Special Thank You!

September 21, 2018

Dear Parents:

On behalf of the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership (TTF), thank you for sharing your children with us this past week. We were delighted that they were able to participate in our fall Bioblitz. A bioblitz is an opportunity to observe as many species as possible in a given area over a set amount of time. The information gathered is extremely helpful to understanding our watershed and its species. This data provides insight into the health of our watershed, and alerted us to any concerns or issues.

Students photographed bugs, plants and other wildlife, and uploaded them to iNaturalist. They learned about identifying species, and were introduced to some of the species common to our watershed.

Our job is to work with you and your children, schools, communities, businesses, civic and religious institutions to improve the creeks around us. Through education, stewardship, restoration, and advocacy, we work side by side with partners like you to connect people to our waterways.

We know clean water is important to you!

We invite you to contact us to learn more about how you and your family can volunteer with us to plant trees…mark storm drains in your neighborhood…join us on a watershed tour…monitor the health of the creek down the street from your house!

We look forward to hearing from you. Visit TTFWatershed.org to learn more and sign up for our newsletter. Please feel free to call us at 215-744-1853.

Thank you for the opportunity to work with your future environmental leader!

Best,

Julie Slavet, Executive Director

Ryan Neuman, Upstream Conservation Leader

A Special Visitor to Second Grade

Last Thursday, many of the students from the Catbird classroom along with their teacher, Carol, came to deliver a special visitor to Sandy and Valerie's classroom.  It was "Bear Witness" a giant teddy bear that is spending time observing in Lower School classrooms.  "Bear Witness" arrived in a wagon and spent the night, anxious to see what the second graders would be up to the next day!  "Bear Witness" was lucky enough to see the "birth" of all of the handmade teddy bears that the students had worked on all week with the help of many family members. 

"Bear Witness" travels with a journal that, with the help of the students, is a place for recording all that "Bear Witness"  sees.  At the end of the day, the second graders returned "Bear Witness" to the Catbirds and shared the journal entry.

To bear witness:

To prove something as true
To lift up an experience
To demonstrate your beliefs

And we will continue to build our understanding.

First Graders Read to Seamus the Therapy Dog!

First grade students had a wonderful opportunity to read to Seamus, a beautiful three-year-old golden retriever, who is a certified therapy dog. Seamus belongs to first grade student Liam and his family. Heather, Liam's mother, initially had Seamus trained at home with his brother Beethoven. Seamus then attended group, beginner, impulse control classes and participated in specific training to become a therapy dog. He passed the test last August! Seamus volunteers weekly at Sunrise nursing home and attends other events.

First grade students listened to the book Madeline Finn and the Library Dog.  In the beginning of the book, Madeline is worried about reading aloud in her class. After reading with a therapy dog in her library, she gained confidence. Students shared word's that described Madeline's feelings at different stages of the story. They then envisioned that part of the story that they wanted to remember and write about and shared their ideas with a partner. The next step was writing and illustrating the part of the story that they wanted to remember. Once done, they shared their writing by reading it to Seamus.

First grade students are looking forward to reading to Seamus again during future reading workshops.

Around the Grades in the Library

It is hard to believe that we are already finished our third week of school. The library has been very busy with students getting out their books and sharing their summer adventures. We eased back into the school year with a simple sharing of our names. Through both oral presentation and art,
students shared a little about their names and presented their names through paper, marker, scissors and glue to share more about their own identities.

First grade then began our first unit, which is monster themed as we talk about characters. Students shared everything they knew about monsters, and then we began reading stories. The books, such as Marilyn's Monster by Michelle Knudsen gave us an opportunity to rethink what we know about monsters. We returned to our list to see what proved to be "true" and what wasn't. We talked about where our ideas come from, and introduced the idea of stereotype. Students are now creating their own monster characters.


Second grade is preparing for their first tech project, a podcast. Students are working to create short poems which they will record, edit and add sound effects. Starting with rhyming words, the second graders worked their way in groups to four different charts brainstorming for two minutes at each station. The words were given back to the students who were then challenged to create short rhymes. Once the students have poems they like, they will be paired and given the opportunity to record their poem.

Third and fourth graders are also working on their first tech project of the year. Students have been investigating questions and how to find information. Students are asked to come up with two types of questions, we call these questions, red dot and green dot questions. The red dot questions elicit simple responses, such as yes, no or a favorite color, etc. A green dot question gets the person talking, or requires a more prolonged response. Fourth graders interviewed each other and will create short videos about their partner. Third graders will interview members of the Abington Friends Community and will share their interviews with the whole school at assembly. Look for the videos to be shared right here in the near future.

Butterfly Magic

The magic of Monarchs has recently enveloped our first grade classrooms.  Each day brings a new discovery about these delicate yet mighty butterflies.  They arrived just a few weeks ago as tiny caterpillars, and the students have watched them daily as they eat through multitudes of milkweed, shed and grow and are now mesmerizing green and gold chrysalides.

Information was shared about what the students 'knew' and questions were raised about what they hoped to learn about the monarchs.  Through daily observations and recording what they are seeing for their monarch books, sharing their ideas with each other and reading non-fiction books, the students are developing a deep understanding of the gift that monarchs bring to their world.

Milkweed pods have been dissected and the wonder of the fluff and seeds that were discovered was a joyful experience.  Requests to take seeds home to plant and to save seeds to plant at school were all fulfilled.  Students journeyed around the campus setting the fairy-like seeds afloat in hopes that more milkweed will grow to keep monarch populations healthy.

The students had the opportunity to create their own butterflies and that morning was filled with so much creativity and excitement! The buzz of new ideas was everywhere! Someone asked if they could name their butterfly and soon all the butterflies had a special and unique name. Others asked if they could create life cycles for their butterflies and soon their were eggs and caterpillars created to complement the butterflies.  And yet another student asked if he could write a description of his butterfly like you would see in a book and before you knew it, each butterfly had a story to go with it!  It was such an extraordinary morning!!

Please stop by and see the wonder and magic of the monarchs, ask the first graders to tell you about them and notice the amazing butterflies created by the students that are fluttering around the classroom.

Monarchs in First Grade

In Susan and Donna’s first grade we have been fascinated by the rapid growth of our tiny caterpillars, while eagerly awaiting their metamorphosis into the beautiful butterfly.

We recorded their various stages in daily observations and were thrilled to come back from the weekend to see two chrysalises and four more in the j stage, while the others continue to much away on their milkweed leaves.

We have been learning about the monarch life cycle and migration through a variety of nonfiction books and videos.

Our current story, The Travels of Monarch X, is a realistic fiction picture book about the true story of a tagged Monarch butterfly in 1960’s and follows it’s journey from Toronto all the way to San Luis Potosi, Mexico. This was the first time a scientist learned of the incredible distance these delicate and fragile butterflies travel.

First graders are already quite excited to track the monarch journey on our huge map of North America. Many are guessing what states Monarch X will fly through! We will record the various dangers Monarch X faces during its migration and mark on the map the states and countries it passes through.

Stay tuned for the release of the butterflies, which is expected in about two weeks!

Sensory Details With Fourth Grade

The Abington Friends School campus has a bevy of sensory information. There are sounds of the new gym building, birds chirping, car passing by on the street above mixed with the beautiful scenes around us. This makes it the perfect place for us to begin our study of sensory details in our writing. 

We began by reading Leila Ward’s book “ I Am Eyes”. 

We then walked around outside observing the sensory details around us. We documented them in our journals. 

For homework, we created our own “I Am Eyes” book, writing and drawing the things we saw after school. 

We then read Jane Yolen's "Owl Moon". We were able to identify how she used sensory details to tell the story of this special moment between a father and child. 

We also observed moments from nature that inspired us, spending time to describe them. 

As the year progresses, we will be adding metaphors and similes to our cache, using these to describe the beautiful things we see around us.

Exploring the Five Senses in Kindergarten

The kindergarten classes have begun the school year by exploring the five senses. The students are discovering and learning more about how we use the special tools of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch to connect, engage, interact and explore the world around us. 

Going on a "listening walk" around campus

Through discussions the students have had opportunities to share what they already know about the senses as well as pose some questions, or "wonders" about the senses. These questions from the students are helping to shape the framework of our five senses study. So far, some of the questions that have been asked are:

• How do the taste buds work?
• How do we see with our eyes?
• What makes some foods taste good?
• Why do some foods taste sweet or sour?
• How do the eyes work?
• How are messages sent to the brain?

Enjoying some sour limes.

Taste testing sweet, sour and salty foods.

Using a variety of hands-on activities as well as reading fiction and non-fiction books, the students are gaining a deeper understanding of how the senses help us to stay safe, aid in the decisions we make, and connect us to the one another as well as the learning environment.

Creating a self portrait using the sense of sight.

The senses were certainly in good working order as the kindergarten classes went on their first field trip of the year to the Schuylkill Environmental Education Center (SCEE) in Philadelphia. Using the senses of touch, sight, hearing and smell the students explored the pond, meadow and woodlands under the guidance of a nature educator. We saved the sense of taste for lunch!

Exploring a pond at SCEE

Gently touching tadpoles

If you would like more information about SCEE and some wonderful opportunities to explore the beautiful outdoors with your family, click on the link:  http://www.schuylkillcenter.org/

Full Moonlight Dance: The Fourth-Grade Rite of Passage

Every year, I have the privilege of being a part of one of the most special adventures in one's Lower School career, the fourth-grade shore trip. The trip is a time when students come together to combine all of their different knowledge and experience the adventure of something new together. From science, where they discover and learn about seining in the bay, to painting observational watercolor paintings in silence from the look-out tower, to creating special wishes in the sand. To be sure, it is a time that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

I have the wonderful opportunity of teaching them the song for the Moonlight Shore Ceremony. Students learn this simple song "Full Moonlight Dance" in an odd time meter, no less (5/4!) and then create their own unique choreography to accompany it. Every class creates something different each year. And this year, we will witness three different versions! All of them unique, but all of which have uncanny similarities, even though the classes only see one another's dances during a few all-grade rehearsals.

I look forward to the wonder and magic the experience will bring!

Click here to hear a version of the Full Moonlight song.

Exploring Biographies and Bias

Last week Fourth Grade delved into social studies by writing biographies of their classmates. Each student in the class brought in five or more objects from home that represented something important from their life. Each student revealed their objects to a partner, who then asked them questions about each object to try to illicit stories and insights about their life. Once both partners got the chance to ask questions about each other and take notes, they then used the notes they took and the information they gathered to write a short biography about their partner.

Students then shared with the class the biography they had written about their partner. We discussed how difficult it felt to write a biography. We also noticed how the biographies were incomplete, containing gaps or made-up information and how that was based on the kinds of questions partners asked each other.

Connecting this experience to the practice of reading biographies and historical texts, we discussed how these may not always be very accurate or complete, and in fact often contain bias based on the perspective of the people who wrote them. Fourth graders will continue to cultivate an eye for bias as we delve into our social studies learning throughout the year.

Painting Explorations in Early Childhood Art

The Cardinal, Sparrow and Catbird classes have all begun their artistic endeavors in the art studio this year. Our young artists eagerly awaited their first chance to get their hands dirty - literally - with art materials. We have begun the year with a painting exploration. On their first visit, the students learned about how to use their brush by dipping it the water, wiping it along the side of the cup, using the water on the brush to wet the paint tray and to "dance" their brush on its tippy toes along their paper. Students were excited to paint images from their imagination and some even created titles for their work like "Astronaut Princess Astronaut," "A Great Big Shoe and A Silly Rocketship," "Painting of 'I Love You'," and "Superhero Village."

On their next visit, the young artists were amused to find that instead of paintbrushes, there were toothbrushes, combs, forks and other tools set out on the tables next to the paint. They were introduced to these new tools to apply paint, along with one tool they already had ready, their hands! The students quickly got the hang of smearing, spreading, wiping and scratching their paint on the surface, enjoying using tools to make a variety of marks and reveling in the sensory process of getting messy. 

During these sessions, the students were also introduced to the routines in the art studio, including how to listen and participate during introductions, how to put on their smocks, carry their paintings to the drying rack and wash their hands. Having a framework of familiar procedures helps the students to operate independently in the room and be good stewards of a communal space.We can't wait to see how their artistic explorations unfold throughout the year.

Second Grade: Teddy Bear Sewing

The second grade tradition of creating hand-sewn teddy bears began more than 20 years ago! The inspiration comes from our first chapter book read aloud, The Teddy Bear Tree by Barbara Dillon.  This project is a wonderful way to begin the year as we get to know the students and their families.

Just last week, this year’s class began the process of creating their bears!  First, students chose the color felt they wanted to use to make their new friend.  Then came the job of tracing and cutting the bear shape and choosing buttons for eyes and a nose. This week we have had second grade family members and resource teachers join us to help with the sewing and stuffing of the bears.  Throughout the process there have been animated conversations between children and adults about potential names and possible activities with their new stuffed friends. 

Later this week, the bears will go home for a weekend visit, and their owners will record the adventures they have together in words and pictures.  This will lead to a more extensive writing project in the coming days.  Be on the lookout for the bears to make an appearance soon outside the library!