BOO to You!

It was a spooktacular week of rain, wind, indoor recess, and Halloween, of course.  We spent our shared reading time reading spooky stories such as "Inside a House that is Haunted," and "Scary, Scary Halloween."  The students shared the things that frighten them and wrote about it in their journals.  We discussed how the scary things we see at Halloween are just for fun and are make-believe so there's no need to be afraid.

 

 During our group writing time, we made a chart of what the students were going to be for Halloween, and the students rewrote their sentences in their journals.  We are working hard on adding details to our pictures - using 3 or more colors, adding backgrounds, facial features, etc.  The purpose is not to teach them how to be artists, but to teach them to think about details when they're writing and reading.   

   

Our centers this week were all brand new.  In the Math Games center, the students played Halloween Memory.  

In the number work center, they matched up addition problems to the ten frame that illustrated it. Then they used the bears to learn and see addition in a 'hands-on' way. 

 In the Word Work center, they played 'Read it, Build it, Write it' which builds up their sight word recognition. 

And in the puzzle center, they matched up opposites (which went along with their new sight words this week: big and little).

We finished up the week with a Write the Room activity where the students go about the room with a clipboard and pencil in hand looking for words that have the new letters of the week.  This week it was Tt and Vv.  They absolutely LOVE this activity!

And now that Halloween is over, we made our first craft of the "Holiday Season," (I'm one of those people who consider Thanksgiving a part of the Christmas season and started listening to Christmas music two weeks ago). We made turkeys that have as many feathers as the students have letters in their name.  These will be on display on our hallway bulletin board.

 I apologize for not having posted an update last week.  The pumpkin patch and Fall Festival last Friday was just the beginning of a very busy weekend for me so I simply ran out of time. But I have uploaded all of the pictures from the pumpkin patch field trip below.  Enjoy and have a great weekend!