Wolfe's Neck Farm Friday Bike Trips

In the Fall and Spring, our upper grade students spend Friday afternoons biking at Wolfe’s Neck Farm.  These afternoons are quite special, giving our students time to connect with one another outside of the classroom and to enjoy the outdoors.

On these trips we bike, hike, and explore the seaside.  Last Friday, we had an extra special trip that included a hayride, a garden tour, and a tour of the barn with an educator. 

 Exploring the tide pools.

On the hayride.

 Garden exploration.

 Picking raspberries.

Happy friends.

First ever Gorilla Day !

This week, the K-1 class had the opportunity to learn more about an endangered species: gorillas. 

We were very lucky to have Sonya Kahlenberg, Executive Director of the GorillaRehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE) come into the classroom and talk about why Gorillas are endangered and what is done at the Center to help them. We learned the difference between monkeys and apes, characteristics of the four Gorilla species, and that you can differentiate individual gorillas by looking at their noses as they are as unique to them as our fingerprints. 

We learned a lot, merci beaucoup Sonya!

During the rest of the week we prepared for the first ever Gorilla Day (September 24^th). We made salt dough (pâte à sel) that we then used to model gorilla faces. After drying and cooking, we painted them. We will be taking them home soon as a souvenir.

 

 

We also made beautiful drawings to celebrate Gorillas. They are currently in the hallway of the school, but we will soon give them to Sonya so that she can take them with her on her next trip to the Center in Africa!

Field trip to Gray Wildlife park for the K-1 class

The K-1 Class went to the Wildlife Park in Gray last week.

Children attended a workshop on Maine endangered species. They were captivated as they learned about what biologists do to learn more about some species, especially the Canadian Lynx. They discovered why some animals are endangered and what can be done to help protect them. 

 

They discovered that at some point there were only four puffins left in Maine and that biologists had to bring some from Canada and protect them. The program was successful as there are now about 5000 puffins on the Maine coast. Among other animals, we talked about turtles, bats and the Peregrine falcon.

After this very instructive workshop, the children went into the park to see the animals. The Grey fox was by far the children’s favorite, and they had fun feeding the bears! What a great day!