Sept. 15-19

What an exciting week, full of activity and exploration.

A student is pictured sweeping a portion of the walkway on the playground. There weren't any wood-chips or dirt clods to be found at the culmination of her exertions.
Dirt? Did I mention dirt? Well, we began our initial explorations of geography this week with a study of land and water. We introduced the initial lesson on line, examining the qualities of soil/land first, immediately followed by an exploration of the qualities of water.
We also introduced the sandpaper globe, a globe on which the land areas are rough and tan, while the water areas are smooth and blue. The tactile qualities of the surface prepare the child for understanding the concepts of landmass, continents and countries.

To further this idea we introduced a work on line that distinguishes between animals that live on land and those that live in water.

A student is independently engaged in this land/water sorting activity.Several students enjoyed the land and water tray set up on a table.
Additionally, the first of our land and water forms are available for the students use. The landforms are three dimensional representations of various land and water formations. Here you see the lake form and the island form. These trays serve to illustrate the inverse relationship between an island and a lake. To work with this activity a child fills the pitcher (to the fill line) with water and pours this water into the lake form and around the island form. The result... A LAKE and AN ISLAND.
Of course, land and water, weren't the only happenings in our classroom this week. There were many, many more.
A few examples:

Shannon is giving a lesson with the circle drawer from the Geometric Cabinet.

Belle and a few students are fine tuning their auditory skills with the sound cylinders.
And this student is matching the color tablets in Color Box II.
We hope this window into your child's week has been enjoyable. We look forward to seeing you next week. Remember Back to School Night for our class is scheduled for next Thursday, September 25th, beginning with a potluck at 6 and culminating in a presentation at 7.

Have a great weekend.