Dear Parents,
We started our week looking for a picture of a pine tree in one of our books. We asked the class what shape it resembled. One person said, “It has three sides, like a triangle!” Another said, “It looks like a Christmas tree.” We talked about pine trees staying green all year. We found two pictures of forests full of pine trees in our books. We created the trunk of our family pine tree by scrunching up a giant sheet of brown paper.
We asked what pine trees have instead of leaves. "Pine needles," answered the children. Everyone helped cut green sheets of paper into tiny pieces for our pine needles. Someone said that pine trees have at least nineteen pine needles. We cut many more than that.
We worked our hand muscles, squeezing glue onto our branches that we made out of the same scrunched brown paper as the trunk. One person said as we glued tiny pieces of green paper, "This is taking a long time." We asked the class how long it takes for a real tree to grow.
During circle we compared the leaves from three different trees. We talked about what was the same: they're all leaves and they all fell off a tree. What was different: they were different colors, different shapes, different sizes, and their stems were different. One person wondered if the trees had fallen over. The trees were fine, but the leaves had fallen.
On Friday we cut even more pine needles to add to our branches. We used green ribbons, felt, and lots more glue.
During circle we read Black Is Brown Is Tan. The book is written in a singing poetic style. We asked the class what they thought the book was about. They answered: colors, mamas, daddies, brothers, sisters, grandparents, dogs, humans, and love. All true.
Wednesday November 27 will be a half day and our Family Feast. Our feast will begin at 11:00am. Parents are invited!
Have a piney weekend,
Therese