What a fun week we had learning all about pumpkins. First we learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin. The kids were amazed at how many steps there are and that the pumpkin is actually a flower before becoming a pumpkin. They learned about pumpkins coming in all different shapes, sizes, textures and colors. I brought in two large pumpkins and we learned the parts of a pumpkin and explored the inside of a pumpkin after carving them open. The kids learned that once you carve your pumpkin with a face that its name changes from pumpkin to Jack-o-Lantern. We read stories about pumpkins, played center activities that revolved around the pumpkin theme and our rhyme of the week is "Five Little Pumpkins" (which they really had fun learning).
On Wednesday we wore orange to stand up against bullying. We talked about what it means to be a bully. The short movie, Spookley the Square Pumpkin has actually been designated as the official anti-bullying film so rather than saving the movie for Halloween we watched it on Wednesday. The kids made great connections and were able to identify the bullies in the movie and saw what it means to take the high road, just like Spookley did when it came time for the Bullies needing help from him. We talked about bullies being people who say and do things to hurt us and make our hearts feel sad. The kids learned that they can tell bullies to stop and they do not like it but that they also need to tell an adult so the bullies cannot continue to do things to upset or hurt them. The kids learned that they should never do things to others to make their hearts sad.
**Spookley has been on Disney Junior a few times, if you have not caught it and get that station, I highly recommend making it part of a family movie night. It is fun for Halloween and teaches a great lesson**
The kids learned what a graph is, what they tell us and how to read them. We made a graph about what our favorite treat to get when trick or treating is. On large paper there were three columns: chocolate, lollipops and chips. I help up each students name card. First, each child had to identify their name and then they placed their name under the column of their most favorite Halloween treat. After we went through all of the names we talked about the results. Which column had them most, least and ties.
We have been learning how to count out objects and practiced how to touch the objects as we count so we can keep track of our counting. We exercised and counted each movement as we did them.
We also learned about counting objects all together/adding. I had a picture of an octopus with 8 tentacles. 7 tentacles had green dots and the eighth had a red dot which was folded and hidden. I demonstrated counting the tentacles by touching each one and counting as I touched them. We saw and counted 8 tentacles. But then we had one tentacle that was hurt and I unfolded the eighth one. I said I was "adding" one more tentacle. We talked about adding means to give more. Now I wanted to know how many all together, so that meant to count all of them. A lot of our math discussion revolves around conversation to check for understanding and repetitive explanations. It helps the kids learn and retain information. I always explain that when we want to know how many of something there is we can count to find out. We count by touching each object so we do not miss any.
We wrapped up our letter E for this week with some great show and tell!
Thank you to all who continue to support your child in their learning adventure. They are already growing so much. I am so happy to see all of the homework participation. The things that seem small to us have a HUGE impact on your children. As the saying goes, "it is the small things that mean the most".
Here are some videos the kids LOVED this week:
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Miller
