Happy Halloween!

We had such a wonderful time celebrating Halloween together. Thank you to all of the 6-B parents for making our party so special! We had delicious treats, an exciting Halloween story, and a wonderful mummy craft activity.

Discovery Unit: Pumpkins

We are so lucky to have a student that has an apple orchard and a pumpkin patch at his home. The pictures from his farm helped us learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin.

We know that first a pumpkin sead is placed in the soil. A shoot grows from the pumpkin seed into the ground. Then, a stem grows from the seed. Above, you can see that the pumpkin seed is now a plant. It has many leaves and a flower!

The pumpkin flower is very important because it helps a pumpkin grow. The pollen inside the flower will help to make more pumpkins. Bee's take pollen from the flower and bring the pollen to other flowers. An interesting fact that we learned is that it takes lots of bees to pollinate the pumpkins. The bee must touch the male flower and then fertilize the female flower before the flowers close in the morning from the heat of the sun. Our friends family actually brings in bee hives to assist with this process!

The pumpkin flowers begin to change and the petals become smaller until they are gone. The bottom of the flower becomes larger. Above you can see a small green shape. That is the pumpkin forming!

The pumpkins continue to grow in the patch until they are large enough to pick.

Here is a perfectly ripe pumpkin picked from the patch!

What an incredible journey from seed to pumpkin! Thank you so much for sharing your pumpkin patch with us.

Using Our Five Senses for Apple Tasting- A Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Tactile Learning Experience

Before tasting apples, 6B read a story that described our five senses. We then discussed how we could use our five senses to explore apples.

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We used our eyes to identify different types of apples.
Our noses helped us smell the apples.
Our hands helped us feel the apples. We noted the different textures of the apples skin and flesh.
Our mouths tasted the apples.
Our ears helped us hear the crunching sound as we bit into and chewed the apples.

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Below we created a web to describe the way the apples looked, felt, tasted, smelled, and sounded.

Below, we tally our favorite apple!

Golden delicious was our favorite!

Thank you 6B friends for bringing in apples from home.

Art with Apples

What a fun tactile experience!

I cut real apples in half and sliced out a handle so that 6B students were able to create apple prints. Friends had to be sure to dip the apples into paint and then apply just the right amount of pressure to successfully create an apple print.

Our work is now on display downstairs on our 6B bulletin board.

Bravo friends!

Illustrating The Life Cycle of an Apple

After studying the life cycle of an apple 6B students were ready to use their knowledge to illustrate the process (a great experience for our visual and tactile learners). Before we began our illustrations we reviewed our life cycle poem. This activity incorporated auditory and kinesthetic elements. Watch us below as we recite our poem and perform complimentary body movements.

Fine Motor

One of the letters we worked on forming properly this week was "l". We practiced both uppercase and lowercase letters in our workbooks. We also compiled a list of words that begin with "l". At the end of class we had a chance to dance to the beginning of the song "Lollipop" by the Chordettes.

Discovery Unit: Apples

One of our friends in 6B has an apple orchard at his house! He was kind enough to share the above photos with us. We heard all about the different types of apples in his orchard. We also learned how close the apple tree's are to his home. We had an opportunity to ask questions, such as "what do the apple tree's look like in the winter?" Ask your 6B student for the answer!

There will be more apple fun to come! Next up, an art project using apples!

Safety City Field Trip

Safety City, was a small scale replica of Baltimore. Sixth Age students took a guided tour of the city and practiced safely crossing the streets.

Ms. Harrison taught us that we need to look FOUR ways before crossing: left, right, left over our shoulder, and forward. We practiced the appropriate crossing technique as we traveled through Safety City. We also learned that when crossing a street we must always walk in the middle of the crosswalk.

At the end of our walking tour, students were able to ride big wheels through the city. Each friend needed to stop their "vehicle" at a stop sign and look to be sure traffic was clear before taking a right turn. We looked left, right, and then left again.

As we rode the bus back to Calvert school (sitting with our buddies) we looked outside of the windows to spy signs that we recognized as well as crosswalks.

Ms. McCormick Visits 6B

We are so excited to have our lower school intern, Ms. McCormick, visiting with 6B today and tomorrow! We did a great job greeting her this morning when we arrived.

We are looking forward to having Ms. McCormick help us with our Sharing time tomorrow!

Sight Word Memory

Sixth Age readers did a phenomenal job reviewing our popcorn words through a game of memory.
Each friend was able to get a match!

Our First Month Together

We have officially completed our first month of school! We have settled into our routine, and have all had a chance to get to know each other better. What a wonderful group we have here in 6B!

Focus Skill: Sequence of Events

In reading, students have been focusing on the short "a" vowel sound. This week we have been reading the story, "The Hat" by Holly Keller. Our focus skill in this story is the sequence of events. We have been paying close attention to the order of events in this story. In the activity above, students were given a sheet of paper with the events placed out of order. We worked together to cut out each sentence and put it in the proper order.

Great job readers!

Chapter Two: Number Writing- A Kinesthetic Approach

In chapter two we will be learning to properly write the numbers zero to five. Our first set of numbers to work with are zero, one, two, and three.

In this activity the mathematicians practice writing numbers in the air and then on a partners back. As we form the number we recite the proper wording for correct number formation:

zero - Around we go, to make a zero

one- straight line down from the sun, that's the way we make a one

two- around and back on a railroad track

three- around a tree around a tree, that's the way we make a three

Next, we write the numbers on a partners back without reciting the verbiage aloud. Then, the person who had the number written on their back need to guess which number was written.

This was a great activity to get as read for pencil-to-paper practice.

Web of Sounds: Short "a"

To prepare for our first story unit, we have been focusing on the short "a" /a/ sound.

Our task during this game was to create a web of sounds with string. One person starts the web and says a short "a" word then tosses the ball of yarn to another student. Using only words that have the targeted sound we continued taking turns and were able to successfully weave the web! A few of the words we cam up with were: hat, apple, bat, & map.

Chapter One: More and Less

One of the final topics discussed in Chapter 1 of the math textbook, Compare and Sort Objects, was the concept of more and less. After introduction and completion of our written textbook work we were ready to play a fun game utilizing the cocept of more and less. The mathematicians were given:

• a "more" card
• a "less" card
• a "more/less" spinner
• 1 set of 10 connecting cubes per person

The concept of the game is to be the first to gain their partner's connecting cubes. To begin, each student breaks apart their set of 10 cubes into different pieces. The pair of students then chooses 1 set of each of their connecting cubes and matches them against one another. Which is more? Which is less? No cubes can be equal in this game. Upon deciding who has more and less, they place their cubes on either the "more" or "less" card. A student then spins the "more/less" spinner. If the spinner lands on "more", the student whose cubes are on the "more" card takes ALL of the cubes. If the spinner lands on "less", the student whose cubes are on the "less" card takes ALL of the cubes. The mathematicians had so much fun playing this game! It was a wonderful extension lesson with a hands-on approach.