FROM UNDER OUR BIG TREE: Week 8/Year 4 (5 to 7 Class)

“And you’ll always love me won’t you? Yes
And the rain won’t make any difference? No”

Hello November, rain, and an extra hour!  Goodbye October, we enjoyed our time with you and will never forget the joy and inspirations you brought us.  You will always be in our hearts.  Alas, it is time for cooler nights, shorter days, and time to reflect on what we are thankful for.See you at the Park – Carter will be bringing our community snack this week!  Did you change all your clocks back an hour?

Math
Pumpkins provided a fun intro to geometry and 3-D shapes.  We started with spheres and estimated the circumference of our big pumpkin.  We created our own Spookley the Square Pumpkins and thought about cubes.  At first we thought a cube had four surfaces, or was made of 4 squares, but we soon figured that out!

Now that we’ve had experiences making 10s it’s time to get some automaticity practice. With ten-frames, pumpkins, and index cards we created our very own flash cards.  We found many ways to make equations.  6+___=10, ___+8=10 and will continue to build to what we have.  Remind your child to bring their green folder this week and we will include an envelope for them to make their own at home too!  (Please try and bring the green folders daily, but if you cannot Tuesdays and Wednesdays are best because Yvette fills them with goodies relevant to what your child is learning.)

Counting Collections and place value:  we estimated how many seeds were in our pumpkin, cut it open, reevaluated our estimations, scooped out the guts, and then counted the seeds with a partner.  We graphed our quantities and then re-evaluated our estimations again.  Alexander took the challenge of adding the numbers together and determined there were 546 seeds altogether.

Pumpkin Bump Game!  After our dance party on Friday some students played a new game that crosses Bingo and Sorry – we got the Bump!

If you are curious about the specific skills we worked on this week:

TKG @ home: pick up dice/counting/reading games like Math Dice Jr, Double Shutter Math or Pizza ManiaLanguage
I read Room on the Broom which laid a foundation for many learning opportunities:

A variety of pumpkins inspired many descriptions and we all had the opportunity to make our own pumpkin character.  We thought about Spookley and how he was not comfortable being himself but later was proud and then looked at our pumpkin and imagined what attributes they held.  Students were inspired to create books, settings, signs, and so much more to accompany their pumpkin.  Next week I will introduce personification for those working with their pumpkins.

Also coming up, we will begin thinking about the history of our family and how objects play a role in passing down family heritage.  The teachers will bring in objects that hold historic and personal value, and tell a story of our past.  We will continue using descriptive language while exploring these items.If you are curious about the specific skills we practiced this week:

TKG@home: Review the map we offered at our last parent meeting and discuss your family’s physical and cultural experience.  You may want to share about other cultures that are meaningful to you as a way to encourage conversation around diversity and traditions.Mask-a-Rave 2014

Friday was such a fun filled day!  We began with our first ever Mask-a-Rave.  The room was filled with so much joy and excitement.  From the mask parade, to games, and the fog machine to the upstairs class performance and the pumpkin decorations — each child shared something they enjoyed in our morning meeting. Thank you to our Room Mom Saundi and downstairs Room Mom Erin, and every one of you who made this such a memorable celebration.

Later, we enjoyed shared snack time.  We enjoyed hearing a book Zoe wrote as we ate with the downstairs class.  We played together outside, and then came together for rock tag that morphed into zombie rock tag.

Back in the room we revisited projects we wanted to wrap up before the weekend, played Pumpkin Bump, and took turns going outside in small groups to investigate the rain.

Lucas: That’s an evidence!  Rain is wet.  (pointing to water on the ground as proof that there was rain)
Zara:  Why is it wet?
Lucas:  Rain comes from clouds that turn gray.
Zara: Clouds are full of water and they have to let it go.
Lucas: Like pee.  Rain is like pee.

We will continue to explore what rain is in the following weeks.

Next up was Lunch where we came together for Restaurant/“Mix It Up” Day:  Students enjoyed visiting Café TKG with a fall twist, the centerpiece was filled with pumpkins and little lit pretend candles.  Once again students ate from plates and used forks.  Bathroom humor has been big for us lately, and many students have requested we not talk about certain things when we are eating, so this month I added the layer of what kinds of conversations people have at fancy restaurants.  The special menu item was fresh garlic pickles from Completely Pickled at the Torrance Farmer’s Market.  (Thank you Williams family for picking up a jar for us.)  Our foodies also brainstormed some ideas on different types of restaurants and in the future we will be having a sport’s theme closer to the Super Bowl.

A little TKG history on how restaurant began a couple years ago:  As a teacher who values mindful eating, I was struggling with how little eating was happening, how loud we were, and how much food was left behind on the tables and floor.  I wanted to maintain the social aspect of this time, but with more intention.  Many sprouts were playing restaurant at Deep Learning and I was inspired by them in creating Café TKG.  We made our very own name cards, which I used to seat children next to people they normally don’t interact with much. Clearly, it was a hit with students and teachers and we continue to visit Café TKG at least once each month.  Each time it evolves, this year when I’m wearing the chef hat my name is Miss Chef, a fun play on my first name that Erik created in September.

During reading time a group read about roller skates and some were thinking about doing their own roller skating.  Knowing that the kitchen room has provided some fun big body movement in the past I suggested we do our own skating!  Gina played DJ and announced when it was backwards skate and other fun variations.  She even flashed the lights like a real rink!  In the same room I started a pumpkin seed baking plan.  Everyone had an opportunity to take part in the making of the seeds, and we shared the steps in closing meeting so those who were engaged in other plans were able to hear about the process.  We closed the day with seed tasting and coming up with similes to describe the sight, smell, and taste of the seeds.

Happy Learning,

Michelle and Yvette

CONNECTION LINKS
Michelle Goldbach-Johnson, Founding Teacher/5 to 7 Classroom
Yvette Fenton, Co-Teacher, 5 to 7 Classroom
Lena Garcia, School Builder/7 to 9 Classroom
Saundi Williams, 5 to 7 Room Parent
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