It's Wednesday!

We are half way through the week!  Yeah!

Today we met a new Super Kid friend, Lily!  She is Chinese-American and loves lions.  Lily really enjoys pretending with her family of stuffed animal lions.  During this unit we will be working on the /l/ sound, as well as writing Capital and Lowercase Ll.

**The online portal has been updated.  There is now a game your child can play as well!**

Halloween:  Thanks to all those who came to the Halloween Program.  The kids did a super job and had a lot of fun!  If you have not heard, Franklin has moved trick-or-treating hours to Friday in hopes of better weather.

Here are some pictures from the Halloween Program!

Opa!

Today we finished our tour of Greece!  It's been a while since we initially talked about the country, so we did a quick refresher of what all we saw a few weeks ago.  After that, I taught the kids a traditional Greek Dance called the Sirtos (I'm sure the mental images are flooding in about now!).  Naturally it was modified just a bit, but the kids did a pretty good job with this!  We learned a few basic steps, then gathered in a circle to try it out to some traditional Greek music.  Have your child try and show you at home!  Check out these pics below!

In our starting position....

and ready to dance!

Moving forwards and backwards.

Doing some cross steps.

Rotating around the circle.

 Math
For math this week we continued our work with patterns.  The kids had the chance to make a macaroni bracelet here in class using either an AB, AAB, or ABB pattern.  We also spent some time learning about a pan balance and how it is used to compare the weight of different objects.  The kids had a chance to make a prediction about which of 2 objects would be heavier.  They had a great time seeing if they were right or wrong!

Halloween Program
Don't forget about our Halloween Program on Monday night.  The doors will open at 6 pm for you to bring your child to our classroom.  We will begin the program around 6:10.  Just as a reminder, your child is to wear their costume for the program ONLY.  Please do not send them in their costume for the regular school day.

Have a great weekend and see you all on Monday!

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had a restful Fall Break and were able to enjoy the time away from school.  (I sure did!)  We are back in the grove and wanted to fill you in on a few things!

We have a new Super Kid friend, Sal!  Sal is bilingual and speaks both English and Spanish.  He also loves all kinds of sports.  We have been working on writing our Capital and Lowercase S, as well as learning the /s/ sound.  We are really working hard to identify the beginning and ending sounds in words.

We have also started talking about nouns (person, place, thing, or animal) and verbs (action words)!  Read these words to your child and have them tell you which it is:   toothbrush     skip      hug      pencil


Recess
Also, as the weather is turning colder, I want to remind you to make sure your child is dressing appropriately.  Unless it is raining or snowing, we go outside for recess every morning at 9:45.  This is still fairly early, before the sun has had a chance to warm things up.  Please make sure your child is coming to school with warm coats and hats, gloves, and scarves if necessary.

Halloween Program
As one last reminder, don't forget about our Halloween Program which is coming up on Monday, October 28 at 6 pm in the Creekside gym.  The kids are super excited about this!  We have been busy practicing for it all week, and I'm sure you are getting to hear some of the songs at home as well!  Be sure to mark it on your calendars and I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

Lots of Fun!

I wanted to share some pictures of some of the things we have been doing in class lately!  The past few days we have had some fun projects in math.

On Monday we made some paper chains to help us with our "Tricky Teen" numbers.  We used 2 different colors, one color to show the first grouping of 10, then a second color to show how many more we needed to get a certain number.

Makinzi hard at work making a number chain to show "13."

Crystal, Logan and Cooper working to make a number chain for "16."

All the number chains, 11-19, hanging in the hallway.

On Tuesday we did an activity to help us with symmetry.  We used some special paper and went outside to also get in a small science lesson!  The kids had 3 objects that they set on their paper.  We let the sun shine on the paper for a few minutes, and took off our objects to see that the sun had faded the paper, but left the image behind.  They thought this was SO COOL!  It was a great way to talk about shadows and blocking light.  When we got back into the classroom, the kids had to draw a line through each object to make it symmetrical.  They did a really great job with this tricky concept.

Waiting.....

and waiting for the sun to work its magic!

Our finished projects with our lines of symmetry!

Happy Friday!

We have made it through the week, and are one week away from Fall Break!  Today was a great day, as we ended the day with our PTO Walk-a-Thon!  The kids had a great time walking outside and listening to music.  I have several upcoming events to remind you of:

Conferences:  I am holding conferences next week.  Please be sure to show up on-time for your scheduled conference as these are scheduled back-to-back and are only 15 minutes long.  Confirmation slips went home at the beginning of the week.  If you are unsure or have lost your conference date and time, please contact me.

Pajama Day:  We will be having a school-wide pajama day on Thursday, October 10.  This is to raise some money for the United Way of Johnson County.  Students are asked to contribute a donation in exchange for being able to wear their PJ's to school.  You can send the money in that morning.  Your child may choose to wear slippers, HOWEVER, please send them to school in normal shoes.  They can change when they ARRIVE in our classroom.  Thanks!

Zoo Field Trip:  Don't forget we are heading to the zoo on Friday, October 11.  Thanks for getting your child's permission slip and money in on time!  I will be sending home a reminder closer to the day with a bit more info on how to best plan for this trip.

Fall Break:  Our Fall Break is October 14-18.  There will be no school this entire week.  Enjoy the break away and we will see you back on Monday, October 21.

Vision Screening:  We will be traveling to Northwood Elementary on Thursday, October 24 for a vision screening with a local optometrist.  This is a free service provided for your child.  More information on this will come home closer to the day.

Halloween Program:  The Creekside Kindergarteners will be putting on a Halloween Program on Monday, October 28 from 6-7pm here at school.  You will NOT WANT TO MISS THIS!  More info will be coming home soon!  They have already begun learning songs for this program.... I'm sure you are hearing them at home!

All of these events can be found on our Classroom Calendar, so refer to it should you need a refresher on upcoming events!  Also, please be sure to check the Snack Calendar for our October dates!

Enjoy your weekend!