Pine Class Update
December 14th, 2014
Straight from the 4th floor of 300 Adelphi...
This has been yet another exciting week in the Pine Class! Please help your little Pine person to remember to bring their book bag and blue folder back to school every day. Hopefully you're still playing some of the math games at home. More games to come!
Take a Closer Look!
Kirsten brought us some beautiful, discarded tree clippings from a tree stand nearby for our Sensory Table. Students studied the branches using magnifying glasses, taking in the strong scent, and feeling all the different textures of the parts. Some were moved to make diagrams of what they saw. Come in to the room check them out!
The Tree as System
We have been studying living and non-living systems. The Pine Class has been learning that a system has to have all it's parts to work properly. A tree is a great example! We sang the chorus of a new song this week about trees. Try it out at home!
Living vs. Non-living
Here's a fun picture sort we've been working on. All systems, but some are living and some aren't. We even got to see some systems in action - when we went outside to look at a tree a squirrel ran by just in time!
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A Space for Thinking about Current Events
Several students brought up the current events that they've heard about on the news or from their families regarding Ferguson and Staten Island and the police. We had a short full class discussion prompted by students who had been working on building a police station with blocks during Exploration Time. Several students continued the conversation into the block area and added some quotes and signs to their police station.
Thanks for All of the Supplies You've Sent!
What an amazing collection! On Thursday we had a great time counting and "inventorying" the goods during Exploration time. This week we're starting an really exciting new project! You probably have an idea of what it is...Jars, rocks, sand, a generous donation of a bunch of moss... But don't tell! We want to investigate our way into it with a trip to the garden first. Fingers crossed it won't be too cold. On Monday and Tuesday we plan to head out to the garden to be sure to send warm stuff. :-)