autumn

Pick a pumpkin or two?

| poppypeach

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Sunday we finally had a day out! Even though I still have not handed in my 3850-word report which is due this week, I felt good as I had edited the day before. So I got to go out to Ardenwood in Fremont and meet our friends for a catch up in the pumpkin patch and of course, ride the train and see the animals. I remember going ages ago when the kids were babies, now they just like to run around and chase the cool looking rooster away from his harem of ladies. It was quite random to land there and say oh the pumpkins are ready for Halloween and it is 30 days away!! In the wheelbarrow, the kids collected the pumpkins – that big mother pumpkin went to our friends and I just wanted a fairly small pumpkin to look festive around the place.

The kids were very excited to check out the pumpkins as I said to my hubby, “Who buys their pumpkin this early in October?” Well, it turns out we do, at least that errand is out of the way for this year! Our friends were laughing at the memories we have at pumpkin patches over the years – in Pescadero one year we went to a farm and saw gorillas pooping pumpkins 😀

As we met our friends on Sunday we did a bit of Fall shopping for Halloween decorations. I really like Halloween though I am not a fan of the crappy candy the kids get, we send it away with the Girl Scouts somewhere or overseas to my family to taste what bad candy is like. We found this Indian corn for sale to decorate around the place and the colours are just amazing – you can make beautiful necklaces with the kernels and they are so pretty.

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Our lovely pumpkin from the farm bought on the 1st day of October – no we really are not that organised otherwise the costumes would be with us too! The kids are still deciding on that?

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Back to work and reality, the observational drawings from our class of the cacti – the colours look amazing in real life. I really need to get out some watercolour and have a play when I am free again in the next couple of weeks only a couple of more days and my report will be handed in – yippee!

This week we were doing 3 digit addition and a new game was bought in the classroom to play – this is Addition Spinners, where you spin to find two numbers and add them together to find the answer on the sheet and the first player to line up 4 numbers is the winner.

Variety of resources for fun Storytelling, Math, Science and Literacy (collected from my co-teacher):

Mystery Math Town provides a math challenge at various levels for children comfortable with math symbols and operations.

EPIC! – A fun reading app (used in class) – listen to stories, read a variety of books

You Cubed – Mathematics with Growth Mindset.

Make your own math kit – use “stuff” from home to make developmental math manipulatives – with explanations and activity suggestions.

Greater Good Science Center – SEL for family and schools.

Thinking Blocks – bar models, story problems (iPad app used in class)

Problem of the Month – Math

National Geographic Kids – variety of activities, research projects, games, videos

Dream Box – math

My Story – great way to tell a story – upload photos, pictures, record and write, then share.

http://galileo.org/

http://wild.maths.org

http://nrich.maths.org

http://cut-the-knot.org

http://brilliant.org/

http://mathplayground.com

Today as I wanted the kids to have a bit of a stretch we ended up having a bit of fun with GoNoodle.

It was a hectic week and I am happy that I am nearly done with my report – this time my reward for this teaching period is to watch Twin Peaks new series so I am really excited about that as it came out when we were in Australia over the summer.

 

NaBloPoMo – Day 14 – Art is all around…

| poppypeach
Today was my Arts Focus volunteer hours at school and that takes up the whole morning. It is such a wonderful time with the kids sewing away. Today we were doing embroidery and because of the focus involved the little Kinder kiddos were pretty tired by recess so we switched it out to fleece pillows so they could have a bit of a break but still a lot of the kids were wanting breaks to relax their fine motor skills and of course their focus.

I have an embroidery project that is still unfinished and from that experience I know it is an activity that requires a lot of concentration – this explains why I have not finished it yet! Knitting is a perfect activity that I can do in front of a movie and not think too much – which is why I enjoy it. Though reading a pattern and knitting and chatting can be a bit challenging. Anyway there was art all over the campus at school today and I found this created by our kids in the the 3D class – a nature installation outside.

An Autumn Nature 3D Art Installation created by the kiddos in the Arts Focus class 

After all the arts was over – home for a cup of tea and then out again to visit some friends for another play date at their house and we ended up dancing into the evening with Just Dance on the Wii – the kids came home asking Daddy to turn our TV into a computer game 🙂

NaBloPoMo – Day 10 – A lazy though productive Sunday

| poppypeach
Today was spent sleeping in till 8:30am – what a luxury! Followed by a lazy Sunday morning organising the closet and passing on clothes and shoes to Goodwill – such a great feeling to be clearing out and sorting for the new season. I had a bit of work to do for the shows I am doing this week and next so that is progressing along slowly…

So the afternoon came and it was time to get the kids out in the fresh air and get some energy out at the park, we decided to go for a bit of a walk to admire the trees and we found this great dream car for Missy…

Missy and her pink sports car complete with Hello Kitty car seat covers!

I wanted to see the trees before they loose all their leaves and there are a couple of favourites that I like to admire with their leaves in the autumn colours.

This beauty is just outside and its glowing colours in the afternoon 

This autumn tree is much more moody in it’s colour

Temporary local tv stars

| poppypeach
On our last adventure out in Vancouver we were at Bloedel Conservatory enjoying the warmth and on the way back to the car we found some huge maple leaves to play with. A couple of guys came by and asked if they could take some pics of the kiddos so we said sure, next thing we are being interviewed – here is what was screened after the news.

Homage to autumn

| poppypeach
One of the many trees featured in my video

There is an awesome show of amazing colours around at the moment and as today is a beautiful autumn day complete with gusts of wind I had to go out and take some pictures to capture the trees before they are naked. I was just playing with my continuous shooting mode to see what would come to light – see the shots here.