Being inspired by what is on our plates, the current theme is apples. Many of the students bring apples in their lunches, but I wonder what we truly know about apples—hopefully we find out a lot in the next few weeks! We are also studying apples in preparation for the all school Field Trip to Burnham Orchard on October 2nd.

In our creation center students first made apples using their hands. They painted the palm of their hand and then placed it on a sheet of paper. This represented the apple. Next they painted their thumbs green to make the leaf of the apple. We also made apples on paper plates by doing paper ripping. We thought of the variety of colors we have seen apples come in and ripped a piece of paper into small pieces. When the small pieces were ripped we put glue on a paper plate and pasted the paper. Students enjoyed these projects because they got to get messier than usual.

In preparation for learning about where in the world apples are grown we broke down the anatomy of the apple. We placed labels on a big apple to show where certain parts of the apple are located. The stem, core, seeds, flesh, and skin are the parts of apples we now know. We also brainstormed some of the different recipes we think that use apples and then went over a list of some more unusual apple recipes.

Math Workshop has been going quick and we are going to enter our next unit on Monday. We have explored with pattern blocks, geoblocks, attribute blocks, buttons, and colored tiles. In our next unit we will begin to investigate counting and comparing through measurement and the number system.

I am amazed at how we have progressed in Writer’s Workshop. This week we worked on using the alphabet chart to figure out what letter we need to use to make the sound in the word we are writing. Each table has at least one alphabet chart that is shared amongst the students. When students get stuck on a word they look at the chart and try to find a picture that starts with the same sound they are looking for. For example if a student is trying to spell the word “pumpkin” they look at the chart and try to find the picture that starts with the “p” sound. They find pig on the chart and discover that “P” is the letter they want to write in their story.

We also discussed how we can come back to our writing if time runs out and we are not finished, or if we want to add more the next day. In our writing folders we have two pockets. In one pocket we put a red star (this stands for stories that are complete). The other pocket has a green star (for stories that are not finished). This is a new way of organizing that helps the students to visually see where they can go with their writing.

In Social Studies we read about how we can learn to treat our friends by looking at the ways some animals treat each other. We practiced how we should treat our classmates.

By becoming familiar with different genres of books we are expanding our reading vocabulary. At large group we have talked about, and given examples of, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry books. Soon the students will be sent home with reading logs as homework. There will be more information to follow.

The information for the all school Field Trip to Burnham Orchard has been sent home, but let us know if you have any questions!

Have a great weekend!