Happy Halloween!

The excitement has been building all week and finally the day of pretty, scary, and funny costumes arrived!

All this week the children  enjoyed Halloween-themed centers which included creating a jack-o-lantern paper decoration, patterning with plastic bat, skeleton and spider rings, playing Halloween concentration and making  Halloween paper chains which we then hung up to decorate our room. We also surprised Mr. Gil and helped him to decorate the front entrance hall with some of these chains. Of course, we did all this while listening to spooky music!

The students enjoyed listening to several Halloween books this week. A favorite was Go Away Green Monster, by Ed Emberley. As a follow-up activity the children then had to recall the story to recreate their own Green Monster. This art work is currently on display in the hallway outside our classroom. 

We also enjoyed reading In A Dark Dark Wood, in the darkness of our classroom and a flashlight! A spooky setting! Many children enjoyed doing a choral reading of this book and did a fantastic job! Choral reading is when readers all read the same text together and it sounds like one voice! More of that in future reading workshops.

Thanks to all were able to attend our first Wilson Primary Center Halloween Parade and assembly. And thanks also to all the moms who volunteered their time to organize party activities, readers, crafts and goody bags. They were both a BIG hit!

Over the weekend, why not extend this holiday by doing some learning activities. Have your child sort all the candy and treats. They can sort by color, type, chocolate, chewy, soft, favorite kind, least favorite, etc. They can count them and put them into bundles, then count by tens! They can pattern them. The possibilities are endless! Have fun! And of course, don't forget to eat a few!

A "head's up"........ For the month of November during Reading Workshop we will be discussing 'old favorites'. These are books that we like to read, look at and listen to over and over. Some examples of these books are: The Kissing Hand, Are You My Mother?, Where the Wild Things Are, and Chrysanthemum.   Not sure of some good books to choose?

Visit :http://www.amazon.com/My-Favorite-Children's-Books/lm/1SZJ29U99K9WQ

Another  site you might want to explore together with your child is:  www.rif.org/leadingtoreading/en

During this month the children will be reading and re-reading old favorites. Please continue to be a Reading Role Model by sharing some of your favorite children's books with your learner. Help set the foundation for a lifetime of reading.  As my mother would tell me, "Make reading your best friend for life"!

I hope you all had a good time trick or treating. 

Remember to set your clocks back one hour Saturday night.

Also: Please refer to the notice sent home today from Mr. Gil regarding school closings and holidays. The Primary Center schedule is not the same as Grades 1-5 for some days. 

Thanks to all who organized and attended the AM breakfast on Friday.

A concern raised was, since we are not having November conferences or getting report cards, how will you know how your child is doing in school?  My response was that I will always contact a parent if I have any concerns or some issues that need to be addressed. I hope to be able to make some sort of connection with you all before January, whether it be in person, phone or via email or note to briefly discuss your child's progress thus far. 

This was another busy week and the children enjoyed meeting Ms. T and her Tall Teeth. 

This was an opportunity to talk about Dental Hygiene and teeth brushing and flossing. If your child has not yet had a Dental checkup this would be a great opportunity to schedule one.

We had some terrific T centers. Playing Tic Tac Toe was a popular one. The children were excited to play and learned some strategies on how to "block" 

the other player. Try playing this activity at home. We also practiced some tongue twisters (included in this week's folder) and played telephone, always a hit!

Ask your child to do the "TootyTa"song. You will laugh along with them!

Although I planned on a Science lesson on how to use magnifying glasses, our studies were postponed because we had a visit from the Summit Fire Department.  Thanks to these men who volunteered their time to talk to the children and to help them understand the importance of fire safety rules. Have your child tell you at least 3 things they learned about fire safety. Now is a good time to check and replace smoke alarm batteries and discuss a safe meeting place outside your house in case of a fire. In your child's folder you should find a sticker and a coloring book. Each child received a plastic fire helmet and a little critter named "Uh-Oh". If you look on its tag there is a "secret code number." Log on to their website: www.nfpa4kids.org.

There are several activities that will reinforce safety rules at home. Please be sure to supervise your child's time on the computer.

We are learning a new song, "This Land is Your Land" and the words are included in your child's folder. Start to practice at home if possible. 

Halloween info: There will be a parade at 10am for the AM class and 1:30 f0r the PM class. 

All are invited to watch the parade in the Multi Purpose room. A class party will follow for kindergartners and Class/Party Moms only. Dismissal will be at the regular times. Your child should come to school dressed in their costume, but please remember not to send in any weapons. I will allow masks but, for safety,  they will be worn on top of their heads when walking. 

Please send in a small snack on this Party day, as we will not be serving food. 

On this rainy weekend check out this fun site with some Halloween games. Please be sure to preview the games to make sure they are age-appropriate: funschool.kaboose.com/fun-blaster/halloween/index.html. 

A head's up: Nov. 4th is Election Day. There is NO SCHOOL for students.

 Please don't forget to VOTE! 

Have a good weekend!

Responding

To all who are interested in Math Night, please respond to :

judithcfisher@gmail.com 

or go to "About Me" and click on email. 

Please use your child's name when responding so I make make the association.

I will let you know if and when this event will happen. 

Thank you, 

Judi Fisher

I See!

Has your child asked you for a permanent marker? Have they asked you to point to your pre-frontal cortex?
"Why would they do these things?", you ask?

Well, we have started our Unit on the Five Senses, and I always like to start off by showing the students pictures of the brain and giving them a brief, kid-friendly version of the parts of the brain and what they do and control. Kids love to see pictures of things and how they work.

This week the children started learning and using their sense of sight and looked closely at seashells. I am having the children use new vocabulary to describe things. Please try to help them expand their list of adjectives by modeling some examples, (time to pull out the Roget's Thesaurus)!

Enclosed in your child's folder on Friday was a cute little 5 Senses song. It is sung to the tune of "I've Got Something in My Pocket" (the kids know it). Have fun and sing this together with your kindergartner. There was also a Home Connections activity that you can do to extend this learning.

Our letter sound and recognition studies continue and as of this week we have studied the letters Bb, Mm, Rr, and Ss. We had fun with some Centers that used spinners, counted snakes, wrote our names in sand, with string and shaving cream. Our classroom smelled sensational! I also surprised the children and uncovered the sand table!! A BIG hit (and MY favorite thing to do in kindergarten when I was 5!) You can continue to reinforce these letters and sounds by visiting www.starfall.com. It's fun and free!

We also began the first of many Computer labs. Mr. Gil has arranged for the classroom computers to be wheeled into an empty pre-school classroom which will serve as a temporary Computer Lab each week. The children enjoyed learning to use some of the tools in a program called KidPix. 

Our Reading Workshop continues as the children are learning strategies to be good readers. Thanks to all who have been practicing this week's homework of recognizing the beginning, middle and end of books. This will eventually lead to sequencing and story comprehension. 

A "head's up" for the Reading Homework for this week: Good Readers Learn Good Strategies". They "read" the pictures, they read any words or letters they recognize, they get their minds ready by looking at the cover and ask themselves, "what do I think this book is going to be about?" and then then put these things together and start to read. Remember that "reading" also means talking about the pictures. Hopefully you are reading daily and giving your child opportunities to talk to you about the story.

We had another great school Spirit Day. Congratulations to this month's Star Students - AM - Jacob Ruocco and Cate Hampson and PM students Grace Hannnigan and Luke DiNola. Star Students are selected on how consistently they have demonstrated good citizenship, friendliness, cooperation and participation.

Next Friday, Oct. 31st is Halloween. Thanks to all the Moms who have planned some activities for this day. Mr. Gil is scheduling a Halloween Parade for ALL to attend. The AM parade will commence @10 am and the PM parade will start @1:30.
Your child can come to school dressed in their costume, but please make sure that they will be able to move around safely. NO WEAPONS, SWORDS, ETC., PLEASE.

A safety note from Mr. Gil. Please drive slowly. There are several children and parents who walk to and from school and it has been brought to his attention that some drivers are exceeding the speed limit. CAUTION PLEASE!

I'm Baaaaaaaaak!!

Well.... it was a heck of a week and I am very happy be be back in class with Mrs. Lenck and the children. I managed to get a viral bug that made me think I was having an appendicitis attack and was admitted into Overlook Hospital. Over a few days, I had several tests to rule out may things. I was eventually discharged and had some time to recuperate at home.
Mrs. Lenck and I were in constant communication and it was a relief for me to know that the children were in good hands. A BIG round of applause to her, please!!

We are all back in the swing of things and on our regular school schedule. On Friday, I introduced our new Science Unit, The 5 Senses, and will continue to discuss them over the next few weeks.
You can extend this learning at home by helping your child become more aware of his/her sense of sight, sound, touch, smelling and tasting. We will be probing, asking questions, making observations, recording and discussing these senses and become Sense Experts!

We will start with the sense of sight. Look carefully at an object and start to help you child use some words to describe what they see, not just "nice" or "pretty" or "yucky"! This is an opportunity to develop new vocabulary. Use words like smooth, bumpy, rough,
pointy, etc. After a while their observation skills will become fine tuned. This is an example of what we will be doing in class.
Class discussions and student participation is critical! We need to help these brains to grow!

We also have been enjoying watching the changes that are occurring around Wilson School during Autumn. During a nature walk around the grounds, an observant student saw a beautiful hawk perched in the nearby tree. Talk about "eagle eyes"!
We also listened to the sounds of nature and the calling of a mother Blue jay cawing to warn of an oncoming danger.

And of course who can't refrain from jumping into a pile of leaves and listening to the crunching sounds they make! I think Autumn is my favorite season. Talk to your child, share your favorite season and talk about why it is. What is their favorite and why? Remember, "because I like it" is NOT an appropriate response!

We concluded our Social Studies Unit on Friendship, but of course, we will continue to reinforce and encourage kind words and developing Friendship skills throughout the year.
Thanks to the Class Moms who have worked together to compile a list of email addresses. This is an opportunity to make "play dates" for the children and also get to know each other better.

Question: Would you be interested in an evening activity for parents? In past years I used to do a "Math Night" where parents came into the classroom and "become 5-6 year olds". It's a Hands On opportunity for you to become familiar with the Math Their Way program. You can respond to the Gmail account if you think you would be interested. I have to have at least 50% (20 adults). If you have any other suggestions for an evening activity please let me know.

With the car line, I know it is difficult to have a close relationship with parents, and I miss that. I am very happy to attend evening activities or perhaps an "early bird" breakfast before school starts. This would be an opportunity to meet and have some friendly chats, NOT to discuss any concerns or to conference about your child's progress.
There will be opportunities later in the school year for that.
Enjoy this beautiful weather!

Judi Fisher

First week of October

Despite being a 4 day week, there was lots of learning and fun taking place in Room 112. We met Mr. R with his rainbow ribbons and on this Fun Friday the children had fun rockin' and rollin' to kidz bop music.


We read Flower Garden by Eve Bunting and spent time discussing our families and things we like to do together.


We have also been talking about the new season of Autumn, and the changes it brings. We went outside today to do our first Scientific documentation of a Maple tree. The children made good observations and took time to sketch the tree and color it accordingly. Part of our Science curriculum is teaching children how to observe and document. Recording our observations is part of this process. Taking nature walks and looking "up close and personal" at leaves, seeds and flowers are activities that you can do with your child over the weekends or when walking to school. Of course, Autumn is a great time to go apple and pumpkin picking, going on a hayride and making a scarecrow. I love to go to farms where there are animal petting areas too.
As we prepare to begin our Unit on The 5 Senses, I have been telling the children to start becoming aware of the smells of autumn...pumpkin and apple pies baking, rotting leaves, freshly turned soil, animals, corn husks, etc. Take the time to smell the world around you!


Another sign of Fall is the change in temperature. We will continue to go outside, so please be sure to dress your child for the day's weather. Also, please label all removable clothing.

Please note: I am in the process of assembling a Blog Mailing list. If you have not given your email address to Mrs. Poh (Belinda AM) and would like to add your name to this list to receive updates of when I post a blog, please let her know. I hope you are finding these blogs informative and a brief insight onto your child's time in kindergarten.

Have a great weekend!

Remember: There is No School on Thursday Oct. 9th

It's October!

The time is really passing quickly in Room 112.
If you haven't already heard, the children came in to the classroom today to find that there were new seat assignments.
Instead of the usual color coded tables, this month's tables have "new names". Ask your child to tell you what table they are sitting at using the October name. Can they tell you who their new table mates are?
For the letter R we are trying to "remember" the names of our peers. We also have been singing the Name Game. Ask your child to sing it to you using your first name and their first name. It's fun and silly!

In today's folder there was an October Reading Sheet. Reading each day is part of the District's Reading Initiative, so please try to be consistent and conscientious with this reading assignment. Reading together with your child will not only serve as a reading role model, but it will also help establish good reading practices.

We will be discussing rhyme and rhyming words, so reading Mother Goose rhymes and some books that have lots of rhyming words is a good place to begin.

There was also a paper sent home titled I Can Count. This was both a Reading and Math activity. Your child should practice writing the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. For an additional activity, try to extend the poem, by adding your own number rhymes, for example:

One one one one
I can lay down in the sun

Two two two two
I can hear a cow say moo
etc etc

Challenge:
Can you go past 4 and try some rhyme with
Five five five five
I can..................

Next week is another short week (no school on Thursday, Oct. 9th) so I will use next week as a review of the letters B, M and R
as well as the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4.

I will give you Halloween party updates in a future blog as well as some School activities that will be occurring this month.

Stay tuned.