Bears All Around the World! Miss Fate and Mrs. Waller's Class....

We have introduced our new theme, Bears All Around the World! We are so excited to start this journey with your children. In Social Studies the children have started introducing their teddy bears to the class. This has been a great activity for the kids as they become more comfortable speaking in front of their peers. Plus, Miss Fate and Mrs. Waller have enjoyed getting to hear their creative stories. We started a K-W-L (what they know, what they want to know and what the have learned about bears) chart and will complete it at the end of the unit. Monday we spent time learning about Christopher Columbus and his adventures. We looked at and explored several books and were able to fit in one video to extend their knowledge.

In Language Arts, we continue with our guided reading groups. Your children are all excellent readers and are growing quickly. We have already, this week, been able to move students around and switch up our groups to better meet every students' needs. This is so exciting! Mrs. Waller introduced the "reading phones", which are simply two pieces of PVC piping from Home Depot. These phones allow the children to listen to themselves as they read independently in our groups. They loved this tool. We will continue to use them throughout the year. The children have been reviewing their opposites, as well as contractions. Miss Fate continued working with them in their phonics and grammar books...a quote from Gibbs Morris: "I love working in my grammar book, because it helps me learn!"

In Math we introduced the concept of "greater than" and "less than". They used signs to demonstrate their knowledge and played a game with dice to expand their knowledge. We continue to work on deepening their understanding of odd and even numbers. Both concepts were supported by work on the computer as well.

We had our first spelling test last week and it went extremely well! We support their learning in centers throughout the week. This week, the children used magnetic boards to spell their words with magnetic letters. They loved this which was apparent by evidence of the quiet room! We had our second test today and we sent home the spelling packets for next week. Thank you for your support in this endeavor. Between our exercises in class and your work at home, the children should continue to do very well on their spelling tests! You can also visit http://www.spellingcity.com/, type in their spelling words and have fun exploring their activities. It is really great!

In Hands on Science with Miss Fate the kids made predictions about how many bites it would take to finish their Polar ice Cream bar. In the end, they ate their way to the exact answer! Reginae and Ella both stated: "This is the best science lesson ever!" In Hands On Science today, the kids took part in "Polar Solar Power". They learned more about the Polar Bear and how its black skin helps to keep it warm. They placed an ice cube on a piece of black paper and one on a piece of white paper and predicted which one would melt first. They had a blast!

Wednesday for TNT and in preparation for pet blessing, Pets for Life came to visit. Seven members came and brought their dogs, who visit various institutions such as hospitals, schools and nursing homes to brighten the days of their members. They certainly brought a smile to our faces! Thank you to all the parents who came to help us with this event.

Thursday was Rock-n-roll day. To support St. Paul's auction, it was optional for students and teachers to dress up like rock stars. Both teachers and students had fun with this! Check out our pictures!

Friday was the pet blessing and your children had such a good time. Real or stuffed, we enjoyed our time with our pets. We have a great live video we took of the kids with stuffed animals. We are in the process of figuring out how to upload it to the blog. We are consulting with our computer tech and we will hopefully have it up on the blog next week! Thank you for sharing a part of your home with us.

Reminders:

1. October 21: Doubles Test

2. October 22: Landon's going away party

3. October 22: turn in pumpkin patch permission slips and your conference questionnaire are due!

4. October 26: Pumpkin Patch field trip

5. October 27: Halloween Ball, 9 am after chapel, *this is a student only event!

6. October 28/29: Parent/teacher conferences

Thanks for your support and positive feedback. We really appreciate it!!!

~Miss Fate & Mrs. Waller~

In Science