Week of October 24th-28th

It was a BATTY week around here!  We learned all about bats, read a lot of really good expository books about bats and wrote our own book with bat facts.  We made bats and practiced sentence writing with a bat fact.  They are in the hall, be sure to check them out if you’re here for the Halloween party.  And yes, I brought in a real dead bat.  I found it this summer on a walk and kept it in the garage all summer, thinking it was pretty cool! (My own kids just told me I was nuts and rolled their eyes!)  I figured they wouldn’t get to see a real one up close, so we all looked at it and its fingers and thumb and can see the bones in the wings…pretty cool!  I have it here if you want to see it! 🙂

We worked on the letter Oo this week and know all the vowel long and short sounds.  We also added the sight word, come.  Keep practicing those sight words!  It will make learning to read SO much easier!

In math, we finished up 6-10 and next week will work on more/less with the numbers 0-10.  Your child should be able to recognize and write all the numbers to 10 by now.  We will continue to review addition and subtraction and will start adding and subtracting numbers to 10 as well.

Today we started a Fall Poetry book.  We are learning to read poetry and listen for patterns and rhyming words in poems.  We are also working on syllables in words and taking words apart and putting them back together.

Reading groups started this week and we worked hard on using the strategies to figure out unknown words.  On Monday, in their treat bag from me, they’ll get their own witch finger to use as a reading finger!  Make sure they point to the word, LOOK at the word, and then say the word.

Please remember to send your child in their costume on Monday.  Any head pieces or hand pieces can come in their backpack and they can wear during the parade.  No gore/blood or weapons allowed.  The sing along is at 2 and that’s just for the kids, it gets the kids out of the room so parents can set up for the party.  Parents are invited to come up for the parade at 2:20.  You can sit in the gym and see all the classes come by.  K goes first and then we sit and watch everyone else.  The party will be right afterwards.  Dismissal will be at 3:40 as normal.

Thanks to all who volunteered for pirate day!  I am set for volunteers.  I’ll send a reminder about that next Tues.  Two dress up days in a week might put me over the edge! 🙂  It’s just the way the calendar fell this year!

Please continue to have your child work on the letters if I sent a post it note home.  Our goal is to have everyone know their letters by the end of the quarter and our math goal is that everyone can add and subtract to 10 by the end of the quarter.

Our PTA does a TON for us!  If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have field trips and a lot of the extras that they provide.  I was talking to a few of the board members last night and it was mentioned that many did not pay their PTA dues this year since they couldn’t add it to the online registration.  They are pretty short on funds this year.  If you are able to and would like to do that, it’s not too late!  If you need a form, I’m happy to send one home, just let me know!  They are working on new playground equipment which is sorely needed.  Thanks for helping out if you can!

I do want to say thank you again as well.  You all were so generous with gift cards to me this year and I’ve been able to get a bunch of stuff for the kids that I would’ve spent my own money on.  I spent my last Walmart one last night to buy materials for exploding pirate treasure boxes next week.  It’ll be a fun science experiment.  Today we made monster slime.  With my dog’s surgery, personally this year has been a financial strain at home, so these have been a huge help!  Thank you again!

Headed home to hug Hannah one more time.  She came home last night just for the night to get a few things. (The K-10 connector bus is awesome!)  Then Jack, Andrew, and I are headed to the East game.  Hope you all enjoy the weather.  It’s supposed to be in the 80’s on Monday!!  Thank goodness this is not the year I chose to be Olaf (although it was hot that year too!)  Have a great weekend!

Week of Oct. 10th-13th

We finished up our apple unit this week with apple day with our 5th grade buddies.  The kids did an apple investigation where they weighed, measured, compared, and printed apples.  They also made an apple life cycle diagram, tasted all kinds of apple items and graphed their favorite, and tried apple pancakes.  Several asked for my super secret apple pancake recipe.  I used pancake mix, added in apple chunks (not peeled), and cinnamon!  Most of the kids thought they were great and bonus…I didn’t set off the fire alarm! (I did last year!)

We read The Big Red Barn this week and talked about rhyming with farm animals and made a big red barn class book with beginning sounds.  We also learned about bees and did some writing.  We added the letters Dd and Gg and the sight word “to”.

We started subtraction 0-5 in math.

Our field trip was a lot of fun and the weather actually ended up being very nice.  Thanks to all the parents who were able to go along with us.  They all got to pick 3 apples (Fuji), a pumpkin, feed the goats and chickens, learn about bees, and go on a hayride.  It was lots of fun!

I have had several parents ask me about next week, so just so we’re clear:

• Tomorrow, kids do NOT have school.  It is a teacher prep day for conferences.
• Next week, we have regular school days on Mon., Tues., and Wed. and then no school Thurs. and Fri.  On Wed., we have a regular day, teachers eat a quick dinner, and start conferences at 4:30.  On Thurs., conferences start at 11 and go until 8.  I will be at Jack’s conferences Thurs. morning, so I will not be in the building until after lunch.  I’ve gotten everyone’s note back (thank you!) and everyone is scheduled.
• During conferences, please wait out in the hall until your time.  If you see your time come and go, please knock on the door.  I will do my best to stay on time.  If you don’t feel like we get everything done, we can follow up later, but cannot extend a conference.
• Your child does not need to come for this one.  I will ask them to come in Feb.  If they need to come, I’ll ask them to go sit quietly at a center while we talk.

Book orders are due tomorrow.  Everyone had a free $5 book when you spend $10 attached to the order forms.  Please get those in by tomorrow at noon.  Typically we have a book fair during conferences.  Because of scheduling conflicts with Scholastic, we will not have that next week, instead it will be in Nov. and I probably won’t send a book order home that month.  Always let me know if it’s a gift and I can hold on to it for you.

On the home front…my husband’s surgery went very well, he started PT on Monday and other than not carrying the heavy dog up the stairs at night, he’s back to normal.  Abby gets her staples out tomorrow and the last two days has actually seemed to be back to her normal self.  She doesn’t seem to think 3 legs is a big deal and doesn’t seem to have pain anymore which is a relief.  Hannah’s back to school after Fall break and Jack’s ready for a conference break! 🙂  Hope you enjoy the extra long weekend!

Week of October 3-7th

Happy October!  I can hardly believe it’s about conference time!  Notes with times will go home on Monday.  I was able to schedule everyone in one of their preferred spots according to the note from the beginning of the year.  I know things can change, however, please be aware that I have to schedule 23 kids and we schedule siblings back to back.  It is VERY hard to switch people around.  If you absolutely can NOT make your time, let me know and I’ll see if anyone else needs to switch.  I will not be available on Thurs. am, as I go to Jack’s conferences then and all my other time slots are booked!  If you want to bring your child to the first one, you can, but it’s not necessary for this one.  I will be going over grade cards and school work.  If for some reason, the day of conferences, something comes up and you can’t come, please call the office and let them know.

This week continues apple week.  We started an experiment this week to test the rate of evaporation in apples.  Each day, we weigh an unpeeled apple, a peeled apple, and apple slices to try and determine which apple loses the most liquid.  So far we’ve decided that the peel keeps the moisture in.  We also learned about glyphs.  A glyph is a picture that tells a story.  We made apple glyphs and you’ll see them in the hall outside our room.  We tasted red, yellow, and green apples to see which was their favorite and tasted apple pie as well.  You can look at our apples and know which was the favorite, if they liked apple pie or not, if they’re a boy or girl, and how old they are just by the picture.

In math, we worked on writing 6-10 and are still practicing addition.  We are also talking about shapes and will be adding in subtraction soon.

We have also been talking a lot about rhyming, beginning sounds in words, and stretching out words to read.  Right after conferences, we will begin guided reading groups.  It will be fun to see the progress then!  I’ve been retesting everyone and have seen huge growth just since the beginning of the year!

Next week will be apple day with 5th grade buddies and our field trip.  Thanks to all who volunteered to send in items for apple day.  Please send those in early next week.

On Thursday will be our field trip.  We will be outside the ENTIRE time, so please make sure your child dresses appropriately and wears tennis shoes!  They will need a jacket if it continues to be cool.  Please send a DISPOSABLE sack lunch and DISPOSABLE water bottle and make sure both are labeled with their names.  It will be a regular school day time wise.  We will leave about 8:45 (they should still be here at 8:20), and get back around 12:30.  Thank you to the parents who volunteered to go with us.   If you know your child will not be here that day, please let me know or if they’re sick that morning, call school right away.

Thank you all for your patience with my being gone.  Usually my family just plugs along without much veering off the path, but this year has certainly not turned out that way.  I will be gone tomorrow as my husband, Andrew, is having knee surgery for a torn meniscus.  He’s known about it since the beginning of Aug., but couldn’t get in for surgery until now.  So I’ll have a one legged husband for a few days, a 1 and 1/2 legged son who is in PT until Dec., and a 3 legged dog.  Hannah’s coming home this weekend as KU has fall break.  She might be better off not being at our house, we’ve kinda turned into a sitcom! 🙂  Hope you enjoy this Fall weather!

Have fun at the Fall festival!  The kids always love it.  I’ll try and stop by if I can!  And don’t forget, Friday is wear blue or BE spirit wear!