Finally we can ride some wheels! This week the snow melted completely off our playground and bikes of all types are getting some skillful use. Before bikes came out, as a class we discussed the importance of safety and came up with 4 simple yet very important rules so we can have fun in a healthy way.
1. Helmet first.
2. Ride with the flow of traffic.
3. Watch out for friends.
4. Park our bikes when we are done ridding.

Some of the Colorado Early Learning & Development Guidelines being executed:

• Physical Health Status: The maintenance of healthy and age appropriate physical well being. 
• Gross Motor Skills: The control of large muscles for movement, navigation, and balance. 
• Self-Concept and Self-Efficacy: The perception that one is capable of successfully making decisions, accomplishing tasks, and meeting goals. 

Gardening and more. Above are some pictures portraying the variety and potential this project has for our classroom. There is a worm garden in the making, first stages at least. Some seedlings have been planted to begin indoors before they continue their life span outdoors. And finally there are a couple of pictures displaying students learning about the differences between seeds and questions such as: What is a seed? Where do they come from? How do they possibly turn into plants? The gardening project has fostered curiosity and initiative from students, teachers, and other community members.

Some of the Colorado Early Learning and Development Guidelines targeted:

• Initiative and Curiosity: An interest in carried topics and activities, a desire to learn, creativity, and independence in learning
  
• Conceptual Knowledge of the Natural and Physical World: The acquisition of concepts and facts related to the natural and physical world and the understanding of naturally-occurring relationships.
  

Our investigation about outer space continues! This week we have been working on creating our own planets out of paper mache and painting them ourselves! Soon they will hang above our "space station" and we can observe them from bellow. Also, one of our students generously brought a home made "phases of the moon light box!" It has been so much fun learning more about the moon and coming up with our own ideas of things we can put in front of the light box. Some friends made their own planets to slide in the light box today!

Some of the Colorado Early Learning and Development Guidelines covered include:

What a pleasure having Ms. Sarah from the Bud Werner Library in Steamboat come visit North Routt. She Read a couple of wonderful stories and paired them with movement songs and exercises to keep the students engaged and actively participating. They all demonstrated great listening skills while having lots of fun! 

Some of the Colorado Early Learning and Development Guidelines targeted during her visit include:

• Gross Motor Skills: The control of large muscles for movement, navigation, and balance.
• Self-Regulation: The ability to recognize and regulate emotions, attention, impulses, and behavior. 
• Receptive English Language Skills:The ability to comprehend or understand the English language.
  
• Book Appreciation and Knowledge: The interest in books and their characteristics, and the ability to understand and get meaning from stories and information.

Our space investigation continues! The past couple of weeks we have worked on creating props for our space station. Some of the pictures above show the “moon boots,” the “miniature rocket ships” and the “jet packs”. It has been so fun exploring, reading and learning about outer space.

Some of the Colorado Early Learning and Development Guidelines targeted during this investigation include:

• Fine Motor Skills: The control of small muscles for such purposes as using utensils, self-care, building, and exploring.
• Reasoning and problem solving: The ability to recognize, understand, and analyze a problem and draw on knowledge or experience to seek solutions to a problem.
• Geometry and spatial sense; The understanding of shapes, their properties, and how objects are related to one another.
  

Spring is in the air and therefore our greenhouse has gotten much deserved attention lately. Our students are working on getting the soil ready for the first crops of the year to get planted and a new watering system (now that Colorado allows for rain and runoff water to be used for gardening purposes.)

Some of the Colorado Early Learning and Development Guidelines targeted during this investigation include:

• Conceptual knowledge of the natural and physical world: The acquisition of concepts and facts related to the natural and physical world and the understanding of naturally-occurring relationships.
• Reasoning and problem solving: The ability to recognize, understand, and analyze a problem and draw on knowledge or experience to seek solutions to a problem.
• Geometry and spatial sense; The understanding of shapes, their properties, and how objects are related to one another.