Exploration in Textures

October 26th

Today our friends in 5K went on a walk to gather leaves from various type of trees. This was a follow up exercise from our previous tree identification activity. Our friends each were given a basket and told to collect at least four different leaves. These leaves would later be used for a class project.

Once our friends gathered four leaves a piece we let them enjoy their work times by playing in the leaves before proceeding into the next part of our leaf project…

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Once we arrived back at the nursery we used  our outside classroom to make sketches of leaves. We explained to our friends that if you place a leaf under a piece of paper and rub a crayon over the leaf that it would create an imprint. Our friends did a great job figuring out how to create colorful leaf imprints while also identifying the leaves the were tracing!

 

Fall Planting for a Spring Flowerbed

Today we wanted to teach our friends a little more about gardening; while also encouraging them to follow written directions. We started with a empty gradening plot located inside of the nursery playground. The teachers worked together to fill it with enough dirt so that all the 5k and senior students would be able to plant their own tulip bulb. We emphasized that the flowers they were planting did not grow form trees but from bulbs. Many of our friends thought that the word bulb was  interesting and new. We explained to our friends that tulips were special because they we being planted now but would not grow until the spring. We brought our little gardeners out in groups of five to encourage teamwork and collaboration. It appeared that our friends enjoyed gardening together!

After explaining to them about the type of flower they would be planting; we then explained to them how to plant their bulb with an instructional sign created by Miss Shanna. The sign was very helpful in showing our friends that the pointy side of the bulb had to be up in order for it to grow correctly.

Many friends found it enjoyable to get their hands dirty while gardening; while others preferred to dig their holes with shovels. Once our friends had each planted their buld we marked their spots with popsicles sticks so that they could identify which 🌷 tulip they had planted later on in the spring. 

What kind of tree do you see?

October 10th

Our friends went on a mission to discover different types of trees that lived on Randolph College’s campus. Before heading out to discover trees Miss Shanna had me assemble a tree book with names of various trees and pictures of the leaves to match each one. The class then tried to identify the tree by matching the leaf to the picture in the book. Our friends caught on fast and soon were identifying trees left and right. Our friends were extremely excited when the leaves matched the book. This project helped them remember the names of trees such as the Ginkgo tree more easily.

After tree hunting we send our friends on a mission to discover which kind of tree produced acorns… it didn’t take our friends very long to figure out where the acorns were coming from!

Gross’s Orchard

October 5th

This was a very special day to our 5k group. We had the opportunity to take a field trip to Gross’s apple orchard in Bedford, Virginia. Friends were able to explore a variation of types of apples and even had the opportunity to pick their very own bushel! Our friends learned that apples come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. They learned that some apples grew way up high on trees and others grew low enough for them to pick.

 

Not to mention our friends got to witness what happens to apples that fall from the tree and begin the next part of their life cycle!

Treasure hunting

October 3rd

Our friends went for a treasure hunt in their outdoor classroom today. They idea was for them to find objects outside that they found interesting and then identify what the objects were and where they might have came from. The friends were placed with a buddy and given a pale to share. The friends were told  to work together with their buddy to collect objects to bring back to the classroom for further discussion. As soon as the friends were partnered up the hunt began!

 

Our friends also made a new reptilian friend!

 

 

Exploration in Measuring and Building

September 28th

Our friends in 5K used their outdoor classroom today to discover ways of measuring objects in order to build structures. Our class is always interested in using the sticks we find on our nature walks to construct objects and their object(s) of choice on this day were a fire pit and a tipi (also spelled tepee or teepee). Friends found sticks of similar widths and lengths in order to created a stable structure. They measured the sticks by laying them out onto the ground and comparing them with the other sticks. If the stick was too long our friends figured  out that the could shorten the sticks to the correct length by breaking them down.

Step One: measuring the sticks by comparison

Step Two: Start placing sticks into a Tepee formation through team work and balance

Step Three: Start fastening the Tepee together using yard recycled over from our previous web project

Finally! Our friends had created their very own Tepee while also learning life skills like measuring, teamwork, and building! It’s so awesome to see how excited the children were when they saw their hard work come together.

Web creations

September 26th

Trying to fit all of our friends into one fun selfie can be a challeneg- we asked our friends if they knew how we could get them and the web into the picture. They figured it out with ease (:

        On this dreary day our friends in 5K went on an outdoor adventure to see a self-discovery web that the students at Randolph College had created. The wed was fastened together by yarn and was extremely colorful. We wanted to give our friends an opportunity  to open their minds and create something inspired by the web. Our friends laid out onto a blanket and gazed up into the abyss of colorful yarn. Shortly after our friends were asked to create a picture of what the web inspired them to create. The above pictures show our friends in action creating their own works of art. Each creation has a back story that is displayed in our classroom so that friends and parents can admire their creatively.