Welcome to our farewell blog entry for the year. Below you will see some photos that were taken of our recent hike on the Pine Glen conservation land with Ms. Pavlicek. Being able to take our walk in the woods was our reward for filling the compliment jar this year. Of all the things we most wanted as a treat, this was our #1 choice. Miss Varrell and Ms. Pavlicek were duly impressed!
Here we are learning about moss with Ms. Pavlicek...
and learning how to use a compass...
and using our log-rolling skills from our trip to the wildlife sanctuary and applying them at the Pine Glen conservation area to find more woodland insects.
My goodness! Look at these slugs!
And then we learned about the endangered lady slipper and how to protect it.
Next, Devin was excited to find some ant eggs!
and then we found more...
and even more!
And then we saw some 'fancy' fungus...
and mushrooms about to emerge from the ground.
Next are some photographs and video of our engineering work designing hand pollinators (our introduction to agricultural engineering)...
Here we are making predictions about which materials will be the best to pick up and drop off pollen...
And then we had to test our predictions to see if we were right...
Next we got to plan a design for our pollinators. Once we shared our plans with each other we had to decide which pollinator design would work the best and build it!
Here are the materials we could use (provided by the fantastic Burlington Science Center of course!)...
Engineering is fun!
But it takes hard work and cooperation...
Sometimes there can be 'hiccups' in the process!
And sometimes we get super creative!
But we always had to remember to test our work for success or failure....
In the end, we planned, designed and tested our pollinators. Although they didn't all work, we know that engineering is a process where you get to make mistakes along the way before you find your perfect solution!
We hope you enjoyed the photos as much as we enjoyed being in them!
To the Parents of Room 211,
Thank you so much for all your work at home this year. All the evenings arguing over homework, stressing over projects and talking with your child over dinner about what they did today and refusing to take "Nothing, mom" for an answer were worthwhile and it shows. The children made remarkable progress in all areas of learning this year. From mathematics to reading comprehension, world geography to physical science, and from making friends to keeping friends, the children have demonstrated understanding, risk-taking, maturity and empathy.
It has been my pleasure working with your children this year; helping them make discoveries about themselves, their potential and the world around them. Please know that all you do to support your child's education, no matter how small to YOU, is an immense help in the classroom every day, every year. I appreciate and value every donation, every extra five minutes you spent speaking with and listening to your child, reinforcing what was taught in school, as well as every communication we exchanged. Thank you again for all you do and I wish you a happy, healthy and restful summer with your children. They deserve it, and more importantly, so do you!
Regards,
Miss Varrell
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