Planting

Ash class has planted a variety of seeds - Carrot, Radish and Green Onion, as well as Basil.
The carrot has really taken off, with roots and shoots and is cool for the children to look at because it is in a clear glass vile that Ms. Spain brought in from home. The radish has also rooted, but we have not noticed anything happen to the green onion as of yet. Surprisingly, our basil, has not showed any signs of growth yet - but we are wondering if it has to do with the dryness in the room. The children are faithfully watering their seeds to help them grow. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for some new growth soon!

How tall are you?

Ash class has been measuring all sorts of things! We are using objects such as blocks, pencils or feathers to see how tall or short something is. In groups, the children used string to measure eachother and figured out who was the tallest and shortest in the class. Soon, we will be making a "handy ruler" by putting 5 handprints in a row, and they will use it to measure if objects inside or outside are taller, shorter or the same size as their handy ruler. On Friday, they each estimated how tall they were compared to 3 paper stems that I cut out and hung on the wall. They placed their leaves by the stem they thought was closest to them in height and then we checked eachother and measured how tall everyone was! The class got to observe which children were the same size, taller or shorter than them. See if your children can measure you at home using objects of the same size!

Some new Spring rhymes

Rum Sum Sum
A rum sum sum
A rm sum sum
Goolie goolie goolie goolie goolie
Rum sum sum

Arafi Arafi
Goolie goolie goolie goolie goolie
Rum sum sum

Dickery Dean
What's the matter with Dickery Dean?
He jumped right into the washing machine!

Nothing's the matter with Dickery Dean
He dove in dirty
And he jumped out clean!

Garden Snail
Slowly slowly very slowly
goes the garden snail
Slowly slowly very slowly
Up the garden rail

Quickly quickly very quickly
runs the little mouse
Quickly quickly very quickly
to his little house

Little Miss Muffet
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on her tuffet
Eating her curds and wey
Along came a spider
And sat down beside her
and scared Miss Muffett away

Little Miss Tucket
Little Miss Tucket
Sat on a bucket
Eating some peaches and cream
There came a grasshopper
And tried hard to stop her
But she said "Go away or I'll scream!"

The Old Fashioned Bed

The Old Fashioned Bed is our latest oral story and the children really love it. It is amazing to watch the children so engaged as I tell a story orally. After the second time of telling it, they were already joining in and knew a lot of the sequence. We are going to start to dramatize it as requested by some of the students! Ask them to tell it to you - I am sure they will do a good job - and even if they dont get through it, that's ok! The oral tradition is such a wonderful way to encourage the imagination.

Our precious Earth

Ash class has been celebrating Earth Day every Day! We have been studying our worms, watching them make their tunnels and wriggle around. The children enjoyed investigating them, holding them and drawing them. The children have also been feeding the worms and observing what happens to the organic matter that we put into the soil. They are figuring out what happens to the matter, just by watching it! They beam with excitement when we open our wormery! Mr. Canrinus even did an experiment with them comparing 2 different soils, one with organic matter and one with non-organic matter (garbage basically) - to see which side the worms went to more - ask your children their observations!

We have also been doing an activity where the children pick an object and try to put it into the right bin - recycling, garbage, or compost. We have talked about the 3 R's - Reduce, Re-use and Recycle. Many of the children said we could re-use many of the objects, which they thought was even better than recycling. They are learning to be good stewards of the Earth.

We have been reading a variety of books about recycling, and the environment. The children are very curious about our Earth and keep thirsting for more information!