Apples, Apples Everywhere!

Since Wednesday was Johnny Appleseed's birthday we did a lot of apple activities last week!  (They will continue into this week, too.)  We leaned that Johnny Appleseed was a real man named John Chapman.  There are a lot of stories about him.  Since many of them are Tall Tales we discussed which stories were true and which ones were exaggerated!

We also did science investigations with apples!  On Monday I cut a delicious looking apple for breakfast but didn't have time to eat it.  It sat on my table until lunch time.  The students noticed that it turned brown and we decided it didn't look very yummy anymore.  Using the Scientific Process we tried to figure out how we could prevent this from happening again.  After forming a hypothesis (prediction), conducting an investigation, and recording our results we learned that if you put lemon juice on apples, they will not turn brown as fast.  (We also tried milk, water, and soda.  The soda was Sprite and it "kind of" worked.  We think it was because it has lemon in it....Aren't we super smart!?!?!!)

We also listened to a story about a little red house with no doors, no windows, and a star inside.  We guessed and guessed what kind of house this was.  (There were no pictures in our story so this was really hard.)  At the end of the story we found out it was an APPLE!  Did you know there was a star inside apples?

After this we each got half of an apple to see our own stars.  Then we used our 5 senses just like real scientists to investigate apples.

 Here are some pictures of us enjoying our apples......Eating apples is tricky for first graders since a lot of us our missing teeth:-)

News and Notes:

• Homework will begin coming home with all students this week.  It is provided by their reading teacher.
• Keep bringing your binder to school daily and remember to check it each night!
• Please encourage your child to only bring necessary items to school.  Toys and items that are being brought from home are becoming a distraction/lost/misplaced.  This includes silly bands and trading cards:-).
• Our 2nd Annual Storybook Pumpkin Contest is coming up.  Look for information to come home soon!  

Miss Gilbert