On Friday, the Pumpkins went on their first field trip to the Queens Museum! When they arrived at the museum, they met their tour guide and walked through some of the galleries. The Pumpkins favorite gallery they visited featured luminaries. The tour guide taught the Pumpkins that luminaries are arches that are typically decorated with bright colors and lights and can be found in countries including Spain, France, and Italy. Each Pumpkin drew their own luminary and later recreated it using Model Magic, beads, and sequence. The Pumpkins also got to visit the famous Panorama of New York City. The Pumpkins loved watching the plane flight out of and land at the model of LaGuardia Airport as well as feeling a part of the Panorama. Their tour guide was very impressed with the Pumpkins ability to identify the boroughs based on the location and landmarks. To conclude the field trip, the Pumpkins had a picnic lunch while looking at the globe outside of the museum. All of the Pumpkins had an amazing time connecting what they are learning in social studies to what they saw at the museum! On Friday, the Pumpkins had the opportunity to meet and play with one of the many ducklings being raised at Gillen Brewer this spring! This little one's name is Sunshine and he is definitely a talkative and social duckling, fitting in perfectly with the Pumpkin crew! Every Pumpkin who wanted to, got a chance to hold or pet Sunshine, as well as observe him exploring the classroom! The Pumpkins particularly liked the way his feet looked and felt as they each got a chance to hold him in their own hands! What a treat! After working on a unit about the many different cultures and neighborhoods New York City is home to, the Pumpkins were SO excited to share all that they learned during our cultural celebration this past Friday! The Pumpkins were able to share their culture books, their artifacts, and a song with so many friends and family. The Pumpkins and their families enjoyed a wide variety of cultural foods, such as Irish Soda Bread representing Ireland, Sho Pau representing the Philippines, Antipasta platters and cannolis representing Italy, Empanadas representing Mexico, and corn bread representing Harlem. The Pumpkins and Pumpkin teachers are so incredibly grateful for all of the yummy treats that families shared with us. Thank you, Pumpkin families, for making this celebration so very special! In science, the Pumpkins have been learning about and performing experiments using different types of measurement. They practiced length with measurement tape, volume with graduated cylinders, and mass with scales. They've had to work very carefully with the materials and be responsible for cleaning after they're done. The Pumpkins are truly enjoying experimenting with hands-on materials of their own! The Pumpkins have eagerly began soccer at Asphalt Green to kick off the season of Spring. As a class, they are learning how to kick and pass the ball with their feet. The Pumpkins delved right into the sport, by learning how to kick the ball through gates on the field. In addition to playing soccer, the Pumpkins are also working on good sportsmanship. At the end of every class, the coach has all the Pumpkins gather around in a huddle to reflect on the time spent together. All the Pumpkins enjoyed their first day of soccer and cannot wait to continue playing! The Pumpkins have been working very hard to be responsible, safe, and ready to learn in our classroom. Over the past few weeks, the Pumpkins have earned 100 Pride Point Pumpkins for following directions the first time, thinking about what the group is learning, and increasing independence while doing their work and playing with each other. As a special celebration yesterday, one of the bunnies from the Lily Pads classroom visited with the Pumpkins. 'Book Bag' the Bunny got the chance to spend time with each of the Pumpkins. The Pumpkins enjoyed taking turns petting and brushing Book Bag and asking questions about bunnies. The Pumpkin team is proud of all the hard work the Pumpkins have been doing to work towards their goals individually and as a class! In Social Studies, the Pumpkins have been learning about the many different cultures that reside within New York City. We focused on Little Italy, Harlem, Little Odessa, and Little Ireland. Within these communities we have explored the culture of the populations living in each area. We learned about how the people in these communities emigrated from their home countries and became permanent residents New York City. The Pumpkins have explored the various foods, clothing, and leisure activities of each culture. The Pumpkins particularly enjoyed learning about Little Odessa and got the chance to try writing their names using the Cyrillic alphabet (Russian). Each Pumpkin was very proud of their "Russian" names and are excited to continue exploring other cultures! The Pumpkins had a busy and fun-filled day celebrating the 100th day of school! During morning meeting, the Days in School Helper excitedly bundled the 100 days in school straws to represent a group of 100. The Pumpkins began doing special 100 day activities, by writing 100 words during Reading Groups. They worked very hard and came up with an impressive number of words! During snack time, the Pumpkins counted out 100 pieces of snack on a hundreds chart. They were very excited to eat 100 pieces of snack! The Pumpkins continued doing special 100 day activities by sharing their special 100 objects. They described how the objects feel, smell and sound. Next, they did 10 sets of 10 different exercises to equal 100 exercises in all. They had quite the workout with one foot hops, push-ups, jumping jacks and more! It has been an exciting and wonderful first 100 days in school. We cannot wait to see all that the Pumpkins will achieve in the next 100 days! Last Friday, the Pumpkins did their first book cook! First, the Pumpkins read Jan Brett's Goldilocks and The Three Bears and identified the main story elements including: setting, characters, plot, and theme. Then the class read Goldilocks and The Three Dinosaurs. While reading this story, the Pumpkins used vegetables to create their own Papa Dinosaur, Mama Dinosaur, and Baby Dinosaur. After they finished making their own dinosaurs, the Pumpkins got to enjoy their dinosaurs as a healthy snack! Next, the Pumpkins identified the story elements in Goldilocks and The Three Dinosaurs and made a T-Chart to compare and contrast both Goldilocks tales. Lastly, the Pumpkins made their own versions of Goldilocks and The Three _______ choosing their own characters, setting, and theme. The Pumpkins have just begun a new art unit in which they are observing artwork by Romare Bearden. The Pumpkins are looking specifically at Bearden's collage art titled "The Block". After observing Bearden's style of artwork, they started by drawing a sketch of what they'd like their city block to look like. Then, began to recreate their own version of their block with cut out pieces of construction paper and magazines to represent the buildings and houses. The Pumpkins will later be creating a final "block" collage of their own to represent their interpretation of Bearden's artwork. They are so excited to be cutting out and gluing different shapes to create and decorate a collage in whatever way they choose! |