Last week was our apple unit. We learned about living things and how they grow and change. We talked about how apples are living things and we learned about their life cycle. We read the book A Day at the Apple Orchard and made a life cycle of the apple using the book as our guide.
For math we worked on learning quantities and number words 1-10. We read the emergent reader book Apples in the Basket and drew the number of apples that matched the words on the page.
Last week was our unit on families; how our families roles and responsibilities are different, and activities that families do.
We started off by reading an informational text called What Makes a Family. For math we made a family tree, gluing apples on our tree that match the number of people who are in our immediate family.
For writing we’ve been learning how to draw circles and sticks and how to be illustrators. We drew our family portrait that matched the same number of family members on our family tree. The activities can be found here.
Today we continued our unit on the Polar Express. We read the story Christmas Kitten and compared the gift that the boy got (the bell) as the first gift of Christmas in the Polar Express and the gift Sophie got (a kitten) in Christmas Kitten. Based on the story Christmas Kitten we guessed on what we thought Sophie would have picked as the first gift of Christmas. Then we wrote about what we would pick.
During read to self, students read the emergent reader Santa Has.. and filled in the blank line with the word ‘has’ and drew the picture of what the sentence said Santa had.
For math & art students completed a cut and paste puzzle that matched numbers with their number word. Students then colored the picture showing The Polar Express and the conductor.
We learned about graphs last week and how to analyze data. We wrote about what we wanted to be for Halloween and drew a picture on a pumpkin cut out. Then students took their pumpkin and put their pumpkin into one of three categories; fun, scary, or superhero. Then students fill out their own individual graphs and describe which category is greatest, and which group is fewer.
We read the story The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams and to help us tell the story we used musical instruments. For the shoes we used a woodblock, tambourine for the pants, maracas for the shirt, castanets for the gloves, and rhythm sticks for the hat. During free choice centers students got to retell the story on their own using the instruments.
During math students did a roll and draw to draw a scarecrow like the scarecrow in the story and learned the shapes that they drew. They added details to the picture after they drew the scarecrow.
Students also made paper plate jack-o-lanterns like the scarecrow face during art time and part of free choice center time.
The month of October is fire safety month so we have been learning what to do if there is ever a fire, as well things that we shouldn’t play with. We started on Monday with fire safety related literacy & math centers from Having Fun in Primary. There were also a few centers from Home School Creations.
We discussed how there are things that are not safe for kids to touch or play with, we then sorted pictures into two categories ‘safe to touch‘ and ‘not safe to touch‘. During free choice centers students got to sort the pictures on their own, working with a partner.
Finally today we read the story Stop Drop and Roll by Margery Cuyler and made a firetruck craft courtesy of Miss-Kindergarten.
This week is color week and we are having lots of fun with different colors! We read the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr & Eric Carle. We retold the story by creating paper bag puppets of the brown bear with the other animal characters in the story. You can get the paper bag puppets from Mrs. Ricca’s Kindergarten.
During math workshop there were activities that help students our to read color words, number words, and help students with their number recognition. Most of these activities come from the Moffatt Girls October No Prep packet.
Finally for our science experiment; students learned the word hypothesis and how to make a guess on what might happen as a result of an experiment. We took drops of a couple of colors in whole milk. Then we dipped Q-Tips in dish soap and then dipped the Q-Tips in the milk with the food coloring. The dish soap pushed the colors away and turned the colors tie die. The lesson plan can be found here.
This week we started our apples unit and began the unit by reading the story Ten Apples up on Top by Theo. LeSeig. Then students picked a number and made a cut and paste art project that illustrated how many apples they can count up on top of their head.
We read the story Christmas Cookies and discussed vocabulary such as the word tradition. We also made a list of our Christmas traditions.
Then we wrote Christmas math stories about making gingerbread cookies, then we made Christmas ornaments using tempura paint.
Lots of things are happening in Mr. Bowen’s All-Star class during our families unit. First we read the story “I Love it When You Smile” and made connections with the story. Students talked about times when their family members such as their mom or dad helped try to make them feel better. Then students illustrated their connections to the story.
Since the beginning of the school we have been collecting pictures of our family. This week students got to share their pictures with the class. We have also been learning how to ask questions in our class, so the class got to ask questions of the person sharing.
For a math center students rolled a dice with family members on it, and students colored in the corresponding person on their graph. Students used the graphs they created and compared them to their own families.
For art students made hand painting family trees, putting apples on the trees for each family member that lives in their house. Members of our class also made construction paper puppets of their moms or dads.
