Papa Niu November 11 Newsletter

Transcription

1 Papa Niu November 11 Newsletter A Visit to Kaneohe Safeway On Tuesday, November 8, Rooms 7 & 8 went to Kaneohe Safeway. Auntie Mel gave us a tour of the grocery store. First we went to the floral department. They had Fall and Christmas decorations. Next we went to the produce department. We saw lots of fruits and vegetables. We learned how they took care of the food. They water the produce each day and trim the vegetables. Then we went into the cooler where they store some of the fruits and vegetables. There was a machine to move the heavy pallets of food around. They had a bin for old food to give to the animals so they didn t waste food. Auntie Mel said pigs, horses and cows liked this food. Next we went into the freezer. They keep food in the freezer until they take it out to sell. We could see our breath because it was so cold. We walked by the dairy section and went to the bakery. They showed HUGE ovens that could bake lots of bread, cakes, muffins, cupcakes or cookies at one time. We saw lots of delicious looking donuts. Someone comes in at midnight to make the doughnuts each day. In the meat department we watched Uncle cut the meat with a special saw. He wore a metal glove to protect his hand so he wouldn t cut his hand. We saw HUGE crab legs, lots of poke and other seafood in the seafood section. They gave us poke to take with us. At the end of the tour, Auntie Mel introduced us to the manager of the store. Then they gave us grapes and cheese to take along with the poke. Jamba Juice After our tour of Safeway, we went to Kaneohe Jamba Juice, where Teani s sister sometimes works. First, we put oranges into a juicer. The machine smashes the orange and squirts out the juice. The juice was used to make us a Jamba Juice drink. They gave us a tour. There was a small sink for them to use to wash the blenders. We walked into their freezer and yelled, Jamba Juice so the people in Starbucks could hear us. 1

2 Fruit Tasting We brought back fruits to taste from our field trip to Safeway. We tasted apples, pears, persimmon, pomegranate, kiwi, oranges, coconut and coconut water. We noticed the patterns in each of the fruits and drew the patterns in our math journals. We compared Granny Smith and Red Delicious apples. Most of us liked the Granny Smith apples the best. We also compared the Red Pear and the Bosc Pear. Our favorite was the Bosc Pear. Our favorite fruit was the coconut, maybe because that s our class name. Wolfgram told us different stories about Tuna and Hina. In one of the stories Hina said, He s ugly. Tuna told a fisherman to cut off his head and bury it in the sand. A Coconut tree grew from that spot. Kumu Cup Choy used the oniu to open the outside of the coconut. We saw the eyes and the tongue on the coconut shell. Kumu Cup Choy cracked the inside on the wall. Kumu Wolfgram borrowed Mrs. Knutson s watch to time Kumu Cup Choy scraping the inside of the coconut. He said it should take no more than 2 minutes to scrape the inside clean. Kumu Cup Choy used a special tool that connected to piece of wood that he sat on to scrape the coconut meat into a pan. We tasted the meat of the coconut. We made haupia with coconut milk, sugar, water and corn starch. We had to measure and mix all of the ingredients. Then Mrs. Tanoura cooked it in the microwave. It looked like white jello. Niu We have been learning about the niu. We planted a coconut in a pot behind our classroom. Mrs. Tanoura brought compost and soil to put in the pot. The coconut had already started to grow the roots and the tree. We all helped scoop in the soil and compost. There are many parts to a coconut and the tree. The roots are called a a. The trunk is the kumu niu. The fruit is called the niu. The leaves on the coconut tree are called lau niu. Kumu Cup Choy and Kumu Wolfgram came to the elementary school to tell us about niu. Kumu Tales From Here and There On November 1 we saw Tales From Here and There, a puppet show about three different stories. The first story was The Ant and the Grasshopper. The grasshopper just wanted to sing and play. The ant kept working, gathering food for the winter. When winter came, the grasshopper was hungry and cold. 2

3 The ant was comfortable and had plenty of food. He invited the grasshopper to share his food. From then on the grasshopper worked as well as singing and playing. The second story was Urashimataro. First he saved the turtle from bullies. Then the turtle gave him a ride to the sea kingdom. There he met a mermaid. She gave him a special box, but told him not to open it. When he went back to his home, he opened the box and turned into an old man. He should have listened. The last story was about Maui and the Sun. versions, the villagers had a feast along with the soup. They danced and sang into the night. Mrs. Moku and Mrs. Keliikuli came to help us make stone soup on November 17. For our stone soup, we used beef broth that Mrs. Knutson made at home. We put a stone in the soup. Each of us cut the vegetables to put into the soup. We had carrots, celery, zucchini, potatoes, Swiss chard, mushrooms, fennel and onions. We also added gluten free pasta. Math Stone Soup We have been reading different version of the story, Stone Soup. In each of the stories the people village lied and said they didn t have any food. In the first version we read, three soldiers were the main characters. Two pigs were the main characters in another story. Three monks made soup in another version. And in two versions, one boy made the soup. They put one to three stones in a pot with water and heated it over a fire. Then the villagers gradually gave all the vegetables and meat that were needed for the soup. In many In math we have been learning about patterns. One day we made two trains with Unifix cubes. One of the trains had a pattern. The other train did NOT have a pattern. We made AB patterns, AAB patterns, AAAB patterns, AAAAB patterns, AABB patterns, ABC patterns, ABCD patterns and ABCDE patterns. We made patterns with pattern blocks. Then we used pattern block stickers to make the same pattern on a strip of paper that we turned into snakes by adding an eye and a tongue. One day we made patterns in two different ways. First, we made patterns by stamping fruits and 3

4 vegetables. We also made patterns with pattern blocks. We had to make the pattern block pattern in a circle. cubes. We learned that the unifix cubes were best to measure the journal and the feet were best to use to measure the carpet. When we tried to measure the carpet with the unifix cubes, we got a lot of different answers. Plus, it took a LONG time to count all of the unifix cubes. Pattern Walk We went on a pattern walk to look for patterns at the elementary school. We saw patterns EVERYWHERE! There were patterns inside the room, on Dawson s backpack, on the playground, on the sidewalk, on the walls, and even on Mrs. Aiwohi s dress. The storm drain had a pattern of bigger and bigger circles. The sidewalk by Kahu Anne s room had a pattern with a hexagon with triangles surrounding it. Under the bridge we saw a pattern of Xs and lines. The stairs have a pattern of up, forward. Reading Connections We have been reading books and making connections: text to text, text to self and text to world. We made a LOT of text to text connections when we read the various Gingerbread Man stories and Stone Soup stories. We also made text totext connections when we read The Great Big Enormous Turnip and The Great Enormous Watermelon and The Enormous Potato. We also made connections to other stories we read in class. Some we read together. Recently we read our own Just Right book on our own and made connections to that story. We re getting pretty good at making connections! Measurement Now we are learning about measurement in math. We measured the piano, the carpet, our journal and our desk with our foot and unifix 4

5 The Gingerbread Man We have read LOTS of different versions of The Gingerbread Man. Some versions call him a boy, and others call him a man. Each of the gingerbread men looked a little bit different. Most of them started with Once upon a time. Many had this poem inside: Run, run, as fast as you can, You can t catch me, I m the gingerbread man. In all of the versions, the fox was very sly. He tricked the gingerbread man and ate him. For, after all, a gingerbread man is made to be eaten. We made a gingerbread ornament to put on our Niu Christmas Tree. Mrs. Knutson cut out the gingerbread shapes, punched holes, put a raffia hanger in the hole and put pictures of our faces on the gingerbread. We decorated our gingerbread ornament with glitter glue, ribbons, jewels, and other sticky decorations. We re looking forward to making our own gingerbread people in December. them out. We brought the cut feet and hands to school to make a turkey. First we put two feet together to make the turkey body. We glued the tan hands on the front for the wings. We glued the other hands in the back for the tail feathers. Then we added eyes, a beak, a wattle and some feet. They were cute decorations. Apple Turkeys We made apple turkeys on November 22. First we washed our hands. Then we colored the wattle and eyes on the turkey head and stuck it in the bottom of the apple, which was turned sideways. Next we made legs with toothpicks. We either used 4 or 2 toothpicks. With 4 toothpicks, the turkey could stand. With 2 toothpicks, the turkey would sit. Finally, we made 5 tail feathers. We used marshmallows and raisins to make a pattern on each feather. Then we stuck the feathers in the apple to make the turkey fan his tail. Hand and Foot Turkeys Each of us traced our hands and feet on construction paper and cut 5

6 Lokomaika i Luncheon On November 18 a family member of each child in the classroom came to eat lunch with us. Everyone brought something to share for the meal. We had manapua, chicken katsu, noodles with vegetables, kalua pig and cabbage, sweet potatoes, Stone Soup, salad, soybeans, pineapple, carrot cake, mochi, pumpkin crunch, haupia, and water or juice to drink. Math Workshop After the luncheon, our parents went to the cafeteria for the beginning of the math workshop while we watched a video in the classroom. Then we joined our parents for the math workshop. We played two games at the math workshop: Tricky Triangles and Spill the Beans. For Tricky Triangles, we had to make triangles with rubber bands on Geoboards. In Spill the Beans, we dropped beans on a tray and counted how many beans dropped on each side as well as the total number of beans. Flu Vaccinations Fifteen children had flu vaccinations on November 21 in the cafeteria. We took books and a worksheet to do while we waited 15 minutes after the last person had a vaccination. Those who stayed in the classroom also did the food worksheet and read books. Golden Pencil Sale Several of us went to the Golden Pencil sale after Ohana. All the books were written by students at Kamehameha Elementary School. There were books about colors, lava, guns and books. There were short books and long books and books with stories from everyone in a class. 6

7 Ohana We said the pledge and sang The Queen s Prayer. Then Kahu Ann talked to us about Joseph and his brothers. Later, Miss Kala talked to us about her accident and forgiving the man who hit her. We saw children walking around with a ball and chain on their ankle. The ball and chain represented the sin we carry around with us. When the older children did a hip hop dance called Take the Shackles Off My Feet, the balls and chains were removed. Mrs. Knutson put into a book for Mrs. Brown. Mrs. Brown LOVED her book! Kyree s birthday was November 27. We celebrated it on November 28, when we came back to school from Thanksgiving vacation. She shared her birthday poster and we sang Happy Birthday. She brought lollipops and HUGE pencils for each of us. We gave each of the birthday children a birthday ribbon and a birthday card. Christmas Chains Birthdays On November 7, Mrs. Knutson celebrated her birthday. She brought grapes for the snack. She also brought a book for each child. Big Red, a big red puppet, came out to celebrate her birthday, too. He looked like Birthday Blue except he s much bigger and red, instead of blue. Tavita celebrated his birthday on November 16. We gave him a birthday ribbon and a birthday card. He shared his birthday poster and brought a birthday snack for us to eat. Mrs. Brown s birthday was on November 17. She brought out Big Red for the second time in one month. We all wrote birthday messages that At the end of November we made chains to count the number of days until Christmas. First we planned our pattern on a special paper. Then we asked Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Tanoura for the number of strips we needed of each color. Then we wrote the numbers 1 25 on the strips. We asked the teacher to check our work. Finally, we glued the strips in links in the correct order and attached the chain to a poem. We are to take off one link each day of December until Christmas. 7