Outdoor Learning Environment

We had the help of our wonderful custodian, Mr. Wallace, take apart some old pallets.  We are painting them blue and green to represent the colors of Fall Creek Elementary. Students were begging to help with this task.

Not only was painting fun, but the students discovered "washing the paint brushes."  Students have spent the past three days washing and rewashing brushes and taking turns of washing with soap and drying the brushes.

Observation sketches of the garden before it was weeded and after.  A little compare and contrast!  Parents and students filled five large trashbags!

How many tomatoes were we able to keep?  How do we know if the tomatoes are ripe and ready?

Students helped rake and turn over the mulch.  We are thankful for the dads and their muscles to help "set" the tree stumps in the ground!

Another station was listening to the story, Sorting in the Fall. Students then drew pictures with sidewalk chalk.  Some drew fall scenes while others drew materials they could sort that we find in our outdoor learning area,

Thankful for the many donations of mums!  Planting and digging in the dirt was a favorite by many students.  Are mums an annual or a perennial?

We found worms!

We found praying mantis!

Our favorite was finding the toad in our garden beds!  Wow... check out the camoflage!

 Who's afraid of spiders?  What do you wonder?

The new arbor built to welcome friends to our "kinder garden"

To tie in our outdoor area, we went on a field trip to Flat Fork Creek Park in Fortville.  The children had jobs to do at each of the tree houses, pond, bike path, and the hill.  We had a great time exploring and creating "I wonder" statements.

Patterns and Sorting

Patterns and Sorting

We found or collected materials from outside to make patterns.  We used Seesaw to document our learning and name our patterns.

Last, students went outside to collect materials.  They had a choice from: bark, sticks, mulch, and stones.  They also decided which type of pattern to create and how many materials they would need of each item before going outside in our learning environment.  They glued the materials down and wrote their patterns. 

Color display

Students worked in pairs to design the canvas.  First, they made pictures on their iPads to practice how they wanted their canvas to look.  We looked up ideas on the internet to generate a list of items that represent colors.  The next day, students did the painting.  Finally, on day three students wrote the color word in black sharpie to be displayed with the canvas.

                           

                                              

The finished project!