I know I say this every week, but this was another fun and learning intensive (I thought I should throw that in once in awhile) week. The week felt a little shorter than normal due to the holiday on Monday and then the field trip on Friday, but we still did a bunch of different things.
Tuesday we got back into the swing of school after a longer than normal weekend. A big thanks to Mrs. Foster for helping out a good portion of the day. It was very much appreciated. On Wednesday we had Farm to Table which was delicious. They are really doing a great job with that program this year. It was nice to see so many family members enjoying lunch with their kids too. Our 4th graders worked on a project to present at Farm to Table. We had a short play, a couple of quick lines, posters, and table tents all discussing The Three Sisters tale about how corn, beans, and squash work together in a garden. Some of our kids went over to the barn and presented to a group of 5/6 graders. They did a great job. The squash we grew was used in the meal too! Thanks to Mrs. Foster for coming in on Wednesday too to help out.
Later on Wednesday we went outside to do phenology, the fall weather has been perfect. I also took the kids around to do some photography for a possible future project. As some of us were roaming the campus we discovered that the kindergartener’s delivery of chickens had come in. They are learning about chickens and the farm in Prairie Crossing is letting them raise 3 chickens for a month or so. Naturally when you have chickens on your campus you have to take a look. F
eel free to say hi to the chickens next time you are on campus. They are right behind the kindergarten classrooms next to the gym.
Thursday was a pretty normal day, but we need those types of days too. Ms. Hahn had a couple of meetings that day so the kids and I tackled math and social studies together. Have we told you how much we appreciate help during math??? In math we are working on division so we have had h
undreds of cubes all over the place helping the kids visualize the problems. It’s been a lot of fun to watch them figure some of these things out. Thank you to Mrs. Profenna for coming in during writing, again, it really is appreciated. Social studies has been all about explorers. We’ve introduced the vocabulary they will need to learn and I helped them put together a timeline in their journals of a variety of explorers. So now they know when the explorer explored, next we will discuss why and what they actually accomplished.
Friday was our 
navigating field trip to Raven Glen Forest Preserve in Antioch. This is a wonderful, small, forest preserve just up 45. It was the perfect location for our trip. It only took 15 minutes to get there and the weather turned out to be great. The kids in our class went to one location and had to draw maps of their spot. No manmade landmarks could be used in their maps. So they had to be very specific with the map key and differentiating between pine trees and other types of trees or prairie grasses and bushes. Meanwhile Ms. Kroll’s class was doing the same thing in a
nother spot. Then after lunch the kids switched spots and had to use the other classes maps to find their way. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the trip. Because it didn’t take the whole day we were still able to squeeze in a spelling test, Hawk’s Tickets redemption (I love how many kids are saving up for a big prize), and fun Friday.
So another fun week is in the books! Have a great weekend!
