Tales Of A 4-5 Something

During our study of Costa Rica we had some very special guests come to teach us a little bit about the Costa Rican way of life and some of the plants and animals that live there.  Chewonki came in and we got to see some animals that live in Costa Rica!  One of them was a millipede.  A millipede is an insect that looks like a very stretched out roly poly with a hard shell and up to 170 legs!  A millipede has little sections on it’s back.  Each of those sections has 4 legs.  For a total of 2 legs on each side of the section. The other insect we saw was a stick bug.  The best way to describe it is basically a stick with legs that moves!!!!!   They change colors depending on their age and some even fly!!!!!  We learned about how many different species of animals live in the rainforest.  50% of the world’s species live in the rainforest which is about 7% of the world.  When we were with Kai and Linda we learned that the rainforest i...

During global focus week we had lots of  presentations from lots of people who know a lot about Costa Rica. One of the presentations that we had was from Richard. He talked to us about how life was in Costa Rica. He knows because he grew up in a small village near the capital of Costa Rica. The capital is San Jose. He told us about different types of animals and trees in Costa Rica like the Strangler Fig Tree which climbs all over living trees and slowly kills them. When the big tree dies it falls down and the shell of the fig tree stays. It is like a hollow tube so you could climb inside of it easily. He also showed us cool insects and animals. We had lots of fun learning about Costa Rica from someone who has lived there for the last ten years. - Willow        

RUYHE?  That is the name we chose for our independent reading project.  Do you have any guesses what it stands for?  Every student picks their own book to read and we have a little time each day.  When we finish with a book we do some things with our friends and our teacher.  Tim's homestation looked at the work from the first semester and made an infographic.  Here is what we found:

Every year we study one country and the best part for most of us is cooking the food.  This year we studied Costa Rica and we tried all the great food.  We had some parent volunteers come in to cookwith us. We cooked black bean soup, coc0nut ball cookies, vigoron [cabbage salad], empanadas, horcheta, [rice drink], raisin cake, hearts of palm salad, and a potato-tomato-cheese dish. We used the kitchen and mini stoves right in the classroom. The three of us liked the rice drink, cocunut balls, raisin cake, empanadas, and bean soup.  We want cook them again! What did you like the best?            - Amber and Kaitlyn    

In Costa Rica they have an annual Carrera de Cintas festival. Carrera de Cintas or belt race is a Costa Rican game. The way you have to play is you get on a horse and you get a little wooden spear. Far away there is a small hoop that you try to put the spear through as you ride by. The little hoop is hanging on a high line of rope. If you keep the hoop on your spear until you pass a line it will count as good. If you drop the hoop, stop, or you don’t get it before you pass the line it is not good. 4-5 played this game on scooter boards and instead of using a small spear we used wooden chopsticks on a smaller rope. Two of the scooter boards were connected together so two people could go on at once. One person was the horse the other one is the spearer the object of the game is to get the most rings at the end of the game. The spearer was not allowed to put your feet on the floor.  You don’t need to be a cowboy/girl to do this. We had fun trying Carrera de Cintas in PE. - Nahum ...

This week is Global Focus Week and we are studying Costa Rica.  A woman names Shelley came in and gave a presentation about bugs and insects that live in Costa Rica.  She talked to us about lots of types of butterflies like the Zebra Butterfly and the Owl Butterfly.  She also told us about leaf cutter ants.  We learned a lot from her and her pictures were amazing.              - Willow

This week we are studying Costa Rica as part of our Global Focus study that we do every year here in the Lower School!  It is a fun week with special classes all day long!  The school recently has been taken to Costa Rica and we have been doing some dancing as part of an effort to teach us about the traditions and celebrations of Costa Rica.  We learned the salsa!  We were assigned to a partner to dance with.  The girls wore fancy skirts and the boys got to do a bit scarf dancing.  Here is how to do the salsa.  To do the salsa you need to get in the groove of things.  To start off you might want to just dance around and flail your arms before you begin to dance.  Find a partner and put your hands flat against each others.  Your elbows should be at your side.  The lady always puts her right foot back, and the man always puts his left foot forward.  (You should move your feet in unison for best results.)  After that you just...

Wow!  The school does not look the same.  The hallways and rooms look like a rainforest.                                                             Today was the Lower School's first day of Global Focus.  We have been working on Costa Rica since January but today was different.  We did not have our regular schedule.  You can see our schedule on the 4-5 portal page at waynflete.org Today we were able to meet with a 7th grade Spanish class and read Spanish books together.  We also listened to Shelley Hodges who works in Admissions.  She lived and worked in Costa Rica and told us about what she did.  When she was in Costa Rica she worked at a butterfly garden.  She showed us pictures of all kinds of butterflies.  She also talked about other insects like leaf cutter ants, Hercu...