Johnny Appleseed Week with 5 Senses

After reading our first apple book first thing Monday morning, it took us a while to go through all of the NEW Johnny Appleseed centers for the week. When centers were over, I told the kids, "Believe it or not...It's time to clean up! We're out of time!" and one munchkin looked at me and said, "It's okay, Ms. Ham... it's because the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer!" :) Although the school days aren't getting shorter, they sure feel that way on such fun weeks! Even the kids are saying that there just isn't enough time in the day lately!

We started off learning about the 5 senses with a Nature Walk outside:

Then each day we talked about a different sense in relation to our apples and added to our anchor chart with a specific color sticky note for each sense!

We created "My 5 Senses" mini books to write about things we like to see/smell/taste/touch/hear. On Thursday, we did our first "craft" by doing a tear-art apple and writing a sentence using adjectives from our anchor chart! Check these out on our bulletin board during conferences this week!

Tuesday was crazy with our Run4Funds Prizes and a lockdown drill! The kids had a great day and rocked the drill. We even had a friend in the bathroom during the drill and he did exactly what he was supposed to do too! The kids were very worried about him and greeted him with huge bear hugs when he returned after the drill. This class is SO compassionate and empathetic and it makes my heart so happy! Even other teachers have noticed!

***If I don't have your cell number saved in my phone, I didn't send you your kiddo's pictures because I can only send one at a time on DoJo... if you want them, send me a text and I can send them all at once!

On Thursday, we taste tested red, yellow, and green apples and then graphed our favorites! (Clearly not the cutest/prettiest graph, but hey it works!)

After learning about all of the senses through Johnny Appleseed and apple exploration, we made crockpot apple sauce on Friday and the kids could wear a pot on their heads while mashing the applesauce if they chose to! I took a picture of all of them... stay tuned! :)

Ask Your Child About:

-Phonemic Awareness/Phonics: What do we say for e? (e, ed, /e/) What do we say for r? (r, rat, /r/)

-Reading: This was our last week with focus on concepts of print, author/illustrator/title...the kids are experts these days! Why did they call Johnny Chapman Johnny Appleseed? (He planted apple trees all over.)

-Math: We broke out the magazines this week and cut them all up searching for examples of shapes in real life! We created a tree map and glued the shapes we found to our tree map:

What is the difference between a square and a rectangle? (squares have equal sides, rectangles have two longer and two shorter!) Can you show me what beside means? Above? Below? Next to?

-Fluency/Poems: "Apples" Poem, "Apples!" Scholastic Reader

-Sight Words:

-Science: What are the 5 senses? What is your favorite sense? What did our classroom smell like on Friday? (cinnamon!)

-Writing: Should you write your sentence in all capitals? (No... then Ms. Ham thinks you're yelling at her!) What goes at the end of a sentence? (period) What goes in between words? (finger spaces)

I took this picture for many reasons...

1. To show WHY I do unit "themes"- They all chose to write about apples during writing center time! They retain so much more information when we learn in themes. They get excited about the theme and make great connections across content areas!

2. This is what our rug looks like for much of the day! To an outsider our center times may seem unstructured because the kids have a lot of freedom and choices, but it is so meaningful and productive! During math centers, the kids are sprawled out playing math games with partners and during writing they love to lay down and write on the white boards or walk around and write the room. They are responsible and independent so they get to have these freedoms! I don't care where they're working during center times as long as they are working! :)

(FYI: I am working with small groups while the kids are doing this.)

Reminders:

-Tuesday and Thursday night are conferences! Looking forward to the time to tell you just how much I LOVE your munchkin!

-I made a mistake on homework! I put that its due Friday (as usual) but the kids don't have school on Friday, so please be sure to turn it in on THURSDAY! :) Sorry about that!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

With SO much love,

Ms. Ham