Blogging Bears

 We have started learning and singing our bear songs.  You might hear your child practicing these at home.  This is to prepare for our Bear Planet Play.  Mrs. Waller practiced with the cast of characters during centertime this week.  The children were introduced to the script and they loved practicing their parts.  

Practicing our lines...

Summarizing the story

Beginning, Middle & End

Miss Fate continued working on guided reading and making predictions with the children.  We used a long piece of yarn to summarize the beginning, middle and end of the story.  Each child had a chance to retell a different story sequentially.

Guided Reading

Math--Sorting & Graphing our Bears

A favorite thing we do each year is interview our teddy bears. The bears give the students a fun filled look at the lives of our furry friends.

Finger Puppets are FUN!!!

Independent centers this week consisted of making get well cards for Lucas since he had his appendix taken out. We really missed him!  We enjoyed learning about how brave he was and seeing all of his pictures. We thought it was really neat that he shared his scary experience with us.  We also made some bear finger puppets and practiced matching "opposites" on bear cards with a partner.  The new word we learned was idle.  The children worked in their grammar books independently along with practicing their spelling words.  

Pictionary
Mrs. Waller continued working on verbs, nouns and adjectives by playing a Pictionary game out in the commons with the kids.  We have some true artists in here.

We love Writing!!!

Miss Fate continued to teach the children how to write a Halloween story. They used the beginning, middle and end of a cat to help them separate their ideas. You won't believe your child's 1st story... but, you will have to wait until conferences. It is Spooktacular!!! :)

In Math, Miss Fate assessed the children in skip counting & writing their numbers up to 100.  We are preparing for  conferences.  The children aced their first Doubles Math Test!!! Mrs. Waller lead the children in some Bear Logic math problems.  These are tough we will admit!!!  The kids all said, "These are really fun!"


We have started our "Bear Expedition" in Social Studies. The students have been exploring, investigating, analyzing and discussing the similarities and differences among bear species, bear habitats, how and why bears hibernate and bear behavior. The children are learning about black bears, polar bears, Kodiaks, brown bears, Alaskan brown bears, grizzly, sloth, sun, spectacled, Giant panda bears and many more.

7th Grade Buddies

In Science.....We had a special treat this week we had two 7th Graders come down and  teach the kids a lesson all about Polar Bears. The children thought it was really cool that their buddies were teaching the lesson to them.

Rehearsal Practice

Unfortunately.....

Our 1st Grade Music performance was awesome! Thanks so much to Mrs. Haskamp and all her hard work! The children did a great job!!!

Mrs. Linn (former first grade teacher) came in and told a scary Halloween story to the children.  They were so quiet you couldn't even hear a pin drop.  What a wonderful surprise!!!

SCARY Story told by Delores Linn...

Computer Lab this week the children played on the website: www.funbrain.com  The children played any of the math games under the math section.

Hands on Science with Mrs. Waller & Miss Lorfing was so cool.  As a follow-up to our study of the planets, the children got to create their very own planetarium in Hands-on Science. We (finally) used our cereal boxes for each child to create their very own constellation. Once this was complete we ventured over to the north MPR with our flashlights, we turned off all the lights and observed as the constellations appeared on the wall of the dark MPR! We had a blast. Thank you for sending in you cereal boxed!  Thanks to Mrs. Boulware & Mrs. Newgent for helping prepare all the boxes!

We had our third spelling test this week and it went extremely well! Thank you for your support in the spelling endeavor. Between our exercises in class and your work at home, the children should continue to do very well on their spelling tests! 
***They are coming home graded today and from now on.  Just a reminder: O=Outstanding 
S=Satisfactory 
N=Needs Improvement 

We are starting off with two dictated sentences and then    eventually we will get to five sentences.

Spelling Words: Week #4 October 24-26, 2011
(4 spelling activities if you want to try them on the back of the spelling words coming home today)
come, day, did, eat, for, get, girl, got, had, has
Challenge: Halloween, monster, sloth, hibernate
Surprise the Teacher Word:???

Hanging out with our buddies for winning the Spirit Award up on the Soccer Field was so much FUN!!!  We ate pizza and played different games.  What a special treat!!!! Thanks to Mrs. Long for serving pizza, drinks, & cookies!!

Pizza Party

Beautiful day for a picnic...

 REMINDERS:

Lower School--*Bring in your decorated/pumpkin into school early if you want to display it for our pumpkin parade

Lower School--*Bring in a carved pumpkin if you want on Halloween

10.25.11 Vision Screening with Julie Schropp for all first graders sometime between 8:00-1:00pm & Make up Picture Day!

10.26.11--Having our Spelling Test earlier due to conferences!

10.27/10.28--Parent/Teacher Conferences--NO SCHOOL 

Halloween Ball & Halloween Parties (Wear your costume to school & bring a change of clothes if you want)

11/7 Book Fair for Fate's class @2:00-2:40pm in the Gym

11/9 Field Trip to the Folly Theater from the Cultural Arts Program starts @ 11:30 "If you Give a Moose a Muffin" show

11/17 Bear Planet Play @9:15am in the Stage MPR this is one you don't want to miss!

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