Happy Halloween to all!  Have fun tonight…be safe.

REMINDER:all October Books Charts are now due.

READING-We are in week 2 of Unit 2  Friends.

WORD-A   a   (pronounced “ah”)

LETTER-P  p

STRATEGY-Asking questions

SKILL-Compare and Contrast

We will be creating a word web and, from that web, we will create sentences to go with our Opinion Writing.

MATH- Numbers 0-20  Writing and creating  ( F.Y.I.  Today is day # 40 of Kindergarten!)

SCIENCE- pumpkins and leaves   We will work with the Scientific Process of Hypothesis, Observe,

Gather information, Record Data, Conclusion

This will probably take us 2 weeks.

Thank you all for your very generous donations of goodies and food for our Halloween Party!  Wow!  You out did yourselves.  I saved some of the “goodies” to enjoy today.  Thank you again.

Remember…

Tuesday-Library Book Due

Daily Book Bags due

Friday-School in AM ONLY  11:45 Dismissal

Next week…

11/8 NO SCHOOL  VOTING DAY   Teachers will be in Professional Development 🙂

11/10 Evening Conferences Begin  I will be sending home Conference notices.

Enjoy your week.

Mrs Smith

Wow…such excitement today.  As you’ve heard by now, we had a power failure this morning from about 9:20-11:40.  A transformer in the neighborhood blew up and it affected Howard’s power.

My students were amazing…they just carried on, business as usual. No crying, no panic, nothing! We went right  on with our writing and Daily 5 Rotations.  Since our writing is Opinion, they told me their opinion about staying in school during the power outage or going home.  Since it is Opinion Writing and you need a reason for your opinion, they gave me their reasons/support.  Talk about a teachable moment.  🙂  They were just adorable.  I have plenty of light from the windows and we even went out on the porch and watched some geese take drinks and waddle away.

Our Superintendent, Dr. Myleko, came over and stayed until power was restored.  Our Howard engineer, Mr. Elia was right on top of things too.  Mrs. Burch returned from a meeting and it was “all hands on deck.”  What a terrific bunch of people to work with every day.  Every body just jumps in and helps wherever needed.  Very kind and thoughtful. Dr. Myleko even brought me a big flashlight to use too.  (I’m headed to Home Depot after school to get one for my room.)

For those students buying lunch, they were served 2 slices of American cheese, crackers, a pear and milk.  Fortunately, we have a birthday treat today so they’ll get a bit more.  Tomorrow’s first choice for lunch is spaghetti and second choice is cheese pocket sandwich.

What a fun day!  I really mean it too.  My students are such a joy to be with every day.  We ended the day with making jack-o-lanterns, with shapes (math) for facial features.  I enjoyed the conversations between them as they changed their pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns.

Mrs. Smith

Today our Scientists donned their lab coats and began observing  fall.  We used 4 of our 5 Senses.  We observed things by seeing, hearing, touching, and smelling. We discussed why we were not going to use our 5th sense of touch. After making our observations, we came back inside to record our data.  Pretty impressive for Kindergarten, don’t you think??

Check out these Scientists…

Gathering information by using our senses…

Recording our findings and observations…

Learning is so much fun!

Most of you received a note yesterday from Life Touch Photos saying that they were unable to process the picture due to human error.  Apparently there was a fan blowing behind the screen and …

So tomorrow, Oct 19  Life Touch will return for new photo shoots.  I just wanted to get the message out to you so you can get clothes ready tonight and up a bit earlier tomorrow for hair preparations. 🙂

Here’s a copy of the note sent home yesterday.  No note-then no need for a retake tomorrow

Thanks Gabriella for sharing your note.

Headphones-I am in need of 2 headphones to use with my IPads.  If any of you have an extra one at home, I would appreciate a donation.  I need the headphones, not the ear buds.  Thanks!

We measured her….she is 5 inches long. Wow!

To say that they are over the moon with excitement is as UNDERSTATEMENT!!

Just a note to say that if your child wants milk for lunch, they have been signing a “charge” list, which charges the cost to you and you will receive a bill for the amount charged.  Of course, all students are allowed to charge a lunch or just milk.  I just didn’t want you to receive a bill for lunch charges and you be unaware of how those charges were incurred.

If your child would like to buy/charge a lunch, you may pay when you receive the bill or pay ahead in the cafeteria (like a Debit Card).

Lunches cost $2.75  Milk is included

Milk alone  $.50

Dear Parents,

If you are an AOL email user, please be aware that you may not receive email notifications due to AOL policies. We are working to resolve this issue with AOL.

Thank you for your patience while we work with AOL to make sure you get classroom notifications from your teacher.

Sincerely,

Technology Department

Parents…Our all-school Halloween Parade will be on Friday, Oct. 28 at 1:30.

You are welcome to bring your cameras and meet us outside around the track.  Kindergarten will make the loop once around the track.  All other grades will walk twice around the track.

After the parade, students will return to their classrooms.  I will have a Math lesson to fit in and I’ll work a party around that lesson.  I know that parents want to stay for the party but it is just for the students.

Mrs. Smith

I hope you were able to enjoy your weekend.  It was so beautiful outside, I got very little housework done!

Reminders:

TUESDAY-Library Day

FRIDAY-11:45 Dismissal  (AM only for students)

We have a new member of Pete’s Shoe Tying Club

Brooke Regan

and a Birthday Girl

and a Birthday Girl

Evelyn Sherding

What a busy, happy week.  Here’s what’s in store for next week…

READING-We begin Unit 1, Week 2 of Families.  I have read with each child and they are in Reading Groups, which will change, according to different skill needs and focus/emphasis.

COMPREHENSION:

STRATEGY-Story Structure

SKILL- Identify Setting (where did the story take place)

WORD-The   the

LETTER-A  a

WRITING-We will continue with our Narrative Writing ( a real story). They are doing quite well with their writing.  It’s a lot to

choose something that happened to you,

draw the pictures to go with the idea,

write some letters or words to go with your picture    This is the tricky step because, although they can say the word, they need to “push through” the word and listen to the sounds that their mouth is making.  THEN, they need to figure out HOW to write that letter that matches the sound from their mouth!  It’s quite a process and we’re only on Day #23.  🙂  In the beginning they will hear the beginning sound.  Next comes the ENDING sound.  Last comes the median sounds.  Practice “pushing through” some words together.  Go lightly with the vowels right now, especially the short vowels.

MATH-Number awareness and vocabulary continues    Use can use the calendar at home to work with this.  Also check out PATTERNS…10,11,12,13,…

20,21,22,23…

Practice reading numbers on the calendar.  For example, read all of the “dates” on Monday.

SCIENCE-We will begin a Science Journal next week in which we will record our “discoveries.”  Since we will be observing, making an hypothesis, predicting, recording, observing again, and drawing conclusions, we should probably dress like a Scientist!  So, if you have an old white T-shirt you could send in next week, they will be our “Lab Coats.”  (I have already bought them some safety glasses!)

On the health front news, we have 2 more reported cases of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Virus being shared in here. I am constantly stressing and requiring them to wash their hands, especially after using the bathroom.  I appreciate any help on the home front with that.  Also, please remind them to FLUSH !!  Whenever a student is in the bathroom, my ear is always tuned to hear the flush sound, the water running, and paper towels.  I also squirt some Hand Sanitizer in their hands before going to lunch.

Enjoy this beautiful weather.  Head to a Cider Mill, go for a drive along Edward Hines, play outside, go for a family bike ride, …they’ll have some good possibilities for their Narrative Writing next week.

Someone sent me this the other day…

Teaching

You laugh.  You cry.  You work harder than you ever thought you could.

Some days you try to change the world.

Other days you just try to make it through the day.

Your wallet is empty.

Your heart is full.

And your mind is packed with memories of kids who’ve changed your life.

And I wouldn’t change a day in my life with “my kids” for anything!  Thanks for sharing your child with me.

Mrs. Smith

Blue Shirt Day

What a fun week we have had sharing some spirit with Dearborn High School!