Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to all my little ghouls!! I am wishing everyone a safe and happy night!! I am pretty certain that all the children are sooo excited for tonight if Friday at school was any indication of the upcoming weekend. Gosh the children were alll so cute and sooo happy!! Hopefully the pictures that I post have captured their joyous little faces!! Despite the excitement on Friday, I must say they were sooo well behaved and grateful for the little treats that they got. Thank you to the families who sent some treats for the kids. We did a little pretend trick or treating in the classroom where they got to select a few treats to eat now, or eat later. As it was cooking day, a group of children also baked, making delicious Rhubarb muffins. The rhubarb was the last of my crop that I shared with the children. Some loved the muffins, some did not and many just brought them home to share. So if you didnt get to try any muffin, that means your child must have loved them!! haha. This next week we will be looking at more lifecycles. So far we have talked about the lifecycle of the cucumber, the mushroom, flowering bulbs, the garlic and maybe more? ask your child...and on Tuesday we will talk about the lifecycle of the pumpkin. I have saved one little pumpkin for us to investigate. STarting this week we will also be beginning our Spider Unit. If you have any spider books that you would like to share, send them in. I would love to borrow them. In Math this week we have been talking about CARDINAL numbers and ORDINAL numbers. Ask your child if they can remember and teach you about this. We have also been working on story mapping and will be doing that for the next few weeks. Story Mapping is when I read them a story and they are to retell it in simple sentences, with a clear beginning, middle and end. They did a really good job of it. I am proud of the grade ones as they are working hard at printing and sounding out independently. It is important to allow them the opportunity to keep practicing at home. Also as i told many of the parents, daily reading is very important to do. Make sure that your child has books that are level appropriate to read, go over spelling words, read to them and have them point out words. This will help them so much in their learning career!! haha..this is their job right now! Thank you: 1) This last week I had the privilege of meeting via teams all of the parents. What a lovely moment for me! Thank you for taking the time to share your stories, your gratitudes and your concerns. I loved meeting with you all!! If I havent met with you yet, I do look forward to it. Please keep the lines of communication open. I am always available. Thank you thank you! 2) Thank you for the soap!! We go through a lot, so thank you for my latest wonderful smelling soaps to Lua and Dahlia. The children love when I open up a new bottle of soap, they are becoming quite the connoisseurs (spelling) of different soaps!! The discussions after.."ooh i like that green one...ohhh but i like that pink bubbly one" It is rather sweet! So thank you for my conversation starters. Finally: About Halloween candy...Our class along with Mr. A's class sponsors some wonderful Kindness Ninja events. Our first giving back is to the Covenant House. A shelter for homeless teens and young adults. After Halloween we ask all the children if they would like to donate a portion of their Halloween candy. They then bring their treats to me, I collect them in some boxes and we take them to the Covenant House where they are greatly covetted and appreciated. Last year we gathered three huge photocopy paper boxes. I am hoping we can match that this year! So go through the candy with your children and see if they will bring some to school for the Covenant House. Also about candy and chocolate, I am asking that you keep any candy for consumption for the kids for afterschool. It does help me for having better focus in the classroom. And with that... I hope i know how to post these pictures, I have so many, but i havent done it on this computer...so fingers crossed.. and have a safe and happy halloween! Take care, Teri