What a great start to our school year and so many opportunities for fun times learning outside. It is a time of introductions and procedures.  To begin the year many of our early grades spend time just enjoying and learning the spaces around school as well as procedures for OE. Fourth graders begin their work in the market.  5th and 6th begin learning and applying for their animal chore jobs.  Many of the grades get an opportunity to use our challenge course to try some team building activities. In addition to our time outside at school, our students have various opportunities to enjoy outside away from school.  Fifth spends a night in the woods at Camp Tall Turf for their Survival Camp.  Seventh and eighth grade heads to a couple camps to do service projects.  We start the year out busy, but we have a lot of great things we look forward to when we begin.  It’s great to be back at school taking students outside again.  

Kindergarten - We began our year with some introduction to OE, the property and procedures.  We have been exploring outside in a variety of ways while looking for color and texture in nature.  We also reviewed the six days of creation and then explored school to find examples from each day.  We ended our time in prayer as we thanked God for what he created each day.  

1st - Our first graders have been focused on plants in OE.  We looked at all the plants in our garden and talked about what plant parts we eat in each (fruit, flower, seed, stem, root) as well as tasted a few examples.  We also explored the colors of blooms and made a rainbow bouquet.  We later discussed how to harvest herbs and introduced the idea of preservation through drying.  Our dried herbs will be used to make some goodies soon.  We also spent a class looking for plants that we could eat to introduce the idea of foraging.  Preserving and foraging are ideas that will tie into the upcoming unit on pilgrims.  

2nd - Second Grade has been looking close at decomposition for most of their time in OE.  We began with an experiment to test for decomposition to find out where there were more good germs.  Squash was put in various soil and natural materials to see where more decomposition would take place.  After examining the decomposing squash, we went on a search for a companion decomposer, the worm.  We found some worms and tested their preference for light or dark and moist versus dry.  This is all moving toward the idea of decomposing material into more soil.  We even took time to look through the class trash from the previous day to see what was thrown away that our worm friends would have loved in the compost bin.  We’re grateful to have worms that will eat the gross stuff for us!

3rd - Our third graders have been working hard on our gardens and learning about how God intentionally created every square inch of creation. We created a frame to look through and investigate up close what God claims as His. We have been learning about what we grow here at school,seeds, and birds. We explored how seeds travel by dragging felt through fields of wildflowers to see what stuck! Lastly, we used the Merlin app to track what birds we could identify at school before some began to migrate due to the season change.

4th - We kicked off the school year learning how to make quality observations. We got up close and personal with our goats and chickens as we studied their appearance and behavior. We have been working hard each week to harvest all the vegetables and flowers from our gardens to sell at the market cart each Wednesday. Additionally, we took some time to build our skills as teammates/ classmates through team challenge activities. Lastly, we introduced the subject of decomposers and did a population density study on where we could find the most active population on our property and why!

5th -In fifth grade we kicked off the year by introducing the students to the Chickens they will be taking care of. We use the chicken chores as an opportunity to teach students how to fill out an application for a job. Each student applies for their preferred job then films a formal interview for their preferred chore. They get to experience a true hiring experience as they learn how to care for our chickens. Lastly, We have been working in unison with the Social studies curriculum to learn about what it was like to live like a caveman. We Learned about edible and medicinal plants. The students worked in teams to identify a medicinal plant, make their own fire, boil water, and serve a cup of medicinal herbal tea to complete the challenge.

6th - We have started learning about how to take care of the school's goats. We take the opportunity to expand on applying for jobs from fifth grade. In 6th grade, We practiced writing a cover letter. Students learned what is essential for a cover letter and had an opportunity to revise and resubmit their letters before we began the interview process. We compared and contrasted poor interview behavior and positive behavior. Students practiced then filmed and submitted their own interview.

7th - Seventh grade OE began the year with team building activities.  Then they transitioned into tree identification.  They began by looking at the details in shapes, venation and edges of leaves.  Afterwards they tried using dichotomous keys to identify trees. 

8th - Our eighth graders began the year with some team building activities and reflected on how our actions affect our classmates.  We also began reviewing the topic of invasive species which will then help us in our invasive species removal project.  Lastly, we spent some time in our sit spots, getting to know one small piece of creation closely and taking time to listen to and see God in his beautiful creation.