Ms Aja's Classroom

Monday, November 30, 2009

Starting Our Bread Unit

Last week we brainstormed and compiled a list of everything we already know about bread. We know quite a lot! Today we created a list of things we would like to learn about bread during our upcoming bread unit. 

Questions about Bread:
-How do you grow bread? What seeds do you use?
-Can you make names/words out of bread by shaping the dough?
-What kinds of ingredients do you use to make bread?
-Can you eat all types of bread?
-How do you make the seeds for bread?
-How do you put flavor in bread?
-Is there chocolate bread?
-Can you make bread out of cookie dough?
-Can you make bread cookies?
-How do you make bread?
-How does bread rise?

As we continue our unit on bread we will be searching for answers to our questions as well as developing more questions as we go along. Today we investigated different types of bread. We read two books about different types of bread and about the process of harvesting wheat to get flour. We did bread taste-testing and collected data. We tasted five different types of bread: pitas, blueberry muffins, tortillas, Swedish rye bread, and croissants.  As we tasted each type of bread we analyzed how well we liked it and recorded the results on a data chart. For each type of bread we marked whether we liked it, felt neutral about it, or disliked it.  Then we determined our favorite type of bread.  Using the Smartboard we created a bar graph to depict our class’ favorite types of bread. We analyzed our graph to determine which bread was most popular, which bread was least poplar, and which types of bread had an equal number of people who chose it as their favorite.  We also answered questions like, “How many more people liked tortillas than liked pita bread?” We found out that most students liked muffins the best (10 students).  Three people liked tortillas the best and three people liked croissants the best. One person chose Swedish rye bread as their favorite type of bread.  In our class the least popular type of bread was pita bread.  We will bake and taste several kinds of bread throughout our unit. 

In the sensory table today we examined wheat berries.  We noted the size, texture, and smell of the wheat berries. We also used measuring cups to pour and measure the wheat berries.

View more photos from today in our Nov 30-Dec 4 Photo Gallery

Monday, November 23, 2009

New Learning Centers

We were busy learning and playing together today. Ms. Aja told us about her trip to Washington, DC and we told her about all the things we learned while she was gone.  Today we enjoyed new learning centers. We were especially excited to use alphabet stamps to create words and cards for special friends and family members. At the math center we used magnetic shapes to create geometric designs. We also used wooden blocks to create marble runways. We collaborated to design runways and problem-solved issues that arose. At recess we examined the plants in our garden. It’s been interesting to see their changes from last spring until now. On our playground we built structures out of cardboards boxes and collected special leaves. We are getting very good at identifying leaves and tress.

View more photos in our Nov 16-25 Photo Gallery

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Miss you, Whales

Dear Whales,
I’m in Washington DC right now at a conference for teachers.  Can you could find Washington DC on the map? There are thousands of teachers at the conference. I’m meeting teachers from around the United States and getting lots of ideas for fun things we can do in our classroom. I even got to see the White House, where our president lives.I will bring back digital photos, maps and some new books for our classroom. I know that we have lots of readers and explorers in our classroom community. I can’t wait to hear about all the exciting learning you’re doing with Ms. Becky.
Love,
Ms. Aja

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Gathering Leaf Data

Daily Blog Message
Dear Families,
Today we had a great day. We sang with Ms. Shelley. Alice and Hazel came here today. We got to do cool movement centers.
Love,
Joaquin

Today we became researchers. We were trying to figure out why we found more leaves during our fall walks than pine needles. First we had to collect some data.  We used clipboards and went on a nature walk. We tallied the number of different kinds of trees (trees with leaves vs. fir trees) we observed and drew sketches of each type of tree. We found out that there were more fir trees than trees with leaves and yet, surprisingly, there were hundreds of leaves on the ground and hardly any fir needles on the ground. Our sketches of fir trees showed that the majority of the fir needles were on the tree. Our sketches of trees with leaves showed that most leaves were on the ground. Back at school we discussed our results and did research on the computer. We learned that fir trees hold on to their needles throughout the winter. They lose a few needles throughout the year but keep most during the winter. The trees with leaves lose all their leaves in the fall.

On our nature walk we were on the look-out for the leaf prints that Joaquin’s mom and brother told us about. We found several! Tomorrow we will be researching what causes leaf prints.

Ms. Shelley came to our class to play music and sing with us.

During art we cut out our personal images.

View more photos from today in our Nov 16-20 Photo Gallery

Monday, November 16, 2009

Leaf Identification

Today’s Blog Message
Written By Joaquin
“Dear Families,
I almost made a bow and arrow (the thing which shoots out) in the Creation Station. We sang the button song. It was good. We did cool stories during writers workshop. I wrote about when I found a frog. Love, Joaquin”

We have been busy playing and learning in kindergarten. We are finishing up our forest theme, writing stories, and reading special books.

We’ve been playing ABC Bingo during center time. We are getting so good at our letter names and sounds!

In Creative Play we have been involved in creating complex stories about family life.  We recently added a kitchen to Creative Play complete with food, dishes, and pots and pans.

We have been learning how to identify different types of leaves. We went on a nature walk to collect leaves. Then we used digital microscopes and magnifying glasses to examine the leaves.  We used charts, the internet, and books to identify and classify the different types of leaves. We created sketches and leaf graphs.

We had a music makers session with Ms. Shelley on Friday. We got to sing Sounds of Fall, Biddy Biddy, One Little Owl, and May There Always be Sunshine. We make lovely music when we all sing together!

In the atelier we have been painting, sculpting, and using Creation Station materials to create art pieces.

We have been discussing the rules and different player roles in soccer.  During center time sometimes students have the option of visiting the soccer center to refine their soccer skills.  We love using teamwork to score goals!

Of course we are always involved in exciting dramatic play games during recess.

A favorite part of our day continues to be Treasured Reading Time.  We love curling up with a good book and retelling favorite stories. We especially love when special teachers and family members come in to read with us!

VIew more new photos in our Nov 16-20 Photo Gallery

Monday, November 09, 2009

Leaf Graph

Today’s Blog Message
Written By Brendan
“I’m an artist on bikes. Today I built a giant three space elevator home. We made big trees with our fingers and we painted leaves on them. Kaleb builded a box and rubber band guitar. Maybe if my dad can see then I could show him. Love, Brendan”

This morning we each chose a leaf to examine and draw. We created realistic drawings of our leaves.  Then we used leaf identification guides to determine which type of leaf we had.  We sorted and classified several leaves. Then we each made a scientific predication about which type of leaf we had the most of.  We created a graph of leaves to determine whether our predictions were correct. We figured out that we had the most maple leaves.  We also found leaves and needles from oak, poplar, and fir trees. 

At recess several students worked together to create waterways and “African landscapes”.

This afternoon we read a story about the life of log. We also discussed animals, bugs, and other things that we could add to our creative play forest. Here’s John Michael’s bird and nest for our forest.

We read a story about seasons and discussed how we could tell that it’s autumn.  In the atelier we painted autumn pictures.

View more photos from today in our Nov 9-13 Photo Gallery

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Authors Celebration

This morning we enjoyed spending time with our college buddies. We read some of our writing pieces to our buddies and we also did some shared writing. This was our last week of meeting with our college buddies. Luckily we will still get to see our buddies when they do student-teaching in our classroom throughout the term!

Our star of the day today was John Michael. Here’s what we learned about him:
-He doesn’t want to go to space.
-His favorite food is bagels with cream cheese.
-His favorite color cell phone is turquoise.
-His favorite movie is Monsters vs. Aliens.
-His favorite pets are rats.

This afternoon we had music with Ms. Shelley. We sang Music Time, Ten Fingers, Leaves are Falling, and May There Always Be Sunshine

We had our first Authors Celebration today! For the last week each student has been working on choosing a special writing piece, editing it, and turning it into a published book. Today we got to celebrate all of our hard work. First we each read our favorite page into our Authors CIrcle.  Then we partnered up to share our stories and receive positive feedback from other authors. We kept trading partners so that we could hear lots of stories and read our own story several times. We applauded as each author added his/her published story to our classroom library.  We ended the celebration with a sparkling cider toast and cookies. Please visit our classroom library to admire our new books!

View more photos from our November 2-6 Photo Gallery

Monday, November 02, 2009

Bark Rubbings

Treasured reading time is a favorite time of the day. We get to read and discuss books with our friends. Sometimes we “read” the illustrations or retell favorite stories. Other times we notice letters and sight words. Some students make up their own stories.  We also love discussing interesting photos and illustrations in books.  We are developing a love of literacy every day!

This afternoon we went on a nature walk. We examined the bark of various trees to determine similarities and differences. We also did some bark rubbings.  When we returned to school we worked on adding to our creative play forest.  We added our bark rubbings to the trees, painted clouds and a sun, and added leaves to the tree. Our creative play room is looking more and more like a forest every day.

During centers some of us invented jet packs!

View more photos in our Nov 2-6 Photo Gallery