August 2025 at GAP School

Yellow Superstars with Emily

These first few weeks of school have been SUPER for the Yellow Superstars! We have been learning about routines, thinking strategies, our environment, and most importantly, each other! 

Morning meeting has been a great way to stimulate our minds and interact as a group. Before we start our meeting, we review our visuals that allow us to practice being an active listener and participant. Having looking eyes, listening ears, and quiet voices when sitting down are the best way to receive  information and hear each other’s questions. Active participants volunteer to update the calendar and answer our daily math and ELA questions. Partnering up in pairs allows learners to share their ideas so all answers are considered. Songs help us learn days of the week and months of the year. 

During ELA, we have introduced the letter "Mm" and have been learning the parts of a book. While learning about the letter Mm, we have sorted through alphabet letter tiles and read daily messages to identify our letter of the week. We’ve practiced writing the letter Mm on lined paper and practiced its formation with the sensory approach of playdough. Learners have identified and produced its sound by drawing pictures of words that start with the letter Mm. Learners have also been listening to stories that support sound identification of the letter Mm. 

In science, we’ve been learning how to use our nature journal! As we explore through our space, we identify nature items and creatures that started with our letter of the week. Moths, mushrooms, moss and mulch were some of our favorites! In another entry, we nature journaled the beauty of a Monarch butterfly while reading the book Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons. Afterwards, learners roll played the life cycle of a monarch butterfly and later, searched for them in nature! 

In math we’ve combined a camp classic getting to know you game: “The Wind Blows to Those…” in a visual graph for our Superstars! Each leaner got to run over to place their very own star on our bar graph as they heard a statement that was true about them. The Superstars have also been introduced to a 10 frame and have been practicing one-to-one correspondence as they learn to count. 

Red Rubies with Virginia and Sapna

It has been an amazing first two weeks for the Red Rubies! We have been getting acquainted with our space, play areas, and schedule. We have been so lucky with such cool weather for the season! Please make sure to send your Red Ruby with plenty of water and snacks to keep them going during our busy days outside! 

We have been exploring a lot of books and letters in ELA so far this year! We are getting used to the structure of our ELA block. We are reviewing our letter sounds, especially our short vowels, and starting our beginning of the year assessments. We have also started our author study! We will be reading books by Kate DiCamillo this year, starting with Miss Virginia’s favorite book of all time, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Starting in September, we will be diving into poetry and journaling in addition to lots of nature journaling, including structured phonics instruction. We can already tell that the Red Rubies will be super readers this year!

In math we have been keeping our minds active by practicing counting. Independently learners were jumping rope, as a team we passed a bouncy ball, and together we jumped hopscotch. We have been practicing our counting by ones, twos, and threes so far. This week, we were very hands on, using nature materials to make numbers 1-10. There was a friendly competition to collect as many sticks or leaves as we could on a woodsy wander. As a flock, we collected 638 sticks and leaves! We got creative with making beautiful, colorful butterflies out of geometric shapes. Finally, we ended our week with making friendship bracelets with counting by threes! We love the enthusiasm our learners have for math! 

In science, we watched a fun music video about how we can use “who, what, when, where, and why” to ask questions. We dove into learning about the Mariana Trench. We opened our brand new nature journals and explored butterflies and beetles. There is so much to explore in the world around us. Your learners are asking great questions!

Silver Sparrows with Furn and Elijah

Starting the Year with Wonder in the Silver Sparrows!

Before your learners came back to school with us, the educators spent a magical week in professional development, where a quote by Rachel Carson from her work The Sense of Wonder (1965) continues to echo in our ears: 

"If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years … the alienation from the sources of our strength."

Our sense of wonder, our ability to be curious, pay attention, step into awe, admiration, and respect, is, perhaps, the most vital muscle we can train within ourselves in the pursuit of education, and more yet, happiness. As educators, as learners, as caregivers, we have a duty to wonderment. Wonder and curiosity don’t just make good learners. They make good, whole, vibrant people. At GAP School, we work hard to cultivate our collective sense of wonder. In this year’s Silver flock, our goal, as always, is to fly toward wonder.

Together, we’ve been flying into the year on a beautiful tailwind of wonder, excitement, and community. This year, our flock's name is, fittingly, the Silver Sparrows. As we adjust back into the rhythms of outdoor learning, we find ourselves adoring the good weather and colorful wildlife welcoming us back into the woods. Have you noticed that all manner of butterflies, spiders, beetles, birds, flowers, berries—and recently, even a bear!— are out and active? As we define what we want our class community and culture to look like, the Silver Sparrows are doing a wonderful job observing nature and creating a culture of curiosity, respect, and, very importantly, fun!

In our first few weeks, the Silver Sparrows have stepped into solid routines and rhythms that will carry us throughout the year. In the morning, we start with relaxing activities like coloring, quiet games, and meaningful conversations to stimulate our brains and ease ourselves into our learning. Then, we all participate in acts of stewardship to give back to our school, our class, and the land we care for. The Silver Sparrows take pride and ownership in our class space. We are librarians, harvesters, inventory managers, assistants, groundskeepers, and more as our sense of responsibility grows. Likewise, our morning meetings help our brains get ready for the day by reporting on the weather, reflecting on timely and meaningful messages that support our class culture, overviewing our schedule, and practicing critical math and English language arts skills by reviewing and introducing concepts in a fun, low-stakes, and silly way. These morning activities regulate our bodies and kickstart our brains for learning!

We are also already on a roll with independently reading during DEAR time and learning to unwind and calm ourselves during Quiet Time. During science time, we are diving into an inquiry cycle routine about Sparrows, the Silver's namesake this year! Throughout each day, we have been reviewing key concepts from our classes last year to activate the information recall function of our brains. By playing math and ELA review games, we get to see what we feel comfortable with and what we feel curious about as we dive into start of year assessments. This year, we had a presentation with our learners about how we can best support our learning by figuring out what we don’t know yet with IXL. Whether they feel intimidated, excited, or just ready to get going, encourage your learners to take their time. There is no need to sweat the stuff we haven’t learned yet—we’ve only just begun!

In our Social Emotional Learning (SEL) time, we aim to give learners the tools they need to support themselves mentally, emotionally, physically, and socially throughout the year. We explore a range of concepts, but find it helpful to start the year thinking about how we build community. We discussed what "bids for attention" are and how we can respond to them. We investigated the difference between teasing and bullying and our responses to things that upset us. We reflect frequently on how we engage with each other during group meeting times. What should our voices do? What should our bodies do? How do we give each other appropriate attention and respect? These are the questions we strive to answer early on so that we have skills to support us in and out of the classroom. 

This year in Silver, we will also continue exploring geography as a skill and concept. Already, we have practiced our skills with directions, reading maps, and working together to come up with what geography means to us. As an outdoor school, it is critical that we think about our relationship to the land tangibly and intangibly. We can’t wait to continue exploring these ideas together!

Furn and Elijah are beyond excited to enjoy another year with the Silver flock. We look forward to getting to know each learner as a person. Please continue to connect with us at school and online. We are here to support each other and make this year a magical, wondrous experience. 

Emerald Eagles with Lauren

The Emerald Eagles have been engaged in a wide variety of activities, from foraging and carefully crafting our flock cheer to applying math and language concepts from prior years, as we prepare for the learning journey ahead. The group of learners work so well together. We have a very special team this year! Nature journals have been the catalyst for our ELA review and parts of speech work, because there’s always a nature connection when we’re paying attention. Additionally, we’ve reviewed fractions and work in each of the operations to get a good picture of where learners are in their own personal academic goal setting. We’ve created our expectations of one another to best support our learning community this year and we're so excited to see what’s to come!

Social Emotional Learning with Janelle

In SEL, all of the learners have been busy diving into fun and interactive refreshers on inclusivity, teamwork, building a class culture of mindfulness, and identifying basic emotions. They are working hard at recognizing the tools they need to advocate for their needs as well as developing an internal awareness of their unique learning and social needs.  This looks different for each of them and we look forward to supporting their growth in these life long skills throughout the year.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions specific to your learner and/or ways to support them at home. 

Projects with Max

 Projects in August is all about starting or revisiting our relationship to school routines and the land around us. The start of our relationship to the land begins with understanding its history. GAP School is on the ancestral land of the Monocan people.  Every Monday we participate in a land acknowledgement during our all school morning meeting as a reminder that the land we are on has a history we should be aware of.  During the first few weeks of school, groups begin to foster their own relationship to the land by going on "woodsy wanders".  

In projects, we wandered the trails and observed the woods. What is growing right now? What types of birds do we hear? Learners check on the Pawpaw trees to see if the fruit is ready. We investigate jewelweed and help spread seeds so more can grow along the creek.  Jewelweed is a great antidote to anything itchy on one's skin, especially poison ivy. 

We discuss when the right time to harvest something would be. The plant will tell us when it's ready. The Pawpaw is the best teacher for this lesson. Pawpaw fruit fall from the tree with a gentle shake but only when they are ready, and if you wait to harvest them they will quickly rot on the ground.

We also began our first project by designing our project notebook covers. Learners practice a design process by making a plan before creating their covers.  Learners also had to meet certain design expectations, adjusted by age, for their cover design to be approved.  We looked at different drawing techniques and required Learners to incorporate those techniques into their cover. In the end, we have practiced the skills of following a design process, meeting requirements for a project and ownership of our own work. 

We look forward to the month of September in projects as we continue practicing skills that support learning and nature connection.