A Peek At Our Week- Aspen- 10/03/22-10/07/22- and 10/10/22-10/14/22 Pumpkins/ Living and Non-Living!!!

My apologies Aspen families; we have had quite the cold making it’s round through the Aspen Classroom, and I got behind on blog postings. Therefore, this week’s blog will contain two weeks worth of Aspen Room fun! Our thematic topics were Pumpkins and Living or Non-living, and we had so much fun exploring both of these units! Here goes our blog(s)!!

The week of 10/03/22, Aspen learned all about Pumpkins! We explored the life cycle of a pumpkin, discussed the parts of a pumpkin, and then reviewed fractions and took a look inside a pumpkin. The Aspen children used all of their senses (except for taste) to explore and observe a pumpkin up close! At the same time, we practiced our estimation skills by guessing how many seeds were inside our small and large Pumpkins. All of the children had some great guesses! In order to check our estimated guesses we spent the week gooping out our pumpkins and then sorted the seeds from the pulp! We definitely discovered our larger pumpkin contained a greater amount of seeds; however, we have not arrived at a number as we are STILL counting pumpkin seeds! During the work period, the Aspen students engaged in a variety of pumpkin themed follow up work, such as pouring pumpkin seeds, spooning pumpkins, washing a pumpkin, sequencing the stages of a pumpkin life cycle, and exploring a Halloween themed classification activity. We also sang some pumpkin themed songs together!

During the week of 10/03/22, Aspen also had their ASL (American Sign Language) lesson with Ms. Lauren! We learned how to sing the Hello Song in sign language. We also learned how to sign No, Yes, Thank You, and how to sign some of our favorite animals! We had so much fun! Ask your child about their ASL lesson! They learned their signs so quickly that we impressed Ms. Lauren!

In Kindergarten during the week of 10/03/22 , the Aspen children learned all about land and water forms. They learned how to identify, name, and define island, lake, cape, bay, peninsula, gulf, strait, and isthmus. The kindergarten students also engaged in a variety of follow-up work where they practiced what they learned during lessons. For example, the Aspen students were given a presentation on how to use the land and water forms in class so that they could use water to create an island and a lake, gaining hands on experience with geographical definitions. In Readers Workshop the kindergarten students continued to explore the rules of the English language. The Cardinals reviewed their sight words (puzzle words), read liteary passages to find and circle sight words, reviewed number words, and then they used their knowledge to complete a pumpkin life cycle booklet. With these booklets, they had to read and then color the pictures the color specified in the text. Cardinals also discussed the concept of letters that create blends and learned new phonograms. The Chickadees reviewed decoding skills and then played the “Guess It, Write It” game! We had a basket of objects and each child got to choose an object . We then said the name of each object, sounded it out (decoded it), and then wrote it on a dry erase board! They were super sleuths! I couldn’t trick them at all! I am so proud of both groups and all the progress they are making! During Writers Workshop, the kindergarteners shared the books they have spent the past few weeks creating and then read them to their classmates!

This week (10/10/22 -10/14/22) our thematic topic was Living and Non-Living. The Aspen children have been discussing all of the spooky Halloween decorations they either have at home or have seen throughout their neighborhood. Some of the children expressed that some decorations were so scary that they were afraid! As a result, we decided to determine just how scary these decorations actually are. We learned what characteristics classified a living Organism or a non-living thing! Aspen’s overall assessment was that the Halloween decorations were non-living; they do not eat or drink, produce waste, have movement, respond to stimuli, develop and grow, reproduce, or breathe (respiration). Therefore, they are not as scary as we originally thought! They are fake replicas and are non-living things! After learning the above, we tried classifying objects and pictures by categorizing them into two groups, living or non-living! We had so much fun determining how to classify things into these groups. We had many laughs trying to apply living characteristics to non-living objects.

During kindergarten lesson this week the kindergarteners explored the five animal kingdoms: mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and amphibians. As they discovered the characteristics of each group, they also learned how to label the parts of an animal in each of these groups (horse, bird, turtle, fish, and frog). In Readers Workshop the Cardinals played the “Change It, Say It ” with phonograms, reviewed sight words from previous weeks, learned new sight words, and received a reader for their Book Buddy Bags! While reading the book together in Reading Group, we found our new sight words/high frequency words in the text, and began reading comprehension work and sequencing. The Chickadee Group continued their exploration of phonics with the “Guess It, Write It ” game and worked on activities in their Book Buddy Bags. In Writers Workshop the kindergarteners continued to explore literary concepts, brainstorming ideas , and refined their handwriting skills!

Next week our thematic topic is Skeletal System! We will learn how to name the bones in our body and will discover why having a skeleton is so important!

Scrubbing Pumpkins!

Using tongs to transfer pumpkins.

Using tweezers to sort and count pumpkin seeds.

Practical Life fun pouring from cup to cup!

Sorting objects into two categories, living or non-living!

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>