During this week our children were making thorough observations of how the caterpillars were changing and making objective recordings on our Purple Room observation chart. We are keeping track of how many days we see new changes. Jotting down the date and their observations really helps us discuss what we see and perceive!
G recording her observation...
Within two days, the caterpillars went into chrysalis and L is recording her observation
Friends also made paper cutouts of butterflies to decorate the classroom walls and make the butterflies feel visible. Here we worked in symmetry where we folded the page in half and drew half and cut it out. When we opened the cutout, we saw our entire butterfly!
We also made butterflies with doiles to create our life cycle habitat that we will be gradually working toward...
Friends here are decorating the colorful wings of the butterflies...
Letter 'A'
Wow, this week we were supposed to do apple tasting which began right at the start of the week. Children volunteered to get different color, shapes, and types of apples. We used a special tool called the apple peeler and friends were amazed to see how it works and the results it gives. The blades are enclosed so the tool was very safe to use. We learned how to stick the apple in the peeler and when we pressed the ON button, here is what happened...
We saw this long ribbon like string of apple peel flow until there was nothing left :) Ooooooooo was our expression!
We did the same with the red apple...
We laid down our measuring tape and first started guessing and making predictions as to what length will the entire peel ribbon be. We came up with all different numbers and finally we laid it on the table and drew our conclusions. The red one was 15 and green was 19 number long! Again, Oooooooo was our expression!
Friends came over to check the conclusion and proclaim the number where the peel ribbon ended!
We then used our senses of touch, sight, and smell, to explore the apple peel ribbon in every way. Friends mentioned that It was cold, sticky, and smelled like an apple :) Also have to acknowledge the fact that everybody was so gentle because they knew it would break and the fun of the long string would be lost. Such a nice cause and effect correlation!
Suddenly the peeler started and unexpectedly the apple started getting cut into ribbons. It was definitely a moment of exclamation! We called this kind of apple SPAGHETTI APPLES :) and now intentionally cut three apples this way, making a lot of spaghetti...
Friends made froggy tongues and then sucked the apple spaghetti in. We even tried eating the apples by cutting them in chunks. On asking, some friends liked the chunks while some liked the apple spaghetti.
On their own, they figured out a way to roughly measure just with their sight whose spaghetti tongue was long, medium and short ;)
Making apple pies...
Friends began lining up the apples by size while the table was set and teachers were getting plates for them to making their pies...
We patted the puff pastries and made them flat circles...
We then added apple pieces and brown sugar...
Boys here are trying their best not to let the apple pieces fall off :)
Finally, we folded the circle in half and pressed the edges down to lock the little personal pies we made...some friends held it in their hands and did the locking while some kept them in their plates and pushed the edges down to lock them. So many varied styles of the cooking process...
We enjoyed them at lunch time and savor end every flavor and aroma!!!
With all the left overs, friends put an Apple Girl together...
We collaged the letter A with all kinds of alphabets...
Other interesting activities...
Making flower pens that we now use in our classrooms :)
Playing with gak...they play with gak quite often, yet each time they explore it in a new way and have fun!
Recently we have friends who turn pages following the directions on the Books on Tape. It is a great listening tool and each one of them is so focused since they know they might miss out some words and it won't be played back again.
Here S listens to the tinkling sound and remembers each time to turn her page. She sits just like a teacher facing the book toward her friends so that they can connect the words and pictures and enjoy the book.
Hope you are having fun reading the different things in the blogs, just as much as we have experiencing them!
Keep seeing you around!
Hugs,
Teacher Rashida
