sutton007

In the news the other morning was an account of a serious outbreak of tornadoes. The tornado season is upon us, and mother nature is certainly keeping busy as over 800 preliminary tornadoes have touched ground (According to the NOAA's Storm Prediction Center). With the peak of the season not yet reached (May and June) one only wonders what the old girl has planned. Watching the swirling columns of air sweeping their way across our TV screen, and witnessing the destruction left behind was rather frightening to me. I imagined it would be the same for some of my students while others might be drawn to it. Naturally, children are curious, fascinated and maybe fearful of tornadoes. It might be helpful for them to have some information about this topic. Fujita Pearson Scale: This is the old scale used to rate and describe the tornado, but it gives the children an idea of what kind of damage occurs. The scale has now been enhanced to these wind speeds. Tornado Video: This 3...

Hiking through the woods this week I found myself humming  "Catalina Madalina Hoopa Stada Walk-a-dada Hoka Poka Loka was her name!"  and  "Boom Chicka Boom! Boom Chicka Boom! Boom Chicka Ra Ra Boom Boom Boom!"     I had learned those songs about 40 years ago while in sixth grade at Camp Calumet during our  school's Environmental Education week.  Environmental Education Week  consisted of the entire sixth grade class (about 70 kids) leaving our classrooms and homes for 6 days, traveling over 200 miles away and learning our lessons at camp.  My first exposure to hiking was climbing Red Hill and Jackman's Ridge during that week away from home.  Canoeing, orienteering and cooking outdoors were some of the other activities in which we participated.  We learned teamwork,  how to live with people other than family and took on new responsibilities (KP duty and such). We still spent time doing English Language Arts, Math, ...

Imagine 458 kids along with 30 + adults singing and dancing in an auditorium! All in sync - all in tune! Well, this past Friday, that was OUR school. Every other week our elementary school gathers together in the auditorium and is treated to a whole school assembly presented by a different class or two. Assemblies this year included a tribute to family veterans ; a choral reading about the Pilgrims; a class role playing promoting bullying prevention; a class sharing their family heritage and more. By far there are some whole school assemblies that become 'Boyden' Traditions! Two of those assemblies happened to occur in the same week! Dressed in their best cowboy attire, our annual 'Hoe Down' is held in the gymnasium and shows off the new dancing skills of the fourth grade students.  The Virginia Reel, Cotton-Eyed Joe and other dances were featured as part of the culminating unit on 'Pioneers'.  Each fourth grade class demonstrates one of the dances they learn...

Making our way back to the classroom from Phys. Ed. the other day, one of the kindergarten teachers stopped my class in the hallway and invited them into her classroom.   I'll admit I was a tad bit annoyed because it was near the end of the day, and we still had some pressing things to get accomplished.  Quickly, my annoyance turned into absolute fascination !  Staring right at us was a momma eagle sitting on her 3 eggs waiting for them to hatch!  Talk about a 'Teachable Moment'! Well, our kindergarten teacher was actually projecting a live stream video feed of a bald eagle's nest sitting high atop a tree in Decorah, Iowa.   The ' Nest Cam ' is part of the  Raptor Resource Project whose mission is to "preserve and strengthen raptor populations."  Raptors are birds of prey. The eagle's eggs which were laid in February have an estimated hatching date of April 1st!      (This video created from a PowerPoint show produced by Colorado S...