Solids and Liquids!

We had a really fun time learning about solids and liquids. A favorite activity that we finished the unit up with was making ice cream! I inherited an ice cream making "ball" and it went to good use! We put the milk, sugar and vanilla into a small canister inside the ball. Then we added ice and rock salt to the outer part. We then sat in a circle and rolled it all over the place. It was a great way to show a liquid turning into a solid. The best part? Eating it!!
Here's a couple of pics from our science unit!

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?

My apologies! With all of our holidays and report cards, I've been neglecting our blog! Hopefully now that things have slowed down, I'll be posting regularly again!
:)
So how many seeds in a pumpkin?? Well....we counted, and counted and counted. Between all three groups we counted well over 2000 seeds! The largest pumpkin won with having over 900 seeds! Here's a few pics of the event!
Enjoy!
Miss Cuenca

Halloween Week....

It's Halloween week and we have a variety of spooky activities happening in our class. We started off the week by reading one of my favorite Halloween stories, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson. As a follow up to this story, we are designing our very own broomsticks.

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? That's what we're about to find out. Stay tuned for the results of Room 33's annual How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin Counting Experiment.

Eric Carle

"I want to show children that learning is really both fascinating and fun."-Eric Carle

Our overall goals for this theme included the following:
-Using appropriate comprehension strategies
-Interpret and respond to literature
-Write a variety of types of text
-Communicate effectively

This was our first official literature unit and the kids did a great job! We focused on Self-Questioning, Making Connections and Summarizing. In whole groups and small groups for the past three weeks, we have engaged in various literacy centers such as Art Center, Making Words Center, Poetry Center, Teaching Center, Theme Center and Writing Center. All of which were related to the amazing literature of Eric Carle.
Some ways to follow up at home are having kids stop and wonder what they are reading about, have them make connections, (This reminds me of...), and after they finish a story, have them tell you the who, where, what happened and how did it end.
These strategies will continue to be taught explicitly throughout the school year. The ongoing practice and implementation of reading strategies is essential for young readers.
Our Eric Carle portfolios will be sent home next week. I encourage you to go through them with your children so they can tell you about everything that they learned.
Warmly,
Miss Cuenca

ABC Unit

Our first unit has come and gone! We spent the last 3 weeks engaged in an ABC unit. We practiced writing in our ABC handwriting books, did word sorts that classified and categorized consonant sounds, applied those words into complete sentences and did many art projects that tied to the literature that we read. The first week, we read The Alphabet Book by Leo Lionni. In the book, the letters on the leaves learn that they are stronger when they make words. Thus, we made our own class alphabet tree. We also read and made our own Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom trees inspired by Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom by Bill Martin Jr. Lastly, we read Harold's Purple Crayon Adventure by Crockett Johnson and made our very own Room 33's Purple Crayon Adventure Book.
We are excited to move onto our next unit....Eric Carle!
Stay tuned!
Miss Cuenca :)