Bats, pumpkins & spiders

Up Coming Events:

Tuesday, October 31st: Parade of Fiction--Please refer to the email from the school about details. The children can dress up as a book character. Children will need to ARRIVE TO SCHOOL IN THEIR COSTUME with their book! The parade will happen inside of the school and begins at 8:45am.  Please send in a change of clothes if you feel your child may not want to wear the costume all day. Please label clothing items and send them in a bag.

November 7th: Field Trip to the Children's Theater: Please see email and sign up for details

Hi all,

Tuesday's pumpkin carving was such fun! Thank you so much for coming in and enjoying a fun afternoon. Cynthia (Bailey's mom)  and the children made amazing pumpkin muffins! The recipe is going home today. I'm trying to share a link with you so you can see all the pictures.  Hopefully, by the end of the weekend I can figure that out!

Math centers:

 



We have been focused on our numbers! We have completed the HWTs portion of learning to write numbers 1-10. We are concentrating on not writing them backwards. The children have been making groups of numbers, for example eight groups of eight which focuses on 1:1 correspondence. We learned about circumference while making observations about our pumpkins. We are also still estimating, making patterns and learning to count by 2s. We are now rolling two dice and adding up those numbers.

Reading & Writing centers:






This week, we looked at the "at" family. We talked about beginning sounds and made "at" words as well as nonsense words that rhymed with at. We circled back to rhyming with a fun bat rhyming activity. The children put together a beginning sound with the small word at and made a book. They drew and labeled a bat.  We  reviewed all the sounds and letters that went with our Marvelous me friends. We did one more activity with Liam's name. They had to fit his name on a page and then we used glue and leaves to "decorate" his name.




Science:

We learned more about pumpkins and began our unit on bats. We shared our current knowledge about bats and talked about how helpful they can be. We read some great books, Stelluna, Bats and Night Song. We learned about echolocation and the children are in love with this song! Hopefully this link will work! The children made adorable torn paper bats that are hanging in the hallway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OYmHVuguWI


A few weeks ago the children made American flags as part of a school wide effort to support our Veterans. I thought it would be nice if we included a hand written note to go with those cards. If you would like to send one in by November 1st that would be wonderful. I personally, just had my first cousin return early this month from his first tour in Afghanistan. I am very relieved he is home safe and grateful for his service!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Hazlett

Pumpkins

Tuesday October 24th --Pumpkin carving with Dad @ 1:00pm

Tuesday October 31st-- Parade of fiction @8:45 

Happy Friday! We have had a busy week! It's hard to believe that we had our first skit and then transitioned into a field trip, a new unit of study and a Fall Festival Kickball tournament!! WOW! It was wonderful sitting down with each of you and sharing about your sweet child. Thank you so much for your support. This school is a community and I have felt your appreciation and dedication as we have interacted over the last two months. We are off to a great start! I look forward to seeing the dads on 




Tuesday at 1:00 as we attempt to carve 21 pumpkins!! Go big or go home right? LOL!!! Please see the sign up for details. Each child needs to bring in a pumpkin and these can be brought in starting Monday. 

Science:

This week, we started our creepy crawly unit with the study of spiders. The children have learned quite a bit in our short week. We have compared spiders to insects. As well as learning facts like spiders can spit and zipline but they can not chew or fly. We will continue to learn more next week. We have also talked about pumpkins, how they grow and their life cycle. We will also add to this next week as Tuesday will be "all about pumpkins."


Literacy:

Liam was our Marvelous Me this week. He is the first student to have a small word in his name so we have also learned the word "am" this week. We tried a new activity where the students used special push pins to stick holes in the letters of Liam's name. This was a supervised fine motor activity and the children did a great job! They created a fun book called Spiders can.....Spiders can not....They then drew pictures and tried to write the words of what they could and could not do. They made cvc words, matched rhyming pictures and upper and lower case letters as well during centers. We made salt decorated pumpkins and created a yarn spider web. 

 

Math:

We continued with patterns and grouping sets of eight this week. We learned that spiders start their web with a triangular shape then move out in a circular shape. The children recreated this with Geo-boards and rubber bands. We used  ten frames to make the numbers 8 and 18, we practiced writing the numbers in our handwriting book and counting up to 18. They estimated and worked on positional words. As a representation of learning eight the students enjoyed making an Oreo cookie spider with eight legs and eight eyes. 

  





Field Trip:

 


A long drive but the children had a great time! They learned about corn and how it's in a lot of strange products, took a tractor ride, went down a cool slide and played in a Fooze ball pit. Some of us braved the big corn maze and the children even saw a phone that had a cord and a rotary dial! They sat in a train car that was over 150 years old, fed sheep and picked a pumpkin and some even had their first bus ride!

Thank you for sending in your coins for our fundraiser to build an athletic complex! Keep sending them in!

Have a great weekend!!

Mrs. Hazlett

Fairy Tale skit

Hello parents,

I hope all of you have had a wonderful week! We have had a good week of math fun and play practice. We had a surprise visit from Mrs. Schultz and baby Cooper. They walked to the park with us! I appreciate all of your support this week with volunteering! I look forward to sitting down with each of you next week to discuss your child's progress. If you have not signed up for a conference time please do so at your earliest convenience.

Wednesday October 11th at 11-- Fairy Tale Play
Thursday and Friday October 12 & 13th-- No school/teacher conferences
Wednesday October 18th-- Aw Shucks Farm
Thursday October 19th --CSD Kickball tournament
Tuesday October 24th --Pumpkin carving with Dad
Tuesday October 31st-- Parade of fiction

A note about the kickball tournament.... written from a 3rd grade parent.

If you're new to the school or weren't able to attend last year, this is a great event!  In addition to the kickball tournament itself, there are lots of games for the kids, food trucks, and live entertainment.  It's a wonderful opportunity for the whole CSD community to come together.   Admission is a suggested donation of $5/person, and it is recommended to buy your tickets in advance (at the website link below).

The school needs your help & participation!!  All of the sign ups, including tickets for the tournament, are available on the Kickball Tournament Website   

So how can you help?

1. Sign up to play on the Kindergarten parent team. A full team is 12 (6 men & 6 women) and we need at least 10 to play.  Cost is $30 and includes your entry into the festival and a t-shirt.  Please note, t-shirts will be ordered this week, so sign up before this Wednesday (October 4th) if you want to make sure you have the right size!!  The first game doesn't start until 5:30, so you can sign up to play and still have some time to enjoy the festival with your kids first.

New news about the Field trip. 
In addition to what I posted on the sign up, I also know that we will leave the school promptly at 8:15. There is a $8.50 entry fee for the chaperones and our tour is from 10am-1pm.

Our Fairy Tale skit is next Wednesday at 11:00!!!! We hope you can join us for refreshments afterwards. 

Now for our fun week:

Literacy:

Our Marvelous Me this week was Lydia. We enjoy learning her name and comparing it to the two other names we have learned. 

 

We tried a new spelling activity with Lydia's name. This week, we really focused on learning that big line, little line, big curve and little curve make all the letters. I traced the shapes and then the students had to use them to make the letters of Lydia's name. This really challenged them from a spatial standpoint to fit all her letters on one page. We worked on the correct formation of numbers 4, 5 & 6.
During one of my most favorite activities, the students changed a story component of one of our fairy tales. For example, they might change setting, character or the beginning, middle or end of the story. Each child then sat in the author's chair and re-told their "new" story! So exciting! Each week, we work on recognizing letters, matching upper and lower case letters and even reading some cvc words.

Math Centers:

This week, we worked on patterns. We learned about AB and ABB patterns. Our calendar is reflecting a pattern and we used different math manipulatives to create our own patterns. We really enjoyed these activities.

I also want to include each week a few ways for you to ask your child about his/her day.

1. Who are three people you talked to day?
2. What made you laugh today?
3.  Tell me something you did outside today.

I greatly appreciate your support and hope you all have a great weekend.

Mrs. Hazlett