Week Three Notes

We started the year in our Outdoor Classroom! Here are some week 3 notes:

Monday, Sep 19

Morning Play Time including building and decorating Box Forts

Map Skills - the pocket dial

Art - read The Secret World of Hildegard by Jonah Winter at snack time, listen to music of Ste. Hildegard of Bingen, make wire sculptures of her music (her compositions translated the pictures in her visions into sound; we translated the sound back into pictures)



Read Aloud - The Alphabet by Reg Down, chapters 9-11 (F, G, H, I)



Circle Time & Recitation for the Pterodactyls

Opening Verse

"The Elephant"
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, p. 17

"Not Really Jelly"

"The Squirrel"
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, p. 49

"Caleb the Cricket"
from Move Over, Mother Goose: Finger Plays, Action Verses and Funny Rhymes, p. 20

On a Monday Morning (PDF)

Lowercase Letters - set up golden Penmanship folders, learn letters in the < u > emblem (o, a, c, e, d, y, g, q, u)

Independent Work Time for the Plastic Utensils
including Handwork, Math, History research, and Mapmaking MLB

Tuesday, Sep 20 - 8 butterflies

Farm Day for the Pterodactyls

Butterflies - Zac and I woke to 5 butterflies and then 3 more came out in the morning (one of which the class got to observe eclosing)

Nature Sketches of Monarchs, facts from An Extraordinary Life: The Story of a Monarch Butterfly by Laurence Pringle, release butterflies



Art - design and work on collaborative mobile inspired by the life cycle of the butterfly (using wire, tape, scissors, and cardstock)

Nature Study - read goldenrod information in Walking the World in Wonder: A Children's Herbal by Ellen Evert Hopman, harvest goldenrod blossoms for the Apothecary presentation and dry some (hang in bundles, dry on a cookie sheet using the oven pilot light)



Recipe - use fresh blossoms to make Foraged Goldenrod Tea recipe

Number Bases - read Weslandia by Paul Fleischman at lunch time and introduce binary, octal, hexadecimal, and the Multi-Base Bead Frame

Wednesday, Sep 21 - 5 butterflies

Outdoor Play Time

Independent Work Time

Art - continue to work on the butterfly mobile

Poetry - read Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word by Bob Raczka at snack time



each of these short poems is formed using only the letters which are found in the poem's title, so they are perfect for penmanship practice!

a 10 year old student even came up with her own

Poetry

try
to
top
Poe


Read Aloud - The Alphabet, chapters 12-13 (J, uppercase K)

Handwork - continue Handwork projects (finger knitting, knitting, counted cross-stitch), experiment with Plant Dyeing by using fresh goldenrod blossoms, cotton yarn, wool yarn, and the sunjar method



Indoor Play Time including Ocean Labyrinth, Bug Bingo, Ocean Bingo, Pattern Play, Frog Wobble, Enchanted Forest, and Ravine



Lowercase Letters - review letters in the < u > emblem, learn letters in the < n > emblem (n, m, r, k, h, b, p), read "King John's Christmas" from The World of Christopher Robin by A.A. Milne



Map Skills - do Orienteering Compass Exercise 2: Get Your Bearings (PDF, pp.10-11) using our new lovely vintage circular protractors

Science Club

recall last week's experiment and student questions

read Atmosphere: How's the Weather on Other Planets?
NOAA

look at images from The Photographic Card Deck of the Solar System: 158 Cards Featuring Stories, Scientific Data, and Big Beautiful Photographs of the Planets, Moons, and Other Heavenly Bodies That Orbit Our Sun by Marcus Chown



cards: Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Europa (moon of Jupiter), Saturn, Titan (moon of Saturn), Neptune, Triton (moon of Neptune)

read 'Diamond rain' falls on Saturn and Jupiter
BBC - October 14, 2013

read Dry Ice on Mars
NASA - October 22, 2018

read Laser experiments suggest helium rain falls on Jupiter
Science News - May 28, 2021

explain the Carbon Cycle and draw "Long-term Carbon Cycle Summary" graphic from What Is the Carbon Cycle? Photosynthesis, Decomposition, Respiration and Combustion



do "The Hot and Cold of CO2 Absorption" experiment from The Carbon Cycle (PDF)

Notes: This experiment did not work for us but I think that it may have been because I used carbonated coconut water instead of "clear soda or seltzer water." There was only one bubble in each bowl.

Thursday, Sep 22

Nature Study - read the "The Lion Hunt" chapter, pages 187-194, in The Burgess Book of Nature Lore: Adventures of Tommy, Sue and Sammy with Their Friends of Meadow, Pool, and Forest by Thornton W. Burgess



look at the antlion life cycle (PDF) and compare it to other insect life cycles we have studied



walk around the house and check in the dry sandy soil under the eaves for antlion pits, sieve the soil carefully to look for antlions

Living History Day - costume planning (see Colonial Costumes post)

Independent Work Time

Art - make sculptures from Found Objects (Calder-inspired, using an array of colored wire plus items from our Beautiful Stuff boxes)



Autumnal Equinox - read Fall Mixed Up by Bob Raczka at snack time



Read Aloud - The Alphabet, chapters 14-15 (lowercase K, L)

Lowercase Letters - copy and illustrate two poems from Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word (rain, ladybug)

Map Skills - discuss the Equinox in more detail, do "Length of the Rays of the Sun" and "Climate Zones" lessons from Waseca Biomes



these blackline masters are available for free; visit A-Z PDF Library, choose "An Introduction to Biomes with Curriculum" and select "Masters" under the Elementary option, then print pages 4 and 5

Friday, Sep 23 - 1 butterfly

1 chrysalis remaining

Saturday, Sep 24 - 1 butterfly

The photos to go with this week are here.

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