Exploring Our Sense of Sight and Hearing

We explored the sense of sight in our classroom.

We loved color mixing with playdoh and colored water.  We made some interesting discoveries.

Then we met with Mr. Prazar and talked about our sense of hearing and sight and how animals use these senses.  We enjoyed looking for things that did not belong in nature when we went on a walk.

We worked hard to listen and find the matching sounds in our film cannisters.  We learned that different insects make different sounds, especially at this time of year.  They need a good sense of hearing so they can find each other.  We will continue to explore our senses in the coming weeks.

Spookley, the Square Pumpkin

We read The Legend of Spookley, the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano.  We talked about the setting and the characters.   

                                                                                     

     

We also worked together to retell the story including the problem and the solution.  Small groups illustrated one part of the story retell and shared with the rest of the class.  Story mapping is a skill that we will be working on all year as we develop important comprehension skills.

It took teamwork to illustrate this story map.

If you would like to see a video of the story about Spookley, click on this link.

Spookley the Square Pumpkin

Happy Halloween!

Hero Art

Today we were very lucky to see artist, Rob Surette, create four amazing 6-foot portraits of inspirational leaders.  He inspired us all to think about how we can change the world for the better.  Many thanks to TESPTO's Enrichment committee for bringing Hero Art to our school and to all of you for supporting TESPTO.

What Do Scientists Do?

Scientists make predictions.  "Where will the water go away faster?  In the sun?  In the shade?"

Scientists test their predictions.  They observe what is happening.  Then they discuss their findings and record their results.  We discovered that the water goes away faster in the sun and talked about the effect of heat .  We also discussed the term evaporation, and some children explained the water cycle to their classmates.

We worked on our observation skills by going outside with a clear square frame and observed what we could see within the frame.  This week we talked about how scientists use many different tools in their study of the world around them.  We learned two different techniques for using a magnifying glass and practiced looking at our thumbs and different things around our classroom.  Next week we will go outside with our magnifying glasses to use the skills we have learned.