Ms. Kristen’s October 2015 Newsletter

October was a very exciting month in our classroom! I am so proud of how well the children are working in the classroom and with the desire to learn new things every day! In October, the children learned all about Farm Life, Pumpkins, Characteristics of Fall, Bats, Spiders, and about Halloween.

20151019_141527

During the first week of October, the children learned all about farm life. We learned the American Sign Language words for cow, chicken , pig, horse, and cat. The children also enjoyed making home made butter from whipping cream. We put the whipping cream in a tupperware container and shook it as hard as we could until it became butter. It was delicious!

20151019_140946

It was all about pumpkins during week two! We learned all about the parts of the pumpkin, how it grows, and what kinds of foods we can make from a pumpkin. Ms. Kim also brought in a pumpkin to carve into a Jack-O-Lantern. The children loved scrapping out the inside of the pumpkin with a spoon. Ms. Kim and I even put a candle inside of the pupmkin and the children played the “ Silence Game” while watching our pumpkin glow. The children also enjoyed making tastey pumpkin muffins!

20151009_123223

During week three, we learned all about the characteristics of Fall and about leaves. We learned that in the Fall, the temperature outside becomes cooler outside and the leaves begin to change color. We also learned about the different parts of the leaf. The children also enjoyed a parts of the leaf work that Ms. Kim and I put on the shelf. The children also used crayons to make pints of leaves on paper!

20151019_141018

We learned quite a bit about bats during the third week of October. We learned that bats sleep during the day. We also learned that some bats eat insects while others eat fruit. The children were also surprised to learn that not all bats are blind, but those who are use echo location to find shelter and to hunt for food. The children also learned that bats are mammals, and enjoyed discovering the similarites and differences between bats and birds while reading the book “ Stellaluna”.

20151019_141448

Durring the final week, we learned about spiders. We learned that spider are arachnids, not insects. We learned arachnids are characterized as having a head and a thorax and eight legs. Also, we also found out that a spider’s blood is blue, because their blood doesn’t carry oxygen through their body like human blood. The children also enjoyed making their own spiders with Ms. Kim during Afternoon Group Time!

20151030_110755 20151030_110845

 

Enrichments (Ms. Kim):

Music

In music class this month the children sang hello to Bernie the Bernard, Ellie the Parrot, Freida the Frog, and Rainbow Sparkles the Dragon! One of the first concepts Ms. Lisa taught the children was how many beats the whole, quarter, half, and eighth notes get. We practiced these notes in the song “Hot Cross Buns”. The children tapped rhythm sticks together for each note. The next skill we worked on was high and low sounds. Ms. Lisa taught the children the song “I wish I were a juicy orange”. While singing this song the children sang in high and low voices and shook egg shakers. The children also played tambourines and castanets throughout the month. Lastly we played some freeze dances with colorful scarves to sharpen our listening skills.

Science

Our first science experiment involved a liter bottle of water with a ketchup packet. When we squeezed the bottle, the ketchup packet sank to the bottom. Then when we let go of the water bottle, the ketchup packet floated back to the top. Why? The ketchup packet had an air bubble that got smaller when the bottle of water was squeezed.

Our second experiment involved special tape with a secret message written on it. (Mr. John wrote Go Buckeyes on the tape.) The children made hypotheses on whether or not the message could still be read on the tape if the tape were scrunched up. Mr. John was able to straighten the tape and the message was still there! This special tape is made with polymers. We learned that polymers hold onto each other and that’s why the message stayed intact.

Our third experiment involved rolled up construction paper secured with a rubber band (a cylinder), one single sheet of paper, and books. The children made hypotheses on what would happen when books were placed on the paper cylinder and the single sheet of paper. Most of the children guessed that the single sheet of paper would fall and the paper cylinder would stay standing. We were right! A cylinder is one of the strongest shapes and distributes weight.

Our last experiment involved dish soap, black pepper, bowls, and water. Mr. John mixed the water and black pepper together in a bowl for each child. Then he went around and let each child dip a q-tip in dish soap and then place the q-tip in the black pepper mixture. When the dish soap hit the water, the black pepper moved away. The dish soap broke the molecules that were holding onto each other which allowed the black pepper to move.

Art

Ms. Michele spent the first two weeks of the month having the children study the artist Georges Seurat. We watched a video about him and learned about his painting technique. He used the pointillism technique. His paintings look like they are made up of a bunch of dots. So to practice this, the children first drew an animal of their choice in pencil on poster board. Then they used q-tips to dot the animal in with paint.

Our next art lesson was on paper sculptures. First, Ms. Michele went over different types of lines. (dotted, squiggly, short, long, etc.) Then she showed lines in artwork and explained how our eyes “follow” the lines. Next she asked the children what a sculpture was. She explained that a sculpture isn’t flat but 3-dimensional. She then demonstrated to the children how to make paper sculptures using the lines she described at the beginning of the lesson. The children than created 3-dimensional paper playgrounds using strips of paper and gluing them down in different ways.

Finally:

I encourage you to review with your child what they have learned this month. Take a fall hike as a family and collect leaves. Review the parts of a leaf together. Try out a new pumpkin recipie with your child, allowing them to help you measure and stir the ingrediants. Discuss the fun bat and spider facts they learned with your child!

20151029_100226

As Maria Montessori stated, “ To aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.” It is my duty and privilege to aid your child in the beginning stages of their education!

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>