The Rookery

Our trip to the science center was great.  For the first part of our trip we focussed on rivers and then had time for exploration of other parts of the museum.  The Herons were far from done with their field trip when it was time for us to board the…

  Treasure hunting. I need to be up front.  I would like to keep this class for at least five more months.  We have a lot that we need to get to and our "to do" list seems to grow every day.  Right now, here are the topics that have come…

Fourth grade and honors projects are humming along nicely.  We have had many mini-lessons on how to organize note-cards into categories and order the notecards in a way that makes sense to teach your reader.  Students try to find about 4-5 pieces of information that work together and these will…

This year, the Prairie Creek staff is experimenting with a peer coaching model called "Teaching Rounds"  The group I am a part of is looking at developing rich inquiry based math classrooms.  Specifically, I am examining math conversations (which touches on one of our non-academic goals, conversation skills). Amy Narveson…

The Herons have been really into puns recently which made this one very hard to resist.  Waaaay back in January we had the distinct pleasure of having a group of St. Olaf biologitsts, under the leadership of Emily Mohl, come and teach us about invertebrates.  It's amazing how much one…

We are having a great time – here is what we think our mentees will like next year.  

Today's video focuses on our senses – inspired by the work of our 4th grade mentees during their fourth grade week.  

Here's a video of our highlights from our first day.  

Double rainbow during an alumni bonfire game of capture the flag. A few weeks ago, I went to the Saturday morning "book launch" at Prairie Creek.  I'll be honest – I wasn't sure I wanted to go.  I often fret about knowing what to say and I didn't know who was…

Compiling data. A long, long time ago, in a classroom not so far away, the Herons surveyed the special people who came to visit them for Special Persons' Day.  We asked a variety of questions including how many students had been in their 4th or 5th grade class, how far they…