A Visit to the Sycamore Tree

On Wednesday afternoon the PIE K/1 students walked across the school grounds to visit their sycamore tree. Each class in the PIE program has a tree that they observe throughout the school year. Last year the PIE K/1 students had been visiting a gorgeous old tree, but sadly after Hurricane Sandy roared through Warwick their giant, old tree fell down. So what does a PIE teacher do when a problem arises??? They call some parents and say, "HELP! We need a tree!" A new tree was selected and this is what it looked like in the morning...

So the parents did this...

and after a few hours, it looked like this!

The setting was now perfect for the kids to come down and get a close up view of their new tree. This tree is a good hike across school grounds; all three K/1 classes walked out to the new site on a beautiful, sunny day. A group of parents came along for the hike too! Mrs. Barlow-Layne began the science lesson by showing the students their tree and then she led the students in a song called, The Green Grass Grew All Around. Play the video below to sing along with your child!             

                                

                                      

The kids in action!

Each teacher led a part of the lesson, Mrs. Barlow-Layne talked with the students about what it means to observe things like a scientist, Mrs. Nachtigal modeled for the students how to observe something and showed them how to draw what they observe in their Nature Journals, and Mrs. White read a story about a tree to all the children. It was a great way to spend the afternoon!

                                

The first page of a student's Nature Journal, it's going to be a great year!