From one theme to the next...

Today we are celebrating our names and having a party to celebrate our theme: Myself, Others & A Caring Community coming to an end. We painted our names with symmetry and glitter. We played name games and even got to eat cookies with our own name on them! Your children's theme papers are coming home today. Make sure to go through all of them with your child and praise them for their wonderful efforts! Our new theme will be Bears Around the World...it will be starting soon.

In Social Studies we shared How I Got My Name reports. It was so interesting to learn about the names of their classmates. They are hanging above their cubbies ready for you to read. This week and next week we will be presenting our creative family collages that the parents made for their children. They look fabulous! We have some great scrapbookers in here! Come and check them out in our room sometime.

Our Language Arts Block has been super busy. We have been learning about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and compound words all week long! We have been reading in our classroom books. One group made newspaper articles, pictures and posters after the read the story "Lumpty Dumpty." They explained how he fell off of the wall with some breaking news from the Dumpty Town Newspaper. Two groups read a story "Shoe Town", then they traced their shoes and made their own shoe town houses with characters inside them. This was a follow up to the story during which all the characters tried to fit inside one shoe. The children loved tracing their shoes! Another group read the story "Cloudy Day, Sunny Day" and made a mural poster of the different things they like to do on a cloudy day and a sunny day. All of their excellent work is hanging up in our classroom for everyone to see.

Math has been a blast. We love singing our new doubles rap song. Ask your child to sing it for you. Mrs. Abio & Mr. Darnell loved it!! We have been working on doubles, shapes, geoboards, pattern blocks, additions with stickers and pairs. Soon, towards the end of October we will have a Doubles Test.

In Hands on Science last week, we did an experiment with Miss Fate & Mrs. Wiedeman using our senses. Each student had a paper towel with three different substances on them. Our test was to add vinegar to each substance and see what type of reaction happened. The three substances were: salt, baking soda, and powder starch. You can try it yourself at home or ask your child to tell you the results. We used all our senses except our sense of taste. We made observations and learned how to make a hypothesis. We observed through magnifying glasses like real scientists do!

Today, in Hands on Science with Miss Fate we played Guess My Attribute—Mystery Bags

Here was the lesson they did:
OBJECTIVES: To teach the concept of attributes or categories.
To use reasoning and common sense in solving an unknown.
DIRECTIONS:
PART 1 (outside-- 15 minutes)
1. Explain that each group stays together outside and works secretly.
2. Call each group to you and tell them what the label says on the bottom of their bag and make sure they understand.
3. They are to go to designated parts of the playground or in the grassy areas (with teacher supervision) and look for items to put in their bag according to its label.
Each group of students will have only one labeled bag.
Each group's LABEL MUST BE KEPT A SECRET from the other groups LABELS.
PART 2 (inside classroom) (15 minutes)
1. Students come in, go to their numbered, designated table and lay out all their items with spaces in between.
2. Class takes turns visiting each 9other's tables to guess what the attribute or category is.
(Tables 2,3,4,5 will visit #1 table first to guess. Then proceed in this fashion until all tables have been visited.
3. Students may ask questions at the host table but the hosts may only answer YES or NO--no commentaries. It was so much fun and we had a beautiful day for it!!!!

Computer Lab has been going really well. Today we worked on extending our knowledge on nouns and verbs. The students played Ice Cream Talk on http://www.abcya.com/ and Grammar Gorrillas on http://www.funbrain.com/. These are two great websites, check them out at home if you haven't already. Last week we created All About Me pages using Kidspiration Software. The children are doing so well in computer lab which makes Friday mornings so exciting.

Our first Spelling Packet & special note will be coming home today. It has their 1st Spelling word list in the packet. Please look for this coming home in your child's backpack today!! Start studying this weekend.

Homework:

Spelling Packet #1 Due Friday, October 8th

Study your Spelling Words

Spelling Test: Friday, October 8th.

Practice your sight words & email Miss Fate if you need a new list.

Reminder: It is a St. Paul's policy that flip flops and crocs are not aloud at school. Apparently one student was badly injured last year when they were running and tripped on a pair. Please refer to your handbook if you have any questions. Just wanted to send a reminder because we want all of our students to remain safe and avoid injuries if at all possible.

Thanks for all your positive feedback! Your children bring a smile to our face each and every day!!!

~Miss Fate & Mrs. Waller~