Apples

This week our theme was "Apples."  We read some neat books about apples and we talked about the different parts that make up an apple.  During math, we continued working on various kinds of patterns.  To incorporate apples, we made our own patterns out of apples.  Students were split into groups of three and were given paper apple cutouts to sort.  They had four different colors to choose from: red, pink, yellow, and green.

After the apples were sorted by color, the groups had to decide how to organize their apples in a pattern.  Some groups used only two of the sets of apples; other groups used three or all four sets of apples.  A few groups even did two separate patterns.

This group did two separate AB patterns.

 After the apples were glued down on the paper, students had to go back and write the pattern.

Here is an AABBCCDD pattern.

In math, to warm-up our brains, we have been practicing something called an open number line.  It has been helping us with our number sense.  We put a number line on the board with only the first and last numbers labeled on the number line.

In this example, I started with the number one and ended with the number ten.  I asked them where they thought two would go.  I asked, "Would I put two closer to one, or closer to ten?"  These kind of prompting questions were helpful in the beginning.  They quickly figured out where five went on the number line because they said five is right in the middle of one and ten.

After they got the hang of it, we played a game.  I used the open number line and asked them to guess a number I was thinking.  I placed the numbers students guessed on the number line and I would tell them "My number is greater than _____  or my number is less than______."  This visual helped students narrow down the range of numbers that could possibly be the one I was thinking of.  They loved the game, so we tried even harder numbers.  I was so impressed by how well they picked up on the open number line.

Lots of students wanted to make their own open number lines.  They did a great job! Here is an open number line that a student made all by himself.  He has zero at the beginning and one hundred at the end.  He knew exactly where to place the number fifty!

We have been working on practicing our letter sounds during Reading Workshop.  To challenge ourselves, we picked different items in the room and tried our very best to spell them with sounding out our words.  Students wrote their words on Post-It notes and then stuck them on the objects they were spelling.  Here are examples of our awesome sounds spelling!

 Tar (Chair)

 (Legos)

(Dry-erase board) 

Descovery Table (Discovery Table)

Cichin (Kitchen) 

(Stool)

This is a wonderful activity that you can do at home (you don't have to use Post-It notes.  You can have your child write down their words on a piece of paper.)

As we studied apples, we came up with questions, such as "What would happen if we placed several different kinds of apples in a container of water?"  Some students thought the apples would float, while others thought they would sink.  Others thought the bigger apples would sink and the smaller apples would be lighter and float.  We tested our hypotheses.  

We discovered that all of the apples floated regardless of size!

Did you know that you can preserve apples even after you cut them open?  When you cut open an apple, the air makes its flesh turn brown.  We tried to figure out if there is any way to stop this process.  We took three apple halves and to the first one, we did nothing to it.  The second apple was soaked in water.  On the third apple, we coated it with lemon juice.  Here is how the apples looked after about twenty minutes.

We checked on the apples again towards the end of the day.

We left the apples out all night and checked on them again the next morning.  The air turned the apple brown.  The apple covered in water also turned brown.  The apple covered with lemon juice still looked white in the middle!

On Thursday, we cut up apples and put them in a slower cooker with water, sugar, and cinnamon.  We stirred the slow cooker throughout the day and a delicious smell filled our entire room!  At the very end of the day, we enjoyed some yummy and sweet apples.  

We have a little turtle friend in our classroom (whom the students named "Tortoise") who likes to catch people doing good work an following directions.  I start by finding someone being  a good listener and I give them Tortoise.  He will sit with that person while they are on the carpet or working at their table spot.  The student with Tortoise gets to pass him to a classmate who is doing good work and so on, and so on.  They love Tortoise!