Our Literary Pumpkin

Every year, each class at CCE decorates a pumpkin (or pumpkins!) that are inspired by a book. Our class chose the book, "Ping Pong Pig." In the book, the main character, a cute pig named Ping Pong, is very selfish. He does not like to help the other animals on the farm. Instead of doing chores, Ping Pong spends all day trying to learn to fly!  However, his antics usually get him into trouble and cause more work for the other animals.  Tired of his shananigans, the animals build Ping Pong a trampoline in hopes that he will stay out of their way.  Ping Pong loves his trapoline because it feels like he is flying!  Ping Pong finally decides to help the other animals on the farm as a way to thank them for his awesome trampoline.  He uses the trampoline to help all the other animals finish their chores. For example, he uses the trampoline to paint the barn, stack the hay, and pick the apples.  In the end, Ping Pong learns that being a helpful pig is more rewarding than being a selfish pig.

Here are some pictures of our little artists painting pumpkins. Our display, along with all the other classes', can be seen in the front foyer of CCE.

Pumpkin Investigations

For the past two weeks, our class has been investigating a fall classic: PUMPKINS!!  We have watched educational videos, read nonfictional and fictional stories about pumpkins, and experiemented with pumpkins.

Do pumpkins float?

YES!

This is a student's work recording our experiment with floating pumpkins.

How can we sort pumpkins?

"I can sort pumpkins into color groups."

"I can sort pumpkins into texture groups."

"I can sort pumpkins into size groups."

WOW! We have such smart little scientists!

Diamond D Ranch

On October 19th, we went to the Diamond D. Ranch. We had a day of fun while learning about life on a farm. We loved the bus ride; riding on the ponies; jumping in the Bounce House; feeding the cows and goats; going on the Barrel Roll, a ride that flipped us upside down; and eating lunch with our friends!!! We were so exhausted that most of us fell asleep on the ride home. Enjoy the pictures of our exciting experience!!

Matter Matters!

On Friday, we began our new Science unit on Matter.  Miss Anair started by allowing the students to explore mystery objects in a bag. Their objective was to sort the objects into groups. The catch? Miss Anair did not tell them HOW to sort the objects!  Our smart scientists were able to observe the mystery objects and then sort them into two groups.

This group sorted their objects into heavy and light groups.

These scientists sorted their objects into hard and soft groups.

This group sorted their objects into rough and smooth groups.

These scientists grouped their objects into hot and cold groups.

At closing, students helped Miss Anair make a chart about different ways to sort matter.

Our Five Senses are Fall-tastic!!

For the past few weeks, our little scientists have been exploring their five senses. They have used their five senses to explore Fall favorites: apples and apple cider!

What does an apple smell like?

What does an apple sound like?

What does an apple feel like?

What does an apple look like?

 

 

 

What does an apple taste like?

Yummy...cider!

All our Baby Banairs enjoyed trying this special drink!

Students then completed an independent matching activity about their five senses.

Math Mania!

We have been working hard to learn our numbers 1-20. It is important for every child to be able to count to 20, recognize the numbers in isolation, and illustrate the numbers. This week, we played several new games that helped us on our mathematical journey to learning numbers 1-20!

One of our favorite new games is Grab and Count. For this game, we worked in partners. Each group was given a bucket of objects (unifix cubes, magnetic letters, color tiles, etc.), whiteboard, dry-erase marker, and eraser.  In Grab and Count, one student grabs a handful of objects from the bucket and counts them. The other student in the partnership then writes the number on the whiteboard. Below are a few pictures of this fun game!

The next day, students played Grab and Count independently.  They worked at their tables and recorded their numbers in their Math Investigations book. Below are some of our students playing the game. The last picture is a snapshot of the Math Investigations book with student work.

The following day, we worked on an awesome game called Roll and Record. For this game, the students worked in partner groups. Each group was given a die, a felt rectangle, and their Math Investigations book. The students rolled their die on the felt rectangle and then recorded the number the die landed on. They repeated this process several times and recorded their data in a chart. Below are pictures of the students enjoying this great game!