Arabella Co-Op

My Dear Readers,

I’m sorry I have not posted very much this week!  Where do the days go?  I’ve been busy feeding baby bunnies, trying to keep up with the few garden beds I’ve got started, planning for a FIAR co-op that occurred today, and — be still my heart — I had the opportunity to watch a little 3-year-old girl this afternoon!  Did I ever laugh!  I had forgotten what ridiculously adorable things little children say!  We talked about all sorts of things and she even called me a silly goose once.  Made my day. 

Once again, this a co-op which I helped to teach, so I don’t have any pictures of me to share, not that you only want to see me — and today of all days I felt pretty scattered and like my teaching didn’t go so well, but my point is that I can’t really share the portion of the co-op that I taught. 

Our co-op today was based on the story Arabella, using Five In A Row as our curriculum at home, and then sharing lessons together as a group!  It’s an amazing group.

My co-teacher went all out with her decorating, right down to a model boat in the window!  It was a lovely setting in which to learn about the Great Barrier Reef and the animals that live there. 

I loved watching the children looking at the shells.  I’ve never seen a child yet that didn’t enjoy seashells. 

At one point the children were split into two teams.  Questions were asked of the teams, alternating back and forth, and I was quite impressed that (working as a team) each group was able to answer nearly every single review question given them!  They had heard about vertebrates versus invertebrates, cephalopods, gastropods, whales, and many other things, so there were quite a few things to remember.  Having the children work as teams to find their answers, I think they retained so much more.  It’s amazing how one little tidbit of information might appeal to one or two and then another couple wouldn’t have even heard it!  Two heads ARE better than one!

The learned about resonance.

Guessing whether a larger bottle would make a higher-pitched sound or a lower-pitched sound than the smaller bottle made.

The food was amazing!  My lovely co-teacher put all of this together.  One of our themes for the day was ropes, so she had several types of pretzels to look like ropes; there were tropical foods to represent the coral reef.

She had even taken little sausages and cut them before cooking to look like little octopuses!

Finally, the children worked on more tying (carrying on with the rope theme) skills to make a keyring with beads and/or cowrie shells and string.  They learned to tie square knots.  I’m very excited about being able to make more of these at home with Michaela!

Today was so nice.  It was a beautiful, beautiful day.  I’m off to bed soon, as tomorrow is a work day for me.   My garden is literally springing to life, with more growth, more color and more creature activity every hour!  I find myself saying, “spring don’t get away from me before I can plant all that I want to plant!”  I hope, whatever the weather has been at your house, that you’ve had a lovely day too!