Ms. Emily’s Updates
Some sneak peeks from Ms. Emily about what we’re learning and HMLC adventures.
February Fun
In February, HMLC learners explored Black History Month through books, songs, poetry and hands-on activities highlighting Black inventors and members of the Black community. The kids also gathered to celebrate Valentine’s Day, participated in a valentine’s pen pal exchange with kids around the country and tracked their special letters (and new friends) on a map of the U.S.
Building and “working” at a flower shop inspired lots of creativity and math transactions with the cash register, learned about states of matter through ooey, gooey ooblek and explored our very own space station while discovering the work of Dr. Mae Jemison.
Election Day
Tuesday, November 8th we will hold a special class election! The kids get to vote for Pinky the Triceratops or Bluey the Brontosaurus for class president! What a fun way to talk about voting and elections with the kids.
Community Helpers
This week is all about the important helpers in our communities! This can range from firefighters, construction workers, doctors, nurses, EMTs, bus drivers, etc. Train track paintings, fire truck puzzles, working as a team to build an epic train track, counting school buses, search and rescue games and more had learners delighted and going the extra mile to help each other!
WELCOME FALL!
Making apple prints turned into painting fun as friends decided to paint their apples instead.
We took the seeds from our apples and planted them around the field classroom.
Part of the outdoor classroom turned into an excavation site as friends got to use our big trucks!
Friends learned a variety of new group games like "The Children are Sleeping," "Sneaky Statues," and the kids got creative with their imaginations and made up their own game.
We went on many adventure walks this week and saw lots of wildlife! We saw a doe, 2 bald eagles, painted turtles, a Great Blue Heron, a beaver and even a muskrat! We also identified some shelf mushrooms on our walk and friends got to draw maps in the sand so we wouldn't lose our way.
Caterpillars to butterflies
One of our families brought in a caterpillar cocoon and a beautiful Monarch butterfly emerged! The kids were able to release her into the wild at one of the rain gardens next to the school.
We experimented with color mixing and learned that mixing too many colors together usually ends up making the magical color known as blurple. Not quite blue, not quite purple, not quite brown, but 100% fun!
We built fairy houses out of natural materials (grass, sticks, leaves). One of the learners left a note to let the fairies know the house was for them. The next day, however, we discovered a family of mini dinosaurs had moved in, much to everyone’s surprise and delight.
After our mini dino discovery, the students then made and excavated dinosaur fossils (made out of playdoh) and had fun pretending to be paleontologists.
We ended the week with "The Case of the Missing Dinosaurs!" and we were, thankfully, able to find and rescue all the class dinosaurs that had escaped into the forest!