We enjoyed another field trip this week. This time, we went to the Barrett Fishway in Holyoke for a look at how people are helping anadromous fish make their way upriver to spawning sites.  Our interpreter was a retired early childhood expert and she did an amazing job of presenting a developmentally appropriate program for us to learn with.  The children reported at the end of the day, “Good news!  Our field trip was awesome!”

Two kindergarten classes participated in the first general presentations. Then we moved on as separate groups.

We learned about the different kinds of fishes that are migrating in the water of the Connecticut River at this time of year.  Our focus was on the American Shad.  It is incredibly abundant right now.

They have a forked tail.  There are also Sea Lampreys and an occasional Atlantic Salmon.

We moved inside and heard the turbines generating power from the rushing water of the river.  It sounded very loud.  The outside platform gave us a great spot to watch the fish lift in operation.

Then we went back out to the tent for a cool interactive presentation.  We learned that the fish can smell the river they were spawned in and they migrate back to it as adults with their sense of smell.  Unlike some species, the shad can make this trip a few years in a row before dying off.  The females are bigger than the males as a rule.  We used scents in film canisters and tried to match them with the correct river – Merrimack or Connecticut.  The parent helpers each had the “home river” scent in canisters, not actual river smells but unique scents.  The children smelled their own and then tried to match the mother scent.

The freshet is over now and the river is somewhat lower.  That means that the pond of water used for generating electricity is holding more water back.  The water is not going over the dam.  The Fish Lift helps the fish over the dam so they can continue on their way.  See the diagram at the beginning of this post.

Finally, we went back inside to view the fish through the viewing windows. There were lots and lots of fish.  We also saw Sea Lampreys which have 3 eyes but are nearly blind at this stage and bump into lots of things.

The Barrett Fishway (aka the Hadley Falls Fish Lift) is operated by the Holyoke Gas & Electric and owned by the municipality.   It is open to the public from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day each year.

This was a very fun field trip in a number of ways. The children are in good shape and could handle the hiking piece. The location was familiar to me and our interpreter, Gini Traub from the Dept. of Conservation and Recreation for the Pioneer Valley. A couple of parents and kids knew the area as well. The season is good for following the stream beds as they converged and diverged along the trail.

Most importantly, we brought along eager minds for discovering the environment and the science around us.  Several times, Gini commented on what a great group of learners we had.  She also noticed that many of the children were sensory seeking and needed reminders about throwing things, hitting things with sticks, and running.  We all had a better time knowing that these are real sensory feelings and that we sometimes need to curb our impulses. All in all, the class was tremendous and I would take them again in a heartbeat.

The parents were eager to sign up for the adventure as well so we had 11 chaperones in all.  Soon after we began hiking, I passed the camera to Mrs. Labrie.  She was able to catch some stellar images of the students and what we saw.  She is officially in charge of the camera now.

We created a writing piece before we left on our trip and another piece after we returned. The children will bring these home soon.

Check out this link to NASA – International Space Station.   It will take you to an out-of-this-world site!

You can access lots and lots of information here. I have subscribed for a “Spot the Station” email which is delivered to my inbox whenever the orbiting satellite plans to be visible in my specific geographic area.  It really has become interesting to lots of people and you will no doubt hear it come up in conversation soon.

Once I hear about the sighting via email, I check the weather for the evening (or morning) and try to schedule some time to go out in my yard to view it.

What do you actually see?

Surprisingly little but there is something very cool about making that tenuous connection with other people in outer space.  This week, I viewed it twice.

The direction of travel in the sky is described in map directions, ie, NNW or SE.  There is a very short viewing window of time so be early and really look for it. I have viewed it when scheduled for less than a minute and again more than 8 minutes for total possible viewing time.

As it rises from the horizon, it is just a moving light, like a small moving star. As it climbs to it’s maximum height, it becomes brighter and brighter.  It becomes the third brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon.  The thing really moves! If there are clouds lower in the sky, hang in there and watch for it to emerge higher up.

The directions for rising and setting are clearly laid out as these change at least a bit every orbit. Also, pay attention to the angle it will peak at.  Sometimes, it’s only 20 degrees which is less than the 10:00 position with noon overhead.  More often it is 60-80 degrees which puts it at the 11:00 position or almost straight up in the sky.  Straight up would be 90 degrees.

The website can help you learn about space exploration, who the astronauts are, how long they live there, what their jobs are on board, as well as many other links.

You can even socialize around this and maybe even hold a Star Party. I know one boy in my class who would love a Star Party! He is eager for me to share this with his Mom and Dad.

You can also view the schedule as a spreadsheet of times and angles. This can be kept handy on the fridge for last minute checks. I credit my daughter with finding out the most about the space station and how we can interact. She knows when they sleep and when they tweet up there.

Here’s a link to the UStream video.

And here’s  look at the sightings in the area of our nearest big city, Holyoke.

Ever wonder how spacesuits work? Here’s an interesting video that explains how they work. It does explain what would happen without a spacesuit but you can screen it out if you think it’s too much information.

Just Dan – ce kindergarten from gail poulin on Vimeo.

Here is the whole Just Dance Kids Symbaloo webmix.

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/justdancekinderchat1

We have a few discussions throughout the year on what makes and keeps our bodies and minds healthy. Every morning we exercise so we understand the need for fitness as part of our wellness. We wash our hands and talk about germs so we can better understand how cleanliness keeps our school attendance at a maximum. Of course nutrition and healthy eating are year round as well.

Now we move on into a study of plants and animals in more detail. We started this last week by having a discussion on what we know about plants. The children were already quite knowledgeable on this.  Then we role played a growing plant and its cycle. We also did that with a water cycle.  {You see I am a logical mathematical thinker myself and I see living things as being part of cycles as well as interwoven with each other.}  We started making some cute books for the bulletin board on the needs of plants.

We have a few house plants in the classroom and they have been looking pretty sick. I put a plant at each table as well as magnifying glasses and the children explored the plants.  We had table discussions, as well as direct questions to the students on what they notice and what they think the plant needs. They were great observers.

Next, we gathered around a plant at a single table where Mrs. Labrie and I cut off the weak stems and dead leaves. We talked about parts of a plant and their needs again as I loosened the plants from their pots.

The first one was quite pot bound. That was great. We talked about how plants in the garden have more room to send out their roots but house plants are limited. They loved seeing the overgrown roots. I aggressively cut off any greenery that was not fresh and green. Then I almost ruthlessly tore off the circling root masses, leaving just the center section of the roots. Much of the soil had fallen off as well in the process and the children spotted a bug in the dirt.

We moved from table to table with the children and we examined each plant with an eye toward making a fresh start.

A couple of children watered the pruned plants for us.  We learned the word “nutrients” earlier that morning while reading about a venus flytrap in Let’s Find Out magazine.

Today, I will give each of the plants some liquid fertilizer. We will also start planting seeds in cups and placing them on the windowsill.

Farmer Fletcher is expected later this week with a delivery of top soil for our raised garden beds outside our windows. We will be thinking about our upcoming direct seeding at the end of the month as well as the transplanting of our indoor seedlings in May.

I hope that we can also get back to the vernal pool for a springtime visit very soon. We just need to have more snow melt on the approach to the pool.

What will we see this time? That will be another scientific study!

The following video has gone viral. It would be nice to think that children can go to public school and develop these kinds of thinking skills. My suspicion is, this child is not a public school student. He would suffer tremendously with our rigid structure of learning blocks. He needs time to just think while engaged in some sort of hands-on activity like building or art.  Interesting to note that children who are thinking along these lines before they enter school, can be limited in that free time for developing ideas. They are in our classrooms all the same.

This boy reminds me of some of my own students, the ones who struggle with a prescribed path to learning. I know I interrupt their thinking with my Common Core learning focus. Far better to have kids developing their own understanding of how the world works. Not all will be this articulate but how important is the sharing piece as they process their lives and learning. Can’t that part wait if necessary?

Enjoy those report cards today parents.

In it’s most basic form, we can start to “think” code with our BeeBots as described in an earlier post.

My next step is to set up a task or challenge for the students to program in.  We will use some targets, hives and flowers, that the children need to navigate.  They will need to learn and understand how their BeeBots move with each action.  “Do I need to program 3 units or 5 to reach the point of change?”  “Where do I go next and which button will I program that change with?”

A later task will be to record our programs on a sheet of paper so others can duplicate it.  After all, that’s what scientists do, record their data.  There will be a number of ways to reach the goal – the hive.  We will learn that there are more ways to write programs and still reach our goal.

I’m sure some children will find the challenge easier than others but everyone will experience the science personally and everyone will learn something as a foundation for further exploration.

Want a bigger challenge?  Why not try out Scratch?  I visited MIT a few years back to learn the basics.  I found it very hard but the 12 year old sitting next to me blazed away and offered me help and suggestions.

We had one day left in the week before the start of our winter vacation break.  That seemed the ideal time to explore the robotics program our district is using for kindergarten. That program is Bee-Bots.

I refreshed my own memory of the training I had over a year ago and then tested one out.  Then I demonstrated what I could do with it to the class.  In a true inquiry based science program, I would have given them to the kids and let them figure the whole thing out.  But for this round, I thought I would streamline things by giving them the basics.  There was plenty of learning yet to be had.  We divided the class into groups of 3s.  They took turns working with the Bee-Bots.  I cannot really say what they each learned but that’s okay.  There will be time down the road for demonstrating proficiency and their understanding of the programming. Here are some images of our exploration.

Oh,  and did I mention it was Lock-Down drill day as well as Pajama Day?!

We celebrated both events on the same day.   It was getting too difficult to pin down the 100th day of school with snow days complicating things.  So, our kindergarten team simply declared the day for celebrating it would be Valentines Day.  In that way, we could combine the parties and reduce the stress.  The actual 100th day is now slated for the Monday we return after winter vacation.  To most kindergarten teachers reading this, it seems like an incredibly late time and I agree.   We will not get out of school until the last week of June!  Those same teachers understand how difficult the teaching and learning will be that late in June. Enough of that!  Let’s get back to the fun of the past week.  It was a 4 day week because of yet another snow day. 

We created Valentine bags to hold all the cards and goodies from our friends.  We ate tons of sweet snacks with enough leftovers to eat more the following day!

We also set out our collections of 100 things that the children had brought in and we practiced counting by ones, tens, and even fives.

Everyone had a wonderful day.  One boy summed it up with, “I didn’t know this day was going to be so much fun!”

Throughout the day yesterday, as we waited for Winter Storm Nemo to arrive, we watched a FlightAware tracker as it tracked my brother’s flights from Hartford to Miami and then to St. Thomas.

The children kept an eye on it and were jubilant when the plane icon moved, turned, and then landed.  They thought if we zoomed in enough, we would be able to see him getting off the plane.  Too funny.

Then I switched the view to a beach cam where he is staying.  With the storm approaching, there was something idyllic about the blue sky and water and watching the image change every few minutes.  One girl parked herself in front of the laptop during Choice time so she could refresh the image often.   She was a wiz.