Pilgrims and Native Americans

We have begun our study of Native Americans and Pilgrims - this week we read some wonderful Native American legends. We read "Rainbow Crow" and  "The Loon's Necklace" and  and completed some art work to go along with them. We read "The Rough-Face Girl"  and compared it to Cinderella.  We also made Indian headbands and chose Indian names - ask your child to tell you his/hers! We are working to earn a special feather each day.
We are hard at work on our performance of "Bear Snores On" - we can't wait to show you our work on December 16 at 2:00!
The weather is colder so please make sure your child wears a warm coat and has a hat and mittens for the playground. It would be very helpful for your child to practice putting on and zipping his/her coat. Once it snows, they will need snow pants and boots. Please put your child's name inside his/her snow pants and boots. If you have extra, they may leave their boots/snow pants here.
Our Field Trip to the Outdoor Center is next Wednesday, November 19. We will be sure to post many pictures on our blog. Remember to bring a lunch and drink in a bag.

We added a few new building centers to our center chart. We feel proud when we can use a toy or game the right way!

This week we finished up our unit about day/night and nocturnal animals. Your child will bring home his/her nocturnal animal art pages to show you. We will begin our social studies unit about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans and the first Thanksgiving. We will learn about the voyage on the Mayflower, and what life was like when the Pilgrims arrived in America. We will read many Native American legends this month, choose our own Native American names, and earn feathers for our headbands.
We started a gratitude chain last week -look how long it is already!

We spend a few minutes each morning talking about what we are thankful or grateful for. You would be amazed at the many non-materialistic things your children mention!
The coping skill we are working on is "How big is the problem" -we have been talking about how it is smart to match our reaction to the true size of a problem. We are also working to understand that there are times when we will all be in the blue (sad, tired, sick, hurt), red (very upset, out of control, extremely agitated) or yellow (confused, annoyed, frustrated, jealous) zones, not just the green zone (in control, ready to learn, calm).  Coping skills are the tools that we can use to help us get back to the green zone. I have seen several students show that they can do this lately!

Big News!!! We are working on a performance based on the book, "Bear Snores On". We will work hard on it for many weeks, but we plan to perform for you at 2:00 on Tuesday, December 16 in our classroom. I hope that many of you will be able to come and see our performance and join us for a little reception afterwards. All family and friends are welcome!

Our field trip is on November 19 - we are going to the Outdoor Center to learn about birds and trees. Your child needs to pack a sack lunch and drink that day. We need you to return the permission slips that are coming home this week.
Parent Teacher Conference Day is next Thursday, November 13. I look forward to seeing you then!

Halloween Happenings!

We had a great Halloween in Room 113! The pictures tell the story...

We are excited that we are going to go on a Field Trip to the WL Outdoor Center on November 19. We will participate in two science classes there - birds and trees. The children will need to bring their lunch and a drink in a paper bag - we'll eat at the Outdoor Center before we return to school. The cost of our field trip and bus are being partially funded through a mini-grant from the Foundation for Excellence. We will send home a field trip permission slip and will ask for $5.00 to help offset the cost.
Our first Parent Support Group meeting was well-attended, and we will work on planning another one. It was wonderful to see so many of you there - I love having that extra time to work together with parents of our students!

Nocturnal Animals

This  week we began a new science/literature unit about night time and nocturnal animals. We will read fiction and non-fiction books about nocturnal animals and work on some directed art lessons to create a book of animals. These art lessons are more challenging than others we have done -they require the students to really watch me demonstrate the steps, and then use the many pieces correctly to build the animal. It takes a lot of focus, patience and perseverance - and gives us great opportunities to practice coping skills. Your children worked very hard on the first two animals we worked on this week!

In our social skills lessons we added "take a break" to our coping skills bulletin board. This is more challenging than you might think -often when we are frustrated, we resist stopping and taking a break...which leads to more frustration and upset. We also practiced using "laugh it out" when we make a small, silly mistake.  Your students are really getting good at identifying how the characters in our read aloud stories are feeling, and what zone they are in. We read "Where the Wild Things Are" and they were able to tell when Max was in the red, blue and finally, green zones!

Next week is busy:
Tuesday from 6:00-7:00 is our Parent Support Group Meeting - all parents and caregivers are welcome!

Friday is Halloween. Your child should bring their Halloween costume - we will put them on after lunch for the parade at 2:00. We will all parade out the front door of the school if you would like to come and watch. We will have a small and simple party after the parade.
Friday is the end of this marking period. I will see you all at Parent Teacher Conferences on November 13. Personally, I am really looking forward to meeting with you - your children have ALL made progress, and they are all wonderful to work with and to have in class!

Centers, owls and coping skills

We were excited to use some new Centers this week - we tried out a house center, a pirate center and a RV/camping center. They sure were fun!

We have been working hard on learning our coping skills - every single student has increased the number of coping skills they are able to name. Now, we are really focusing on using those coping skills while we are in the yellow zone (feeling frustrated, confused, upset) so that we stay out of the red zone (yelling, throwing, big anger). We are learning that the red zone is usually where a check mark or consequence will occur, so we are beginning to be more motivated to get back to green!

This was our big owl week in science and on Friday we dissected owl pellets. 

Two boys from our room were given PBIS slips for their great behavior on the bus ride home! 

Music and the Color Run

In our Social Skills lessons, we looked at faces that were friendly, scared and angry. We talked about comfortable and uncomfortable feelings, and related them to our learning about Zones of Regulation. We are beginning to identify when we might be in the yellow zone (frustrated, grumpy, anxious, confused) and what things we need to do (take a break, ask for help, do breathing, use a coping skill tool from our tool box) so that we are able to move back to the green zone (focused, calm, good to go) instead of into the red zone (out of control, mad, yelling).
We had so much fun with Miss Marlowe this week - we sang Halloween songs and took turns with all of her musical instruments. It was wonderful full class participation!

The PTA held the Color Run on Friday - we were given T-shirts to wear and went outside to run. Children had the choice to have their T-shirt squirted with color or not. We had such a wonderful time - thank you PTA!

Next week....owls! We will learn all about owls and dissect owl pellets on Friday!

Scarecrows!!!

This week was all about scarecrows -we read about scarecrows and created scarecrows of our own. We even made up a scarecrow yoga pose! We made a scarecrow and voted on a name - his name is "Bob".  Bob likes to read books about pumpkins!

We continued to work more on the zones of regulation and this week we explored the blue zone -when you feel slow, tired, sick or really sad. We added photos to our zone charts to help us understand which zone our feelings are in. We also are working on really using the coping skills we've learned so far. It is amazing how many coping skills your children can now name/show compared to the first week of school! I am so proud of them! We talked about the "bump it out" coping skill -bumping out a bad or negative thought and bumping in a good or positive thought.We drew pictures of a happy thing we like to think about so we have something ready to bump in.

Reminders of Upcoming Events: 

We will participate in the PTA sponsored Fun Run next Friday afternoon. The PTA is providing us with T-shirts to wear.

Our Parent Support Group Meeting will be in Room 113 on Tuesday, October 28 from 6:00-7:00 - all parents, grandparents and caregivers are welcome!

Halloween is on Friday, October 31 - if you would like to send in fruit or another snack for our party, just let me know. We try to keep it very simple, and on the healthy side! Loon Lake usually has a Halloween Parade, and students bring a costume to school to wear. Parents often watch the parade outside, weather permitting. 

Parent Teacher Conference Day is Thursday, November 13. Some of you are already signed up for a conference time; if not, please let me know what time of day or evening is best for you to come. I have most of the afternoon, after 2;00, still available. Thanks!