October was filled with hands-on learning, creativity, and discovery in Kindergarten! We began the month by going on nature walks around our Parkcrest forest. As the season changed, we observed leaves transforming into beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow. We collected and examined leaves closely, learning about their different parts, such as the stem, veins, and blade, and discussing how they help plants grow.

During our morning time, we enjoyed reading together and doing a variety of math and literacy stations that encouraged problem-solving, letter recognition, making patterns, counting, and collaboration.

We created self-portraits. Using mirrors, we carefully observed our features and drew pictures of ourselves. We also explored different ways to make our names using natural materials.

We celebrated Thanksgiving by reflecting on the people and things we are grateful for. As a class, we brainstormed what we are thankful for and discovered that many of us were grateful for our families, food, friends, and toys. During Story Workshop, we used loose parts to create stories showing how we spent Thanksgiving weekend with our families. We then orally shared our stories with our friends and teachers, helping to build our confidence as storytellers.

We met Big Buddies from Division 7. They joined us in our classroom for shared reading and together we celebrated Halloween by creating silly monsters.

We learned about the different parts of a pumpkin, including the stem, skin, flesh, pulp, seeds, and vines. We investigated a real pumpkin by estimating how many seeds were inside, counting the seeds, and measuring its height and circumference. We tasted both sweet and salty roasted pumpkin seeds and then graphed our results.