Hartshorn’s Classroom News
April 1, 2011
Dear Families,
“Smile. Say, "Cheese, and Happy April First!” At morning meeting the kids all posed for me to take a class photo with my "new" camera. Imagine their surprise, when my "new" camera squirted water at them. Oh, so silly. We heard about several April Fools' jokes your children played at home. A couple of them were:
"I put my doll in the bathroom to look like it was a miniature me brushing my teeth for my Dad to see."
"My Mom and I called my Dad on the cell phone on our way to school and told him we won $100 on a scratch ticket, but we really didn't."
Science news: We continue to explore space by looking at the phases of the moon, how the planets are arranged in our solar system, and how they move around our sun, the star, etc.
In addition to this Sky unit of study, we've begun to explore the woods in our own backyard with the help of naturalist, Cory Stephenson of Fayston. On Thursday morning we went on an "I Spy" hike and found several things of interest to us—from moss and mushrooms on trees and rocks, to blades of grass popping up through the snow, and a sap bucket hanging from a sugar maple tree filled with frozen sap. We took photos, wrote notes and drew pictures of our findings. With Cory's help in the coming weeks we will be exploring some of the things we found interesting, and using her expertise to help us learn more about these natural treasures. We plan to create three signs in each primary classroom representing a topic or living thing we've discovered and explored. These signs will be posted in the woods to be used for a Family Sharing time at the end of the school year. This date is yet to be determined, and will be most likely be in the early evening when most parents would be able to join us. Special thanks to Gina Yalicki (Kayla's Mom) for joining us on the hike.
What a fabulous trip we had on Wednesday to the Shelburne Farms for Maple Sugaring! With the help of parent chaperones Brian and Heather Taylor (Hunter's Mom), Dina Bahrawy (Ellie's Mom) and Kelly Collar (Shannon's Mom) we learned many things about producing maple syrup: how to determine a sugar maple tree from other trees, what is happening inside the tree and the jobs of the different parts of the tree—core, sap wood and bark, how the weather and season are important to sugaring, how to tap a tree, hang a bucket with lid, and gather the sap—all of this BEFORE the actual cooking begins. Your children worked hard all day, tapping, gathering, and learning. I was so proud of their behavior throughout the entire day and bus trip. Julie, our guide and naturalist at Shelburne Farms was wonderful, and quite impressed by your children, their knowledge and their level of engagement.
We finished up our month-long nutrition unit with Mrs. Joy Partridge, one of our school nurses, this past week. She led the children in several activities to help them understand the food pyramid and its intention to help us eat well-balanced meals each day. She passed along the following website that might be of interest to you and or child at home. It's all about the food pyramid and has a game component she thought the children might like. www.mypyramid.gov Once on the website, if you type in "Planet Power," in search website space, a list of options for this kids' websites will appear. Click on the second option—"mypyramid.gov-for kids" for the Blast Off game. I visited this site and saw many interesting options you might find helpful, including this game.
Photos of the Shelburne Farms trip and the "I Spy" hike are posted on Shutterfly for you to enjoy.
Hope to see and feel Spring soon—and to have to stay around for a while~
Brenda
PS: Please note the "April, 2011 Math Update" is also posted on this Shutterfly site for reference, but has also been emailed to you.
