Wednesday News

April 10, 2013

This morning the children began their day with a walk outside all the way across school to the meetinghouse where the lower school was having a meeting for worship. The Cardinals sat patiently and respectfully while ideas were shared about friendship and springtime.

 After a while, we decided to leave the meetinghouse and finish our meeting for worship in the grove on the grass where each of the children had a chance to share thoughts and ideas if they felt so moved.

After our thoughtful early morning, we headed back to the classroom where we have been completing many projects this week. The focus of our energies today was our large canvas which will be displayed in the Art Show. We had already created all the pieces of the beautiful birds we planned to attach to the canvas, but needed to create the background for our sparkling birds. Taking blue and white paint, the children used their hands to mix, spread, and swirl the paint into a glorious sky scape that compliments our birds wonderfully.

Next, we took the pieces of our birds which we had collaged, traced, and cut out, and began to assemble them individually on our canvas.

Each bird presented a new puzzle for each child as they laid out the pieces into what they felt was what their bird should look like.

 After each bird was attached to the canvas, the children helped to create another collage which will become our flying cardinal and we hope will finish off our canvas tomorrow!

We had worked very hard all morning, and at lunch time decided it was the perfect day to head outside and have a picnic lunch in our lovely outdoor classroom.

 We ate our lunches in the shade enjoying the spring weather, listening to the sounds of birds, and taking in the bright sights of this sunny day.

A quick play time outside completed our picnic time before heading inside to rest. 

A Photographic Friday

Photos on Friday:

Gardening and Planting: The children embraced the role of a gardener as we planted the seeds provided by Wyatt's Mom, Lauren. We enjoyed choosing which type of herb or vegetable we were going to put in our starter pots. As we engaged in this process, the children identified the needs of a plant including soil, water and sunlight.

Continuing Art Show Work - Creating a Gallery 

The Outdoor Environment:

Enjoy our photographs that tell the story of our day as you begin your weekend. Happy Friday to all our Cardinal families!

Thursday Thoughts

Thursday, April 4th 2013

As the Cardinals have participated in more school-wide experiences, we have become aware of the Abington Friends community and the people in it who work together. One of the important people who is a vital piece of our Abington Friends team is our caretaker, Dave, who is responsible for our grounds.  Today, the Cardinal class celebrated Dave's 20th year of service here at our school. We used colorful foam stickers in a variety of shapes to create a display of our appreciation on a large card. This provided the opportunity for us to continue to take ownership of our work and practice our fine motor and writing skills by signing our names.

Our Cardinals have truly formed bonds with their peers and through their interactions, have developed heartfelt relationships with each other's families. During morning drop-off, children often form pods around a parent reader or a family member who is assisting in one of our morning routines such as question of the day!

During Choice Time, our children enjoyed continuing their Mondrian-inspired art pieces today. They used glue sticks and the black strips of construction paper to create structured layouts forming shapes such as squares and rectangles.

During Morning Meeting, the children were invited to revisit the invitation of seed packets and starter pots provided by Wyatt's Mom, Lauren. As Paula showed the list of seeds with the details relating to each type, one Cardinal recalled, "That's the seed directions!" The Cardinals are excited to begin the planting process tomorrow. The teachers explained how we began soaking the seeds today in small tins of water to prepare them for germination and allow the seeds to break open easier and begin sprouting.

The discussion of planting seeds led us to review our results and data of our Science Investigation: "Do all apples have the same number of seeds?" We examined each child's napkin of data with the scientific label including the name of the scientist, the type of apple, the written number of seeds and the picture representation of the amount of seeds with each glued on the napkin. We compared each category of apples and the number of seeds on each and asked, "Do all the napkins with the red apple seeds have the same number?" After comparing the numbers in each category color, we came to the scientific answer of our question and determined that all apples do not have the same number of seeds. The answer to our question is: No.

Music with Jason

Outdoor Discoveries and Play