March 4th, 2010

Today we learned about exoskeletons. We already explored how insects have six legs, and now we know about how insects have "bones" on the outside of their bodies. We felt our own arms and they felt squishy and spongy. We could feel hard bone through our arms. Then we felt a "model" of an insect. The outside was hard but when we opened the "insect" it was soft and squishy inside!





We decided that an exoskeleton was important for an insect because if a human stepped on an insect, the exoskeleton would protect it. Here is a video of our observations.

We also made a poster called "Insects have exoskeletons!" We used our fine motor skills to cut our pictures of exoskeletons and paste them on our poster. Some artists added their own pictures of exoskeletons to our poster.





Our big buddies came today! We illustrated the stories that we co-wrote during their last visit. We are real authors with important stories to tell!





We built obstacle courses with our big buddies again! We loved exercising our bodies and honing our gross motor skills to maneuver through the obstacle course.




We also ate lunch in our outdoor classroom! It was so fun visiting with our friends while enjoying the sun.



We also found a worm under a log during lunch. We observed that he had no legs, so he couldn't be an insect. He also was soft and had no exoskeleton. We were worried that he would get splinters in the log so we moved him to a safe place in the garden.

December 16th, 2009

Today was so wet! We learned to ride trikes outside. It was a chance to develop our gross motor skills as we pedaled and used our arm muscles to guide the handlebars. We also practiced depth perception by estimating how far our friends were in front of us and leaving adequate room to stop.



We cheered on our friends and encouraged them to pedal as we rode around the track!

Today, we baked monkey bread. We cut biscuits into quarters (4 pieces). We then dipped the pieces in butter and rolled them in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. We then put them in a pan and baked them for 30 minutes. The monkey bread recipe showed how proficient we are as bakers - we were able to follow the directions by reading the words and pictures and complete the recipe all on our own!







After we dipped the pieces of dough, we got to lick our fingers! Yummy!

The recipe was Sam's family recipe. He shared his family tradition that he makes this over the holidays.




In the writing center today, we used alphabet sheets to label our writing. We sounded out the words we wanted to write and used the alphabet sheets to write down the sounds we heard. We are WRITERS!




On Friday we will be making gingerbread and butter!


REMEMBER: Friday is the LAST day of school before break!

December 10th, 2009

Blog Managers:

"Dear Families, We hope you pick us up. If you forget we might call you and tell you. We played mooses outside and we had an obstacle course. A very long obstacle course. We baked the bread. The yeast made it rise. The hardest part was kneading it because the bread was thick, thick, thick. It tasted awesome." - Sam R.

"Ms. Katie is a little bit sick. My parents don't know Ms. Katie is sick. We went on a real obstacle course. With real obstacles. The bread was good. It tasted the same as at home. It tasted all squishy and all yummy. And we liked it." -Lilly

Today we finally made our first loaf of bread! It is a basic white bread recipe, with a twist (hardly any rise time!). You can find the recipe we made here.

First, we had to mix yeast with water and sugar. We smelled each ingredient as we baked, and the yeast smell was really different! Some of thought it smelled like dough, some of us thought it smelled like peanut butter. Some of us liked it, some of us didn't.


After we mixed the yeast with water and sugar, we added flour, salt and vinegar. We smelled the vinegar and most of us didn't like the smell. Everyone thought it smelled very strong and some Bakers were surprised we would put "stinky" stuff like vinegar in bread. Some of really liked the smell and tried tasting the vinegar!


We took turns reading the recipe, discussing measurements, and adding ingredients to our bread-in-a-bag. We noticed that 1/2 cup was smaller than 1 cup, and 1 tsp was smaller than 1 tablespoon. We also practiced measuring accurately. When we measured we used our fingers to brush off the excess ingredient to be flush with the measuring cup. It took alot of large and fine motor skills to make sure we were using the right amounts of ingredients and getting each ingredient into the batter!

It took alot of patience to wait while everyone got a turn!

After we added all the ingredients together, we needed to figure out a way to mix it all together. Some of us remembered from the bread books we have been reading to "knead" the bread, or "squish" it together. This was particularly easy since the bread was already in a plastic bag.



Once our dough was mixed together, we had a chance to taste it. Some of us thought it tasted like peanut butter, some of us thought it tasted like gooey bread. Most of us loved the dough!

After we kneaded the dough, we let it rise in the microwave. In this recipe, microwaving the dough helps it rise more quickly.

After baking the bread, we finally got to eat it. We had a huge problem though. There were only one loaf of bread, and 20 of us! We decided that it wasn't fair for only one person to get bread, so we decided to divide the bread. Some Mathematicans suggested that we cut it by length and width. Eventually, we decided to cut the loaf into pieces big enough (about 1/2 inch thick) to fill our bellies and give everyone a taste of the bread.



We were mainly shocked about the size of the bread. Before the bread went into the microwave and oven, it was a small ball. When it came out, it was much bigger! We made hypothesis as to why this was. Some thought it was the heat of the oven, some thought it was the yeast. The Bakers who thought it was the yeast remembered from bread books and baking at home the yeast makes dough rise! We agreed that it was probably both - yeast and heat- that made the bread rise.

We tasted the loaves and thought the crust was crunchy and inside was soft and squishy. It was much crunchier than the dough we tasted earlier. We thought it was much better than the sandwich bread we usually eat! We gave our bread a two thumbs up!




We also had an exciting time moving our bodies outside! The Sharks built an obstacle course, and we got to jump over sticks, crawl through hoops, and jump through tires. This sort of activity encourages us to use all of our big muscles and helps develop strength and balance. It feels so good to exercise! Plus, we had practice waiting in line for our chance on the obstacle course. The whole school wanted a turn!





CAN YOU HELP? Call for baby food jars! We need baby food jars to make butter next week! Does anyone have any we can use? Please bring them in!