Happy Halloween!

Wow!  What a spooktacular day we had!  Students were so excited to finally celebrate Halloween on Friday.  Shortly after arriving at school, we quickly got dressed (thanks to a few helping hands from parent volunteers) for our whole school Halloween parade.  We loved seeing all the different costumes!
After the parade, we had snack and then participated in some special Halloween themed literacy centers.  In my group, students choose an eyeball with a sticker on it, said the name of the object on the sticker, and then either identified the beginning or ending sound of that word.  In Ms. Montefusco's group, students used bingo daubers to stomp out the number of syllables in words.  In the last group, children either drew Halloween pictures or took photos of our classroom Halloween decorations in the Seesaw app and practiced labeling.  We also practiced retelling Go Away, Big Green Monster!

In the afternoon, after art, we were eager to begin our Halloween party.  It was so beautiful outside that we read a Halloween story in the courtyard and then walked back to the classroom like zombies.  The students were eerily good at this and startled poor Mrs. Moore who happened to be walking by as we were about to head back inside.

During our party, children enjoyed the crafts Mrs. Creasi planned and then snacked on some yummy treats.  A huge thank you to parents who donated food and party supplies and/or volunteered their time in helping with costumes or helping out with the afternoon fun.  The students and I are very grateful!
I was able to capture many happy and silly moments from today.  Enjoy the Animoto video below!  

A Perfect Pumpkin Day

Pumpkin day last Friday was a HUGE success! The day was filled with many pumpkin activities. Check out the fun we had!

We read to pumpkins in the Reading Patch.  The boys and girls were SO excited to read to the pumpkins!!

We ordered numbers 0-20, sorted pictures that start and do not with the letter p, and matched rhyming pumpkins.

The children were very excited for the afternoon when they got to travel to four investigation stations that parent volunteers facilitated.

Children counted the number of lines on their pumpkins and remembered to use smart counting strategies and they determined if pumpkins sink or float.  Some students were very surprised that their heavy pumpkins float!

These hard working mathematicians also measured the height of their pumpkins with cubes and had the opportunity to feel the gooey inside of a pumpkin and count its seeds.

To count all the seeds, Mrs. Rullo had the children each grab a handful and put a group of ten seeds in each small cup. After a couple of days off due to the weather, we finally learned yesterday the total number of pumpkin seeds.  We arranged the cups of seeds into ten frames so we could practice counting by tens to 100 and then from there counted by hundreds and the leftover tens and ones.  The total number of seeds for our pumpkin was 515!!  Alex's dad estimated the closest with a prediction of 492 seeds.  Thank you to families and educators who shared your seed estimates with the class.  We enjoyed reading the comments during morning meeting.

Thank you to Mrs. DeBonis, Mrs. Rullo, Mrs. Kaiserman, and Mrs. Hatley for helping with this fun activity!  An extra special thank you to the Rullo family for donating a class set of pumpkins.

We finished up our pumpkin unit by reviewing what we already knew about pumpkins prior to the start of our unit and what we were hoping to learn.  

The boys and girls were surprised with how much they learned about pumpkins.  Congratulate your pumpkin experts on the new knowledge they attained and have been eager to share.

How many seeds in our pumpkin?

We are very excited for Pumpkin Day on Friday when we will see if pumpkins sink or float, measure how tall our pumpkins are, and count the seeds of one of our pumpkins!  Today we made predictions or estimates of how many seeds the children think one of our pumpkins has inside.  To help educate the children on how to make a good estimate, I read them the book How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara.  We learned some important information from the book that helped us make our estimates.  Check out these cool facts we read:

•  Each line on the outside of a pumpkin has a row of seeds inside. 
•  The longer a pumpkin grows on the vine, the darker it is and the more lines it has. 
• The largest pumpkin doesn't necessarily mean it has the most seeds!

Check out our estimates!

Moms, dads, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and babysitters, we would love to hear YOUR predictions! In the comment section below, add your name and your prediction of how many seeds in this pumpkin!  

Hopefully the 8x10 frame can help give you some idea of the pumpkin's size.

Thank you for sharing your predictions!

Check back the beginning of next week for pictures of our Pumpkin Investigation Stations and to find out the actual number of seeds!

We can label!

Parents, do you know what it means to label? After today’s lesson, I hope your children have a better understanding of what it means to label a picture. A label gives the reader information about the picture.

When we learned about apples a few weeks ago, students were introduced to the word labeling.  They labeled the parts of an apple diagram and their pictures about our apple picking field trip.

Today they got to label me, the teacher!

Yes, they can!

After, they had the opportunity to practice labeling on their own.  They each got two post-its and labeled something in the room.

I encouraged the children to go home and label the things around their homes – the couch, a table, a book, anything! Food, playroom toys, and their bedrooms were suggested by students.  Rumor has it that pets, brothers and sisters, and you might be getting labeled tonight – just a warning ;).

When they labeled, I asked the children to listen for and write the first sound of the object and, if they were able to, listen for the last sound as well.  For those who like a challenge, they tried the first, a middle, and a final sound! Associating the sound with a word they are familiar with is always helpful (i.e. /t/ like top if they are trying to spell table).

Labeling helps us to understand information in pictures and is a precursor to writing sentences. Recently, we started Writer’s Workshop.  I have modeled and the children have practiced beginning with an idea, illustrating it with great detail, and then labeling the people and things in their pictures. Eventually, they will be able to use those labels to develop their story and formulate sentences.  Children are learning that good writers have enough detail in their pictures to tell the story.  With a little more practice, your child should be able to confidently say "I can label a picture!"

I would love to share with the class what children labeled at home!  You can add a photo or sentence or two to the padlet below.  Simply click in the large, yellow padlet box, add your child's name as the title and either click on the camera to upload a picture or just write a sentence telling what your child labeled.  If you would prefer to email me a picture, I am more than happy to add it to the padlet for you!

When completing homework each night, encourage your child to listen for the beginning and ending sounds or the beginning, a middle, and an ending sound when labeling their illustrations.  The spelling doesn't have to be perfect!  I like how my neighbor teacher, Mrs. Murphy, reminds her students they are doing "young writer" spelling.  I encourage my students to do their best to listen for the sounds they hear when stretching out a word and to use those to sounds to spell.

Happy Labeling!

Apple Picking Field Trip

Kindergarteners lucked out with the perfect fall weather for our apple picking field trip to Smolak Farm on Friday!
Everyone enjoyed the hayride to the apple orchard and yelling "Go, John, Go!" to John who drove the tractor that pulled our wagon.  Each child was excited to pick 5 apples.  There were talks of apple pie, apple crisp, and just slicing the juicy apples and eating them for snack.  
We took the hayride back to a barn that had picnic tables and stringed lights where we enjoyed apple cider and apple cider doughnuts.  
Finally, the kindergarteners ended the fun-filled morning by looking at a few of the farm animals.


Friday's field trip was a great way to wrap up our unit on apples.  We will soon be learning about pumpkins and then we will be able to compare and contrast the two fruits!
A huge thank you to the PTO for organizing and sponsoring this field trip!

First Week Fun

We made it through the first 4 days of Kindergarten!!   The children are doing well learning the morning routines and are doing them on their own now (with some reminders).  We also practiced walking outside for a fire drill and they did well following directions and staying in a quiet line. 

All of the children seem to be adjusting well to coming to school whether on the bus or being dropped off.  We began the regular morning routine with the first and second graders this morning.  The kindergarteners waited in the gym before heading down to the classroom.  They did a fabulous job this morning and are excited to wait in the gym each morning with the big kids.  They are also doing a great job getting ready for dismissal at the end of the school day.  I am gradually trying to let them be more independent with placing papers in the pockets of their folders and packing their backpacks on their own.

We have been busy learning each other’s names, practicing our cutting and gluing skills, becoming familiar with the daily routines, and learning the expectations of school behavior.  We have also been learning the terms before, after, same, and different in math.

I have been encouraging the children to go home each day and share one thing they have learned.  If your child has not shared what we have been doing, here are a few suggestions of what you can ask them about:

• What does a 5 star listener look like? (I am looking for children sitting with legs crossed, hands still and in their laps, ears listening, eyes watching the speaker, and lips that are zipped) 
• Can you show me how you write the numbers one and two? 
• Who were the characters? or What was your favorite part of the books The Kissing Hand, Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, and The Wheels on the Bus? (The underlined titles take you to read alouds of the stories).

The students were super excited on the second day of school during a Scavenger Hunt to try to find the raccoon, Chester, from the book The Kissing Hand who left us clues to tour the different rooms in the school.  He was one quick raccoon and hopped back in the book before we could find him.  On our travels, however, we did get to meet our principal, nurse, and school secretary, as well as visit the library, art, music, gym, and computer rooms.  We visited the cafeteria staff again and went to the nurse's office to learn where to go if we need a band-aid or ice pack from Mrs. Marshall.  Everyone was relieved to hear that she doesn't give shots!

Smiles to end the first day!
Can your child name some of his/her new classmates?

Check out this Animoto video of some pictures I was able to take during our first week adventures!


I'm looking forward to our first full week next week.  We are going to continue learning each other's names, writing and counting the letters in our names, and develop an understanding of expected and unexpected school behavior so that we can create our classroom rules together.

Sizzling Summer Fun

Hello my former students!  I hope you have had a fabulous summer filled with adventure and fun!  It's hard to believe a week from now you will have already had your first couple days of the new school year.  In June, you told me of your exciting plans to camp, travel, visit family, and hang out with friends.  I would love to hear from you! What is something exciting you did this summer?
Also, hello to my new Kindergarteners!  Welcome to Fuller Meadow!  I am excited to be starting the school year with you.  Feel free to share about your vacation as well to help me get to know you. :)