What Did You Do At School?

Teachable Moments: School in the Dark

This is how the school hallway looked when we arrived this morning:

 
Yes, due to last night's storms, we had no electricity.

Finding the right color of construction paper in the supply closet was an adventure that required a flashlight:
 
Thankfully, our classrooms have big windows that let in a lot of light -- and school went on as usual. (All photos were taken without a flash. So, while the pictures may not be very clear, you can get a good idea of the level of light we worked with today.)

TK:

 
T3:

 
Two from 3B:

 
 
2B:

 
Toddler 2:

 
Toddler 1:

 
2A:

 
4D:

 
T4:

 
Since the storminess and the rain had blown away, St. John Photography was able to finish taking pictures of the children on the playgrounds.

 
 
What we all learned (adults and children alike) is that even though things may not be going along as they typically do... even though we may not be able to do everything we had planned, we can still carry on. We can still enjoy our friends. We can choose to make the best of our situation and treat our day as a new adventure.

And an adventure it was. Power was restored a little after noon, so we ended our day on a brighter note. And we hope you did, too. :)

"It's never snowed at school before!"

That is a quote from a very excited 4 year old before the 4D class went outside to seize today's teachable moment by catching snowflakes on black construction paper.

There were some snow-tasters in the crowd.

We actually saw three different methods of tasting snow -- one involved licking the construction paper. Eeewww. (I missed the photo of it, but it was quickly discouraged anyway!)

After their time outside, they returned to the classroom to discuss what they had observed while catching snow.

T4 went out when it had just started snowing and caught a few snowflakes, too.

The snowflakes were smaller when T4 was outside.

 
(TK also caught snowflakes, but their adventure was undocumented by the camera. However, you can look forward to a future post on how they were inspired by today's snow.) 
   

Teachable Moments: Hurricane Ida

Today we're getting some of the Hurricane (now Tropical Storm) Ida rain. Made for rainy carpools — both morning and afternoon. Good thing I was prepared. :)

 
The TK teacher was prepared, too. She had a plan.

It started with a map. A really big map. And magnifying glasses.

 
After a period where the children were examining and exploring the map by themselves, there was a little lesson with the globe. Both the map and the globe show the whole world. They found North America and the United States on both.  

 
They talked about hurricanes. What are they? What do they look like? Where did Hurricane Ida start? Where is it now? How will it affect us?

They moved to paper. H-h-h-hurricane. What does hurricane start with? Let's write the upper case 'H' at the top of our paper.

Now let's write the lower case 'h' at the bottom of the page.

They turned the paper over and drew a big spiral — like the swirling of a hurricane.

Now the clouds were beginning to form.

And an eye was developing in the swirling clouds.

 
The clouds were spreading.

The hurricanes were now fully formed.

And it was time for lunch.

Teachable Moments

Yesterday was an exciting day. A dead tree near the church property was taken down, creating a teachable moment — and a lot of noise.

T4 was fortunate enough to go outside in time to see the branches run through the chipper.

They even got a pitcher full of the freshly chipped wood to smell, touch, and see up-close.

And they stayed until the tree came down...

(There is a man in an orange sweatshirt at the base of the tree using a chainsaw — then the two men on the left are pulling the ropes to make sure the tree falls the direction they want it to.)

"Timber!!!"

Yes, it was a very exciting day at the weekday school.