Hibernation, Migration and Adaptation, Oh My!

This week we learned how animals get ready for winter. They utilize three different methods. The first is hibernation, which is when animals go to sleep for the winter. The second is migration, which when an animal goes from one place to another place. The third and last method is adaptation, which is they change something about themselves.

We learned that people change their clothes to help protect them from the weather, animals change their fur color, and eat more food.

This week we also added another letter to our repertoire. The letter T begins words such as tiger, toe, turtle and toothpicks. The students had a lot of fun making T projects and doing T activities.

What can I do with pumpkin?

The Pre-K class has been learning about pumpkins, both in non-fictional books and from hands-on experiences. We read about the pumpkin life cycle. A cycle is a process that repeats. It grows from a seed into a sprout, into a vine with orange flowers. The bottom of the flower begins to grow into a small green pumpkin. The green pumpkin grows and grows and begins to turn from green to orange. When it is orange, it is ready to be picked. We can cut a pumpkin open to get more seeds to plant.

 

Morah brought real pumpkins into our classroom.  We learned that pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes, Morah  brought in a large, medium and small pumpkin. During circle time we took turns answering different questions about our pumpkins. What do they have in common? What do you notice that is different? How heavy are the pumpkins? All of our pumpkins were orange and had ridges on the outside. They were different sizes and different shades of orange. We counted how many ridges were on each one and recorded the answers. We made predictions based on what we had read. Pumpkins that are darker and have more ridges have more seeds. Some children predicted that the darkest pumpkin would have the most and some predicted that the one with the most ridges would have the most.

 

 

 

Finally, we were ready to cut our pumpkins open. We passed them around to examine the insides, smell fresh pumpkin, and feel the pulp and seeds. We scooped the seeds out of each pumpkin onto its own bowl.

After cleaning the seeds out of our pumpkins last week and letting them dry, we were ready to count them. We worked together to count the seeds. There were soooo many seeds from our big pumpkin! Our big pumpkin had 512 seeds while our medium pumpkin only had 320 seeds.

 

We learned that there was more to do with a pumpkin besides roast the seeds, Morah than put the pumpkin in the oven to get soft. Once it was cooked, we scooped out the flesh into a big bowl. Afterwards we gathered around the table and weighed the pumpkin puree – our muffins would need 3 pounds of pumpkin. Together we made the batter and at the end of the day we had a delicious pumpkin muffin treat.

 

 

Lets not forget about the letter H. This letter stands for so many wonderful words such as: Help, Hero, Hat, Horse, Head, Hair, and, and Heart.

Leaves and Trees

It has been a super busy week in Pre-K and K.  We learned a new letter, celebrated a birthday,had picture day and took a closer look at trees.

On Monday we celebrated our first class birthday! Happy 4th Birthday Penelope!!  In the morning we baked confetti cupcakes and during snack time we sang happy birthday. Afterwards we were read a special book by Penelope’s mom, it was called Nibbles the Book Monster. The class had a great time listening to the story. They loved it so much that we read it again later that day.

We also were introduced to the letter E. Throughout the week we practiced the sound E makes, how to write the letter E, and made a project using a tool with an E name. Using an eyedropper to make our E’s was so much fun!

 

We learned about patterns. A pattern is something that go on and on the same (repeats). Patterns are all around us. Children can describe a pattern by naming the pattern unit, the part that repeats. We learn about patterns through exposure and experiences.  We practiced building patterns with different colored leaves. By understanding patterns, children are able to make predictions about what should come next.

 

This week we started studying trees and why the leaves change color. We learned that trees are the biggest plant, but they have some parts that are different from flowers and shrubs. We spent time gathering leaves and noticed that all leaves are different, they also do not change the same way during the fall. Some leaves turn red and others yellow,  but some just turn brown. Did you know that leaves make a special food for the tree? Its called chlorophyll, and it is what gives leaves their green color. The leaves need sunlight to make chlorophyll and with the days getting shorter the leaves get less and less sun. When that happens the leaves start to change color. We played a game called ‘The Case of the Missing Chlorophyll’ we had to figure out which leaves had the most and which had the least. This was also a great time to practice sequencing, and some math vocabulary.

 

 

 

Autumn is Here!

It was wonderful learning about all of the Yom Tov holidays, but we are very excited to start learning all about autumn. We began by reading the book Fall is Here! I love it so much! by Elaine W. Good, we then discussed all the different things that happen during the fall season. Everyone shared what they were excited about. Most of class can’t wait for the leaves to change color and to learn about pumpkins.

We got to take a nature walk on Friday and we saw that many of leaves had already begun to fall, some were red, others were yellow and there were even some that were green. We gathered all different fall items, such as leaves, acorns, pine cones and evergreen needles. Throughout the season we will continue to take nature walks so can closely observe how the environment is changing.

Throughout Wednesday and Thursday we continued to get reacquainted with our centers, the playground  and letters. We started our letter journals this week, we got to write the letters F and L and draw a picture a word that starts with those letters. I wonder which letter we learn next week. After the rain the ground was full of different animals and after we finished observing them we made sure to put them back in their homes.

 

Have a great weekend!