The Five Senses: We officially began our science unit on the Five Senses! The children actually developed and derived on their own what their thought of the five senses could be. We are understanding that through these five senses, we are able to send messages to our brain. We read the story “My Five Senses,” by Aliki, and discussed how we use our sense of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. It was pretty exciting to talk about something we had never thought about before. The children were very interested and engaged! We enjoyed taking a special walking field trip around our school and used our sense of sight to see a variety of colors on the fall trees around us. From green, to orange, to red, to yellow, the leaves were beautiful to see both up in the trees and down on the ground. The boys and girls began to look for and notice other things like a bird flying, cars in the parking lot, and a car driving by, as well as the stop sign and American flag. We went back inside to log our findings in our journal, and the children did a great job labeling! We are excited to learn more next week about our five senses!
Handwriting: This week we officially began our handwriting workbooks by learning how to properly form the uppercase letters of F, E, D and P. We describe these as Frog Jump Letters, because after creating the first line stroke down, we then “frog jump” back up to the top and create the rest of the letter. Please encourage continued practice of proper letter formation with these letters and upcoming letters during the school year. Thank you for your help!
Writing Workshop: We are continuing with our small moment narrative writing and the children are enjoying the process of sharing and documenting their stories, as well as feeling like big kids when they write their stories as 3 page papers!
Reading Workshop: We are practicing and applying our reading strategies of Reading to Self and Reading to Someone (partner reading). The children are enjoying the chance to use their personal reading bins with their popcorn mini-books, and they are elongating their time and ability to read independently. They are excited to be readers with these “good-fit” books!
Math: We are nearing the end of our first unit. This unit has consisted of counting, drawing number scenes and recognizing groups of things to 5, as well as understanding that numbers added become more, or subtracted become less. Their number writing is also coming along very well. Thank you for the help and encouragement you are providing your child with their homework. I know that they will be ready for their first Unit #1 test next week. 
Mystery Reader: It was so special for Keegan to see his mom, Mrs. Burns, enter into our classroom this week as our Mystery Reader. He was so happy in his heart and it showed. Our class loves Pete the Cat, so everyone was happy when Mrs. Burns read aloud to us the Book “Pete The Cat – Construction Destruction,” by James Dean. Thanks, Mrs. Burns!
Popcorn Words for the Week Were: “to,” “do,” “you,” “purple”
Important Information and Reminders:
- Black & White Week: Wear black and white on Friday, Oct. 21.
- Box Tops!: Please save and send in your Box Tops collections by Friday, October 21. These are an easy way to help raise money for our school. Simply clip from household products and send them back to school in a baggie with your child’s name, class and grade. Thanks!!
- Marco’s Pizza: This Thursday, Oct. 20, is a Marco’s Pizza fundraiser night for our school. If you were planning to order pizza that night, please be sure to say our school and teacher name when ordering your pizza. Thanks!
- Fall Parade and Party: Plans are underway! If you are able to attend and help at our Fall party on Friday, Oct. 28, please note that the Kindergarten parade will begin at 2:10pm, and our fall party will follow in our classroom from 2:30-3:15pm. If you have not already filled out a background check form, please click here.
- Backpack Snack: Please pack your child a healthy daily backpack snack in a different compartment other than their lunch box so they know the difference. Thanks!
- Homework: Each Wednesday, your child will have homework. Please continue to assist with directions and encourage independent work. Thank you for doing such a wonderful job helping your child complete it in a timely manner in connection to our lessons. I love seeing their excitement for homework!!
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- Library: We visit every Tuesday, so please help your child remember to return their book so they may check out another book to enjoy.
Enjoy the beautiful fall colors!
: ) Mrs. Estefan