Wrapping Up October
We had a wonderful October filled with lots of learning and exploration! We studied North America, pumpkins, mammals, Monarch butterflies, and a few types of trees. We visited Patterson Farms to enjoy the fall weather and activities.
Geography
While studying North America, we looked at items from many countries in our suitcase work, viewed pictures of various landmarks in our orange envelope, named many of the countries on our map, and identified many of the flags of North America.
Science
During our exploration of pumpkins, we discussed the pumpkin life cycle, the parts of a pumpkin, and how to polish a pumpkin. We were able to carve a pumpkin to see the parts of the pumpkin. We identified the vine, leaves, flower, stem, pulp, endocarp, seeds, and skin.
We were so lucky to have about 12 Monarch caterpillars create chrysalises on our porch. We saw them hatch and let them go. It is amazing to see a beautiful teal green chrysalis turn to dark black right before the butterfly emerges. We also discovered that the butterfly needs hours to dry out after hatching before it is ready to launch into the world. We spent time in the creek on Fridays. We also took acorn, pecan, walnut, and osage seeds and planted them in bins to see if we can grow some seedlings. This experiment is ongoing! We will see if we can sprout a few seedlings by spring. We are storing the bins in the classroom overnight to prevent squirrel invasions.
Language
We are working hard each day in our language area. Friends are matching beginning sounds to objects and pictures, playing I Spy, using the movable alphabet to create words and sentences phonetically, and writing in their journals. We have enjoyed rhyming, finding go-togethers, matching pictures to objects, and naming mammals. Everyone has written to their pen pals monthly.
Math
Friends are practicing a lot of math. We worked with the Decimal Tray, matching quantities to numerals. We practiced the Tray of Tens, counting out ten units to exchange for a ten bar, ten ten bars to exchange for a hundred square, and ten hundreds to exchange for a thousand cube.
Practical Life, Art, and Sewing
The Practical Life, Art, and Sewing area of the classroom has been busy. Lots of friends are working on spooning, tonging, setting the table, and pouring. Sewing work has been a hit with Sewing Arrow, Button, and Sewing Around. A couple of friends have been working on making a Wallet.
Sensorial Area
The Sensorial Area of the classroom offered us a chance to explore shading with the Color Tablets III Box. We have a color-matching activity where we use our Spanish colors and match the pom-poms to items in the classroom.
The porch is OPEN!
We are enjoying individual snacks on the porch. This week is our first full week of snacks on the porch. Washing our dishes and cleaning our place for the next person has been so much fun!
Finally, on Friday we had the best time!
We practiced our poem, Five Little Pumpkins, and the song, Stirring and Stirring Our Brew, then we worked for a bit. We closed the morning in the classroom with Charades and headed to our whole school picnic. We sat with our pen pals and had a blast. After lunch, we presented our song and poem. The whole school joined in for the final version of Stirring Our Brew. Then we proceeded to our parade and games. We all loved the Scavenger Hunt. The chickens made the Jack-O-Lantern the hardest to find. We played outside all afternoon. Some of us also got to go to Nora's house and hang out! What a fantastic day!
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