Laura Reilly

I have been a Kindergarten and Second Grade teacher for 22 years. My love of animals and nature comes through in all of my lesson planning! I include information about the environment and nature whenever possible so that my students’ minds grow with the knowledge that we need to care for our surroundings and the animals around us. This year during our experience with Remote Learning due to the Covid-19 outbreak and school closures, I have been working on an on-going video observation and journal project with my kindergarten students.  We are going through the Snow Pea growing process together from seed to sprout to plant.  I  take measurements and note any physical changes in the observation video and then we take what we learned each day in the observation video and record our observations in a daily science journal with words and illustrations. It has been a great way to stay connected to my students and they are so engaged in the activities from home!  Every year we sprout seeds in plastic bags in the classroom window but this year we had to change up our process. Watching the daily changes in plants or animals brings a level of engagement and curiosity that is unmatched in just reading in a book.  Besides all of those things, Jane Goodall has been a hero to me since I was a child. I can’t write these words without tears rolling down my cheeks because her dedication to this planet moves me so. I have the same reaction when I hear her speak, she is such an inspiration to me!