Finally! The rain stopped long enough so these Friday morning gardeners could get outside and get their hands dirty! We planted peas, lettuce, & carrots. 🫛 🥬 🥕 We also discovered the plants that came up from last year: strawberries, cilantro, mint, & lettuce! 🍓

If you ever have the chance to view an eclipse w/Kindergarteners,
take it! Their descriptions of the eclipse tickled my funny bone. They thought the sliver of sun we saw through our eclipse glasses looked like: a banana, a frowny-face, & a giant hot Cheeto! 🌕 🌞 😂

Day #1 of Spring Gardening Club (Monday Edition): We used Plugable microscopes to investigate seeds, succulent starts, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, & crocuses on this rainy morning. 🌧️Then we planted cantaloupe, pea, marigold, & tomato seeds in peat pods. 🍅 🫛 🍈

Team Red practicing for our #VexIQ competition this morning. . . Lots of excitement as competition day approaches! Cowlishaw Elementary School 🐨 🤖 IPEF 204 Brian Giovanini

A few photos of our Cowlishaw Elementary School Robotics Teams hard at work. Over the last few weeks, they’ve been refining their designs, preparing for team interviews, updating firmware, & testing design elements for our upcoming competition. IPEF 204 WOW at Indian Prairie #VexIQ Book Creator Team 🌈

STEAM fun tonight Cowlishaw Elementary School! I led the “spaghetti station,” but we weren’t cooking. 😆 Student architects (& parent assistants) used dry spaghetti, marshmallows, creativity, & plenty of perseverance to design & build tall, stable towers. . . a spaghetti city! Cowlishaw PTA

Hello, Snowman! ☃️ We had “snow” much fun with our Kindergarten English Learners this morning! We brought the snow INSIDE, & then Patricia Dieball Ponce & I helped each student build a miniature snow person. The students were SO excited! (Or “snow” excited) Scholastic Rafael Segarra

Snowy, freezing weather couldn’t stop our amazing #VexIQ Robotics teams! They braved the early morning snow & showed up eager to build & refine their robot designs. ❄️ 🤖 🥶 Cowlishaw Elementary School Brian Giovanini IPEF 204 VEX Robotics

Belated post of our Mystery Science Bear Hibernation memory matching game from earlier this week. 🐻 😴 Our K English Learners ❤️ practicing English w/partner games! Rafael Segarra They were definitely grossed out by some of the bears’ pre-sleep snacks, though. 🐜 🥚 🤢

Our Kindergarten ELs have been investigating what animals do in winter. ❄️ We used a think-pair-share to discuss how bears get ready to hibernate w/Mystery Science. Then, students watched bear scientist Rae Wynn-Grant, PhD give bear cubs checkups in winter! Rafael Segarra

Engineering Notebooks Sneak Peek! The Cowlishaw Elementary School teams this year have some fabulous engineering notebooks. I ❤️ how features in Book Creator Team 🌈 allow students to create pages to “show what they know” about the rules in unique ways. Brian Giovanini IPEA VEX Robotics #VexIQ

In honor of the 1st snowfall of the season, we did an interactive read w/K ELs: “Over and Under the Snow,” by katemessner. We did a “Hibernate or Migrate” Freeze dance & acted like winter animals w/ Patricia Dieball Ponce. ❄️ 🐻 🐿️ We had so much fun! Rafael Segarra Cowlishaw Elementary School

Just a few of the arachnids invading my classroom Cowlishaw Elementary School. ELs sketched spiders, then described their features with/voice recordings in Book Creator Team 🌈 using color, shape, size, & texture.🕷️Art Hub for Kids Book Creator Team 🌈 Rafael Segarra

Our Robotics Teams Cowlishaw Elementary School learned the rules for this year’s Full Volume competition VEX Robotics #VexIQ . Three different block sizes will present a unique design challenge for these engineers as they design their robots 🤖! IPEF 204 Brian Giovanini Book Creator Team 🌈 WOW at Indian Prairie

Sneak peak at some of the blocks from our kits for the 2023-2024 season of Cowlishaw Elementary School Robotics. 🤖 This year’s VEX Robotics #VexIQ competition is called “Full Volume.” More on our new teams coming later this week. . . 😊 🐨 🤖 Brian Giovanini IPEF 204

I was walking through the gym this afternoon on my way to my car, & I stopped for a few minutes to watch the Cricket Club Cowlishaw Elementary School play. I don’t know anything about cricket, but I could tell how much fun everyone was having, including Ms. Rahman! 😊

Lady Lizard wore a costume for Halloween: Shakespeare w/a neck ruff made of her old shed skin! 🦎 Also: Mystery Science about 🕷️s, a real 🕷️ under an Plugable 🔬, sketching a 🕷️ w/Art For Kids Hub, & sequencing a story about a brave little old lady! sra. Martinez Rafael Segarra

Monster & witch stories w/Kinder ELs, plus listening practice w/a directed 🦇 draw on Art For Kids Hub. Oh, & their favorite thing so far? Using describing words to play Scary Bingo & find the right monsters! Rafael Segarra Ed Emberley The Gruffalo Laurence King 👹 🧹🧙‍♀️🦇

Plant giveaway days for Gardening Club Cowlishaw Elementary School! Students went home w/succulent starts & plant cuttings to propagate. My curious & enthusiastic gardeners viewed samples of plants & insects from the garden under Plugable digital microscopes. Whole Kids #schoolgardens

Garden clean-up day for 4th Grade Gardening Club this morning! Everyone worked together to bag up a ton of weeds & sticks. We are getting our garden Cowlishaw Elementary School ready for winter. For kids voluntarily doing early morning yard work, they sure had a lot of fun!@WholeKidsFnd 🪴