From One Theme to Another.....

Busy, busy, busy sums up this week! Miss Heifner has taken over her role as the lead teacher. Mrs. Waller continues to plan lessons and Miss Fate is working hard to get us ready for our next theme! We have really benefited from having three teachers in the classroom, especially at the beginning of the year when it is so busy for us. 

READING! READING! READING!





Illustrating our flap book!

We have continued to learn so much during Integrated Language Arts (center time).  The children are now working in two guided centers and two independent centers and have done a great job adjusting to this. Miss Heifner introduced compound words and she has continued to build words as they do word work.  They have also worked to expand their knowledge on odd and even numbers, and Miss Heifner has guided the children through math worksheets which encourage the children to use their problem solving abilities and logical reasoning.



Mrs. Waller introduced how to identify the beginning, middle and end of a story with the book, The Gigantic Turnip.  The children created their first flap book as they illustrated the beginning, middle and end of the story on each page of the book. Be looking for these at conference time.  We continue also to work on our guided reading and writing this week as well.  Take a look at the pictures below:

Connor helps Mrs. Waller tell our story....



They all worked together to pull the gigantic turnip out of the ground!

Miss Heifner and Mrs. Waller have introduced doubles to the children in Math this week (1+1=2, 2+2=4, etc.) and we have had a blast. The children have been singing their Doubles RAP, they have moved their bodies to represent doubles, and have written equations on their dry erase boards. We have also rolled large dice to review and help us memorize our facts. They also created their own doubles/neighbors equations using stickers.  We know some of the doubles are easy for the students; however, now we are teaching them how to use their doubles and their neighbors to help them become quicker with their mental math.  We will be having a doubles test in a few weeks. A note came home Thursday with your child. 

Miss Heifner introduces our DOUBLES RAP!

Caroline rolls the die!

Below the students work in two of their independent centers. They are busy listening to Officer Buckle and Gloria and creating their very own community:

In Social Studies, Mrs. Waller used The Gigantic Turnip story to discuss the concepts of problem/solution and how we have to work together at times to discover solutions to our GIGANTIC problems. Together as a class we brainstormed a list of problems that we need to work on as a class, we voted and came up with the following problem: We talk while the teacher is teaching.  Then we came up with a great list of solutions to this problem and discussed how we need to work together to help solve this problem. Come and see our Gigantic Classroom Turnip....it is on display in our classroom.

Our classroom TURNIP (Problem) and our solutions!

Miss Heifner prepared a great lesson on needs and wants for the children. As a class they discussed how food, shelter, and clothing are essential needs for  survival. They also brainstormed some of our wants (e.g. a hamster, Lego's, Video games) which involve the things you would buy after our essential needs. Miss Heifner engaged students in a Needs/Wants flashcard activity by prompting pictures of various needs and wants. The students extended their learning by cutting out images in magazines that displayed various needs and wants and putting them in correct columns. Miss Heifner also continued our theme, "Myself, Others and a Caring Community"  by having students present their family collages to the class. Both teachers and students are enjoying getting to know more about everyone in the class.

On Wednesday the children met their buddies and showed them around the room. We have such a great bunch of kids. Everyone was so excited to sit with each other at Friday's Chapel.


OUR BUDDIES!

For TNT, the students created their neighborhood street out of construction paper and a brown paper bag. They had a great time! The pictures prove it:

The Final Product!

On Friday we celebrated the ending of our theme, Myself, Others and A Caring Community.   We had such a great time, please take a look at the pictures below! A special thank you goes to the room mothers who helped organize the treats and drinks for our celebration. Thank you Courtney for the delicious cookies and Lina for the wonderful drinks! The children had such a great time.

REMINDERS:
1. Our first Spelling Test will be next Friday, Oct. 7th
Spelling Words: no, is, can, me, you, and, he, at, so, on
Challenge Words: bear, planet, doubles, October
Surprise the teacher word: (??????? this is your choice)
2. PET BLESSING Friday, Oct. 7th
3. Class field trip to the Pumpkin Patch Tuesday, Oct. 11th
4. We will say goodbye to Miss Heifner Friday, Oct. 14th
5. The buddy run is on Friday, Oct. 14th
6. Doubles test is coming up on Thursday,  Oct. 20th

****Your child may bring their favorite teddy bear to school on Monday!

We look forward to the start of our exciting BEAR theme. It is one of our favorites....you may now start to look forward to the first grade production of BEAR PLANET, as we transform your children into bears and they take you on a trip around the world.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Love,
Mrs. Waller, Miss Fate and Miss Heifner