Spring special guests

Last week we were lucky enough to have two special guests (in the same DAY) come to our classroom. The first was a farm-to-school group that will be coming regularly for six weeks, and will be doing lessons with the class on healthy eating, nutrition, gardening and where food comes from. The second was a group of agriculture students from the university who came to teach about our state's agriculture sector. The kids got to play games, plant seeds, and even make their own hummus with a hand-cranked blender! It was an exciting day and a perfect way to kick off the (finally arrived) spring season.

Signs of spring: Baby chicks!

This month, despite several unexpected snow storms, we've been discussing and searching for signs of spring. We've done similar investigations during each season of the year so far. We've been reading books, drawing pictures, making observations, collecting weather data, and going on walks outside. We were also lucky enough to have a visit from one of our students' grandmothers, who is a hobby farmer and is raising baby chicks! Here are some pictures of our spring inquiry below.

Picking up trash around the neighborhood after learning about Earth Day

Learning about maps

We also did an extended map investigation last month! At first I just set up an explore table about maps and put out a few books, to see if there was any interest. Turns out lots of kids were very intrigued! We eventually ended up learning about map symbols, creating all kinds of maps (our homes, our neighborhoods, maps to friends' houses, treasure maps), and talking about our place in the world (which is one of our social studies standards for kindergarten). Here are some pictures of what we did. I loved seeing how their various maps turned out!