It was a fun filled last couple days in K-1 and K-3! All my little owls have been very busy learning Jolly Phonics, math, handwriting and writing. Today I did a fun "Five Little Pumpkins" project with the class and they had so much fun following my step-by-step directions in making their own! We learned the ryhme with the motions and did this fun step-by-step little pumpkins project. I am SO proud of everything my kindergarten friends have learned already! They are growing a lot as learners and I couldn't be more proud of ALL of them!

 With it being the first few days of October, we made our October calendar today. When I showed both classes the calendar they couldn't wait to make their own! For the calendar part, they filled in the missing numbers and traced over each number with an orange crayon to practice their number recognition from 1-31 and how to write the numbers the correct way (top to bottom). When they were done tracing all the numbers we talked about all the exciting things on the calendar that were happening in our classroom or at Olive for the month of October. They loved hearing about their classmates' birthdays, Halloween, days they had off, etc. Then, I showed them how to make their paper pumpkin that they would glue their finished calendars onto. On the back, I showed them how they would each get a black and white piece of construction paper and I would like them to use it to create their own jack-o-lanterns. They LOVED this part of the project and it was so fun to see all the creativity they put into creating their jack-o-lanterns. Some pumpkins had crooked teeth, others had on a cat costume, some had happy faces and some had scary faces. They all did a fabulous job and they couldn't wait to bring them home to share with all of you! We had such a fun day in K-1 and K-3 today! Here are some pictures of my kindergarten friends making their calendars:

 Last week, we learned the letter sounds for Ll, Ff, and Dd in Jolly Phonics. We have been doing a lot of practice applying all the sounds we have learned into reading and writing words. They are all doing a great job blending the sounds together to read and separating the sounds to write the words on their own. I am so impressed with how quickly they have learned all the sounds and how well they are applying them while reading and writing! They are having so much fun with Jolly Phonics!

In math, we have been learning all about the numbers 1-10 such as understanding the quantity of each number, how to write it correctly forming the number from the top to the bottom, and talking about numbers that are more or less than that number as well. We have also been talking about the concept of same and different too. They have been learning a lot in math and I am so proud of how well they are applying what they are learning on their own in their math workbooks.

In handwriting, we are continuing to learn the correct number formation for the number 1-10 using our Handwriting Without Tears program. To learn how to write each number, we use special chalkboards and use our wet, dry, try method. They love learning how to write each number using this hands on method and are doing a wonderful job!

Since it was the end of September last week, we did a sight word roll and write activity to practice all the words we learned this past month. They LOVED doing this activity and had so much fun playing it to see which sight word would win!

During recess, both classes have had so much fun playing with one another on the playground and inside with the toys we have in classroom. We have gotten some new toys and I love seeing all the creative things they are all making with them! 

Besides all the fun learning we have been doing in kindergarten, we also had a visit from a firefighter from the Arlington Heights Fire Department. He came to our class to talk about fire safety. The class was so excited about his visit and we learned a lot of really important information. The afternoon class had their visit last week and the morning class will have their turn this week. Thank you Fireman Mark!

It was a great week in K-1 and K-3! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are enjoying the cooler weather!