Thank you Veterans!

Waving our flags!

Everyone loves a parade! Here are some excited kids waiting for our visiting veterans to come down the hall. It's always a moving event as we all honor those in our community that have served our country and fought for our freedom. We loved reading Veterans Heroes In Our Neighborhood which depicted men and women working in everyday jobs, but then revealed the same people in full uniform serving in a branch of the military back when they were younger. 

Here they come!

Finally the sun appeared! Right at 9:00 A.M. Monday we took a walk out doors and observed the very long shadows of trees, parking signs, and playground equipment. Then it was off to the tennis courts to have a friend trace our shadow in chalk. Later around noon, we went back out to observe any changes. Sure enough we saw that the sun's position in the sky had changed since 9:00 and our shadows were shorter and slanted at an angle. On the way back in, they had fun trying to chase and step on friend's shadows!

Ready to be traced!

Look how long our shadows are!

Tracing your shadow is fun!

Our small group literacy centers are always a hit. The kids love working on their own with a few friends and are honing their phonics, reading, and spelling skills at the same time. In ABC center the kids made words by blending consonants with 'word families'. 

Making words ending in ag, it, op, ug...

Spelling by isolating sounds within words

Finding sight words in poems

Reading and illustrating poems

"What strategies can I use to solve a math problem?" That is the question the kids have been asking themselves. In order to choose, they ned to be number detectives, think about the numbers in relation to each other, and then choose a strategy that is most efficient. If they see 6+7 they note that they are close together (best friends as Matt told us!). This is the perfect chance to use a doubles plus 1 strategy. If they see 2+9, changing the order of the addends is a good strategy. Much faster to count on from 9 than 2 (9+2). When working with teen numbers, making a ten is very fast, since we are all becoming experts in the 'Ten Plus' club!

Using ten frames to make a ten

Partner work

Discussing with partners if we should switch the order

Our book area library is all set up with the November theme of Thanksgiving, pilgrims, and Native Americans.  We even have a wooden replica of the Mayflower (which is about 100 years old, therefore the sails are long gone...). 

Lots of new non fiction to read

Indoor recess is quite busy as you can see by these photos. If the wind chill makes temps too cold (as determined by the nurses), we are inside. However with the shift in weather, it is a good idea to bundle up for outdoor recess and maybe leave a pair of gloves or mittens in school.

Legos are always a hit

Cool things in the Peaceful Place

Very organized!

More teeth are obligingly falling out! This week Mark was delighted when we sang the tooth song to him, and then Ivy was in the spotlight for a lost tooth. Kids are even comparing if one friend's pattern of teeth/no teeth matches theirs!

Homework has been looking good - I can see the increased effort, and the kids always like taking turns putting theirs up on the board to show it off. In class, we are focusing on digraphs (th, sh, ch) and words with short vowels that end in /ck/. 

Frosty air has arrived- stay warm!
Mrs. Dagley