Learning on the Road

"This week is all special!" Nasty weather had us rescheduling some field trips, and we ended up with two this week. Our usual rhythms and patterns went out the window as learned about off grid living and history. The children reveled in this chance to learn in a different place. They brought their usual curiosity, observations, and questions to each

Cheryl's PreK Reflections

Hooray for field trips and learning away from school this week: enriching what we have been learning through hands-on opportunities, exposing us to our community and past, creating new curiosities, and strengthening our bonds to carry us into more learning to come. In honor of the dandelions being scooped up into bouquets (and used in pretend weddings) with gusto by little fingers (reminding them to count all 5 on one hand) during free play, I want to share my recipe for Dandelion Cookies this week in case your little one didn’t bring it home with a bag full of the little yellow ‘suns’ on Friday. Have fun making and eating them together and Happy Mother’s Day!

Dandelion Cookies

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup honey

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup dandelion heads; stems removed and rinsed

Mix dry ingredients with wet; bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

The Power of the Sun and the Wind

We piled into cars and visited a local off grid family this week. Their pond was inspiring with lots of algae, a collection of cattails, and frogs to find. We saw an anemometer at work and noted how its design was similar and different from what we had done in our weather study. The children saw the solar panels, listened to the quiet hum of the windmill at work, looked at their electric lawn mower, and felt the lingering heat in their stove (from a fire the previous evening). We also went to the Octagon barn for more lessons in how electricity works and is generated. Finally they helped the children create a scale model of the solar system so we could all get a physical sense of how far each planet is from the sun.

Traveling Back in Time at the Old Stone Fort

"Boys to the right. Girls to the left." Miss Oliver sorted the children into two groups as they filed into the one room schoolhouse. She led them through some exercises on their slates and asked them to look closely at the room to see what might be different from their school. We headed outside for some fun recess time: tug of war, sack races, stilts, and other fun games. We did a scavenger hunt through the museum's eclectic collection. Dan took us down to the Dutch barn for a walk though some of the equipment farmers would use as they grew and processed wheat. The children enjoyed the chance to touch and examine different tools. They even got the chance to crank the threshing machine.

Our New Theme: Central America

We started our exploration of Central America this week. We located it on our world map and began to learn a little bit about Guatemala's famous weavers through the book Abuela's Weave. We used this fiction book to look for facts and tapped into Theresa's experiences visiting Guatemala as well. We'll be digging deeper in the weeks to come.