A hike!

Outdoor education day! Yes, the day dawned cold and windy with an 80% chance of rain or snow. An inauspicious day to be sure. Sitting at my desk before the kids came in, I wondered if we'd have any fun at all.

But then the day began, the sun peeked out and hey, maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all! The kids were excited, the teacher relieved, and the parents ready at the door.

They all piled out of the vans and straight to the waterfall.

They didn't seem to remember all these steps down the escarpment to the riverside when we were on our way back.

Group shot number one of many.

I thought I'd try to get a picture of them with the waterfall in the background(ish). It was a precarious trip down to where they eventually gathered together. And after all that, the picture wasn't so great after all. (This one is highly tweaked) Oh well.

Scrambling up from the bottoms.

Once we started walking it sure wasn't long before we got separated. The front few and the back few only met up again at the half way point. This would be the back few.

And this is why parts of this walk made me a little nervous. There's one part where the trail goes right by the edge with a drop down to bottoms like this.

Meeting up with the rest of the class at "the bridge".

Children have an affinity for water don't they?

Group shot number three....

Saying hello to family in Holland!

Scouting out locations for group shot number four.

Good spot eh? I think this one is my favourite. Too bad we were missing a number of Grade One students again with flu.

Getting stopped by miss j for some individual shots. I think someone may have escaped behind me...

I wondered what these two were huddled over. Probably a snake or a turtle or maybe a salamander eh? Nah, nothing like that.

Turns out to have been the exotic acorn.

Who needs playground equipment when there are trees to climb on or race down?

It turns out to have been a beautiful day! It was nice crisp weather for walking, the rain stayed away and hurray it didn't snow! :)

We'd been talking about the beauty of God's creation in class while we were learning about the five senses. We certainly were able to use our senses to enjoy it this day!

Oh and this video because the walk apparently wasn't long enough or they weren't tired enough. They had to burn off some more energy :) And this after struggling back up those last steps, one student said that he just couldn't go on any more. LOL.

Author of the Month

Know Mo?

He's our new author of the month. If you've got any of his books kicking around at home, we'd love to read them at school.

We've been having a good time with his Piggie and Elephant books.

Wildlife at CCS

Yesterday I heard about happy arrivals at Carter's house. Yes, they came to school already and had a gaggle of thrilled Grade One students around them watching their every move. Proud "papa" Carter surveyed the proceedings.

Yes, brand new baby snappers. Ain't he cute? (Is a Grade One/Two teacher allowed to use the word "ain't"?)

Oh I tried to label the specks that were those snappers in the bin, but apparently it didn't pop up on my pic here. They are huddled against the edge of the bin there...really.

One of the benefits of being the classroom closest to the front door is that we often get to answer the door and let delivery men and parents etc. in. I thought I heard a knock at the door and sent Brandon to go look to see if anyone was there. No, he reported, but there was a bird lying on the ground.

It's not an unusual experience, but this is the nicest looking feathered fellow that has run into the glass doors at the front of school.

I looked online and found this picture: it seems to be the female (on the left) yellow bellied sapsucker.

The kids were enthralled again. And briefly exclaimed "It's alive!!!" Too bad it was only me moving its head.

A kiss better :)

Ok, no he did NOT kiss it. And he's not as close as this pic makes it seem -- perspective and all.

Moving on to the next sense we were studying in class: touch. Each student received a brown bag with a little something inside that they were trying to identify by touch. I was surprised that more of them didn't cheat and sneak a peek inside their bags, but I think they got into the spirit of things and tried hard to just use their sense of touch.

They felt around for a few seconds and then passed the bag onto their neighbour and tried with a new one.

Most bags contained innocuous items such as a button or rock or sugar cube or feather.

Only one was slightly gross. This was the best reaction to it that I noticed from anyone :)

They were funny to listen to:



After they noted that they were back to the bag they had started with, we had the big reveal. Everyone got to show what was in their bag. This was the banana peel, yes the one bag which kids weren't as keen to grab hold of. Apparently it's kind of slimy. Who knew? ;)