As soon as we started class today, I told them that it was going to be a "doing" day. We have projects that need wrapping up and many hands-on activities to do! Some days are a bit louder, messier, and crazier than others... and today was going to be one of those learning frenzies!
We began with Farm News. In this episode of Farm News, the kids learned that our mini horse has been moved to a small pen. Because it is spring and the grass is coming in green and lush, the vet has us limit Miss Kitty's exposure to all of that food! Minis are prone to foundering. I explained to the class that horses can gain too much weight and "founder". This is when the capillaries in their legs and hooves become thin and basically die off. Year ago, Miss Kitty foundered before we knew what had happened. We learned then just how huge a problem overeating is for horses! We follow the vet's instructions and move Miss Kitty from a small lot when needed, and we also use the grazing muzzle. I took the class outside and showed them how to feel at the horse's mane to tell how overweight they are. Miss Kitty's is fat and tight as a tick! The class watched me put on her grazing muzzle, which she hates, and we moved her for some social time with her friend, the donkey.
After taking care of the animals and feeding all of those baby goats, the class came in to finish up with pine cone crafts. We reviewed how conifers have seeds from cones instead of flowers, and the class made some adorable owls! Next, we read the kids' hilarious and well written complaint letters. The students chose an animals and used letter formatting skills to write letters of complaint to the farm's management... ME! These were so fun to hear, and the kids really enjoyed reading them!
The kids put their final layer of beeswax on their pysanky eggs today! Next week, they will get the finished products back... all covered with a protective layers or two of polyurethane. I am so very proud of them for their patience and hard work!
Because spring has sprung, we have baby chicks popping out of the incubators weekly. Not only are their duck eggs incubating indoors, but our ducks are all broody and sitting on nests full of eggs! I walked the kids out to see how the ducks insulate their nests with a mix of straw and downy feathers. The momma duck wasn't exactly thrilled at our lesson, but we were able to see the eggs all nestled into a warm, cozy nest!
After lunch, the class took out their picture storyboards of Ernest Shackleton's life or expedition. They did such as great job with these! Last week, they had almost completed the boxes that would house their moving pictures. Today, they finished decorating them, and I carefully added the strips of paper and dowels to the boxes. They were so proud to show them off to their friends!
Once all of the projects were completed, the kids added a new card to their grammar card ring: prepositions! They learned that prepositions are words that show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word in the sentence. We went over some examples and acted them out to help the lesson to "stick"! Then, the kids were given a list of common prepositions... sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle! I have made a video for them to help them to learn the song at home, and we will continue to practice it in class. I love teaching about prepositions with this age group. It is easy to make them fun!
The class learned last week about scales on a map. This week, we went over their at home assignment, learned about grid points, and used map keys and symbols. As we continue our unit on Asia, the kids will be able to choose one of the Asian countries to study. They have a list of different ways they can present the information they find, and we will share these next week!
In science, the class is moving on to the animal kingdom. Today, we talked about the two main categories of animals: invertebrates and vertebrates. We also took this time to learn about symmetry. The class added information on asymmetry, bilateral symmetry, and radial symmetry to their science notebooks. In order to help them better understand these concepts, we broke into groups and worked with manipulatives. The groups created designs with different types of symmetry. This especially helped them to understand radial symmetry. Sometimes, you just need to create in order to fully understand!
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