Parade Pictures

Halloween Parade

Despite weather delays we held a parade on Friday, November 4th. A big thank you to the parents who came to school and helped the children get into their costumes. We paraded through the assembly with musical accompaniments. We also baked some pumpkin muffins.

Lots and Lots of Math

We finished our unit on counting and comparing with many activities such as comparing names. Each child built a tower from the letters of his/her name and compared that to other children's names in the classroom. We also built towers out of handfuls of cubes and arranged these in order. A final activity was to draw four cards and arrange the numbers in order from smallest to largest.

We moved on to a unit on patterns, starting with a story called Ni Macho, I Am Eyes. With our attention focused on making careful observations of our surroundings, we took a walk around our school. Recently we read a story called The Sultan's Snakes, a book with many opportunities to find patterned snakes hidden in the pictures. We have been building patterns with cubes, pattern blocks and tiles. Today we each began our own snake, gluing a pattern onto a cardboard strip. We have also been building patterns on a pocket chart and figuring out what comes next. There are also picures of a game called What's Missing? a game where children have to figure out what has been removed from a tray of nine objects.

Free Choice Activities

We are very busy every morning before we begin our morning meeting. Here are a few of our favorite activities.

Leaf Walking with Buddies

We began a leaf project in October when the kindergartners took a walk with their 6th grade buddies. This is a long standing tradition at Shutesbury School, a sign of fall in our town! We will keep you updated as we make pictures with these leaves and then share them at assembly.

Welcome to all the Kindergarten Children!

Last week the children from the K/1 class joined the children in the kindergarten class full time. The classes had been combined for math, lunch and recess all year, but are now together for the entire day. We are delighted to have all the children enjoying the same program and having the full kindergarten experience. Kindergarten is a time when social skills are emphasized along with academic skills. Play time is highly valued and used as an opportunity to learn many new skills, as well as how to work out issues that arise among friends. Welcome, our friends!

We want to thank EveLynn and Julie for subbing in our classroom this fall. They have enriched our curriculum immeasurably. Welcome to Beth who is returning for her second year as a para in kindergarten. Children are benefitting tremendously from Beth's skills in programming for individual children and her willingness to teach lessons to the whole group. She brings many new ideas and projects for the classroom to enjoy.

Some Requests

We need some back-up snacks in kindergarten for children who forget to bring their snack from home. We would appreciate donations of pretzels, goldfish crackers, graham crackers etc.

We would appreciate all children wearing shoes or sneakers to school and not sandals or flip-flops. Children are more prone to accidents on climbing equipment when they have footwear that does not provide support.

We plan to reinvigorate the Kindergarten Halloween Parade on Monday, October 31st. Children are invited to bring a costume to school. We will change into our costumes around 1:30 and ask to visit other classrooms in the early afternoon. Are there any volunteers for a simple snack that we could serve the children at the end of the day?

We will send out order forms for Scholastic Book Clubs early next week. You will be able to order books online if you are interested in some quality, less expensive books for your child.