Pajamas, Pilgrims, and Pumpkin Soup

We had a pajama party today for reaching 10,000 minutes of reading outside of the classroom!!

Next, we read Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper and made our own soup! Everyone helped, not everyone ate it, and not everyone liked it...but some of us did!

 We also made bracelets to help us remember the first thanksgiving. Each bead represents a part of the story. Ask your child to tell you all about the pilgrims and Squanto on the first thanksgiving.

Enjoy your break!

The First Thanksgiving

Today we learned about the first thanksgiving. The children found it very interesting that it was over 400 years ago and that is lasted three days!! Some of the children already knew about Squanto and how he helped the pilgrims survive the first winter. Their assignment was to write about why the first thanksgiving happened. They met with their writing partners to share and add more information to their work.

We then discussed what we were thankful for this year. We made a list and cut out a cute little turkey to adorn the lists. A good reminder that cutting on lines (squiggly, straight, and curved) is FABULOUS practice to strengthen those fine motor skills.

Long Ago Stations

We had an interactive visit from the Historical Society last Friday. The kids went from station to station learning about life long ago. They wrote with quills dipped in ink, made dolls out of cloth and stuffing, stamped envelopes from wax, and explored artifacts from long ago. Avery's mom came to help out too!

Mystery Reader

This past Friday we had another Mystery Reader....Levi's Papa! He flew in for a visit and came to spend some time at Levi's school. Thanks for the visit and the great story!

Movement with Mr. S

We are lucky to have Mr. Stankowski, a community member, come in and teach us about stage presence and movement. Mr. S has two older children who participated in Carnival of the Animals and has come back every year to help us produce this amazing show. This is his 4th visit in our class this year. He has taught us about pitch, volume, and pace his first visit. This will help us as we stand on stage and recite poems later this year. His second and third visits he focused on movement with emanating, molding, flying, and floating. Last Friday we enhanced our movements with vibratory and percussive applications! Here is a short clip of the class moving together.

 

Christo

We had our final visit from Christo, our adopted senior football player. The kids made him a book of letters to remember his time with us! He sure was a hero to this class:)

Mystery Reader

Last Friday we had a MYSTERY READER!!!! Jim's dad came and read us a fabulous story by Tomie dePaola....my favorite author ever!!!!

3 Addends

We are exploring addition with 3 addends. The children are encouraged to use several different strategies to solve and then show their work. We then share our work and try a new strategy. This day's equation was 7+4+8= ____. Check out a few work examples below...

Monnishaa's journal

Yashas' journal

Peyton's journal

Backyard Animals From the Zoo

Last Monday we had a special visit from the Columbus Zoo. They brought several animals that we could find in our own backyards!! The children saw a skunk, a groundhog, a screech owl, a snake ( I forget what type), a box turtle, and an opossum. At the end of the presentation the kids were able to touch the opossum and the snake.

 We went back to our rooms and worked in groups to present all the new information we learned. These little researchers are pretty good presenters!!

Animal Research

The children researched several woodland animals last week using mini-laptops. We used Pebble Go and Big Universe to find information. Both of these accounts are available to you at home as well. Email me if you no longer have the passwords. We are moving into non-fiction writing and this will be our first piece!

We also used our reading journals to record our favorite parts of a fun fall story! The children are thinking deep about the stories we read. I am AMAZED at the progress in comprehension and written details I have observed in these few short months. We are ROCKSTARS!

Fall Party

Thanks to all the families that donated party supplies, came in to help, and organized our activities. The party was a success!! Enjoy the pictures!