The beginning of the year this year was like no other. Because we looped, we were really able to hit the ground running! I think that because of our seamless transition, the first two months have really flown by. I feel like September came and then all the sudden it was November... what happened to October?? Since I am recapping the past 2 months, I am going to share lots of great pictures with you. Looking forward to another fabulous year!!
Over the summer there was construction at Pashley. As a result, we were not able to get into the building as much as we usually do. I was going through school withdrawals, and had to fill that void somehow. To Mr. Miakisz's chagrin, that void was filled with something that I love... SHOPPING! The dollar store, Target, Michaels, Walmart, Job Lots, you name it... I was there in search of fancy new teaching materials. I found these fabulous dry erase pockets in the dollar spot at Target, and I have fallen in love with them! We use them at least once a week during literacy stations.
We did a lot of science activities throughout both months. One of the things that we learned about was apples. We tasted red, green, and yellow apples and chose our favorite. Then we graphed these favorites. In our class yellow won! Then we predicted whether the apple would sink or float in water. We discovered that apples float in water because there is air inside of them!
We also learned a lot about weather! We started the unit by discussing what a meteorologist is, why the weather forecast is important, the seasons and the type of weather in each, and then the students graphed their favorite type of weather using sticky notes. They also learned about different weather tools, like thermometers, and wind and rain gauges. The students got to use and/ or make each one of these devices! One of their favorite parts was learning about the different types of clouds. We made a fun flipbook that showed the types of clouds with cotton balls and told a description of each. Everyday a different "junior meteorologist" would observe the weather and record the cloud coverage, wind level, and type of sky on our weather calendar.
We kicked off the month of October learning about fire safety. The students made their annual posters for the firemen. This year we had another winner... and it was a FIRST place winner! Jack's poster was chosen by the firemen and he was able to ride the firetruck to school with them. You can tell just how proud he was in the picture, and the kids and I were proud too!! Yay Jack!
The end of October was marked with Pumpkin Day. All of the students brought in a small pumpkin and we had a fun day of pumpkin discovery! There were 6 centers. The students got to test whether pumpkins sink or float, got to read pumpkin books, estimate how many seeds were in our class pumpkin and then count them, draw an exact picture of their pumpkin, play pumpkin bingo, paint/ decorate their pumpkin, and measure and weigh their pumpkin. There was lots to learn! Thank you to all of our wonderful helpers!
And last, but not least, Halloween! We made spooky jack-o-lanterns, with pumpkin patch proper noun descriptions. In the description the students wrote a little story about their jack-o-lantern. After writing their final draft, they highlighted all of the proper nouns in their writing. I think they came out great!
On Halloween the class looked great and we had lots of fun. We started the day with the parade and then did some more great centers. Thanks again to all our helpers! The students created a spooky haunted house as they listened to a parent helper read step by step directions, they also followed directions to make a drawing of Frankenstein, they made their very own pumpkin patch dirt-cup treat, and created a pumpkin picture using 100's, 10's, and 1's math clues. We even had a visitor from a cute little lumberjack and his grandma (or "mam" as he says)... my mom! It was a great day.
This pumpkin and I are looking forward to a fun and busy November!
