Week of June 1-5, 2015

This week, we will be taking field trips to the Burchfield Nature and Art Center.

Monday- Pre-K:

We hiked along the trails.

We saw flowers.

We noticed the creek was full and moving fast. Some of the students
believed that the water comes from the ground, others thought it was
from the ocean. One student, L, suggested it was from all of the rain. 

We saw a few robins.

A very full creek!

The students knew right away that these were the roots of plants!

Wet buds and leaves

Buds. The students think either leaves or flowers will bloom from these.

Iya counted five leaves on these plants, checking for poison ivy. 

The kids said a caterpillar must be eating these.

The students enjoyed finding the sculptures in these stumps.

We collected materials for fairy houses.

J used a technique to wrap leaves around the sticks and tried
to get the fairy house to stand up this way. It worked for a little while.

C was reluctant to try it and ended up working the longest
on making his fairy house.

Two students finish up their fairy house.

First Grade: 

They noticed a bug on this table and wanted to observe it.

I've taken photos of this area each day and it's amazing to see how
the creek is receding when there is no rain.

We became experts at spotting poison ivy! 

And the light fell just right. 

Closely observing.

Collecting materials to build a fairy house.

They laid the materials out.

They found a better place to build the house and took turns carrying
their stash over to it.

The fairy house, complete with a pool! 

The "bathroom" and "bedroom" of the fairy house feature
leaf doors.

More poison ivy! 

Hiking the trail

Second Grade:

We found a toad.

We watched the toad until he hopped away.

I enjoyed seeing how shallow the creek was today, compared to Monday!

A critter was here!

Abdirizak was really excited about these water bugs.

They found a huge daddy long legs!

They love to show the teachers all of  the treasures they find.

Making a fairy house.

Looking for materials for the fairy house.

Treasure.

Completed fairy house.

It reminds me of Falling Water, the house by Frank Lloyd Wright.

A second fairy house was completed in a different area.

Exhausted students at the end of a fun day!