Star of the Week, Pumpkin Activities, Thanksgiving, Cooking Happy Faces

Star of the Week
Our Star of the Week is a friend who has a unique future career.  He wants to be an Anthropologist!!  He know EVERYTHING abut dinosaurs, where they came from, how big they were, and what they ate!  We are certain to know more about dinosaurs when he becomes an anthropologist!

Pumpkin Activities
Last we we studied about pumpkins.  But the post was already sooooo long with all the red ribbon week activities, so I held off until now to show you!

We studied sinking and floating using a pumpkin. We graphed whether we thought the pumpkin would sink or float and then experimented with two sizes of pumpkins.  We learned that both of them floated!  After a could of hypotheses, we experimented more to determine WHY they float (because they are super heavy and we really thought they would sink!).  We found out that they floated because they have air in them.  So we open up the pumpkin and filled it with water….and guess what?!?!  It sank!!

We also used the pumpkin to learn about circumference (yup!  We know that word, too!!).  The circumference is the distance around the pumpkin.  We made guesses at the circumference of the pumpkin and then measured.  No one guess exactly the right length!

Of course, after all the experiments were finished, we had to make a jack-o-lantern!!

Thanksgiving and Pilgrims
This week we are studying Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims and the Indians.  We learned about why the Pilgrims came over, how they cross the ocean on the Mayflower, and how hard it was when they got here.  We learned about everyday life for a Pilgrim (planting, harvesting, hunting, gathering nuts and berries, fishing, building their own homes, etc,).  We learned that the kids did not go to school (GASP!!), but they had to help their parents in the daily chores.

Indian corn is very colorful!  

Cooking Happy Faces

This week we studied the letter Hh by making Happy Face cookies  We used a recipe to follow instructions.  How knew Happy could be so yummy!?!?!

Random Thoughts!!

Our school has challenged the students to show niceness throughout the day, all school year!  Each kind act, receives a link that will be added to the chain.  The slogan is from Rachel's Challenge to "Start a Chain Reaction" of kindness.  If we do kind things for others, then they will do them in turn.  Our chain is headed down the hallway!!

Speaking of kindness….we are collecting canned and non-perishable foods for those less fortunate during the Thanksgiving holidays.  We are so lucky to have so much and want to share with others.  Each items brought in, gets the students a kindness link (5 times = 5 links, 10 items = 10 links, etc).  Help us earn links, win a prize for the most food donated, and share our kind heart at the same time!!