Friday, October 18, 2019

Best Week Ever!

Thankfully, we all returned happy and healthy from fall break with a need to spend some time in the creek.  We found all sorts of interesting things.
 

 
 

 











 We are creating some very fancy houses in this Fairy Village.


 

 Mrs. Paris went to Vermont and brought back some yummy treats to share with us.
We started our unit on Birds of Prey and began new books this week.  We are learning how to write an exciting opening for our paragraphs, even though it is a  non-fiction book.

We've changed up Spark Stations a bit and are enjoying some new activities.

We are learning about South America and Christopher Columbus.

Our long awaited field trip finally arrived.  We had the best day ever !  We rotated through eight different stations, learning all about pioneers.
We square danced, played hopscotch, marbles and kick the can!


 
 We found out what school life was like in a one room school house.
 Father Steve was so very kind to fill in for our pastor, who had a funeral, and teach us about the first priest and churches in Floyd County.
 Mrs. Paris' daughter shared about plants and medicines in pioneer times.
 We had yummy snacks like beef jerky, dried apples, dried fruits and nuts.
 We watched a real woodworker, working on a handmade chair.
 We learned about farm animals and lanolin.

 Then we had a fried chicken lunch with pie.  We were blessed with beautiful weather and wonderful array of parent helpers.
No time to rest as Friday was our day being teachers in our beautiful little garden.  We did such a great job sharing our knowledge of plant cycles and how seeds are dispersed.
Get ready for a bunch of pictures.






This was Mrs. Paris' favorite picture. So. Much. Joy!

 It just seems unreal that the tiniest seed could produce such a huge plant.















After this wild week, next week is going to seem kind of boring. Nah, we'll find a way to make it exciting!



Thursday, October 3, 2019

A Wild Ride to Fall Break

Today we wrapped up our unit on Pioneers.  We were all sad to see the end of Mr. Tuckett, but Mrs. Paris told us Gary Paulsen wrote more books about him if we are interested. We read so very many books the past three weeks and wrote them in our journal as we practiced properly capitalizing titles.

Mr. Abel came to visit on Tuesday and shared some exciting science lessons with us.  We had just studied matter and could answer a lot of his questions.





Wednesday was so, so hot, so we went out to water our garden first thing, then went to play awhile and say, "So long," to the creek.  Mrs. Paris is amazed that we have kept that garden alive.  We also practiced our parts for the lesson on seeds we will give the other students.
What a big day on Thursday. First we did our STAR assessment and really impressed our teacher with how careful we were.  Then we finished pioneer rotations, did some marbleizing with shaving cream, paint and paper.  
Our afternoon was spent enjoying the beautiful birds presented by Hardy Lake Raptor Rehab.  That assembly kicks off our study of raptors when we return from break. We saw a red tailed hawk, peregrine falcon, turkey vulture, owl and a bald eagle.



 

 
Lastly, a few of us went out for the blessing of the animals with Fr. Bill.  He visited us this  morning and gave us quite a fright with his great retelling of Saint Francis and the wolf. I will have to tell you all about it.



 

 

 






 
 
 And if you don't have a pet to be blessed, find a stick.
 
 Happy Fall Break !!!!!!