Classroom News

PPS Halloween Parade

Thank you to all the parents who donated items and helped out at the PPS Halloween party/parade!  Without you, events such as these would not be possible!

Trick or Treat for Unicef

Students will be bringing home a box for Unicef.  Instructions are enclosed. Please send your box back to school so our school can collect the donations. Thank you!

Literacy

I have been working with small groups of students two to three days a week to work on specific skills geared towards their individual developmental level.  This has (for some groups), or will, naturally morph into reading groups in the upcoming month!  Students are extremely excited to be able to read words that pop up on the smart board during daily activities.  It gives me great pleasure to see the transformation from non-readers to readers in such a short amount of time!  Please continue to work on sight words, letter identification and letter sounds with your child to make this process more successful!

Words of the Week

and

boo

In the spirit of Halloween, we like to have one silly sight word J

Math

This week we have been focusing on making partners to 5. We have been using many different techniques and games to get this concept understood.  A class favorite is 5 frame Go Fish! This is a simple game that could be done at home with index cards and dots on note cards (0-5).

Happy Halloween,  

Miss Bourgea

Halloween Science Experiement

Our class LOVES science!  I took the opportunity to try out an old favorite with our class.  We used four containers consisting of milk, oil, vinegar and water.  The class went around the circle and made a *prediction* (new word we are using in both science and literacy) on what they though was going to happen to the liquid and the candy pumpkin! 

Our four jars consisting of oil, water, vinegar and milk.

Students predicting what vinegar will do to our candy pumpkin. They did NOT like the smell of vinegar! :)

Student Predictions:

Water: 

might have the sugar come off

might look cool

Oil:

it is slippery, makes the pumpkin slippery

turn pumpkin green

turn rotten, bad

the color will slip off

color will go in the water

Vinegar: 

burn the pumpkin

bigger in than out of the water

the candy will be vinegary after you take it out

smells bad and salt with holes in it

turn sour

We found that the water and vinegar dissolve the sugar in the candy and all that is left if the outer shell (ew)

Classroom News

Literacy

We have been working hard on our literacy skills this past week.  I have included a couple of photos for you to get a better understanding of what some of our students are working on.  Our class has been working in four small groups to target specific skills that need to be developed. I am impressed with the amount of work that we have been able to do so far this year.  I look forward to sharing more information with each of you during our Parent/Teacher Conferences.

 Working with our 2^nd grade buddies retelling stories with First, Next, Then prompts

Math

In math we have been working on positional words. Students made class obstacle course drawings and had to explain to their peers how they would maneuver through their obstacle course using words such as inside, in front of, behind, to the left, to the right, and above.

Conference Update

The paperwork went home a couple of weeks ago in regards to signing up for Parent/Teacher Conferences online.  I want to reiterate that the conference sign up does not open until November 2nd.  Please sign up for conferences at that time.  Thank you!

Halloween Parade

On October 30^th at 1:50, we will be having a school wide Halloween Parade outside.  We will be having our own classroom celebration before the parade.  If you would like to volunteer to bring in a snack and/or come in, please look for the paperwork that was sent home in your child’s folder on Friday (10/23).   We will begin our class celebration around 1:20 on the 30^th in Room 3.  Please note that per school policy, students are not allowed to wear masks.  Please send your child in with their costume in a bag in their backpack.  We will be changing into them in the afternoon.  You will also be able to take your child home after the parade after a proper sign out!

Butterfly Release

Today was the day we have all been waiting for...our Painted Lady butterflies emerged from the chrysalis and we were able to set them free.  Students were happy to know that they would be flying down south to warmer weather! 

We wrote about what we observed during our release. 

Fire Prevention Week:

Thank you cards we made to our neighborhood firefighters!

The cover of our cards!

Inside our cards we wrote a letter and drew pictures!

Classroom News

Reminders:

**NO school on Monday, October 12th for students

**We are in need of empty toilet paper rolls for art projects.  If you have any to donate it would be greatly appreciated!

Homework:

I will begin to send homework home on Tuesday.  It will typically be sent home on Monday's in their red folders.  You may hold on to their homework, or keep it in their folder each night. You will notice that I will keep the homework in your child’s red folder until the end of the week.  The homework is meant to be continuously worked on until your child is fluent with the questions being asked of them.  Some children may have a more difficult time on one task or another.  That may be a sign that this is what they need to work on, or it may just be because we have not spent a lot of time on that area in school yet.  Don’t panic!! Your child will know how to do all of these things by the end of the year. 

My goal for the homework is to get the children extra practice, but to also inform the parents on what we are currently working on, or working towards, in the classroom.  Again, please feel free to write in the comment box or email me whenever you have a question or feedback.  Thank you for all of your support.  Your children have made such tremendous gains already this year!  I cannot wait to share them with you at Parent/Teacher Conferences!

Sight Words:

Our Word of the Week is: you

Please continue to work on the sight words with your child.  It will benefit their independent reading abilities.  To date, we have work on the sight words:

I, am, the, and, to, is, you 

Fire Prevention Week

This week was Fire Prevention Week.  Our class started the week by brainstorming ways to make a safe escape plan from our homes.  You may have seen the plans that your child sent home.  Each child did an excellent job explaining their escape route and family meeting place! 

Walk-to-School Event

The Porters Point Walk-to-School Event is cancelled for tomorrow (10/9) due to rain in the forecast.  It will be rescheduled for next week.  More information to follow!

Classroom News

Four Winds

This week Hazel's dad Adam visited our classroom to teach us about insects.  Students had the opportunity to look at an insect, watch the metamorphosis of a caterpillar in slow motion, practice insect sounds AND even watch Miss Bourgea and Adam put on a play! 

We had a blast!  Thank you Adam!  

Open House

Thank you to all of the families that attended Open House on Thursday night. The children were extremely excited to show you our room.  It was a great opportunity to see you all again! 

Literacy

As you have seen, our students have been working on retelling stories with an emphasis on the beginning, middle and end.  We have also been working on describing the characters and setting. Students have worked hard on decorating their Red Riding Hood props. Please take the time to have your child practice retelling the story periodically! 

Apples, Apples, Apples!

This week our science focus was on the life cycle of an apple. We talked about all things apples.  To end our week, our class made scrumptious homemade applesauce.  To every child's surprise, there was NO sugar in our recipe! After we made applesauce, we continued with our literacy theme and wrote first, next, then stories on how to make applesauce!  

First we peel the apples.

Next we cut the apples.

Then we put the apples in the pot to cook!

Homework

I will begin to send home weekly "homework."  This is a chance for you to see what we have been working on in the classroom.  By no means is this mandatory.  There is a space where you can sign and return the paper back to me on Friday with any comments that you may have. 

Have a marvelous weekend!