Dear Parents,
We took a walk down Carroll Street to see the apple tree on our block.
We walked in pairs looking at each tree we passed to see if they had
apples. We found the apple tree at the church on the corner of Carroll
and 6th Avenue. A few children had already noticed it and pointed it
out to the class. We sat down for a few minutes while teachers took
turns using a long stick to try to gather a few apples. (We did get
permission from St. Francis- the gardener that is- not the saint.)
Someone from Berkeley Carroll School saw us and let us borrow their
fruit picker basket. It was super helpful! We sang Way Down Yonder By
The Apple Tree. While walking back to school we sang Apples And
Bananas, and the ABC’s.
Back at school we ate apples and bananas for snack. Afterwards, we
took turns making tree branches for our family apple tree. We made
them using brown paper that we squished and twisted into branches.
In the big room we ran, rode tricycles, rocked on our whale, and took
turns using our new soft blocks. People built alone and in small
groups. Someone kept pointing out that the new blocks are many colors.
He said red, yellow, green, and blue. Someone else noticed they look
like bricks.
On Wednesday we had yoga with Amanda. While half the class posed in
yoga, the other half worked on using scissors to cut leaves for our
family apple tree. We looked at pictures of leaves in our books and
the children said the leaf shapes were round, oval, pointy, and
triangular. We decided any shape would suffice. Some children said
they had scissors at home. Many were excited to cut. We practiced
opening and shutting our scissors without paper first, and then got to
work cutting up a storm. Some decided to tear the paper too. We cut
paper, a little tissue paper, and a few children tried to cut felt. It
was hard work. At the end we had a bowl full of green leaves.
We went to play in the yard after many days/weeks inside. People
needed to be reminded where to wait for a swing and where to put big
sticks- in our stick garden.
On Friday we took turns putting our leaves on our apple tree. We used
a chair to stand on and reach the branches. We used yellow tape to
attach our green leaves.
Have a crunchy weekend,
Therese