Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Recorder concert

We had our recorder concert today at 1:30 p.m.
We've only been learning to play the recorder for about 7 or 8 sessions...actually, it may not have been that many times...




Parents were invited, but because of short notice, some weren't able to get off work...

I bet for some Room 5ers, this was their first 'concert' or 'recital'...
What a great experience...


 and it was definitely enjoyable!

 Room 5 looks happy....

 Kyrie?




Fourth grade = recorders....and next year, in fifth grade, they can be in band! 
Oh boy!

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Bay to Dunes Field Trip

We took our Bay to Dunes field trip today...  It was a perfect day!
Ms. C's class also went.  Our class explored the Dunes first.  Our guide, Sarah, led us through the dunes...

having all kinds of guides to help us in identifying...
animal tracks!







There's the other half of our class!  We were divided into 2 groups.  Ms. B and Tammy had one group and Carole and I had the other group.  Sonja joined us a little later. 
Here comes Sonja!
We played a fun game..predator and prey.  Sarah counted, and everyone in our group ran to hide.  Remember, we were outside, in the dunes...but what we found, is that there are MANY places to  hide!




We ran across the other half of Room 5...

Then we went back to identifying some plants..
When Sarah, our guide, wanted us to get together so she could tell us something, she would hold up her arms and say "Planet Earth"... and that was our clue to go to her, stop, and listen.

Both groups of Room 5 met at the beach for a little while...."little" is the key word...

After playing a 'little' bit...
we all gathered on a huge piece of driftwood for a class picture!  This is the one I want to enlarge to hang in our classroom.


After our time in the dunes, we met back at the visitor's center to eat our lunch.  This ampitheater has just been finished, so we had our lunch there...
It was time to switch groups... we hopped on the bus to drive across the highway..and started the Bay part of the Bay to Dunes field trip...
We each got a little insect box ... and we searched around for insects...
it was muddy...

but we looked for plant and animal life anyway...










 After putting our finds back where they came from....and giving our insect boxes back to Sarah, we got a new set of identification cards, some binoculars...and started looking for birds!










 We went on a little hike next to a stream...

 and stopped and listened to the sounds of the forest...


 and examined what we could see in the pond water. 
 These were cool...you put pond water in part of it, then when you looked through, everything was magnified!




1:30 came and it was time for us to debrief, board the bus, go pick up Ms. C's class, and head back to school.

What a great day!  Perfect weather... and we had Tammy and Sonja along, too.