Halloween!!!

Everyone had a blast in their costumes today! We loved being in the parade and eating wonderful snacks at our party. We especially loved playing at our centers in our costumes! 

Enjoy trick or treating - your children were all wonderful today! 

A few things to remember:

    * No school next Tuesday, Nov. 7

    * Send warm clothes for outdoor recess

    * Practice putting on and taking off coats and hats at home to build independence 

Big Pumpkin!!!

Thank you for coming to see our performance of "Big Pumpkin". It truly was a special day for our classroom, and we are so glad you were there to share it with us! I think we all felt very proud of our students/children!  Here are some pictures of our wonderful cast:

Tomorrow we will begin a new science unit about nocturnal animals. We will be making a special book about some of these animals.

Our Halloween Parade will be on Tuesday at 10:15. Children may bring their costumes to school - we will help them put them on for the parade. If you would like to send something in for the party, we will be glad to eat it! Tuesday is also a 1/2 day of school. 

Owls and Wild Things!!!

We read the book, "Where the Wild Things Are" and created wild things of our own. This art activity involved doing a lot of our own cutting - our hands got a real work out! We also created Max, the boy in the story who was sent to his room by his mother. We drew pictures of how we look when we are wild things - we talked about what zone Max was in when he was naughty and sent to his room. 

We also did a little owl mini unit and read some great owl stories to inspire our writing and art. We learned the word "nocturnal"... we will revisit that word again next week when we talk about bats. After reading the book, "Owl Babies" we created Sarah, Bill, Percy- the baby owlets in the story. We wrote factual owl information in our journals. 

Next Thursday, October 26, is our classroom performance of Big Pumpkin. The show will start at 2:00 - you will want to arrive early so you are seated in the classroom. Our students are so excited to perform for you - I think you are going to love it! We'll have treats afterwards! 

Halloween (Tuesday, October 31) is a half day of school. We will have our school costume parade at 10:15, followed by a simple classroom party. If you would like to send in a snack or drink for our party, please send me a note - thank you! 

Pumpkins, feedback and the Color Fun Run!

We read many stories about pumpkins this week and had a lot of fine motor practice with tissue paper and paint when we created pumpkins. Art activities are great ways to strengthen muscles and develop eye hand coordination. 

We had our first visit from Miss Marlowe for music therapy - she will come to our class each Monday for singing and music!

We work hard at the social work table with Mrs. Schnieders each week. Her lessons help support our progress with learning coping skills, handling challenging feelings and strong emotions and learning how self regulation skills. 

We have been working on the concept of "accepting feedback". Many children struggle with accepting information from adults - and often display upset feelings when feedback is given. We learned that feedback is friendly and helpful - when someone gives us feedback, they are trying to help us do something better or easier. We need to listen, stay calm and give it a try! 

We were very excited for the Color Fun Run today! This class is always so friendly and fun-loving - the had a blast!

Last Friday was School Picture Day! We think we're a pretty great looking class!

We ended our apple week by cooking and grinding apples to make applesauce. We thought it tasted pretty wonderful! It sure smelled yummy!

We learned about a new coping skill called The Coping Skill Tool Box.

We encourage children to use the coping skill tool box when they need to take a quiet break. We use a 5 minute timer and children choose one item to use - we have squishy balls, putty, etc.  Some kids benefit from having a coping skill tool box at home too. 
We read about scarecrows and fall leaves this week. We made some very fun scarecrows and enjoyed painting leaves and creating leaves out of tissue paper. We added some painted squirrels too! 

Next Friday, October 13, will be the Loon Lake Fun Run. This is a fundraiser for our PTA. The children will all get a T-shirt and we will run outside for a short time. 

On Tuesday, October 31 we will have a half day of school. Our Halloween Parade will be in the morning, followed by a short party. Children may bring costumes to put on for the parade. If you would like to send in a simple treat or drink for our party, just let me know. The kids like cheese and crackers, fruit, yogurt, cookies etc. Much thanks! 

This week was all about apples! We read books about apples and legends about Johnny Appleseed. We made some great apple themed art projects as well! 

We have been working with a new writing curriculum that is closely linked with great books and has a strong social skills component. We do some drawings and write about them (sounding out words, thinking about beginning and ending sounds, adding details to our pictures) in our special writing notebooks.  Then, we share our writing on the big screen! 

We went to the library with Mrs. Schafer, our media specialist. We listened to a story, learned how to take care of library books, and then checked out a book of our own to read in our classroom! 

We work on our play several times a week. We are learning how to say our lines loudly and with our partners and we're practicing where to stand so the audience can see us. We hope that someone from each child's family will be able to join us on Thursday, October 26 at 2:00 in our classroom - it is sure to be a fun event! 

We have been practicing a new coping skill - "ignoring". We can use ignoring when someone is acting silly, trying to distract us or bothering us with faces or words. We learned that ignoring means we turn away or stop looking at the person and we stop saying words to them. Sometimes we also need to use "move away" or "get adult help" - two other good coping skills. We always prompt students to use coping skills, and we always reward their efforts. 

We also use "get help" when we are stuck on our work, feel upset or confused or when we don't know what to do...but we practice raising our hand with a quiet mouth so that we don't disturb our classmates.