Book Character Dress Up Day--Oct 29

 OK, so it has been over a month since Book Character Dress Up Day--but its never too late to post the pictures! Thanks for helping your little readers with their costumes! We had some GREAT ones!

However, I decided blue isn't really the color for me...or my hair anyway.

Pumpkin Carving With Dads

What a fantanstic group of dads, grandads, and uncles! Thanks for giving your time to show us how its done! The pictures say it all...

ZOO!

What a great day we had together at the Birmingham Zoo in October! Thanks to you, the children had a wonderful experience. We wrapped up our two-week unit on animals and their offspring with this exciting trip, and couldnt have done it without your cooperation and assistance. Here are a few pictures from the zoo...and I really mean just a few! Parents, PLEASE send the pictures you captured as well and I will add them!! I must have been so charmed by the rest of the animals I forgot to take their pictures, so enjoy these of the lorikeets!

Number Bonds

We have recently begun to learn about number bonds in the Duck Class. What is a number bond you say? I thought this description from letsplaymath.net says it well..."A number bond is a mental picture of the relationship between a number and the parts that combine to make it. The concept of number bonds is very basic, an important foundation for understanding how numbers work. A whole thing is made up of parts. If you know the parts, you can put them together (add) to find the whole. If you know the whole and one of the parts, you take away the part you know (subtract) to find the other part.

Number bonds let children see the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction. Subtraction is not a totally different thing from addition; they are mirror images. To subtract means to figure out how much more you would have to add to get the whole thing."

The accompanying pictures show us using "number bond bracelets" to make the number bond of 3. Children explored different ways to make 3 by manipulating the 3 beads on their bracelet, such as 1 and 2; 2 and 1; 3 and 0, etc. We will do this and many more similar experiences with number bonds through 10 this year.

Farm Day!

EIEIO! The students and teachers in Pod 3 had a wonderful Farm Day 2010 thanks to many parent volunteers. Furst, the students made their own farm-style trail mix, called Chicken Feed, with Cheerios, Peanuts, Sunflower Seeds, M&M's, candy corn, and raisins. Yum! Next, we went on a hay ride around the school courtesy of Mrs. Farr's kind husband, Farmer Bruce. Then we dug through a pile of hay for hidden treasures, and had our faces painted with pumpkins and apples. We went back to the classroom for a game of "Chicken, Chicken Where's Your Egg? It was a fun time for all!

Zero the Hero!

Every 10th day of school, we have a secret visit from Zero the Hero! He brings us a special treat in the shape of "0" while the kids aren't looking. On the 10th day of school, he brought mint flavored lifesavers. On the 20th day of school he brought us white powdered donuts! Today, the 30th day of school, Zero the Hero left fruity zero-shaped candies. The attached picture shows the children enjoying their treat this morning after we counted to 30 together!

When you get a chance...

...I came across a couple of helpful artciles online this weekend I thought you might enjoy, both about fine motor skills and writing. I think you will get some great tips about helping your child be the best writer he/she can be (and have fun doing it!), while understanding what is developmentally appropriate at this age.

http://notjustcute.com/2010/08/27/the-write-way-to-read/

http://notjustcute.com/2010/09/20/the-writing-in-the-salt/

I hope you find this beneficial!

Mrs. B

Welcome...have an apple!

Welcome to our class blog! My purpose for creating this blog is to allow you, the parents, an occasional peek into the classroom to see what these wonderful students are doing. I vow to try my best to keep this updated! :) I will most likely only post on special activities. For example, on Tuesday we had an Apple Tasting Party! The students were given samples of 3 different types of apples to taste (along with some yummy caramel dip and a box of apple juice to wash it down!). They were asked to taste them all and choose which apple they liked best. Then the children chose a paper apple to represent the color apple they liked best on a graph. We read Gail Gibbons non-fiction book Apples, and learned about how the colonists brought apple seeds and seedlings with them to America. We also learned about John Chapman, a.k.a Johnny Appleseed! We will continue to learn much more about apples this week. Ask your student to tell you what they know!