Pumpkins Part 1

October has been the month for pumpkins in Kindergarten!

We kicked off our pumpkin unit by reading my all time favorite pumpkin book--Spookley the Square Pumpkin!  Then we created some Spookley inspired art work and writing of our own!

We used lots of different shapes, colors, and patterns to create our pumpkin patches, and I think that we can all agree that sometimes it's better to be square!

We also began a new investigation that seemed to raise a lot of questions!

Check out the object of our inquiry!

                                     

Were these really pumpkins?  Could pumpkins really be different colors and sizes?

A little research helped us find the answer!

It turns out pumpkins can be tons of different shapes and sizes!  Some pumpkins are even blue!  We found out that that Spookley patch was a little closer to real life than any of us had thought!

We continued researching and found out more about how pumpkins grow and began creating our own teaching books to show the pumpkin life cycle.

Next we painted our own pumpkins (it may have been a paper plate) and colored sequencing cards to build our own pumpkin life cycles.

Be on the look out for Pumpkins Part 2 to see the finished product and even more pumpkin inspired learning!

Autumn in for Apples!

Even though it's been a few weeks since we had all our apple fun, it's definitely still worth sharing!

I am from Ellijay, and my elementary school sat right between two small family owned apple orchards.  So nothing says home, or school, to me quite the way apples.  I think that is why our apple unit is one of my absolute favorites!

We spent lots of time researching different types of apples and how they grow.  We recorded the life cycle of an apple, and then did a taste test to find our favorite apples.  We did a little apple stamping to show our choices.  Who knew most students would pick Granny Smith?

After we gathered our data, we did some journaling to share what we could learn by looking at our apple graph.  The kids did a great job counting the apples in each category and using the terms most, more, less, and least!

We learned that apples are pretty yummy all by themselves, but sometimes apples are best in cakes, pies, and applesauce!

First we read Apple Farmer Annie and learned all about how apples go from the farm to your table.  Then we used some of our apples to make apple sauce just like Annie!

It was YUMMY!!

Finally, we did a little investigation to see if apples sink or float!  We had lots of ideas, but after a little experimenting we found that apples definitely...FLOAT--just like coconuts!

See if your child can tell you why!

Fall Fun!

Kindergarten is ready to welcome the new season--FALL!!

We started the week with a little research to find out a little more information about Fall.  Watching how the Earth moves around the sun to create our seasons on Pebble-Go was pretty cool!  You can watch again at home by clicking here. (Username:  colham    Password:  ferry)

Later we did some more research on our using the ipads.  Students were able to investigate what people, animals, and plants do during the Fall, and create some writing to show what they had learned.

On Tuesday, Ms. Bliss, a special classroom volunteer, spent the day with us, and she shared Lois Ehlert's Leafman. Then we got to make our own Leafman and write about the things our Leafmen might do and see during Fall.

For a little more fictional Fall fun, we read There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves.

Then we made our own little old lady and created a fall thing for her to swallow.

But the little old lady fun did not stop there!  After studying and exploring the states of matter over the past few weeks, we decided to see what would happen if the little old lady swallowed two liquids--water and vinegar--and a solid--a packet of baking soda.  Most of us thought that we would create a solid like we did when we made butter.  Some us thought that the baking soda would "melt" into the water, and we would have a liquid.  But...we didn't create a solid or a liquid!  We created a gas that exploded our little old lady!!

 

We finished up the week with a little fall tree art and snacks!

Happy first full week of Fall, y'all!