Apples and Leaves

We talked about apples and pears today.  We read a book called Apples and Pumpkins and also heard a story called The Little Red House with No Windows and No Doors and a Star Inside  After we read the story we cut open an apple and found a star inside!  Then we used the apples to make apple prints. We tried to capture the star while we were printing.  We also cut a pear in half and didn't find a star....it looked more like a football inside!  We tried to capture that shape too!

We had our first extended day on Tuesday!  Six kids stayed for lunch and then we walked to Wildwood Park. On the way we stopped and looked at "fall things".  We saw apples on a tree, leaves on the ground and some cats watching us out their front door.  We got back to school just in time to get a drink of water and go home.  Here's a picture of our "lunch bunch"!  We had fun on our extended day and had some very tired Maple Leafers and teachers!!

We started Maple Leaf of the Week.  Brooke was our first "leaf".   She brought in a poster about herself and shared it with the class on Tuesday.  On Wednesday her mom and dad came to visit. They brought in a special train set for us to see.  We also heard two great stories about trains, The Little Engine that Could and Curious George and the Train. Then we were treated to a special cookie in the shape of a train crossing!  After snack it was time to go outside and pretend to be a train!  Everyone had to hold onto a rope with loops to create a train and Brooke's parents set up train crossings for us so we had to stop and go.  When we finished the loop everyone wanted to do it again!  So of course we did!  We even had train whistles that Brooke gave us to blow while we were being the train!  We got a special train treat bag to take home with us too...wow!  Thanks Brooke, John and Jen for creating such a special day for all of us!!

When a child is "Maple Leaf of the Week" they are also the helper for the week.  That means they get to feed the frogs and be the line leader.  They also lead us in the calendar each morning. and get a Maple Leaf crown to wear for the week!

We had an apple tasting party with Golden Delicious, Macintosh and Granny Smith apples first thing in the morning on Wednesday. We discussed what our favorite apple was...Golden Delicious was the class favorite.  We cut up apples to make "Friendship Applesauce".  The apples smelled so good cooking in the background while Brooke's family visited!

We also learned a new art technique during activity time....weaving! 

Thursday was the day of our leaf hunt.  We heard a great story called Going on a Leaf Hunt.  Then we went outside and took a fall walk around the church looking for beautiful fall leaves.  We discovered red leaves, yellow leaves, orange, brown and green leaves!  It was so nice we had extra time to play outside before we went on our walk.  We also discovered that leaves have different shapes, sizes and colors depending on what kind of a tree it is!  Mrs. Gould showed us how to make leaf rubbings with leaf plates that she had.  During activity time we each started making our own fall tree with colorful leaves.  We had a very busy week!!