Changing Seasons

Hello family and friends!

We've had a great week in the Aalva class! We've spent most of the week talking about the changes we've started noticing in the weather and our outside environment. Most of these changes have pointed us to notice the transition from summer to fall, such as finding multi-colored leaves on the playground. It's been a fun week of exploration!

Before I get into all the details of our week, I want to welcome Owen into our classroom family! Owen has visited us twice this week and we are happy to announce that he is now starting full time. We are so excited to have him join us! The kids have already started welcoming him by introducing him to our classroom toys/center and helping him transition into our daily routine. Welcome, Owen and family!

To start this week, we went on a nature walk around our school. As we set out we talked about looking for changes in our environment and collecting interesting artifacts for our classroom. It ended up being a great day for this little adventure because it was a cooler morning with a small amount of mist. We talked about the change in the temperature (as some of us have started wearing pants and long sleeves) and how it affects us and the wild life around us. As we found acorns we talked about squirrels and birds making preparations for winter. The change in weather and our environment signals the animals to start collecting food and preparing dens for a cold winter ahead. We also discussed how the smallest of bugs will need to find a place to keep warm. After we spent some time walking and gathering, we asked each child to show us their favorite findings and why they liked it so much. We ended up collecting some awesome nature objects! We put some in science for the kids to explore. We also put some in the art center. The kids have used them to paint with! We discovered that we can make some amazing and creative artwork by painting with leaves, sticks, nuts, and pinecones instead of paint brushes.

As we talked about animals preparing for winter during the fall months, one student suggested that we make a stick den in our classroom. Everyone was on board with this idea! We had a couple of giant boxes so we spent one morning taping, cutting, and then gluing our nature objects to our boxes. It has turned into a dark little nature den that is perfect for hibernating animals (or kids!) and for using as an awesome fort :)

In our discussion last week about apples (from Ms. Michelle's orchard trip), we also talked about other types of gourds, pumpkins, and squash that are in season during the fall. Michelle brought back a pumpkin along with the apples. We finally decided that it was time to investigate our pumpkin. We started by looking at books to research how they grow. Many students discovered that pumpkins grow on vines instead of on trees like they first thought. Afterwards, we decided to dissect it! As any scientist would do, we made predictions on how many seeds we thought a pumpkin held. We got everything from one giant seed to 1,000,000,100.14573 (literally!). After our predictions were made, we cut it open. I wish I had a video of their reactions! It was hilarious/amazing/highlight of my week! The "eeeewwww", "cool!", and squeals that we heard were so fun to witness. We passed the top of the pumpkin around and then let the kids dig into it and pull the guts out. Some chose not to while others were going back multiple times. It was such a fun experience!

As we dissected, we pulled some seeds out and set them aside to roast. We introduced everyone to our recipe and talked about our ingredients and how we follow the directions to get the best results. We went into the kitchen to wash our seeds then we mixed them with some oil and salt. We let them roast in the oven for about 45 minutes at 325 degrees. We set a timer in the room and they jumped into a line as soon as it went off! We went back to the kitchen to see if they baked properly and to taste the results. It was an overwhelming vote of "delicious!". Most said they tasted exactly like popcorn. This will be the first of many cooking adventures we go on this year.

In the science center we have added some different types of gourds, pumpkins, and indian corn. We plan on adding new objects in our centers as we witness the changing seasons. The kids have been exploring these objects through magnifying glasses, measuring tapes, and scales for weighing. Some of our group has asked what the difference is between pumpkins and gourds. Great questions! We will definitely be exploring that question next week. It's been a great week of discovers and we're looking forward to more to come next week!

Here is a short list of just a few standards we worked on this week...

Approaches to Learning:

Show creativity and imagination using materials in representational play.
Demonstrate eagerness and interest as a learner by questions and adding ideas.
Show increasing ability to maintain interest in self-selected activities and play despite distractions and interruptions.
Understand that a task can be accomplished through several steps.

Social & Emotional:

Demonstrate self direction by making choices among peers activities and materials.
Respond respectfully to positive and negative feedback from adults most of the time.
Develop strategies to express strong emotion with adult help.

Language & Literacy:

Classify objects and information by observable attributes into predetermined categories.
Ask "how" and "why" questions about things in books and their environment.
Begin to use classroom resources such as books, charts, photographs and graphs to gain information about topics of interest.
Contribute to small group or whole class dictation activities.
Understand relationship between print and pictures on page.

Mathematics:

Organize and represent data with real objects.
Associate at least two measurement devices with their purposes.
Represent simple joining and separating situations through 4.
Integrate mathematical ideas into personal representations.

As a reminder, the school will be closed on Thursday and Friday for the next two weeks. The kids have been learning a lot about Yom Kippur and Sukkot with Morah Devorah during Torah time each day. I encourage you to ask them about it and see what all they've learned! The two shorter weeks also means that there will not be a blog update. However, I will be sending out a brief email to keep in touch about our week at school. I hope everyone enjoys the pictures from our week of exploring!

On the hunt for nature...