Friday, October 31, 2014

Halloween Fun!

Here are some fun photos of our class all dressed up in our costumes! Everyone looked great. The teachers decided that this year we would be characters from books. Gina and I dressed up as characters from the book Miss Nelson is Missing . The kids love this book. Ask them about the characters in this funny book.



Roll and cover

We did a fun dice activity this afternoon. It was festive and math in one activity! 

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Quilt #2

Today in math we assembled quilt number 2!
A bit more complicated than the first!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Pumpkin sharing

I challenged students to share their jack-o-lanterns on their sharing day this week. They can bring in a picture, send me a picture by email that I can show the class or tell the class about them. This is challenge by choice, of course, but will be so fun if kids do!
Here are mine!

Friday, October 24, 2014

Buddies by Mackenzie

Here's a link to a great presentation about our buddy time made by Mackenzie in 6th grade. I loved it and thought you might too.

http://www.warrenschool.org/jane/2014/10/24/buddies/

Character comparison

We read The Biggest Pumpkin Ever. We thought about the two main characters and how they are different and the same. We created a diagram with the students' ideas.

Pumpkin life cycle

Our pumpkin focus today was on the life cycle. We read a really great book about the life cycle of a pumpkin. Then we put pictures in order of the life cycle and turned them into a book. Check your child's bag for their book!

After library, we created a bulletin board showing the life cycle of a pumpkin. Each child created a picture of each step in the life cycle. 

Halloween

Halloween is a week away! How can that be? It feels like we just started the year.
As always, I am really looking forward to our school Halloween parade. If your child would like to wear their costume in our parade, please send them to school in their regular clothes- with all costume parts in a bag. I will be helping kids get into their costumes in the classroom before the parade begins. If your child's costume has fragile or very special parts (or weapons), please leave these at home. We will change out of our costumes after the parade!
We are also planning a little party at the end of the day. We'd love some tasty treats. If you are willing to make something for the group, please let me know!

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Vowel sounds and hand motions

We have now introduced all the vowels! Here's a video of the kids saying the letter name, key word and sound. You can see the hand motion we use to remember the sounds- visual phonics! This is just another way for those tricky vowel sounds to 'stick' in your child's mind. Hearing the sound, saying the sound, seeing the letter, using your hands- all ways for brains to hold onto this information.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

4 Winds- Leaf eaters

On Friday we had our first 4 Winds session. We were lucky enough to pair up with Roni's class and get a chance to visit her classroom. The parents volunteers were fabulous and we learned a lot about leaf eating insects. 4 Winds lessons always begin with a puppet show to introduce the concept of the lesson. This group loved the puppet show!


 Then after examining some leaves, each child was given a photo of a leaf that had been munched on. They had to match their photo to the type of eating pattern.






Then we headed outside to find some of our own leaves and draw them or do a leaf rubbing.















Baking Bread

Our class has been reading many versions of The Little Red Hen.  We've acted it out, compared and contrasted many stories, made predictions, done choral readings, explored repeating lines and so much more! For our contribution to the Harvest Dinner, we decided to bake bread just like the Little Red Hen- except that we would work together!
We read a book about how flour is made and watched a video of this process too. Then in two groups we made the dough. After the dough was done rising, we made our rolls! They were quickly eaten up at the Harvest Dinner, so I'd say they were a success!




apple picking photos

I just downloaded a bunch of photos and found many from our apple picking field trip. Enjoy!