Mrs. Sweezey | Natoaganeg School

Welcome to Mrs. Sweezey's K4 Classroom

The beginning of new traditions

Posted: November 30, 2017

This week we began a new afternoon tradition of having a hot chocolate and sock party when we come in from outside, just before it's time to go home. The weather is slowly beginning to be consistently cold, which means our time spent outside will change a bit. We will continue to dress as warmly as possible to make sure we are comfortable, however the amount of time we spend outdoors may vary. We are still commited to getting outside everyday, even if it's just for 10, 20, or 30 minutes.

It was a particularly chilly Monday afternoon and we made our way inside a little earlier than usual. To help the kiddos warm up, we put the kettle on and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and cookies. To make the experience even more cozier, we sat around in our sock feet as well, and then got ready for the bus when we were nicely thawed.

Nature walk

Posted: November 30, 2017

The warm temperature on Wednesday caused the ice to melt and made quite a mess in the woods, so instead we took a walk down to the river to throw rocks and of course, crush more ice :)

Crushing ice in the swamp

Posted: November 30, 2017

Last week we had some rain and some areas of our forest space was flooded. Thankfully some cold temperatures froze the ice and the kiddos had a blast crushing it.

What Happened This Week - Week 13

Posted: November 30, 2017

New Hiking/Snowshoe Trail!!!!!

Posted: November 28, 2017

In the recent weeks, our outdoor classroom has had a lot of changes. Besides the seasonal changes, the grounds crew has visited us again to help clean up our forest space and make us a hiking trail!! In this video I take you for a walk through the woods and talk a bit about the changes and the benefits for playing outdoors.

Thank you EGFN and the grounds crew! Mrs. Sweezey's K4 class appreciate all your hardwork and are grateful to you for making our environment clean and safe to play in :)

Fine motor and fun

Posted: November 17, 2017

Fine motor skills is the exercise of the tiny muscles and movements in our hands and the coordination of our hands and fingers with our eyes - all skills that are important with reading and writing (and much more). Fine motor skills require a lot of practice and children can often get easily frustrated and discouraged when forced to put pencil to paper before they are truly ready. Mary-Dale and I make sure that we provide the kiddos with many fun, hands on activities where they can manipulated small objects, like Lego, play-dough, puzzles, and this Geo-board that Silas is playing with - to build those muscles!

Builders gonna builder

Posted: November 17, 2017

Today was an indoor day and some of the kiddos were busy-bees in the block center. In this clip you can see that the kids added some personal design elements to their structure - pom poms, leaves, and pipe cleaners. Beautiful.

What Happened This Week - Week 11

Posted: November 17, 2017

Climbing trees, building blocks, & "skating" on ice outside.

Climbing trees

Posted: November 15, 2017

As we watched the kids run around and play - "come on, warm up the blood" - Mary-Dale and I observed that our forest space doesn't really have 'climbing trees.' They are thin, with high branches, and the ones we can climb, are old and have fallen, however, shortly afterwards, I caught Ms. Reesey proudly working her way up a cluster of trees. "Look guys!"

"Whoa, careful Weston."

Posted: November 15, 2017

This week mother nature brought us cold and frosty days. As we made our way to the forest, the kids were quick to notice that the water in our ditch was frozen over and we were gifted with ICE!!! The kids spent a good chunk of their outdoor time walking, sliding, shimmying, balancing, and yes, falling. We discussed ice and how to carefully walk across it and how we can use our arms to help us balance. Lots of gross motor play!.