Branching Out

Theresa's kids came to me over a month ago with plans for a surprise party for their teacher. Everyone had different jobs, a secret code was created to allow them to call planning meetings, and they recruited me to help with distraction. We used the first part of our P.E. time for some elaborate decorations and were deeply engaged in a game of dodgeball when Theresa returned from her planning time. She was definitely surprised (and pleased) by the scope of what they had done, and I was reminded how very competent our kids can be when we give them some independence.

Theresa's 3rd-6th Grade Reflections

The big kids at Country Classroom earned their vacations. They have been working hard!

They all finished a piece of fiction. They are showing real enthusiasm in their writing, happily reading their stories to each other, and helping each other make their stories more engaging and exciting. Every student wrote something that they are proud of.

In history, the kids are continuing their work to understand Early American History. In "The History of US," they are taking a tour of many, many different tribes of native peoples, who lived all over the continents. As residents of the North East, most of our students are familiar with the Iroquois. It has been exciting to determine how varied and diverse the different tribes were.

In science, the kids inspected tree buds, learning the parts of the lateral and auxiliary buds, leaf scars, and different patterns of branching. It is really the perfect time of the year to study biology!

All of the kids have been making solid progress in reading, writing and arithmetic. This week, they are going to get a chance to show off what they have learned. We will be conducting assessments this week in all of the subjects to prepare for our student evaluations.

Tracy's PK - 2nd Grade Reflections

The spring weather this week had us outside even more than usual. We let the wind help us blow some big bubbles on the porch, ate in the sunshine, and looked for signs of spring. Some of the kids noticed that we have some new birds visiting our feeder. The buds on the trees are starting to plump out a bit, and the grass looks really green again.

Everyone made some great progress on their endangered animal books. We talked about special talents that our animals have - all the interesting adaptations that help them get food or try to avoid becoming food. We noticed how animals can live in all sorts of different habitats because of these special adaptations as well. We tried to honor some of our animal's special physical traits as we worked on models - trying to get the feet, ears, claws, and fins in just the right place. This prompted more discussions about why some animals have cupped ears, fuzzy ears, big ears, or small ears.

We were lucky enough to get a whole new bucket of rocks donated to our school collection, and the children dove into examining them closely. They used magnifying glasses to look at them closely and immediately started sorting them into different types. They used color, shape, and smoothness to help them in their categorization.

Like with the big kids, we are working to assess what we have learned so far this year and what we need to focus on for the last 3 months of the school year.