We are getting excited for our trip to the Franklin Park Zoo on Thursday! More information about the trip will go home on Wednesday. Students will need a completely disposable bagged lunch and drink. Chaperones will be riding on the bus with us and should plan to be at the school by 8:30am.
We have already started learning about animals and will learn more about mammals next week. The children will begin an individual innovation entitled, Mom and I Went to the Zoo, which they will bring home to read in a couple of weeks.
Students made crocodile and monkey puppets this week to use as props when we sing our zoo song. They are all so unique, because they draw and cut the parts of the puppets themselves.
We started drawing some zoo animals that will be on display in our hallway after they have been painted and cut out. The students used shape tracers to make their animals. They are looking great so far!
The children continue to write in their journals and to illustrate poetry. We have been introducing various poems and chants, which help the children to hear rhymes. We finished another class book called “Did You Ever See…?” It’s silly but a great way to use rhyme! Please be sure to return class books on the next school day so we can continue circulating them!
The students have been playing rhyming memory games and even made rhyming monsters! The monsters eat lots of things but only foods that begin with the /r/ sound. Therefore, pizza becomes rizza, numbers become rumbers, elephants become relephants, and zippers become rippers! The students enjoyed feeding their monsters all of those silly foods and many more! The monsters went home for the children to practice this silly rhyming game with their families. Feel free to change the rules and make the monster eat foods that start with different sounds!
We will start sending home papers for students to practice writing numerals next week. This is homework that they should return the next day. We ask that students use a pencil to write the numerals using the Fundations pencil grip (pinch the pencil close to the tip with thumb and pointer finger and use the rest of the fingers to rest on the table). All numbers and letters should be written from top to bottom.
We have just finished our first topic in math and will be starting our next one next week. We will be doing a lot with comparing and ordering numbers in math. Students have shown a lot of improvement with writing their numbers.
There is a website that I like to use with math games that you may want to check out at home. It is: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com. Click on “math games” and then under the heading “early math” click on the games “Count and Order,” “Order Numbers 1-10,” and “Count to 10.” These games help reinforce some of the concepts we are practicing in math. They are simple but the students typically enjoy them. There are many other games and activities on that website that your child would probably enjoy at home. I will use some of them throughout the year.
Don’t forget that there is no school on Monday due to Columbus Day weekend. Enjoy the extra day!
Melanie Duncan
PS...We will be going to the library on Wednesday. Please be sure to read and return your child’s library book so he/she can borrow a new one!
Also, please consider sending in more seasonally appropriate extra clothes that can be kept at school in case of an accident.
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