The Rookery

          On Friday the Big Birds had a very special opportunity — we got to move mulch.  Our playground had been shut down because the wood chip cushion had gotten too thin to be safe and so we were eagerly awaiting the new wood chips.  The…

On Friday, our Socrates led the class in a discussion about "Why Are We Here?"  Using a model from Christopher Phillips, we asked what at first appeared to be a simple question.  But, as students began to try and answer, they realized how hard it is to define many common…

As many of you know, this year the teachers are devoting a portion of their professional development to the theory and science of play.  We are reading numerous books on play and brain development as well as taking a look at woods play specifically.  Our work includes a lot of…

              Our trip to the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum was a huge success.  We began at the twig structure by Patrick Dougherty (you may remember his "Twigonometry" at Carleton.  Although it was cold, students eagerly took pencils in hand to sketch.  The sketch…

       First math word for this workshop: Pentominoes.  The figures above are all made using five 1” blocks, and they are connected by at least one side of another block.  The first challenge for the big birds was to find all the combinations for pentominoes.  Some went to work…

These links are very interactive and have excellent information.  All were made by the British Museum.  Exploring these sites will really bring Ancient Greece to life for you. Daily Life – click on a topic to see pot decorations that have taught us about daily life.  A good explanation of…

This year, one of our goals as a staff is to examine play at Prairie Creek. In particular, we are interested in woods play. How should teachers support woods play? How and when should we intervene? How much do we let students work things out for themselves? What should be…

 When I first was learning to be a teacher, I raised a skeptical eyebrow about certain aspects of constructivism.  Constructivism is the learning theory that says that learning is most powerful when students construct their own understanding of a topic through experiences instead of just being told what they need…

Today in the Herons we marked the passing of Benoit Madelbrot, "the father of fractals."  Fractals are beautiful both artistically and mathematically and can be appreciated by even the most novice of mathematicians.  Most simply, a fractal is created when an action is repeated on a smaller and smaller scale.…

Today we began new math workshops.  Cathy and Naomi, Cathy's student teacher, will be investigating pentominoes and tessellations (and I'll post their blog entry about their work soon).  Amy and I are launching into algebra. "Algebra?" you may be asking, possibly with a shudder.  Traditionally, algebra was a subject tackled in…