Whoa! It was a little crazy today. Nurse Connie came in this morning for a lesson on proper hand washing. We had a fire drill when we were at recess. We couldn't hear an alarm, but noticed any classes coming out and had to quickly get into our line. At morning center time, we went to Mrs. Eliason's room to watch their pumpkin play.

Our story after lunch was a Skippyjon Jones book, which the kids loved!! They clapped and laughed so loudly that they really didn't hear the entire book. For math, we learned about ordinal numbers. We learned that the way we turned the chairs determined which was first and which was last. Instead of writing today, students read their letter S books to 3 friends and got their autographs.

At the end of the day, I gave students some light-up bracelets, which they can wear while they are trick-or-treating. Have a happy Halloween and I'll see you next week!

I shouldn't wait until the evening to post what we did in class today--I can't remember!!! We welcomed Angelena and showed her the ropes. We read some familiar stories, including Bad Dog Marley and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and identified the characters.

The building lost power for about 40 minutes after lunch. We remained calm, opened the blinds and kept working. The students handled it very well. In math, students cut apart some number cards (0-11). I asked them to line up the numbers 0-5 in proper order and then I gave them cubes and asked them to count out the correct number of cubes and stack them above each number. After a quick demonstration of what I wanted, everyone was able to do this. Students were able to identify the stair step effect of adding one cube to each stack.

We started the day by re-reading Eric Carle's book The Very Busy Spider. Students enjoyed making the animal noises as I read. We completed a worksheet in which students had to tell whether or not the animal sound matched the animal. Students also showed me how much they comprehended from the story by illustrating what the spider did.

We made Halloween silhouettes, which are currently hanging in the hallway, but will be sent home on Friday. We started by painting a spooky sunset, and then traced, cut out, and glued a character or two. Students could choose a ghost, bat, or spooky cat. They turned out really cute!

At story time, I picked out some one's library book, Dinosaur Hunt. We talked about why people hunt and that "hunt" can also mean something other than killing for food, such as rock hunting, which just means finding rocks. The book mentioned that the story was set in Texas, 115 million years ago, which led to getting out the globe to find Texas, which led to finding all kinds of other places, etc. We had quite the discussion!

Today we re-read and practiced the signs for "Five Little Pumpkins." Your child should have brought home a book of their own so that they can continue to read it to themselves. Students came to the easel to put highlighter tape on the letter S in a poem, then we used the interactive whiteboard to circle pictures that begin with S.

Students received a special journal today, with several journal topics on the cover. Today, they wrote, "I know it is Fall because..." I loved the response, "because the trees are naked." In math, students were given an index card with a number 1-30 on it. We tried to line up the numbers in proper order on the floor, then we read them all. We need lots of work on number recognition for the teens.

Students are getting much better at working independently at their centers, which gave me time to test several students. I must have all the testing done by Friday so I can prepare their report cards and get ready for conferences. Next week, when all the testing is complete, I will start a reading group for those who are ready.

We will be getting a new student tomorrow morning. Her name is Angelena and she is coming to us from Crow Agency. I can't wait to meet her!

We had a fun day learning how to finger knit. We sent home what the students finished in class today. They were just starting to get the hang of it after an hour, but we had to go out for recess. Brownie gave each student a ball of yarn to keep, so they can continue practicing at home. The link for the how-to video is on the Oct. 26 newsletter (see the class web site). Thanks so much to Brownie Green and Mindy Bach for helping!!

The number poem sheet I sent home is for your reference, parents. I thought it would be helpful for you to know the way number formation is taught in class. Book order forms went out. Online ordering has been set up or you may turn in the paper form and cash by Nov. 3.

If your child won't eat dinner tonight, it's probably my fault. At the end of the day, we had apple cider, apple pie, and our "applesauce" (I put that in quotes because I didn't have a masher--it was just chunks of apple). We began the day by peeling apples. As the rest of the class read My Rr Book to 3 classmates, 2 students went to the reading table to peel an apple. We took turns until everyone had a chance to peel at least one apple.

After lunch. students made food prints. Each table was set up with paints and a different food (apples, broccoli, potatoes, celery/carrots). Students rotated from table to table to make prints of each food. We watched the DVD Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type (Mrs. Swan used this book for a lesson on Wednesday). It is rather timely as I have recently added a typewriter center, so the students are learning how to use a manual typewriter.

Monday is the first day of Red Ribbon week. In your Monday envelope, you'll receive a list of what to wear each day, but I thought I'd let you know that Monday is wear a lei day, to remember to lay off drugs. Tuesday is the first day of sign language club. The younger group will meet in my classroom. The students who get out later, the older group, will meet in the gym. Have a great weekend!

What a busy day---but a good one! Again, no one pulled a card! After a fun music class, we tasted red, green and yellow apples. Later in the day, we graphed our preferences. It turned out that no one prefers yellow apples. Green are the class favorite, with red close behind.

We read Ten Apples Up On Top and students took turns trying to balance apples on their heads. We didn't have any luck with that, but we used the idea to create a class book. Each page has a photo of a student with apples stacked on their head (students drew numbers to determine how many they would put above their picture).

This afternoon Mrs. McSweyn, the school counselor, was here for the personal safety presentation. Students learned the touching rule. A handout went home for your review. Tomorrow we will have centers early so that students can take turns peeling apples for our applesauce. Yum!

Thanks for your quick response to my plea for snacks. The students appreciate it!

You would not believe how clean our room is! Your children are the best cleaners ever. I get so many comments from other teachers about how clean my room is at the end of the day, and it is the students doing all of the work. NO ONE PULLED A CARD TODAY!!!!

Anna brought some awesome birthday treats to share with the class for her VIP week. We read the book, My Red Bike. Students circled the word "red" on each page and then colored their book. Some were even able to read the book to me! We added a label to the plastic skeleton on the wall. Now we know where his head and shoulders are. (I think I know where they're going with this--head, shoulders, knees and toes!)

We read two more Eric Carle books and continued to work on our Eric Carle-inspired art project. Rather than painting a whole lot of papers, we used printed scrap booking paper to cut out animal shapes. We'll use the scraps to fill in other details.

Did anyone order from our last book order and not get your books? I talked to the mother of a student who said she did not place an order, yet her child came home with 3 books. I think what happened is that someone handed me their order form during the morning rush. The form probably had no name on top and they probably handed me cash, so as I was trying to remember who handed me items, I wrote this child's name on the form. Please contact me if you are missing some books.

Yesterday, I met with a community member who is part of a knitting ministry. She has agreed to come into out classroom on Monday afternoon, along with Madeline's mom, to teach the students to knit. I practiced finger knitting last night and made a long, thin scarf in less than an hour. I wore it to school today to see what the kids thought of the whole idea. They were excited about learning to knit. I'm hoping that they will love it so much that it will become a free time activity.

After learning about nouns this morning, students scattered around the room to find "things." They brought the items back to the rug and used a complete sentence to tell what they found. Next. students went to different "places" around the room and used complete sentences to tell where they were ("at the green table").

We read two more Eric Carle books today, The Lonely Firefly and 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo. We compared and contrasted the characters and setting. We looked carefully at the illustrations and watched a short video about Eric Carle's creations process, and began a similar process. We painted tissue paper in solid colors. Tomorrow we will add another color, and then we will cut and paste the painted tissue papers to create our own characters. I can't wait to see the finished product! The students had the idea to each create an animal, then combine the pages to make their own book. I love their idea!

We missed Gabriel and Mary today, who were absent. I'm still missing a few conference slips--the blue paper that tells me what time you would like to have your conference. Please return them tomorrow so I can begin to make a schedule. Please also let me know whether or not I can show your child's picture on this blog. I will not post your child's photo without your permission.

Anna shared her VIP poster with us this morning and we learned that she has a big family. We've studied each letter of the alphabet, in order, and now we're going back through the alphabet again, only this time we'll spend an entire week on each letter. We're starting with the most frequently used letters. Our letter of the week is R. We fed sound muncher and read "My Rr Book," which students will receive a copy of at the end of the week. We read Mary Wore Her Red Dress and highlighted the word "red."

Our story after lunch was the non-fiction book Living Color. It showed us animals and their colors, discussing the reasons why they are a certain color. For example, did you know that adult dragonflies are red? I had no idea! We learned that red animals are usually poisonous. We won't forget the name of one of the dangerous sea creatures because it shares a classmate's name--the Stonefish!

We began an author study of Eric Carle by reading his book Rooster's Off to See the World. The book is fun because Rooster sets off on an adventure and picks up his animal friends along the way. We noticed lots of patterns in the numbers. For math journals, students wrote the numbers 1, 2, 3 and drew the corresponding number of flowers beside the number.

Studies have shown that knowing how children hear what is said and feel about it is as important as what we actually say. Therefore, in order to help me teach your child, will you please take this personality test, answering the questions about your child or having them help you with the answers? You can email me their personality type or comment on this blog. The adult test is a little different, but I discovered that I am a ISFP, with feeling as my primary way of dealing with others. http://www.personalitypage.com/cgi-local/build_pqk.cgi

I won't log on to my computer tomorrow, so I'm sending birthday wishes to Anna a day early. Have a great day, sweetie!

It sure is nice to be loved. I was welcomed back today with open arms! I'm happy to be feeling well enough to be back at school again. Your child should have come home today with a paper sack containing sight words to practice nightly. The bag should contain the following word cards: am, blue, can, end, go, hi, like, me, no, on, red, the.

Please don't forget that there's no school tomorrow or Friday. I'll see you again on Monday. Have a great rest of the week and a wonderful weekend.

I am sick with fever and a cough and was not at school today, therefore I have nothing to report. Perhaps some of you will post comments, updating me on what you heard from your child. If my fever goes away, I'll be back tomorrow.

This morning we had vision screening in the library. Students were very well behaved and did a great job. Mrs. Swan taught a science lesson on Fall leaves and taught students to classify leaves by color, type of leaf, and by size. Students colored their own leaves and tree and independently classified leaves.

We read The Colors of My World at story time. The story was told in English and in Spanish. I did my best to recall 2 years of high school Spanish (many years ago) to read the Spanish portion. Students learned to say colors in Spanish and at the end of the day, I called students to get their backpacks by saying their table color in Spanish. They are tri-lingual, at least with colors--English, Spanish, and American Sign Language!

We had 6th grade visitors this afternoon. They read the book Diary of a Worm and then shared with us stories they had written based on the book. Their stories were imaginative, but many of the jokes were over our heads.

Today we re-read Cat's Colors about a cat whose favorite color is orange because that's the color of his mother. We reviewed punctuation, especially the question mark and how to read a sentence that ends with one. We also read a non-fiction book about real objects and what color they are. When we saw the picture of the blackberries, it was fun to hear from the students who had personal experiences picking berries and being scratched by the bushes.

Yesterday, the class earned enough compliments for a popcorn party, but we waited to have it today so Anna could join us. We watched a Magic School Bus outerspace movie while we ate popcorn. Just as the movie ended, the bus driver arrived for our bus safety presentation and ride. We learned the safety rules for riding and then we went for a ride to Rose Park. There, we pretended to have a bus emergency and evacuated out the back of the bus. We rode back to school and had recess. Your child should have brought home a bus safety coloring book.

With all the special events, we missed afternoon centers. The change in routine mildly upset them. They will miss afternoon centers again tomorrow as we have a 6th grade class coming to share with us some stories they have written.

Tomorrow is the last day to purchase caramel apples from the 6th graders. There is a table set up just outside the lunchroom from 8 to 8:15am and just after school. I think they are selling them after our dismissal time (2:20) and at intermediate dismissal (3:10). The cost is $3 per apple. They will be delivered during school on Friday Oct. 30.

Tomorrow morning is a vision screening. Your child should have brought home a note informing you that we get out at noon next Wednesday and that there is no school next Thursday or Friday due to teacher convention.

Despite the wet weather, we had a great time on our field trip to the fire station. A special thanks to Mrs. Ross, Mrs. Dwyer, and Mrs. Swan for accompanying us. When we arrived at the station, the truck was not there--they had gotten a call earlier. However, after being there for about 10 minutes, the truck returned. We watched a fireman put on his turnout gear, including his air mask. We got to climb inside the truck and look around. Students were encouraged to talk to their families about designating a special meeting place in case of a house fire, such as the swingset or the mailbox.

We came back to school and continued with business as usual. At center time, some students had the opportunity to use the interactive whiteboard to practice writing their name. Don't worry--everyone will get a turn! We're working on writing like big kids now--not in all uppercase letters anymore.

Mrs. Swan worked with students on creating and extending patterns and on identifying which part of the pattern repeats. The more they practiced, the better they got. The students are getting really good at sounding out words on their own. It's so fun for me and so rewarding for them when they begin to put their own thoughts onto paper.

Sorry for such a late post tonight. Tomorrow, as you know, is our field trip to the fire station. Please dress your child warmly as we will be walking, no matter what the weather is. The book order was placed. Thanks for your orders! That's all for tonight. I'm going to bed now...

Thanks for dressing your child for the weather! We went out for morning and lunch recess, but the kids were so wet that we stayed in for afternoon recess and watched the movie "The Snowy Day."

In your Monday envelope there was a scarecrow picture. Please decorate it with items found around the house and return it to school so we can hang them in the hall as a decoration. For example, if you have a few spare buttons, you could glue them on for the eyes. Yarn could become hair. Use your imagination and have fun with it. It's great fun to see all the different ideas.

I updated the calendar on the class web site to include some of the upcoming events that were in the school newsletter. We worked on rhyming today, so for writer's workshop, students drew pictures of two things that rhyme and they sounded out the spelling of those two things. I will save this as a form of assessment that I will show you at conference time. Another informal assessment I did today was to have students draw a repeating pattern in their math journals and circle the part that repeats. Most were successful.

Tomorrow is library day. Please return library books tomorrow. There have been painters in the library for several days, so students may or may not be able to check out books. I know Mrs. Waples will do what she can to accommodate our class. If you have a book order, please return it tomorrow, also. Have a great evening!

Happy birthday, Mary!

Happy Friday! Mrs. Swan was here this morning and she read My Amazing Body to the students. We learned how our bodies are amazing machines and that all the different parts work together. We learned the characteristics of non-fiction books (has an index, can read it in any order, is about real things) and we remember that term by calling it "not fake."

Check your child's backpack for an amazing writing project they did today. They copied the sentence starter "I scared away the" off the board, then had to sound out the last word. They imagined that they were scarecrows and that they scared away one thing that they previously feared. For example, one student wrote, "I scared away the monster." Keep in mind that spelling isn't the main goal--listening for letter sounds is much more important at this point. I gushed about how smart they are and what wonderful writers they are.

In math, we reviewed repeating patterns and made AB pattern necklaces (or bracelets). I thought they were very patient about stringing their beads and dealt well with the frustration of the yarn coming apart.

Monday is gym day so don't forget to send your child to school in sneakers. Have a great weekend!

Students did a writing project today in which they colored a scarecrow and then labeled it by writing the color of each piece of it's clothing. Ex. "red shirt." It's so helpful that they know their letter sounds now so that they can successfully sound out words. This is a very important step!

Last night I wrote a Q2 One Class at a Time grant to get a microscope and some slides to use at centers, so wish me luck! Tonight I'm in class, thus the reason for such a short blog. Back on track tomorrow.