SPOOKTIVITY FUN!

Halloween is so much fun for children!  They love the art activities, spooky stories, costumes, and, of course, all the goodies. Your children spent this afternoon preparing decorations for MPI's Spooktivity celebration on October 31st. Mrs. Cutter organized the event for our class, and Mr. and Mrs. Yoshikawa, Mrs. Meyer, Mrs. Ichinose, Mrs. Eng, and Mrs. Trowbridge all came in to help. The kids love having parents in the room!  Mahalo to all!!  The children created ghosts from their footprints and bats from their handprints.  Both were decorated with googly eyes, beads, and glitter glue. There was a table for decorating Halloween cookies. Guess what! Those cookies disappeared as soon as they were decorated! Another table made Trick-or-Treat bags for Spooktivity. While waiting for the "hand-on" activities, the children enjoyed doing Halloween jack-o'-lantern mazes, scrambled words, word searches, patterning, and subtraction story problems. What fun! A highlight was when they gathered on the Peace Carpet and started singing a stirring rendition of the "12 Days of Halloween" for me and the parents.  An afternoon enjoyed by all!

Inquiry and Art Collaboration
The children are involved in a very exciting learning collaboration with Ms. Brooks, the art teacher. As they put  their finishing touches on realistic habitats full of animals they are researching, she is encouraging them to draw abstract animals to put in abstract environments. Please, take time this weekend to gather some of the materials that will add texture and design to your child's abstract habitat.  Be sure to write your child's name on the bags they bring in and, remember, just a little will do!

Mahalo, Mrs. Trowbridge
The children enjoyed a wonderful learning activity with Mrs. Trowbridge last week. She adapted Rudyard Kipling's "Just So" stories to their level, and encouraged the children to think about how they might write creative explanations for nature's wonders. We heard about how the camel got his hump and the elephant his trunk. When it was time to get ready to go home, they begged Mrs. Trowbridge for just one more. We will definitely have her back!

Dolphin Institute
Three knowledgeable, young scientists from the Dolphin Institute came to our class on Tuesday to tell us about humpback whales. Wow! We really learned a lot. Did you know that the male humpbacks are the only ones who sing, and that they all sing the same song each year? The song changes over time, but they all end up singing the same song in the mating grounds here in Hawaii. We enjoyed listening to some examples of the sounds that make up their songs. We also learned about how a primary male escorts a female and fights off other suitors. That's what a lot of the tail-slapping and breeching is about. Each child created a whale fluke (tail) and became a humpback dodging orcas, crab traps, fishnets, and other things that are dangers to humpbacks in the sea. Your children, once again, surprised our guests with the depth of their background knowledge and how quickly they incorporate new information into their scientific minds. They had answers for all the "why" and "how" questions!

Learning Excursion and Activity
Tuesday, October 22, we will be going to the zoo. Chaperones are welcome to accompany us on the bus again or meet us at the front gate.  Details will be coming home soon.  The focus of this learning adventure will be mammals.

On Friday, October 26, The Academy of Arts Ambassador Program will bring its Museum in a Box "Animals in Art" unit into all the 1/2 classrooms. An artist will explain how different cultures at different periods in history represented animals in art. On November 2, we will visit the Academy for a docent tour of "Animals In Art" in the galleries, and the artist will return on November 7 for classroom art activities.  This is an excellent program.  Look for a sign-up sheet next week for chaperones.

Pumpkin-Carving
We have more than enough pumpkins for carving day on October 29th. I think we have nearly enough parents coming to help, but don't hesitate to join in the fun, if you can.

Be sure to check the Photo Gallery for some great photos of our learning fun!

Posted on October 18, 2007 11:18 AM | Permalink