October 7th Classroom Headlines

Language Arts

This week, we focused on our favorite thing to do at the fair in our Writer's Workshop Journal time. We read the book, Time for the Fair, by Mary Train. We had a chance to share what our favorite part of visiting the Topsfield Fair and then we wrote about what we shared in our journals. Some of our ideas were going down the big slide, going on elephant rides, playing carnival games and visiting the bee hive building.

Our new sight word, "in," was introduced on Tuesday and we practiced throughout the week. Please make sure to add the new card to your student's sight word ring and practice the new word at home.

Fundations will be stretched over two weeks as next week is a very short week. We're learning Cc and Oo this week. We've already learned how to write these letters using our Fundations writing grid, did a two-way sort using pictures that begin with these letters and are getting used to the sounds these letters make. Next week, we'll make these letters fun by doing lots of different types of learning with the letters to continue our practice.

Math

Our math learning has moved on to the numbers 7 and 8 this week! We're learning rhymes to help with our counting and are looking at different arrangements of the numbers 7 and 8 to learn that no matter how many different ways we see our numbers arranged, they'll always end up being 7 and 8. We do this by counting the same number of objects in a circle or looking at different arrangements of objects with groups of smaller numbers in lines that we count all together.

In our Everyday Calendar math, we've been looking at arrangements of numbers to 9 using dominos. The students are learning to look at the arrangement of dots and quickly saying the number of dots they're seeing. This is called subitizing and we'll be working with different arrangements of dots on 10-frames throughout the year helping students to see numbers to 10 in various forms as part of our Common Core Standards.

Health

This week we were visited by Jump Roper, Mark Rothstein. The students had a wonderful time learning different ways of jumping rope and exciting new things to try while staying active. The students were excited and engaged, having a wonderful time on Friday afternoon.

Looking Ahead

Volunteers will begin next week, Wednesday, October 16. Please let me know if you signed up to volunteer, but did not receive your schedule Friday afternoon.

Our Community Field Trip is scheduled for Friday, October 18 with a rain date of Wednesday, October 23. We will be doing a lot of walking that day between the Topsfield Fire Department, Police Department, Post Office and Library. Please be sure to dress your student in sneakers/comfortable walking shoes and appropriate clothing for the weather. Please also send in a paper bag lunch with your student's name on it and be sure to keep in mind our Tree Nut/Peanut Free classroom. 

Our Halloween Parade and Classroom Celebration is scheduled for Wednesday, October 30th beginning at 2:00 pm. I know that our Room Parents have been in touch with everyone with details for the day, but if you have misplaced any information, please let us know. Also, please keep in mind that costumes should be age appropriate and safe for all students. I hope you can join us for the parade!