Happy Halloween!

Today we celebrated Halloween. First, we ate our treats. D's mom brought in fruit and a delicious cookie sandwich. Then, it was time for the parade. The Topeka West drum line led our parade. We walked all the way to the nursing home near our school and back. When we came back, R's mom helped us make a paper plate ghost. We loved them! Thank you everyone for all of the help. I think we all had a great time! :-)

Enjoying our treats



A class picture

The 2 princesses

The 2 vampires

Check out these superheros!

On the parade route



A friend holding up her finished ghost

Carving a Pumpkin

We have started a unit on the 5 senses. We have read and talked briefly about all of them, but we focused on taste today. We cut out things you could taste from magazines. They found a lot of yummy things to cut out. Later in the afternoon, we carved a pumpkin. Each student got to take a handful of seeds and goo out of the pumpkin. They also got to keep one of the seeds. Then, we voted on what shape we wanted to make the eyes, nose, and mouth. After I carved the pumpkin, we turned off the lights and I put a light in the pumpkin. It was a lot of fun! :-)

Cutting out things they can taste from the magazines



Digging out the seeds and goo from the pumpkin




Each group posing with the carved pumpkin

Stop, Drop, and Roll

We have been reading lots of books about fire safety and have learned many important lessons. Here are some of them:
1. Leave the house immediately if there's a fire
2. Call 911 at a neighbor's house
3. Do not play with matches, lighters, or any type of fire
4. If you are on fire: stop, drop, and roll
Today, we stopped being so serious and made a fun art project. Each student cut out a flame and glued it to a black piece of paper. Then, I placed a drop of red paint and a drop of yellow paint on the flame. They used their fingers to mix the two colors together and finger painted the flame. They loved it!
In math, we learned about tally marks. We put our knowledge to good use and graphed our favorite fruits using tally marks. We know a lot about fruits because of our fresh fruits and vegetables program. It turns out grapes are our class favorite. :-)

Finger painting our flames





Here are some of the flames displayed in our hallway:

Our favorite fruit graph

Bowling in P.E.

They have been bowling in P.E. the past two classes. They are starting out with 3 bowling pins and are doing a fantastic job! Check out the pictures below!

The Library Dragon

Mrs. Baker read, "The Library Dragon" to the students in library. This is a great book about a librarian that is a dragon. She guards her books very fiercely, but eventually realizes that books are for kids too. The students learned ways to take care of books and keep them safe just like the library dragon did. Then, the students made shields to "protect" themselves from the library dragon's fire. At the top of the shields, they wrote their initials. Then, they drew a picture of their favorite book on one side of the shield. On the other side, they drew a picture of someone treating a book badly. Then, they drew an X over the picture, so they remember it's a "no, no, never, never." When they were finished, Mrs. Baker taped string to the back, so it would work just like a shield.

Making their shields in library

A friend holding up her finished shield

Fall Cookout

We had our annual fall cookout today, and the weather was beautiful. We ate hamburgers and chips outside and had a great time. Some parents were even able to come to lunch with their children today. See for yourself the fun we had! :-)

The Past Few Days

This post encompasses the last few days. On Tuesday, the Windy City Players performed Robin Hood for us. They are a group from Chicago, and they were awesome and very funny. Six of my students even got to pretend to be Robin Hood's "merry men" at the end of the play.

We have been focusing on letter sounds in reading groups. Today, I gave each student a bag with puzzle pieces. They had to match the letters to the picture with the same beginning sound. It was a little difficult because the letters were lowercase, but they loved the challenge.


Our biggest challenge of the day was completing a large, number grid together. I gave each student a sheet of stickers to complete the number grid. They started to notice the pattern right away, and said, "This makes a staircase." Such smart friends I have! :-) The grids are proudly displayed in the hallway for all to see.