Day: 7 November 2013

Apple Explorations

We have been learning about apples.  Today we heard a story of how apples got the ‘star’ in their centres.  Ask your child to tell you the story.

We then looked at a variety (seven) different apples.  These were: Honey Crisp, Granny Smith, Ambrosia, Royal Gala, Fuji, MacIntosh, and Spartan.  We talked about their similarities and their differences – colour, shape, size, texture of the fruit and its skin.

We furthered our exploration by cutting open the Ambrosia apple (sideways) and finding the star.  We talked about the core and its storage of seeds.  We have also been discussing the concept of core (its meaning as a root source) during our Math unit on patterning.

I then cut each of the seven apples into pieces which the students enjoyed sampling.  As I cut each one we discussed the different textures and firmness of the apples and predicted the sweetness – or tartness – of each of them.

I think the students had a good time – and, hopefully, discovered some new favourite apple flavours while learning about the apples.

 

Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

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Students have been learning about – and working on – their personal relationships with their fellow classmates.  This is a great book which speaks about the invisible ‘buckets’ that we each carry around every day.  When people are kind to us (through their actions or their words) then our buckets become more full and we feel better about ourselves.  Through being kind to others we also fill our own buckets.  When people mistreat others (through their actions or their words) they ‘dip’ into our buckets and take away our good thoughts and feelings.  We cannot fill our buckets by being mean to others.  In fact, oftentimes, people who have empty buckets end up mistreating others because they don’t feel good themselves.

We also read a second book on the same subject.

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I hope you take the opportunity to talk to your child about these two books.