Fish Tales 10/24 ~ 10/28

Mrs. McIvor does so much to enhance the children's learning. This is a video of the "Billy Billy," which incorporates singing, dancing, and following directions with a partner!

 

We decorated paper pumpkins and turned them into jack-o-lanterns by gluing eyes, a nose, and mouth using a variety of shapes to represent each. Some of the children added ears, eyebrows, or legs.

 Carving our class pumpkin was lots of fun! The children chose the shapes for the eyes, nose and mouth. Mrs. Samuel carved the pumpkin. Then we scooped out the pulp and the seeds. We heard words as "gooey, slimy, wet, and squishy" as they reached their hands into the jack-o-lantern.

At circle on Wednesday, we did our first morning greeting. The children were given a shape. A child with the matching shape stepped into the middle of the rug to greet the first child by saying "hello" and giving a hug! This reinforces good manners, looking into the eyes of a friend as you speak, and sharing love!

We created Halloween necklaces by stringing beads and adding a felt pumpkin.

On Thursday, Mrs. Smay read Anancy and the Haunted House by Richardo 

Keens-Douglas

This is a delightful story about teamwork and the importance of us all, no matter how big or how small we are.

 Some of the other books that we read this week are:

Happy Halloween Biscuit by Alyssa Capucilli

A B C's of Halloween by Patricia Eubank

Corduroy's Halloween by Don Freeman

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

Things With Wings by Carson Creigh

The Selfish Crocodile by Faustin Charles

We took time before the Halloween Parade on Friday to pose for pictures!

We watched the parade of lower division students before we joined them.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

Wednesday November 2 - Parent Chat with Mrs. Gootson SAC - 8:15

Friday November 4 - Exploring - 10:00

Friday November 11 - Poetry in the Park - 8:30

Monday November 14 - Field Trip to Publix

Friday November 18 - Exploring 9:45 - Feast 11:00

Fish Tales 10/17 ~ 10/21

We began the week by talking about our costumes for Halloween. Each of the children held the jack-o-lantern bean bag and stated a sentence about their costume. Then they got to choose who they would hand it to next.

Ms. O'Mullane's second graders came to our classroom for Buddy Reading! What is Buddy reading? The second graders pair up with an Alpha student and read a a picture book to them. It is an opportunity for the young child to get to know some of the older students and further build community. Each month we will do a different activity with Ms. O'Mullane's class!

At center time, we created Halloween pictures by drawing with a white crayon on black paper. Adding foam stickers was the next step of this project and then the children dictated their stories to Mrs. Samuel. This project gave the children an opportunity to practice creating representational drawing and also gave them a chance to practice their fine motor coordination by having to peel the white backing from the sticker shapes. They are hanging up in the classroom. Please make sure you take time to look at them when you are visiting the classroom after the Halloween Parade on Friday.

Thanks for helping your child choose items for sharing that reinforce our themes. We had the best time counting the 8 legs of these gigantic spider. When children play with these creatures, it makes them less scary.

Mr. Williams was our mystery reader on Thursday. He "read' two books using the I-pad. The first book was What Was I Scared Of? by Dr. Seuss and the next was Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk

Some of the other books that we read this week included:

Night is Coming by W. Nikolalisa

No Room on the Broom

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon

365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental

It's Pumpkin Time by Zoe Hall

How Spider Saved Halloween by Robert Kraus

One of my favorite activities is listening to Mrs. Gootson read to your children. She makes a book come alive! In this photo she was finishing How Spider Saved Halloween.

Mrs. Samuel was missing? No, she spent the first hour of Friday morning honoring Mr. Hank for his 39 years with the postal system.

Our themes for exploring were bats, spiders, and Halloween. We made a drink using "ghost" milk  and spider juice (orange sherbet). Mixing it in the blender made a yummy treat to go along with orange/anaranjado and black/negro cookies. We walked over and under a spider web and decorated bats by doing "rock and roll" painting. Mrs. McIvor was the leader of the dance room where the regular lights were turned off and we moved on the rug to the glow of the orange Halloween lights.

We finished this spectacular day by attending the student dedication of the new Athletic center. We made a book to go into the time capsule and had so much fun celebrating this new facility. If you have not had the pleasure, please schedule a tour with Mrs. Gootson.

Help!! We are collecting oatmeal, pringle, and coffee containers for our Thanksgiving exploring on November 4th. We will be making drums. You may send them in at any time before that day. Thanks!

Fish Tales 10/11 ~ 10/14

We started the week by gluing ovals onto a large oval! We encourage the children to glue with control using "little dots of glue, whoo!"

On Wednesday, Mr. Dan from Animal House visited and brought some of his favorite pets. The creatures included a boa constrictor, a ferret, a guinea pig, and a rex rabbit. The children delighted in touching these interesting animals.

The boa constrictor is cold blooded and has a scaly skin.

 

The ferret has warm blood, fur, and can make his body very flat.

 

The guinea pig has fur, is warm blooded, and makes a wonderful pet!

 The rabbit has fur and he was shedding his summer coat and a thicker winter coat was growing in.

We created a spider by stapling two ovals together. We tore black paper to create eight legs. Tearing is a pre-scissor skill and helps the children work their hands and fingers in opposition.

We glued on googly eyes or sticker eyes.

And we stapled the legs onto the abdomen of the spider. We counted how many legs we had stapled in English and in Spanish.

The children named their spiders and told the teachers what they were doing.
They are hanging in the classroom!

Tearing paper and gluing it to a banner was an exploratorium activity this past week. The teachers cut this paper to a create a tree for the classroom bulletin board.

On Thursday, Upper Division students from the Universal Language club read Gus Gets Scared by Frank Remkiewicz and a non-fiction book, Bat by Deborah Gibson to us in the library.

Play dough was a center time activity. One of the children created a spider and counted the number of legs he had added.

Building with tree blocks, spiders, and snakes was an activity in the exploratorium. 

We visited Nurse Confident in her office on Thursday. 

 At center time on Thursday, we played the Snail Game with one of the Dads.