Weekly Update, October 17 - 21

Welcome Back!

It's great to be back at Harelson! I hope everyone had a wonderful time during Fall Break. The kids were happy to be back in the routine of school and they enjoyed sharing their stories with their friends. The kids did a wonderful job working hard and staying focused after the week long break. I was so impressed with everyone!

Important Dates
* 1st Quarter Report Cards will be sent home in your child’s homework folder this Friday, October 21.
* Our Halloween party is next Friday, October 28.

This week we are doing a guided reading and science unit on owls! Each day we will learn about a different type of owl. Today we learned about the characteristics and life cycle of a barn owl. The kids loved learning about the barn owl! The kids learned what wingspan is and they even practiced making their own wingspan and flying like an owl. They learned that a barn owl makes a different sound than most owls. Kids - be sure to show your parents what a barn owl sounds like! We are making a neat book. It is in the shape of an owl, and each day the kids will write owl facts on one of the owl's "feathers." The books are off to a great start already! The kids had a lot of fun with this activity. This week we will also learn about burrowing, pygmy and elf owls. We will do a lot of kinesthetic activities like owl calling, flying and burrowing to help the kids really learn the information. They always have a lot of fun with activities like this!

In reading we are working on reading non-fiction texts with academic and scientific vocabulary. We are also working on understanding the term “making connections” and the kids are practicing making text to text and text to self connections.

The kids had a great time in centers today. I switched the center groups so the kids will work with different friends over the next few weeks. The kids enjoyed working with and getting to know new friends. The centers for the week include:
1. Listening - The kids watched two National Geographic Kids videos, Snowy Owls and Vampire Bats, on the computer. After that, they wrote characteristics specific to each animal and characteristics shared by both animals.
2. Science - The kids sequenced the 4 stages in the life cycle of a barn owl. They made a neat book in the shape of an owl egg that shows each stage.
3. Writing - We learned that most owls are nocturnal. The kids used white pencils and they wrote on black paper. They wrote about what it would be like to be nocturnal.
4. Math - We are learning about measurement and different tools that can be used to measure. Today the kids measured various items in our classroom with unifix cubes.
5. Reading - The kids conference 1:1 with me.

We are back with spelling words this week! The kids received Rainbow Words for homework and it is due tomorrow, Tuesday, 10.18. This week we are working on the ing family. There are also two tricky homophones: aunt and ant.

In math we practiced skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. We did this with math races. The kids LOVE these! In math races each table group works together. They pass around a white board and count by 2s, 5s or 10s. Each child has to write the correct number before passing it on. The first table to count correctly to the designated number wins a prize. The prize is different every time and the kids have so much fun with this! This is a great way to practice skip counting and it is something you can do at home. We are continuing our work in chapter 5 in our math book, a unit about adding on, counting up and doubles. Today we focused specifically on counting up. This was a bit of a challenging concept for the kids, and they worked hard to understand the material and stay focused. We'll have a lot of practice with this concept over the next few days.

This week in computers we will learn all about owls! If you'd like to see what the kids do in computers, check back at the end of the week and look for the blog posting called “Computers, 10/21.”

The kids are already very excited for Halloween! This year all Harleson class parties will be on Friday, October 28th. We will also have our Halloween parade on that day as well. We will study pumpkins next week to get ready for Halloween.

Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston