A Fantastic Day at the Farm!

 Fun was had by all at the Queens County Farm Museum!
The first thing we did was take a hay ride around the farm. The hay ride was pulled by a tractor with big wheels.It was a fun and bumpy ride!

Then, we learned about goats and how they can make milk. We got to feed the goats and they tickled our hands when they ate the food! We also observed chickens and got to see the eggs they laid just today.

 Next, we learned about how pumpkins grow and we went to the pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkins. 

We walked through a garden and learned about vegetables that grow on this farm. We noticed signs that help farmers know what kinds of plants are growing. We are getting good at noticing and reading signs!






































Class K-205 had a great trip to the Farm. You can visit the farm again with your family. Check out the website link here to learn more about the fun activities there! 
http://www.queensfarm.org/

Making Tree Maps

In our class, we have been working on a new kind of thinking map called a tree map. Tree maps can help us to organize our thinking about an idea into groups or categories. This week we have synthesized tree maps into our learning in fun and interactive ways.

 In writing, students have been exploring the different kinds of writing we see in the world. The children brought in different examples from home to share. As a group, we then organized the writing we found into groups in a tree map. We found signs, cards/ postcards, maps, advertisements and menus. What other kinds of writing do you see at home? What other kinds of writing do you see outside?

 We are also preparing for our first class trip to the farm. We explored and read some farm books together. Students then illustrated something they may see at the farm on an index card and shared it with the group. The students then came up to a pocket chart and placed their card on the tree map. We learned a lot about the kinds of things we will see at the farm!





We also used our team work skills to work together at our table to make a tree map about colors. Each table got a different colored marker, and had to brainstorm and take turns illustrating things that could be that color. Each table shared their section of the tree map with the group and we put it together into a large map of colors. We are really learning to work cooperatively and listen to each others ideas!

                                                                 October is Here!
October is finally here, and the fall is just beginning. In our classroom, we have been working on learning how to work independently in literacy centers. Literacy centers are a fun way to engage students in a variety of skills practice.

 In the story retell center, students work on retelling the story "Chika, Chika, Boom Boom" with magnetic letters. This is a fun alphabet story, which helps us to recognize our letters.

 At the listening center, students are engaged in listening to "The Little Mouse, The Red, Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear"
Listening to familiar stories many times helps up to learn about story structure and increases our comprehension.








At the sensory center, students hunt for letters in a bin filled with rice. We are hunting for upper case and lower case letters. Exploring materials with our hands in the sensory center is a fun way to help increase our memory for letters.

                                                                                             

In math, our class is working on recognizing, describing, and creating shapes. In these pictures, students are using geoboards to make shapes with a partner. We took turns making trapezoids, rectangles and hexagons. We also used a shape template to trace, cut and create our own shape collages. We read the book : "The Shape of Things"   to help us use our imaginations to see shapes in every day life.