Apple Sauce Adventure

Our Class Gives Thumbs Up To Apple Season!!!
As the apple season winds down, our class decided to make a wonderful apple sauce. On Monday we cooked the Honey Crisp apples we got at the orchard in a crock pot all day, (thank you Mrs. Morleen for all your equipment and help). We let the sauce cool over night, a little cinnamon, a touch of sugar, and lots of elbow grease with the food mill from all the students, and voila, apple sauce goodness. The class loved it!!

Our open house was great and the apple chart and measuring activity were big hits. A quick reminder, Thursday is picture day, so remember to bring in money if you want pictures of your child.

Saying Goodbye to a Friend

Our Friend Andrew Heads West
In a sad, but "excited for him" moment, we said goodbye to Andrew who is moving to Arizona. He will be missed and his creativity, passion for musicals, (especially Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), brilliance, and love of life is hard to see leave. Our cupcake party with fresh cider from the Orchard, a small gift giving time from Mr.Lewis and friends sharing their sentiments made for a warm afternoon.


Take care Andrew, safe journey, and best of luck to a great young man!!!!(and stay in touch)

To The Orchard We Go!!

A great day at Hackett's Orchard
Our class had a great time learning about and visiting an orchard today. We had ample time to play and then a wagon ride to the picking trees. One instructional opportunity showed our class how apples differ in size and color. We also saw how large picking baskets with a collapsible bottom are used for efficiency and convenience. In the orchard, we learned how to properly pick an apple without hurting the "spur", or next years apple. Our guide also talked about the many varieties of apples that Hackett's has to offer.

Release Party

Farewell Pretty Painted Ladies!!!
Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Scott, and our class had a blast today. We released 13 butterflies into our butterfly garden. They all seemed strong and ready to enter the natural world. There were cheers as each one lifted off and the students were proud of being such good care takers. Our Monarch butterfly caterpillars arrived today, so we will hopefully have a late season release party for their migration south.

The Time Has Come!!

Butterflies Emerge
The class was surprised to come into the room this morning to find two of our four chrysalis had split open and there were two Painted Lady butterflies flapping their wings in our butterfly net. In the next hour, the class was able to witness an emergence. It was a fascinating and very exciting moment. One support member in the class had never seen it actually happen and all the students were awe struck as the butterfly slowly emerged, dried it's wings and flit to the side of the net!!! What an opportunity!!

Class acts out Eric Carle's, "The Hungry Catterpillar"

Caterpillar Play
Our class re-enacted the story of "The Hungry Caterpillar", by Eric Carle. A student was chosen to be the caterpillar and others were given the food that the caterpillar eats. They did a wonderful job and had a blast. They asked if we could do it again and switch the positions of characters. We will do this on Monday.

Math Activities

We have been doing some math activities that focus on number sense and the numbers one through ten. This is also to establish ordering of numbers. On one occasion, we built towers and another activity showed how numbers differ in size as we go up using "math flags".

To help with the concrete learning of the caterpillar life cycle, we all did on with paper cut out and labeled the stages. We also used play dough for a math session and then built the life cycle with the dough.

First Days

The day has finally arrived! We have been able to spend some time getting to know each other and our morning meeting activities have focused on going over the expectations of the classroom. We have been reviewing what it means to be a whole body listener and our explore time is spent understanding how, by working together and sharing, we create a gateway to a safe, achieving, and caring classroom community.

                            Artistic friends sharing some time together