Each day for letter review, students echo read a predictable book (only 1 word changes per page. I read it and then they read it as I point to the words. Today, students wanted to do it on their own. I read the classic book The Runaway Bunny and a Halloween "copycat" version called The Runaway Mummy. At journal time, students thought about their own "copycat" version and wrote where their character would run. I saw an excellent one called "The Runaway Ghost," in which the ghost ran away to a graveyard. In math, we learned about number lines and how they only show some numbers--the arrows at each end mean there are more numbers in both directions. Students completed a dot-to-dot. Students played a math game similar to Candyland, in which students had to take turns, spin a spinner, and move their game piece. It quickly became clear that we need to word on cooperation. We had a little time to kill between recess and library so we played a quick game of Duck Duck Goose. Mrs. Waples gave students a preview of some of the books available at next week's book fair. Ms. Kembel made some fun treats for students that they received at the end of the day and I gave them a coupon for a free Wendy's frosty. Have a fun weekend!

No Halloween Costumes!!

In case you were wondering, students are not allowed to wear Halloween costumes to school--school policy. If your child is wearing a costume, you will have to bring them a change of clothes. Thank you.

This morning Ms. Kembel taught a math lesson on graphing. She gave each student a cup of candies from a pot of "Witch's Stew" that they put on a bar graph. We reviewed the letter Yy, learned some new vocabulary words, and played the game BANG. After lunch, Ms. Kembel read Diary of a Spider to the class. For writer's workshop, students wrote a list of the ingredients in Witch's Stew. We made a torn paper pumpkin craft. In the afternoon, we went to Mrs. Paulson's room to watch the first graders perform a pumpkin play.

Oh my gosh are the pumpkins cute! I will post a slide show of all of them later tonight, when I get to my home PC. In sign language, we learned the signs for a poem called "Trick or Treat" that will go into the poetry binders. Students practiced showing nine and ten counters in a 10-frame and practiced writing the numbers nine and ten. We read the Ww book and brainstormed words that begin with W. We did a new activity today in which students had to identify what part of the word a letter sound occurred--beginning, middle, or end (the /t/ in bat is at the end). I thought they did very well with it! Students who turned in disguised pumpkins filled out a form today that said, "I am not a pumpkin, can't you see? I am a _____ so don't carve me!" I put the forms beside their pumpkins in the hall. Riley was the musical chairs champion. Yay, Riley!

As we begin to have cold weather, just a reminder to dress your child for the weather. We WILL go out for 3 recesses each day unless it is raining or the temperature drops below zero. If your child has lost a coat, there is quite a collection of unclaimed coats in the gym, hanging below the stage. If they are not claimed by the end of the month, they go to the rescue mission.

Today we received a few "disguised" pumpkins and are they ever CUTE! They will be displayed in the hall until Friday, when I will send them home. If your child has an especially heavy pumpkin, you might want to help them carry it home on Friday or make arrangements to pick it up another time. We read the book Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews. Students had to cut out 10 black dots to create a picture similar to what the author did. After reading Dinner at Panda Palace, students imagined that they had their own restaurant and drew foods that they might serve and labeled the pictures. We played musical chairs in the afternoon and I've gotta say that this group was very well behaved throughout the game. Have a great evening.

Bus Trip Pic

We had a fun "short day." We played "teacher versus kids" in which I point to words in a book. If they read the word correctly, they get a point. If they get it wrong, I get the point. Thankfully, the kids won! (I don't mind losing at this game.) We practiced spelling all the words on our word wall on mini whiteboards. Ms. Kembel read a pumpkin book to the class which talked about the life cycle of a pumpkin. For art, students traced a leaf template, drew vein lines on their leaf, which created several sections on the leaf. Next, students drew a different pattern in each section, and then colored each section a different color. They look really great and I wish I had a picture to show you. Morgan's mom brought her dogs for a quick show and tell at the end of the day.

I just placed the Scholastic book order. Thanks again for your orders! I was able to add $20 worth of books to the classroom library. Have a relaxing 4-day weekend. I'm headed to Missoula to watch my daughter perform in the All-State Band concert.

Students used highlighter tape to find the word the in a poem. We read My Cc Book and students decided to add a new page to the big book, which they will write tomorrow. In sign language, we played a giant game of concentration in which students received a picture card. We went around the circle and students signed the picture. Students had to remember who had which card and they could claim the matching card if they were correct. In math we learned the number 8 and several ways to make 8. We chose 4 and 4 by making a spider with 4 legs on each side of its body. Students made a scarecrow puppet that will "sing" the alphabet. Have them practice if they are having a hard time identifying letters. Morgan brought birthday treats this afternoon. Thanks, Morgan!

Tomorrow I'm sending home a note about a special "homework" assignment that your family can complete over the long weekend. Everyone will disguise a pumpkin to save it from being carved. No carving allowed--decorate your pumpkin so that it looks like something else. The pumpkins will come to school on Oct. 26 so we can show them off and I'll send them back home on the 29th, in time for Halloween.

Our VIP, Morgan, brought some family photos that she got to share on the big screen (using our document camera). We reviewed the letters L and U, comparing the shapes of the letters to other letters. In math, we learned that 6 is 1 more than 5, 7 is 2 more than 5, etc. We also talked about taking away numbers and used the phrase 1 fewer. To make the concept more fun, 5 students at a time got to be 5 little monkeys jumping on a bed. I read the book New Shoes For Sylvia and we discussed some new vocabulary words. During centers, I tested more students on letter recognition. We finished the Junie B. Jones book after lunch. I think most of the students really enjoyed it. Our social studies lesson was about people having different preferences and how people can try to do things that their friend prefers to keep things in balance. By the way, one of the students noticed a typo in the Ll Book that went home today. On the lollipop page, it says "lollilop." I thought that was so cool that they were paying such close attention!

Backordered Scholastic Book

Someone who placed a Scholastic book order last time received a gift certificate because your book was on backorder. The book has arrived, but they didn't give me the customer name. If you ordered Polite as a Princess, please let me know--I have your book.

Our bus safety trip was fun. Our driver, Mr. B., took us to the parking lot at Amend Park to practice emergency exits out the back of the bus, crossing the street to get aboard the bus, and taught students to sit with their backs against the back of the seat and their bottoms on the seat bottoms. We got back to school in time to have the playground to ourselves for 10 minutes before center time. Thanks to Mr. Cunningham and Mrs. Dodge-Millroy for assisting us! After lunch, I read a few more chapters of the Junie B. Jones book I started the previous day. Ms. Kembel read the Leo Leonni book Swimmy to the class, and then had students trace, cut, and color a fish. All of their fish were glued together onto a background to create one large fish just like in the story.

Please remember to turn in the dark pink sheet with your preference for a conference time as the staff will make the schedules on Wednesday. I also need the yellow permission sheet for your child to participate in the personal safety lesson by the counselor. Don't forget about the early out on Wednesday and no school Thursday or Friday due to teacher convention.

Your child will be bringing home another letter book. Please ask them to read it to you, pointing to the words as they read. This helps them to recognize the words. I am testing students on their letter recognition so I can report that information to you at the time of your conference. If you feel that your child needs work in this area, make some alphabet flash cards out of index cards. Most of them know uppercase letters pretty well, but many of them need to work on recognizing lowercase letters. In sign language, students learned to sing and sign the "green" song. Students received writing journals today. Their first entry was, "I have a ____." and they sounded out one word. They had to make their picture match their sentence, begin with an uppercase letter, and end with punctuation. I will show you their journal at your conference. I will mail our penpal letters to the class in Canada this afternoon. We enclosed 2 postcards, one of the view of downtown Billings from the Rims and a general "beauty shot" of the mountains. Tomorrow is our Bus Safety lesson and bus ride!

We practiced letter recognition through an alphabet BINGO game this morning. Several weeks ago, I met a kindergarten teacher in Ontario, Canada and she and I agreed to become class pen pals. Today the letters arrived from her students. They were in the format, "I am ____. I like ___." I read all of the letters to our class and then they wrote similar letters. I will enclose a post card of Montana and then send our letters to Canada. It will be fun to see how this progresses throughout the school year. Students made some very cute robots out of rectangles and recycled materials. Thanks you Nicole and Tracy for your help!

I introduced two new centers today. In one, students must spell their classmates' names. In the other, students sort plastic Halloween toys. They can sort by color or by type of object (spiders, bats, etc.). As a class, we graphed colored cubes and then students did the same thing independently. In sign language, both classes worked together to perform "Five Little Pumpkins." Mrs. Hanson videotaped them and then we watched their performance. I will try to post the video this week. Students were asked to write about what they do before they go to sleep. I was hoping to read such things as, "I brush my teeth." "I listen to a story." or something similar. Instead, most students simply copied my example sentence. In science, we discussed the characteristics of living things.

BOOK FAIR

The Scholastic Book Fair will be in the Rose Park Library during Parent-Teacher Conference Week.

The short version:
Students and their families are welcome to shop at the Scholastic Book Fair in the Rose Park Library before and after school on Tues., Wed, & Thurs., Nov. 2,3, & 4. Profits from the Book Fair will benefit the library collection.

The details:
Tuesday, Nov.2nd: 7:30-8:15 a.m. and 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Wed., Nov. 3rd: 7:30-8:15 a.m. and 12:00-4:00 p.m. (Early Out for kids)
Thurs., Nov. 4th: 7:30-8:15 a.m. and 12:00-6:00 p.m. (Early Out for kids)

I hope you have checked your child's Monday envelope. It contains a lot of important information. As always, please try to return important papers in that white envelope on Tuesdays since it is the safest way to ensure they get back to me. I wanted to let you know that I am the co-facilitator of the Sign Language Club -- I help Mrs. Wheeler, the instructor for the hearing impaired. The Sign Club puts on a couple of performances, including a Christmas program and an end of the year program which we invite parents to attend. Please re-read the letter O book with your child. I apologize--I think I waited too long to post tonight and I cannot think of anything specific we did today.

plea for craft supplies

Do any of you have scraps of fabric, ribbon, buttons, sequins, etc. that students could use for an art project on Wednesday? Students will be making recycled robots and will decorate them with odds and ends. Thanks in advance!

Wow! This is the first time I've been 24 hours late posting. Yesterday, I divided students into 4 reading groups and met with them separately during center time to review letter names and sounds and to practice reading the high frequency words that are on our word wall (am, blue, can, like, is, red, and yes). Students brainstormed things that are red and then wrote the sentence, "A ____ is red." and drew a picture to illustrate their sentence. We are working on sentence structure -- a capital letter at the beginning and punctuation at the end, as well as spaces between the words. Students formed the numbers 1-5 out of clay and we played a review game in which I rolled a die, students identified the number, and then they built a tower with that many cubes. Thanks to the parents who helped yesterday!

We added a new dimension to the BANG game today. As they pulled letter sticks out of the cup, students had to say the name of the letter and the sound it makes. As they returned their sticks to the cup at the end of the game, they had to say something that begins with that letter sound. At story time, I read Goodnight Moon and Goodnight Goon and we compared the two stories. For Writer's Workshop students wrote a sentence about an animal that they like (I like ___.) The class did a great job of cleaning up at the end of the day. Your child brought home another mini book (My Nn Book). Please have them read it to you, pointing the the words as they read them. Keep the book and have your child re-read it often.

Scholastic Book Orders

The Scholastic Book Order arrived! Yay! Thanks to your orders, I was able to add 13 new books to our classroom library, so thank you very much! Check your child's backpack to find the books.

Fire Station Field Trip

We had a totally awesome time at the fire station! Mrs. Bykonen and her friend Tracy, Ms. Kembel, and Mrs. Rolfson accompanied us. Students got to get inside the fire engine, watch a fire safety video, and watched a firefighter put on his turnout gear, air mask and all! They thought he looked like an alien. One of the firefighters climbed to the top of the fully-extended ladder on the ladder truck. He also showed us how the ladder rotates around and how it can go up and down. We got back to school shortly before lunch and had some recess time. Ms. Kembel read Knuffle Bunny to the class and we compared the story to Corduroy. I read the book Go Away Big Green Monster and then students created their own monsters (see photos). They turned out REALLY cute!

Picture day went smoothly and they got us early, before snack or recess, so everyone looked really nice! Students got a popcorn party today as reward to whole-class good behavior. Students learned signs for the poem Five Little Pumpkins and in science, students learned the life cycle of a pumpkin. Tomorrow is our walking field trip to the fire station. Make sure your child is dressed for the weather.

Reminders

Turn in your child's reading minutes for the past week. Tomorrow is picture day!

We have now been through the alphabet one time and starting today, we are repeating it. By now, your child should be able to recognize most of the uppercase letters. We are working hard on writing and recognizing lowercase letters. It is my goal to get your child writing his/her name in lowercase letters (except for the first letter, of course). We are also working on counting and recognizing numbers. Our Star of the Day was Riley. Riley has a twin brother in the other kindergarten class, an older sister, and a pet guinea pig. He likes macaroni and cheese, monkeys, the letter R and the number 6, as well as toy sharks. Since everyone has had their turn as Star of the Day, we are now moving on to writing during that time. Today, students drew a picture of themselves in their Halloween costume and labeled the picture. I will send them home after I make copies. Don't be alarmed by the spelling--they were told to write the sounds that they hear. For example, Cinderella may be spelled sindrla. That's fantastic in my eyes because it means that they know their letter sounds!! Yay! We won't worry about spelling for a while, and mostly for the high frequency words that are on our word wall.

Well, we've now reviewed all the letters of the alphabet and will be moving on to putting letter sounds together to read and write words. So far on our "word wall" (list of words students should be able to recognize and spell) we have am, can, like, and yes. I will add a list of the words your child needs to practice to the right side of the blog. My suggestion is to write the words on index cards and quickly review them with your child once a day. Thomas was our Star of the Day. Thomas has one sister, a cat, a dog, and a bike. He likes the colors black, red, and blue, steak, Superman, the number 100 and the letter T. Have a great weekend!