Prairie Green School
Like us
  • Home
  • Mission
  • Location
  • PGS Early Childhood Program
  • PGS Elementary School
  • Elementary School Curriculum
  • Blog
  • Teachers
  • Admissions
  • Employment
  • Giving
  • Parent Testimonials
  • Contact
  • Preschool Registration

Johnson County Fair, Maps & Visitors

7/27/2012

0 Comments

 
As you know we started off the week attending the Johnson County Fair.  Even though it was very hot, the kids had a great time.  The kids were split into three groups and each group went with an adult.  Thank you Liz and Laura for volunteering your time.  Each group had a scavenger hunt to find different animals at the fair and to ask questions of fair participants.  You should find the scavenger hunt in their folders.  

The America's Farmers/Monsanto trailer was air conditioned.  As much as I didn't want to go in, I was hot and so were the kids.  My group was doing a great job of listening as the America's Farmers tour guide did a good job of painting a picture of them as heros.  BJ was in my group and he read Omnivore's Dilemma last year.  Half way through the movie, he turned to me and said, "Wait.  Are these the bad guys?"  So, BJ and I helped the rest of the kids see the other side of the story in class on Tuesday.  It was a difficult concept to grasp without reading the book, but at least one student, Ella, was interested in reading Omnivore's Dilemma after we were done with our discussion!  I am more than happy to loan out the children's version of Omnivore's Dilemma to anyone who wants to read it.     

Also, this week we continued learning how to read maps.  I set up a mini-treasure hunt in our classroom before heading to the fair. Once there they used the fair maps during the scavenger hunt.  On Tuesday, the "bigs" set up a treasure hunt for the "tots" outside using a google map of our school grounds.  Map reading is very fun for kids and I believe it is a very important skill.  I am worried about this generation not undestanding maps due to our reliance on GPS systems. 

We had a couple of friends of mine that visited this week which was very fun for the kids.  Annie Stoessel is a gym teacher in Des Moines and she came on Tuesday with a garbage can full of PE toys.  The kids went crazy with the scooters, rubber chickens and bean bags.  She organized a few games for the kids to play which gave me ideas for the school year.  On Wednesday, Ashley Berggren spent the day with us.  She is a high school teacher in Chicago, but more importantly to the kids, she plays professional women's football for the Chicago Force.  After lunch she talked about her experience playing football and showed us clips from a few of her games.  It was fun for the kids to guess what her teammates did for their professions- teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and even a biologic anthropoligist!  She will be playing in the league championship August 4th at Heinz Field vs. San Diego.  Here is the website to find out more about the Chicago Force.  http://www.chicagoforcefootball.com/

Judd taught an art lesson on Thursday that combined the last two weeks of drawing (Statue of Liberty) and watercolor (watermelons).  To tie it into the fair, we drew and painted roosters.  I think everyone had fun creating the roosters beautiful tails.  Again, Judd was impressed with the students work and so was I.  


0 Comments

Treasures, Mysteries & Melons!

7/20/2012

0 Comments

 
All the books the students are reading have some type of mystery or treasure theme.  I printed off a cool hand-drawn of a map and it became our treasure map.  We discussed map reading skills including reading a key and compass direction.  I would "hide" somewhere on the map and they had to determine my location.  They had so much fun that each student wanted to hide!  They each showed me their chosen hiding spot and I gave the clues to make it appropriate for the beginning readers.  I encourage you to do a similar activity with your son/daughter and allow them to give directional clues.  Next week we will have a map of our classroom and the school yard with clues left for them to find.  

We harvested cucumbers and carrots this week and used them to supplement snack time.  The kids wanted to make pickles from the cucumbers, so Ericka Lawler supplied us with the recipe and ingredients.  We made them on Wednesday and they will be ready to eat on Monday.  Ella loves pickles so she is going to bring in a pickle from home to do a taste test!   This week during Art class we used watercolors to paint watermelon! 

Judd brought in a few pictures from seed catalogs of all different types of watermelons.  We discussed how the rind can be varied and so can the inside color.  To show examples, Judd painted a few different melons with watercolors and also painted the cover of one of the seed catalogs.  It had 6 slices of watermelon on top of one another and each slice was different.  Then he showed us some cool watermelon carvings.  A few of the favorites were the ship, the pineapple and the Statue of Liberty.  Judd gave a bit of advice regarding using watercolors and then set the students free to paint.  Even though there were so many varieties of watermelon colors, almost everyone did the traditional green outside with a red interior.  Some students finished quickly while others were adding shadows and detail.  Judd offered advice, comments and specific praise to each student as he roamed the room.  To finish the art lesson, Judd said that he had a surprise for us.  We all went into the kitchen and learned that Judd had carved a shark out of a watermelon and put a few seals in the shark's mouth!  It was amazing and good to eat as well!  Another wonderful art lesson!
Picture
0 Comments

Studying the 4th of July

7/13/2012

0 Comments

 
This weeks theme was The 4th of July and American symbols.  Each child chose an American symbol to color and put on the front of their folder.  The options were, the American flag, the Liberty Bell, the eagle, 4th of July and the Statue of Liberty.  Throughout the week they would be learning a little more about their symbol either through handwriting or research.  We had a class discussion about why we have the 4th of July and how America came to be.  
  
Judd worked with the kids for the first time on art.  Once we had a white sheet of paper and marker we practiced drawing curvy lines, straight lines, blobs, ovals, circles and dots.  It was a warm-up activity and an introduction to vocabulary.  Then we had an exercise in which the students draw different parts of the Statue of Liberty without knowing that's what they are doing.  This allows the artist to see that really any picture is just straight lines, curvy lines and blobs put together to make a picture.  Actually during the warm-up the students just followed Judd's directions of drawing ovals, circles, straight lines and curvy lines and the next thing they know is they drew a lion!  

After a snack, we started on the Statue of Liberty.  The students drew the head, then torch and then body.  This worked well for the youngest to the oldest.  The youngest children were able to do the face and then some lost interest.  Others were able to make it to the torch.  Most students completed the Statue and then colored it and added fireworks in the background.  We were very impressed with these statues and the students attention spans.  They worked super hard today.  
After art we played outside, ate our lunch and played some more.  They needed it!

To end the day we shared what we learned about our symbols while eating some more Kale chips.  Our last thing we did was head up to see Nora's mom, Mara Cole's art studio.  She rents a room at Cosgrove as well.  She had some of her work displayed and talked with us about her past work.  What beautiful paintings!  
0 Comments

    Author

    Laura Wolf is the mother of three children who have attended  Prairie Green.  Currently, Lucy is in her final year at PGS while her older boys attend West High School.  She has also taught grades 3rd-5th and is a media specialist.

    Archives

    August 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    Categories

    All
    4th Of July
    After School Program
    Anchor Activities
    Apples
    Art
    Baking
    Bj
    Bowling
    Bread
    Bugs
    Chemistry
    Chickadee
    Claire
    Classroom
    Cooking
    Costumes
    Curriculum
    Downtown
    Dragon
    Experiments
    Farm
    Field Trips
    Fish
    Frogs
    Garden
    Gardening
    Group Projects
    Gym
    Harvest
    History
    Independent Work
    Ipad
    Jack
    Jorge
    Judd
    Lasagna Gardening
    Lawlers
    Letters
    Lucy
    Maps
    Math
    Mphsap
    Multiage
    Museum
    Music
    Nature
    Newsletter
    Nutrition
    Olympics
    Omnivore
    Paula
    Performing Arts
    Poetry
    Projects
    Pumpkins
    Reading
    Real World Experience
    Scavenger Hunt
    Science
    Self-awareness
    Self-Portraits
    Space
    Spanish
    Store
    Stumpery
    Subbing
    Summer Camp
    Technology
    Tennis
    Three Little Pigs
    Timelines
    Watercolors
    Weather
    Weekly Plan
    Weekly Report
    Word Wall
    Writing
    Year Round Schooling
    Yoga

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.