In a first for Double Creek, in order to follow the calendar of our local schools, our school year started in late August. Our amazing third graders are back and ready to learn.
We were delighted to welcome a super cool kindergarten and first grade boys to our crew. Unfortunately, our first grader was sick on the first day.
No longer first graders, it was great to have our second grade friends back at Double Creek. At their request, they had pictures with the chickens. Little D is on the right.
Following Double Creek tradition, we like to photograph days when our friends accidentally wear matching outfits. This time it was a trio in black (with Misty and Kiwi complementing them in white fur).
Learning how to make towers when you can only use one finger each. They quickly mastered some amazing building team work!
We jump started our year with three parent accompanied activities- attending the Oregon State Fair, Beaverton Big Truck Day and a local visit to the area's Thomas Dambo giant troll
https://www.nwtrolls.org followed by a walk to the Garden Home Library and playground.
We wrapped up September with a great adventure at the Hoyt Arboretum learning to identify some of our native trees and cache nuts like a squirrel.
Giant bunny snuggles
The kids often ask that we take pictures of their playroom creations. Here are a few fun ones.
One of our families donated some wonderful produce to the school. The students set up their own farmers market. We learned about unit pricing, weighed our produce, and created signs describing the produce and prices. The kids then turned into the shoppers, choosing their produce, weighing and calculating prices and using play money to pay for their choices, which they then took home to share with their families.
Pajama day
The children frequently grab books and read to each other.
Two of our alumni came for a visit. The students were eager to spend their recess making Halloween plans with the big kids.
Small frog or big worm? The kids were excited to show off the creatures they found while working in the garden.
Pulling out the summer plants is a great way to find green tomatoes to share with the chickens.
Families met up at Plumper Pumpkin Patch for some fall fun. Is there someone in that tire?
The group watches the pumpkin cannon fire.
A hayride around the farm
Halloween fun included Kiwi pretending she was a strawberry.
Look at all the awesome costumes! From bats to sugar molecules, there is great creativity in this group.
We decorated rice crispy treats to look like jack-o-lanterns. It was a messy, fun holiday project.
You can't have fall without some good fungus and slime mold.
Our amazing friend H. stopped by to help out. She takes the cake for the coolest hat on crazy hat and hair day.
Homemade trick marble runs
While we read history, our 2nd and 3rd graders have been working on loop yarn projects. History is now a favorite subject thanks to the early civilizations around the world and some colorful yarn.
Sometimes your discussion of radial symmetry blossoms into a snowflake.
These two really enjoy practicing their reading together.
Sherilyn's language arts group studies parts of speech and sentence structure the fun way.
This was not a posed picture, they were taking turns watching each other's silly "commercials" during a break.
Carefully measuring the window for a mural.
Another great matching outfit coincidence
Academically, the students have also had a busy fall. The younger students have all been learning cursive and perfecting their printing. The third graders are learning to type. Our language arts groups have been learning the logic of English spelling, analyzing character relationships, studying parts of speech, and learning to write for different purposes and audiences.
The older kids are rapidly expanding their vocabulary in American Sign Language, while the younger group is learning about the parts of the brain and their functions. We've explored the astronomical reasons for seasons and observed how the local flora and fauna adapt to the seasonal change. We record weather data daily and have been learning about the predictability of weather systems.
We purposely put math after morning recess because the children cheer and run to their workspaces each day when we announce that it is math time. Each student is working at their own level, but they are all enjoying Beast Academy and the daily number puzzles that lead to a deep conceptual understanding of mathematics.
With such an extraordinary group of kids, everyday is a learning adventure!
