100 day is one of our favorites in first grade. We were very busy and completed many activities around the number 100. Some of our activities included licking a lollipop 100 times, stacking 100 cups, making a necklace using 100 beads, stamping 100 stamps, putting the numbers 0-100 in order and making creations with 100 legos. We also went on a number hunt through the school to find 100 handprints, as well as counting how many jumping jacks we could do in 100 seconds. We were a bit tired by the end of the day! On Monday we will watch 101 Dalmatians to celebrate 101 days of school. Enjoy our pictures....

Happy 2019! We've had a busy past few weeks in first grade, returning from our vacation as "professional first graders" ready to tackle the remainder of our year. Here are a few Outdoor Learning Updates from before vacation, and from our latest adventure this past week.

Before vacation we took to the Hardwick Woods. We were lucky enough to have Mr. English and a few big kids accompany us so that we were able to build a fire and roast marshmallows to celebrate our impending vacation! We also made sure to leave treats for our animal friends that we had made earlier in the week.

Yesterday, we spent our Outdoor Learning time searching the Danville Woods for animal tracks. We managed to find deer, rabbit, mice and even some fox tracks! We are hopeful that we will be able to find more animal tracks on our next trips to the Rail Trail and Hardwick Woods.

As a reminder we will be going to the Aquatic Center this coming Monday (Jan/21).

Well there was certainly a lot of snow in Hardwick.  Unfortunately the snow was a little sticky and did not lend itself to sliding.  However, we were very successful in making our little shelters for the small forest animals.  We explored the whole trail that we have been working on and were grateful that it was groomed.  Oh how we love visiting Hardwick Trails!

On Thursday, we got our first real experience of Outdoor Learning in the snow! We returned to the Danville woods and checked on the animal homes that we had made last week. Most of the treats that we had left for our animal friends had been eaten, so we made sure to leave more. We tried to find the pumpkin homes we left last week as well. We were also able to hang up the bug motel that we all worked together to create. We'll be excited to see if any bugs make it their home in the spring time. Finally, it was time to walk back to school and Ms. River's surprised us with a treat. Peanuts!

Today we ventured into the Danville woods.  Our goal was to create shelters for the little animals that live in the woods.  We were only able to use items from nature and it had to provide protection from the weather.  We then added little treats for the animals to enjoy.  Nex, we collected items for our bug hotel.  We will hang this in the woods once we have it finished.  The bugs will be able to stay in our hotel for the winter.  Lastly, we reused our fall pumpkins and transformed them into an additional shelter for small animals.  

Yesterday the first graders participated in our schools Literacy Parade. We dressed as Johnny Appleseed, one of our favorite folk tale characters and greatest examples of what it means to be a good citizen! We handed out apples to our teachers, big kids and parents alike - just as Johnny would have.

Even though it was rainy, we were still able to adopt our tree and complete a scavenger hunt.  We were such great scientists and environmentalists, that we were even able to find a spider web.  One day next week we will take a quick trip back to the Danville woods to finish our work.  

We had a wonderful time in Hardwick.  It is very exciting the first time we visit.  There are many trails so we really learned how important it is to be able to always see an adult.  We collected items from nature and made a mandala.  We then had a little bit of time to explore the brook.  The water was chilly and the some of the rocks were slippery.  We laughed when some of us slipped and got a little wet.  It was a lot of fun and we can't wait to go back.  Next time we will adopt a tree!

Today was our first visit to the Rail Trail.  Our biggest obstacle...who is going to carry the backpack!  This environment is very different than the Danville woods and Hardwick Trails.  It will take us a few trips to get the logistics of where to leave the bags and still have access to them if we need out tools.  We left our kindness rocks along the trail for others to find and collected items for a nature mural.  We walked a long way and our legs were tired by the time we got back!

Outdoor Learning was a wonderful success.  The children did a great job and what fun they had.  We visited the Danville woods and began with finding our meeting spot.  We then talked about the importance of staying within boundaries.  We played the whistle game that taught the children to come back to our meeting spot whenever they hear the whistle. We then talked about camouflage and how easily we can become camouflaged.  We talked about safety again and the importance of an adult being able to see you at all times.  We played hide and seek to prove the power of camouflage.  Miss Rivers could not find most of us!  We then got to explore and use some of our tools.  Clayton found some old barbed wire fencing and some of us helped him cover it with logs so we would not get hurt.  Thanks Clayton.  Everyone was very curious and had such fun exploring.   We finished with walking the path and finding rocks for a special project.  Oh, what a great afternoon.