The Rookery

We had a tremendous day.  We had birds this afternoon and we saw pine grosbeaks on the bird feeders.  We tracked a ruffed grouse and found its frozen scat.  The chickadees flocked to our heads and hands at chickadee landing – it was amazing.  I've never seen them so eager.  Every…

All 20 Herons sledding together! The Herons have fully embraced our snowy January during Forest School (and during PE, too!) We began with a rousing bucket brigade to make wood piles in sub-zero temperatures (thanks, Roehls, for the wood!)  We also got all of the cross country ski stuff organized…

  Herons preparing for night vision experiment. Amidst the conference prep, the poetry, the personal projects and the snow days, our night theme has continued.  We had a fascinating visit from Jay Demas who taught us about the eye and the body and brain's response to light.  At one point,…

Night Moves We began a new "Night" theme before break.  I read excerpts from The Complete Book of the Night and we brainstormed topics it would be cool to know more about.  (A side note – sometimes a traditional "know and wonder" chart in which we formulate questions about a topic…

Wrapping Up Remy and I had a great time at the Herons' "Into the Unknown" event, roaming around the school and watching the Herons strut their stuff.  As a teacher, you live for the moments when the class is humming — focussed on their work, independently driven to do their…

Como Park We had a great field trip on Tuesday to Como Park Zoo and Conservatory.  It is one of my favorite places to go with classes – we always find something amazing to marvel at.  It is never crowded and its smaller scale invites discovery…and its admission is a…

Michelle allowing me to try my darnedest to not only fill in for her the past two weeks, but work towards coming into my own as a teacher has been nothing but a wonderful opportunity. I however, don’t think you’re here to read my story, so let’s talk about what your…

Windbreak vers. 1.0 This past week at Forest School, things didn't go as planned.  Greg has brought an awesome camp stove that he had and his child had made together – an ingenious device made from the ends of two aluminum cans.  He'd used it before to cook lunch! The…

A field trip to Valley Grove Years ago, a Heron (well, he was an Elm, a precursor to the Herons) was considering the Habits of Mind and decided that we should have an extra one. "I think we should try to go Above and Beyond what is expected," he said. …

Naturalist John Latimer visits the Herons. There is a deep irony about writing this blog — the more excited I am about what is going on in the classroom, the more I want to share it thoughtfully and the more likely I am to put it off until I can…