Apple Taste Test

Since we had the apple from the crabapple tree, we collected other apples (Thank you, Mrs. Zoll and Dru!) and had a little taste test.

We had an unknown apple that Dru brought, a Pink Lady, a Macintosh, a Granny Smith, and the apple from the crabapple tree.

We each took a sample and did a taste test.

Overall, we thought Dru's apple was close but not quite the same as the Pink Lady.
We thought the apple from the crabapple tree was *really* sour, like a lemon or a lime.
The Pink Lady tasted like a "normal" apple.
The Granny Smith was sour and juicy.
The Macintosh was sweeter and softer than the others.
Next we voted on our favorite apple taste.

The results are in!

I was shocked that everybody's favorite was the one from the crabapple tree!

We loved our taste test!

Wonder of the Week: Why are apples red?

We took a wonder off of our Wonder Window for our Wonder of the Week.

On Monday morning we predicted why apples are red.  Later in the week we did a mini-inquiry to see if we could find out why apples are red.

First we brainstormed different sources that we might be able to use to help us find information.

Then we got to work and searched for interesting facts (leaving tracks of our thinking), as well as for clues to our Wonder of the Week.

We used Brainpop Jr., PebbleGo, books, posters, and real apples as our sources.

We found out that all apples are green when they are growing, but some change to red and even yellow.  We also learned from a Gail Gibbons book that different types of apples are specific colors.

  We got to see a youtube video of a pear growing, which is very similar to an apple.

We posted our new learning on padlet.

We are still wondering about those apples that grew on the crabapple tree, though!

'Wonder'ful Parent Ed Night

LEADS teachers led a parent education night about curiosity and wondering.  We talked about open versus closed questions and passed out a bookmark to help us have conversations of wonder and curiosity with our children.  We used Padlet to keep track of the wonders we generated.

Here is a video from that evening.If you didn't get a chance to join us for our parent ed night, maybe you'll be able to join us next year.  It was a great night!

Here is a link to the padlet wall, which is full of wonders!

Wonders

We have practiced looking closely and have drawn diagrams of our observations.

Now we are wondering about our world.
We went outside near the garden to make observations and wonder.

We even got to dig up the potatoes that some of us planted last year with Mrs. Heins!

Noah's mom told us about a crabapple tree that their nursery planted on the school grounds that surprisingly had real apples growing on it.  We headed out to wonder about that, too!

After we came back inside we learned about the Wonder Window in our classroom.  We added lots of wonders that afternoon!

Here is a video of our afternoon of wondering:

What do you wonder?

First Grade Student Report

At our October LEADS board meeting, Room 408 was in charge of the student report!

We decided to teach the board about Jane Goodall and her work as a scientist.

Grady did a wonderful job sharing our research that we did during our mini-inquiry about Jane Goodall.

Great job, Grady!

Columbus Day

On Monday, Room 408 learned that it was a holiday, but they didn't know what holiday.  We started our mini-inquiry by studying the following painting.

First we shared what we saw and what we noticed about the painting, which led to many inferences about what was happening and why.  After our discussion, we took time to draw and write about our thoughts.

Our ideas expressed the tiny things we noticed, like why we thought the ships were in the water in the background.

Many of us thought it might be a war happening.

Some of us even thought it might be a specific war, like the Canadian War:

Still others thought it might be purely biblical.

You also can see how powerful our schema is (what we think we know)--Charlie had just gone to a Medieval Times restaurant and connected this new learning to the painting. 

"I'm running." (left)     "I surrendered." (right)       "Good." (middle)

Next we read a few books about Columbus.

We learned that he didn't give up his dream to explore, even after some kings told him he couldn't do it.  We also learned that he made a mistake...he didn't realize that there were big chunks of land between where he left from Spain and where he thought he would land in Asia, so he ended up bumping into the Bahamas, thinking it was the Indies (China and India)!

We learned that when he landed, he claimed the land for Spain--but Room 408 thought that was unfair, since there were already native people living there in North and South America!  We also learned that unfortunately Columbus made some bad choices and enslaved some of the native people.

We ended our mini-inquiry by adding a poem about the history of Columbus Day to our Poetry Notebooks.

What do you think about Columbus?  

Read Alouds

During our snack time in the morning each day we enjoy reading a chapter or two from a longer text.  We often stop to talk and think deeply together as we're reading.
We started the year by reading The Mouse and The Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary.

Next Room 408 voted to read the classic, Charlotte's Web.

Both are books about great friendships and a wonderful way to kick off our school year.

Today we read about Charlotte building her web and got to see a real spider building a web.

We also got to see a spider wrapping up an insect, just like Charlotte.

Very cool!