As a school that prioritizes time in nature, Earth Day is of particular importance here at Discovery School. After much learning and discussion last week, the students decided that the best way that we could take ACTION and help our planet was by creating safe shelters for smaller animals that might be prey for larger animals. This ties in with our current unit of inquiry, which involves learning about different biomes and the animals that live there. We also decided to plant some seeds later this week, but wanted to take advantage of the sunshine to get outside and do some building! I was so impressed by their teamwork, communication, and collaboration. Our students were being Principled, Communicators, Risk-Takers, and Thinkers as they worked together to build some animal shelters. Great work, kindergarten!
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It's hard to believe we have a mere 28 days left in the school year! Time certainly does fly, and our home stretch isn't shaping up to be any different. As we delve deeper into our unit of inquiry concerning animal habitats, we have the opportunity to practice some cross-curricular skills as well. Each week, we pick a new habitat to learn about. Our week-long inquiry includes watching videos, reading books, and creating the animals and habitats themselves out of construction paper, all of which culminates in the creation of a class book. So far, we've created books about the ocean, the arctic, and most recently, the rainforest! The students have been working so hard on their writing and drawing skills, and I see genuine improvement every day. Th recent fair weather has given us many more opportunities to be outside (hooray!), but it hasn't stopped us from moving our bodies indoors as well. In gym class, we're starting to learn about basketball. We learned how to make a basket, and got to practice that skill alongside the soft skills of patience and self-control. Our soft skills have been at play on the playground as well. Just the other day, a monkey-bars master helped another friend learn to use them. He even moved the stool along so our monkey-bars novice felt secure. Bravo, kindergarten! Way to be Caring! By this point in the year, most of our students are reading simple books. Even those that aren't just yet are working hard on decoding words! Because of this, we're able to use our reading skills in many more contexts than before. In preparation for Earth Day, we read a book together and the students were able to read almost all of the words independently! We're also playing words games, and recently visited the library to get some new books. The world of books is opening for our youngest learners, and it's a wondrous sight to see! Although our time as kindergarteners in our Little School in the Woods is coming to a close, the love of the woods themselves will stay with them forever. The springtime weather has made nature walks possible once again, and we will take as many as possible between now and the end of the year!
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May 2024
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