Farm to school lessons, changing seasons and Earth Day

For the past several weeks we've had weekly guests come from our local farm-to-school organization to teach us about healthy eating, nutrition, gardening, and where our food comes from! So far we have learned about the importance of eating a variety of colors on our plate, the parts of the plant we eat, and what bees do for our food supply! Below are some pictures of our lessons, plus bean seeds we planted and the farmers market we had set up in the room at one of our explore tables.

We've also been learning about signs of spring, as warm weather finally seems here to stay. We did a sort based on signs of each season, and used Qtips to paint what trees look like in each season as well!

Last, we celebrated Earth Day by doing marble paintings of the earth and water color paintings of something the earth has given us. They turned out great!

Playing and learning outside in the spring

Spring has finally arrived in our area, and the kids have loved playing and being outside. We've been studying weather and sunshine during science time, which has meant lots of trips outside to record and experience the weather. More about that on another week! For now, here are some pictures of everyone enjoying the beautiful spring weather during recess, Forest Friday, and other parts of the day.

We started off last week exploring birds and recording signs of spring in our neighborhood.

We also spent a recess period outside in the front yard, as well as our first Forest Friday since winter started! The schoolyard has new giant tree stumps for climbing - which was a great opening to talk about risk and the importance of listening to your body and heart when trying something new, as well as asking for help when you need it. 

We also did some digging in the garden and searching for worms.

The hill provided lots of opportunities for heavy lifting and teamwork to get large stumps up the hill.

We also brought out tools for learning about the outdoors more deeply - including clipboards for observational drawings, binoculars, magnifying glasses, and egg cartons for nature collections.

Our published books

Last month we officially became authors! While we do lots of writing throughout our day, this was the first time had done a dedicated Writers Workshop hour, where the kindergarteners chose what to write about - anything from letters and poems to fantasy stories and non-fiction topics. We studied writing strategies such as how to brainstorm writing topics, the importance of putting spaces between our words, and how to use an alphabet chart to help sound out words. After several weeks, each student picked their favorite piece to publish, edited it, and made fancy covers. I was so impressed with their writing skills and how the final writing turned out! Below are some examples of writing and editing in progress, as well as the proud authors with their published work.