Grant Award

1st grade received a grant for $900 from the Virginia Beach Education Foundation and underwritten by Lifetouch. The money is for purchasing digital cameras so that the students can take pictures of seasonal changes, patterns in nature, and explorations of the Frog Bog outdoor classroom. The pictures will be used to help the students to make a stronger connection with their studies and their writting. We will also be using the cameras to create our Earth Day celebration presentation. I cannot wait to see how their perspective changes as they look at their own pictures and focus in on pieces of their surroundings. What would you look for in nature?

Fall Festival

Fall Festival was fabulous as usual. I just wanted to share a few conservation notes about it. The PTA used can drinks this year so the cans could be recycled and paper plates instead of styrofoam. I am very proud of them for making the switch. The paper won't take as long to decompose as the styrofoam, so it is a better choice. Thank you PTA! I was pleased to see students who made their costumes or reused a sibling's old costume. It makes for a great tradition to create your own outfit. By the way, how do you like my newspaper dress? It is totally recycable. Finally, I want to thank everyone who was interested in the pop-top earrings and cork board that were part of the raffles. I am thrilled to know that you are as interested in reusing things as I am. It is a rewarding feeling. So if you are doing something at your house for conservation that you think is worthy of mentioning, let us know. I have heard some wonderful stories of how we have inspired families in the community to conserve and rethink how they do things. Just post a comment.

Pumpkin Exploration

We had a great day yesterday exploring pumpkins as scientist all afternoon. We measured girth, weight, and height, but first we had to make predictions. We found many ways to sort and classify pumpkins. Our pumpkins were also sequenced by size and weight. We all took part in the tradition of scooping out the pulp, voting on a face, and counting the seeds. The biggest pumpkin had fewer seeds than the medium- sized pumpkin. What a shock! Our super parent volunteers made pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, and toasted pumpkin seeds for us to taste. Yummy! Now all that is left to do is see who predicted correctly which pumpkin would last the longest. Last year's pumpkin didn't start to mold until mid-April. Do you think this year's pumpkins will last as long? We will just have to keep observing like a science (hopefully our eyes will tell us it is time to toss them before our noses do.)