift in our usual play.  We zoomed in on things that we don't always stop to see.  We explored things we don't always notice.  We connected with friends we don't always play with.

It was amazing how a small change in our routine, the chance to be flexible, the cool breeze and fresh air, surrounded by nature focused in a way that only being the the forest can.

Enjoy our morning!

"It's Christmas!  Let's decorate!"

These friends began placing bits of beautiful nature all around these stumps.  I could imagine how special your holiday decorations are to you in your home with the care that I saw you taking to create a beautiful space.

As Christmas was happening we saw a giant rolling out of the corner of our eye.  The entire rest of the class got together to roll this giant log...and they did it!

They were SO proud of themselves.

 rolling, exploring, moving, climbing

As the log settled the rolling became more difficult.  

Pushing,

Kicking

Straining

Thinking

Tools!

"This looks like chicken Ms L!" ESE

"Look!  This is from the BEAR!" 

"These will grow purple plants and these will grow green plants." JI

Hmmm...you are noticing the tiny details on this bush.  I wonder how it will change with each week we come to the forest?