It was Balloon Farm week! See the previous post for details of our adventure with Mr. Harvey Potter.  Next week starts a new month and a new unit…be sure to come in and check out our room transformation on Monday.  The clue I gave to students was…”Hooooooot, Hooooooooooot”

Small group work this week…

Monday
Read-Aloud – Baloon Farm – We started the week by reading Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm by Mark Buehner.  It is a story about a farmer who grows balloons and a little girl who is determined to figure out how he does it.
Emergent Writing – Balloon Journal – Before students are able to write with a lot of details, they can practice by drawing lots of details.  Over the course of the week, we tried to capture with details we saw using markers.  Students then tried to write some words to describe what they drew.  Today students drew the three yellow balloons carrying away our letter to Harvey Potter.

Math – Starfall Shapes – We practiced identifying triangles and quadrilaterals with a game on Starfall.

Tuesday
Read-Aloud – Sally’s Balloon Adventure – We read Sally’s Great Balloon Adventure by Stephen Huneck.  This story is about a dog who accidentally goes up in a hot air balloon with a basket of fried chicken.

Science – Balloon weight – After reading about Sally’s trip in a hot air balloon.  We tied a little basket to a ballon and then experimented with different objects from the classroom taking a ride inside.  Some objects went up in the air, but others were too heavy and dropped to the ground.
Math – Forest of Shapes – The tree on our wall in Madagascar dropped all of its leaves and they were all different shapes.  We collected the different shapes, sorted them, and then pasted each shape onto a different little tree in our books, “Forest of Shapes.”  Students also tried drawing the shapes using a template.

Wednesday
Guided Reading – I sat with each student and worked on individual reading skills.  The rest of the group used one of our literacy apps on the iPads (Letter School, Epic!, or Starfall).
Art – Conjure Sticks – Using some magic glitter left to us by Ms. Potter (cousin of Harvey Potter and a former teacher at Quest), students created their own conjure stick to use once our seeds arrived.
Math – Dice Game – Students practiced throwing the foam dice and adding the sum.

Thursday
Emergent Writing – Whiteboard Letters and Words – We practiced correct formation of all vowels, some consonants, and a few cvc words.
Emergent Writing – Balloon Journal – Our conjure sticks had flown to the ceiling overnight!  We needed Mr. Ernesto to help us get them down with his big yellow ladder.  Afterward, we did another detailed drawing of Mr. Ernesto and the conjure sticks that almost flew away.
Music – Song Book Songs – Thursday was the 26th day of school…that means the letter Z was our letter of the day and it was the last day of our alphabet review.  In addition to learning Heidi songs for each letter, we also learned a song each day from our classroom songbook.  To celebrate finishing the alphabet, each student got to pick their favorite song for us to sing.

Friday
Growing a Balloon Plant! – Our balloon seeds arrived!  We had a little trouble with our first seed, but the second seed grew into a beautiful green balloon!  Thank you Harvey Potter!
Emergent Writing – Balloon Journal – We added the last page of detailed drawing and words to our balloon journal.

1. We read Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm

   

2. We wrote a letter to Mr. Potter and asked him very politely to send us a balloon seed.  We sent it via balloon mail.

3. We made magical conjure sticks (like Mr. Potter has) to use once the seed arrives.

4. The next morning our conjure sticks had flown up to the ceiling!

5. We called Mr. Ernesto to help us get the conjure sticks down.  The magic was so powerful, Mr. Ernesto almost flew away!

6. Mrs. Perry told us we received a package!  Watch this video of our class getting a package from Mr. Potter!

7. We opened the package and inside was a letter, a conjure stick, and a balloon seed.

8. We planted the seed and said the magic words…but it DIDN’T WORK!!!!

9. We wrote a letter back to Mr. Potter asking him for another seed.  But when Mrs. Genovese checked again, there actually was another seed in the box!

10. We tried again and grew a big GREEN BALLOON, IT WORKED!  Watch this video of our balloon growing.  

Cent

This week was all about apples…next week is all about balloons 🙂

Small Group work this week…

Monday
Math – Coin Comparison – Throughout the year we will be studying coins.  Today we looked closely at the different attributes of our coins and sorted them.
Literacy – Sequencing  – we read the emergent reader Three Friends and the Leaves.  Students then sequenced pictures from the story. Then we practiced more sequencing with sequence story cards.
Read-Aloud – 10 Apples on Top – We listened to the story by Dr. Suess and kept track of each animal character’s apples with the felt board.

Tuesday
Math/Fine Motor – Dice Roll Apple Picking – Working with a partner, students rolled dice, added the total, and then picked that many “apples” from the apple tree.  The apples were pom poms stuck to the whiteboard that students picked with a strawberry huller.  These little metal tongs are perfect for building fine motor muscles.

Math/Writing – Numbering 10 Apples – Mrs. Swanson helped students correctly form numbers 1 – 10, each number on an apple.  Numbers can be tricky for students to learn how to write.
Art/Line Control – Coloring an Apple Person – Each student colored in a person to balance all of their apples.

Wednesday
Guided Reading – I read one on one with each student while the rest of the group used the Starfall app on the iPads.  Starfall has been around for a long time, but it still has my vote for best early childhood learning app.
Finish Apples on Top – Students finished up their numbers

Read-Aloud – Fletcher and the Falling Leaves  -I read the book Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlins

on.  A lovely story about a little fox who thinks his favorite tree is sick because it is dropping leaves.  He compassionately tries to put the leaves back on the tree to help it.   But soon learns that other animals can use the leaves and his tree is just fine.

Thursday
Baking Real Apple Turnovers – We peeled the apples with a super cool apple peeler.  Then chopped them up.  each student had their own little cup of apples to mix with sugar, cinnamon, and applesauce.  Each then placed the apple mixture into the middle of a pastry dough square.  They folded it over, sealed, poked holes in the top.  They smelled heavenly as they baked.
Baking Pretend Apple Pies – As each group waited for a turn to bake, they used cinnamon scented play-doh and colored blocks to pretend to make an apple pie.

Friday
Literacy – Whiteboard Letters/Words – We practiced letter formation for all vowels, b, and c.  We then began cvc (consonant vowel consonant)words.
Recycling – Being Responsible with our garbage – Mrs. Swanson showed students a video about recycling.  She then showed them a pile of different items that we might throw away.  Students sorted photos garbage into “garbage” or “recycling”.  We have two barrels in our classroom.   We will try to be mindful all year when throwing something away.

I somehow lost all my photos of the kids making the turn-overs 🙁

But here is the finished result…

Video Clips