Fall Leaves & Pumpkins of all Kinds!

We started out our fall unit of study by going on a leaf hunt!  The kids really enjoyed this activity!  (And weeks later, they are still bringing me leaves from home!  I love it!) We used our five senses on our leaf hunt and compared the texture, sound and looks of various types of leaves.  Next, we described the leaves & learned various fall vocabulary words along the way.  We compared the real leaves to fabric leaves and paper leaves.  Then, we sorted, counted and graphed the leaves.  We even made leaf pictures with some of the leaves that we collected.  We talked about why leaves fall off of the trees in the fall & read a lot of books about the season of fall & leaves.  Check out the bookshelf to see some of the books that we have read over the course of the year!

We also talked about fall as a time of harvest and specifically learned about many different kinds of pumpkins.  We looked at pictures of pumpkins from all over the world, read books about them and even wrote about our favorite kind from class.

Again, we used our scientific thinking to hypothesize whether the various sized pumpkins would float.  First we weighed the pumpkins with our balancing scale.  Then, we weighed other objects such as centimeter cubes, wooden blocks, etc. to see how they would compare in weight to the pumpkins.  When the students saw that the small centimeter cubes and child-sized scissors sank, they were sure that the pumpkins would sink, too.  But, they found out that pumpkins float, too!  They were surprised!

When we cut our pumpkin open, we used our senses to see how the insides of a pumpkin were different than an apple.  We even put the pumpkins' seeds into groups & counted them.  We had 210 seeds in our pumpkin!

 

 

We ended our study of pumpkins with an amazing trip to Brookdale Farms and a fall party.  We even surprised the students with the fact that they could pick out their very own pumpkin on the farm!  It was fun to see all of the different pumpkins that came back to our class.  

Geometric Shapes!

In math, we discussed the difference between 2-dimensional shapes & 3-dimensional shapes.  During this unit, we practiced identifying the geometric shapes of circle, square, triangle and rectangle.  We attempted to make these shapes with our bodies, popsicle sticks, play dough, shaving cream, dry erase boards and buttons.  Later we added the shapes of rhombus, pentagon, hexagon, octagon and elipse.  We even played a mystery game to see if we could guess which shape was in the bag using only our hands!  We were very serious about this task.  :)

 

 

 

Student Work!

We love Guidance Lessons with Ms. West

How About Those Apples?!?

  

We had an amazing time learning about apples in room #4!  Thank you for sending in real apples for our experiments.  Learning seems to come alive when you use authentic items.  

We sorted and counted our apples by size and color.  Then we sorted them by stem/no stem, bruise/no bruise & sticker/no sticker.  We graphed our apples, painted patterns with them and weighed the apples with our balancing scale.  We used the geometric shapes of square & triangle to create an apple quilt square & we even tried to write the word apple.

Using scientific inquiry skills, we made hypotheses about whether our apples would sink or float in a container of water.  Most of the children were very surprised to find out that, indeed, apples can float!

Our scientific discovery process did not stop here.  We used our five senses to compare apple juice to apple cider vinegar.  The students found out that, sometimes, looks can be deceiving.  The best part of the experiment, for Ms. Candler & I, was watching the looks on the students' faces when they saw how the baking soda and apple cider vinegar reacted to one another!  Their faces were priceless!  After all of our science experiments were finished, the students used their new-found knowledge to practice writing about the results.

Lastly, we concluded our apple unit of study with two, separate tasting activities.  First, we compared the looks & tastes of many apple varieties.  We learned many new vocabulary words to describe our apples like sweet, tart, juicy, bruised, and crunchy.  We recorded all of these vocabulary words on a Venn Diagram.  We talked about the life cycle of an apple & even looked at the differences of apple insides when they are cut horizontally or vertically.  Our second tasting activity focused on products that were made from apples.  We tasted apple juice, apple sauce (made from green & red apples), an apple danish, apple chips & of course, some apple pie!  By the end of the unit, we literally, had the kids eating out of our hands with enthusiasm for apples!

Are we surprised or what?!?

What will the apple cider do?

Look at the apple cider bubbling!

  

 

The secret ingredients!

Weighing our apples

 

  

Student Work!

We are practicing our fine motor skills by learning how to use scissors.  Look at the art projects that we created to reinforce some of the letters that we are learning, Mm & Rr.

We read a book called, Cat and Dog at School.  Then we created a class book about the good and bad things that cat and dog did in school.