9/28-10/2

What a week! Miss Brawley finished her solo teaching, so once again she and Mrs. Clark shared teaching responsibilities. It was so nice to get back to my sweet children (and finish conferences)!

This week we took a safari as we read Animal Park. The students LOVED reading about the safari animals. They learned new facts about lions, zebras, hippos, and elephants! We made a koala at our Following Direction Center. Those koalas are too cute! Our boys and girls are really improving their tracing and cutting skills!

We finished our short vowel review, so your child should be able to instantly read words that contain short vowel sounds.

We also finished Unit 1 of Reading Street, but don’t throw away the spelling and story words lists. Keep them in a safe place and pull them out from time to time for review. Unit 2 words have already been updated on my website, so go ahead and be studying!

In math this week we sang the Doubles Rap and learned about fact families. The numbers 3, 8, and 5 are a fact family because you can use those three numbers to make four number sentences: 3+5=8; 5+3=8; 8-3=5; and 8-5=3. We have a really fun way to write fact families, in which we begin with skeleton number sentences!!! Our minds and hands are always so busy during math!!!

Our greatest adventure of the week was our field trip to Burritt Barnyard and Treasure Trail. The bus ride was very bumpy (It always makes me sick)! When we arrived, we went on a treasure hunt to find out what living things need: food, water, shelter, and care. Then we visited the barnyard animals: mules, goats, chickens, ponies, sheep, a cat, and a cow. The students got to pet several animals. When the guide asked the class what a mammal was, Hannah responded, “A mammal is a warm-blooded animal with fur who does not hatch from an egg and feeds their baby milk.” Many jaws dropped. What a definition! I am sure there are adults who would not even give such a detailed definition! These kids always amaze me!! After we petted and washed up we had a picnic lunch and some run around time. We made it back to school for PE and computer class! What an adventure!!!

Friday was a sad day because it was Miss Brawley’s last day with our class. She will be going to sixth grade to teach math. She assures us that she will be back to visit though. We had a nice farewell part for Miss Brawley. Thank you for the nice items you sent to fill her basket. You are so thoughtful!!! We know that miss Brawley is going to be a terrific teacher!

Well, it’s fall break! Enjoy the rest and be ready for some new learning next week!