Tip of the Week

The Little Green Corner

September, 2011 Edition

In the premier issue of The Little Green Corner (Sept 2011), you will find the following features:

Strategy of the Month: Using Your Senses
September Nature Study Ideas: Ants, Mushrooms, Moonwatching and Migration
September Specials and Links
For Your Library: The One Small Square Series, by Donald Silver
Skill of the Month: Observation
Organizer of the Month: The Bubble Map
Thematic Learning Centers Ideas

Each newsletter edition, which will be published on this blog on the first of each month, will contain these features, links to downloadable resources, and links to online resources for lesson planning. These newsletters will be followed up by individual posts on the nature study ideas, for those who would like more details on how to study that topic and connect it to other content areas.

The newsletter can be downloaded and printed, or viewed online (when viewed online, you will be able to follow the many hyperlinks to other documents, web activities and printables).

Please let me know how you used the nature study ideas in your homeschool or classroom. Use the ideas in the newsletter and blog, or find your own topics. Then make sure that you share the link to your blog or website in Mr. Linky on my blog page at A Child's Garden, as well as The Little Green Corner Blog Carnival, so others can see.

Coming on September 9, 2011: The Ants Go Marching...

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I just don't know what we did without the Internet years ago. There is so much information available to us all now, right at our fingertips (literally!) that we need a guidebook in order to sift through it all.

If you're like me, you take in information best when it's timely, connected to what you're looking at right now. That is the goal of our blog -- to bring you information from our experience and from the field that it "right now" information, the stuff that you can apply tomorrow.

If you subscribe to our feed, you will get an email update when we have posted a new tip or idea. Or bookmark us, and come back weekly, as we will be updating regularly with highlights from our workshops, research articles on current topics in education, and teacher tips.

Today's blog will be longer, as it is also introducing you to the various parts of our online "PD." Check back frequently, as we will be posting new information regularly.

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Tip of the Week: Action Planning for 2011-12

As Northside Consulting staff members are working with schools this week, we are finding many are wrapping up this school year and beginning to set their sights on next year. Part of healthy team function is time built in for "process checks" and celebrations. If your team is finishing up data for the year and wondering how to best use your team time as the years winds to a close, consider this protocol for team reflection and action planning. For more information on professional development to help your team plan strategically, see our team training opportunities.

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Here are some other links you might find useful:

1. Getting the Most Out of Field Trips

The end of the year often spells "road trip" for classroom teachers. How do we get the most instructional impact from these excursions? Check out our Beardsley Zoo article, to see how one field trip can be connected to high-quality instruction in all content areas.

2. Bringing the Classroom Outdoors

Maybe your school isn't air-conditioned. Maybe your students are gazing longingly at the greenery, and ignoring your lively SmartBoard presentation. Maybe you, yourself, are distracted by the birds and having a hard time getting into your read-aloud. Take the class outside! Just 5 minutes of nature study can yield hours of follow-up learning, and build the inquiry skills that we want to cultivate in our learners.

If you have a nature trail, see our activity, "The Power of Observation," about the life on and around a fallen tree.

Even if you don't have a nature trail, you can teach your students the power of nature study. See "Science Skills: Making Observations and Asking Questions Like a Scientist" for some activities that can be done in whatever patch of greenery you have, even planter boxes.

We would love to guide your team through these activities. For more information on these, and other, outdoor professional development opportunities, see our website.

3. Where Math, Art and Nature Collide: Fractals

I remember the routine: you get the email from the administrator with the checklist for preparing your classroom for the summer, including taking down things from the walls. Chances are, you are already quietly putting away the things that the humidity is causing to "pop' off the bulletin board. What to do with those bare walls and the last weeks of school to keep kids engaged?

Consider a unit on fractals, those repeating patterns that are seen in nature. Fill the bulletin boards with photographs from magazines, or (better yet) take the digital camera outside and photograph beautiful, natural objects, and lead the students through some of the explorations of "Fractals in Nature: Geometry Meets Nature Study."

4. Nature Study and "Notebooking"

Take your writing class outside for a living "story starter." A five-minute nature study can spark even the most reluctant writers, and can help students practice elaboration by keeping their focus small and detail-oriented. Follow our nature blog, "A Child's Garden," for tips on things you might be able to study outside right now. Also check out "Handbook of Nature Study" for more discussion on "notebooking" as a writing form, and for many, many activities and downloadable journal pages that will spark your students' artistic, scientific and journalistic skills!

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