Paper Cuts for Halloween of Black Cats

       These little black cats may be used in the classroom and in personal crafts.

Paper Cuts of Thanksgiving Turkeys

       Thanksgiving silhouettes/paper cuts of turkeys for the classroom and personal crafts.

Our Nature Table and Center

"Live in the sunshine. Swim in the sea. Drink the wild air." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

        The two things I love most about this area of our room is that it's mostly been built by the students. It houses their treasures (as they deem them) which they constantly show off to one another. And second, behind each of their nature finds is usually a story or memory of some special outing they had with a friend or their family---which they're always eager to share! Many of them even chose to write their personal narratives about their nature related adventures at the beginning of the year.

       Many of our treasures don't stay for long though as the children are constantly bringing in new finds and there's only so much space! Here have been some of the favorites though so far this year...

       One student brought in a birds nest, so I found some quail eggs online to order to go along with it. We've had sea shells from various summer vacations, parts of bee and wasp hives, butterfly wings... and the list truly could go on.

       Probably by far the most favored part of our nature center is our class pet toad, Frodo (because The Lord of the Rings was a tad to long of a name). Frodo also has a book (class community journal) about all of his many adventures authored by the students. 

 

       We also keep a small--yet most used--part of our class library dedicated to nature related books. Here have been some recent favored books from it:

The center also houses the students' phenology journals and nature study sketchbooks:

"We need the tonic of wildness... At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature. "~Henry David Thoreau

Provocation: Abraham Lincoln and Cabin Building

       In addition to our social studies curriculum, where we learned about George Washington, we took some of our morning work time to also explore more about Abraham Lincoln's life to celebrate President's day. I set up a provocation for the students where they were asked how they would design and build a log cabin. To aid them, I set out the following materials: books on Abraham Lincoln and a Eric Sloan's book American Yesterday--which has tons of illustrations on early American houses, a few drawings of log cabin plans and blueprints, the My Plan paper, Lincoln Logs, and a Presidents Field Guide. 

       Here were a few of their creations they built based off of the plans they drew...

       The students then brought their plans to our morning to meeting to share with one another and discussed what worked and what didn't work when they were building their cabins, as well as what sorts of items they would house their cabins with and why. 

       Later on, we extended our learning by taking the book Abe Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Books to further practice our ability to infer the meaning of unknown words when reading:

Snapshots: Going on a Noun Hunt!

     

       Here's a couple of quick snapshots from one of our recent language arts lessons where we learned about nouns. Students were introduced to the definition of a noun and its many examples through a read-aloud of the book If You Were a Noun by Michael Dahl. We then drew our own examples of nouns and created an anchor chart for them. Snakes and aliens were popular choices today =)

       Students then picked a book from their book box to use along with Beth Gordon's noun scavenger hunt printable (download here for free). They tried to locate as many different nouns as they could while going through their chosen book.

S.T.E.A.M. Basic Insect Hotels

       One of our recent STEAM projects came out of our entomology unit: insect hotels. After seeing dozens of elaborate insect hotels in my own Pinterest feed, I decided to try and find a way to let me students build a mini one during one of our afternoon science blocks. We had been reading about insects and their habitats, so we collected our research on what we had learned attracted really beneficial insects. Pine cones, dry leaves, branches, bark, and--yes--even straws--these were the (primarily) natural materials we gathered to arrange into snug nooks and crannies in tin cans to create these mini homes for our insect friends. 

 and here's a finished one...

We tied our up with Baker's Twine to be hung, and the students got to take them home to find a garden for them.

Snapshots: Exploring Herbs with Descriptive Writing

Today students had the opportunity to explore three different herbs--mint, sage, and rosemary--after having read selected poems from Anna's Garden Songs for our current study on botany and gardening. Before I gave each student their specimen we conversed on how these different herbs have and can be used. Students then had to use their five senses to then write descriptive words about each herb. Here's how a couple of students described sage:

"It feels soft and fuzzy--kind of like how the leaves on pumpkins feel soft sometimes."

 "It smells a little like mint, but it smells more like the stew my mom makes for dinner."

"It's furry-like and reminds me of fall."