June 2014

 In the month of May we in Lila studied mushrooms. There was a great deal of enthusiasm from the children on the subject. We learned the parts of the mushroom and about the life cycle. We even watched a full life cycle with a mushroom grow kit I picked up at the local Redmond farmer's market. The kids came in excited each morning to see the change in the growing mushrooms. We also did an experiment with a large mushroom cap to make a spore print. It was amazing the way the spores collected on a piece of paper when left unmoved for a couple of days! Children enjoyed practicing literacy and handwriting skills while making their own booklets of the parts of the mushroom and writing the names of various animals that eat mushrooms. There was also a mushroom sewing work, mushroom coloring, and mushroom pin poking. We were thrilled to have Samarth's mother and grandmother volunteer in the classroom to help us make stuffed mushrooms. The children immensely enjoyed the cooking aspect. When it came time to eat them, children seemed to either really like them or really not like them. I was glad to see that almost everyone tried them, even if they decided it wasn't for them:)

In the month of June we will be reviewing core materials and working as a community to clean the classroom in preparation for the end of the school year.