This week we finished up our learning around Bear and Pine by completing the Black Bear life cycle and reviewing the medicines that White Pine offers us with a matching worksheet. We also read an informative book on a variety of bears, learning about their habitats, diets and homes. The Sprouts learned that Black Bears are most common in North America.
In our Pine Fairy book the students learned that one of the helpful uses for pine needle tea is for those who have the sniffles. We decided to forage some pine needles during our Tuesday Trek to brew up some tea this afternoon. Though there are no white pines near by, we used Scot’s pine needles and everyone tried a sip. Those with sniffles commented that their sniffles were gone! With Scot’s and White pine needles and cones in our classroom, we got to compare the differences between the two. The Sprouts learned that White Pine has the most potent medicine and can be identified by its clusters of 5 needles and a more slender cone than Scot’s pine.
As our inquiry around snowflakes and crystals continues, we explored new slides under our microscope this week including: Epsom salts, sea salt, and borax crystals. Students noticed the difference in structure as we begin to speak about 3D shapes.
We filled our sensory bin with snow dough this week! Using cornstarch and coconut oil, we created a snow-like dough to build and create with. It gets its name from the packing snow feel that it has. We also added glitter, for fun.
More badge work was completed this week with all Sprouts now having completed one poster! We had some awesome presentations today and I’m so proud of all of them. ☺️
January’s spirit day was more low-key than most as we had no birthdays, holidays or celebrations happening this month. However, the students chose a couple “Spirit Day Games” to play and worked well as a group to complete the task and/or support one another. We played Jenga and Stone Soup.
It will be Barrett’s turn for Mystery Bag on Monday.
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