We All Sing with the Same Voice

Writer's Workshop

 

Every day we have Writer's Workshop for thirty minutes after lunch. I write in my folder on the document camera (today's version of an overhead projector... same idea but in color and like a live camera feed), and then they go to their tables and write in their folders. This week we wrote on a piece of plain white paper each day. I told them to write about whatever they wanted to, but to pick a topic and to stay on topic ('topic' is a vocabulary word that we are learning). At the end of the week they were charged with the task of creating a front cover for their book. I told them to look at all of their papers from the week to get a good idea of what the title of their book should be. They were so excited, and had all their papers spread out across the tables! They were intently looking at all of their previous writings to create the best front cover they could! I am going to bind all of their books and put them in the library center so they can read each other's writings throughout the week in center time.

 

 

Little Lizard's New Shoes

We have been talking about growing up this week. On Friday, we read 'Little Lizard's New Shoes' and talked about how as we eat, sleep, and exercise we grow bigger and need to go buy new shoes. After reading the story, we wrote our own story about going to the shoe store. Then the students went to the tables and drew pictures of new shoes. Some students drew themselves with new shoes, some drew their families with new shoes, some drew themselves in the car on the way to the shoe store. They had a great time! The drawings are displayed on our large bulletin board in the classroom.

 

 

Some Art Displays

They painted the fruit. We cut the fruit out for them and they glued it into their fruit bowls. We've been talked about good food that helps us grow 'healthy and strong'.

Morning Message

 

Every morning we have a morning message. During center time, the students can up up and read the morning message all by themselves. This is a favorite activity! Here are some video clips of students reading the message.

Center Fun!

 

She matched all of her letters to the alphabet board!

They are being very creative with glue, glitter, and circles that they cut out!

She is reading about fruit she likes to eat!

We are ready to learn!

Look what we are making!

Pumpkins

A great family activity this time of year is visiting a pumpkin patch! Now is the time to build those memories that will last a lifetime!

Click below for a link to a local farmer's market (in Hampton) that has a pumpkin patch (you get to go out and pick the pumpkin) and a hayride (a dollar per person). Last year the president and his wife visited this patch; they have pictures displayed!
Wood's Orchards Farmer's Market


And if you are in the mood for something a little more... rural... a bit farther away, click on this link! Belmont is an excellent farm with a hayride, corn maze, face painting, and excellent barbeque/apple cider!
Belmont Pumpkin Patch

My family has personally enjoyed both of these farms for years. We also go to Wood's Orchards Farmer's Market in the spring for strawberry picking. If you do decide to go, let us know! What a great 'share time' story! You can send in a photo with your child and he/she can tell the class about their experience.

The Storytelling Center

 

We have a storytelling center, where students can create and perform puppet shows with their friends. They are given a book and encouraged to act out the book with the puppets. We have been using the book, On Monday When It Rained, which talks about different emotions. The students have been acting out different emotions with the puppets. In this picture, this group of three girls were putting on a performance for their friend. At one point they all four just started to laugh! It was really neat to watch!

Some Center Fun...

We have three center times each day. In the morning we have our literacy block centers (storytelling center, listening center, literacy center, writing center, art center, computer center). In the afternoon we have our math block centers (three math tables and the block building center). At the end of the day we have our content centers (dramatic play, blocks, science center, sand/water center, free drawing art center). Here are some pictures of just a few things we did this week!

 

 

We do a lot of sorting. Sometimes we tell them how to sort objects, but more often we give them objects and see what they do with them. This student took out the cubes and sorted by color. However, when I asked him to tell me what he was doing, he told me that he was "making them all two, see, one, two." He was referring how how his cubes were stacked in rows of two. So he was paying attention not only to the color of the cubes but the height and rows of the cubes. Fantastic!

Learning to button with button boards!

Writers at work! They select their own medium to write on (there is an adjacent table out of the picture's view covered with different kinds of paper...construction paper, storyboard paper, chart paper, booklets, etc.) and practice writing. They write their name, letters we work on, letters they want to try out, and/or draw pictures of whatever they like. It is a popular center!

We read the book, We Like Fruit and then practiced reading the sentences (interchanging the 'fruit' word to make new sentences). Here is a picture of a student doing it in centers!

On this table we keep our big books, which the students love to review during center time!

We brought out the tinker toys on Friday in the blocks area! A big hit!!

Sorting shapes into book pockets! She is doing a great job!

Our first time at the art easel!

On Friday (October 5th) we got to paint on the art easel! It was a lot of fun! We used fall colors (yellow, orange, green and red) to make our masterpieces! They were so excited and did a great job! It's starting to look like fall in our room...

 

 

Picture Day

Our fall picture day is Friday, October 12th. Our picture time is scheduled to be at 11:40am (but they always run a little bit behind). Dress appropriately!
These are the individual photos... the class photo will be taken in the spring.

Scholastic

We participate in Scholastic a few times a year. However, you can go to our Scholastic page and order books whenever you like.
There are a few reasons we participate in Scholastic:
1. It is the most affordable way for you to get new books for your child. By far.
2. When you order books, your child becomes excited about reading.
3. When you order books, we get points to order free books for our classroom.
4. Using this system, new quality books come into your home and into our classroom.

Here is the website:
www.scholastic.com/bookclubs

And here is our class activation number:
GK9XL

Register as a parent. Fill out prompted fields. Enter our class activation code. It will take you right to our class page. Browse with your child, and order! Your money goes right to Scholastic. Enjoy your books! They will be mailed to the classroom and distributed at school.

Our First Nature Walk

We took a nature walk today! Fall is just beginning! We went to observe and see with our eyes what the beginning of fall looks like. We found lots of acorns on the ground (which the students eagerly gave to Mrs. Burbage to keep in a baggie) and a few leaves that had fallen. But the real treat was when we looked above our heads up at the trees, we could spot a few red leaves among the green. The students began to excitedly search amongst the green leaves, pointing out each and every leaf that showed signs of changing colors. We took pictures and then headed back to lunch.

We will take another nature walk in about a month or so when the changes of fall have really occurred. We will take more pictures and compare them to the pictures we took today!