Weekly Update, October 25 - 29

Hello Spooky First Graders and Ghoulish First Grade Parents!

Reminders and Updates:
* Our Halloween party is this Friday in the morning.  We will have our normal activities for the first hour and then the party is from 9:30 - 11:20.  The Halloween parade is from 2:15 - 2:45.  Kids will wear their costumes all day.  Parents are invited to the party and the parade!
* I will not be at school this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; I will be at an off-site training with teachers from many different school districts in Tucson.  Our guest teacher this week will be Mrs. Hicks.  The kids and I have discussed the importance of treating our guest teacher with respect.  Please join me in reminding your children to be respectful, patient and helpful when Mrs. Hicks is here.

It's Halloween week and the kids are SO excited for our party on Friday!  This week is going to be such a fun week learning all about pumpkins, doing Halloween centers and Halloween math activities!

This week we are doing a science unit on pumpkins!  Today we learned the characteristics of pumpkins.  Many of the kids were surprised to know that a pumpkin is a fruit.  Kids - be sure to tell your parents why a pumpkin is a fruit!  We also learned the 6 stages in the life cycle of a pumpkin.  Kids - do you remember them all?  After the guided reading lesson we began our fact pumpkin.  The kids made a pumpkin out of orange construction paper and divided it into 4 sections.  Today they wrote something they learned about pumpkins.  Each day this week we will do a guided reading lesson to learn something different about pumpkins, add more to the fact pumpkins and then we will follow it up with a fun pumpkin science experiment!

The kids had a great time in centers today!  The kids went through 2 centers today so that everyone will get to do all the centers before our Halloween party on Friday.  The centers for the week include:
1.  Listening - The kids listened to the story "Alice and Greta," a story about 2 witches.  They made a broom out of construction paper and wrote their favorite part of the story and what it would be like to be a witch.
2.  Science - Apple Bobbing!  The kids made prediction about what kind of tub would be best to apple bob in, and what kind of apples would be the easiest to get.  After they made their predictions, they got to bob for apples!  This center was a big hit and all the kids are looking forward to this one!
3.  Writing - The kids are writing about the 5 Ws of Halloween:
Who - is going with you?
What - are you going to be?
Where - are you going trick or treating?
When - are you going trick or treating?
Why - did you pick your costume?
This center got the kids thinking about Halloween and it got them really excited!
4.  Math - Pumpkin Measuring: Estimate and check.  The kids estimated the height, weight, circumference and number of creases on a pumpkin.  After they recorded their prediction, they checked.
5.  Reading - The kids read 1:1 with me to work on reading strategies.

We have new spelling words this week.  The kids have Rainbow Words for homework and they are due tomorrow.  This week we are doing Halloween words instead of a word family.

In math today we did a Jack - O - Lantern glyph.  We haven't done a glyph in a few weeks and the kids had a great time with this!  They turned out very cute and they are hanging up in the room.  We began chapter 6 today, a unit on counting up and patterning.  We will continue to review counting on and doubles, and these skills will be a big help with patterning in counting up.

In computers today we learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  If you'd like to see what the kids did in computers today, click on the link directly below this one, "Computers, 10/25."

Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston