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Miss Borrelli's Class
FALL IS HERE!!
WRITING
PROJECT
We have been
reading many books connected to the "Fall" theme. The children
have been discovering and learning about the many changes that
occur during the Fall season. They have been learning about why
leaves change colour, what effects the seasonal changes have on
animals and people and they have also been learning about
harvesting crops. The children became very interested in all of
the scarecrows that were in many of the stories and books that
we had been sharing which led to a writing project that the
children became quite interested and involved in. Our
discussions about scarecrows and the purposes they serve led the
children to writing a personal book that follows a similar
pattern as the story "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Eric Carle.
We
began our writing project by rereading the story "Brown Bear,
Brown Bear" by Eric Carle. We then generated ideas about what a
Scarecrow might see. The children came up with things such as
"a farmer," "yellow corn," "swaying wheat," "orange pumpkins,"
etc. The children then chose four or five items that they
wished to include in their personal book and began to "publish"
their own "Scarecrow, Scarecrow" stories.
After
writing their stories, the children also illustrated their books
using "cut paper" illustrations. Initially, some of the
children found this new way of illustrating challenging, but
with practice and "trial and error," they were able to create
some wonderful illustrations for their newly written books.
When Fall
arrived, the children talked about all they things they already
knew about Fall. We brainstormed Fall changes and Fall
vocabulary as a class. The children then had the opportunity to
record their ideas on a personal page for our class book. They
each completed the Fall sentence starter "In the Fall..." The
children also had the opportunity to try illustrating with oil
pastels. They were very excited to experiment with this new
medium.
WHY DO
LEAVES CHANGE COLOUR?
As
part of our Fall theme and in connection to our Science
curriculum, we were involved in some research and investigation
into why leaves begin to change colour in the Fall. The
children were delighted about taking on the role of "Scientist"
and they were even more excited about learning "Scientist
words."
We read, as a full class, many books about Fall and
leaves. The children learned very quickly that "chlorophyll,"
"sunlight" and "water" play a very important role in this
seasonal change.
The
children also collected leaves during their recess break in
order to look more closely at leaves. They were very interested
in the leaves that had "partially" changed colour because they
were able to see the part with chlorophyll and the part
without. This gave them the opportunity to compare the parts of
the leaves.
In
order to summarize their learning and to answer the question
"Why Do Leaves Change Colour?" each of the children created
their own "Fall Tree" and recorded their learning about trees
and leaves in the Fall. This open-ended writing activity
allowed each of the children to summarize their learning in a
way that was comfortable for them. Each child was able to
demonstrate their personal writing ability and understanding of
the concepts that had been presented.
Tauren
wrote: "The leaves change colour. They change red and yellow
and orange."
Niki wrote:
"In the fall leaves change colour because they dot have
chlorophyll and no more sun and water and air and the leaves
fall off the tree."
Brandon
wrote: "In the Fall the leaves change colour because they do not
have enough sun. They change red yellow and orange. It is
night."
Alexandra
wrote: "In the Fall leaves start to change colour because they
don't enough oxygen because they don't have chlorophyll."
Mikayla
wrote: "In the Fall leaves don't have enough chlorophyll in them
and they do not have enough sun and air too. Leaves change
colour"
Joey wrote:
"In the Fall leaves change colour because there is not enough
chlorophyll. They turn purple and orange and yellow." |
