Last Sunday was Earth Day, and we've been celebrating all week! We've been planting for 3 days in a row, reading books about nature and being responsible citizens, cleaning up our yard and even getting right up close and personal with earth worms!
Our first planting experience included filling our own little pots with soil, planting bean seeds and watering them. Each gardener is responsible for taking care of their little bean babies each day. A few students stuck around to help plant some seeds that Mirabel gifted us last fall. We will all help care for those pots. For our next two planting jobs, we used prepared peat pellets. First, we each planted some sunflower seeds, our gift from le Père Noël. Today, we planted tomato seeds. But not just any tomato seeds. SPACE tomatoes!
In this experiment, we plant one group of control tomato seeds that have always lived here on Earth. We also plant a group of seeds that lived for 5 weeks on the International Space Station! We made some predictions about what might happen. Some ideas were...
- The space tomatoes will grow higher and bigger.
- The space tomatoes will grow into outer space.
- The space seeds will float around because they are used to zero gravity.
- The Earth tomatoes will bend over faster.
We will keep track of any differences in how the 2 groups of seeds grow and eventually report our findings to Tomatosphere. Thanks Lori, for this great idea!
Outside, I also put an eager group (who weren't sure what to do with their shovels) to work landscaping. They were excited to help fill in a few of the holes that are notorious for becoming mud puddles after rain. They stuck with it for a while and took their landscaping job very seriously!
This week is safety week at Dewson. We have had a practice fire drill, and today we had a practice lockdown. I was proud of our students for moving quickly and quietly to our safe spot and staying quiet throughout the drill.
(FYI, Dewson's safety week was planned long before Monday's events. We have not and are not planning to discuss this in our classroom.)
Friday will also be Mme Diana's last day with us. Over the last 4 weeks, Diana has worked daily with our students to introduce them to the vocabulary surrounding animals and the farm. She has done so through daily hands-on craft activities, a beautiful farm display and mural, books and a felt story that she prepared. She has done all this while also supporting students with our daily routines, and working and playing with students individually. Oh, and did I mention she works before and after school for the Dewson Y, while finishing her training? We have been lucky to have her support, especially while Mme Dominique has been away. Please join me in thanking her and please wish her well if you see her on Friday!
Mme Dominique received our package of cards last evening and was quite touched. She misses us terribly and thankfully, her treatments are starting to help.
Also, I was thinking that I never shared with you the happy news about Ms. Toporowsky. This is old news now, so you've probably gotten it from another source. Anyway, Ms. T (the ECE in Mr. Evans' class last year) had her baby on March 4th. It's a boy, and his name is Niko! Mama and baby are doing well! Congrats Ms. T!
Mots de la Semaine
la Terre
le soleil
la lune
une étoile
l’espace