Week of October 28-31, 2013

Week of October 28-31, 2013

Theme: Fall Fun

No Letter this week

This week we will be celebrating the wonders of fall. We will be doing several activities with pumpkins which includes some fine motor tasks as well as some counting. We will be reading several books about fall and Halloween including: Big Pumpkin and Spookley the Square Pumpkin. Following these books we will be expanding our creative thinking to include creating our own Spookley the Pumpkin and retelling the Big Pumpkin story with our own characters and theme. If you have not read these books it may be time for a trip to the library to borrow them. 

On Thursday we will have our Halloween party. Your child can either wear their costume to school or they can pack it in their backpack and we will help them get dressed. Please remember that if your child's costume includes anything that resembles a weapon that part of their costume may not come to school. We will have some fun games and activities including Trick or Treating around Hilton as well as a short walk up the hill to the Board of Education office to show off our costumes.

Next week we are going to be doing an activity that requires a variety of containers. If you have containers (plastic or aluminum) that have a lid on them that you are going to recycle such as a coffee container, old butter tub, etc. please send them in for us to use next week. We are going to be experimenting in a variety of ways with these containers and the more variety we have the better.

Last week the p.m. class was introduced to their book boxes as part of the Daily 5. They were able to choose 5 books to keep in their books boxes for Read to Self time. They were very excited about choosing books that would be their very own to keep in their book boxes.

Upcoming dates:

No School November 27-Dec. 1-Return to school Dec. 2

Week of October 21-24, 2013

Week of October 21-24, 2013

Theme: My Family

Letter of the Week: O

Dear Families,

During the week, the children will be learning about families. Children will learn the names of family members, such as father, mother, grandfather, sister, and uncle. They will describe their own families and read about a storybook family. They will also learn that families can be different; they can be made up of different family members can do together.

Learning Together

• If you have a family album, look at the photographs with your child. Together, name the family members. Point out and name any family members that children have not met or who have passed away. If photographs aren't available, draw a family picture and name the pictured individuals.
• Plan a whole family activity, such as cooking a meal, playing a game, or having a picnic.
• Talk about ways family members help and support each other, such as by cheering at a fame or celebrating a birthday. Discuss with your child how he or she can help other family members.

We will be discussing our families this week. On Tuesday please send in a photograph of your family with the family members labeled so that we can discuss and share them with the class group. We will then graph the number of brothers and sisters and compare the number of these two groups. We can then compare numbers of brothers and sisters in the a.m. class to those in the p.m. class. 

Upcoming events:
Star of the Week: Gabe, a.m. class
October 24-Show and Share, Letter O
October 31-Halloween party for the children only. Your children can either bring or wear their costume to school that day. We will do some fun Halloween activities in the classroom and then go trick or treating throughout the school.

Week of October 14-17, 2013

Week of October 14-17, 2013

Theme: My Body

Letter of the Week: F

Dear Families,

During the week, the children will learn the names of parts of their bodies. They will explore the different actions that they can do with each of these body parts. They will listen to a story about children using parts of their bodies to yawn, blink, reach, wiggle, and so on. Through stories, songs, and activities, children will practice identifying and using different body parts. They will become more aware of their own bodies, sense and personal boundaries.

Learning Together

• Visit the playground together. Have your child show you actions or activities he or she can perform. Ask your child to name the body parts he or she uses to do each one.
• Explore things together you can see, hear, touch, smell and taste. Have your child identify which body parts help them use these senses.
• Sing the "Hokey Pokey" with your child and perform the actions together:

            You put your right hand in. You take your right hand out. You put your right hand in and you shake it all about. You do the Hokey Pokey (Holds hands in the air and shake them.) And you turn yourself around. That's what it's all about.

Repeat using other body parts, such as feet, knees, head, and "whole self."

Special Dates/Events:

October 15th: Picture day. If you are planning on purchasing pictures please return your picture envelope with payment on or before this date.

October 16th: Special letter of the week snack letter F: Casey Svozil.

October 16th: District wide Early Literacy inservice for PK-2nd grade teachers, substitute teachers will be in the classroom that day. Please be sure to have your numbers prominently displayed in your car window during pick-up times, this will be helpful for those who helping get the children into the cars.

October 17th: Show and Share letter F

October 31st-Halloween party at school. This party will be for the children only. 

Week of October 7-10, 2013

Week of October 7-10, 2013

Theme: My Feelings

Letter of the Week: P

Dear Families,

During the week, the children will identify and talk about feelings that are common to everyone. They will learn words that name feelings, such as happy, sad, serious, and excited. they will also learn that how they feel affects the way they behave. For example, they are likely to smile when they are happy and frown when they are angry or unhappy. Additionally, children will talk about recognizing and responding to the feelings of others. 

Learning Together:

• Ask how your child is feeling when he/she comes home from school. Encourage your child to share reasons for these feelings.
• Look through picture books and have your child try to identify characters' feelings. Ask your child what clues helped him or her determine each character's feelings.
• Tell your child what makes you happy. Talk about things that make you both happy. Play a guessing game with your child. Take turns using facial expressions and other forms of body language to pantomime a feeling for the other to guess.

This week while we concentrate on feelings we will be discussing times when we had those same emotions. We will be identifying feelings that others may be having. We will identify how our bodies feel, look and what we can do to help our bodies calm down when they need. to.We will also identify strategies we can use when we are having certain feelings and how we can deal with them in an appropriate manner. 

Special Activities:

Star of the Week: Samantha Amick, P.M.

Special Letter Snack on Wednesday: Peyton Coyne, A.M.

Preschool Picture Day: October 15th, more information closer to the date.