Foster Woods

Fire!  .....at last!

KE Booster Soup Supper and Book Fair

Please join us for our KE Booster Soup Supper on Thursday, April 4th from 5:00 to 7:30 pm in the KE Gym!

The soup supper is a "Free Will Donation" meal, and we will be serving...
Chili and Chicken Noodle Soup, Relish & Cheese Trays and of course Dessert!

After you're done with your soup head to the library for the Usborne Book Fair, and pick out your books you earned with the Reach For the Stars Reading Fundraiser!  The Book Fair will be open from 5 to 8pm!

Hope to see you all there,
KE Boosters

Global Perspectives

Pam Holz, Washington County Naturalist, was in our classroom this week for a Global Perspectives program.  This is the favorite program of the year!  Pam does a wonderful job of explaining to students how we rely on many other countries throughout our world--she has students check the tag on their shirt to see where it was made and then put a post in on the corresponding country on a world map.  She also uses the students to represent poor, middle class, and rich countries in the world.  Only a few are rich and get to enjoy fresh buttered popcorn and pop all in disposable containers.  A few more are middle class and receive fresh popcorn and are allowed to drink water from the water fountain.  But, most of the students are considered poor and get very badly burned popcorn and get to drink from "the well" (a safe concoction of lemon juice, vinegar, pepper, salt, etc).  It's always interesting to see who shares and who doesn't--this always leads to an interesting discussion about what countries share and which ones don't.  Pam also talks with the kids about how they can make a difference every day.  Here are a few of her suggestions for the kids:
1.  use rechargeable batteries
2.  use a hankerchief instead of kleenex
3.  metal silverware instead of plastic
4.  reusable tupperware instead of a ziploc
5.  use recycled paper

Winter Survival at Foster Woods

On Wednesday, March 27th, we took a short trip to Foster Woods for winter survival.  Washington County Naturalist, Pam Holz, had talked with our classes about this topic a couple of weeks ago and met us there that day to lead the students in their adventures.  Even though we were not in a traditional classroom, there was a lot of learning going on!  The teamwork and cooperation skills needed to complete the tasks made the trip so worthwhile.  Students had to find an appropriate place in the woods to set up camp, build a shelter, start a fire, and melt snow for drinking water.  Pam gave each group points based on the sturdiness and location of their shelter, how long they kept their fire going, etc.  Only a few of our eight groups "survived" the winter.  We had a BLAST!  We also completed a scavenger hunt--one of the items to check off was to pick up something in the woods that didn't belong; you can see that our 5th graders were pretty successful with that by looking at the pictures and seeing some of the stuff they brought back!  A good time was had by all!

 Some groups survived. . .and some didn't!

 We couldn't believe some of the things they were bringing in from the woods!