This week has been packed with spooky stories, witch's brew singing and dancing and activities in anticipation for Halloween! We have read multiple Halloween books and visited the Science Lab for "Spooky Science"! Our fall backpacks have been making their way home with some of you, and will be visiting your house soon if you haven't yet see them.
Literacy:
We played a game which required each child to fill in the missing letter beside the pictured item. This exercise helps children learn that letters make words and have meaning, as well as providing an opportunity to practice writing lower case letters. We talk about letter sounds each day as we sound out our morning message. It's fun to see the progress as the children begin to make the letter-sound connection, and some begin to recognize sight words and common words. Our reading groups took turns reading pages and doing picture walks to guess words that were unfamiliar. We also raced to find letters on the page, differentiating between the upper and lower case letters. We read Mouse's First Halloween, The Best Halloween Hunt Ever, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat, The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything, The Classroom Pet, Click Clack Boo, Shake dem Halloween Bones.
Math and Science:
We visited the upper school Science Lab and used Golden Rod paper to detect an acid-based reaction with baking soda. The children colored on the paper and were able to observe their writing getting darker and darker as the transformation happened. They witnessed other chemical reactions as a jack-o-lantern exploded with foam, and watched the process of chemiluminescence much like what happens to glow sticks when you break them and the two liquids are mixed together. They enjoyed mixing colors to make their own slime. Most of all, they loved all of the help the upper school students provided. They were so kind and patient, and were full of compliments as they fell in love with this amazing class of JK children!
We have been practicing our teen numbers and learning that "the one always comes first" in teen numbers! We are also working on finding numbers not in sequential order, as we talk about adding and subtracting and the symbols that stand for each. Our calendar provides a great way to discuss patterns daily and to study the sequence of numbers as well as the one to one correspondence.
Fine Motor:
We completed group drawing Halloween pictures as each group completed drawing a list of related creatures. This allowed for compromise as each child chose what they wanted to draw, and shared space on the rug as they each completed their part of the mural. They also told a story based on their illustration and shared it with the class. We made patterns on witch's legs and worked on colored pencil self portraits. We also worked in groups to complete paper chains for the classroom, sticking to an ABCD pattern of colors.
We had such a wonderful time at our classroom party, playing "Pin the Nose on the Jack-o-Lantern, trick or treat slime bucket, cookie decorating, candy corn counting game, bozo bucket spider toss, Halloween Bingo, and dancing, singing and playing with our friends. Thank you for all of your donations and assistance in making it the most fun day ever for JK!
Have an amazing week, and please sign up for a conference slot if you haven't already done so! We will have no school on Friday to allow for conferences!
Ms. Massey
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