Our students have been learning about properties of shapes. They had a full sensory experience with the sphere when Grandma Barbuto came to class to show them how to make…meatballs! Our little chefs discovered as they made a tray full of meatballs that the sphere is round and has no sides or angles. They also noted that the sphere could be gooey, fun and yummy!

Our students know a lot about being thankful. They are thankful for their moms, dads, family, food, puppies kittens, toys, etc. This year, they also learned from the book The Story of Thanksgiving by Nancy J. Sharmeas, why we celebrate Thanksgiving. They found out that the first Thanksgiving feast was hosted by the Pilgrims to thank their Native American friends for helping them set up home in a new land.

After reading the story, our children staged their own first Thanksgiving experience. First, they made costumes and transformed themselves into Pilgrims and Native Americans. Next, our Native American friends helped their Pilgrim friends build new homes. Finally, everyone celebrated together on a snack feast. We are all thankful to have such wonderful friends to learn with and from. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The PreK-4 class did a great job at assembly this week singing “Six Little Ducks”!  Students are now working on finding the beat.  We are listening and singing many different songs with different tempos and students are finding the steady beat with either their hands, feet, or sometimes with an instrument!

During the last couple of weeks the students in PreK-4 have been studying the works of Eric Carle. This wonderful author inspires young artists everywhere to use their imaginations to create bold and colorful animals. Students had the opportunity to work on a virtual Eric Carle painting using the Kid Pix program. They were able to click and drag on different textures to create a one of a kind graphic design. We collaborated with some 7th grade students who helped us turn them into fun-looking animals. We now have our own adaptation of The Artist who Painted a Blue Horse.

In PreK-4 we have a mystery guest visiting us every Thursday from 2:00-2:30! This year, we introduced the mystery guest program by inviting members from family, school and local communities to enrich our students’ learning experience through their participation. Mrs. Curran, our environmental science teacher exhibited vegetables harvested from Unquowa’s own garden and led our students to plant their own lettuces. Chef Peter Gorman shared a book with us about food and treated our lucky students with toasted pumpkin seeds. Jacob’s dad, Mr. Dylan Cotton, rocked PreK-4 with all time favorite songs including Neil Young’s Harvest Moon. Gwen’s mom, Mrs. Kelly Kenny, t  aught our students all about reptiles by reading a book from Dr. Seuss. In November, we look forward to having Jack’s grandma, Mrs. Barbuto,   show us how to make meatballs, composing a children’s story about our students with George’s mom, Mrs. Marilynn Halas, and reconnecting with our beloved PreK-3 teacher, Mrs. Janice Shannon, and her bunny!

Last week as part of our colors unit, our friends were learning all about primary and secondary colors. We dyed large napkins using only yellow, blue and red dyes. But WOW - those were not the only colors that we saw when we opened up the finished products! A rainbow of colors and some beautiful designs…every one is different.It was a great way to see the practical results of color mixing.

For the past two weeks, we have been studying about the role animals play on farms as we continue with our integrated unit on farms. We kicked off with a hay ride pulled by an imaginary horse. Next, we milked a cow made by PreK-4A class and turned milk into butter! We also assembled roosters by using ordinal numbers and woke up everyone with our crows. Finally, we visited New Pond Farm where we brushed Lucky the cow, visited with a very shy baby calf Lu Lu, observed five sheep grazing in the meadow, and made our own wool bracelet after we washed sheared wool, combed them and weaved them by hand!

Paralleling the PreK-4 study of the farm, students are studying farm animals in Spanish. Students are able to classify the animals based on whether they are big (grande) or small (pequeño). Students took a closer look at the cow (la vaca) and talked about how milk (la leche) comes from the cow. Students focused on the head (la cabeza), the eyes (los ojos), and the tail (la cola) of the cow as they created their own on paper. Finally, students loved singing about a cow named Lola. Beware! This is a tune that is sure to be caught in your head for days!

Over the past two weeks, PreK-4 students have been studying about the origin of our food. Our diligent learners traced popcorn back to kernels that we plant to grow corn stalks, ketchup back to tomato seeds we grow into tomato vines from which we pick tomatoes, and honey back to nectar that bees gather to bring back to their hives. In addition, our mystery guest, Mrs. Curran enriched the learning journey by leading our classes to tour Unquowa’s vegetable garden and directing our students to plant lettuce seeds. In summation, the children worked together to create an “Above, On and Below” garden to demonstrate their newly acquired knowledge about food found in farms!

PreK-4 students have been busy learning how to count in Chinese! Numbers in Chinese are the foundations for other complex expressions, including days of the week and months in the year. Our budding linguists have been using their newly acquired knowledge in Chinese numerals to learn days of the week. Soon, they will learn months in the year!