We are working with our new Math Trail Map, "Take Away
Treasure Map."  Each station has things to count, find the 
difference and move to the next station.  When completed, all the differences are added together and then they subtract 2 to get
the final total.  Correct answers get you to the treasure. 

In the process, the kids are outside in the dewy grass in the cool morning on Mondays, warming up for their week.  On Tuesday mornings we are gardening.  Last week we learned about earthworms and got our bin.  The classes were very eager to handle and investigate the worms. Vikki Hutto is teaching the gardening class and so far we have been working with the Polar Bears.

Tuesday afternoon we had our first solar science class with Chris Martin.  We created a scaled down model of the solar system,
which started near the front gate, went across the driveway, 
and almost all the way down the hill. 

We've been completing research in groups about parakeets,
bunnies, goats and ducks, looking for ways to improve their diet and habitat.  We've also been working with a list of spelling and vocabulary words each week that come from our weekly picture book read aloud.   The students will be bringing the spelling list
home in order to have help learning to spell the words.  Our
spelling week will generally go from Wednesday to Wednesday.  Reading groups are working on fluency, accuracy
and comprehension. We have  been working with nouns and
verbs, talking about schema we build from our experiences that we can reach into when we write, and reviewing complete and
incomplete sentences.  We are still reading Flora and Ulysses
​and trying to learn more about squirrels.  Our school internet has
been on the blink since Harvey, so we have run into great
difficulty accessing the "All about Squirrels" videos we had hoped to watch."  We really want to have our internet working again
soon!   Did you know a squirrel nest is called a dray? 

We have 3 ducklings, 2 baby goats, a new parakeet mate for Lola, and a classroom/house rabbit.  We will be learning a lot this semester about caring for our animal friends and how Great Humans take responsibility for living things that depend on us.

In our first week of school, we have decorated our science journals with adaptation photos....

decorated our math journals with tessellation art (using our logical/mathematical skills along with our visual/spatial skills)...

and decorated our literacy notebooks with illuminated lettering of our first name initial.

We began our first read aloud, Flora and Ulysses.  It has amazing vocabulary opportunities.  

We've done 2 math trail adventures so far.  Today the students were able to navigate the trail with a partner.  Last week there were 153 eggs, but today only 20.  What happened?
​answer:  the Friday egg sale. 

Each student wrote a letter of encouragement to themselves to place in their literacy notebook this week.  This was a practice for the letter of encouragement they will write for the students of the coastal classroom we adopt.  We will gather classroom supplies to send once we know what is needed in the classroom we get matched with.  
​

We moved our 3 ducklings out to the farmyard today, but first we had to create an enclosure area for them around their new coop.  The baby goats were both trying to help.  

Our latest venture has been to survey our multiple intelligences and graph our unique profile.  This information can help us understand our strengths and give us ideas for leveraging them to assist us in areas that are more challenging for us.  We are talking about which of the intelligences we use most  to succeed at the tasks we are undertaking.  This is just the tip of it all, of course, because a lot more happened than can be covered in one posting.  We are having fun, we are learning, we are enjoying each other, and new friendships are hatching in a peaceful environment...hallelujah.