Another lovely week in the forest!!
Your students brought their terrariums home on Friday, The terrariums need to be placed somewhere in the house that does not get direct sunlight. The plants in the terrarium are understory plants, so in their natural environment they stay moist and shady. The terrarium will thrive if it is kept moist, but not soggy. Based on the size of the container, watering it once a week with about a tablespoon of water should keep it healthy. In some cases the terrarium may maintain its own ecosystem and will not need water. The moisture rises, droplets form at the top, and then “rain” on the plants. That cycle might be observable; however, these containers have a hole which might prohibit that cycle from occurring.
This past week we collected and observed mosses and ferns, and began a conversation about conifers, which we will complete this week. The following week we will begin our study of Ancient Cultures. We will begin with India. As you look ahead to that week’s menus at home, please explore Indian cuisine. One of the things that enhances a study of world cultures is the sharing of food from those areas. Currently we are not sharing food at school, so maybe you can create the enhancement at home, and then your child can come back to class and describe the tastes and textures.
Once our Botany block is complete, we will continue to spend observation time in the forest, and the students will be logging their observations in their nature journals, a la Calpurnia Tate! They all seem to love purposeful walks. The second Botany block will come in the Spring, when we will discover flowering plants.
Our math and grammar reviews continue. One thing that would be helpful and supportive of our efforts at school would be to challenge your child with solving real life problems with math, for example, how many mpg your car gets between fill ups, adjusting a recipe for more/less amounts for the number of servings, measuring spaces when you want to rearrange the furniture. Some of them have asked recently about the need for math in the real world, and providing students with an example of how it’s used everyday is helpful!
This week I will be giving the students their first lesson in writing with fountain pens. We will transition slowly into using the fountain pens on a regular basis. I will be asking them to sign a contract with the understanding that if they lose the fountain pen, they will have to replace it. Here’s another math problem. How many weeks’ allowance do I need to have in savings just in case I have to pay for a lost fountain pen? ;)
This week we will be building our scarecrow Kali. Thanks to our parent rep Priscila for getting us ready to build it. We appreciate anything you can send from the list Priscila sent out. Fun fall times!!
And the best and biggest news I have saved for last. Our new classroom is ready! Today we will have a ceremony to bless our new space and show gratitude for everyone who helped us put up our tarps, which have served us well in the first two months of school, and those who helped clear and build our new space. We are going to need some potted plants and some battery operated twinkly lights to make our space special, so if you have an extra string of lights or a pot of mums or pansies you’d like to share, we would be most grateful.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via email, phone, or text.
Blessings,
Kathee
