Reminder

Wednesday 10/30  4:30 - 6:30pm:  TRUNK OR TREAT

Thursday 10/31  1:30pm: Halloween Parade 

Our classroom is screaming: "It is October"!!

The children and I have been engaging in fun and not too scary educational activities during the last two weeks.  

We started with the story  "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything" by Linda Williams.  In this just-spooky-enough tale, an old lady puts to good use some animated objects that are trying to frighten her. Through this delightfully fun story the children worked on their predicting and sequencing skills, as well as learning about the literary technique of using sound words (onomatopoeia) to make stories more appealing: The boots go "CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP", the shirt goes, "SHAKE SHAKE". Our reading lead us further into our discussion of scarecrows and compound words. We ended our week by creating our very own "scare+crow" and wrote about what it might scare away?

 

This week we listened to Stellaluna by Janell Cannon.  It is an adorable book about a lost little bat who learns a big lesson about friendship. Through this friendship he learns (& so do we) how he (bat) and his new friends (birds) are similar and how they are different. Together we made a chart about all the things we knew and learned about bats. To further satisfy our curiosity about these nocturnal creatures we read more books, watched videos, and went on an excursion with the Magic School Bus in Going Batty. With all this b-a-t talk this week, we went batty with our rhyming skills. We played a rhyming game from Starfall on the Smart Board and then displayed some of the -at word family words on bats and hung them in the haunted hall. The children were introduced to the vowels by singing along to Vowel Bat....always a kindergarten favorite. We concluded our fascinating study about bats by somewhat independently writing our very first nonfiction book in writer's workshop; All About Bats. We beautifully depicted bats in the night sky through sponge painting, to accompany our books and are proudly displaying our work in the classroom.

 

Next up is spiders and everything Halloween!

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere....in our classroom that is!!  

This week our letter and sight words were "P",  "and" &  "orange".  And with the season being Fall and Halloween drawing near, pumpkins were the perfect way to reinforce our new letter/sound and sight words. The children loved digging in and discovering all they could about pumpkins with their tablemates. We read and wrote about the lifecycle of a pumpkin, and the children eagerly used their 5 senses to investigate their very own specimens. It was messy and fabulous....and a sneaky way to reinforce our math, reading, writing, and science skills (but don't tell the children).

 

Listening Center

 

 

Word Work

 

 

 

Math with Ms. Morris: Graphs & Patterns

 

 

 

 

Pete the Cat Week

 

I have not yet met a child, or adult, who doesn't enjoy James Dean's stories about Pete the Cat. Last week the children & I read, listened to, and watched many of Pete's adventures; each of which has it's own catchy tune. The children & I were happily singing Pete's songs all week long. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes was a fun way to learn our color words and to understand the relationship between cause and effect. Pete the Cat: Rocking My School Shoes helped us to appreciate our school and classroom. Pete the Cat: The Wheels on the Bus was a great introduction to onomatopoeia (sound words). Finally, as we counted down with Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, we saw what "one less" button could eventually lead too. The children and I concluded our week movin' and groovin' and singing Pete's songs as we made our very own Pete the Cat craft. We even added Pete the Cat to our menagerie of "classroom pets".

 

 

 

 

Letter, Word or Sentence Sort:

 

 

 

Color and Sight word readers:

 

 

 

Fun Friday Pete the Cat craft: