We had a great party today! Thanks so much to everyone that helped! Their pumpkin costumes also looked wonderful. They were very creative!
On our 50th day we had so much fun moving to our special Zero the Hero song! I just love this class! They praise the Lord all different times of the day and in all different places! I had to post this video from a couple days ago. Check out this awesome blanket that will be on sale at the All Saints' Fest Auction next Friday! I wonder who will be able to have it as a special keepsake.
What a fun day! In the morning we thought about all of the blessings that God gives us. We wrote these on little leaves and put them on our classroom door in the shape of a cross. God sent His Son Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to give us the gift of eternal life. That is the best blessing by far! We had fun being pumpkin scientists in the afternoon. We measured them in different ways and had fun counting the seeds. Ironically the smallest pumpkin had the most seeds and the largest pumpkin had the least seeds!
It was great to see the kids back after a nice fall break. Today we were busy learning how God used another leader named Joshua to lead the children of Israel across the Jordan River into the land that God promised them. We are happy that God is leading us as well to heaven.
Later in the morning we learned about poetry. It is different than fiction and nonfiction stories. We learned how to sequence a simple poem and matched some pictures to some of the words to help us read it. Then we began a new set of literacy centers. Students are making cards, putting together alphabet puzzles, segmenting words into 2 or 3 sounds, sequencing how to make a cake, and substituting the first sound in a word to make a new word. We had fun learning how to draw half of a pumpkin. Then we cut out the pieces and flipped some of the pieces onto the other side to reveal a "flipped pumpkin". They creatively show the pumpkin using the positive and negative space. In the afternoon the students learned how to make sets of 10 pumpkins. They counted what they had and then drew how many more were needed to make 10. We learned how a squirrel scientist wondered if squirrels steal nuts from each other. Then we learned how scientists ask questions, run tests, observe, and draw conclusions. It was fun to watch a video of how scientists work. We also learned about the life cycle of pumpkins. We learned how God talks to us through His Word. What a blessing the Bible is to us! Years ago during "castle times" many people did not have God's Word in their language and even if they did, many could not read it. There was corruption in the church and many people feared God. They did not know God as a loving God that sent His Son to take the punishment for our sins and save us. We learned about Martin Luther today and made Luther's seal. It holds great meaning for us. In the center is the cross that is black. Jesus took on our sins and was punished for us on the cross. Next is the heart. He did this because He loves us and He shed His blood for us. After that is the white rose. This reminds us that we were washed clean and that we have new life. Around that is the color blue which reminds us of the hope of eternal life. Finally there is a gold ring around the whole thing. We know that God's love never ends and we will have eternal life with Jesus in heaven. The yellow can remind us that we will be there to see God's face shining like the sun as we walk down the golden streets of heaven! Thanks be to God! Your kids get to hear this every day because they go to a Lutheran school. It doesn't get any better than that!
Thanks to everyone that brought in the leaf collection bags. You did a great job! We had so much fun going on a leaf hunt today with a special book. The kids were great at discriminating and finding similar leaves. We worked more on rhyming, surveys, identifying words by first sounds, stamping words, etc. during literacy centers. Later we continued our thematic centers as we made fall fun pictures, fall leaf sight word books, leaf stories, etc. We are learning how to write letters and cards. Each student had to decide if they were going to write a letter to say thanks or a letter to ask a question. We learned how to write the greeting of the letter. Then we learned how to close the letter. We worked on a picture for our letters and we labeled our pictures. We will use these pictures and labels to write the body of the letter tomorrow. In the afternoon we got some great practice working more on writing letters as we made cards to wish Mrs. Burris a happy birthday on Friday.
In the afternoon we worked more in our calendar books. It's hard to believe that we are already on our 45th day of school. The students have learned that it is a shortcut to use numbers to write the date. We sing a special song as we count the months of the year and determine that October is the 10th month. Today was also the 10th day in the month, so we printed 10-10 for the date. In Math we are working on numbers in the teens. We are trying to be very careful as we count these larger numbers. It is important to use a count and check method and count more than once to see if we get the same number twice. I noticed quite a few students do not recognize numerals in the teens. Please review these with your child. Finally we learned about trees, leaves, similarities, differences, etc. We sorted by wide and narrow. Tomorrow we will use our leaf collections to match leaves in a leaf identification activity. We began a video that showed us just how many types of maple trees there are, how they look, what colors they turn, etc. Indiana happens to have many different types of maple trees. Thanks to everyone that brought food for the pantry and also items for Kenya. Yesterday we enjoyed packing items to go to Kenya. We learned more about the Point of Grace Academy and how those students are learning about Jesus too. Today we started learning about the time when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses to give to the people. While Moses was with God, the people forgot about God and started to create and worship a false god. The same thing happens today. Often people put other things in front of God and do not put the one true God first. Thanks be to God that He forgives us and draws us back to Him.
We started a new set of literacy centers this week. Students are taking an apple survey, making a turkey book to not only sequence steps, but to figure out the new word in the sentence by getting their mouths ready to make the first sound and then check the picture to see what would make sense for the word. They continue with some alphabet puzzles that match first sounds. At another center they are playing a rhyming game. They also get to have fun as they stamp some farm words.The students made an emergent reader to practice the sight word "look". It was fun to make the two o's in the middle of look appear like eyeballs to help everyone remember the sight word "look". In Math the students are using a count and check method to verify the number of objects. It is important to not skip an object or to count it twice. We are learning to be careful to only say one number word for each object. Finally the students learned about fall leaves. They watched a video to help learn that the job of leaves is to make food. In the fall, this job stops and we can see all the colors that were there before.. If you have not sent in the leaf collection bag, please do that tomorrow. We will be using them for a discrimination activity during Science tomorrow. The students are enjoying our leaf thematic centers this week. Not only are they learning about leaves, but the centers incorporate Reading, Math, Science, Art, and many more standards into the fun fall topic. At the blue table the students are having fun designing a fall tree as they trace their hand and arm to make a tree. Then they strengthen fine motor skills as they decorate the trees with tissue paper that they pinch and crush with their fingers. By gluing the little pieces they are working on eye and hand coordination. They add their own creative touch as they decide how they are going to glue the leaves around their photo. You will have to look for these in the hallway soon. At the green table the students are making a sight word book to go with fall leaves. The yellow table gives a review of number words as the students make a special leaf book. It is fun for them to use rubbing crayons to make a leaf for the cover. They decorate the pages with the number of leaves needed to match the number words. Throughout the book there are leaf rubbings, stamps, tracings & cutouts, stickers, drawings, etc. At the red table the students are practicing the correct formation of Ll, printing a sentence with proper spacing and form, making an L picture dictionary, and writing stories about leaves. |
|