Dear families,
I hope you are having a lovely weather and are enjoying the beautiful Fall weather.
Last week was very busy in Room 166! We added two more sight words to our Word Wall - ARE and AT. We did more Phonics Sound Sorts, with the letter sounds S A T I P and N. The Juniors are doing a terrific job writing their names - lots of improvement since September! - and the Seniors are learning to write their names with a capital letter first followed by lower case letters. We also completed two "Sight Word Mini Booklets" (we'll do a lot of these throughout the year): we did A and IS.
Fall is such a beautiful time of year. The children collected lots of acorns for us and we did a numeracy activity with them at our tables: each child got a 10-frame and 10 acorns. They practised where to start placing the acorns (top left) when counting them. I gave them instructions that they had to follow, for example: "First, put two acorns on your 10-frame. Then add two more. How many do you have now? What is 2 plus 2? Now take away one. How many is 4 minus 1? Now add 3 more. How many do you have? Where did you put the acorns?" (6th acorn on the bottom left of the 10-frame). We continued this exercise to the 10th of the frames and then worked backwards and forwards adding and subtracting. The children will be making their own 10-frames to practise at home. Math is fun!
The children also finished their "Pumpkin at Night" pastel and tempera art, mixing yellow and red to make orange. They look wonderful! They are on display on the hall bulletin board.
We are learning a Pumpkin Poem and the SKs circled all the sight words they know. We are also practising a spooky song called "Halloween Night" which we will sing at the next Sharing Assembly.
With our Reading Buddies the children read and drew a booklet called "Signs of Fall."
The children were so excited about the Fall Fair! I got a pumpkin for our class and this week we will do a "Pumpkin Investigation:" we'll estimate then count the lines on the pumpkin, guess if it will sink or float, describe the outside, and estimate how many cubes tall it is. Later this week we'll estimate and count how many seeds there are in it.
We are going on a Field Trip to a farm on October 30th! Please return the permission form as soon as possible. Payment is online. If you would like to volunteer (4 volunteers are needed) please contact our Grade Parents Tiffany or Tara.
There was also a lot of "Monkey Business" this week in our room! The children finished their Monkey Art and wrote how monkeys are like them! They did several monkey centres: Matching the monkey sum to the equation, matching monkey upper and lower case letters, watching a video about Koko the gorilla who could sign language and who loved a kitten, and learning how monkeys are different from apes (monkeys have tails, apes don't). We'll continue our monkey business next week!
The November Sharing Assembly date has been changed to November 24.
Thank you so much to Ella's dad who was our Mystery Reader this week!
The next Scholastic Order is due on November 24th and has a lot of Holiday books. If you would like your books to be a gift, please mark "GIFT" on the order form and I will be sure to hand the books directly to you so they are a surprise!
Your child's "DOT" art, celebrating International DOT day (based on the book "The Dot" went home on Friday. I love how each of the dots were unique and expressed the children's personalities.
On October 31st there will be a Halloween Dance-a-thon, and for the first time ever, the Kindergarteners are going! They will dance for about 25 minutes in their costumes in the morning (after the parade). Please send in a can of food for "admission" to the dance, to support the Daily Bread Food Bank. If you forget, don't worry, your child will still be able to participate! Thank you so much for supporting "We Scare Hunger!"
I'm sorry I wasn't at school on Thursday and Friday - I had a wisdom tooth out! Ouch! I'm feeling on the mend and am looking forward to next week.
Mrs. Tyndall
