Signing Off For Summer!

Hello Roots Families,

Thank you for engaging with us through our blog these past 2 months! The opportunity to continue to interact with you brought us much joy while we were separated.

We are eager to see all of our drop-off preschool friends next Wednesday, May 27th at our Roots wall tent to send you off with your Roots portfolios and class materials such as your name rocks and photo cards.

We hope you'll enjoy looking through your portfolio items to remember all of the adventures in learning you had with your classmates and teachers.

We'll also be including a special Nature Journal for you to use at home over the summer. This journal is an excellent place to draw pictures of your adventures, make crayon rubbings of rocks and leaves, or glue in treasures you find.

You might collect items to glue in your journal, or make rubbings with crayons.

You might make drawings of your adventures. You can even include special items you collected.

We hope you'll continue to share your adventures with us over the summer. Before summer concludes, we also hope to be able to gather with you in person to celebrate the completion of our school year. Although it was shortened, the time we did have together was full of moments to celebrate!

Josephine's Sunflowers

Josephine and her mom sent me this photo of her healthy sunflower sprouts this morning. She has been taking very good care of them and they are getting tall! 

Josephine says, "I water them everyday, I talk to them in my brain and I take good care of them."

Counting the Estimation Jar

It's time to count our last Estimation Jar for the school year! This one was filled with painted rocks by Giorgi. Our guessers were Coco (10 rocks), Van (12 rocks), Kai (11 rocks), and Ayla (12 rocks).

Watch the video below to learn about the special rock counter I made and to count out rocks with me!



20 rocks! That was more than expected! Thanks for sending your guesses, you knew there were at least 10 in the jar. It was hard to see all those small rocks!

Jump Jim Joe - dance & sing with us!

Hi friends,

One of our favorite songs to sing and dance to each spring in the forest is Jump Jim Joe. Enjoy this video of our teachers modeling the dance for you. You can partner with a parent, a sibling, a pet, or even a stuffed animal! Watch until the end for a surprise guest appearance.

Sunflower Check In

Hi Friends,

I hope you're well and that you've been enjoying the wet spring weather, sure to help our plants grow!

Have you planted your sunflower seeds yet? I talked with a few friends who planted their seeds and have been observing the way they are growing-or not growing.

Sunflowers are a fast-growing seed, and you may have noticed yours begin to sprout in just a few days! Did you know that not all seeds grow? Sometimes, they aren't quite healthy enough to begin growing into a plant; that's why flowers make so many seeds. Even the seeds that are healthy enough to grow into a plant, might not always last long enough to make it to full maturity. Can you think of any reasons that a young plant might not have the chance to grow into an adult? I'll give you a hint: what do all plants need to grow, and what could happen if they don't get enough?

Our friend Eve said, "I love this experience!"
when adding water to her soil coin.

Kai worked to carefully plant his seeds as soon as he 

got them in the mail! 

 After rehydrating the soil, she planted her seeds.
Eve reported excitedly that they are growing! 

Have you noticed your sunflowers growing? Do you still see the seed shell on the plant? How long do you think the sunflowers will take to grow taller than you? You can use the popsicle stick you received in the mail to help measure your sunflower! Giant sunflowers can grow over 6 feet tall-that's probably even taller than some of your parents! They need to have a thick, sturdy stem to be able to support the large flower/seed head, like we explored in the fall this year.

Coco noticed wildflowers.
"I love wildflowers because they are so pretty."

Do you have a garden or any plants at your houses? Have you noticed any wildflowers?

Food and Art Combine: Create Edible Animals or Nature Scenes

Food and art combine with these unique meals and snacks! Your teachers enjoyed making and eating these masterpieces. To engage your child with this activity, provide them with all the pieces and a photo to refer to, and they can assemble in their own creative way!

An owl made by Genny from a pancake, apples, bananas, chocolate chips, and peanuts.

You could also use strawberries, blueberries, walnuts, almonds, etc.

Asparagus sunrise by Maura! Hardboiled egg and cooked asparagus.

From Stephanie: try these adaptations of the original snack, Ants on a Log, or come up with your own unique version.

A Very Hungry Caterpillar by Kaela made with apple slices, peanuts, strawberry, cheese, and a chocolate chip!

Strawberry ladybugs by Julia! Strawberries, a blueberry, and chocolate.

Do any of these look tasty to you? Do you have any ideas for creating your own food art? We'd love to see a photo of your creation!

Mouse Count and the Estimation Jar

Hi everybody! Join me for a reading of Mouse Count.

In this story, a snake fills a jar with mice - it makes me think of our Estimation Jar! Giorgi filled this Estimation Jar with rocks she painted. Look at the photos below and consider your estimate, then send me your guess of how many rocks are in the jar. We will count it out on Friday and see who was close!

 

 

DIY Pinecone Bird Feeder

For Mother's Day Coco made a bird feeder out of a pinecone from her backyard! All you need is a pinecone, peanut butter, twine, and bird feed. 

First, Coco tied the twine at the top of the pine cone so it can hang from a branch. This is important to do first because it is too messy after!

Second, she covered the pinecone in peanut butter. This was the messy part ;)

Third, she found a bowl large enough for the bird feed and rolled her peanut butter covered pinecone in the bird seeds.

That's it! Now it's ready to hang outside and see what birds come to eat! Think her Grandma will love it? I do!

Tracking the Weather This Week

Hi friends,

What a weather week it's been! I observed sun, rain, hail and wind at my backyard weather station. What was the weather like at your house? Did you put out a jar to see how much rain fell? Did you go outside to splash in the puddles? Did you feel the wind on your cheeks or watch the trees swaying outside?

Did you make a calendar to track the weather? Here is a picture of mine:

Weather Calendar

I observed that the week started off hot and sunny and then it started to get cloudy, and then there was a brief storm with wind and rain and hail, and then it continued to rain, and now it's just cloudy. I wonder if it's going to get sunny again soon, or if it will start raining again. What do you think?

At my backyard weather station, I kept a jar to collect and measure precipitation. I collected 1 cm of rain on both Wednesday and Thursday. Here you can see the total 2 cm of rain I collected this week. That's a lot of water that's going to help our gardens grow!

2 cm of rain water

All this talk about the weather got me thinking about a new word for our alphabet book. Watch this video to find out which word I chose. Can you think of any other weather words we should add to the alphabet book? Let me know in the comments!

What Will The Weather Be Like Today?

Hi friends,

We hope you enjoy this book, called, What Will The Weather Be Like Today? by Paul Rogers. It's a question I've been asking myself a lot this week! I hope you have been keeping track of your observations about how the weather is changing each day. I'll be sharing my observations with you tomorrow.

What Will The Weather Be Like Today? from Roots Forest School on Vimeo.

Spanish Songs with Señora Laura

We hope you enjoy learning these fun songs in Spanish from Roots parent Laura Bechdel and her daughter Ruby. 

Learning a new language builds cognitive capacity, so this is a mid-week physical and mental workout!

Nature Art

The weather has been so nice lately! We are loving the sunshine and warmer longer days. On Earth day we went to the Salmon River and found a nice big beach to make some nature art on. Coco wrote her name with some sticks and even built her own fire ring! She made a bunny out of a pinecone and pine needles. The following week we went to the Lake and made a village out of rocks and sticks. Coco's favorite part was the bed for the lady bug that she made out of moss and a leaf. We even went back the next day and were happy to see it was still there, and someone added more cool nature art to the beach! 

Observing Payette Lake

While we were in school, the Pines and Tamaracks hiked to the lake each month. On their visits to the lake, they sat quietly and observed their surroundings. Throughout the seasons, their observations helped them answer questions like:

• Is the lake frozen?
• What is happening in the sky?
• Can I see or hear any wildlife?
• What can I see on the beach?

Here is a slideshow of the changes they saw and a glimpse of what the lake looks like now:

We also wanted to share a neat time lapse video of the ice melting on the lake, taken by a MOSS student:

Although we haven't been to the lake in a while, we encourage you to find a spot in your backyard where you can sit quietly and observe your surroundings. 

• What plants or trees do you see? Do they have leaves, buds, or needles? Are they changing from day to day?
• What is the weather like today? Is it warm or cold outside? What do the clouds look like?
• Can you see or hear any wildlife?
• What sort of smells do you notice?

You can draw or write down your observations or take a picture to help you remember. 

Observing the Weather

Hi friends,

The spring season brings many types of weather: warm sun (like we had this weekend), wind, rain, and sometimes snow or hail.

You already gather information about the weather to help you decide what to wear or to do outside. By building your own weather station, you can track smaller changes in the weather each day!  

To track the weather at your house, make a calendar with the days of the week and space to draw a picture of the weather and write your observations about the amount of rain/snow/hail that fell, the temperature, and anything else you notice about the clouds, the wind, or the sun.

Precipitation

Place a clear jar or cup outside to measure how much rain/hail/snow fell in the last 24 hours. Use a ruler and tape to mark out every 10 centimeters for measurement. 

Temperature

If you don't have an outdoor thermometer, you can use a clear jar or cup filled with water to observe changes in the temperature. Try touching the water at different times during the day. Is your cup of water colder in the morning or afternoon? Did the water freeze overnight? What clothes are you wearing today: shorts and a t-shirt or pants and a jacket? Do you feel warm or cold?

Wind

When you go outside, can you feel the wind blowing on your face? Do you see the clouds or tree branches moving? Where do you think the wind is coming from? You can build a simple weather vane to observe the direction the wind is blowing.

Materials: cardstock or cardboard, scissors, tape, stick, pen

Cut the cardstock into an arrow (make the tail bigger than the tip)
and tape a pen cap onto the back of the arrow.
Cut out a square and draw a compass with north, east, south west.

Find a spot outside that's open to the wind.
Place your stick through the center of the compass into the ground.
Have a parent help you line up north on your compass with true north.
Place the pen cap and arrow on top of the stick.
The arrow will move to point in the direction the wind is coming from.

Activity adapted from: The Great Grub Club

*Note: You may want to make your weathervane with a waterproof material or cover the cardstock with tape to "laminate" it

Sun and Clouds

Go out to your weather station and look up at the sky! When the sun is shining, you can look for shadows. Do you see your shadow? Can you make fun shapes with your shadow? What other shadows do you see?

Do you see any clouds in the sky? What do they look like? Do they remind you of anything? Clouds show us information about the upcoming weather.

Are they light and wispy and high in the sky?
It's probably going to be a nice day.

Are they big and puffy like cotton balls?
When these clouds turn grey they are starting to fill up with water

When clouds grow very big and dark they can become storms with thunder and lightning.

Does it look like there is a low blanket of grey cloud covering the sky?
These clouds often produce rain or snow.

Does is look like you're in a cloud? Fog is a cloud near the ground

You can make weather observations at the same time of day or many times during the day and record them on your weather calendar. I hope you have fun observing the weather this week! I'll be sharing my observations on Friday and I hope you will share yours too.

May Insights

May has brought a lot of fun and new things to explore.

We love watching our gardens grow, and eating fresh greens from my grandma's greenhouse.

We have Osprey nesting in one of the oldest trees on our property.

The trail to the river is melted out, and we are taking daily walks along the river. It's so fast right now, and SO cold.

We loved doing bird yoga with Ms. Julia and learning the new May song.

We also love all the books read by our teachers.

I loved the letter my teachers sent, and got right to planting my sunflower seeds

Over the creek and through the woods, to grandmother's house I go...

I love walking to my Noni's house because she has baby chicks I get to hold. In 9 days, her baby turkeys will be hatching!

Ms. Julia inspired us to get our hummingbird feeders out

2 hummingbirds at our feeder, 15 minutes after putting it up! 

Happy May everyone!

-Kai Woras

Keeping the Beat with Miss Katie

Hello Roots Families!

Excited to be a guest again on the blog!  Hope everyone’s doing well and enjoying that SUNSHINE this week!  In fact, my family and I were so inspired by this beautiful weather this week, that we wanted to share one of our favorite songs, “You are my Sunshine”.  Along with sharing this special and very weather-appropriate song today, we’d also like to invite you to join in on some “keeping the beat” practice. 

There are many ways to keep the beat with our bodies.  Do you remember in class when we practice keeping the beat with a variety of different music to start our music lessons?  Here are some ideas you and your family can try:

• Tapping your head
• Tapping your nose!
• Tapping an object that makes a fun sound, even the floor
• Clapping
• Tapping your legs
• Stomping your feet
• Jumping
• Waving your arms

Can you think of any other ways to keep the beat?

In the video below, my daughter Charlotte and I introduce you to the song “You are my Sunshine” and show you some fun ways to keep the beat as you learn one of our favorite songs!  Try keeping the beat a different way each time we sing the song. Watch out for a quick special guest appearance from my youngest daughter Hailey who will be starting Roots this fall!  Enjoy the video and the sunshine!

Cheers,

Miss Katie

Back to the Forest for another tour

It has been three weeks since I last checked in on our forest classroom so I figured it was time to take another look at how spring is progressing there. Watch the video below to join me in discovering all sorts of surprises and to add a few words to our alphabet book!

A number of families have asked if Ponderosa State Park is open and the answer is yes! While there are still patches of snow in the forest, you can go see for yourself how much snow has melted!

How to Grow a Friend

Hello Roots families,

This week we have a story for you called How to Grow a Friend.

We hope you enjoy it!

Your friend,
Genny

Ready for Spring Greens!

Are you starting a vegetable or flower garden at your house? It's always exciting to get food from your backyard! Our friend Judy has a big garden at her house and looks forward to eating salad from her greenhouse each spring. In this video, she shows us how to enjoy some early greens from our gardens and yards.

Judy filmed this two weeks ago at her home in Lake Fork. Much more snow has melted since then, do you think she is already enjoying salad from her garden? We would love to see photos and hear updates about what you are planting at home!

Planting Sunflowers

Hi friends, did you know that it's already a new month, May? Julia is going to teach us a new version of the May song. You can learn the song and sing along!



With all of the rain we've been getting, it's a great time to be planting seeds that will grow into vegetables and flowers. We thought it would be fun to do a gardening project together as a school.

Do you remember when we dissected sunflowers at school to take a closer look at the seeds? Now we're going to be planting our own sunflowers!

You should be receiving a letter from us soon. On Friday we delivered some letters by hand and sent some by mail. If you didn't get yours on Friday, it should arrive in your mailbox today.

In your letter you will find sunflower seeds, a soil pod, and a popsicle stick. The letter includes instructions for how to prepare the soil and plant your seeds. Additional information can be found here: https://www.okragardensupply.com/soilpods/

You will only be able to plant one seed in your soil pod, but we wanted to send some extra seeds in case you have more soil at home that you want to plant them in.

Here are some pictures from my planting process:

The materials you will need: seeds, soil pod, scissors,
egg carton or toilet paper roll, water, tablespoon, and plate

Pour one tablespoon of water on your soil pod when it's inside
your cutdown egg carton or toilet paper roll

Make a hole in your rehydrated soil and place your seed

Cover your seed with soil and find a spot for it to grow

Make sure to take good care of your seed by putting it in a mildly sunny and warm location inside, and keeping the soil moist as you watch the seed grow.

You can use the popsicle stick to measure the growth of your sunflower. Place it in the soil next to your seed, and as your plant grows, write the date and height of your plant on the stick. When your plant starts showing leaves and is about 4-5 inches tall, you can replant it outside and watch it grow into a big beautiful sunflower.

Please send us pictures of your sunflowers!