Halloween

We Want to Know:
-why do you celebrate Halloween?
-why do you wear suits on Halloween to celebrate it?
-why are there dragons and scary bats on Halloween?
-if dragons can fight as hard as they can on Halloween or can they hide under pumpkins so no witches get them

What We Did:
-Poem
Jack-O-Lantern
Anonymous
Jack-o-lantern, Jack-o-lantern,
You are such a funny sight.
As you sit there by the window,
Looking out into the night.
You were once a sturdy pumpkin,
growing on a curly vine.
Now you are a Jack-o-lantern,
See your night lights shine.

-Song
Five Little Pumpkins
Anonymous
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate
The first one said, "Oh my it's getting late"
The second one said, "There's witches in the air"
The third one said, "I don't care"
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run"
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun!"
Along came the wind and blew out the lights
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Writing-
-the kids drew the pictures to help them memorize the poem and song
-the kids wrote stories, I gave them the white board to draw while I typed. Drawing it helped them to organize and write more details in their stories, both of them kept going and going, I loved it, but tried to keep Ezra focused on the storyline, Noah's story was mostly bad guys killing good guys and I stopped typing after a while
-we talked about story structure
*he drew pictures of the characters: jack-o-lantern, ghost, vampire, haunted house with wheels where the bad characters live, kids are trick or treating
*conflict- the pumpkin steals a boy, the girl was walking and didn't notice he got stolen, she went home and told her mom that a pumpkin stealed them, they almost cooked him for dinner
*then he ran as fast as he can, but couldn't get out, the door was locked and he couldn't push the walls out, the pumpkin put him inside, but he broke the pumpkin, fell off the roof and ran away as fast as he could, but another pumpkin got him.
*resolution- the boy got away from the mean guys, he went to another pumpkin who happened to be his sister, he asked her what her name was, she said, you know me I'm your sister, lightning struck all of the mean guys, the wheels fell off the house, the lightning almost struck a kid, but he got away

Double Scariest Halloween
By Ezra



Once there was a jack-o-lantern, a vampire and a ghost. They lived in a haunted house. The house had scratches on the door, a tornado for the doorknocker, and wheels on the bottom. It had haunted stuff inside, like a big pumpkin. Bigger than you'd ever think. They cooked kids in the pumpkin with lightning.

There was a boy and a girl out trick-or-treating. The boy's name is Loverschef and he was a spaghetti chef for Halloween. The girl's name is Loversbaker. She was a baker for Halloween.

Then scariest wolf ever took their trick-or-treating bags away and they had to hold their candy. Then they found the wolf and he was asleep, so they got their bags back. They found out it was a Halloween wolf. Then they noticed that the wolf had the sharpest teeth ever. He was the leader of the Halloween wolves. Then ran away to their house, but they noticed that their mom and dad weren't home.

The jack-o-latern came and kidnapped Loverschef and Loversbaker and took them to the haunted house. The jack-o-lantern, the ghost and the vampire were going to cook them in the big pumpkin. There was a huge x on pumpkin. They tried to escape because they thought the x meant cook the kids, but it actually meant don't cook the kids.

Loverschef was three or four years old, but he still had a sharp sword. He chopped a big circle in the house that they could fit through. They escaped and ran home. This time their mom was home.

Lightning struck the bad guys, not the good guys. It did strike the good guy's roof off, but it didn't hurt them. That was the end of the bad guys.

Next Halloween there were no bad guys, so they didn't celebrate Halloween. People just brought candy to their house.

Good Guy Bad Guy
By Noah

There was a bad guy. He had legs, a head, and a body. The bad guy wanted to be mean, but a bear came to eat the bad guy. The good guy got the bear. Another big bad guy had a big body and he went trick-or-treating and got candy. People were scared of them.

A bear came with a little head and a big body. The bear went trick-or-treating. He opened a wrapper and ate the candy for dessert after he ate all his dinner. The bad guy said "Don't eat that we have to say a prayer." Then he said, "It's time to eat a treat." The little baby bad guy cried. The good guy said, "Don't kill a bear." The daddy bad guy killed the bear. The bear said, "Roar." The good guy said, "I'll eat you up."

Another good guy had a big sword. They found the horses and then he killed the bad
guys. The bad guys were mean. The bears were bad guys.

-made a haunted house- cut out bats and ghosts to hang from the ceiling,
ideas- potions with dry ice telling a scary story, spider room with spray bottle, eyeballs, brains, ice hand, spaghetti, scary music

Haunted House
scene lights on and off, scary music, leader has a flashlight

Monster Cemetery


1. Monster Cemetary- Ezra is turning lights on and off, Livi is at the witch table Mom: "walk past the monster cemetary" Noah jumps out of a box and says "BOO!!!!!!" then the lights stay off

Witch Table


2. Witch Table- Mom-"come over to the witch's table" Livi: "Hi, I'm the witch. I'm going to make a potion for you. Choose any cup. If you choose the orange one the spider will spray you." Livi pours, if he chose orange Ezra sprays him. He drinks the potion. Then Livi says, "You just drank the pig potion, You're going to turn into a pig in a week."

Giant Spider


3. Spider Web- Mom- "Here is the giant spider's web. Be careful, sometimes the spider spits poison." Ezra sprays dad with water.

Monster Parts


4. Monster Parts - Mom- "Come into the Monster's house. Come and feel the dead monster's eyeballs, brains, and hand." Ezra - "Feel the monster's eyeballs, feel the monster's brains, feel the monster's hand."

Monster Cupcakes


We had fun making monster cupcakes!

We Learned
-jack-o-lanterns were put in windows to keep the evil spirits away, because they thought the dead people were going to come visit them
-you say trick-or-treat because that means if you don't give me candy then I'll play a trick on you
-wore scary masks to keep the evil spirits away
-they wanted the good spirits (their ancestors) to come visit them
-it was a night to honor their ancestors

Rocks

We Want to Know
-if rocks can grow in the car?
-if rocks can balance
-if rocks can grow from a weed
-where rocks come from

What we we did
Poem
A Rock Makes an Excellent Puppy
Ken Nesbitt
A rock makes an excellent puppy.
They're practically almost the same.
Except that a puppy's rambunctious;
a rock is a little more tame.

And maybe it doesn't roll over,
and isn't excited to play,
but rocks always sit when you tell them,
and rocks really know how to stay.

It may sleep a little bit longer.
It probably eats a bit less.
But rocks never pee on the carpet.
You won't have to pick up their mess.

So go ask your folks for a puppy,
and possibly that's what you'll get.
But, still, if you can't have a puppy,
a rock is a pretty good pet.

-Watched a video about how rocks are formed: http://www.neok12.com/php/watch.php?v=zX616a577c597f7c784c720a&t=Types-of-Rocks

Rock Paint


The boys went outside and collected rocks and grass. We put them in the mortar and pestle and they crushed them. I let go at it for about five minutes and I figured I would have to do the remainder.

Paint Powder


They had crushed it all to powder by themselves. We added some corn syrup and water. It made pretty good paint!



We Learned
-Igneous rocks are formed inside the earth and get very hot, they come out through a volcano, they are very hard, we have granite on our counters, they also use it to build temples
-Sedimentary rocks are made by shells and mud, they pack together and get really hard
-Metamorphic rocks are sedimentary rocks that get really hot and turn into crystals
-August birthstone is called peridot, it's green and represents August, happiness, sleep, and safe

Grass

We Want to Know
-can it grow in a bed, maybe if your bed is made out of dirt it can grow on it, it needs dirt so it can eat
-if grass can grow on the whole world, even our house
-if grass can grow on a lee lee (a puppy) and a daddy lee lee (dog)
-if it can grow on windows, socks, shoes, cars, and books
-if grass can grow in the desert or on water

What We Did
-Poem
Grass Grew Everywhere in the World
By Ezra
The grass grew in the house
The grass grew on the mouse
The grass grew on the tree
The grass grew on me
The grass grew in the bath
The grass grew on my brother's math
The grass grew in the mower and we couldn't mow the lawn
The grew in the dawn
We couldn't stop the grass
Because it was growing in a mass

Word Families Brainstorming
house - mouse, couse, douse, louse, fouse
tree- bee, me, ree, fee, dee
bath- math, cath, dath, fath
lawn- fawn, pawn, dawn, cawn
grass- mass, lass, cass, dass, fass

Grass Experiment


-Did an experiment with grass seeds
we planted seeds in dirt, in peanut butter, and on a wet paper towel. They haven't sprouted yet, but I'll post the results when they do

Results


-Results: Grass can grow on dirt and wet paper towels, peanut butter can't grow seeds. It needed water to sprout. That is different from us because we can eat peanut butter but not dirt or paper towels.
-played a pbskids.org game on going green and planting a garden
http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/groovygarden/groovygarden.html
-Songs for the week "Give Said the Little Stream" and "The Green Grass Grew all Around"

Ovens

We Want to Know
-why do ovens cook, why do ovens get fire
-do always have fire?
-can you break an oven really easily?

What we did
-Poem The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven
The turkey shot out of the oven
and rocketed into the air,
it knocked every plate off the table
and partly demolished a chair.

It stuck to the walls and the windows,
it totally coated the floor,
there was turkey attached to the ceiling,
where there'd never been turkey before.

I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure,
and thought with chagrin as I mopped,
that I'd never again stuff a turkey
with popcorn that hadn't been popped.

Jack Prelutsky
http://www.homemakerscorner.com/turkeyshot.htm

-Made a solar oven, it's supposed to be cloudy and rainy this week, but maybe we'll have a few hours of sunlight where we can try it out.

Insulation

Crumple up scrap paper or newspaper and line the bottom of the box.

Oven

Place a smaller box on top of the insulation. Line the bottom on the box with black construction paper. Place a piece of glass on top of the box. I took the glass out of a picture frame. Hopefully we don't break it.

Panels

Cut 4 cardboard panels of equal height and place them at a 135 degree angle around the glass.

Solar Panels

Cover each panel with foil. Wrap the foil around the cardboard to secure.

Using the Oven

The weather has cooled down a lot. We used the oven on a sunny day but if we had used it when it was still 90 degrees outside, it would've worked a lot better. We got it to 150 degrees which won't bake much, but it did melt chocolate chips and marshmallows for smores!