9/18/06-9/22/06 Avocados, Rainbows, and a Mystery Field Trip

Thank you to our moms for helping the children make soap and fingerprint clocks and to all our families for giving so generously to our Moon Over Manoa class basket.

Thanks to Karen (TK) for the continuous supply of flowers! They cheer up the classroom and lift our spirits, too.

Another week flew by. Monday's fire drill had the class thinking about visiting a fire station.

JD shared his journal page; he was enjoying his dad's company on the couch. Sharing their journals helps the children relate to one another as they recognize common experiences with family and friends. For JD, sharing also helped him feel part of the social structure within the classroom.

We cleaned up the classroom and put all the supplies in their proper places. We talked about being responsible for the things we take out and play with. (We still can't find our scissors).

On Tuesday, we made guacamole! BM's family brought in six beautiful avocados. BW, KO, and TR scooped out the pulp, squeezed some limes, and mixed in the tomatoes. We ate it with chips during lunch. CH suggested that we plant the seed, so we took two of the seeds to grow in jars with water. We'll also try planting them in dirt. See Ms. Jordan's weblogs for more about our avocado experiences.

BM also celebrated his birthday. His mom brought in delicious blueberry muffins to share and donated a book called Incredible You, which we read before lunch. Thank you for the wonderful book and treats!

We also had a special visit from students in Ms. Lorenzana's 3/4 class. They came and read to our class! It was such a success, we plan on having them read to us once a week. We also shared our guacamole and chips with them.

Wednesday we delivered a gift of books to Mrs. Hussey. She read our letter and answered our questions about being a new grandma. She was surprised and delighted that we dropped by and promised to soon read us some of the books we gave her. Our letter is posted on her office door, if you'd like to read it.

KO shared a page from her summer journal that she drew. We knew she had attended a bon dance during the summer so we asked her if we could also share those pictures.

Some students made drawings of our "planted" avocado and made predictions of what would happen next. EKS thought a flower would grow, while LY and BM said it would stay the same. CH said it wouldn't grow because "it's stuck inside the jar". Our "Golden Scientists" will keep us posted.

Thursday, CH shared his journal page. He took a picture with a parrot named Buttercup.

GA, CH, and BM made drawings of dinosaur bones. GA's brother's class is studying dinosaurs, and GA is excited about it, too. It's amazing how the "'happenings" outside the classroom affect inquiries inside the classroom.

EKS took Ms. Iris on a rainbow hunt. EKS believes that the rainbows in our class are coming from the buildings across the way (classrooms 1, 2, 3, and 4). EKS found an assortment of rainbows in Ms. Byrne's and Ms. Lorenzana's rooms. We were surprised to find rainbows hanging all over Ms. Holzman's classroom. Students in Ms. Holzman's class were curious about what we were doing. They thought EKS's theory that the rainbows were coming from their room was interesting. We just might be starting a schoolwide rainbow craze! TKS and TR both made drawings of where they think the rainbows are coming from. Our rainbow theories and adventures will be posted in our classroom soon.

Friday, we surprised the class with a "mystery field trip." We asked the children to draw their predictions about where they thought we were going. We walked down to the lower campus to the fishpond, had a snack under the trees, then fed the fish and turtles some bread . We played circle games on the grassy field and watched the "big kids" run backwards during their PE class. Before you know it, our children will be the "big kids!"

Finally, during CE we talked about the different things we are good at and drew pictures about it.

You can read updates about our Party Planners and Water Run Group on previous posts and on Ms. Jordan's site. Thanks for reading about us, and have a great week.

Posted on September 25, 2006 7:54 PM | Permalink