Sunday, April 19, 2009

A Bit of Gardening Before The Break

We planted our grape vines by the arbor in the primary class playground. Two Glenoras, two Cayugas, and two Concords. Can't wait....for the shade of the vines as well as the fruit.









Pancakes With Namaste Syrup Anyone?















More Toddler Time


Sink or float?



Sorting vehicles that move on air, land, and water...








Caring for our classroom....




The last drops of sap...














Little Hands At Work...

Exploring balance and proportion... Learning to crochet...

Studying song of birds of North America...

Tracing shapes with metal inset work...



They begged, they pleaded, they asked as politely as they could, they waited patiently...and the beads are back.....need I say more? For those of you who are new to this phenomena, these are small plastic beads that can be arranged on frames and fused together with an iron. Incredible fine motor work. Last year we went through tens of thousands of beads (I'm not exaggerating!) with some friends making two or three designs a day.






Andy Goldsworthy Inspired Art

Some of our friends decided to create some spontaneous Andy Goldsworthy inspired sculptures on our play ground.





Sunday, April 5, 2009

Sweet Syrup and Groundbreaking News!!!!

We are still collecting sap. So far we've collected over 450 gallons from our six maple trees. The sugar content in our trees is quite good so we expect to have about 5 gallons of syrup when we've finished boiling. The children have made labels and will help to package our product at the end of this month. Stay tuned for info on the opening of our "Maple Syrup Store".

As the nights become warmer and stay above freezing, the sap flow will slow and mark the end of our season. We will then turn our full focus to preparing our garden. These seasonal changes, events, and activities are a wonderful way to experience time as it relates to our environment and our Earth.


On Friday we broke ground on our new garden with the generous help of Greta's parents, Lucy and Chaw our neighbor's at Stick and Stone Farm. Our next step will be to pull rocks, define beds, and amend the soil to prepare for planting. We'll probably take advantage of any good weather over our spring break to work the soil. Feel free to join us!
Rebecca Elliott, Allison and Tig's Mom, is coordinating volunteers and garden projects. She will be posting a garden blog, sharing a new newsletter, and is planning a "Garden Shower" party at the Cayuga Nature Center at the end of April.
You can contact Rebecca via email at www.ElliotOstdiek@fltg.net





Here is a wonderful link to a school in Minnesota who has an inspirational farm. Perhaps someday Namaste's farm can grow into a program like the Lake Country School.

April Activities...Geometry, Reading, Math and More

Building a tower with the tower of cubes and the brown rectangular prisms. Jayden's timeline. Happy 5th birthday Jayden!
Playing a matching game with pictures of Andy Goldsworthy's work.


Combining the red rods and the red & blue rods to build a pyramid.


Experimenting with the brown rectangular prisms.

Exploring place value and building numbers with the decimal system layout.



Making punched out shapes with the metal insets and a push pin.



Working with teen numbers.


Practicing letters and sounds.

Building together.


Our bean seed experiment. We made hypothesises about what a plant needs to grow and are testing it with an experiment by varying soil, water, and light.

Kindergartners posing in character during their drama class meeting.


Matching animal sounds to animal pictures.


Exploring the geometry of triangles.






Reading stories.


Cucumber peeling and slicing activity.


Building words with the movable alphabet.