Highlights October 2014

 We kicked off the month of October with a walking field trip to a large garden that included a small apple orchard. We picked and gathered fresh apples, and got to taste different varieties of apples. All kinds of things were growing in the garden: grapes, tomatoes, kale, broccoli, peppers, onions, carrots, walnuts, etc.

A highlight for the students was meeting the chickens, holding their brown eggs, and feeding them grasshoppers and tomatoes.

Mrs. Marvel also showed us her compost pile. We helped gather rotten apples off the ground and rake fallen leaves to add to the compost pile.

We made applesauce back at school with some of the apples she gave to us. It was delicious!

 To extend our learning, I set up an apple farm in the dramatic play center. Students pretended to pick apples and bake apples pies and muffins to sell at a farmers' market.

The study topic this month was fall leaves, with an emphasis on the word FALL. Students have been trying to figure out why some things fall quickly (apples, balls, shoes) and other things fall slowly (leaves). When a student brought a feather for science, we compared how a feather and a leaf fall. The feather fell even more slowly than the leaf! 

 The kids made up a game that involves falling objects. They have played this game outdoors almost every day this past month. They call the game "Baby Dolphins".

They pretend the playground balls are baby dolphins. They gather the 10 balls or so that we have and place them on the deck. Then they throw them over the side of the deck while observers watch from below. When the balls are thrown, the observers quickly try to rescue the dolphins and put them in their ship. Sharks try to come and eat the baby dolphins, but the pirates take the dolphins (or balls) to safety.

  Due to the students' high interest in this game, I invited them to draw the story of their game. It was interesting for students to notice that every person interpreted the game a little differently. Some students drew students throwing balls over the deck, while other students drew pictures of actual dolphins and sharks. (Notice the art work on the top right depicts a shark with a baby dolphin in its tummy.) We talked about how different people have different ideas. And it's fun to see people's different ways of thinking. We can express our ideas through our art work. We can take turns trying different ideas when we play together.

 The week of Halloween, we did a science investigation in which we observed various falling objects. We made predictions about which objects would fall quickly and which would fall slowly. We were amazed to discover that a big pumpkin and a small pumpkin hit the ground at exactly the same time! We had predicted that the big pumpkin would fall faster. But it didn't!

 After I had had a turn, I let students have a turn dropping various objects from the deck. Check out this student's reaction when the pumpkin he threw over split in half. We discovered there were many seeds inside the pumpkin!

 Next, we tested how fast our garden pumpkins would roll down the slide. We tried to predict which pumpkin would roll the farthest. We were surprised to discover that the biggest pumpkin rolled the farthest! We recorded our observations in our science journals.

One student also noticed that not all the pumpkins rolled straight. When I asked him what he thought could be causing that, he said maybe the seeds inside are pulling it. Or, maybe because it's flatter than the other pumpkins. It has to be round to go straight. I thought that was a good explanation. That's thinking like a scientist!

It's been a happy fall. Students helped rake the leaves and put them in the garden to compost over winter.We discovered leaf buds on the trees, ready to grow new leaves in the spring.

In the sand and water table, students enjoyed sorting silk leaves by color or shape and collecting real acorns in test tubes or ice trays. Tongs and tweezers added interest to the task and strengthened hand muscles, getting the students ready to write. The acorns also had letters written on them that could be matched to corresponding letters in the ice trays.   

One of the literacy skills we have been working on this month is learning that letters can be put together to build words, and words build sentences. I was happy to catch students playing with letters this month, trying to build words and sentences. Here a student strings letter beads and asks me, "Teacher, what does this say?" 

 Later in the sand and water table, another student discovers that alphabet letters stick to the outside of our class pumpkin. He puts them in a sequence and asks, "Teacher, what does this say?" I sound out these nonsense words for them and we get a good laugh.

 Together as a class we made a book entitled: "What's Your Favorite Word?" Each student illustrated a page for our class book. It was fun to read this book together, and guess who wrote each favorite word.

One of my favorite ways to practice writing is to write on real objects. For example, we practiced writing the letter Pp on a pumpkin and the letter Ll on fall leaves.

 A math skill we have been working on is recognizing numbers 1-10, putting them in correct sequence, and writing them.

We are beginning to learn that numbers can be added together. Here a student works with a ten frame, filling it with green and orange pumpkins that he randomly draws out from a box. He discovers different ways numbers can be added together to make 10.

We also measured the size and weight of different pumpkins and counted the seeds inside the biggest one. We loved reading so many fun Halloween books this past month. An interest in Halloween skeletons, information books about the human body, and a student's brand new baby sister, have inspired our study topic for November--the human body. More on that soon.

I will leave you with this adorable photo of all the students in their Halloween costumes. I hope you all had a happy Halloween!