Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

Both first grades mixed together for centers to celebrate John Chapman's birthday. In Mrs. Dye's room the children played an Apple Memory game, made apple smiles with apples, peanut butter and marshmallows, and painted apple trees after tracing their hand and arm for the trunk. In Mrs. Stites' room the children played Apple Bingo with our reading vocabulary words, made apple prints with apples cut in half two different ways, played Apple, Apple, Pie!, and Hot Apple. Both classes were surprised with a visit and story telling by Johnny Appleseed himself... (also known as Mrs. Graves.) What a fun day! Happy Birthday Johnny!

Making Applesauce

Our class made applesauce. Each child brought in an apple. We peeled it and cored it. Then we had to figure out how to divide the apple equally between two crock-pots. (Luckily, we know our doubles facts.) After putting 4 pieces into each crockpot, we added some red hots to the correct pot. Then we dug the seeds out of the core, to use on the picture of an apple core in our Johnny Appleseed book we made. We used tally marks to find out which applesauce the children liked best. More children liked the cinnamon applesauce than the plain. We thought our applesauce was delicious! We are good cooks!

Fun With Apple Centers

Our class has been studying apples, parts of plants, and seeds. We had centers that all had something to do with apples. We made an apple puppet man, played an apple memory game on the computer, made a pot hat like Johnny Appleseed wore and placed an apple on the front, painted an apple using only dots, and made an apple information chain by writing down information we know and have learned about apples on each link of the chain. We were very busy, and were impressed by how much we know about apples!

Leaf Centers

We had a lot of fun with our leaf centers this week. We ironed leaves in crayon shavings, made leaf rubbings, matched letter tiles to vocabulary words relating to leaves and trees, made a leaf man after reading the book by Lois Ehlert, added and subtracted using a matching leaf game, cut out words from the newspaper and glued them onto a paper using the letters L,E,A,V,E,S , and painted positive and negative images of various kinds of leaves.

Mr. Snoddy Reads to the First Grade Classes

Our Superintendent, Mr. Snoddy came to Howard to read to the first grade students. Mr. Snoddy read the book, "The Little Engine That Could" . He encouraged the children to be kind and helpful to one another. He also helped the children to understand that when something appears to be hard, a good attitude helps make things easier. He told the children to think and say "I think I can! I think I can!" And just like the little blue engine, they may be surprised at what they really can accomplish. We hope Mr. Snoddy comes back to read to us again.

Summer Packet Reward Trip to the Children's Museum

Our class went to see the King Tut exhibit at the Indianapolis Children's Museum for our Summer Packet Reward Trip. We stopped at Cool Creek Park in Westfield for a picnic lunch. Next, we went to the museum and saw the real treasures from King Tut's tomb. We were impressed with the golden statues and jewelry. We saw the golden slippers he wore. We were not allowed to touch any of the exhibits as they were priceless! The children felt it was an amazing trip!

King Tut Learning Centers

Mrs. Stites' class is preparing to go to the Indianapolis Children's Museum to visit the King Tut exhibit. We have been learning many interesting facts about King Tut. During learning centers we followed directions to make our own pyramids, spelled our names using hieroglyphics, and discovered reading vocabulary words Mrs. Stites had written using the hieroglyphic alphabet. We played a memory game using symbols from Egypt, and put together puzzles of King Tut and Egyptian people. We listened to Egyptian music, smelled incense, and ate fig bars. One of our classmates even got to dress up in Egyption clothing that Mrs. Stites brought to class. Now we are ready to go to the Children's Museum and learn even more!