Tales Of A 4-5 Something

Hello and welcome to the blog! This is just an update on what we have been doing in Tim’s class. We have moved on from aquaculture and local foods into agriculture where we have been studying worms and now seed dispersal. Most of us are far into our Daily Independent Reading Time Project, or DIRT for short. We are also ending our Food Memoirs. It is exciting to think about our next Writing Workshop project. Evie and Sal

Here in the Lower School we had a Halloween Obstacle Course. In the obstacle course there were many games in there and it was great that Mr. Nelson, Mr. Salway, and the parents put it together for us. It was fun and I think a lot of people can agree with me. Probably for most people the bounce house was the best part. The stations were: Bounce house Balance beam Crawl under a hula hoop house Hula hoop ring toss Eyeball toss  Lay on a scooter to get under a bridge And bounce on a yoga ball in a race course circle  The obstacle course was on the Thursday before Halloween. Now you must wish you were there….. BOO  Jax and Aaron

We made a catapult during recess. Here’s how it worked: we took a board and put it on a log. The log was the fulcrum and caused the board to be slanted down. Then we took a pot folded in on itself and put it on the lower end of the board. Next, we took a different log and dropped it down onto the top end of the board. That resulted in the pot getting catapulted into the air.    Here’s a picture of the catapult in action… By Maggie

This week's Kudos was picked by Emma and the name was Maggie! Kudos is an activity that helps us celebrate a classroom. Someone's name is picked from a jar and everyone else has to write a note to the person. The note is something heart warming that we notice. At the end of the week, we get into a circle and the group dumps out the jar of compliments and the writer gets to read the note out loud to the person that was picked. There note then gets taped onto their arms or legs. Are next Kudos will be Tom! Oliver and Elizabeth

At Frith Farm we learned about farming sustainably. We helped gather vegetables for the Locker Project . It is a program where kids who do not have food at school can stop by and get fresh food to take home for dinner or to eat for lunch. We gathered carrots and kale. We liked harvesting the carrots because our hands got dirty and it was satisfying to pull up the carrots. We also saw tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, corn, brussel sprouts, beets, and raspberry bushes. A couple of us also saw a few field mice running through the plants. At the end we got to play on the hay maze that was set up for the Farm Olympics and we got to take some carrots home. That was fun! Pippa and Leo

On October 14, 2021 all of 4-5 went to Merritt Island Oyster Farm . We went because it was part of our Farms to Foods Unit. In this unit we are studying aquaculture so this was perfect.  We had four different stations and we rotated around throughout the day. One was cracking oyster shells with a hammer. Some were hard. We learned oysters have many parts and that they are filter feeders. Oysters clean the water with the filters that they have, unlike humans. They can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. Dot showed us oysters filtering water and they did a quick job of making it clean.  Another station was measuring oysters and culling them. We learned how Jordi has to check the cages, shake them, and clean them. At another station we learned the anatomy of an oyster and we even got to try some! Some people liked them and others didn't. As we walked around the island we also got to clean up the trails. A person from Maine Islands and Trails was there and helped us do that....

We were lucky to be able to visit an alpaca farm. Marcia raises alpacas for their wool to make yarn. Her company is called Lana Plantae Yarns . The coolest thing is that she makes her own dyes. She collects plants and flowers that she grows or orders to make dyes. Once her wool is spun she soaks it in water and then the dye. We liked all the colors. We also saw hens and a rooster on the farm. There were sheep in the pen and even a peacock in the old barn. We found a ton of peacock feathers around the farm and that was strange for us. We went to the farm to help us learn about local farms. It definitely was a memorable trip.  Lucia and Madeline