October News

Here's Brownie the bat being introduced to students., 

   Wow! What a busy month this has been! We were "feeling the burn" immediately with fire safety week! It's a good time to review fire safety and escape plans at home, as well. Along with a number of fire drills at school, we visited the fire station where we saw a film on fire safety, students were invited to explore a fire truck, and they met some local fire fighters who imparted more fire safety tips. At the conclusion of the visit, students crawled through a furniture and blanket "tunnel" pretending to crawl low under smoke when exiting a burning building.
   Getting started on our year-long social studies unit, a  project which will culminate with a handmade book on the state of Maine, we invited a representative from the Weathervane to come visit us in our classrooms. Since our state produces 90% of the lobsters in the country, a program on "Lobster Lore" was the kick-off to our Maine Unit, with live lobsters "Larry" and "Lucy" representing themselves in this educational presentation.
   Another October highlight was a bat program presented at Mitchell School for second graders through the York Center for Wildlife.  Students learned about the nine insect-eating bat species that are found in Maine, along with additional information about the habitats and characteristics of some of the fruit and pollen-eating bats that live in warmer climates.  Best of all was an up-close look at two live brown bats named "Betty" and "Brownie".
  Because we're "batty about bats", we decorated the whole classroom with our handcrafted paper bats, making it look spooky for Halloween!