Four Winds

About Four Winds

Why do leaves change color in the fall? What rock floats in water? Do all bugs fly? Children are naturally curious about the world around them. The Four Winds program helps them fuel their curiosity and answer questions about nature, and encourages learners of all ages to look at the familiar with new eyes -- the shape of a leaf, the texture of a caterpillar, the design of a flower. Sitting quietly in a field listening to insects singing, exploring life in a pond by wading in and turning over rocks, examining the forest floor by digging under the leaf litter and smelling the rich earth, we learn about the world around us through active exploration. We had our first Four Winds last week. Remy's mom, Katie's dad and Riley's mom taught us all about evergreen trees. We were treated to a puppet show,  and then participated in many activities such as cone sort, mystery cone, and tree identification on our own playground.                                                     

More Measuring

We measured different lengths of tape with "kid steps". Students compared their results. We answered a variety of questions focusing on their measurements of different distances and which distances are greater than others. 

Fish Lengths and Animal Jumps

        

For the next few weeks our math focus is on linear measurement. We will be measuring with a variety of units, such as cubes, inch tiles, paper clips, and paper cut-outs of different sizes. We will investigate the idea that different sized units result in different measurements. We will also work on several story problems. Throughout this Investigation, students are learning house consistent units to measure accurately and to understand the underlying mathematics of measuring. This kind of experience will improve their sense of what measuring is all about. -"Investigations, Unit 5"

Happy Thanksgiving!

We pushed our tables together and ate lunch in our classroom together on Tuesday. We also were treated to delicious pumpkin muffins- Thanks Calleigh!

"Roll a Turkey"

Writing About Snowboarding

 Our field trip to ECHO was amazing. Burton snowboards collaborated with the ECHO Center to offer our students the opportunity to study and learn about force and motion. Students participated in many different stations, including investigations into how the angle of a ramp affects speed and distance. Students practiced balancing skills and different snowboard "grabs". We also explored the ECHO science museum. A great day in Burlington!

learning about angles, distance and speed

balancing skills

snowboard "grabs"

enjoying the view of Lake Champlain

teacher/student selfie!

What is a Glyph?

The word glyph is related to the word “hieroglyphics.” The two have some other similarities as well. Hieroglyphic refers to ancient forms of writing involving pictures, and a glyph for kids uses pictures as a way to gather and depict data. Students also interpret data using glyphs.We had a lot of fun answering questions and creating owl pictures to represent our individual answers. We  also loved reading an all time favorite "Owl Babies".