Thanksgiving Feast

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast today. I had so much fun talking to everyone that I forgot to take pictures. Before the feast, we made table decorations with apples and gumdrops. The kids will be bringing them home today to decorate your Thanksgiving table, if they don't get eaten first.

I want to say"thank you" to everyone who helped today. The room was beautiful and the food was delicious. One of the kids told me it looked like a resort and I had to agree. It was very special.

I hope everyone of you has a special and restful holiday.

When we come back next week, we will start getting ready for Christmas. Don't forget that we have a field trip to the Christmas Tree Farm on December 7.

Kid Writing

I am so excited about the progress the kids are making with their writing. I want to share a few pieces with you. Emma wrote, "I like to go to the pizza place." She used a combination of sight words and kid spelling on her paper. They are working on using a capital at the beginning of a sentence, spaces between words, and punctuation at the end.

Kase wrote, "I like to eat turkey on Thanksgiving". Illustrations are important, also. On this paper, Kase knew it wasn't enough to just draw a turkey. He needed to add details to help the reader. You can see many details in his drawing that supports his sentence.

Thomas wrote, "I like chicken". He did a good job of listening to the sounds in the word "chicken" and he wrote what he heard.

This one cracks me up. Luke wrote, "I do not like to change my color to yellow". He's never had to change his color, but it must be on his mind. I don't think he was trying to be funny, but humor in writing is great.

Olivia wrote about something sad. She wrote, "We don't like when our fish dies". Somtimes the kids like to write about something that has happened to them.

Every student has a writing notebook and we use it for writing down ideas. Then on a day when we write, the kids take their notebooks and look for an idea. I never tell them what to write about. They have many of their own ideas and sometimes the problem is deciding which ideas to use.

They are doing so well with one sentence that I told them today that soon I would start requiring 2 sentences. They think they are up to the challenge.

Rock Stars

I've got a class full of rock stars. Since I posted the kids singing the ABC song a few weeks ago, they've been asking me to post another song.

Today they are singing "Little Bo Peep". We hope you enjoy the show. -

Communitiy Helper Parade and Fall Party

Monday, we held our Community Helper Parade. The kids came dressed as what they want to be when they grow up. Last week we had several community helpers come to talk to the kids about their jobs.

The kids looked great. We walked through the school so everyone could see us and then we went to the Intermediate School also.

In the afternoon we had a Fall Celebration Party. This was our first class party and the kids were very excited. They ate popcorn hands.

Then they played Halloween Bingo.

Thanks to all the parents who planned and organized the party. The kids had a great time and now they want to know when the next party will be.

Fall Fun

If you are wondering why your child came home today with orange hands, there is a good reason for that. We finger painted pumpkins. I don't do finger painting very often because it scares me. Imagine 21 Kindergarteners with paint all over their hands and you will probably shudder at the thought like I do. I gave them some red and yellow paint on a white piece of paper and told them to mix it all up and spread it all around. I love to see their reactions when the red and yellow turn to orange. They think it is so cool.

They did a great job of keeping the mess to a minimum and now we have a cute pumpkin patch in our room. They also made the corn with tissue paper.

Don't forget Monday is our career day parade. Please help your child to dress up as what he/she wants to be when they grow up. We will also have our Fall Party that afternoon.

Feed the Monster

Our classroom was a little scary today. It was full of hungry monsters!

We figured out that the only thing they like to eat is sight words. Everyone made a set of sight word cards and when the monsters got hungry, we fed them.

They are all bringing a monster home today, so be sure to feed them regularly. You don't want a hungry monster in your house!

Pumpkin Patch in Elgin

"Wednesday was the best day ever!" That's what I kept hearing from the kids about our day at the Pumpkin Patch. The day started with a lesson about how pumpkins grow and then we went on a hay ride through the Christmas tree farm and saw the trees in all different stages of growth. After a picnic lunch, the kids went through a corn maze. I think they could have spent the rest of the day there. Some kids went through several times and were reluctant to leave, but I kept telling them we had so much more to do.

The next stop was to decorate a pumpkin.

They got to see and pet some farm animals and then went through another maze.

We ended the day with duck races. The kids had to pump water through the chutes which would push the ducks. It took a lot of muscle power.

The kids were great and everyone had a fun time.