Pilgrim Reports

This week Miss Hamner taught the children to write reports about the Mayflower voyage.  After studying life on the Mayflower for the 66 days the Pilgrims traveled, each child created a Mayflower picture and then wrote about the voyage.  They had learned how difficult the trip was due to overcrowding, storms and boredom.  The food supply was tight and there wasn't much variety in what they could bring.  There wasn't much to do or see below deck where the Pilgrims spent most of the trip.  Children were asked to depict the stormy seas and the wild skies.  The look was layered by designing and cutting out the ship first, the waves on separate paper, and finally the background.  The pieces were all glued together to create the final artwork.  The following are some samples of the artful Mayflowers created by children:

Here are some examples of the written reports. The children were provided with sentence frames ("The voyage was difficult because...") and they needed to provide details and evidence to support their details. It was only their second attempt at writing reports this year and I think they look great!

Pilgrims

Miss Hamner has completed her two weeks of solo teaching during which she began a unit about the Pilgrims.  The class learned about life on land once they arrived.  The Pilgrims had to live on the ship through the first winter until spring when they could begin building homes.  The students also built Pilgrim homes only theirs were made of paper!  I took a trip to Plimouth Plantation several years ago and I shared the photos of my visit.  The children were able to see exactly how the Pilgrims lived.  They also spent some time learning about the Native People, the Wampanog, who were already living here when the Pilgrims arrived.  Each child made a paper Pilgrim home and a Wampanog Wetu.  They learned about the gardening and hunting and fishing that Pilgrims had to do to eat.

On the last day before vacation, Miss Hamner brought in some cream and the class made their own butter, just like the Pilgrims-almost!!!

  

They had a lot of fun making the butter!

A Visit to the Animal Hospital of Hinesburg

As we finish our unit about community helpers, we decided that it would be fun to visit a veterinarian.  What a great day for a walk!  Yesterday we walked across town to visit the folks at the Animal Hospital of Hinesburg.  It was sunny and warm and there was (almost!) no complaining!

We arrived and spent a few minutes in their sunny waiting room...

And then Dr. Leavey met us with his dog, Scruffy.  Unfortunately, Scruffy wasn't feeling very well!

Dr. Leavey took us into the back to an exam room so we could take a look at Scruffy trying to find out why he wasn't feeling well.

Dr. Leavey even took some "blood" to make certain Scruffy would get well.

We took some X-rays and you'll never guess what was found...

That's right!  Scruffy swallowed a cell phone!  Now Dr. Leavey had to perform surgery on Scruffy to remove the cell phone!  

Phew!  Cell phone is out and now Scruffy will feel better!  

Dr. Leavey was great and answered lots of questions from some very curious first graders!  Thank you, Animal Hospital of Hinesburg for welcoming us!