Mrs. Garrabrant's Classroom: Ripped Paper Names, Homecoming Parade, Dot Day, and More!

We had a busy week full of learning and fun! We learned about some of our friends when they shared their treasure blocks. We also worked on some name activities with Mrs. Ball in Literacy Lab and the students took their diagnostic assessments for iReady. We practiced cutting and gluing, making names using ripped paper, and exploring in our I Wonder stations in our classroom. We also had a wonderful time at our ice cream social and homecoming parade, worked on being PAX leaders, had an assembly to learn about "Tootles" and school awards, and celebrated dot day! The students earned their color red books and letter A books as well. Take a look below for more details!

We learned about three new friends as they shared their treasure blocks with the class. After Wyatt, Nolan & Anika shared their treasure blocks and we made a web about them, the students drew pictures for that friend which I put together to make an All About Me book for them to take home. I will not be putting that child's drawing into their own All About Me book, it will be in their portfolio which you will get back at the end of the year. Just so you know so you aren't looking for it in the book your child brings home!

Wyatt

Nolan

Anika

In Literacy Lab, Mrs. Ball had some fun activities for the students to be able to practice their names. First, we read the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Then the students used circles and wrote one letter from their name on each to make their own name caterpillar.

They all worked hard and they turned out beautiful!

The students also practiced recognizing the first letter in their name and writing their names.

On Thursday & Friday the students worked on taking the diagnostic assessment for iReady in math and reading. iReady is an program that we will be using for online lessons in reading and math. The diagnostic helps us understand where the students are at and what they need help in. The students will be taking the diagnostic again in December and May. They all worked very hard and did their best!

We practiced our cutting skills. We worked on holding the scissors correctly with one hand, and holding the paper with the other. The students cut in a straight line, zig zag and curvy line, then had to stop cutting at the cat in the hat.

We also worked on using liquid glue as well. I explained that the key to using liquid glue is, you don't need a lot. They had to try to only put enough glue to cover the dots on the apple!

The students also made their name using ripped paper. They had to cover each letter with just enough glue, rip small pieces of paper, and cover all of the letters in their name.

They all did such a wonderful job. Here are just a few examples. I am going to hang these up on our bulletin board in the hallway and then they will go in your child's portfolio!

We have been working hard to learn about each of the areas in our classroom for our I Wonder stations. Below you can see students working in our "Small Hands" area (left) and practicing things like sorting, tying shoes, using pliers to pick things up, etc. to work those fine motor skills.

On the right is our "Look Closer" area where students use things like magnifying glasses or microscopes to look closer at various objects, like a pinecone, ball, buttons, etc.

Students also worked in our "Loose Parts" area to create things with various small parts such as buttons, corks, rocks, gems, etc.

Students worked in our "Engineering" area with various materials to build.

On the left students worked in our Home Living area to play. On the right students worked in our "Library" area to looks at books and magazines.

Students also worked in our "Science" area to explore various science materials like rocks, animals, magnets, etc.

Students worked in our art area to create pictures.

Thank you to everyone who came out for our Ice Cream Social and Homecoming Parade on Thursday evening. I didn't get a chance to take pictures during the ice cream social because I was busy passing out ice cream! It was a beautiful evening and everyone had a wonderful time.

I even got to see some of my former students!

The students have been working so hard to learn how to spell the color Red. Ask your child to sing you our Red color song and read you the red color book that they brought home! The students practiced pointing to each of the words as they read the book to a friend.

We have started working on spelling the color blue next!

We also learned the letter A and read our book to a friend.

PAX is a program that focuses on positive behavior that you will be hearing about. Mrs. Phillip is our PAX coordinator and she will be visiting our classroom every Thursday to teach us about the different parts of PAX. On Thursday, we learned what behaviors would be considered PAX and what behaviors would be "Spleems" (unwanted behaviors). We did a picture sort as a class to decide which behaviors went where (Ex: using kind hands would be PAX but pushing would be a Spleem).

We also had an assembly to learn about something else we will be using called "Tootles. Tootles are a compliment that students get from an adult in the school. They fill out a paper that has one copy that will come home, one will stay at school, and one will go to the office to be entered in a drawing for a weekly prize. Tootles are given for students being "Safe", "Respectful" or "Responsible".

We also saw trophies that classes will be earning for various things such as in special area classes (art, music, P.E., library/computer lab) and other areas like the bathroom & lunchroom. Teachers will pick a winning class in these areas weekly who will get a prize for being chosen and get to display the award outside their classroom for the week.

The students really enjoyed seeing each award and here is their reaction to the unveiling of the restroom award. (It has a little toilet and sink spray painted gold!)

On Friday we read the story "The Dot". The author Peter Reynolds celebrates each year with an international dot day. This year it was on Saturday, the 15th so we celebrated a day early on Friday!

The students rotated to various stations and participated in various activities in order to celebrate Dot Day. The first one was using different materials (bingo dabbers, cups, corks, q-tips, and cotton balls) to stamp dots.

At the next station, students used markers to decorate coffee filters and then sprayed them with water.

Then they used water colors to paint different sized dots.

They used paint on a paper plate to make a dot on the paper and twist it to mix them together.

Lastly, they used colored chalk on black paper to draw dots.

Of course we enjoyed the nice weather outside. Students practiced trying to make balls into the hoop.

They also love exploring in our loose parts area!

Important papers sent home this week:

September homework & reading logs. You will work with your child to help them fill these in throughout the month as you complete the tasks for homework and read to them for the reading log. Then you will sign them and your child will bring them back to school on October 1st for a prize if completed.