All Sorts of Insects!

This week we had our very first Nearby Nature lesson.  Nearby Nature is a program supported by the Four Winds Institute (and led by family volunteers) which gets children out in and excited about nature!  This month's theme was insects.  We headed outside into our schoolyard looking for insects and we certainly found many!  The children were pretty good at catching these flying, jumping, and crawling insects!  After capturing them in jars, we looked at the design of their bodies and noticed they all have three body parts, six legs, wings, and antennae.  We also had the opportunity to watch a fun puppet show that helped us understand the characteristics of insects.  Be sure to ask your child about the insects we caught!  A special thanks to Jane, Jess, and Kendra for a great first session!  We continued our investigation of insects by reading several books that Kendra left and by playing a Bug Bingo game!

We have had a lot of fun learning about our Totally Terrific Children this week!  We have been investigating their names, looking at their pictures, and learning about their likes. Once each Totally Terrific Child shares his or her pictures, each child creates a page of the child's book.  This is also a great opportunity for us to work on beginning letter formation and handwriting as well as adding details to pictures.  Ask your child who the Totally Terrific Children were this week?

In math, we began numeral formation.  We began by learning the numeral formation rhymes for one and two and then we practiced writing them on whiteboards. We also drew them in the air with our skywriters!  I included the numeral formation rhymes in your child's Friday Folder this week.  There is no pressure to practice numeral formation at home, but if your child is interested, these rhymes might help him or her remember how they go.  Next week, we will move on to three and four!

During Reader's Workshop, we created another class book.  This one was based on A My Name is Alice by Jane Bayer.  The children had to brainstorm something they like...or could like, that started with the same letter/letter sound as their first names.  That was tricky!  They then practiced writing their names and drew a picture of the item that starts with their sames letters.  Some children even tried writing a word to match the picture too!  Way to go readers and writers!

We also welcomed a UVM sophomore to our classroom this week.  Ms. G will be visiting our classroom every Thursday morning for the next nine weeks.  She is an elementary education major and part of her coursework is observing and helping in the classroom for part of the semester.

Just a reminder that School Picture day is on Tuesday, September 18th for our class.  Please send in the picture form, if you plan to buy pictures.  Also, there is no school on Wednesday, September 19th.  Have a great weekend!

Be sure to ask your child about...

• Our whole school assembly and Cat Coins
• Dancing to Pop See Ko
• Singing the Pirate Song
• Catching insects at Nearby Nature
• Meeting our UVM intern, Ms. G
• Creating our Age graph and reading It's Hard to Be Five