Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

During the past week, we enjoyed the story "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom".  This popular alphabet story is great for expanding the students' interest in letters!  One of our activities, related to this story, was to make our very own class "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" alphabet tree.  Take a look at some of our friends at work and enjoy the finished product!

What is new in JK/SK?

We are continuing our learning about sorting.  Here is a friend who choose to sort the storytelling pieces from our Brown Bear, Brown Bear story.  As we sort, we continue to talk about our "sorting rule".  Ask your child to sing "The Sorting Song".  This is a favourite song to sing during our tidy-up time.

On Super Science Wednesday, Mrs. Allan lead us in an experiment involving coloured water and celery.

As good scienctists do, we made predictions about what we thought would happen when we left the celery overnight in the coloured water.

We discovered that the coloured water travelled up the celery stalk and made the leaves change color.  We could see the results most clearly with the red water.  Lots of friends volunteered to draw a picture and print words about this experiment in our Super Science Wednesday journal.  

We still had some apples left over from our applesauce day, so we used Mrs. Ducharme's "I Wonder" question to see if apples sink or float in water.  Again, we made predictions first and then we had fun testing out the results!  Tell mom and dad, what did we discover?  Do apples sink or float?

Making Applesauce

On Friday, we worked together to make applesauce!  Thanks to everyone who brought apples in.  All the apples were put to good use!  The children loved working with Mrs. Allan to create our very own applesauce.  A favourite part of the experience was using the machine to core the apples and remove the apple peel.  Guess what we discovered?  Lots of children loved eating the long strips of apple peel.  We had some fun comparing the lengths of the apple peel and using measurement terminology as we did this.

The final product was a success!  Most of the children really like the applesauce and were asking for second helpings!  

Grand Opening of the Grocery Store!

This week we have turned our house center into a grocery store.  Many of the children have been involved in helping to create signs, food labels and organize the materials for this center.  We began by making a list of all the things we would need for the grocery store.

One of our friends decided to print the words "Grocery Store"  all by herself using her "best guess spelling".  

The children loved creating food labels for all the things we could sell at our grocery store.  We couldn't believe how excited the children were to copy letters and have their print displayed!

Check out our little cashiers...

and our little shoppers!

With some modeling, we have been helping the children to print their very own grocery lists.  This friend was using "sound stretching" of words to hear the sounds in the words egg, carrot and rice.  We are so happy to see our friends make their best attempt to sound out words!

Names, Sorting, Surveys, Colours and  A Grocery Store!

Lots of great things are going on in our classroom again this week. Take a glimpse at just a few of the learning opportunities taking place this week...

We love working with our names.  What a great way to learn about letters and sounds!  Here we are making our names using a special glue, sparkle and sand mixture.

Sorting is fun!  Our friends are busy exploring sorting with manipulatives at the water center and using sorting trays.  As we sort, the children are being asked to talk about their "sorting rule".

We have been making class surveys this week, such as asking about favourite colours and finding out which friends in class have a pet.  This lead to the students making their very own surveys and asking their friends survey questions.  The most popular question of the week has been "Do you like pizza?".  The children like to use the clipboards to record how many children answered yes and no.

We have new play food in our house center.  This has sparked the children's interest in playing grocery store.  Tomorrow we will be making a list of all the things we need to turn the house center into a grocery store.  We will then begin working together to make a grocery store center. 

Our Super Science Wednesday experiment involved mixing primary colors together to make new colours.  We think red, blue and yellow are magical because they help create exciting colours.  The children were lined up to take a turn at our "colour mixing" center.