We started our day with a Picture Talk about good sportsmanship.  We studied this photograph as I told them part of the story of Abel and Ivan.  Abel did not understand the signals from the line judge and thought the race was over.  He began walking.  I asked the children to think about what the runner behind him could have done, good or bad.  We talked about the choices and most children felt it was important that Abel find a way to tell Ivan, who didn't speak Spanish as Abel did, to run and finish the race.  You can see below on the T-chart some of the choices the children came up with.  We talked about why Ivan did what he did, which was motion for Abel to go on and try to tell him the race was not over.  We also talked about what a brave choice that was because Ivan was not only running for himself but his country, and some people would believe that since it was a competition, it would be okay for him to pass Abel and win the race.  But this was Ivan's choice to make, and he believed it would not be right for him to do that.  We talked about the word competition and said it was like a contest.  Because it was a competition, Ivan could have run around Abel and have won the race.  Ask me what I would have done if I was behind Abel instead of Ivan?

We finished the Dibels portion of our testing.  I have another test to do with all the children, but we are going to enjoy Field Day tomorrow and do absolutely NO TESTING!  The children practiced subtraction while I testing individual students, and wrote in their eagle journals about all the things that have happened with the eagles lately.  
We read a book today called Neither, by Arlie Anderson.  This book is about a bird that is part bird, part rabbit.  The birds don't accept him and the rabbits don't accept him.  He finds a new home in a place called The Land of All.  It's a beautiful book about inclusion.  Friday we will read the story again and write about the author's message in the book.  

We looked at a picture of DG4 today in her new home.  She really is living the good life.  No food from the landfill, no crowded nest, and no rain. We also got to see a video of DG 3 and DG5 wingercizing and DG5's official branching.  We are lucky to have such creative moderators on this nest.  The music makes this video a lot of fun!

Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe

So you may have been told it was the best day ever.  I assure you it was not.  But they have candy in their backpack so I'm guessing that might have something to do with their evaluation of the day.  The children were great.  They had to be flexible, patient, and focused on their test. 
We started our day talking about what happened on the eagle nest this weekend.  For those who have not heard, part of the nest collapsed Sunday afternoon.  Around 1 AM Monday morning, DG4 fell out of the nest, about 90 feet to the ground.  She put up a valiant attempt to fly back up to the nest but was unsuccessful.  This nest is carefully monitored, and a plan had already been made in case of a situation such as this, and within a couple hours they had a team assembled and on the ground to find DG4.  She was not far from the nest and was very calm as they rescued her and put her in a carrier.  She is at a wildlife rehab center and is well.  She had no injuries and will remain there until she achieves typical eaglet milestones where she is able to fly, perch at a certain height, and is able to catch live prey and eat independently.  She will be in a huge barn, all to herself, not having to share a nest with her siblings.  Her menu will improve as well being fed there and not from the landfill on nights when Rosa and Martin wanted take-out.  A couple kids were sad they would not see her, but returning her to the nest would endanger the other two because they are old enough to be afraid of humans, and since they are not quite hunting and fishing on their own, or flying from the nest, it would endanger them.  The nest will be evaluated this summer.  Below are two videos that show the fall and the rescue.
The day was just filled with drama.  We took MAP P most of the afternoon.  The Chromebooks need help, but we made it through the test but were not in the mood for much else.  So tomorrow, I will try and finish up the rest of the testing.  We are taking a break this week from spelling words.  We will get to the set I was going to do this week, next week.  
Have a great evening!
​Miss Wolfe

We have been learning about different cultures.  One of the best things about learning about different cultures is by eating!  Since we can't eat these delicious foods at school, we did the next best thing and ate with our eyes.  We looked at bread from around the world and looked for similarities and differences.  

We voted on names for the Dulles Greenway eagles.  We used tallymarks to collect the data.  Ask me to tell you about the data.

We enjoyed a cultural arts program brought to us by the Bells Mill PTA.  

Big news!  One of the eaglets, DG3, branched last night about 6:14.  Both feet were off the nest and on one of the branches on the tree.  This is a big milestone for the eaglet.  DG3 is the oldest of the eaglets.  Branching usually happens between 9 to 10 weeks of age.  I'm posting two videos.  One is of the branching, the other is a video that shows some wingercizing and standing on the rails.  We only had time to watch parts of both videos.

We took our spelling test we didn't get to on Friday.  The children are doing well with the words, but they need to remember to start the sentence with a capital letter and end with punctuation.  This week's words are tricky!  We will practice at school as much as possible!

We are reviewing some math concepts as we will be taking MAP P soon.  We practiced making equal sets and subtraction practice today.

Have a great evening!
​Miss Wolfe

Today we started our day by studying these beautiful paintings by Vincent van Gogh.  We studying the pictures to see how they all were the same, and we shared our opinions about which painting we liked best.  Ask me to tell you about these paintings!