Apples Apples Everywhere!

This week, we celebrated apples.  Yum yum!

 

 

The students were given an apple to explore through their senses.  What did it look like?  How did it feel?  What did it smell like?  We brainstormed key descriptive words.

As you can see, we had some great words!  The students then completed their own "apple expert" sheets.

Finally, it was time for the taste portion of this exploration and - once again - many wonderful descriptive words were brainstormed.

The next day, we decided to compare yellow to green to red apples through taste testing.  Each child was given a slice of apple in each colour.  Using their discerning senses of taste, they decided which of the three apples tasted best according to their individual palettes.

The students each received a paper apple template which they labelled with their name and coloured to match their favourite type of apple. 

We gathered back together as a group and made predictions about the favourite, the second most favourite, and the least favourite type of apple.  Then, we built a graph. What do you predict?

Here are the results for Division 1:

Here are the results for Division 2:

Next week, we will have our UBC student candidates, Sarah and Olivia, with us for the next two weeks.  They are very excited to be with us and have some pretty special activities and ideas to share with us!

 
In the mean time, we have a very spooky week ahead.  Beware of the oh so scary skeletons roaming the bulletin boards and perhaps even...the hallways...ooooooh!

 

Halloween is Wednesday.  We would love your child to come in "full costume" so we can all be spooky together on this wonderfully fun day!  We are also planning a snack party so feel free to send a somewhat healthy snack to share with other ghouls and goblins...oh, and our classmates too!

Thanks for visiting.

Scary Scarecrows have invaded our hallway!

The students and teachers of divisions 1 and 2 had another busy and fun-filled week.

We read a wonderful book called Scarecrow written by Cynthia Rylant.  It is a story of a scarecrow's life as seen through the scarecrow's eyes.

Using an assortment of materials such as wallpaper and popsicle sticks, we created our own scarecrows.  They can be found hanging around the old picket fence outside our rooms!

Our scarecrow poem was a hit this week.  We chanted and sang it to a spooky tune.  Ooooooooooh!

Art and Play Adventures at the Outside Choosing Area.  Many thanks to all of our parent volunteers who set up, supervise and restock this area!

In math, we are exploring numbers and making ten.  Our math time typically begins with discussion around a concept followed by discovery learning through activities and games.

Journal writing is a popular Div 1 and 2 activity.  Something tells us excitement is starting to build around Hallowe'en!

Continuing with our Fall theme, the children created some big, bold and beautiful pumpkins.  After closely observing our real in-class pumpkins, the children used tempera paints and oil pastels paying close attention to pumpkin details such as shapes, lines and textures.



Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful week.



Fall has arrived

Fall and Food!

Well it seems fall has really arrived! Days are getting cooler, and the rain has finally returned. Early in the week, the children enjoyed going on a fall walk and finding a collection of autumn things.





We brought the collection back to the classroom and sorted the objects according to a number of criteria such as shape, texture and colour.



Look at what we found!



Then we brainstormed a list of autumn words, and illustrated them to make a classroom word wall.



So many words about fall.....We especially like soggy!



Follwing this, each child wrote an autumn poem using the words on the word wall.





On Thursday evening we had a delicious gathering at Dickens! Many families joined us for our Dickens Autumn Family Gathering. We enjoyed desserts and visited with teachers and families. Thank you to those of you who were able to make it.

On Fridays we spend time with our Big Buddies. These students are in Tami's grade 5/6/7 class. The children read books together, and from time to time we do an alternate activity. Today the activity was a chance to get to know one another through a "My Buddy is Special" sheet.

Finally we want to introduce our UBC Teacher Candidates, Sarah and Olivia. They will be joining us every Thursday, and for two weeks at the end of October and beginning of November. In April they will begin their 10 week practicum with us. We are so happy to have them teaching and learning with your children.

A week of thanks

Happy Week of Thanks!!

We have had a marvelous week learning and thinking about the things we are thankful for! The children created beautiful turkeys for the tree outside in the hall. Each feather is filled with words of things that they are grateful to have in their life. Please come and see them.

Thanksgiving Turkeys

Making legs

Making feathers

And we learned a poem about thanksgiving:

In math we have been working with the Power of Ten cards, learning the values of the cards and how to remember the value at a quick glance.



On Monday we had an incredible performance by Axe Capoeira. This art combines dance, acrobatics and martial arts. It originated in Brazil. The children were "wowed' by the moves!

Few reminders about our weekly schedule:

Gym on Tuesdays and Fridays

Library Book Exchange on Wednesdays--please return library books on Wednesdays!!

Please remember to join us next Thursday (October 11) from 6:30 to 8:00 for our Autumn Family Gathering at the school. Bring a dessert to share and your own plate and fork. We look forward to chatting with you then.

We wish you all a wonderful long weekend filled with family time and good food!

 

 

What a great time we had together last week! We did have some glitches with the blog, so this is coming a few days late. Thank you for your patience.

We have some new class "pets": wood bugs! We set traps in the school garden beds using a holed out potato. This only gave us one specimen. We all worked together to find damp leaves and sticks to put in the habitat, and hoped that more wood bugs would come. Thanks to Hollande, our wish came true. She brought the class several dozen bugs the next day. So now both Division 1 and 2 are the proud parents of many wood bugs. Please come and take a look when you have time!

We have settled in to our new routines and learned all about classroom expectations. Each child has found a choosing area that they enjoy during our free play time, and are creating wonderful art work and designs with the materials. 

Making menus

creating 3-D art

painting gardens

cutting out drawings

In math, we have been learning about patterns and sorting. Children worked on testing items to see if they could sink or float and then placed the items in the correct category. 

We had a very successful Terry Fox Run on Friday and were so impressed by what strong runners your children are! The school raised over $900.00.

Please remember to do Home Reading with your child every night!

Next blog post will be on Friday!