Our classroom has been filled with non-stop activity since I last wrote. We successfully hatched and released all 21 monarch butterflies. Cries of “Buen viaje!” and “Hasta luego!” filled the air as the butterflies took flight on these warm and sunny October days. In addition, each student has now completed their life cycle poster, which are hanging in our rooms. It was amazing to see their concentration as they studied the live butterfly on the table, trying to paint it with accuracy. You will see these posters, and much more student work, at parent-teacher conferences next week. I’m looking forward to spending time with each of you to discuss the wonderful progress that your child is making!
Phonics and handwriting instruction continues, and the class is becoming skilled at hearing initial consonant sounds and learning which letters correspond to them. We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Who Do You See? together, and the class is having great fun writing and illustrating their own Halloween version of this (“Ghost, Ghost, who do you see? I see Skeleton looking at me!”). In other LA news, we’ve now finished Charlotte’s Web (which I’ve been reading at rest time), and each as written about their favorite part of the book. We’ve also shared books about Fall, taken some fall walks using all our senses to notice the changes, and begun our books on the four seasons.
Math has been fun! Creating with pattern blocks remains a very popular choice. The children are also learning to recognize, extend, and create their own patterns using unifix cubes. Patterns we’ve focused upon this week included AB, AAB, and AABB. Next week we’ll get more complex with ABC, AABC, and perhaps even ABAC!
You’ll see in the slideshow that my son Toby, a BCD alum, stopped by to read stories to the class. A few of the children were a bit mystified as to how I could be his mother, since he’s a good 6″ taller than me. I think they all believed me eventually!
Enjoy the following slideshow. This one includes the promised photos from Grandparents Day. (If this doesn’t open automatically as a slide show, try clicking on the top photo and it should open the album up. You might then have to use the cursor buttons to see all the photos. If so, sorry! I’m still getting this technology down!)
Andrea
Great photos of the butterfly release program! And Grandparent/Grandfriends Day!