The Rookery

We took a break from testing on Tuesday afternoon to do some testing of our own.  Our final challenge for our rocketry theme was to land a rocket on a platform (I embellished with a story of horible, fatal lava surrounding a plateau on the center of which was the space station we needed to reach in order to survive…)  The platform had been stored in the hallway and we happened to have attached our testing door sign to it in between tests.  It was too good a coincidence to ignore.

The Herons showed ingenuity, persistance, flexibility and humor as rocket after rocket fell into the lava abyss.  Finally, they narrowed down the variables enough to meet regular success.  It was very exciting.

On Wednesday morning, we visited the K/1 project fair.  This was the first time that all of the K/1s shared their projects together and it was wonderful.  Everywhere I looked I saw a Heron kneeling down and chatting with a k/1 about what he or she had learned.  The comment sheets were filled with enthusiastic comments from Herons (and the rest of the school).  It was heartwarming to watch and when we returned to our classroom, I asked the Herons to share their thoughts.  "I can't believe how much they knew!"  "It's hard to believe that was us just six years ago!"  "I learned a ton!"  I am not a terribly sentimental person but I was very, very touched by the genuine interest our big birds showed in the work of the K/1s.  It was pretty special.  

As an aside, the multi-age connectedness of our school is very evident right now.  At recess on Wednesday I saw a soccer game that was K-5 (I witnessed a kindergartener score to much cheering from both teams), a K-5 football game, 2-5 graders in the sand box, a 1-5 grade fantasy game, and multiple forts with all ages of kids in them.  Our 4/5s have gone above and beyond welcoming younger children into their play this year.  It's made a difference in the culture of our school.

Later on Wednesday, I took a few minutes to review any questions that had come up when they took the first half of the MCAs on Tuesday.  After we clarified a few math terms, one student raised his hand and asked, "So, where did math start from, anyway?"  The Herons were off…hypothesizing ("people had to count things like how many hides they had"), posing more questions ("where do our number symbols come from?"), sharing tidbits of knowledge ("well, pi is from Greek").  I could only laugh, only at Prairie Creek would a routine test review session vere into such territory.  I wish there was a standardized test for curiosity.