FALL FUN!

Fall is Here!

Well, it was a long, hot summer but finally fall is here. And Moore Marvels have been busy learning about all kinds of autumnal subjects!

First, we studied about the season of autumn and read books about how leave change colors. We looked for signs of fall in the trees around the school, made leaves for a "tree" on our classroom door, and even did leaf rubbing relief pictures with different sizes of fall leaves.
We also collected acorns and did several activities with them including sorting, counting, and using them in a math bingo game. Check out the pictures of some of our sorting activities.

In addition we read a cool book by Lois Ehlert called "Leaf Man". In this book she uses leaves to design pictures of animals and scences of fall. Check out some of the cool leaf pictures that were designed by our students!


In addition to learning about leaves and trees we also studied about apples. We learned about the life cycle of the apple tree, tasted apples, made apple prints, dissected apples and even voted for our favorite apples (from the taste test). The overwhelming vote was for..... Granny Smith apples! We had a few votes for Red Delicious and a handful for Honey Crisp apples, but those Marvels love their sour apples!

Stay tuned for the next installment, in which I'll review our pumpkin study and our PARTY!!

QUILTS!

So sorry for the long delay in posts, but we Moore Marvels have been VERY busy as of late! This past week we learned about quilts in a variety of ways. We read Tomie de Paola's book "A Quilt Story" and also a non-fiction text about how quilts are made. We then experimented in making paper quilt designs (using a grid and paper squares and triangles) and even had our resident quilt expert, Kelly T (JT's mom) come and do 9-patch quilt blocks with the students. The results were beautiful (and can be seen in the picture above). KT also brought some of her beautiful homemade quilts for the children to enjoy. We looked at the quilts, spread them out on the floor and played games on the quilts, and a few of us even rolled around a bit whilst wrapped up in the quilts.


After all this preparation we then went to see the Gee's Bend Quilts on exhibit at the Austin Museum of Art downtown. We got to ride the bus (an adventure in itself) and then see many beautiful quilts and even a few sculptures and paintings. When a museum assistant sat with us for a few minutes after our tour she asked a few questions about a quilt hanging on the wall behind her. When she asked what the students noticed about the two pieces behind her JG piped up, "THAT QUILT IS ASSYMETRICAL!" to which the museum assistant said, "We have to put that in our docent newsletter... a kindergartener remembering the word 'assymetrical'!"


After viewing the quilts we had the opportunity to do a little artwork ourselves in the kid-friendly art room. You may have already seen the masterpieces many made with graph squares and colorful architect's tape. When we got back to the classroom the students all said the art room was their favorite part! With a creative group like this I think we can all see why... Great job, Marvels!