October 26th-30th

Music Fun!

Spider hats!

Pumpkin Carving fun!

 More spider hats!

Love you sweet Lily!

Balloons in PE!

Hello!

Hope you enjoyed these pictures from the past couple of weeks! Don't forget this is a short week. We have conferences Thursday and Friday.

This week we were preparing for conferences and report cards. We worked on our writer's workshop books, read several Halloween books, reviewed math tubs and finished our spider centers.

We need your help!! We have realized we are in need of writing folders for each child. We have been keeping our writing books in our cubbies but we are not very organized right now. If you would, please send a folder in to class for your child to keep their special books they are working on during wrier's workshop. This does not have to be fancy! It does not need to have pockets or prongs but if it does that is fine. Anything will do. If you are not able to send in a folder, please let me know! I will be glad to pick one up.

Don't forget our Parade of Fiction is tomorrow! If it is raining, we will ask parents to watch the parade in the gym. We will parade through the whole elementary school.  Please email me if you have any questions about this.

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

October 19th-23rd

Hello!

It has gotten quite chilly! Be sure to send a jacket or sweater for recess.

We have been busy this week starting our new unit. Thank you again for helping us wrap up our fairytale unit by attending our play. It was awesome! Huge thanks to Michelle Skaggs for making all of our props and costumes. ;)

**Dad Pumpkin Carving is Thursday at 1!

**The Parade of Fiction is next week on October 28th. I sent an email about this, but please have your child dressed and ready that morning with a change of clothes in his/her bag. Join us for the parade if you want! Please be sure your child has his/her book to hold with his/her costume during the parade. No weapons or full face coverings please!

**No sign up genius needed for next week as we have a short week due to conferences.

Reader's Workshop:

This week we worked on letters and letter sounds. We got to write letters in shaving cream on our tables! I would call out a letter or a sound and the students would write that letter in shaving cream. We also played an alphabet matching/memory game. Students had to match the uppercase letter to the lower case letter. If they got a match, they got to keep the letters. The person with the most matches at the end of the game wins.

We also continued with "Marvelous Me" and handwriting.

Our first class "Big Book" started making it's way around as well. Big books are great for so many things! When students are touching each word as they read it works on one to one correspondence. These big books are great for repetition, using pictures to get clues when reading, sight words and name recognition (when we have class names in the book). Please use the pointer in the bag when reading with your child! Please keep the book in the bag and return it the next day.

Writer's Workshop:

Our writer's workshop lesson this week was writing about small moments. Writing about a small moment in time is harder than it sounds! Here is an example: I am going to write about Disney World but in order to write a small moment story I am going to pick 1 thing to write about rather than tell about the whole trip. I might choose my favorite ride or snack at Disney and write about that as opposed to telling about my entire trip.

Thematic Unit:
This week we started our creepy crawlies unit off by studying spiders! We learned spider webs are very STRONG! Spiders have 8 legs and up to 8 eyes. Spiders are very helpful to us because they eat other bugs. Spiders can also be furry! We also studied the "writing spider" which makes the coolest web. We rotated through 4 main centers.

1. Spaghetti Spider Web Art: Use cold spaghetti to make a spider web and discuss how things stick to the pasta like they do on real spider webs.
2. Non-Fiction Spider Fact Book: Illustrate and read your book to an adult!
3. Spider Web Weaving: Use yarn to weave a web on a black paper plate. Glue a spider on top!
4. Spider Hat: Make a hat look like a spider and choose 8 legs to glue onto your hat and up to 8 eyes.

Math Workshop:

This week we have been focusing on writing numbers 1-20. This is still hard but we have been playing "write it quick" on our white boards. I call out a number and the students have to write it with an Expo maker. We also learned a new game called "Chickety Chop." It goes like this:

"Chickety, Chickety, Chop.
How many times before we stop?
Chickety, Chickety, Chop!"

The students look at a domino card that I hold up with a certain amount of dots on it. We clap for the amount of dots. It gets harder and harder as the game goes on.

Science:

Last week Landon's grandmother brought a science experiment into our class where we tested candy corn pumpkins in different liquids to see if they would float or sink. We also noticed when we placed them in water their "skin" started to peel! It was neat. We cannot wait to see what Katherine's mom brings this Friday!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

October 12th-16th

A few pictures from the previous two weeks. 

Hello! What a great week it has been! This is a big week for us as we have our play tomorrow! Wish us luck. :)

Dates to remember:

1. Play: TOMORROW
2. Dad Pumpkin Carving October 22nd at 1:00 in our classroom (Please bring a pumpkin and any carving supplies you need.)
3. Parade of Fiction October 28th
4. No school/optional conferences October 29th and 30th

Thematic Centers:

We are busy preparing bats, snakes and spiders for our creepy crawlies unit starting next week. We are so happy to be finishing up play practice!

Math Workshop:

This week we learned two new math games. The first game we played is called "Build It." Students draw a card and it has a number on it. Students then have to build that number with unifix cubes. It then says "add____more." Each card has a different number to add on. Students then have to answer "Now how many?" The other new tub we learned is building unifix cube puzzles. Each bag has several puzzle pieces that fit a certain amount of unifix cubes. Students have to build the puzzles and then count how many cubes it takes to complete the puzzle.

The estimation jar is still going well! Thank you for filling it each night when it is your turn.

Reader's Workshop:

This week students worked on something new! We are making our first class big book to read. Big books are great for learning how to track words, how to read, how to hold a book, reading left to right and practicing "return sweep" when reading. When we are all finished we will send the big book home each night with someone to read. We also working on handwriting, SWAT, Roll Say, Keep and Write it Quick. This week we started playing Write It Quick with basic site words as well! We are also working on getting through Marvelous Me.

Writer's Workshop:

This week we worked on adding letter sounds and words to our pictures! It is often intimidating to students to think about writing whole words right now. When we explain they can just write down the sounds they hear it makes it much more manageable.

Science:

Last week Ms. Mary Lee brought milk, food coloring and q-tips covered in dish soap. We dipped the q-tip covered in dish soap into the milk with food coloring and it made the most beautiful display of colors! This is an experiment you should definitely try at home.

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

October 5th-9th

Hello families!

We were so thankful for outside time this week. Yay for sun! Below are some important dates you need to remember. There is a new one listed this week so pay close attention.

*Fairytale Celebration Play: October 15^th at 11:00 (Please practice play lines with your child!! We need your help!) THIS IS NEXT WEEK!
*Dad Pumpkin Carving: October 22^nd at 1:00 

*Parade of Fiction: October 28^th at 8:30- There was an email about this. Go back and read it for more details. 

*Optional Parent/teacher Conferences and NO SCHOOL: October 29^th and 30^th (A sign up genius was already sent out for conference times.)

Thematic Centers:

This week we were working on play lines, play transitions, play props and costumes. We will start our new unit “Creepy Crawlies” after the play. 

Reader’s Workshop:

This week we reviewed SWAT and Roll, Say, Keep. We also played a new game called: “Write it Quick.” The teacher calls a letter or word and the student has to write it as quickly as they can with chalk on their mini chalkboard. We are still getting through marvelous me as well. Last week we noticed that William’s name had “Liam” at the end and “Will” at the beginning, just like two of our classmates! This was so cool. We have about 8 children left.

Writer's Workshop:
This week we worked on exploring different types of books. We discussed the different ways that paper can be stapled to create different books (longer, shorter, vertical, horizontal etc.) We also worked on two handwriting letters. We worked on K and L.

Math Workshop:
This week we got to count our collections from home! If your child did not bring one, it's no worries. We had objects from the classroom to count! We had so much fun counting all the objects from home. We also played a new game called "Change It." We played this whole group. The teacher would call out a number and everyone would count that many objects out and place it in front of them. Then the teacher would say change it to 6 (or whatever number she decided) and then everyone would have to add or subtract objects to get that number. It was so fun because we played with different objects from around the room. The math tubs were the same except we added "Gone Fishing" to one tub and removed Roll and Record. 

Science:

Ms. Leslie noticed that the sign up genius was empty for Sci Fri last week so she came again! She did the Big Bad Wolf science experiment. Children were grouped in twos and threes and they had to build a house out of a certain material. We tried sugar cubes, legos, toothpicks and marshmallows, unifix cubes, dominos, pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks. Each team faced the "big bad wolf" (a hair dryer) to see which material held up the best. We cannot wait to see what Ms. Mary Lee has planned for this Friday! Our troll grass heads are really growing too!

Please don't forget to send in a pumpkin or two for dramatic play! The kids love weighing and measuring the pumpkins. They like to pretend it's a real pumpkin patch!

Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Schultz