Fruits, Jack-o-lanterns, Witches Brew and Goblin Goo!

Is an avocado a fruit or a vegetable? Are those really seeds on the outside of the strawberry? The children in Alpha have been using their sense of touch and smell to explore different types of fruit. Comparing and contrasting the skins of a pineapple, strawberry, grapefruit and avocado has been a wonderful exploratory process. The children used and strengthened their verbal and critical thinking skills while having fun with their explorations!
Does the skin of the grapefruit really have a smell? It was said to be "smooth," "shiny" and "cold."

The top of the grapefruit looks a little like some of the plants that have sprouted in our garden.

It was discovered that the bottom of the pineapple was "like an oval" and "prickly like the hedgehog!"

"This avocado is bumpy and the other one is smooth!"

The squash seeds in the cups have not only sprouted, but are growing really fast!

Before planting, the children examined the roots that had been helping their plants grow.

A four layer sunflower plant puzzle, from seed to flowering plant has been quite a challenge.

Alpha students love learning about SPIDERS! This week they have enjoyed making oval play-dough shapes to represent the spider's abdomen and then counting out eight chenille stem legs. After observing pictures of many types of spiders and researching the number of eyes that each type have, they added googly eyes to make their spiders complete. They have found it to be quite fascinating the various places that a spider might have it's eyes.

What is the difference between a pumpkin and a jack-o-lantern? The friendly frogs can tell you all about it. You just need to ask. Using many different shapes, they turned ordinary pumpkins into quite dynamic jack-o-lanterns.

Some were even symmetrical!

What a proud feeling to be part of a team! This team together built a fort to protect all of the orange and gold gems. They loved sharing about the secret passageways of their structure, as well as their building plan.

"The hay grows tall, the farmer cuts it down and he rakes it into rows....." The boys and girls sang this song that they learned with Mrs. McIvor  while playing on the large bale of hay on the playground.

They were quite creative making up new games to play.

On Friday the children had so much  FUN taking part in the Halloween Exploring. Making fossil prints   in orange gak with bats, centipedes, pumpkins and spiders was a real treat.

"Trick or Treat!" The boys and girls pretended it was Halloween by dressing chicken nuggets in different costumes to go trick or treating!

The children practiced eye hand coordination by tossing bean bags into Halloween buckets and then trying it again!

Wow, maneuvering through a large spider web can be quite tricky. Strategizing and balance are definitely required!

What is this gooey stuff? Eyeballs. spiders, bats and even jack-o-lanterns were discovered in the slimy, cold, purple spaghetti!

With Mrs. Samuel, the children made a yummy witches brew in the blender with milk and orange sherbert.

Then they iced their cookies with orange "goblin goo!"

Rock and roll bats were a big hit! To paint their bats, the boys and girls dipped a golf ball in gold paint and dropped it in a big tub. Next they moved the tub up, down and all around as the golf ball painted their bat. For a finishing touch, they added a few sprinkles of glitter! What a great Exploring!

Some books read this week:
"Mrs. McNosh and The Great Big Squash"  by Sarah Weeks
"Stellaluna"  by Janell Cannon
"Hallo-Wiener"  by Dav Pilkey
"Skippyjon Jones"  by Judy Schachner

Upcoming dates:
10/31  Halloween Parade - 8:30/ Fall Festival -9:45 Dismissal
11/2  Exploring
11/8  Poetry in the Park - 8:30
11/9  School closed / Professional Day

Spiders, Exploring Vegetables and the Pep Rally

What are the characteristics of a spider? Are they insects or arachnids? After reading
"The Very Busy Spider," by Eric Carle and a great discussion  about spiders, the children practiced pre-cutting skills by tearing paper strips for their spider's legs.

After counting to make sure they had 8 legs, the boys and girls helped Mrs. Mundell staple each leg to the spider's abdomen.

Next they practiced using little dots of glue to add different color ovals to their spider, sometimes creating patterns!

In Music, with Mrs. McIvor, the friendly frogs pretended to be spiders as they moved about the classroom using their eight legs!

All sorts of Halloween bags were discovered in the dramatic play area including pumpkins, ghosts and even spiders!

After closely observing our beautiful class fish, the children shared their different observations with the class. They enjoyed watching him swim about using his brightly colored fins and tail to move about in his fishbowl environment. Then we made a list of possible names on chart paper after making the beginning sound together. Finally we voted, remembering to vote only once. The name, "Singy" won with the most votes!

How many spoonfuls does it take to fill little jack-o-lanterns with rice? Which holds more rice, the green cup or the jack-o-lantern?

Creative thinking was quite apparent as the children used the many shapes of the colorful windowpane blocks and small plastic shapes to create structures. A quite complex airport airport and beautiful pieces of art were examples, just to name a few!

Then a velcro block airplane came in for a landing!

Each week, the children enjoy Mrs. Gootson coming to read a book to them. "What If?" by A. H. Benjamin and Jane Chapman was about the farm animals at Buttercup Farm. They were worried that when a kangaroo came to their farm, it might take their jobs away. Then they learned what a kangaroo can really do!

During Exploring on Friday the children explored vegetables from the garden. They used their five senses to explore how their many interesting characteristics! They even enjoyed a vegetable snack.

Not only did the yellow bell pepper have many tiny seeds inside, but it had a very unique smell.

After putting on some garden gloves, the children shucked the corn of it's husks and corn silk.

Which is longer the celery or the corn? After making predictions, a ruler was used to measure the length of each one.

The texture of the cauliflower felt a little different from the broccoli.

Discovering the tape measure was fun, too!

The children used the different vegetables to make gorgeous prints!

"I say green, you say gold!" "I say Shorecrest, you say Chargers!" The boys and girls learned the Shorecrest cheer, made shakers and building with green and gold foam blocks.

Then it was off to the pep rally with all of our Shorecrest friends!

We met the lightning bolt!

We pretended to be football players and really got in the Shorecrest spirit!!! GO CHARGERS!