Learning Trip to The Landscape Arboretum

May 21, 2012  Our first grade friends had the opportunity to attend The Landscape Arboretum.  Our friends visited the Japanese Garden, Sensory Garden and took a walk on the Bog Walk.  They also had the opportunity to explore other gardens and walking paths.  After lunch they attended a Ready, Set, Grow class where they learned about animal's habitats, insects, birds, seeds and plants.  Each child was able to take home the the Zinnia flower and Dill plant they planted during class.  In about two weeks the Zinnia and Dill plant will be ready to plant outside.  We learned that butterflies love both of these plants!  Ask your first grader what their favorite part was.  Take a peek below at our busy day...

 Japanese Garden Fun-As our friends explored the garden they filled in a scavenger hunt form asking them to describe their findings.  (Thanks TWulf for the WS)

                                                                                                                Mrs. Z and Mrs. S

Bog Walk Fun

                        Recording Bog Findings                      Fallen Paper into the pond (it was scooped out)

                                             Turtle                               Waterfall

                      

                        Rolling down the big hill

 

 Class Picture Time 

(KG- we missed you)

Ready, Set, Grow Program-Our first grade friends had the chance to learn about how important ladybugs are to gardens and plants.  After learning, they had the chance to let a ladybug go into the plant and fruit garden.

                              

A magnified aphid

               

            Peeking at a tiny aphid

A magnified ladybug

      

  

Planting our Zinnia Flowers and Dill Plants

 

Bird Walk- We used sign language to communicate so we would not scare the birds.

   What a Fun Day! 

A Celebration Day

We had to say goodbye to one of our friends that moved up north this week.  We were able to celebrate what a great friend she was.  We'll miss you Maddi!

"I Can Combine Shapes to Create New Objects in My World"

We integrated math and art this week when my first graders cut out shapes from construction paper and combined them to create objects in the world.  Then they wrote out sentences to identify which shapes they used to create their art pieces.  Excellent job First Grade Artists!

A Cat, See Saw, Tomato Plant and a Bird

A Cat, snake, flower and a Town

A Train, Butterfly, Kitten and an Ambulance

A Helicopter, Bus, Ice Cream Cone and a Person

A Train, Tomato Plant and a Monster Truck

"CGI" Math Stories and Strategy Recordings

Here is a close up of our continued work with CGI (math stories).  We are writing down our solutions and strategies, recording our verbal explanations of what we did and sharing them in our small groups to teach our friends some new strategies to try!  Here is an example of a comparison story and some of my students' great work!  Way to go Math Stars!