The Rookery

This week we will take time out of our curriculum to prepare and take the reading MCAs or Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments.  We make every effort to help students feel comfortable when taking a standardized test.  We also make every effot to keep the test in what we feel is a…

I took a breather from our busy honoring week to read about a PCCS alumna, Devyn Gardner, in the Northfield News.  I taught Devyn many years ago and she came back to PCCS this year to volunteer with our Girl Scouts and honors project students.   What caught my attention…

This is an exciting week to be at Prairie Creek.  Kids are bustling about, posters, props and notecards in hand, anxiously awaiting the chance to teach us about their passions.   Today I ran into a fifth grade parent who had stayed after her child's honors project to watch a…

Last week was a special one at Prairie Creek.  No one on staff could remember the last time that new sand had been delivered to the sand box.  In fact, until last year, no one on staff really knew there was a sandbox.  The pile of scruffy dirt by the forts…

Algebra — it's often a topic reserved for middle school and, for some it's a topic that produces a shudder.  Many remember it as the time when math "stopped making sense."  But times have changed.  We begin teaching algebraic thinking in kindergarten and we've just completed a unit on algebra…

On Monday, the Herons had the honor of helping the Nuthatches work on their personal projects.  It was a very exciting time for everyone.  The Nuthatches were getting a ton of work done (Elise pointed out that it was the equivalent of 10 volunteer hours) and the Herons were, I know,…

We had a great time launching straw rockets (I can't believe I keep forgeting to take video!) on Tuesday.  Our first launches were right before spring break and I allowed students to openly explore the basic construction of a straw rocket.  They could make any changes they wished between launches.…

We are right in the heart of project season and the excitement is mounting.  As I've been reviewing my sons' project work (they're in kindergarten and second grade) I've been observing first hand the arc of projects during a child's time at Prairie Creek.  The teachers have done a lot…

When I got back in the room this afternoon after our play performance, I found that my cheeks hurt.  I had been smiling pretty hard.  The Herons had worked very hard on their production and today I saw all of that work pay off.  It wasn't just that they had…

  Pi Day has become an annual celebration for the 4/5s.  Today, we began the day with a demonstration of the power of pi in the music room (which, not coincidentally, has a round carpet).  After having a child pace across the diameter of the carpet, the teachers got together…