Weekly Owls Progress

The Owls (Kindergarten – Grade 1 Classroom) had a very full week learning about the sky through integrated math, science and art activities. We reviewed the earth’s position with the moon and sun, what we see in the daytime vs. the nighttime sky and why. Next week we will be expanding our studies to include the planets and larger solar system.

Here a little peek into some of our daily lessons and explorations:

Everyone made it for the creek walk on Monday (our Creek Walks are on every Monday and Friday, and in-between for science lessons, should there be time)! We caught crawfish and collected a little bit of trash that has flown in from surrounding areas.

“Ms. Libby, why aren’t these people using the trash can?” – L.

Truth.

The first part of the week we talked about what we see in the sky during the day and why. The Owls used a visual model to represent our position to the sun as the earth rotates and our knowledge of world geography to identify the countries that are experiencing night during our day and vice versa.

We then discussed symmetry in nature and created clouds, describing what we saw in the shapes.

Trimming the flowers from our basil plants so it will produce more delicious leaves!

While doing our garden work we spotted a Praying Mantis. We dubbed him protector of the garden as they eat other insects that could be harmful to our plant leaves.

A favorite question: Why is the sky blue? The Owls learned about how light from the sun enters our atmosphere and collides with molecules in the air. Blue light scatters more because of it’s short wavelengths, in comparison to other colors, creating blue sky! We recorded our observations in the form of art.

Making our own geo boards to create patterns for math!

Art projects with Ms. Silvia. Each Owl created their own unique home with painters tape and oil pastels while practicing family/ house vocabulary in French.

Harvest time!

“Knock, knock, knock! Chef Feliiiiipe!”

Let’s make Baba Ganoush. Great idea, thank you Chef Felipe!

Seeds! As a group we discussed what kinds of seeds we eat and observed the different shapes, sizes and color of each individual seed. Here the Owls are sprouting green beans!

The children categorized seeds by size.

“Yoga can help you scratch your knee if you have and itch. You can just do tree pose and you don’t have to bend over.” -N.

To escape the heat we traveled to Iceland! The Owls explored visuals of landscapes, traditional homes, cuisine, native animals and learned a few words in Icelandic language. Also, in connection with our studies of the sky we learned about Aurora Borealis and how the amazing phenomena occurs. Then, we created our own dancing lights in a nighttime sky.

Recording our travels while practicing world geography and direction.