We Are Bakers!

We made bread yesterday! We used our knowledge of the things plants provide to identify which ingredients needed for bread come from plants. We were amazed that it included most of them! We also read the story "The Little Red Hen" to lead us into our new unit of inquiry on creativity. Luckily we had a couple bread machines to help us out with the hard parts of bread-making. Take a look at how much fun we had.

PTA Book Fair and Bloomball Mall

This week we will have two special activities in which to partake. The first is the PTA book fair, which our class will visit on Wednesday morning at 8:00. If you would like your child to be able to purchase books, please either send money in or come join us at 8:00 to help pick out books. Most new books cost between 500 and 1500 taka.

The second special activity is Bloomball Mall, which is put on by the fifth graders. This is happening on Thursday. They have provided us with the following detailed information:

Get ready to shop till you drop! The 5th Grade Bloom Ball Mall is on Thursday, November 19th, 2015 from 9:00 - 11:00 am on the second and third floor Rotunda. The Mall is the summative assessment for the 5th grade unit, “Supply and Demand” and will showcase what the students have learned about launching an authentic business.

Be ready to try the baked goods, Beaver Tails, pizza slices, slushies, smoothies and ice cream. Be a risk taker and take a selfie or have your picture taken with fancy wigs, spin the Fortune Wheel, visit the Carnival Alley or try Magic Tricks. Icky slime and bath bombs will make your day. Relieve your stress with Stress Balls and your snack will be protected by the unique Apple Protectors. Buy ‘Reloved’ toys, books and board games or have Secret Messages delivered to friends and families. Elementary students should bring a maximum of Taka 500, preferably in small change. High and Middle Schoolers are also invited to the Bloomball Mall. See you there.

Again, please either send in money or come help your child choose something to buy during Bloomball Mall if you would like him/her to participate. We will attend the Mall around 9:40 Thursday morning.

**Please send money in an envelope labeled with your child's name. If sending all money at one time, please also designate how much your child is allowed to spend at each event. (i.e. Book Fair = 1000 taka, Bloomball Mall = 500 taka)

Ms. Arti Teaches About Duvali

The Hindu holiday Divali is tomorrow and Ms. Arti  will be away celebrating. She took a moment to teach us a bit about the holiday and taught us how to make our own rangoli.

Pumpkins!

Last week we explored pumpkins in our classroom both in relationship to our unit of inquiry on plants and our math unit on measurement. We began by looking at our pumpkins like scientists and drawing realistic representations of each of them. We then explored the different ways we could measure our pumpkins, and realized that we could measure both height and circumference, but that when measuring the circumference we would have to use a tool other than cubes to help us bend around the pumpkin. String did the trick!

The next day, we explored other ways of measuring our pumpkins and realized that we could measure their weight. As we only had plastic scales, we decided to simply compare our pumpkins against one another. 

Once our pumpkins were all measured, it was then time to cut them open. We had to be risk-takers as many of us didn't want to touch the pulp inside. We all agreed with Alfred when he said, "I was a little scared, but I did it and now I see it's so fun!!" 

After separating the seeds from the pulp, we examined the volume of seeds in our cups and realized that some pumpkins had many more seeds than others. We were surprised to find out that the size of the pumpkin was not always the determining factor in the amount!

Lastly, since our Halloween carnival was nearing, we of course had to carve our pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns! 

We Are Authors!

KG-M is a class full of authors. We are nearing the end of our pattern book writing unit, and we are so proud of the books we have published! We had a chance to share them with many of you during conferences, however, we wanted to make sure others have a chance to read our great stories too. They are hanging up in our hallway just opposite our door, so please come take a look when you have a chance. You'll be amazed at the thought and work that went into our published pieces!