Monday we took a trip to the Community Garden for the first time as a group. It was absolutely lovely! We weeded our section in minutes, and then moved on to the rest of the garden. We counted points, (ten for the root, one if the root stayed in,) sweated, and competed to see who could find the longest root of them all.
This is how the kids described their experience:
'We saved a lot of innocent plants. The weeds were stealing their root space and the nutrients from their soil!'- Klowbug
'I got five hundred and thirty points!'-Zach
'Really hot.'- Roman
'I'm just super sweaty now.'- Savanna
'Aren't you glad we brought water bottles and sunscreen?'- Miss Jenica
When we got back from the garden, we started an earth-friendly project with recycling- we're making flower pots out of old milk cartons! Next time we visit the garden, we'll plant something in them! Just a few of our ideas are,
Sunflowers, zinnias, pear tomatoes, forget-me-nots, hollyhocks, and roses.
On Friday, we had a bit of a 'make it up as you go along' day. I'd planned an acfivity, but as only half the kids could attend, I decided I'd save it for later and let the kids make up their own!
I did keep the first half, however... We learned some interesting history of Fathers' Day while we made... Whoops! It's a surprise what we made. You'll find out Sunday!
Here are some of the things we learned!
- The first Father's Day was held in 1908, in honor of the 250 Fathers (361 men in total) who died in the Monongah Mining Disaster in 1907. One thousand children lost their fathers in this accident.
- It was approximately sixty years after this first celebration that Father's Day was made a national holiday (64 years later, actually, in 1972.)
- It took multiple groups of people multiple tries to even get the holiday recognized in Congress!
- Bonus Fact: The first Mother's Day was also celebrated in 1908, but it only took six years (1914) for it to become a national holiday.
Making Cards...
Crocheting....
We learned how to change the colors on Mr. Joe's 3-D model.
THEN... We built a tent!
We had a blast! Here are a few things we discussed while in the tent:
- We reviewed our Father's Day facts and talked about how it might have felt and what it might have been like back in 1908 when Father's Day was started.
- We talked about what we learned from building our tent; mainly about how we had to hook all three parts to the lamp in the middle and weight them evenly to keep the lamp standing. Physics!
- We talked about stories- what might we like to write about in our book? (Or even book(s)?)
- What's the difference between fiction and nonfiction?
- What's a genre? Why does it matter? (A few we talked about were fantasy, historical fiction, and autobiographies ['I want to write a book about my own spy adventures!'- Klowi])
- What are characterisation and personification? (In regards to Longworm the Snail and other characters- tigers, bees, snakes, Mooki.)
We'll delve deeper into these questions and others as the need and opportunity arises for them.
We had a ton of fun on Friday! Sorry for the long post. Also, don't forget, on Monday we're headed to the library for a book scavenger hunt and a search for information and ideas! See you there!
We had a ton of fun on Friday! Sorry for the long post. Also, don't forget, on Monday we're headed to the library for a book scavenger hunt and a search for information and ideas! See you there!
