October 31, 2016

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I want to start out by saying "THANK YOU" to the moms who helped on Friday at our "Pumpkin Day", as well as those that came today for our Halloween Party.  We had LOTS of fun both days and we couldn't have done it without you!  Thank you, also, to the rom moms who planned all the fun crafts and games...a great time was had by all!

Last week we worked on our writing...we discussed finding a topic that we are interested in and that we can write something about.  We read the book: Pumpkin Jack and discussed the life cycle of a pumpkin.  We read several versions of Little Red Riding Hood and learned about the characters, setting, and sequencing of a story.  In math, we played some games with subitizing, focused on teen numbers and practiced one more of a given number.

We continue to learn about forest animals and their habitats. Since it was Red Ribbon Week, we talked about good, healthy choices for our bodies and minds.  

For our Pumpkin Day, we measured the height and circumference of our pumpkins and weighed them.  We hypothesized if they would sink or float.  We explored them with our 5 senses and then, as a group, we planned how it would look and helped to clean it out.  

Here are some pictures of PUMPKIN DAY:

Pumpkin Jack

Pumpkin Starlight

 Pumpkin Jack

Pumpkin Nova

Pumpkin Frozen

 Pumpkin Batman

Pumpkin Jack

HALLOWEEN

PARADE:

PARTY:

Making Ghosts

Mazes and word games

Spider Hats

Spider Hats

Making spider hats and playing a pumpkin toss game

Pumpkin toss game

Follow the leader on pumpkins

Peek at the Week:
Nursery Rhyme:  Baa Baa Black Sheep
Poem: Over in the Garden
Literacy: Otis
Fairy Tale: Goldilocks and the 3 Bears
Math: Subitizing and counting to/from 10
Jolly Phonics: j, ai, oa, ee, or
Science: forest habitats
Social Studies: Long ago and today

Upcoming Dates:
Wed, Nov. 2 - Wendy's Fundraiser 5-8pm
Friday, Nov. 4 - SIP Day - 12:10 dismissal
Tuesday, Nov. 8 - Bilingual Parent Advisory Council - Elem East (6:45pm-8:00pm)
Wednesday, Nov. 9 - Picture retake day
Wednesday, November 15 - Park Playdate 4:30-5:50pm@ Intermediate Playground/Int. West Gym
Thursday, Nov. 17- PTA Meeting 9:30 am or 6:30 pm - ESC
Monday, November 21 and Tuesday, November 22 - Conferences

Wednesday, November 23- Friday, November 25 - Thanksgiving Break

October 21, 2016

What a fun and exciting week! We read Bat loves the night  and learned about how bats fly and "see" in the night.  They use something called echolocation- ask your child what he/she knows about that! :)  We also played a fun game that introduced forest animals and then we worked in a group to sort animals that do/do not live in the forest.
We practiced labeling an picture of a bat (in our science notebook) and are doing some AMAZING reading and writing!  Jolly Phonics is really helping us with our sounds! :)  We had writer's workshop this week and learned that writing is just telling on paper.  We are all trying to write interesting stories for our readers.  After writing each day, we meet with our partner and share what we wrote- we are always very excited to share!
Stations are a favorite that we look forward to each week!  Here are some pictures of the children in action during stations :)

Pocket Chart

Pokey Pins - a new favorite!

Math

Working with Words

Art station

Writing station

Write the Room

In math, we are practicing number counting forwards and backward to 10, as well as subitizing (seeing a group of items and knowing immediately what that number is = dots on dice, for example).  We have been working with 10 frames and counting to 100 by 10s.

Our nursery rhyme this week was The Itsy Bitsy Spider.  We made a glyph that shows whether we think spiders are creepy or cool, if we have ever caught a spider, and our favorite book of the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  

Enjoy your weekend! 

Peek at the Week:
Nursery Rhyme:  Itsy Bitsy Spider
Poem: 5 Little Bats
Literacy: Bat Loves the Night
Fairy Tale: Little Red Riding Hood
Math: Subitizing and counting to/from 10
Jolly Phonics: review
Science: Bats/weather/forest habitats
Social Studies: All about me

Upcoming Dates:
Monday, October 24- Red Ribbon Week begins
Friday, October 28- Pumpkin Day
Monday, October 31-  Halloween - Parade and Party- (please, no masks or weapons of any kind.)
Friday, Nov. 4 - SIP Day - 12:10 dismissal
Wednesday, Nov. 9 - Picture retake day
Monday, November 21 and Tuesday, November 22 - Conferences

October 14, 2016

We have been discussing the parts of a book and what makes up a story.  The children know the difference between an author and illustrator and can identify the different parts of a book (spine, front/back cover, title).  We are reading "Little Red Riding Hood" and discussing what fairy tales have:

We will be reading many different versions of this fairy tale and comparing them.
In science, the 5 senses were introduced and we discussed how we experience the world through our senses.
We have learned the following sight words up to now:
I
a
little
the
my
see

In Jolly Phonics we have learned the following sounds:
s, a, t, i, p, n, c,k, e, h, r, m,  g, o, u, l, f, b

In Math, we are working on counting up to 10 and backwards from 10 - 0.  We are also learning about subitizing, which is seeing a number of items scattered and recognizing how many there are in the group. We have also been practicing with 10 frames as well as learning about more, less and equal.

Last week, the firefighters came to visit.  We learned about stop, drop and roll and making sure we have a family meeting spot at home.

Upcoming Dates:
Monday, October 24- Red Ribbon Week begins
Friday, October 28- Pumpkin Day
Monday, October 31-  Halloween - Parade and Party