“Only Kindness Matters” is a quote by long time Sunnybrook teacher Gerrie Scott that we have posted in our room.  We talked about what this means and looked up kindness in the dictionary.   We have been mindful about being kind and will continue to share ideas about how to do this and why it is important.  We want our classroom to have a culture of respect and kindness.

We learned about a local artist, Bruce Richardson, who draws with pastels.  We have one of his pieces of art hanging on the wall, and we have a matching activity available with prints of some of his work.  Zeanny taught the students some techniques for working with pastels, such as blending, scratching, and smudging.

At the art table the students began working on family portraits.  We will continue to work on them this coming week.

During music we read about the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  We learned that he began playing a clavier and composing, with no instruction, at the age of five.  We listened and danced to some of his music.  We also learned that a whole note looks very much like a zero and the letter O, and that a whole note is four beats.  We practiced tapping our feet and humming for four beats, and listened to a whole note played on the piano.

The children found a lot of fuzzy caterpillars on the playground.  We were familiar with the Wooly Bears and the Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillars.  We were unsure what the fuzzy yellow ones were, but we decided not to touch them because they had long black hairs like the Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillars, which can cause a rash.  It was a good decision, as I discovered that they are American Dagger Moth caterpillars, and those long black hairs carry rash causing toxins.  We will continue to be careful while we examine them and try to see their very cool feet!

 

During Spanish we began to learn the words mama (mom), papa (dad), hermana (sister), hermano (brother), and Bebe (baby).  We enjoyed reading Mortimer and singing very loudly with him.

Friday students began to talk about the Autumn Equinox.  We took a nature walk to the field behind the school and collected signs of fall.  The students documented the items in their science notebooks.  They found some apples that fell from a tree, which they wanted to try, so we washed them and cut them open.  They were worm free and quite crisp and tart, so they enjoyed eating them with lunch.   Some students took theirs home to plant.  They will need to be soaked and refrigerated in order to germinate.  This link will give information for anyone wishing to grow an apple tree.