Garden Days!

It has been so wonderful starting a new year of Garden Class! The Stanford Trees couldn't believe how much the garden had changed since last season, exclaiming that it looked like a brand new place! The wisteria is growing fast, making our outdoor classroom feel like a whole different world!

Last week, we had our first week of exploring in the garden, hunting for living things with our five senses.

Today, we had our second week of Garden Class, and each student got to plant their own plant in their very own pot, which they also got to paint! It was an eventful class!

Our gardeners were so artistic as they each decorated their plant's home.
While their art dried, we snooped the garden to find bees in action! We saw both honeybees and bumble bees pollinating flowers in the garden. We learned that bumblebees don't sting!


After our bee search, we came back to transplant our plants into their new homes.



Students then created their own book about their plant, counting the leaves, measuring its height, and making a prediction about how it would look when it reached full-growth. We can't wait to keep track each week!


These two superstars were highlighted as being super engaged, and participating actively during garden. They got the "Harvest Card," and got to harvest and enjoy THREE vegetables from the garden! They chose broccoli, snap peas, and mint to munch on in the garden. Congratulations, Jorge and Raul!

We Are Bee-ologists!

Spring has sprung & the Stanford Trees are embarking on our bee-unit!!!

We have some serious bee experts on our hands, only mid-way through our first week of learning about bees!

So far, we have learned about the parts of the bee and each created our own bees that are now flying in our classroom library!

We have learned that like all insects, bees have three body parts: head,

thorax and abdomen. They have six legs, two antenna, and a stinger.

Stanford Trees are amazed that:

"Worker bees have a curved stinger, so their insides come out when they sting, and that's why they die after they sting someone!" --Jorge

"The worker bees do all the work, while the queen bee lays the eggs and the drone bees look for the queen bee to mate!" --Vanessa

"When bees go to find honey, to find their way back to their home they just follow the sun." --Yazil

"Different types of bees come from different places. The bees in the U.S. came from Europe!" --Rhonicia

"Queen bees can sting over and over again!" --Jesus

"If a new queen bee comes into a hive, the OLD queen bee must leave with honey in her belly and half the bees to start a new colony!" --Adrian

We have been working so hard to study bees in real expository books, and listening closely to the main idea in each section, and the details that support the main idea. We are keeping track of all we learn in our very own Beeologist Journals!

No Brains About It!

We had the unique and incredible opportunity to observe real life brains today! The incredibly talented and amazing Ms. Mills extended an invite to the Stanford Trees that we couldn't possibly turn down to take a mid-day field trip to the seventh grade wing to observe all types of brains:

• Whole, half, and slices of human brains.
• Turtles, frogs, squirrel monkeys and owl brains.

The Stanford Tree Scientists were fascinated, and had countless questions and observations. I can already see we have some serious neuro-scientists on our hands!!! I loved being part of the marvelous experience, particularly the expressions on the Stanford Trees' faces!

Some observations from our 1st grade scholars:
"It looked like playdo and squishy." -Angel

"Today I saw a human brain. It looked big and we saw a frogs brain and we olso saw very tiny brains." --Yazil

"I like the frog's brain. It looked very small and interesting. It was very fun." --Esmeralda

"Today I saw two sizes. I saw a big brane and it was a hyumans brane and it kind of looked kind of naste and we saw frog branes and little branes." --Jesus

"Today I saw a real human brain. It looked scare creepe and interesting" --Adrian







Some questions our 1st grade scholars have:

" What do brains made of? What was the first day of a live brain?" --Vanessa

"I wonder what the yellow brain comes from?" -- Jorge

"How do people get brains?" -- Sheyla

"Why is a frog's brain so smowl?" --Esmeralda

"Why do branes have craks?"--Jocelyn

"Why they cut the brains when they ded." --Candelaria

"Why were the frog brains small?" --Joseph

Our Nation's Heroes

We have been learning all about Our Nation's Heroes this month.

After reading President Obama's story written for his daughters, "Of Thee I Sing," our first graders had so many questions about these inspiring heroes that have shaped our history.

We have delved into learning more about their lives, and considering the great impact they had on our country.


Learning all about these heroes has inspired us to shape our history. We will continue to learn more about these heroes, and continue to dream big!

Many of us have taken an interest in learning more about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, and are reading various books in Guided Reading. We all enjoyed reading "Martin's Big Words," and were so impressed and inspired by Martin's perseverance and commitment to bring peace and justice to all.



We read "Art From Her Heart," and learned about Clementine Hunter's beautiful art she created to give others insight into life on a plantation. We were inspired to create our own art by making self-portraits!

We are expository writers!

In Writer's Workshop, we are learning all about how in expository writing, the author's purpose is to teach the reader more about a topic.

We have delved into topics we are experts in, and just had recently had a chance to learn from our expert peers! Here are some snapshots from an afternoon in Writer's Workshop.



You can see how we have many experts in the first grade!

Snooping in our garden...

A fantastic organization named EVOLS recently came to teach us more about our environment--even what's in our own backyard! We grabbed our magnifying glasses and mini shovels and learned so much in our very own garden. We are so thankful to have discovered so much about living things!

100th Day of School!

I've been a little behind on my blog updating! There is so much to update! We recently had our 100th day of school celebration! The Stanford Trees were so excited for the day, especially with all the festivities it entailed! Here are some snapshots from our celebration!