It’s mid-May…this school year has flown by, although I still have 6 weeks left. We don’t end till the very end of June. I will be ready when it comes, but for now, just trying to finish off the school year strong!
I took my 2nd graders on a tree planting field trip last week. It was awesome!!! My students are wonderful, I love, them, I really do! But they live such different lives than what I’m used to. It’s so fun to expose them to different ideas, the natural world and to tell them that, “No, Ms. Rachel didn’t have a nanny, driver, body guard or maid and somehow she still survived!” Anyway…our tree planting field trip came out of some great discussions with the kids. Our last unit of inquiry was how we can be local contributors to our world. The kids researched famous world changers…then we made some applications to their lives…anyway. We had a bake sale to raise money for a charity. Then we had to decide what to do with the funds. Some said, “lets give it to the poor kids” OK, well so we give them money, they eat for a month…then what? Then we talked about saving the earth and making a sustainable change…planting trees benefits everyone. They kind of got it, I think! Even if they didn’t, I’m planting some seeds of ideas that they will think about and remember!
On our trip, we traveled about an hour outside of Quito to a deforested area that is being re-forested with native species plants. The holes were already dug for us, (thank goodness!) but the kids got to put in the fertilizer, dirt, mix it all around, put in the seedlings, dump dirt and fill the hole. A city kids’ dream come true!!! I heard all sorts of comments like…there’s so many bugs here, oooh cool, look at this plant, wow, we’re on the top of the world here! that pig stinks! It really was the first time that some of these kids had been out of the city! We will return next year and see the progress of the trees. Great day with the kids.
Love you all! Rachel
No comments:
Post a Comment