Apples and Autumn!

Halloween:

• We will change into our costumes at 1:00.  Parade is at 1:30. Party will follow.
• The parade is outside unless it is raining.  If it is cold I will make your child wear any jacket you sent in.  Please (PLEASE!!) have this conversation with your child so that I am not making princesses and goblins cry when I try to keep them warm...  If you are okay with your child going out without a jacket, please send a note or be there for the parade.  
• No high heels, please.
• All parents are welcome to join the class for the parade and party!  Siblings are welcome. We cannot promise enough supplies for the siblings, but we will try to accommodate!
• No candy will be distributed at Irving School.  We will not send candy home with students.
•  Costumes should come to school labeled with your child's name on it.  If your child can wear the "base" pieces of the costume it helps when we all change into our costumes.  
• No weapons of any kind.  If you have to ask- please leave it at home.

This week we learned about apples and the apple tree.  We found the flower at the bottom of the apple and the seeds that were formed when bees brought pollen to the apple blossoms!   We had a taste test of the red, yellow, and green apples.  Red tasted best to our class with 10 votes, green received 6 votes, and 4 kids liked yellow.  Please send in an apple (or two or three)  on Monday or Tuesday for our Applesauce!  

Writing:  We worked on letter sorts and the routines that will help us hear the sounds in words when we write.  We wrote pattern books.  These books help us practice our sight words and help us put spaces between words.  

Reading:  This week we kicked off our reading unit that helps us use READING SUPER POWERS!  We activated our pointer power to help us point under each word as we read.  When we got confused we went back and re-read.  The kids love doing this so much they choose to do this during our indoor developmental play time!

Math:  We are practicing finding and naming our shapes in math.  We also continue to practice subitizing (knowing the number of objects without having to count them).  

Halloween:

• We will change into our costumes at 1:00.  Parade is at 1:30. Party will follow.
• The parade is outside unless it is raining.  If it is cold I will make your child wear any jacket you sent in.  Please (PLEASE!!) have this conversation with your child so that I am not making princesses and goblins cry when I try to keep them warm...  If you are okay with your child going out without a jacket, please send a note or be there for the parade.  
• No high heels, please.
• All parents are welcome to join the class for the parade and party!  Siblings are welcome. We cannot promise enough supplies for the siblings, but we will try to accommodate!
• No candy will be distributed at Irving School.  We will not send candy home with students.
•  Costumes should come to school labeled with your child's name on it.  If your child can wear the "base" pieces of the costume it helps when we all change into our costumes.  
• No weapons of any kind.  If you have to ask- please leave it at home.

Busy Time of the Year!

Lots of Business

The Fun Run is on Tuesday!  This is one of our biggest fund raisers of the year!  If you have not already done so, please set up an account for your child HERE.   Your child will run around the field first thing on Tuesday morning.  They love running around and meeting our Eagle Mascot!  Your child should wear running shoes to school on Tuesday and be prepared to run outside in the morning.  

Halloween Party

Our room parents are busy planning a Halloween Party for next week.  Please check your emails for a sign up from them.  A few notes about Halloween:

• We will be making applesauce that morning as one of our treats for the party.  Please send in an apple on Monday or Tuesday of next week!  
• Children should NOT wear costumes to school.  They will change into their costumes after lunch.  LABEL EVERYTHING!   There are 20 kids changing into 20 costumes.  Things get mixed up.  
• Irving Halloween Parade is a great tradition.  If you can swing by to watch it, you won't regret it.  Stay for the party.
• NO WEAPONS of any kind as part of a costume.  No exceptions.  If you have to ask...the answer is probably going to be "no."
• Please do not send in any candy to be passed out that day unless it is part of our Halloween Party sign up.  I will not be allowed to distribute the candy so it will be sent back home.

Book Fair

We are going to the book fair Monday morning but it will be around all week.  It's a great way to build up the home library and support Irving's library at the same time.  If you send money in with your child, please mark it clearly for the book fair in an envelope. We can help your child purchase a book. 

Academics

I loved talking with all of you at conferences last week.  As you know we will continue to work on shapes in math.  We will be reading and writing lots of pattern books.  Our science focus will shift to apples this week. 

Morning Meeting and Field Trip

Every day we start with a morning meeting.   We greet our friends and practice saying each other's names.  This helps everyone feel welcome in our classroom community.  Then we turn and talk to a partner and practice taking turns while we have a conversation.  After that we will go through a morning message and a quick activity to wake up our brains.  Below is a short video of a few kids "passing a ding!" around the circle. 

We had a great field trip with some superstar chaperones!  Students did a great job observing leaves, organizing things that come from a tree, and doing some digging to look for invertebrates.  We had a great picnic lunch and nice walk around the Arboretum.

Don't forget next week is conferences so Thursday and Friday will be half days, with dismissal at 11:00.

Busy 2 Weeks

Business: 

Picture Day is Tuesday!  

We will have our pictures taken at 8:30.  This is a new company, so I do not have a lot of information about their policies.  You should have received an ordering envelope last week.  Or, you can order online here.

www.shop.hrimaging.com

Field Trip on Thursday

Your child needs a packed lunch on Thursday. Please have it be disposable as our chaperones will need to carry them all day.  It is helpful to only have to carry them in the morning.  Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather and has good walking shoes. 

Conferences are next week.  I look forward to seeing all of you!  You should get an email from signup genius with your time and confirmation.

PLEASE SEND IN A BAG OF LEAVES, SMALL TWIGS, ACORNS, etc with your child on Tuesday (or Wednesday at the latest.)

Reading and Writing Celebration:  We loved meeting our book buddies for our reading celebration on Wednesday!  We showed our book buddies how we can re-read familiar stories by making the characters talk and finding words we can read.  We also showed our buddies our favorite TRUE story book.  Students added a cover and a title to their favorite piece.  We will continue to look at familiar books and pattern books for the next few weeks, although we will be paying much more attention to the print as we label pictures in our books and look for words we can read.  Students are also moving towards books they can read (yes, read) independently!

Math:  We are finishing up our introduction unit on counting and number writing.  We will start looking closely at shapes and their properties.

Science:  We learned that trees need air, space, sun, water, and soil.  We also learned that trees have shapes that help us sort and categorize them.

Science and Writing: Our science and writing will be very connected for the next few weeks.  We will practice our observing and word writing skills as we make lists and write label books about trees and parts of trees.  PLEASE SEND IN A BAG OF LEAVES, SMALL TWIGS, ACORNS, etc with your child on Tuesday (or Wednesday at the latest.)  We will be sorting these in science and using them during writing to do some labeling.  The more variety, the better.  If some of the leaves are particularly crumbly, please send them in a separate smaller bag.  These do not necessarily need to be colorful fall leaves.  While I normally do not encourage kids to take leaves off of trees, we do need for them to see a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, etc.  We will be observing closely.  Acorns, seed pods and other items from trees would be great, too!

Reading:  This week in reading we continued to practice re-telling familiar stories to ourselves and our partners.  Our shared reading poem was about apples.  We put our poetry journals in our book boxes this week.  We also found our sight words as we were reading!  That was an exciting day!  Our official sight words are 

the

I

a

see

(my)- unofficial, but they keep finding it!

As we continue to work on routines, we are really practicing good partner reading behaviors.  Here are a few quick videos of what "good partner reading looks like." Notice there is one book between the students, eyes are on the book and they are taking turns talking. 

Writing: This week we learned how to write a TRUE STORY.  One of the best things to do before you write a true story is to practice telling it.  We spent time with our writing partners telling our true stories before getting started with our paper and pencil.  Your child can tell you that true stories have a who, where, and what!  We continue to practice stretching words out and writing the sounds we hear.  Enjoy these true stories.  One about an amazingly avoided injury.  And another, about an actual injury.  (Notice the blood on the knee!)

Math:  This week in math we practiced "one more" up to 10.  We will continue to practice that next week.  We played a count around the circle game- which was a big hit.  This helped us practice our counting on skills.  We are also practicing number writing-starting at the top!

Science: Last week we observed a tree like scientists.  This week we practiced labeling its parts.  We are going to learn what a tree needs this week and learn that we can sort trees and leaves just like we can sort things in math- by shape!

October 3:  Mrs. Parkinson will be at Inclusive Classroom Training, DePaul

October 4:  Walk to School Day

October 6: No school Institute day. 

October 9: No school Columbus day.
October 12: Morton Arboretum field trip. October 18: Egg Drop and Academic Fair to join sign up hereOctober 19th and 20th: Half days for parent teacher conferences. Sign up HERE if you have not already!October 31st: Halloween parade and party:  Please look for an email soon with details of how you can help!