October is here!

Happy October! I am sure you are all busy picking out pumpkins, mums, just right apples to enjoy and visiting fairs! The First Graders have also had some Fall fun this week. However, We were disappointed we did not have the chance to go on our Fall walk (too much rain). We did brainstorm lots of Fallwords, read lots of Fall stories and learned a new Fall five senses poem. Let's hope to observe a few Fall changes this week.

In ELA, we continued on with short vowel a as our story was The Van. We introduced the an word family. The kids had a great time exploring with word puzzles, building an words, as well as using play dough to manipulate sounds and words. Reading groups are also up and going. The children are having fun using our gel boards creating words, as well as honing in on our focus skills which were making predictions and learning about sentences. We are very pleased with their independence, great job boys and girls! Please continue to review the poetry notebooks sent home on Fridays. The children also made a Fall five senses poem that is hanging outside our classroom. Feel free to stop by and check them out!

Mathematically, we reviewed addition and ways to make 9 and 10. We are working hard on our math fluency playing math games and reading lots of math literature. We have read Seven Blind Mice, 8 Orange Slices and other counting books. Domino Addition for the week ahead. A popular game introduced this week was Fishing for Addition (the children add 2 popsicle sticks to make a sum). We have also been using lots of dice and dice in dice to count on. Please continue to use flash cards at home.

We have lots of Super Scientists in our class! Mrs. M continued on with our balance unit! This week we reviewed the words balance and counterweights. The children brainstormed ways to balance an arch and triangle in a stable position using counterweights. Ask your child what a stable position is? They did a great job experimenting what worked and what didn't. We hope you received the Foss Science site that was emailed to you. Have fun exploring!

Looking Ahead:

ELA - short vowel i and naming part of a sentence
Math - vertical addition and introduction to subtraction
Science - "the pencil trick"
Social Studies - Who was Christopher Columbus?

Enjoy the week!
Mrs. Flynn
Mrs. Muscarella
Mrs. Fiore