Saturday, October 31, 2015

Apples and Pumpkins

When we came back from gym on Thursday, we found something new in our classroom...


…a pumpkin!  We were very curious about it, so we decided to make a list of things that we could do with it.  We came up with some good ideas, but Mrs. Kurt had something else in mind!


We started out by reading the book It's Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall, illustrated by Shari Halpern.


This story is about the most favorite time of the year for the characters…pumpkin time.  The brother and sister in this story actually plant pumpkin seeds in the spring.  Then they water, weed and watch as the seeds sprout, become shoots and eventually vines.  Flowers bloom on the vines and that's where the tiny pumpkins begin to grow.  Did you know that pumpkins are not always orange?  They start out green and as they grow they become yellow, and when they are orange they are ready to pick or be cut from the vines!  We learned lots about pumpkins from this story!  Then we participated in our pumpkin investigation.  That's what the pumpkin was for!!


This was a pretty fun activity.  We actually had to practice estimating how many lines the pumpkin had and how much it weighed.  Estimating is a little tricky for us because we don't like to be wrong.  But it is an important skill for us to learn and practice, just like real scientists, meteorologists, and mathematicians do.  And the good part is when you estimate, it is just a guess and it is ok if your guess is not right.  That is one way for us to learn!

   

After we estimated how many lines were on the pumpkin, we actually counted them to see the exact number.  It had 25.  Then we estimated how much it weighed and we took it to Mrs. Hannasch's office.  She is the school nurse and she has a big scale that we used to weigh it.  It is actually 14.5 pounds.  Next we had to predict if pumpkins will float or sink.  We learned that they float!!  We also listed words that describe how the pumpkin looks.  We had fun!


While we were busy with the pumpkin investigation, Mrs. Radermacher was busy watching over the applesauce that was cooking in our classroom.   It smelled so good.  We added all the apples our families sent in, some water, a little sugar and some cinnamon.



   

When it was ready, Mrs. Radermacher dished it up and let it cool a little bit.  Then we got to try it.  It tasted great and Mrs. Kurt was so proud that so many of us tried it and liked it!  

   

   

As we have been learning about trees, we have discovered that some trees give us food, like apples.  That is why we chose to make applesauce now, to coincide with our tree unit.  Hope you have a great weekend!













Thursday, October 29, 2015

Freaky Fun Maze

It was a very exciting day in P. E. today.  Mr. Nelson revealed the "All Stars of the Week".  These students are chosen based on their  "All Star" attitude, participation and sportsmanship.  Their pictures are posted on a bulletin board in the gym.  Congratulations to the All Stars of the Week from Mrs. Kurt's Class…Isaac and Kaiyang!




Then we had the chance to do the really fun thing we have been waiting for…the Freaky Fun Maze!!  Mr. Nelson set up a maze in the gym.  He walked us through it first to explain all the parts of the maze. Then we got to use scooters to go through it.  It was so much fun!  Check out the photos below to see how much fun we had!

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   


Thank you, Mr. Nelson, for always making our gym day the best!







Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Observing Trees

We are beginning our unit of study on trees.  We learned today that scientists observe things.  That means that they look at things and see what they notice.  Since we are actually scientists beginning our study of trees, we decided to do the same thing.  We don't have any trees inside our classroom,  so we decided there was only one thing to do…we put on our jackets and went outdoors to observe the trees in our schoolyard!

   

   

It was a little bit chilly, but we observed and learned lots of new things about the trees at Northview!

   

   

We were actually quite surprised to learn that there are so many different types of trees in our schoolyard!

   

We discovered that the bark on some trees felt rough, but it was smooth on others.

    

We found a hole in this tree and we wondered if anything might live in the hole in this tree?

    

    

    

    

 We collected a few artifacts from our short observation.  We will use these things in our research center.  We are very excited to be scientists and learn more about trees!