Ms. Carlson joined the KinderKids on our last Wednesday Woods Day so we could have our music class outdoors.This video shows some of what we did with her.
Category Archives: Outdoors
Wednesday Woods Day
On Wednesdays, we go into the woods. We spend most of our day outdoors. We hike and collect things. We build things with sticks. We make things. We explore the stream and look for critters. This week we had a fire and we cooked hot dogs for lunch. Ms. Carlson came outside and we had our music class in the woods. After music we roasted marshmallows. Then it was time to go home. Then we put out the fire with buckets of water.
Big and Little Buddy Hike
We had a wonderful day with our eighth grade big buddies. Before we left school, they made a waffle breakfast for us. It was very exciting to go all the way upstairs to the “big kids” room. They waited on us just like in a restaurant. Then we went outside and learned a celebration cheer called Jazz Hands. Our big buddies even sat with us on the bus.
Once we got to the beginning of the trail, our big buddies helped to make sure we were always safe. They held our hands on the trail, encouraged us when it got hard and guided us up the fire tower. When we went to Little Baldy, they found good places for us to eat our lunch so we could be out of the wind. We love our big buddies and can’t wait to get together with them again.
We hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed doing the hike.
We Like Making Things
Making Applesauce
We picked apples from the trees at school.
We brought them back to our classroom and cut them up.
We put them in a big pot to cook.
Then we strained them to get out the seeds and skins.We added sugar and cinnamon. Then we ate our applesauce.
Making Grape Jelly
Mrs. Knee’s friends gave her lots of wild grapes so we could make grape jelly. Everyone got to take a jar of the jelly home.
Apple Cider Pressing
Mr. Bioteau and Mr. Jack came to school with lots of apples and a cider press.
We put the apples in the box and turned the crank to crush them.
We pressed the juice out of the crushed apples and after we strained it, we could drink the cider.
Learning About Maple Syrup
Mrs Knee makes maple syrup at her house and she taught us all about it. We read books about maple syrup too. One day, after it snowed, we collected some fresh, clean snow in bowls and Mrs. Knee cooked the syrup until it was thick. Then we had sugar on snow – just like the kids in a story we read. On another day,Tim and Wyatt’s mom made pancakes for snack and we put Mrs. Knee’s maple syrup on them. Some families went to visit Mrs. Knee’s sugar house to see how Mr. and Mrs. Knee make syrup. They had syrup with donuts and pickles.
Learning to Writing Stories
In our Work on Writing time, the KinderKids are learning to tell true stories about things they do or things that happened. They are learning to add detail and to tell with a “storyteller’s voice” . They are learning to tell what people said in their story. We practiced writing a story together. It is about our hike to Blue Job with our eighth grade big buddies. We will make copies of this story for our classroom. We wanted to share it with you so you can tell us what you think about our work.
Our First Days and Weeks
Our days and weeks are filled with lots of activity. The KinderKids have adjusted well to their classroom schedule. There is a variety of work through the day. Here are some examples of the work we do. As you can see, we have very busy days.
Read to Self
Everyone does Read to Self
Read to Self
Writing Workshop
Math activities – sorting and counting
Science
Outdoor Time
and Lunch 
Activity Time
Ice Balloons!!!
What do you do in the summer when you need to cool off? Perhaps you have some fun with water balloons.
What do you do in the winter when the temperatures are way to cold to play outdoors? You fill balloons with colored water, put them outside and wait to see what happens!!!
That’s what we did on one of the cold, cold days just to find out what would happen. We left the water filled balloons outdoors overnight and the next day we found out.
We think our ice balloons look spiky, shiny, colorful, glassy, icy, and beautiful.
We think our ice balloons feel cold, slippery, smooth, freezing, wet, and wonderful.
We think you should try this if you can.
Our Class Hike
We had great weather for our hike on Blue Job (rhymes with robe). We hiked over rocks until we arrived at the Fire Tower. We had a snack and then climbed up the tower – even Mrs. Knee and Mrs. Heon!
After that we hiked over to Little Baldy and passed several rock cairns that marked the trail. We even passed a little pond. We had lunch on Little Baldy and had time to explore and play. Then we hiked back to the parking lot and got into our cars.