Westminster Woods Environmental Ed 2015

I hope everyone had a super relaxing weekend after our great adventure in the redwoods. What a fantastic trip! When I think back on the three days that I spent in at Westminster Woods with your kids, I’m amazed at how cohesively they approached their time together, and how enthusiastic and engaged they were in all the grand experiences that unfolded for us.

Here are some of my favorite highlights:

Check out those excited faces! Westminster Woods- Here we come!

Day 1 orientation and introduction to the incredible naturalists:

Just in case you didn't know... 3rd and 4th graders LOVE to climb!

We spent our first afternoon with naturalist Raven working on our observation skills. We played Eagle Eye in pairs. Students take a moment to observe their partner very carefully, then they secretly change three things about their appearance and see if their partner can identify the changes. After the warm-up, we went on an "observation walk". Raven had placed items that didn't belong in that ecosystem along the trail and we walked silently, trying to find those items.

Checking out the near-silence of a flapping owl's wing in the Nature Center. 

Working in our nature journals

Move-in time! 

 Here's a peak into the dining hall:

 Yesssss! Eat that broccoli!

 Hydration station!

 Cozied up for bed:

French toast day was a major hit at my table:

 The fungi, fire, bacteria, and invertebrate decomposer zombies attack during this great skit on the energy cycle:

On day two, we spent the bulk of the day with naturalist Duck Duck. I loved hearing my students when he asked them to share their favorite memories in nature. It was so cool to hear the range of moments that they held dear. Exciting encounters with huge creatures and sweet moments finding a perfectly round stone were shared and celebrated!

At the evening campfire we heard a Native American folktale about the shape of douglas fir cones. The next day we found a bunch on the trail and the students noticed them right way!

 Wild, wandering wilderness warriors!

So great to have Cecilia along on our big hike!

Checking out the teeny spider that I made friends with:

Every water break is an opportunity to build something cool:

When we heard a deer (probably!) in the woods, Duck Duck was inspired to take us off the main trail. We followed a narrow deer trail, contemplating how agile and athletic deer are to maneuver through terrain like that so gracefully.

No Devin! We're not tired!
Ha.

This trail got pretty darn steep at some points. What an adventure!

We made it to the water! Now let's find some crawdads!

 

After lunch by the creek, we took off our shoes and headed upstream.  This was absolutely one of my favorite parts of the trip!

When we got back to camp, we met up with the 1st and 2nd graders to make some nature art.

On Friday morning we headed down to the water for some stream ecology with Luna, Red Wing, and the 1st/2nd graders.

 Searching for benthic macro invertebrates:

 We found a dragonfly larvae!

 

All of the tables worked hard to have ZERO WASTE meals! These guys nailed it- perfectly cleared plates!

And most importantly of all, we feel more connected than ever! Go Team!

Thanks a million to everyone for making this possible. I'm especially grateful for Jen, Jenn, Astrid, and Karen for stepping up as chaperones!

Now I'm excited to be back in the classroom with the kids so we can continue to grow our community here on campus. We have so much inspiration to bring to Writers' Workshop and experiential contexts for math and science. Here we go!

Packing for the Trip, Maps, LCM, Bake Sale, and Fossils

It's almost time to hit the road, then hit the trail!

Let me know if you have any more questions about the trip. I'm more than happy to help!

On Wednesday morning students will drop their suitcase/duffel just outside classroom before coming in. There will be signs showing you where to place things and, of course, I'll be there. It’s best to consolidate gear in as few bags as possible. It’s great if you can fit your pillow and sleeping back inside your luggage. 

Students will wear their backpacks into the classroom. Backpacks should have a snack, lunch, full water bottle, and sunscreen inside. We’ll start our outdoor adventuring as soon as we arrive, so I recommend that the kids wear a hat. The backpacks will stay with the students or in the cabin for the whole trip so it’s important that there isn’t food residue left in them after eating lunch on Wednesday.  There will be trash, compost and recycling bins available to clean out  packs after lunch. 

PLEASE LABEL ITEMS CLEARLY WITH YOUR CHILD'S NAME! 

And THANK YOU to Jen, Jenn, and Karen for chaperoning and being there for the kids and me. I couldn't be more grateful. 

Check out some pics of us painting our relief maps:

 

Some of the students playing Least Common Multiple Shoots and Ladders:

And here's our fabulous bake sale! Thanks for helping! It was really fun and successful. We'll send our earnings out into the world when we return from the cabin trip. 

Here students are working through an iPad interactive from UC Berkeley, introducing them to the three major types of fossils and how they form. When we return from Westminster Woods I'll write a spotlight post about the work we're doing with fossils in science!

 

Relief Maps, Presentations, and Class Meetings

Hi Team. Happy Friday!

Our Environmental Ed Trip is right around the corner and we've started talking about it in class. I always feel so honored to take my students out into the world and I know that that work starts in class as we prepare to depart. It's going to be a fantastic adventure and I know we'll come back feeling more connected than ever!

Dena, the Bridging Generations Program Coordinator, is coming to visit class on Monday to present information on senior homes and interacting with the elderly, and to generally help the students prepare to meet their senior buddy next month. She always does a really beautiful job of getting the students excited about making a new friend, answering their questions, and validating the range of feelings the students will have about the first trip.



Below you'll see some pictures of us making salt dough relief maps of California. This activity is an oldy, but a goody and the kids love it. It really helps them visualize and internalize the landforms that define CA geography and set the stage for the historical studies we'll dig into next.

Thanks to Hannah for coming in and sharing such sweet Rosh Hashanah traditions. 

The students gave presentations on the features of different CA landform regions.
We discussed these features of a strong presentation and what they would look like in the context of this specific presentation:

·      Practice! You'll be prepared and sound like it

·      Stand tall (no leaning and fidgeting) with toes pointed at the middle of the audience

·      Eyes on the audience (don’t stare at your poster the whole time)

·      Complete your sentences

·      Use appropriate tone and volume

 Sweet, cozy moments with Just Right books:

 Congratulations to Sabine and Liam who facilitated the first two class meetings of the year! They were such great examples for their peers, selecting topics for discussion that are important to the group and calling on speakers with our "hands" technique. They worked on repeating back a synthesized version of the discussion so that the speakers feel heard and the class has clarity. They worked on using some specific clues combined with their intuition to decide when the group is ready to vote and likely to have consensus. Sabine heard student announcements, then led a discussion about possibly putting on a Halloween haunted house for the rest of the school. Liam's class meeting led to a consensus that the students will put on a bake sale next week to raise money for the victims of the current wild fires. We decided to move next week's class meeting to Monday so we can make a plan for that event. I imagine that it's clear, but I'm so inspired by this part of the 3rd/4th grade program and I already see such impressive growth in our classroom democracy. I love to see the kids using this time to do good work for the school community and those in need. 

Checking out some live animal webcams in the iPads!

Welcome Team 3-4 2015!

Hi families!

Welcome to another exciting year on Team 3-4! I couldn’t be more excited to get this year started with my new crew of learners. I’m back from a dually refreshing and adventurous summer, feeling full of energy and inspiration to share with the students. I'm very excited about our new campus, new faculty, and new resources! This blog is one of the ways that I will keep you informed as to the goings on in our class. I’ll post updates, important information, pictures, stories, and student work for you to enjoy. Please let me know if there is anything that you’re wondering about that you’d like me to focus on in my posts. This blog is for you! 

Our first week together was fantastic. It felt great to see returning faces and ask them to step up as fourth grade leaders on the team. I also loved welcoming new students to my class and our school, introducing them to our classroom culture and expectations. 

This week we focused on connecting with one another and beginning the important work of building our team.  We began to get organized and get to know the flow of daily life here. We began our Readers' Workshop- one of the central elements of life in our class. Students studied different examples of fiction and non-fiction books and the genres that further define texts. I love to begin the year with this work because it gives me a sense of the books that my individual students are most drawn to.  My students will tell you that one of my favorite parts of my job is helping kids find books that are the right fit for them. This year I'll be able to work with the Fairfax Library to make this happen! One of the many reasons to be grateful for Michelle is that she's organized a weekly library program for each class. Team 3-4 kiddos will walk to the library every week on Tuesday to find high-interest, on-level books, as well as texts that target specific learning and content goals.

In the coming week we will focus on the words “why” and “because” and how important these words become in the third and fourth grades. We will explore some essential questions about how we want our classroom to feel and function. For example, “Why is school important to you?” and “What do the students need to do in order to have a successful year?" and "How should our classroom feel every day?"

Overall, what I want you to hear from this post is that my most important goals for this year are to help my students build a happy, healthy community among themselves and to make sure that they feel both supported and pushed in their thinking. I want the students to question, wonder, struggle, succeed, and thrive. I teach third and fourth grade because I love this developmental moment- I'm honored to offer them information and framework for questioning and thinking that helps them develop their own big ideas about the world.

Let's always connect when you have questions or ideas. Email or a quick check-in in person after school is the best way to reach me. I look forward to Back to School Night when we'll look at the big-picture, through-line for the year.

Here's to a rockin' 2015-2016 school year!

First Day of School- taking surveys....

...and graphing results.

Sweet Friends!

Class Library Exploration

Clapping out quarter, half, and whole notes with Mike in our first music class

In this teamwork challenge the students are working together to "Save Sammy".

Sorting books into genre categories

This pair is working on their genre diorama. They're creating a setting for a fantasy story.

Every day for the first week the students gathered in multi-age groups to work on a project. They were challenged to create a chandelier to hang in the hallway and help beautify our new home. Each creation was covered with words that represent what home means to them.

Make sure to check out their gorgeous work!