Bat Day

As we entered school today, the halls were dark, bats were handing from the ceiling, and Mrs. Lucas's room and been transformed into a bat cave!

We are so ready to go into the cave!

For Bat Day, we rotated to every first grade classroom to do different activities with bats and to extend our knowledge of these awesome mammals.  In Mrs. Wanke's room, we learned about what Microbats, Megabats, and Vampire bats eat.  We discussed how scientists can learn about what animals eat by examining droppings or by dissecting owl pellets.  

So, Mrs. Wanke had us look thought this would work with bat guano!  We had to see what was in their guano to determine what bat left the mess.  If we found bones in the guano, we knew it was a Microbat, because Microbats each insects, other bats, reptiles, rodents, and fish. 

If there was seeds in the guano, we knew it was a Megabat, because Megabats eat fruit or nectar from flowers.

If there were clumps of blood, we knew that it was a Vampire bat because Vampire bats lick up blood from small cuts they make in the animal.  They DO NOT suck the blood of animals or people.

We each got our own cup of bat guano to investigate.

Okay...we will let you in on a little secret....it wasn't really bat guano.  It was actually pudding.  

Ask your child what they learned in the other classrooms and their favorite part of the day.

Pumpkin Jack

Pumpkin Jack Experiment
Day 1

After learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin from the books Pumpkin Circle and Pumpkin Jack we decided to start our own Pumpkin Jack.

 Today, we placed a Jack-O-Lanterns into a jar to decompose.

What will happen?
Will we see the pumpkin circle right before our eyes?
Will we grow a pumpkin?

We can't wait to observe the changes that will take place over the next few weeks and months.

This box is gonna get messy!

Do you want to do this at home along with us?

Place your pumpkin in the corner of your yard.  When we check our pumpkin at school. Check your pumpkin at home. You will know when we check our pumpkin because I will update our blog with our observations. 

The Candy Corn Bandit Strikes on Halloween

Candy Corn Bandit

The Candy Corn Bandit stole Mrs. Wanke's candy!  Mrs. Wanke was very excited to share her jar of Candy Corns with us.  However, when we came to school today....

  there was a letter from the Candy Corn Bandit, Candy Corn Bandit booklets for each of us, and a clue!  Then, we looked at the Candy Corn booklets. On the inside we had to draw what we predicted the Candy Corn Bandit to look like. 

Then, we had to predict three places we thought the candy corns might be.

Finally it was time to read the first clue!

We made a prediction based upon what we read in clue one.  We predicted the candy would be in the lunch room! When we got to the lunch room...all we found was another clue. 

 After reading that clue, we predicted that we would find the candy in the gym.

When we got to the gym, all we found was another clue.  After reading that clue, we predicted we would find the candy on the play ground.  When we got outside, all we found was ANOTHER clue!

  After reading that clue, we predicted we would find the candy in the library.  But, when we got the the library, all we found was ANOTHER clue! Boy oh boy this Candy Corn bandit was causing some trouble! 

After reading the clue, we predicted we would find the candy in the classroom.

When we got to the classroom...what do YOU predict we found?

You got it...the CANDY and another clue!

Clue #6 told us to keep our eyes open and our candy protected.  We also had to finish up the last page of our Candy Corn Bandit book before we could get our candy corn.

This activity was great for making predictions.  Not only did we predict where the candy would be, we also made predictions about how the bandit was able to pull off this crime, did the bandit have an accomplice, how big was the bandit, and what was the bandits motive. 

When we got back to the class, Mrs. Wanke had a light bulb moment.  She said that we could use predictions when we read!  WOW...she is right. 

Writer's Cafe

We worked so hard this first quarter of school.  We wanted to show off one of our published pieces of writing.  

So today our room was transformed into Writer's Cafe and we were chefs serving up a sampling of our writing!

We each took turns sharing our favorite piece with each table of customers.