Happy Birthday, Isabel!

Isabel and her mom shared the book, Fancy Nancy, for her birthday celebration. Thank you for the yummy chocolate covered pretzel rods!

SMALL GROUP "M" ACTIVITIES

M&M's Graphing--yum, yum!

Which jar has the Most Marshmallows?

ZERO THE HERO

Today, we celebrated 20 days of school! We made animal puppets. Thanks, Mya! It was fun!

POCKET CHART STORIES

Our pocket chart stories reinforce the sound of the week. The stories are simple with a repetitive text and picture clues. Initially, the story is presented to the entire class with children participating in filling in the words and pictures to the story on the pocket chart.
Then, during Free Choice time, children can do this activity on their own or with their peers. In the photo below, Davey is filling in the word "milkshakes" on the pocket chart to complete the sentence. This week's story was Marvin the Monkey.

"Star of the Week"

Mary Kate is our first "Star of the Week".

Learning Centers

This past week we introduced our first set of learning centers. There is a total of 12 learning centers and children work with and complete each learning center one time. Children have their own individual cards to remind them of which learning centers they still need to complete. This set of learning centers works on the following skills: letter recognition, sequencing pictures to make a story, numeral recognition, one-to-one correspondence, spatial reasoning using a shape puzzle, visual discrimination, shape sorting and identification, sorting objects into groups by their attributes, pairing items that go together, patterning, fine motor (cutting), and color matching and identification. Based on the knowledge and skill level of the child, we are able to individualize and differentiate each learning center to meet a child's individual needs. We want the children to enjoy working with the learning centers, to build confidence in their own abilities, and to feel successful. We're off to a great start! Later on in the school year, we will schedule times when parents can come in to the classroom and observe the children doing learning centers.

Meeting Mr. Mackenzie

Mr. Mackenzie explains to us all about being the littlest vikings at Columbus Academy!

Mr. Mackenzie read us the book The Hungry Thing Returns. The moral of the story...sometimes the students know more than the teachers...and even the headmaster! Ask your child about flamburgers, bellyjeans, blownuts, crackeroni and sneeze, harshfellows, mice dream, and gubble bum!

Meeting Mr. Mackenzie: Take Two!!! (Take One was interrupted by a fire drill two weeks ago:))

"M" Week

Magnet Exploration after reading Mickey's Magnet

Mickey Mouse Bookmarks

Five Little Monkeys

Monkey Business

Marble Track

Magnet Dig

"Five + Little Monkeys"

Marble Painting

HAPPY BITHDAY!!!

Happy Birthday, Max!!! We loved hearing There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat. Thanks for bringing in the yummy, sticky Rice Krispies Treats!

Our New Sound: M

How do you like our "Moosetaches"!!!

Young Authors At Work

Today, we introduced story writing at the writing center. Using a sticker as a stimulus, several of the children chose to draw a story during Free Choice time. After the teachers help the children write the words to their stories, they will have a chance to read their stories to the class during "Author Basket" time. Then, the stories will we sent home so your child may then read it to you! Happy Writing & Reading!!!

SMILE :)

Picture Day is tomorrow!!! If you are interested in purchasing any pictures, please fill out the form that was sent home today via your child's backpack and return it to us tomorrow. You are under no obligation to purchase pictures. However, all children will be photographed.

HAPPY BITHDAY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RUSSELL!!! We enjoyed hearing The Polar Express. Thanks for the yummy Darth Vader cupcakes!

WELCOME BACK!!!

It was great seeing all the children today. They did an awesome job getting right back into the swing of things despite having had 5 days off of school. We decided not to introduce a new sound this week due to the very short week. However, the kids can expect to be surprised with our new sound on Marvelous Monday!

HURRICANE IKE

To all of you who are experiencing power outages or property damage, our hearts go out to you! Our school is so dark and dim without the natural light provided by the smiles of all our young children! We look forward to returning to school. Take care.

SECOND GRADE BUDDIES

We had fun meeting our Second Grade Buddies this week. We did a "Getting to Know You" activity with them. We cannot wait until our next meeting. In the meantime, we know we can wave at them when we see them in the hallways!

ZERO THE HERO

Today, we finally found out what the big "surprise" was all about! Zero the Hero arrived with a "Bundle" cuckaracha! Since our bundle of "ten" straws could no longer stay in the "ones" pocket, our Zero the Hero friend sat in the "ones" pocket. Later, when Mary Kate's mom came to do a Zero the Hero art project with us, we learned the "Zero the Hero" song! Then we had fun decorating "zero" necklaces. Thanks, Mary Kate and mom!

OUR SECOND STEP PROGRAM

We introduced our Second Step Program today. Throughout the year, we will be discussing feelings, role-playing various social situations, and developing problem-solving skills with the aid of photographs and puppets. Today, we introduced the concept of "reading faces" to recognize other people's feelings.

"B" WEEK

The following pictures are just some of our B activities this week:

Beetle Bug Tonging

Bed Bugs

Buster's Bugs

Building with Blocks

Making Bear Ears and Bead Bracelets

Blowing Blue Bubbles

Making our classroom Birthday Book


Decorating the Letter "B"


Making our mini Bubble Bear books


Basket Full of "B" Words