Bananas for Learning

November Study: Leaves + Turkeys After all the sugar and excitement of Halloween, we needed to come back down to earth and spend some time outside! Early November is peak season for leaves changing color in North Carolina and it was the perfect study for the few weeks we had between Halloween and Thanksgiving.  As we start most our studies, we had students notice what was changing outside. We talked about the different kinds of leaves we saw and sorted them by the kind of tree they belonged to. We asked questions about why the leaves were falling or why they changed color and investigated by watching videos from scientists and watching time lapse videos of trees changing from spring to winter. These conversations led us to talk a little bit about seasons and the changes that we see in each one. We talked about clothes that we wear in each season as well as how the weather dictates what activities we can do in each season.  As the month went on, we started talking about Thanksg...

  October Study: Apples + Pumpkins We finished our first month of school and let ourselves 'fall' right into learning about all things apples and pumpkins. We started with a two week study on apples. We knew that all the kids had tried apples, but as I said in a post or two ago, our goal is to go deeper into our studies and find out more about how and where they go, what they look like on the inside and why, and how we can use apples.  Each day our question of the day revolved around something related to apples. Additionally, after morning meeting, we would look at a different fact or feature about apples. We did an apple investigation where we started by describing the outside of the apple (texture, shape, size), measured it with unifix cubes, cut it open to describe the inside of the apple, and counted how many seeds were inside. The children loved when I called them 'scientists' and they were so excited to explore such a simple food that they are so used to seeing. T...

  September Study: The First Six Weeks We have officially wrapped up our first month of school! It has been a whirlwind of fun, laughter, a few tears, and lots of joy. The majority of our focus has been on learning the rules, expectations, and procedures within our classroom. We have practiced washing our hands a countless number of times, how to wait in a line, how we sit on the carpet for large group instruction, how to clean up, how we clean up after meals, and so much more! While some of these things feel instinctual to us now, we have to remember that kids don't come into school knowing all of these concepts so it is up to us to teach them each step so that they can master the skill. It feels tedious in the beginning, but it definitely pays off later and gives us much more time to learn and play later1 We've also been practicing how to use our school tools. We talked about how scissors are for paper and NEVER hair or our bodies, we practiced putting caps on markers so they...

  to the 2025-2026 Bananas It is our pleasure to welcome you and your family to the 2025-2026 school year at the Frankie Lemmon School! We are so happy that you are part of the Bananas class and I know that we are going to have an amazing year together. We will become like a family; learning, growing, and laughing together for the next ten months.  This blog will be used to share what we are doing in our classroom. It will be updated monthly with pictures and descriptions of what we are learning. If you do not want your child's picture featured on our blog, please let me know immediately. Each month we have a different study using the Creative Curriculum and will focus on deepening the children's understanding of things they encounter everyday. Examples of studies we used last year are: Wheels, Pets, and Buildings. They may not sound that exciting, but it is so much fun to watch them ask questions and seek to know more about the world around them. It takes a lot to keep our cl...

  May Study: Insects + Plants We have finally wrapped up our final study of the 2024-2025 school year! The Bananas chose to learn about insects for the month of May and we had SO much fun doing so. We started talking about what we know about insects; what they look like, how they move, and what they eat. From there, we dove into the investigations.  First we talked about the characteristics, such as the sounds they make, how they work together, and how they move in nature. To illustrate this, the kids got in groups of three and lined up with hands on each others shoulders and moved about the playground. We also measured how far we could jump and talked about why its important for some insects to jump. We spent a lot of time talking about the three body parts that all insects have: a head, an a thorax, and an abdomen. Insects also have six legs and some have wings. If it doesn't have six legs and it doesn't have three body parts, it's not an insect!  In our next investigat...

  April Study: Wheels I'm not sure if you knew this about some of your children, but they are OBSESSED with all things that move. Whether it's playing with vehicles in the block center or spinning on the saucers outside, they love things that move! At the end of our buildings study, we allowed the students to vote on our next study and they had the choice between Water, Clothes, or Wheels and they overwhelmingly chose the Wheels study!  Again, the Teaching Strategies curriculum that we use at Frankie Lemmon is meant to take what we think we know about topics and stretching it out to create a deeper learning experience that encourages discussion and questions. We start by exploring the topic and looking at what we already know about wheels, such as different kinds of wheels we see in our daily lives and how wheels help us. We talked about big wheels/little wheels, wheels that push/pull, and why some things have 1, 2, 3, or 4+ wheels. As we moved further into the topic, we inves...