Today we read two gingerbread stories, Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett and The Gingerbread Girls Goes Animal Crackers by Lisa Ernst.  Then we made gingerbread cookies which we decorated and ate for dessert after lunch.  It was a very exciting day. We are also blessed with a new addition to our class this week.  My mother and her dog, Gracie, are going to visit in our class for the rest of the week.  It's nice to have and extra pair of hands to help with crafts and baking projects and a little furry vacuum cleaner to clean up any food droppings.

Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah!

The wise owls are brimming with Christmas cheer!!!  They are anxiously awaiting our visit with Santa on December 15.  We are looking for a few drivers to help us get the early learners to the Dumas Center downtown on that day.  We are leaving campus no later than 9:30 and will return by 11:30.  Please let me know if you can help.

http://www.communityschool.net/documents/2011ThanksgivingFlyer.pdf

The wise owls collected and sorted rocks today.  This is an important fundamental math skill.  The discussion of attributes for sorting included size, color, and texture.  


In dramatic play we sang and acted out the Great Big Turkey poem.  Ask your child to show you how it's done.  The poem is in their home folder.


Tomorrow we are going to do some cooking.  We will make cranberry relish.  I look forward to trying all the yummy dishes at our Community School Thanksgiving pot luck on Wednesday at Moody Hall at Hollins University.  


The student art show begins at 11:00 am.  The potluck begins at 12:00.  Dismissal is at 1:00 from Moody Hall.  Weather permitting, the wise owls and other classes will be walking to Hollins to meet you for the potluck.  However we may have to alter our means of transport depending on the weather.


Please look at Quick Notes for details for Wednesday.  

Happy Halloween!

Ikenberry Orchards

Link to Quick Notes

http://www.communityschool.net/news_quicknotes.html

     The wise owls are enjoying exploring and learning about the season.  this week we started talkin' turkey.  They are really enjoying acting out our turkey poem.  
     Please be sure to look at Quick Notes for upcoming school information.  The Weds. before Thanksgiving we will be feasting at Hollins University.  Early dismissal pick up will be at 1 pm. at Hollins on Weds., Nov. 23rd.  We are also looking forward to the Book Fair the week of November 28th.  The Wise Owls will be performing a poetry selection on Friday, Nov. 3rd at 8:45 am.  

Our field trip to the Hollins' production of Goodnight Moon was wonderful.  We walked over with our Bolivian big buddies.  Before leaving for the "long walk".  We enjoyed sampling different kinds of apples to discuss the taste of each one.  We then graphed our preferences.  


Please remember to dress for a morning at the apple orchard tomorrow.  It is also Inside Out day for school spirit.  Maybe just wearing a shirt inside out would be appropriate.  It's a very busy and exciting week for the Wise Owls.

Although Fall Festival was soggy, it didn't dampen our spirits.  We had two days of fun on campus which included puddle stomping, pumpkin painting, dangling donut snacks, scarecrow making, and more!  Our trip to the pumpkin patch is rescheduled for Friday, October 28th.  Please send a note if you will be able to help with transportation.


We are looking forward to an upcoming field trip with our big buddies to the Ikenberry Apple Orchard as we continue to enjoy the harvests of the fall.


The Wise Owls continue to enjoy the weekly poems.  The Four Owls poem allowed us to discuss ordinal numbers, an important math concept.  This week will continue this concept with a similar pumpkin poem.  Be sure to look for it in the home folder.

Our next exciting event is the Hollins College production of "Goodnight Moon". The Early Learners, Lower and Middle Elementery levels will attend a 10:00 matinee performance on Monday, Oct. 24. The evening performances begin at 7:30 and we were concerned the younger children couldn't stay up this late and would miss what sounds like a wonderful production of a very sweet story. The Activity Fee will cover the cost of your child's attendance.

Fall Festival On Campus Activities:
No Hands Snack
Planting Mums
Pumpkin Decorating
Gourd Painting
Scarecrow Making
Scavenger Hunt
The day will end with singing around the campfire (fire pits) with Jason and eating S'mores.

Any donations of the above items, including old clothes, would be appreciated.

As September comes to a close I am impressed with how the class is settled into school.  This week we "opened" our class restaurant.  The class created 2 menus, The Raptor Restaurant and The Owl Cafe.  They are finding meaningful was to practice writing through creating the menus and by using the clip boards to write down the "customers" orders.  This allows me to do an authentic assessment of their writing skills.

In math we have been working with counting and number identification.  Our morning meeting gives them a chance to practice counting, identify patterns, and identify coins and learn their value.

You can support these skills by doing things such as giving your child the job to check items off of a grocery shopping list, look for patterns in sounds and pictures.  Make it fun and meaningful and you will see their minds grow in leaps and bounds.

We have a special helper each day.  The helper is the line leader for the day and has a special seat for our morning meeting.  The best part of being the helper is picking the stories for story time.  Beginning this week, the helper can chose to bring one or two books from home on the day they are the helper.  The schedule for helpers is as follows:  Oct. 4 - Henry, Oct. 5 - Jenna, Oct. 6 - Will, Oct. 7 - Hayden, Oct. 10 - Harris, Oct. 11 - Miles.

Please continue checking the Home Folder daily for personal notes and important reminders.
Have a great weekend.  See you Tuesday.

The wise owls are busy learning about owls, exploring patterns, and playing with rhyming words.  Currently our favorite book is Tiki Tiki Tembo.  Everyone recited the owl poem this week.  Look for a new poem in the folder on Monday.  Please let me know if you would like to volunteer during Fall Festival.  

We had a great time today with Emily's Birders, our big buddies.  We had song and movement time together.  The Birders taught the Wise Owls how to do the Loop the Loop.  

We just finished our first full week of school and we are all settling into the routine.  We will now be adding a weekly activity with Ruth Ann's Good Lookers class.  Every Thursday morning we combine our classes for an activity.  Last week we listened to an audio of Sounds Around the House.  We used our sense of hearing to identify the sounds.  We are now working on recording Sounds Around Our School.  Ruth Ann and I are going to tie this to a study of The 5 Senses.


Look for upcoming photos of what's happening in our classroom and around the school.