Growing/Change---Living and Non-Living Things

Growing/Change/Living Things:

When we were feeding Mango and Jelly, I brought in a full cucumber.  There were a couple of students who had not seen a cucumber before, and we started talking about what was in it!  This led to a discussion of seeds, and because it was so close to Halloween, inevitably went to pumpkins.  Many of the students had different ideas of what was inside a pumpkin (seeds, gooey stuff, stars, strings, fruit, baby pumpkins, leaves were all ideas put forward.)  We cut open the pumpkin, observed and investigated, cut it into a jack-o-lantern and left it.  We came back to a moldy pumpkin which led to a whole new set of questions and wonderings including if we planted the seeds we took out of the pumpkin would it grow into a new one?  We planted the seeds, made signs for them so we would know who they belonged to, and have been watching them grow and have been taking care of them by giving them sunshine and water.

This led us to some new questions:  WHAT IS LIVING?  WHAT IS NOT LIVING?  We explored some things in the classroom and outside.  The kiddos were suddenly very into the clipboards and paper, clay and drawing.  Some of the students observed various living and non-living things and drew them. Some of the students tried to make clay representations.  Some became “scientists” and went around the classroom and courtyard drawing and writing their observations.

“I’m being a scientist because I am recording everything I see and hear.” –Shayne

“Yeah, me too! I am listening to what people are saying.” –Ella

“Living things move around a lot like Mango and Jelly.”  -Aria

“But they need water like our plants!”  -Daniel

“This leaf doesn’t need water—it is already dead!”  -Xavion

The students will have a little surprise waiting for them on Monday—a delivery of caterpillars arrived in our classroom….

Explorations like these really allow the students to make their own meaning with their peers and teachers.  They learn to keenly observe, record and share information and to continue questioning.

At one point something changed and a few of the students began using the clipboards and paper to take food orders! They really got into the idea of a restaurant and wanted to start planning one for outside!  We brainstormed and we will see where this new direction takes us!  It looks like we may have a couple of big projects going at the same time! J

Weekly Update Nov 11 to 13

It was another short week, but such an enjoyable one with our yellow starfish!  Some students were interested in talking about the seasons, and we began a little bit about Thanksgiving.  We were also very lucky to have Shayne’s mom come in to talk to us about Diwali! Thank you Sarika and Fiona for a fun Thursday morning!

(See next blog about our investigation into seeds and living and non-living things)

Our other explorations included…

*learning the story of Diwali (which many of our kiddos already knew!  What an international group we have!) We also decorated diyas and put a tealight inside for parents to help light at home, made beautiful Rangoli with rainbow rice, tried on some traditional dress, and munched on some chips.  It was a beautiful celebration!

*learning the sounds (long and short), hand motion and letter formation for the letter Ee.

*learning the song Dingle Dangle Scarecrow, Albuquerque Turkey, I’m a little Turkey and Hello Mr. Turkey and we added them to our Song books. (Please send the song books back to school if you haven’t already!)

*playing picture and sound games. 

*Using our imaginations and great oral language skills in the “Farmers’ Market” dramatic play the kiddos set up.

*Counted pennies and nickels as we practiced buying food.

*talked about our pumpkin plants, drew about them, made signs for them and took care of them.  The kids also wanted to make beautiful pots for them to live in.

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES

Thursday, November 26^th and Friday, November 27^th: THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY- NO SCHOOL

*Please return the red library bag and books on Monday!!

*Don’t forget to check the blog for pictures and updates as well!

Have a great weekend! Lynsey

Friday Update Nov 6

The yellow starfish have had another amazing and fun week with lots of learning going on!  They all did really well with our subs while I was doing the professional development (which was purposeful and amazing) and I am proud of some of the amazing conversations and explorations the kiddos and I have had over the last couple of days.

Note:  ** Your child’s poetry and song book is coming home in their Friday Folder today—be sure to sing the songs with them this weekend, and they will use their “magic pointer” to point to the words as they sing!  (Of course they may not be pointing to the correct words—the idea is to have them know which way you read-Left to Right, and that the words they are singing are on the page. J) You may have to help them with some of the songs—some are easier to sing than others. Please return the song books on Wednesday.

This week some of our explorations also included….

*learning the sound, letter formation, and hand motion for the letter Hh—this letter actually came up because so many of our cuties have still be obsessed with Pumpkins and Halloween, and some really wanted to draw and write about it. They helped me find h pictures on the computer.

*planting pumpkin seeds, which led into the pumpkin life cycle.  We were keeping the seeds that we dug out of our pumpkin last week, and some of them sprouted!  We wondered what we should do about this!  Some cuties wanted to plant some in our back garden, others wanted them to take home, so we did a little of both.  We are going to watch them grow and see what happens.

*reading “Too Many Pumpkins” and “From Seed to Plant” along with other pumpkin and growing/harvest books that were picked out by our kiddos

*using popsicle sticks!  Sticks keep coming to school in one way or another, so we had a little conversation about them and then provided the students with some other materials—I didn’t tell them what to do with them, and our cuties went to town!  Some made houses, others glued them onto paper in different designs, some built vehicles….lots of fun and wondering!

*Some of our students were talking about games they play at home, and the concept of dice came up.  They looked through my cupboard with me, and they picked out two games they wanted to try—a pig game (depending on the number you roll on a dice you have to draw a certain part of a pig—the first one who draws the whole pig wins) and an alphabet bingo—they had a lot of fun!

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES

Monday, November 9^th: FACULTY INSERVICE DAY—NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

Tuesday, November 10^th:  DEEPAVALI HOLIDAY- NO SCHOOL

Wednesday, November 11^th:  Alternate Dress and Library Day

Thursday, November 26^th and Friday, November 27^th: THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY- NO SCHOOL

*Please return the red library bag and books and Blue Friday Folder and SONG BOOK on Wednesday when we are back!!

*Please look for an e-mail from me about volunteering in our classroom! J 

Pumpkins!

PUMPKINS!!!!

With Halloween coming up the students have been talking about their costumes, various spooks (ghost, goblins, black cats, bats) and PUMPKINS!  There has been a lot of interest and discussion around pumpkins, and a lot of reading and research into pumpkins, since we are in place that doesn’t have a lot of pumpkins just growing all around us!

I bought a pumpkin for us to explore—we rolled it, talked about what might be inside, how tall and heavy it was, drew pictures of it and cut it open to explore some more! Once we all realised there were seeds inside, the kiddos estimated how many they thought were inside, and counted them.  Then of course they wanted to carve a face into the side like so many of the stories we read!

Random wonderings and amazing questions and conversations were overheard:

“This pumpkin is so so heavy when you try and lift it!” “We are strong though, so we can do it!” –Dylan and Liam

“I wonder what is inside this pumpkin…grass?”  -Map

“There are seeds and yucky stuff inside….just wait until we open it!” –Ella

“Look when we roll this pumpkin it goes pretty straight, I thought it would always go to the side. That’s so weird!” –Rania

“LOOK AT ALL THE SEEDS!  What are the stringy bits? The pumpkin smells so weird.” –Aria

“How many are in there?  If we counted it would take us way too long.”  -Jasper

“If you cut out the side it turns to a jack-o-lantern like in the Big Pumpkin story.” 

-Shayne

“I am going to try and make my drawing exactly the same as our pumpkin.” –Malia

“Let’s turn it into a jack-o-lantern!  I love taking out the seeds—I can do it just with my hands because I’ve done this before!”  -Dylan

By exploring pumpkins through this kind of practical experiences, the kiddos have so many opportunities to observe, learn and construct their own knowledge and meaning with their classmates.