Lost and Found - Miscellaneous

Do you recognize anything? Most of the ice-packs, barrettes, etc. have been unclaimed since September.  We will keep them in our classroom Lost and Found bin for a few more days.

Making Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

 We made the bread prior to the Remembrance Day Assembly.  When we left the assembly we could smell the bread baking in the oven.  It was a tasty treat to enjoy later in the day with our Big Buddies.  It was also a great lead-in to our "Recipe For Peace" writing activity. (Stay tuned for a post on our "Recipe For Peace").

We Know Pumpkins Have Seeds...What About These?

Three girls wanted to investigate the question above. We spent a lot of time discussing pumpkin seeds and counting the seeds from "Jack" (the pumpkin involved in the "rotten pumpkin experiment").  The girls made surveys and asked their classmates (and others) whether they thought the acorn squash and "long-neck" would have seeds.  There was much anticipation as I cut them in half.  Some children were surprised to see seeds and they enjoyed picking the seeds out.

Learning About Height

This is the end-result of one of our math lessons related to measuring height.  Mrs. Beselaere and I each worked with a group of students.  Each child placed their item on the board according to "shortest to tallest" order.

Before Halloween the children enjoyed measuring the height of different pumpkins in our classroom using snap cubes.  For the activity shown in the above collage, the children measured pumpkins they made.  They could make their pumpkins any size and shape.  The children measured their pumpkins from the bottom to the top of the stem and recorded the measurement  on a sticker on their pumpkins.  A few students were very interested in ordering the pumpkins from "shortest to tallest" (see our "Short To Tall Pumpkin Wall" collage below).  

Their Interest In Rolling Pumpkins Took Us Outside! We Needed A Hill!

The Children Discovered That Pumpkins Roll! That Discovery Lead To A Ramp-Building Project!

Pumpkin Party!

This was one of our centres at the Pumpkin Party on Friday morning.  This craft turned into a special photo keepsake that was placed in your child's mailbag on Monday.  The second craft the children made has also been sent home in mailbags.  We also had a games centre and a snack centre.  The collage below shows the sensory centre.

Worms And Dirt Continued!

We Made Pumpkin Glyphs With Our Big Buddies On Tuesday

Our Fall Store In The Dramatic Play Area Continues To Be A Popular Spot!

Measuring Height With Our Smaller Pumpkins

How Tall Is The Pumpkin?

Measurement - Learning About Height

Our Books About Squirrels

We are learning the difference between fiction and non-fiction texts. We are enjoying the exposure to squirrel facts. We are also getting a kick out the silly ways of the fictional character "Scaredy Squirrel". 

Outdoor Fun In The Leaves

Our class really enjoys our walks in the school yard. These walks always include stops at our favourite fall trees (in addition to making "leaf angels", enjoying the "crunchy" sounds as we run through the leaves, rolling in the leaves, making leaf piles and leaf forts). We have been keeping an eye on these trees for weeks, watching for colour changes, falling leaves, etc. For this walk, we were also on the lookout for squirrels and their nests. Our non-fiction books about squirrels described the nests so we knew what we were looking for. We are pretty sure we found two nests!

The Children Were Asked To Wear Clothing With Patterns

We continued our mathematical investigation of patterns by examining the patterns in our clothing.  We had lots of excellent examples!  Please ask your child to identify some of the patterns seen below.

Worms Continued!

Another fun science experiment using gummy worms, vinegar, and baking soda.

Some Creative Highlights From The Week

In the top left corner you will see the gorgeous stained glass leaves the JK/SK children made with their Big Buddies. In the upper right corner the beginnings of a "still life" painting are shown.  The student was making a poster for our "Fall Store" and painting a piece of decorative corn.  The bottom pictures highlight a squirrel craft that was made with the fall leaves the children brought in.  Thanks for collecting leaves last weekend!

The Fall Store Is Open For Business!

The children are enjoying our new Dramatic Play Centre.  As the pictures show, they really love loading up their shopping carts!  The students priced all of the items in dollar amounts.  One of the photos in the collage shows a student reaching into her purse to pay the cashier (wearing an "apple apron") with loonies.

Our Shoe Store Has Closed - We Have A New Store In The Works!

It was a busy store for a few weeks! The children voted to change our Dramatic Play centre into a "Fall Store". On Friday we listed all of the items they would like to "sell to their customers". This weekend Mrs. Beselaere and I will be on the lookout for gourds, squash, Indian corn, different pumpkins, etc. Please email Mrs. Garrow if you have any to spare. Thanks so much!

Sweet Acorn Treats!

We tied in some mathematical language (ordinal numbers: first, second, third, fourth) as we created these delicious treats.