Alpha

This week in Our Big Backyard… This week we expanded the circle of our community from Hyde Park to ALL of the neighborhoods in the Austin area. We explored maps that cartographers made to see where we all live. We all drew a portrait of our homes. Then we considered…what do neighbors do for one another? Some of our ideas and experiences are that neighbors help, protect and have barbecues. We thought about all of the jobs and helpers in our community…firefighters, trash collectors, police officers, mail carriers, doctors, nurses, teachers, bus drivers, etc. Then we made our Peeps! A […]

This week in Alpha… We’d like to send a big THANKS and deep bow of gratitude to Michelle, Sarah(and Roonie), Megan, and Katie(and Noodle), who were able to help us last-minute on our Hyde Park walk- and to Louise for hanging our beautiful self-portraits in the hallway! Doing our jobs is important! Calling out Choosing Stones for morning snack Our Big Backyard takes us to…Hyde Park! Last year we learned all about what was inside our bodies, and what each system needed in terms of care and feeding in order to stay healthy. Where people live is important to our

This week in Alpha… Pickles gets a kiss from a new friend! Welcome to Alpha’s 2024-2025 Year! What a whirlwind of a week! Our first week is a blur of procedures and routines but through it all we are getting to know each other, getting to know our space, and getting to know how we want to make our room the best room it can be. We learned how important listening is when we are all together in a big group – we played “Guess the Leader!” We also had a very inspiring discussion about how people can hurt bodies

What a beautiful way to begin Teacher Appreciation Week! Thank You, Alphas! Around the World in 60 Days… This week we traveled to the “land down under!” Alphas learned that Australia is not only a continent, it is a country! It is also an island. We mapped its climatic features and figured that water might be a very important resource for people living there, because so much of the continent is desert. Alphas already knew some special creatures that call Australia “home,” but we learned why Australia is home to SO many unusual ones! It turns out that back when

This week in Alpha… Peas in a pod (thanks Ms. Andrea for capturing this pic)! Around the World in 60 Days… We traveled to Asia, Earth’s largest continent, this week. We found the oldest and deepest lake (lake Bikhal in Russia), the highest mountain Sagamatha or Mt. Everest, the Gobi desert with its last herd of wild bactrian camels, and a sea that has not a living plant or animal and 10x the amount of salt in the ocean – the Dead Sea – all unique to Asia. And that 4.75 billion people live on the continent. That’s 4 billion