On Tuesday, October 25, our class spent the day at The Learning Tree Farm. We had beautiful weather and an amazing time exploring the woods, farm animals, eating a picnic lunch, and picking our very own pumpkins!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Fall
It is officially fall, and in our classroom we have been investigating the changes that occur during this season. Here are some of the activities we have engaged in that have helped us learn more about the world in which we live.
We collected leaves from around our school and laid them out on a large piece of paper.
We then worked together to create rubbings of the leaves using crayons.
The last step of the process was to paint with water color over the crayon rubbings.
The finished product was a beautiful piece of art!
This fall, we have spent a lot of time outside observing the season's changes. One morning, we worked outside carefully sketching one of the trees on our playground.
We have loved pretending that the truck on our playground is a hayride.
Some friends have been exploring our Discovery Garden and using their imaginations and natural materials to play with.
We were lucky enough to spend one beautiful fall day exploring nature at Russell Woods. Here is a photograph from our hike.
Exploring Apples
For three weeks, we spent our afternoons exploring apples and becoming "apple experts". One of our learning targets is using our five senses to observe and describe things in nature. That is just what we did with our study on apples. The three week study allowed us to explore apples in different ways while integrating different content areas.
We began our study by exploring, observing and sketching what we see.
We spent time sketching different types of apples. We learned that it is very important to draw the object how we see it in real life.
Through observations and sketching, we learned that there are different types of apples. We also learned that apples are not all the same. They come in different sizes, shapes, and colors.
Our next step in our study was to explore the different parts of apples. We learned that apples have skin, stems, flesh, and seeds. We learned that if you cut an apple in half, the seeds are formed in the shape of a star!
We tasted four different types of apples and voted on which we liked the best. Most of our class liked Granny Smith apples.
We learned that apples can be used to make many different types of foods. We made homemade apple sauce, dipped apples in hot caramel, and tasted apple butter on toast.
We learned about what happens to apple trees during each of the four seasons: spring, summer, winter, and fall. We created the seasons of an apple tree using our hands and different art materials.
We used apples and paint to create art.
Our learning was documented outside of our classroom.
Apple sketches:
Parts of an apple:
We ended our study by writing sentences with illustrations. We wrote non-fiction sentences to share what we learned throughout our apple explorations.
What we learned through this study:
- Apples are harvested in the fall.
- Apples grow on trees.
- Apples are a fruit.
- Apples are healthy.
- Apples are good for your teeth.
- Apples come in many different sizes, shapes, and color.
- Apples taste different.
- Apples can be sweet or sour.
- Apples have different parts.
- You can make different foods with apples: apple pie, apple sauce, apple butter, caramel apples, apple chips.
- Apples float in water.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
We Are Leaders
In our classroom, we have spent a lot of time talking about what it means to be a leader. For the last few weeks, we were engaged in a study about different leaders in our community and what they do. We invited several visitors into our classroom to find out more about their jobs and how they help the community in which we live.
Our first visitor, Mr. Hatcher a fire fighter and paramedic talked to us about fire safety and how he helps others if they are sick or hurt.
Mrs. Brightwell, a veterinary technician taught us about her job working with people and animals.
Dr. Josh, a dentist, taught us about working with others and how to keep our teeth healthy.
Mr. Van Scyoc, a mail carrier, taught us how he delivers mail to people in our community.
We made bubble maps that documented what we learned from each of our visitors.
Each child created their own book of community leaders that contained an illustration of each visitor.
To end our study, we created a map of our community. We used non-fiction books to help us illustrate the places and people in our community.
The map of our community included: our school, police station, fire department, doctor's office, library, post office, and houses.
Learning about community leaders and what they do helped us learn how we can be leaders at school and at home. We will continue to learn and develop our leadership skills throughout the school year!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)