Can you believe we are in our 2nd week of school?
It’s been packed full as students learn our expectations for the year, practice procedures, and explore the garden. In the afternoon, we’ve already harvested several vegetables from the garden.
Students made the first of many entries in their Nature Journals by choosing one of our garden vegetables to draw. Afterwards, they each got to harvest something (whether it was a pepper, tomatillo, or basil). We had some fantastic sketches and great observations! One of our students even spotted a small bunch of cilantro still left growing (most had flowered and finished up their harvest time).
What’s a great way for our students to value the whole cycle of gardening? Tasting the harvest! Though we also have Farm to Table to look forward to, students got to try out the vegetables they just pulled days before. We had mixed reviews, but the students enjoyed tasting and describing the bell peppers or tomatoes.
The class also made some observations about the tomatillo, such as how it looks like a flower when it’s opened. They were all excited to see what was inside the papery shell! A student carefully pulled open the shell to make these “flowers”:
As for our time inside the classroom, students have been working hard on writing! After a couple of pre – assessments for spelling and handwriting, the class received their writing notebooks. They’ll be adding writing pieces to it throughout the year. Students are seeing how drawings can help guide their writing and remind them of details in their story. They’ve been practicing “brave spelling,” sounding out words and taking risks in their work. Students will be learning from authors and books they love, as well as putting into practice writing strategies I model at the beginning of our writing session.
Students are being introduced to the spelling activities that will soon become our weekly routine. I’ll be sharing more information on those activities as spelling groups are formed and we begin working with spelling sorts.
A final piece of news to share from our classroom is our weekly “Board Elf” visit. Every Friday, we have a special treat for the students to come in and see on our board. The class has already come up with some theories on where these drawings came from and how they were made. What does your student think will be drawn next? The class had just heard a read-aloud of Brad Meltzer’s book, “I am Albert Einstein” when this appeared last Friday. Is Albert Einstein our “Board Elf”?
Stay tuned. 🙂
Mrs. Buesking