Thursday Before Spring Break

March 21, 2013

Today was the last day before Spring Break and the Cardinals had a very busy time filling the day with as many fun activities as we could fit into our morning! We started our morning by welcoming our middle school partners who spent the rest of the morning helping and sharing in our classroom. Together we went to the Lower School Assembly. Just like all the big kids in Lower school, the Cardinals sat and listened and watched as several of the older kids shared some of what they have been learning this year, and listened to announcements and even joined in singing the community song which is sung at the end of every assembly.

After assembly, we returned to our classroom and welcomed even more friends into our Cardinal home. Paula's son Evan, his wife Nicole, and their son Harrison stopped by to see what the Cardinals have been doing since their last visit. The children were wonderful hosts sharing their classroom with all of these guests and showing everyone around their favorite activities.

Some of the areas the children enjoyed working in today included the block area, magnet tiles, sand table, journals, and legos. At the back table, Shannon had set up our latest science experiment which we have been working on since our walk to Acme. The children have taken on the role of the scientist as they have examined the apples, formed questions, collected data and evidence and recorded all of our information. They are now beginning to understand the steps that a scientist follows when conducting an experiment. After coming up with our hypotheses, dissecting the apples, and analyzing the results, a few resourceful Cardinals recycled our apple pieces to create some appley art with apple printing in paint.

After a productive choice time, some second graders arrived and we invited even more friends into our already full classroom. These second grade friends had been learning about story telling and they wanted to share their knowledge with the Cardinals. The children sat attentively and listened to a group of storytellers tell us fun, animated tales. The second graders created pictures in our minds as they conducted this dramatic form of storytelling by adding motions, altering their voices, and spoke in great detail! We thanked these friends and packed up our choice time to head outside for some fresh air. A short story together ended our last day before Spring Break together! School will reopen on Tuesday, April 2nd.

Visiting Artist

March 20, 2013

Paula's Dad, 'Pop-Pop Mickey' visited with our class today to share his love and interest in art and sculpture. Pop-Pop Mickey sculpts and creates art using marble and stone.  He brought all types of tools  that he uses to sculpt and demonstrated how he shapes and carves stone into shapes.  He said that, " all of his ideas for art start in his mind. He gets an idea first and then tries to figure out how to turn the stone into the shape or idea he has."  Pop-Pop Mickey showed us the drawing tools that he uses to sketch his ideas onto the stone.  We then set up a table at Choice Time for the children to try to use all the tools on small pieces of marble.

 We are working on a new Science project that was inspired by questions our children had about seeds and apples.  The children were inquiring about the number of seeds that are in apples and were curious about whether all apples have the same number of seeds.  After buying the apples at the Acme earlier this week we sorted the apples and then began our experiment.  The children made predictions about the number of seeds and graphed their predictions.  They then counted the seeds and glued them to small pieces of paper.  We look forward to comparing and working on this project over the next few days.  The children loved tasting and comparing the apples as they worked in small groups on this experiment.