Fire Safety, Field Trips, and FALL BREAK!

This week has been all about Fire Safety.  Everyday we read books about fire engines, fire stations, and firefighters, and we learned what to do in case of a fire.  The kids really enjoyed watching "My Fire Truck," on youtube. It is a storybook written by Ivan Ulz and it is put to music. Fair warning! It's a catchy tune and it will stay in your head. Our whole-group writing and literacy time was spent at the pocket chart putting sentences together that taught us the steps to follow in a fire.
     1. I will stay low and go.
     2. I will get out fast. (I know that, grammatically, it should be "quickly" but 'fast' just seemed     to drive the point home.
     3. I will go to a meeting spot.

We also learned about "stop, drop, and roll." I tried my best to reinforce the concept that this should be done only if your clothes catch on fire (like at a campfire) and not to be done if your house is on fire. But I would double check their comprehension on that!  They wrote about what to do in a fire in their journals.  And today, of course, we visited Fire Station #1 on our first field trip.

This might have been staged....

When we came back, the students made Thank You cards for the firefighters, after all, we are Bucket Fillers!

Pink Day!

Meanwhile, in other learning news, the students learned letters O and P this week. The O chant is one of my favorites - the students sing opera style.  Today was the end of the first 9 weeks, so the first report card will include goals for writing, identifying, and knowing the sounds of the letters up to P.
Since October began this week, our calendar math changed.  For this month, the students will extend/predict a new ABC pattern on the October calendar. 

Next, the students work on reciting and describing the seasons.  We say, "Winter, spring, summer, fall: every year has four in all!"  The students have to find and drag pictures that belong in the fall season.

     Next, is the students' new favorite: Trick or Treat Addition!  The students spin the SmartBoard spinner and put that many pieces of candy into the ten frame. (The candies replicate themselves when the student touches it so there is an endless supply).  Then they get to spin again and see how much candy they have in all. We keep a record of each child's turn so we can compare and talk about the totals each day.

 The next activity has us add on to the days in school (not pictured). That activity is included on every month's calender math.   And then, once each week in October, we collect data from the class to make and read a graph. This week, we used tally marks to collect data about who was afraid of spiders.  Apparently, our kiddos are pretty brave.  Both classes had a majority that said they were NOT afraid of spiders.

 And now for center time. The students ordered many different sets of numbers in the Number Work center this week.  Those teen numbers can be very tricky to navigate, so this was good practice for them.  They played Ten Apples Up on Top (based off of a Dr. Suess book of the same name) in Math Games. For this game, the students worked with their partner to get ten apples on each character's head by rolling the dice.  They placed them in an AB pattern, too!

They used the ipads in the Word Work center and played on a free app called "abc 1".  The students see a picture of a cvc (consonant-vowel-consonant) word  and it is spoken to them. Then they must segment it and put the letters in the correct order.
     They played on starfall in the computer center, and with the trains in the block center.  I am so proud of how well they are reading in the library center.  The students find the books that they've already read in reading groups and are happy to sit and read quietly. They're quite proud of themselves, too!

Fall Break is next week.  It's easy to forget newly acquired skills and knowledge, so have your child do a little counting here and there.   Or ask them to find some sight words and letters they know in signs around town.  Read with them.  Little things like this will go a long way during a break. There's also the game and video links on the blog that could help out. 

Enjoy the break and wear BLACK when we come back!