First grade students have been busy tapping trees so that our whole school can again be a part of the maple sugaring process!  We have also had the chance to taste some of our cold, refreshing sap …straight from the tree!!

Happy Read Across America Week!

During environmental science this week EVERY student had the opportunity to relax and read in a hammock …even a few teachers!  🙂

Why throw away broken crayons when they still work!?  Kindergarten experienced some first hand recycling and picked their favorite colors out of a bin of broken crayons …and made a whole new crayon!

This might just be the most amazing thing we have ever done!  🙂  HPS has always recycled our dried up, old markers, but we have had to get a little more creative since many places have stopped taking the markers back for actual recycling.

Instead we are taking our old makers and are taking any extra ink out to make watercolor paint AND THEN we turn the marker caps into jumpropes!  We are still thinking of other ways to repurpose the rest of the markers.  This has been so much fun with the students.  We even made smelly paint from grape scented markers!  🙂

Third grade students have started becoming more familiar with our microscopes and seeing all of the amazing things they can do.  We will continue to use these as the weather warms up and will even be able to take our portable ones outside.  AND…. an AWESOME bonus is the $800 grant we have just been awarded so that we can purchase a few more microscopes and binoculars for our outdoor adventures!!  Thank you New Hampshire Environmental Educators for this opportunity to further enhance our environmental science program here at HPS!

YES!  This year we again managed to get every single class outside for a snowy, snowshoe hike!  Here at HPS we know that it is super easy to bundle up and head outside all year long!   Thank you to all of the grown ups who came along to help buckle those shoes!

We don’t often get to see the wild animals that visit our school when we are away, but we can look for clues!!

After making their own bird feeders to take home, first grade has begun an experiment here to see which bird seed our HPS birds like the best.  First we had to sort through a variety of seeds so we could place them all into different feeders.  After learning about how different birds use their different type of beaks for eating we were able to look at some native birds and make some guesses which seeds we think will be eaten first!  Our bird feeders here at school will be filled next week by the first grade students and everyone will be able to enjoy the birds during recess time!

We hold afterschool Nature Club year round, but for a few months we get to enjoy some moonlit hikes on our school trails.  Afterschool exploring is the best because we are able to do alot of things we can’t do during our regular environmental science time!   …like splash through the streams and venture further into the woods!  If you are interested in joining us just email me (Tara Happy) and let me know; I’ll send you the information!

When a Soup Kitchen delivery is too far away for the bananas to last we may as well not let them go to waste!  We took ALL the extra bananas and a few of our other Still Good items and added some frozen berries to make “Recycled Smoothies”!  I was able to blend up and deliver delicious fruit smoothies to the HPS staff …compliments of Environmental Science and some “recycled food”!