How does your garden grow?

Remember our post about meeting our fifth grade partners and planting the Three Sisters - corn, bean and squash?  Well today we met our 5th grade buddies again and checked on how the plants are doing.  The fifth graders have been watering and weeding since we planted.  We were so surprised at how well the plants are growing!  Do you know which is corn, which is beans and which is squash?

2012 Eric Carle Celebration

Today was Eric Carle Celebration Day!  The children enjoyed working with some of the books of this beloved author as they revisited the stories that they have come to love this last month.

To start the morning we donned out caterpillar shirts and ate some pancakes to celebrate Eric Carle's book, Pancakes, Pancakes. 

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Then it was off to make hungry caterpillar necklaces to go with one of our very favorite books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Then we made hats to go with the book The Very Grouchy Ladybug. Did you know that ladybugs are insects and they have six legs?

Next we used tissue paper, just like Eric Carle does!  We used the tissue paper to make a seahorse, just like the author did in Mr. Seahorse.  This was a new Eric Carle book for us.

We finished our celebration by talking about all of the books that we have been reading.  What an awesome day!

Soaring Eagles

Congratulations to our new "Soaring Eagles" for the 3rd nine weeks!

Eric Carle Study Begins...

Today we started studying one of America's favorite authors, Eric Carle.  We began our study with The Very Busy Spider.  The children had a book talk, noticing lots of features about the book.  They noticed that it was a pattern book, that the noises that the animals made were onomatopoeia, that the book was fiction because it couldn't be real if the animals talked, that there was a pesky fly on every single page which must be a clue to the ending, that the setting was a barnyard, that the spider web got bigger as the story moved along, and a hundred other interesting little details. 

Mrs.  Ruark added her Science touch by telling the students that the spider inserts venom into the fly after it wraps it with thread and it's insides turn into a milkshake, so that the spider can suck the insides out, which leaves an exoskeleton!  You can imagine... the children were fascinated!

After talking about the story, the children played a Concentration game that required them to remember what each of the barnyard animals asked the spider to do.  This practice will help them retell the story in the days to come.  Make sure to ask your child all about our newest author and most interesting book!

Planting the Three Sisters

During our Pow Wow unit our little Iroquois talked about how the Native Americans grew their own food.  According to Iroquois legend, corn, beans, and squash were three inseparable sisters who only grew and thrived together. This tradition of planting corn, beans and squash in the same mounds, was widespread among Native American farming societies.  It was a sophisticated system that provided long-term soil fertility and a healthy diet. The Iroquois believed corn, beans and squash were precious gifts from the Great Spirit, each watched over by one of three sisters spirits.  Corn provides a natural pole for bean vines to climb. Bean vines help stabilize the corn plants. Shallow-rooted squash vines become a living mulch and discourage predators from approaching the corn and beans.

Today our children actually got to join with fifth graders to plant mounds of the Three sisters.  They planted and watered and will visist the mounds often to watch the garden grow.  What an exciting enrichment for our own Plant Unit!

Skype from Japan!

As you probably know, Mrs. Timmons had an unexpected call over the Spring Break,  Her husband, Wes Timmons, who substitutes at Chets Creek during the off-season, is a professional baseball player.  He has been playing in the Minor Leagues for nine years and this year he is playing with the Oakland A's.  He went to Spring Training with the big team and then was invited to join them for four games in JAPAN!  So.... during Spring Break he called Mrs. Timmons and told her to get out her passport because she had been invited to join him for a week in Japan!

On Wednesday, she stayed up late (there is a 13 hour time difference!) and Skyped the class!  We were so excited to actually see her and talk to her.  She showed up the Japanese money "yen" and even showed us a Japanese coin with a hole in it.  She taught us a few Japanese words, showed us chop sticks and talked about the differences in the food she is eating.  Do you know that she is eating seaweed for breakfast?  We also learned that the Japanese often take their shoes off when entering someone's home and that she had to take her shoes off at a Japanese Restaurant and then sat on pillows on the floor to eat her dinner!  Mr. Timmons said he had lunch at McDonald's!  Mrs. Timmons also told us that the Japanese dress up their dogs in clothes and shoes and that even the dogs have to take off their shoes when entering the house!  Mrs. Timmons answered all of out questions and then as we went off to lunch, she went to bed!  We can't wait to hear all about her adventures when she gets back to school next week!

Can you blow a bubble?

Today the children in our class learned how to blow a bubble.  First they watched a video tutorial that gave a step-by-step procedure for blowing a bubble.  Then they watched Mrs. Timmons and Mrs. Ruark walk them through step-by-step.

 Show off!

Some children blew a bubble for the very first time!

We had so much fun!  Then, of course, we wrote a procedural piece on how to blow a bubble!  Ask your child if they can show  you how to blow a bubble!



Making Clay Continents

We continued our procedural writing today by beginning with a project.  Today each table made their own map of the continents using colorful clay.  Each child at a table had one laminated form of one of the continents to use as an outline.  As each continent was shaped out of clay it was carefully lifted and placed onto the larger foam board to create a world map.

After experiencing the activity each child was asked to write

"how to make a clay continent."  Below is one student's attempt at explaining the project.

How to Make a Clay Continent

1.  First unwrap the clay and roll the clay. Don't worry. It will be hard.

2.  Then smoosh the clay and make it flat.

3. Next take the clay and take it into little pieces.

4.  Finally spread the clay onto the plastic.

You will need: 1 picture, plastic, scrapper, Popsicle (stick), clay