Greetings Families! I hope that everyone is having a fun and relaxing day off from school. I am currently at school right now staring at 5 empty tables, and yes, it sure is quiet here, but I do miss those faces!

 Teaching the children writing is something I am very passionate about. I love how excited they get and how much they look forward to writers workshop. I have been helping the children persevere in the face of difficulty. They have been working on spelling as well as on drawing with detail, and I am teaching them that it is a sad day when a writer doesn't write what he or she wants to say because of worry that something is hard to draw or spell.  Writing bravery and perseverance are qualities that are not learned overnight; many students will take longer than a day to internalize them. Little by little, as both you and I offer support and encouragement, the students will begin to take more risks. They will be able to keep trying, rather then quitting on their writing. I am really trying to get the children to tell stories through their illustrations, and not just looking at it as "drawing a picture." When at home, use language such as "what story are you writing today?" or "what is an easy way to let your readers know what this is?"

In language arts, the children have been working on re-telling a story by pulling out the important parts from the beginning, middle, and end. I like to use a hamburger to help children visualize this. The top bun is the beginning, the meat and cheese are the middle, and the bottom bun is the end! A hamburger would no be a hamburger without all those parts, and that is the same with stories! All good stories have a beginning, middle, and end, and as good readers, it is our job to decide what the important parts are of the story. During this upcoming week, the children will be making their own puppets to re-tell the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." The children have also been learning about characters in stories. They created their own characters out of art and recycled materials. Before they
got started, they made a plan of their characters and how they want it to look. Then, they collected all their materials in their character bags. In the next coming weeks, they will be writing their story using the character they created as the main character. Here are some examples of the characters that will be in their stories:

Sam: Jack the Alligator
Avery: Repunzel
Sophia: A magical mermaid
Gabriel: A ninja
Drew: A one-spotted ladybug
Riley: A lion
Mackenzie: A princess
Evan: A boy (who will driving a car)
CJ: An alligator
Kaiden: Ninja Kaiden
Aurora: A girl
Lucia: A lady bug
Nina: Herself
Rook: Pete the Cat
Issac: A ladybug
Sarah: A unicorn
Jadon: A ladybug
Luke: A unicorn

In math, the children learned about comparing heights and finding hidden numbers within numbers. This is a concept that I could use your help with! It is a very vital concept for the children to understand. Hidden numbers are two numbers that make up a number. For example, if I have 5 cubes
 linked together, I can pull the cubes apart to find the hidden partners. The numbers might be 2 and 3 or 4 and 1. This concept gets the children to understand that when two numbers are put together, it makes a new number. The students who understand this concept are ready to dig deeper with addition!

We are very fortunate, for we have three University of Akron student teachers involved in our classroom! Miss Liz teaches us Spanish once a week, and Miss Huddle and Miss Jeffrey are engaged with our learning twice a week. They even taught their first lesson to us the other day! Miss Jeffrey introduced the children to coins, and Miss Huddle took us on a leaf hunt, and then we came back and graphed the different leaves that we found. The children are responding very well to the new teachers, and get very excited when one walks through the door.

Last week, the children showed the school how truly talented they are! They had their first performing arts show, and it went amazing! They LOVED being on stage and performing for the entire school. It gave them something to be proud of, which is something that I hope they feel everyday at school. I am providing the video for you to watch. Enjoy!

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Last note: Parent/teachers conferences are next week! Your conference is either scheduled for Thursday, October 24th or Friday,  October 25th. Please let me know if you need a reminder of when your conference is scheduled.  Friday, October 25th is the second online school day. The children do not report to school, however there will be something on Edmoto for them to complete.

Enjoy this beautiful, fall weekend with your families! The children have been telling me many stories of apple and pumpkin picking, drinking apple cider, and even traveling to different cities to visit family!  Each week, I will be giving you an idea to do with your family over the weekend. Of course it is not mandatory, but it is just a suggestion! This weekend, why don't you make pumpkin play dough with your little one? Here is a link to the recipe:

http://www.theidearoom.net/2009/11/pumpkin-spice-playdough.html

Have fun!

Calling All Chefs!

 Dear Families,
 Thank you to all the families who came to the Fall Harvest Festival! It is one of the most magical evenings for the children, and they continue to look forward to it year after year. The Kindergarteners had a lot of fun preparing for the festival. They decided they wanted to make corn muffins to share. That was the first cooking project we had, and it went great! They got to wear real aprons which they loved. Before we started cooking, we looked at the recipe and talked about what recipes are, what they include, and why it was so important to follow directions when they are cooking. The children also wanted to decorate our classroom with pumpkins and leaves. I value their thinking and eagerness to create, so they did just that! Sam wanted to hang the leaves on string so it looked like they were "falling." Take a look at the pictures below to see our chefs in action!

 The students are learning what strategies are and how they can make us better readers, writers, and mathematicians. They are "reading closely" and trying to pick out the most important part of the book. We read the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. We talked about how it wasn't very important to know what kind of food he was eating, but it was more important to know that caterpillars (and all animals and insects) need food in order to grow! In this case, the caterpillar needed to eat so it can turn into a beautiful butterfly! The students also had a very special afternoon on Friday, for the first graders came over to our room and read with them. They were SO excited and they got along great with the other children. Now, because the first graders filled our buckets, the students want to do something nice for them!

The students have been busy learning the skills needed to have neat handwriting. Correct pencil grip is something that I have been working on with the children, so please encourage them to hold their pencil the correct way at home. Please see the link below if you need a reminder as well! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM_dia8QGr0

The children have been showing me a deep interest in puppets, for they love to make puppets and they love to watch puppets! Next week, the children will be engaging in puppet projects, all while learning Kindergarten curriculum standards such as retelling stories and comparing and contrasting the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories. I can't wait to see where this project leads next! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

- Mrs. Bowen :)