Happy Holidays!

All of these smiling faces wish you a joyful holiday season!

     We wrapped up our gingerbread theme with a fun project -- building our very own gingerbread houses!  We pretended we were Mattie, the main character from the book Gingerbread Baby, by Jan Brett.  In the story, Mattie builds a home for his gingerbread baby to live in.  We even had gingerbread marshmallow babies to "live" in our milk carton homes.  I enjoyed observing each child's creativity come out as they planned how to decorate their little houses.  They all put their own twist on their individual creations!

Help!

     Calling all parents!  I need your help!  Picture for a moment, 22 kids getting ready for recess....snow pants, boots, coats, hats, and mittens....yikes!  Preparing to go out into the cold and coming back in from the cold is quite chaotic.  Getting all buttoned, zipped, and tied can be a chore.  However, if kids practice these skills at home, they become much faster!
     Please work at home on helping your child learn how to dress and undress for the winter weather independently.  Being a parent myself, I understand the temptation to hurry things along and do everything for your son or daughter.  The problem with this is that at school, they are expected to be able to get ready for recess without much help.  
     If your child would like to play in the snow, they have to wear 5 things:  coat, snow pants, boots, hat, and mittens/gloves.  If they are lacking something, they will need to stay on the hard surface.
     One last thing....please label each item with your child's name or initials to help us identify the owners of lost things.
    Thanks so much for your assistance!  Happy Winter!

Symmetrical Art

     Have you heard your child talking about symmetry lately?  One of our math benchmarks states that we are to "explore the concept of symmetry."  Well, we've done just that!  We spent several days participating in a variety of activities that allowed us to discover the meaning of symmetrical.  We created a snowflake, drew a symmetrical body along the line of symmetry, and our favorite.....symmetrical painting!  The pictures below show how we dripped paint on one side of the paper, folded it back up and "smushed" it together, and opened it up to reveal a beautiful piece of art.  I loved hearing the "ooohs" and "ahhhhs" in the room!

Happy Thanksgiving!

    
  We had a special treat today!  Ms. Rose, our Pick a Better Snack educator, came to our room and presented a healthy snack idea.  Each child had the opportunity to make their own "pumpkin pie" out of pumpkin, dry butterscotch pudding, and milk.  The ingredients were placed in individual baggies and students squished them together to mix them up.  Rose then cut a small hole in the corner of the baggie and the kids decorated a graham cracker with the mixture.  It was pretty yummy and fun, too!

Fall Celebration

     First, I would like to thank all of you for attending conferences last week.  I had such a nice time discussing your child's progress with you, and I am so happy to report that I had 100% attendance!  Hooray!  If you think of any other questions, please give me a call at Pence or send me an e-mail.
     Last Monday, we had several fun activities to celebrate fall, but my favorite was our pumpkin investigation.  It was a great way to combine literacy, math, and science!  We first read a non-fiction story about pumpkins.  The kids loved learning a "grown up" word -- pulp.  For science, we worked on honing our observation skills, and math involved the estimation and counting of seeds.

My busy little worker bees!

 Cleaning out the pumpkin.....

 Ewwwwww!  Gooey!

Counting and counting and counting......over 400 seeds!

Random Tidbits

     It is hard to believe that the first quarter has come to an end!  I hope you found the parent-teacher conference sign-up directions in your child's backpack this week.  If you haven't signed up yet, please visit the fairfieldsfuture.org website and choose a convenient time for you to visit with me about your child's progress.  I look forward to talking with you next week!

     By now, you may have noticed lots of little readers coming home each week.  The best way to become a fluent reader is to practice, practice, practice!  I encourage you to find an old shoe box or gallon Ziploc bag to store these readers in.  I suggested to the kids that they keep them next to their beds and choose 2 or 3 to read every night before bed.  It will only take a minute, but will be extremely beneficial!

     One more thing....regarding homework....I hope I am not overwhelming you with the assignments I send home weekly.  Many times, parents ask me how they can help their children at home.  The homework gives you a way to do just that!  It allows you to spend a little focused time with your son or daughter.  It should not be stressful or bothersome, so if it becomes that way, take a little break and return it to school as you have time.  I appreciate any help or support that you give at home!




      

Field Trip Fun!

      It doesn't get much better than a field trip to Jefferson County Park with naturalist Therese Cummiskey!  She is extremely entertaining and so knowledgeable, that we always find ourselves learning without even realizing it!  Tuesday turned out to be a great day to be outside.  It was warm enough that we weren't miserable, but cool enough that we kept things moving.  We spent the majority of time learning about signs of fall and searching for fall colors.  Fun was had by all! 

     I think I'll let the photos (with a few captions speak) for themselves this week!

When we arrived, we explored the nature center....

Therese impressively learned every child's name by magically memorizing his or her face!

We next ventured outdoors to collect fall colors on a palette.

Josh tried his hardest to blow the milkweed off his finger, but it wouldn't budge!

 Mr. Squirrel called to invite us to help him collect some hickory nuts.

 Here's a close-up view!

We kept Therese busy with her nutcracker.

Alex tried a hickory nut!