A banana is a what?
10/26/2018
At the beginning of the week, I thought I had some amazing plans to teach the Beginners about the fruits that come from trees, and I had planned to culminate the week by baking some delicious banana bread, because bananas grow on trees...right? Apparently, they do not. As I was reading the children a book, it plainly said, "Fruit that does not grow on trees," and listed the banana. Thinking it was just an old book with some wrong information, I had to look it up on the internet. Here's what I learned; "Even though banana plants can grow to be 30 feet in height, they’re not technically trees: their stems are sturdy, but contain no woody tissue. They’re not trunks, but 'pseudostems,' made of densely packed leaves. So a banana plant is actually a perennial herb, like a lily or an orchid. Technically, the banana fruit is the berry of the plant." When I wrote the morning question asking the Beginners if Bananas grow on trees, many of them were determined that they did not grow on trees, while I was determined that they did, but they were right. Reflecting on it now, it almost humbles me. It makes me remember that children, no matter how young, deserve to be listened to, they deserve to be told "You're right," and they can teach us important things if we just spend some time with them. This week we also did some tree art. We exercised fine motor skills by painting with q-tips. We also used liquid watercolors to make beautiful birch tree paintings. Instead of banana bread, we made orange-mango smoothies. Both of those fruits grow from trees.
Who lives in Trees?
10/19/2018
This week the Beginners explored who lives in trees. We learned that bats, owls, beavers, snakes, frogs and various other animals use trees as homes. We started the week by using our big arm muscles to paint a big tree trunk. The following day we worked our fine motor muscles in our hands to paste tissue paper to paper to make leaves for the tree. Later, we made owls out of paper towel rolls and put them up in our tree. On Wednesday, we practiced cutting with scissors, and used cognitive skills to determine what kind of animals live in trees. Cutting was a little difficult, but the with determination, the Beginners were able to finish their task. On Friday, the Beginners hosted their first Family Breakfast of the year. Any time the Beginners can share with their families all the things they are learning and include them in activities only makes the children more excited about learning. They said they couldn't even wait until the next one. On another note, I just can't get enough of these little construction workers. They are too cute.
Exploring Trees
10/10/2018
The Beginners started to investigate trees this week. First, we took a few walks around our neighborhood to see what the trees looked like. We made many observations: Some had leaves, others did not. Some leaves were yellow and others were red, brown or green. Some trees have "pokey branches." Some had pine cones and some did not. On our second walk, the Beginners collected items that they wanted to take a closer look at in the classroom. We worked on letter recognition skills to make an autumn tree. As we read the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, the Beginners placed their letters on the tree as they heard them read. Using the tree pieces we collected earlier in the week as paint brushes, we made some beautiful pictures. Our last activity of the week was a math activity where the children compared and contrasted branches in order lay the sticks from smallest to largest. In a few weeks, we will learn about how we use trees and what kind of things are made from trees. In the meantime, the Beginners are having a blast pretending to be woodworkers.
Applefest 2018
10/5/2018
This week the Beginners learned all about apples. We read about how the apple tree starts as a seed and grows into a tree. The tree grows flowers that evernually grow into apples. When the apples are ripe, they are picked and sent to factories and stores to be made into different things, like apple juice and applesauce. We cut open some apples in different directions to see what was inside. When we cut it in half, we say a special star in the middle that had the seeds inside. We used the apple slices to make prints on paper. We wanted to taste test the apples to decide which color we liked the best. Unfortunately, there weren't any yellow apples in the stores this week, so we only compared red and green apples. We discovered that most people liked the sweet, red apples, but some people liked the sour, green apples best. We made a chart of our experiment and used this as a counting activity. The Beginners wanted to see how apple juice is made, so they all brought in apples to add to our juice making experience. First we washed the apples, then cut them into slices. We put them in a big pot and added some water. The pot cooked throughout the day, releasing all the sweet juices. When they were cooked, the apples were mashed and strained, leaving a lot of juice for us to drink. The mashed apple was an extra bonus. When they decided to make apple juice, they got an extra bonus of applesauce! For our last activity, we conducted some science experiments. We wanted to see what would happen when apple slices were exposed to different substances. We put lemon juice on a few slices, baking soda on others, and salt on the last bowl of slices. After letting them sit through lunch and nap time, we observed the slices again and discovered the the slices with salt on them turned brown and mushy. The Baking soda batch was a little slimy, but still had normal coloring. The ones with lemon juice were unchanged and smelled really good.
|
Annalee JohnsonEK Teacher Archives
January 2021
Categories |