watermelon…yes please

It all began with a paper plate.

Look up because they are hiding a little in this picture.

First the Little Learners painted a two tone green edge to the outer edges
of a paper plate that had been cut in half.

              

Next the centre was painted a
deep pinkish colour.

              

Pre cut pieces of black paper were glued onto the pinkish centre
to become seeds.

The Little Learners
wrote some super sentences
about their watermelon.

“My watermelon smells delicious.”

“My watermelon is juicy”

“My watermelon is tasty and pink.”

            

Finally the delicious Sound focus Art, Craft, writing work was done
and now hangs proudly
from the ceiling.

Of course it’s ‘w’ week.

Happy Tuesday!
Mrs Stowe

Poetry Linky to inspire joy…

I am excited that this is my very first Linky and who better to Link with than…

 Barbara Leyne from Ruby Slippers Blog Designs
and Grade Onederful. 

If you don’t know Barbara then please head over via the links above and check her site. 
Inspirational indeed. I promise you will be well rewarded. 
Can I also suggest that you follow Barb on Facebook as she has some amazing tutorials that she shares from there too.

Now what is  the Linky…

Poetry
                 
  ….nice!

I don't know that Miss Apple is my favourite poem and even as I am writing this I have a flood of others filling my mind.  However, it is definitely one that the Little Learners love and quickly learn too.  It has a special place in my heart because I learnt it while I has a student teacher many years ago.

I photographed using my iPad so sorry if it is a little blurry.

       

The poem is titled
Miss Apple and the author is unknown. 

I have used this poem in every grade, every year of my teaching career.  Sometimes I make an apple tree and we attach the apple craft.  I like doing this because you can curl the eyelashes around a pencil and they look really cute 3D.

 

This year we made our apples and pasted them alongside the poem in our Busy Books.  The kids often return to this poem during our page review time and read it to a friend.  I love watching their little faces the first few times we read it together as they anticipate the missing word ‘bite’ at the end. Often I don’t include this word in print or as I read it aloud to the class and the Little Learners eagerly shout it out. Honestly they almost burst with enthusiasm.

Pure Joy!

Hope you like it too. 

Happy Monday!
Mrs Stowe

we are Community helpers…

Last  week the Little Learners continued to learn about

community helpers.

We identified helpers from various real hats and trade tools associated with jobs.  Later, each child took turn in donning a hat and pretending to be the community helper it represented.  They sat out the front of the class and fielded questions from other Little learners about their job and were required to stay in character to respond.  It was hilarious.  One Little learner added an accent as he responded and naturally that sparked the interest of many and we ended up having not only community helpers but helpers that came from all different countries.  A truly multicultural affair indeed.

I loved listening to questions being answered using content information gleaned from the unit thus far. It was so much fun and you guessed it I was chosen to take part too.  I sometimes wonder what they think, or perhaps what passers by think as they glance into our room!

Well the fun didn’t stop there.

Next I issued everyone with an A4 sized photograph in black and white.  The Little Learners quickly glued it onto an A4 piece of card.  They then chose the hat that they wanted to use and pasted it onto the photograph. These hats were printed in full colour for visual contrast against the B&W photo.

I Love the effect.  Our Photo wall is very cute.

 

The little Learners wrote a sentence or too based on their chosen community helper and the results speak for themselves.  The Little learners beamed and read and reread their sentences to each other well into the afternoon.

            

If you like the photo art idea then…
have a look at the Little Learners clown photo post…adorable!

Now while you are here PLEASE become an official follower.

Happy Saturday!
Mrs Stowe

Matchy Room Set Up…

Ladybug Tub Labels and a few ‘matchy’ extras.

If you think Ladybugs are super cute. 
You should check out Mel From the Pond’s Ladybugs.  
They are gorgeous.

Mel designed these in many colours and generously shares them with us.

Mel you are a gem!

 

I teamed them with a checked background from, Teaching hart, for a bit of colour themed fun and did a room walk to see what I needed.  I ended up creating 33 new labels!

(obviously my needs are great.)

 

I  am also making a few other useful bits and pieces using the same theme so please come back tomorrow for a look.

I like all things matchy in my classroom. 
{well almost all things}

If you like them too head over to my tpt store and grab your own.
Don't forget to leave me a comment at my tpt store.  I really value your feedback.

Happy Thursday
Mrs Stowe

Young scientists Looking at our world…

Running through the alphabet…again and again while marvelling at the beauty in creation.

Jiggling jellyfish

Today the Little Learners used half a paper plate, wax crayons, permanent marker pens, crepe paper and glue to craft a line full of jiggling jellyfish.

It was a simple activity but the Little learners embraced it completely.

First they chose 2 different coloured crayons to colour the outside of a paper plate in a regular pattern style.

 

Next they seriously LOVED using my teacher permanent markers to add eyes.

 

Tentacles were attached to finish the craft. 

   

The Little Learners chose the line in the room to display the finished product before we viewed the scene from Finding Nemo with the jellyfish.  I like giving them choices for display.  Sometimes they come up with great ideas.  Today they just wanted to hang them on a plain line.  Later in the day we decided we would dye the wooden pegs blue and dip them in glitter, just for fun! {okay I did encourage this idea. However it was seconded unanimously.}

Next we explored the site, How Jellyfish Work. If you haven't had a look there before it is definitely worth it.  The Little Learners were fascinated by all the interesting facts and so was I.  We decided to

take a second look at our jelly fish and …
compared them with the animation from Finding Nemo and …
the reality from the How stuff works site. 

 
It was such a wonderful time of comparison. Loads of interesting verbal language which I jotted down on a poster sized record sheet.  We listed the detail of each sample and concluded that real jellyfish were AMAZING!!

Happy Wednesday!
Mrs Stowe

My pencil is…

Today the Little Learners created some
pretty peculiar paper pencils.
Guess what the focus sound is?

They cut and pasted.

They wrote, “My pencil is…”

They pasted on their labels.

And When they were all finished

we pinned them on a board with drawing and colour related words.

Dah Dah!

Sweet and Simple.

Happy days!
Mrs Stowe

The Australian Reptile Park

Each grade in our school is more or less allocated a ‘special’ excursion destination which enhances curriculum outcomes
. 
You will never guess who has a snake/reptile phobia yet for the past 10 years has visited the

Australian Reptile Park
for their ‘special’ excursion…

You guessed it…lucky ME!!!

Each year I go along hoping that this year I will overcome my phobia.  I even held a 23kg python one year but alas I am still phobic.  I have become master of covering my fear so the Little Learners don't take on my ridiculous phobia.  However, I do draw the line at visiting reptiles in the classroom…eww.

This years visit was a huge success and the Little Fearless Learners celebrated Australian reptiles (and some other Australian animals) with joy.

Just look at the excitement or relaxed expressions on my Little Learner’s faces as they handle snakes!

They love them.

And again.

Dare I say joy!…

The Australian Reptile Park is amazing and I do appreciate the many reptiles.  We are privileged to live about 35mins away and take an excited Kindergarten group by bus every year.  They have hands on encounters with may reptilian ‘friends’ as well as an educational talk by a professional staff member or two. 

A highlight is a play in the park after lunch.

   

LOL  Some children like to pat a kangaroo…

    

While others like to dress them in their jackets…
{fortunately we were not kicked out}

And some Little Learners even like to walk with emus!
{Wonder how the emu is feeling}

All in all a fun day…I survived…again!

Happy Sunday!
Mrs Stowe