Wow! What an incredible trip!
When I think back on the three days that I spent in the Headlands with your kids, I’m amazed at how cohesively they approached their time together, and how engaged and grateful they were for the unreal series of experiences that unfolded for us. Lindsay, Peggy and I are putting together a slide show that we’ll show in the community room on Tuesday (tomorrow) morning at the start of the school day. Please join us if you can!!!!!!
Here are my highlights from the trip:
- The impossibly fortuitous timing of the Marine Mammal Center’s release of three rehabilitated sea lions back into the wild. Our naturalist, Karen, set the scene beautifully by explaining that, “people are at our best when we’re caring for others.” It was very emotional and inspiring watching the sea lions run back to the sea, vibrating with joy. I was touched by how clearly the kids understood that this was a true gift to experience. A “life moment” indeed. The MMC put up a slideshow of the event. There are some shots of us in there!
- Our naturalist told us again and again that “this NEVER happens!” We saw so much wildlife! A bob cat, river otters, bottlenose dolphins, muchos raccoons, red tail hawks (one soared over the sea lion release as if to commemorate the occasion), a grey fox, cormorants, a pocket gopher, herons and egrets, and more!
- I loved the rock sorting and identification activity that Karen led on Rodeo Beach. The students used dichotomous keys to identify the rocks, including the bright orange carnelian stones that we can use to make peaceful wishes for the world. We tied the activity back to their studies with Lindsay in science as they took a kinesthetic approach to identifying the three main rock categories; metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary.
- I loved our hike to the old-growth eucalyptus “listening tree”. Look at how genuinely the kids engaged with the tree and really LISTENED to what it had to share.
- We played active, eco-themed games led by a local high-school student.
- We were fantastic helpers to our kindergarten buddies. We helped them move their gear in and out of the dorm, get their food in the dining hall, and brush their teeth in the evening. I’ve always loved that important part of our school culture.
- We enjoyed lemonade from Viv’s generous lemonade stand! No one should be for sale! http://makeastandlemonade.com/
- About half of the group got to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor get a piggy-back ride from a 747 overhead, but some of the students were already in the Time Tunnel, clambering through a verdant maze of willow thickets.
- We weave, weave, weaved our lanyards!
- And perhaps most importantly, we feel more connected than ever. Go team! J
A million thanks for Eric and Michelle for joining us and supporting the kids and me in countless, gracious ways.
I’m excited to get the kids back in our classroom and continue to grow our community here on campus. We have so much inspiration to bring to writers’ workshop and experiential contexts for science and math. Here we go!
I know this is a long post, but I just quickly wanted to share that I spent the weekend at a math teacher training through the Making Math Real Institute and I’m ready and raring to go for the upcoming multiplication studies in our room. I learned a new multi-sensory approach to teaching the multiplication facts that supports students who are big picture processors, linear processors, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners, and everyone in between. It builds strong symbol imaging so that the learners will be able to pull out their math fact files efficiently with mental pictures. It also sets us up for a more fluid transition to the more advanced fraction work that we'll do in 4th grade. It was great to connect with a new community of creative math teachers. http://www.makingmathreal.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment