Here are the Bumblebees busy with what they have started calling their "morning work". Each morning the at school students have a manipulative on their desks to use. I choose the manipulative but what they do with it is completely up to them. I have been so impressed by the amazing math that the students have come up with completely on their own in this morning work time. Here are some examples; working on what it takes to create balance, exploring area and perimeter, creating a net of a cube, a hexagonal tessellation, and maze discovery. And I did not cherry pick the best of their work! This is all happening at once on one morning that I took photos. They never cease to amaze me. 

 

Bumblebees are working on glyphs. A glyph (in math) is a pictorial way of recoding information. I will give you the questions they answered with their glyphs. See if you can learn more about our Bumblebee friends from their glyphs.

1. 1.Draw rib lines on your pumpkin, draw 5 if you are 5 or draw 6 if you are 6.
2. 2. Give your pumpkin triangle eyes if you have blonde hair or square eyes if you have brown hair.
3. 3. Color the eyes black if you like scary stories or yellow if you do not like scary stories.
4. 4. Give your pumpkin a heart-shaped nose if you have a pet or an oval nose if you don't have a pet.
5. 5. Give your pumpkin a happy smile if your Halloween costume is friendly. Give your pumpkin a zigzag mouth if your Halloween costume is scary. Give your pumpkin a straight line mouth if you will not have a costume.
6. 6. Color the stem brown if chocolate is your favorite candy. Color it yellow if you like candy corn best. Color the stem green if you like most all kinds of candy. Color the stem black if you do not like candy.

 

 The Bumblebees took a virtual field trip to pumpkin farm! It is unfortunate that we cannot do real field trips at this time but this was the next best thing. Each student wrote/drew a list of discoveries they made at that farm. I complied them here. We might not have visited in person, but we certainly made a number of great discoveries about what you can find at a pumpkin farm. 

Bumblebees discoveries:

red wagon

market

white pumpkins

corn maze

tractor

hayride

many pumpkins

purple grapes

that there was only one split in the maze and so it looked pretty easy

half eaten corn

corn

corn field

blueberries

baskets

signs

barn

pumpkins with stripes

pears 

apples

corn stalk

grass

wheat 

 

 The Bumblebees are learning all about harvest. Currently we are looking at apples, pumpkins and wheat being grown and harvested. Students did an exploration of apples, first whole and then cut and used their 5 senses to examine them scientifically and also wrote a poem about apples and their 5 senses. Here are three of their poems:

Apples feel smooth                                                 

Apples look like circles with stems                           

 Apples smell sweet                                                   

Apples sound crunchy                                             

Apples taste delicious                                           

Apples feel happy

Apples look like red drops

Apples smell yummy

Apples sound like drums

Apples taste delicious

                                                  Apples feel soft

                          Apples look round at the top and ovaly at the                                                                                                  bottom 

                                                Apples smell sweet

                                              Apples sound like thump

                                              Apples taste juicy

Some Bumblebees returned to campus this week

This week we begin our hybrid class with some Bumblebees at home and some at school. Our friends have made the transition back to the building very well and our friends at home continue to work hard and Zoom with us multiple times a day. I think it could not have gone better. Great work Bumblebees!