WHEN are we?

It's the middle of October and the rain has finally come!  Yesterday was our first rainy day recess and we bundled up in our brightly colored raincoats and boots and headed out for some fresh air (you may have noticed the wet clothing that came home)!  Please check to make sure that your child has a raincoat and set of boots that can be kept at school...we will often be venturing out for fun in the rain!  Thank you! 

Fortunately, we had beautiful sunny weather for each of our first two field trips!  

Hopefully we spread lots of peace as we journeyed through downtown with our peace doves and posters!  

Bike week always brings lots of smiles!  What a fun way to spend recess!  We had 2 wheel bikes, bikes with training wheels, scooters and balance bikes!  Yay!  I am happy to report that everyone was very careful and mindful of other riders, allowing us to really focus on how fun riding together can be!  Perhaps we should have a repeat in the Spring?  If you'd like, check out Jen's post  Here we are in the Middle Ages! to see pictures of our biking trip, as well as our trip through the time machine!  Thanks for sharing Jen!

Friday was our 28th day of school!  Wow!  I can hardly believe it's been that long...time really does fly when your having fun...or perhaps it was the time machine that had something to do with this!  As you may already know, we have traveled through the time machine and landed in the MIddle Ages!  

We created groups of 100 noodles and counted by 100's until we had 1000 noodles in our bag!

Our THEME studies so far have been spent exploring great castles (do you know  what a keep or curtain wall is?) and learning about many of the time's occupations.  From illuminators to queens to midwives to goldsmiths, there were jobs quite similar to jobs of today and some very, very different! Ask your child if they could pick any job to have in the Middle Ages what it would be!  

A few jobs from the Middle Ages!

Parts of a castle!

We have moved on from patterns, although we've been noticing that patterns are all around us!  So, even though we aren't officially studying patterns, we find them in books, on our socks, in our study of castles and on the playground!  Our MATH time now focuses on developing and strengthening our sense of numbers.  For some, this means learning to count one object at a time..for others, this involves counting and comparing groups of objects...while others spend time learning to use our base ten blocks and compare  2 digit numbers using < and > signs!  We are learning many new games to help us practice these skills.  Compare is a great game to try at home.  It is very similar to the card game "war".  We've been using number cards 2 through 5 or 2 through 9 (whatever is just right).  Some of us have been turning over just one card and comparing the single digit cards, while others have been turning over 2 cards to create double digit numbers to compare.  After each player turns over one or two cards, the players then look at all cards and the player with the highest number says "me!"  All cards are placed together in a discard pile (there is no winner in this version).  Play continues until all cards have been used!   We are also all participating in number writing practice!  It can be tricky to know which way those numbers should face!   

This seems like a good time to describe the handwriting program we use at OCS (for letters and numbers)!  Just hearing the word handwriting may bring back memories of writing letters over and over until your hand felt like it would fall off!  (Well, ok, that's my memory...hopefully yours is different!)  We use a program called Handwriting WIthout Tears, which I really like.  The program was developed to simplify handwriting.  In this program, all of the capital letters are formed using only four strokes...a big line, a little line, a big curve and a little curve.  Putting these strokes together in various formations gives us all of the capital letters!  For example a big line and 2 small curves make the letter B.  I have wooden blocks representing each of these strokes that we use to build the letters.  We also practice on chalkboards (with chalk, cloths and sponges).  Our handwriting practice on paper focuses on the "less is more" motto.  Handwriting is part of our Tuesday/Thursday literacy center routine.  Oh, one more thing that's really neat about this program...the letters are grouped based on where they begin.  Right now we are focusing on all the letters that begin in the upper left hand corner of our chalkboard, with a "big line down".  Knowing where to begin a letter helps tremendously in preventing reversals!

Handwriting Supplies

Handwriting is just one small piece of our LANGUAGE ARTS studies.  On Monday and Wednesday, we have Writing Workshop.  During this time kids choose topics to write about and write at their "just right" level.  Right now, many are creating books of things they like!  From butterflies to dresses to toys to smelling flowers...there are some many things to like!  Our literacy centers include handwriting practice, phonics work and reading groups.  Some are working on learning to recognize letter names and sounds, others work on solidifying the names and sounds of letters, while others work on solidifying a recognition of beginning blends (sl, bl, gr, etc.).  This is a great time (11 to 12 Tues/Thurs) to volunteer, if you'd like to see what's going on in the classroom...I will set you up with your very own center!  Right now, I have this time covered with work study students, but they will be very appreciated in the other classes if you'd like to join us!

I hope you've had a chance to see some of the beautiful ART we are creating!  I am so enjoying having our class decorated with such creativity!  Here's a sampling for those of you that don't make it in to the classroom very often:  

Inspired by our study of patterns and our read aloud "Catwings"!

Self-Portraits!

 Fall Leaves!

Book Owls!

Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful children with me!  Happy Fall!