Weekly Wonder: Friday, September 28, 2018

Dear All,

We took our second and third walks out to the wetlands Friday hoping to hone our skills as observers and listeners. Sustained quiet time at the water's edge proved helpful in noticing differences between the morning and the afternoon observations. In the morning session we began to notice small fish swimming near the surface and the occasional rise of a frog to either snatch a water insect or one of these fish. Not much happening in the air over the pond though.

At the afternoon session children noticed again the rise of small fish, more frog activity and a definite change in flyover by winged insects, specifically dragonflies. These drone-like creatures darted about in sharp turns feeding on small flying insects. Children noticed that most of the dragonflies had blue coloring but one was red. We thought it might be a damselfly but when it alighted on a branch its wings were outstretched in the dragonfly pattern, not held above the abdomen as the damselfly.

Children began journaling step-by-step drawings of insects this week at our opening time, paying close attention to proportion, shape, detail. First efforts were with the grasshopper (one of the creatures captured for observation during our Habitat Hunt last week). The next was the likeness of an Admiral Butterfly. Next up this coming week is the praying mantis, walking stick (also found one on the Habitat Hunt), and perhaps the honey bee.

The gallery below highlights math work places, the Problem Solver, self-portraits in Art, the Walk For Fun event, and pond scenes.

We'll be working with comprehension strategies in our morning meetings this week along with word play and personal narratives and an introduction to the use of the haiku form of poetry to capture a favorite insect.

Best regards

Mr. Whitmore

Link to this week's photo album

Mathematical thinking