Friday, July 29, 2016

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!

These last two weeks, our class took on a special mission of reducing, reusing, and recycling.

We first celebrated New Book Day, which is always one of our favorite days 
(second only to New Toys Day)...

and we talked a little bit about trash, watching a short clip about San Diego's landfill.

Then, we conducted some preliminary research...

and wrote about what we learned.

We also had small group discussions...

...about our newfound knowledge, and what we would like to learn in the upcoming unit.

Armed with knowing what we still needed to learn, we continued our research.  We consulted with our main man, Mr. Salvador, about how much trash is thrown away each day at Sacred Heart.

We also collected some of our trash during one lunch and carefully classified them.

This made things a little clearer.  There is certainly a problem.

Isolating the issues, we decided to reduce, reuse and recycle.  Then, we were driven by the question, "As the outgoing KinderPrep class, how can we teach the whole school to reduce, reuse, and recycle?" 


We got right to work.  Because we've been going through so much paper, we thought we could give using whiteboards a try in effort to reduce our demand.

We also realized that we have too many sandwich bags and concluded that bento-style lunchboxes and reuseable containers are a good way to reduce the amount of ziplocks.  

We decided that we wanted to reuse materials.  So, we had a fun day of designing two robots made completely out of trash.
Meet Bob.

And Dumbo.

Next, as we cleared our garden box for my 2016-17 class, we thought we could maybe reuse the green waste...

...to begin Sacred Heart's first ever composting project.  With, of course, worms.

Then, we were ready to get serious about recycling.

As our final act, we presented everything we have been learning to the younger children of 
Sacred Heart. 

Just our way of passing down knowledge, from one grade to another, and leaving our KP legacy.

Afterwards, we reflected on our experiences.

We are now a recycling school.  Mission accomplished!

Friday, July 15, 2016

July 15th, 2016


We're going on a bear hunt.  We're going to catch a big one.  We're not scared.
Uh-oh, grass.  Long, wavy grass.

We can't go over it.  We can't go under it.  We'll have to go through it.

We're going on a bear hunt.  We're going to catch a big one.  We're not scared.
Uh-oh, a river.  A deep, cold river.

We can't go over it.  We can't go under it.  We'll have to swim through it.

We're going on a bear hunt.  We're going to catch a big one.  We're not scared.
Uh-oh, mud.  Thick, oozy mud.

We can't go over it.  We can't go under it.  We'll have to go through it.

We're going on a bear hunt.  We're going to catch a big one.  We're not scared.
Uh-oh, a forest.  A deep, dark forest.

We can't go over it.  We can't go under it.  We'll have to walk through it.

We're going on a bear hunt.  We're going to catch a big one.  We're not scared.
Uh-oh, a snowstorm.  A swirling, whirling snowstorm.

We can't go over it.  We can't go under it.  We'll have to go through it.

We're going on a bear hunt.  We're going to catch a big one.  We're not scared.
Uh-oh, a cave.  A narrow, gloomy cave.

We can't go over it.  We can't go under it.  We'll have to go through it.
Oh no!  A bear!!!!

This week, we celebrated camping!

We got busy right away and created a campsite in the classroom.

We also closely examined animal tracks...

and, in addition to our Bear Hunt gallery, created our animal tracks book.

The best part of camping is always the s'mores, though.

So, we definitely didn't forget that part!

It was a good week! :)

Friday, July 8, 2016

July 8th, 2016

Welcome to Ristorante di Sacred Heart!

This week, as we dove into cooking week (and I returned from vacation), we started with Stone Soup.  We read the story, and then we created our own Stone Soup collages...

counted stones for our soup pots...

and, of course, made Stone (lentil) Soup.

Which, I have to say, was perfect.

Next, we finally got to reap the benefits of all our hard work these past few months in the garden.  We planted, we watered, and this week, we picked!

It was a harvest to remember!  And, these guys were more than happy to eat their kale, carrots, and tomatoes



I know the kids have already enjoyed one splash day, but Wednesday's was the first one I got to experience this summer.  We had a fantastic time!

We ended our week with Pasta Day.  It's the one day they get to squish pasta (and, no, this most definitely was not the pasta we ate later on)...

glue pasta...

string pasta...

and, of course, make a pasta lunch!

We received all positive reviews.

It's been a great week...

with no shortage of salt!