Weekly News (Nov. 6-10)

Just wanted to share a few highlights from our week.

What a treat to have author and illustrator Henry Cole visit Dryden. He gave an entertaining presentation that inspired our young readers and writers, and we were thrilled when he drew Celeste the mouse!

All About Me

The afternoon class was excited to learn all about Dominique this week. We learned that Dominique enjoys writing and drawing pictures. She also enjoys playing dress up and playing with her toys, especially her Hatchimal! She loves spending time with her family and her favorite color is purple!

We had a great time acting out Going on a Bear Hunt.
Thank you to Dominique's mom for sharing this favorite!

Thank you to Dominique's dad for sharing another class favorite,
The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Centers

The children have been doing a great job during center time these past two weeks. Take a peek below to see these centers in action!

Lego Letters

Roll, Read, and Record Sight Words

Block Patterns

Building Towers

Listening to Little Boo

Veterans Day Celebration

What a great way to end our week! Our Veterans Day celebration is always a special day. We had several students who brought guests to celebrate during the breakfast and assembly, and we had Hailey's great grandfather join us for a Q & A after the assembly. Our sincerest thanks to all of our Veterans for their service!

First Snow of the Year

Their excitement was contagious!! Such pure joy as they watched the snowfall!

Snow Gear Tips

Now that the first snow has officially fallen, I thought it would be a good idea to share some snow gear tips! Tip #!: Keep having your child practice zipping up their own coat. It makes a huge difference when we're trying to get packed up at the end of the day or when we're trying to head out to recess if the children are able to get dressed and zip their own coats. Hopefully we won't need our snow gear just yet, but when it is snow gear time, we use the following posters when putting on our gear, so that the students are able to get dressed as independently as possible.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Weekly News (Oct. 30-Nov. 3)

It's hard to believe Halloween has already come and gone! Take a peek to see what we have been learning during this fun and busy week!

Math
We finished our second math unit this week which focused on building confidence with the numbers 0-10. This week we focused on comparing two sets of objects using one-to-one matching. We also practiced solving "one more" and "one less" number stories using counters and cubes. We have been practicing counting up to 100 by 1's and talking about the pattern for each group of ten. The class LOVES the video below, which is a great way to get a little exercise while practicing how to count to 100!

Jolly Phonics
We're on a roll learning our Jolly Phonics sounds! It's amazing to see how the children are growing and learning their sounds. I can tell many of them are practicing the sounds on their rings in their blue book bags. Keep up the great work! We learned the following three sounds this week:

Zz as in "zebra"
Ww as in "wind"
ng as in "sing"

Click HERE to watch the video for the letter Z.

Click HERE to watch the video for the letter W.

Literacy
Reading Workshop
We are excited to begin our new reading workshop unit that focuses on fiction books. We will learn that authors of fiction write stories that are made up from their imaginations. They write books to entertain us or to teach us an important lesson. We will also learn that there are two types of fiction stories:

Realistic Fiction: stories that could happen in real life

Fantasy: stories that are imaginary or make-believe and can't happen in real life

The students also loved "shopping" for books for their individual book boxes that they get to read in their comfy spots throughout the classroom. They are remembering the different ways to read a book, and they are doing a great job building their reading stamina!

The morning class reading in their comfy spots at home!

The afternoon class reading in their comfy spots at home!

Writing Workshop
Now that we have learned a good number of Jolly Phonics sounds, the children are ready to begin our writing workshop routines. This week we practiced matching letters and sounds as students worked to label the different parts of a pumpkin. When stretching out sounds in words, the first and last sounds are easier for children to hear and record, but as they continue to practice writing, it will be easier for them to hear the middle sounds too. We will keep a writing portfolio at school, but I look forward to sharing some of their writing with you at conferences.

All About Me
The morning class loved learning all about Gianna this week. We learned that Gianna enjoys swimming and doing ballet. She also likes Hello Kitty and building with Magna-Tiles. She loves reading and listening to stories, and she enjoys spending time with her family!

A big thank you to Gianna's mom for coming to read!

The afternoon class loved learning all about Damian this week. We learned that Damian is a big Cubs fan, and he loves pizza! He also enjoys playing with his car and truck collection, and he likes to visit the library. His favorite colors are red and blue, and loves spending time with is family and their two cats!

A big thank you to Damian's mom for coming in to read!

Happy Halloween
The biggest highlight of our week was definitely our Halloween celebration. Click the links below to see more photos from our Halloween parade and party!

Click HERE for more Halloween photos from the morning class.

Click HERE for more Halloween photos from the afternoon class. 

Click HERE for other photos from throughout the week

Thanks for reading!