News You Can Use!

Literacy 

This week, our close reading lessons focused on books about storms. Before reading the book, Thunder Cake, the children made a prediction about what thunder cake is. After reading, the children wrote about what thunder cake actually is and if their prediction was correct. On our second reading of Thunder Cake, the children worked on determining the author’s purpose. Why did the author write their story? Was it to inform, persuade, or entertain? The children learned that it’s as easy as PIE to determine the author’s purpose. After reading, the children looked back in the text for evidence and came up with the author’s purpose. 

We also read selections from Seymour Simon's book, titled Storms. The children completed an author’s purpose graphic organizer where they stated the author’s purpose, along with 3 pieces of evidence from the text. 

  

Guided Reading:

We will be taking a short break from guided reading groups next week. I will be meeting with the children one on one to do a second round of running records. Reassessing allows me to make sure that each child is receiving reading instruction that best fits their instructional reading level. 

Writing

This week, the 1-1 authors published their narrative writing pieces. They worked extremely hard at rewriting their story in their best handwriting and adding careful, colorful, and detailed illustrations to support their writing. The children also added an opening an closing sentence to complete their small moment piece. These will be on display in the hallway at conference time so you can enjoy them!  

Math 

In Math, the children worked with recognizing, describing, and creating visual patterns. They found patterns around our classroom and then worked with a partner to create their own patterns using craft sticks. 

The children were also introduced to even and odd numbers. They worked with counters to explore even and odd number patterns. The children noticed the following patterns:

-Even numbers end in 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8.

-Odd numbers end in 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9.

-Even numbers are counts by 2s, starting with 0.

On Wednesday, the children worked with their number grids to describe and compare number patterns. They looked at number patterns for counts of 2s, 5s, and 10s. 

On Thursday, the children enjoyed completing 3 explorations. They worked with making patterns, sorting even and odd numbers, and creating new shapes using pattern blocks.

Science

This week, the scientists wrapped up our unit on Weather. They learned that air is all around us and that the air that covers the earth is called the atmosphere. The scientists learned that the atmosphere is where weather happens. They did an experiment where they dropped objects into water. While observing, they noted that air bubbles were escaping from the objects. 

The scientists, also learned about dew and frost. They learned that dew is liquid water droplets that condense out of the air during the night. The scientists learned that frost is ice crystals that cover a cold surface when water comes out of the air and it is below the freezing point.

Halloween Fun!

The children had a wonderful fun filled Halloween afternoon!

The children kicked off the Halloween festivities with a parade around the Dryden neighborhood. Thank you to everyone for coming out! After the parade, we headed back to our classroom for our Halloween party. The children enjoyed some delicious treats, decorated a pumpkin, colored by number, played Wrap a Mummy, and guessed how much candy was in a jar. At the end of the party, they listened to a Halloween story. Thank you to everyone who sent in supplies for our party: treats, drinks, paper goods, and crafts! A very big thank you to our two party volunteers, Mrs. Stevenson and Mrs. Centracchio! Thank you for your incredible job planning and running our party. The children had a great time!

Enjoy our Halloween photo slide show!

                                 

Star Student

Charlotte was our star student this week. Thanks Charlotte for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

A special thank you to Charlotte’s Mom, she joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children loved listening to the three stories that Mrs. Stahlman read, What Cried Granny!, Rhyming Dust Bunnies, and The Pigeon Wants a Puppy.

Happy Birthday

This week, we celebrated two birthdays. Happy Birthday to Joey and Edward!  

Warm Fuzzy Celebration

The children filled up our warm fuzzy jar earning a celebration. After lots of discussion and a vote, the class would like to wear their pajamas to school.

On Friday, November 7th your child may 

wear their pajamas to school.

We will have a normal learning day including LMC, just in our comfy pj’s. Please make sure your child’s pajamas are school appropriate. Your child may wear slippers in the classroom, but please make sure they have shoes to change into for LMC, recess, and arrival/dismissal. 

Notes:

-Thursday, November 6th is picture retakes. If you would like your child to have their picture retaken, please return your child’s entire picture packet (with the exception that you can keep the class photo).

-On Tuesday, November 11th, the children will enjoy a visit from HighTouch HighTech. A scientist will bring in a variety of weather experiments for the scientists to engage in. If you have not done so already please send in your child’s permission slip and money. 

Have a great rest of the weekend!