Investigating Apples, Hukilau (Hu-ki-lau), and Becoming Readers!

This week the Whales dived deep into their study on apples. We looked at how apples grow. We talked about the female parts of an apple blossom and the male parts. We also looked at how apple blossom flowers become fertilized. The easiest way for apple blossom flowers to become fertilized is by bees. We read that for an apple flower to be fertilized it must get pollen from a different apple tree. It can’t be fertilized by the same apple tree. During the week, we did a field study on apples in the piazza with the apple trees. The Whales worked in partners to conduct their study. Each pair picked a apple, had a knife, and cutting board. Their task was to scientifically illustrate the outside of an apple. The Whales then got to cut their apple open. They scientifically drew the inside of their apples. Then they had to find all the seeds in their apple and draw their seeds. They used their eyes to make observations about what they were seeing, and they used their nose to make noticing’s about the smells of their apples.

During literacy this week, the Whales have been working on blending, segmenting, and manipulating phonemes. During UFLI, the Whales started with making the word map. The teacher then asked the Whales to change one letter to make the word tap. The Whales had to figure out what phoneme in the word map would change to make the word tap. We will continue to practice this next week. The Whales also started learning about heart words. Heart words are irregular words that don’t typically follow common spelling rules and patterns. The first heart word that the Whales have been learning is the word “the”. The Whales are practicing saying the word in a sentence and spelling the word.

In numeracy the Whales are working on counting on and counting by tens. During calendar time we count how many days of school we have had. Friday was our 23rd day of school. That is 2 ten sticks and 3 little ones. We counted by tens and then added our little ones on. We have also been working on recognizing patterns and making our own patterns. On Friday, the Whales had a chance to make bracelets with their own patterns.

In writers workshop, the Whales are working on stretching their words. They are using the tools in their writers workshop folders to spell out their illustration labels. Friends are spelling words such as sun, dog, hat, and much more! We have some amazing authors and illustrators in our classroom. They are thinking about the beginning, middle, and end of their stories. The Whales have also been helping Ms. Abby add on to her story about being at school. They told Ms. Abby that in order to get work done on her story that she couldn’t stare at the ceiling and chat with friends the whole time! Once the Whales told Ms. Abby that, she was able to get so much more work done on her story. Those Whales are great teachers!

The Whales begun studying Hula dancing this week. Ms. Janelle a student at Pacific University will be coming every Tuesday for this fall to teach the Whales a Hula routine. On Tuesday, the Whales learned what Hula dancing is and the importance of Hula dancing in the Hawaiian culture. The Whales also learned the first bit of the Hula dance. The Hula dance the Whales are learning is called, Hukilau. If you want to listen to the song that we are dancing to click the link. Hukilau song.

During Friday Summit, we got to listen to other classrooms tell us what they have been learning. We also got to share what we have been learning about in the Whales. Joella was our first Whale Class Representative and she shared with the rest of our school that we finished our Van Gogh Sunflowers. Next week a different Whale will be our representative and will share with the school some of the things we have been learning during our apple study! What an exciting addition to Friday Summit.