Full On Fall !

While Frederick's friends gathered wheat, corn and acorns for the  harsh days of winter, Frederick's contribution was words.  He gathered words to create poetry about the good days in summer.  Frederick was able to recite this poetry for his friends when winter was almost too tough to bear.  We created a mural in Leo Lionni's style and saved some special words of our own. 

I hope you can get a sense of the focus children are bringing to their work these days.  Below you can see two friends copying the birthday wall- this was their decision when "white boards" was available as a literacy choice.  You can also see students concentrating on recording all the combinations of 10 that they could discover while manipulating two-colored pegs on a ten frame.

The last Leo Lionni story we read was Alexander and the Wind up Mouse.  Alexander Mouse used his one magic wish to turn his toy-mouse friend into a real mouse. Take a look at the attention these table mates are giving to collaging a picture of what they would wish for if they had a magic purple pebble.

It's important to know that we play as hard as we work in Room 28 so I will close this post with a look and friendship indoors and out!

What A Week!

In addition to the excitement of the circus, we found some time this past week to sink into some writing. Below you can have a look at the children putting together an "8 page book".  It's a literacy activity that has become familiar to the group. These books are made to support themes we are studying, feature "popcorn" words and emphasize using picture clues to read.  After the children complete the book with writing, drawing, cutting, putting the pages in order and stapling, they read it to a teacher and place it in their book box to re-read in the future.  As I taught the class in Reader's Workshop this week:  "when you're done, you've just begun".  Readers become even stronger and learn more when they go back and re-read!

Another important writing activity this week was the start of "write around the room" as a literacy choice.  Below you can see a student independently "copy writing" words that are important to her from around the room.  In this way children deepen their learning by connecting the way a word looks to the way it sounds and what it means.

 ...And to end the week we headed to the Pumpkin Patch!

Stretching Our Whole Selves

Thinking back over the week I am struck by how many ways the children are challenging themselves and expanding their learning. When I'm planning lessons or setting up experiences I always have different learning styles in mind, but looking back over the week it makes me happy to see the many ways children are connecting to one another and the curriculum.  Here is a look back at our continuing author study of Leo Lionni (making mice in his collage style), building with geoblocks at Explore time, working with partners on a math game, and navigating our way through circus practice!

 

Wrapping up September

What a fantastic first month of Kindergarten!  Many of our routines are underway and getting together with our fifth grade buddies is fast becoming a favorite.  I hope the pictures below can give you an idea of how special it is when some of our oldest and youngest students at Orchard get together.  You may have read in the newsletter that we have begun an author study of Leo Lionni. One of the most incredible things about LL's timeless stories is that he has written AND illustrated them himself, insuring that the words and pictures go hand in hand to tell the story together.  This makes them perfect for beginning readers.  Below you can catch a glimpse of us creating artwork in his style.  And finally, have a look at one of the math games we played this week.  While working in pairs the children traced shapes (solidifying their understanding of shape names), kept track of ordinal numbers ("first", "second", "third", etc.) and began thinking about "how many more to make five?".

Budding Natulists

Last week our morning meeting on Monday took an unexpected turn when I shared a bird's nest that Mr. Kaulius brought in shortly before the children arrived. I relayed to the class that the nest had fallen from a nearby tree and no eggs or birds could be seen.  And from there the wondering began- did it fall from a maple tree (there were maple leaves sticking out), were the birds having a baby shower? (there was a pink ribbon woven around), why was it so small?  how do birds carry mud?  Someone suggested that we should make science drawings of the nest in our forest journals and we did!

Later in the week we continued our discussion of how an apple tree changes with the seasons. We are lucky to have some on the Orchard grounds that we can visit throughout the year.  Below you can see us working on a piece of art work that tells the story of an apple tree in four seasons. You can also see the children picking apart the heads of giant (actually called "Mammoth") sunflowers that I brought from my home. We're going to try saving some seeds to plant in the spring and even toasting some for snack.

Our week concluded with making some homemade, okay, schoolmade applesauce.  The children chopped and with a little help on the boiling from Mrs. G they became sweet and mushy in no time.  
During Explore the children took turns cranking the food mill that separated all the skins and seeds.  A touch of cinnamon and a healthy, fall snack was had by all!

A Beautiful Day at Hackett's Orchard

Our apple picking field trip was picture perfect.  On top of the gorgeous weather, we had an excellent guide (Gary) and the memorable experience of eating an apple you picked yourself! While on the tractor ride we learned about different varieties of apples, how apple trees grow and how a terrible frost in the 1930's destroyed all but one of the trees in the orchard.  This prompted one of the children to wonder if that tree was still there and if we could visit it.  Gary was inspired by the curiosity and took our group to another area of the orchard where we visited the nearly 100 year old surviving tree- super cool!

Explore Time

This picture speaks for itself.  

Creativity and cooperation through block play- so important.