New hallway displays

This week, the students worked extra hard to create some fall themed displays to hang in the hall for the grandparents and special guests to see when they come to school next week.  There is a forest of fall trees and a Peanuts pumpkin patch complete with hand print bats and hand print pumpkins.  The fall trees were made using ink pads.  The students pressed their fingers into the ink to make the leaves.

Oct 7-11

Here's this weeks theme studies!

Number 4 Numbercise

Using both hands, make a four in the air and say the chant.

Down and over,
then down some more.
That's the way you make a four!

Since we studied the letter E this week, we turned the letter into an elephant!

Skills covered this week:

Name writing
Answering questions about a story
Putting puzzles together
Stating full name and birth date
Directional strokes
Tracing and following a path and dotted line


The students were able to explore and play in the sensory table (right now it is filled with sand), play dough, and floam.  These are great sensory developing activities for little ones!

They also played with fall leaves, apples, and pumpkins on a magnetic white board.  The students can make pictures, patterns, or sort the objects.

Check out the pictures tab for my pictures from this week!

Columbus Day

Reminders:

There is no school Monday, October 14 for Columbus Day.

Grandparents Day is Wednesday and Thursday this coming week.  Please pack your child's lunch and grandparents/special guests need to bring lunches as well.  There will be no school lunches provided those days.  The Grandparents may bring their grandchild's lunch.  My class is eating at 11:00 both days.

The book fair is this week during regular school hours.

"Miss Rachel, it's Clifford!"

The book truck was at school today!  We were in the gym during our Gross Motor Time this morning when the truck pulled in to the parking lot.  The students were lined up along the windows looking at the truck and asking lots of questions! :)  They were very excited to see Clifford!

The books are here and our Book Fair is set up and ready to go!  I was browsing the books today and there are some great books to purchase.  There is a great variety of fiction, non-fiction, board books, holiday books, and even books and cookbooks for the adults.  The book fair is open Oct 15-21 during school hours.  Come and check out the selection!

Friday Favorites week 3

This week's Friday Favorites post is about one of my favorite early reading and literacy websites, Starfall.com.

http://www.starfall.com/

Not only is this a great website to use in the classroom, it is great to use at home, too.  I like that the site grows with your child.  There are online books and games that start with basic reading skills such as letter sound and identification and proceed to sight words, rhyming words, and books the students can read independently.  There are four categories that contain leveled and academically appropriate games  and activities for all levels and abilities.  The holiday themed games are great too!

In the download center, there are FREE books and materials that can be printed.  You can also purchase materials in The Starfall Store and their Kindergarten and Pre-K sites.

http://www.starfall.com/n/N-info/download.htm

The parents section also has great information and suggestions for using the site.
http://www.starfall.com/n/N-info/parents.htm

Times Bulletin

Thomas Edison and "Music in Motion" made the front page of The Times Bulletin!  The article and picture are also on the website!  Check it out! :)  Thank you to the Times Bulletin for coming to school yesterday!

http://timesbulletin.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=182932

This weekend I am working on a follow up article and more pictures to send to The Parkway Independent and The Van Wert Independent about "Music in Motion".  Stay tuned!  Friday Favorites and this weeks posts and pictures are coming soon too!

Teaser Pictures

Here are some teaser pictures of some of the projects we did this week.  The Monday class finished their red birds.  Both classes made elephants out of the letter E for our letter of the week study.  The students started making fall forests to hang in the hall for Grandparents Day.  The students pressed their fingers into fall colored ink pads to make fall leaves.  The students also played in the sensory table with sand and other sand toys.  Look for more posts coming soon!