Diorama Day

Diorama Day was a huge success! The kids (and their families) did a great job designing and sharing dioramas of the forest, wetlands, ocean, and desert. The ocean seemed to be the favorite habitat. The dioramas will be on display in the 1-3 Commons area through the first week of December, so stop by and see them! Thanks for all of your help!

We put our dioramas on our desks, and all the first graders came by to see what we did. Then we got to go to the other classes to see theirs, too.

4th Grade Buddies

The main job of first graders is to learn to read, and I tell them almost every day, "The more you read, the better you read." To give them more practice reading to an audience, we get together several times a month with our 4th grade buddies. We do writing projects, listen to stories, and read, read, read!

Some of us go out into the Commons so our room isn't quite so crowded (and noisy), with 20 kids reading to their buddies at the same time.

The 4th graders are really good listeners!

They also help if we get stuck on a word.

Our anthology has really good stories to share.

This story is about a trip to an aquarium.

It has great photographs of interesting fish.

Some stories are make-believe, like this one about some mice visiting an art museum.

This story is about some animals who make a huge mess at Miss Jill's Ice Cream Shop.

This story is about eating ham and eggs.

Sometimes we have time to chat a little, too.

We learned lots of facts about fish.

This story is about the four seasons.

It helps to point at the words as we read.

The pictures help, too, when we are reading new words.

This story is a folk tale written in play form.

It takes lots of concentration to read!

Thanks, 4th graders, for helping us!

October Students of the Month

Congratulations to our October Students of the Month!

Keep up the good work, kids!

Winter Has Arrived!

We had our first snowy day last week when kids needed all their winter gear. What a project, getting 20 kids ready for outdoor play. And you think your entryway is a mess? Come check out the hallway when everyone is getting ready! I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of the process. It only took about 5 minutes to get eveyone outside, and that time will decrease as eveyone gets better at new zippers, snaps, boot ties, etc.

A one-piece snowsuit is great, but tricky to get into!

Boots are required to play on the hillside.

New snow pants!

Cozy jacket!

New boots!

So much stuff!

Scarves are a great idea for keeping out the chilly wind.

Zippers can be tough.

Pink boots - will they still look that clean in March??

Finally, ready to go!

Don't forget hats and mittens!

Cool gloves!

The pictures say it all!

Please be sure label ALL outerwear, especially snow pants and boots, since many of the children have similar styles. Last year, one mom tied a piece of yarn to the buckle on her son's snow pants, and he never had trouble finding his! The lost and found gets pretty full as the winter progresses, so if your child is missing something, be sure to check there!

First Snow!

It snowed last night! The kids all came in very excited this morning, and most of them thought there would still be snow at playtime. We took a tally of their predictions, and the totals were 17 for snow, and 3 for no snow. The 3 were right. It was all gone by 11:00. However, more will be coming soon. Please be sure children are dressed for outdoor play, as they will be going outside every day (unless the temperature/wind chill is below 0). Children will need hats, warm jackets, mittens/gloves, snow pants, and boots.

Get ready!!

It's been an extremely busy week, and no time to take any pictures (that doesn't mean we haven't done anything)! Please look for your child's report card today, and also read the letter attached to the Peek at the Week about our upcoming Diorama Day!

Have a great weekend!

Halloween

We had a great day on Halloween! We started the day by getting into costumes and showing off for everyone in the class. Then we began our 1/2 hour pumpkin activity sessions by working on pumpkin math and reading with Mrs. Bracken. We estimated the weight and circumference of a giant pumpkin, and then read a mini-book about costumes and added a picture of ourselves on the last page. Then we headed to Mrs. Dahl's class to play some pumpkin games. After that, we went to Mrs. Winchell's room to hear a pumpkin story and play pumpkin bingo. Our last session was in Mrs. LaPan's room where we learned about bats and made a bat hat. We ended the morning with a parade in our Commons with all of the first graders as we sang "Five Little Pumpkins." It was really fun to go to all of the classrooms for a special activity!

Here we all are in our costumes.

Don't we look great?


No one was too scary.


It's fun to pretend to be someone (or something) else!
We got back in our regular clothes before playtime, and then worked on Red Ribbon Day activities in the afternoon (drug awareness), and also designed and carved a pumpkin .
Thanks to Levi for the great sticker books, and to Sam for an afternoon snack!

I invited everyone to come to my house for Trick or Treats, and quite a few kids showed up. I took a picture by our class pumpkin of everyone who came. It was fun to see all of you, and your brothers, sisters, and friends!

Thanks, kids, for being on your best behavior on a very busy day - you were awesome!