Sunflower Day!

Today is the first day of fall.  During our morning meeting, I declared today "Sunflower Day" and we took a "field trip" outside of our school to harvest some of the sunflowers that the current second grade class planted at the end of their year in first grade.  We are trying to answer the question, "How do the parts of plants help them survive and grow?" in science.

This box is full of the sunflowers that we harvested from the gardens.

We examined every part of the plant with magnifying glasses.

We felt how heavy the sunflower was when it was filled with mature seeds. 

Image from http://thesnailofhappiness.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/imgp1508.jpg 

We observed that the buds of sunflowers track the sun.  Once the flower blooms, the sunflower no longer exhibits this behavior.  This is called heliotropism. Sunflowers do this so that they can receive the full impact of the sun, which helps them to grow very tall. 

We observed that the leaves of some sunflowers are huge!  The leaves in plants manufacture the food the plant needs to eat.  Large leaves help a plant survive and grow.

We also noticed that the stems of sunflowers are prickly.  The prickles discourage plant eating animals from climbing on them and eating them. 

Every child took home sunflower seeds of varying maturity that they discovered by pulling apart a sunflower.  We noticed that young sunflower seeds are white and flexible.  Sunflower seeds turn darker colors as they get older.  

There were lots of signs of squirrels in the sunflower gardens.  We noticed that some of the plants were missing the flowers and some of the plants were strewn all over the walkways.  We predicted that squirrels were eating the sunflowers in our garden.  

Classroom Management

We've spent a lot of time in the past three weeks talking about how to make our classroom a place where everyone can learn and have fun.  After many class discussions we decided that the three Dike-Newell school rules that everyone is familiar with were the rules we would follow this year: Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Responsible.  

Each student marked their agreement to these three rules by adding a bee that they created to the "Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Responsible" bulletin board. 

We added bees to our "Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Responsible" bulletin board.

Here We Are!

 

Thank You to Ruth's Reusable Resources, Davenport Trust, and Yoobi

Early this morning I took the 100 minute round trip to Ruth's Reusable Resources in South Portland, Maine.  Ruth's is a place where teachers may go and select recycled resources for their students for FREE provided that they have a subscription.  We are extremely fortunate in our district to have a subscription to Ruth's.  Our subscription is paid for annually by Davenport Trust.  Two of the multiple goals of Davenport Trust are to provide support that benefits the young and needy children of Bath, Maine, and to grant scholarships to area high school graduates.  I am grateful for the over $3,000.00 that Davenport Trust has paid towards the undergraduate college tuition for my three children. 

Ruth's is a hit or miss kind of place, sometimes you can find exactly what you want, sometimes they don't have exactly what you're looking for, and sometimes you hit an outright bonanza of materials for your students.  Today I hit the jackpot and came home with a treasure trove of school supplies for my students.

As I entered, I noticed lots and lots of huge boxes stacked to the right.  Everyone was scrambling to get one; this is what mine looked like on my hearth after I got it home. 

The box came with a letter inside:

This is how the letter begins:

"Dear Yoobi Teacher,

This letter is for you.

We want to say an extra special thank you for all that you do for your kids.  For all the glue sticks you bought to cement your kids' imaginations, for all the crayons you provided to color their dreams, and for the countless hours you dedicate after the closing bells rings, we thank you.

We're excited to present you and your students with a Yoobi Classroom Pack.  At Yoobi, our motto is, "One for you.  One for me," which means that for every Yoobi school supply that is purchased, another Yoobi item is contributed to a Yoobi Classroom Pack, which is donated to a classroom in need, right here in the U.S."

Here are the pictures of what was included:

90 3-packs of #2 pencils

30 erasures, 30 5-packs of crayons, 30 5-packs of colored pencils, 30 Yoobi stickers

60 glue sticks, 30 5-packs of markers

30 glue bottles, 30 pencil sharpeners, 30 rulers, 30 pencil cases.

There were also Yoobi folders.  This is what each child's supplies look like when tucked into the pencil case. 

I visited the Yoobi website (Yoobi.com) to learn about their mission and this is what I found out.  For the 2014-2015 school year, Yoobi's goal is to donate 30,000 K-3 classroom packs just like mine to classrooms in need.  If you visit them, please take a minute to listen to their one minute video.  I learned that teachers in the U.S. spend 1.6 billion dollars on school supplies per year, or $485.00 per teacher per year. 

I cannot wait to feel the excitement when my students receive their supplies.  

Thank you to Ruth's Recyclable Resources, Davenport Trust, and Yoobi. 

Yardsticks by Chip Wood

"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?"  Attributed to Satchel Paige

I read the third edition of Yardsticks by Chip Wood this past summer.  The book was recommended to me by two colleagues in another district.  For each age, from four to fourteen years, Wood gives a deep account of the emerging capabilities of children and their very, very different ways of learning.  He recognizes that not all children at every age are the same while providing guideposts that help teachers choose developmentally appropriate activities and tasks.

I teach first grade so I was very interested in his take on being six.  I knew he knew what he was talking about after I read, "In many ways (six) is a key moment, a turning point, an open door.  At six, the child is extremely receptive to new learning.  The eagerness, curiosity, imagination, drive, and enthusiasm of the six-year-old are perhaps never again matched in quantity or intensity during the life span."  I have never read a more accurate description of a six year old.

In a nutshell, Wood offers year by year narratives and charts that clearly depict typical developmental characteristics of children across developmental domains and numerous content areas.  These Yardsticks (or developmental characteristics) are indicators that help teachers and parents understand childrens' growth and plan activities that are developmentally appropriate. 

I am writing this post today because of an email I received from my principal in which she asked if we taught anything related to other cultures.  Because I had read Yardsticks this summer, I knew that a developmentally appropriate unit for six year olds could be built around, "cultural, racial, language, and other differences among people," because developmentally, six year olds are very interested in these topics.  Yardsticks is a wonderful resource for all educators and parents. . .I'm pretty sure other professionals agree because it is currently in its third edition.

"But now I am six, I'm clever as clever. So I think I'll be six forever and ever."  A. A. Milne

"On a bicycle I traveled over the known world's edge, and the ground held.  I was seven."
An American Childhood by Annie Dillard

A Butterfly in Our School Garden!