“We played at recess.  We read Stone Soup and drew pictures on the Smart Board.  We also read about a book with an Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything.  We have our own community jobs and everybody helps.  For movement we did stations to exercise. 
Love, Ella”

As Ella mentioned we read a new version of Stone Soup today and then we were able to use the Smart Board for the first time.  Small groups were able to create their own images of Stone Soup, and collaboratively work together to include everyone in the process of learning how to use a new piece of technology. 

Every student helped out in the classroom by doing their Community Job, and during creative play all friends helped to clean-up the blocks at the end of the day.

View more photos from today in our Oct 5-9 Photo Gallery

Today’s News
Written by Our Blog Manager, Ella
“Today we read Stone Soup books and we now we have our own jobs.  My job is to type on the laptop and type ‘Love’.  And I tell the parents what we did today.  Lola picked this job where you put the stamp on and write down who is sick.  In nine days we are gonna make Stone Soup! That’s all.
Love,
Ella”

As Ella mentioned, we read two different versions of Stone Soup today.  Students were so excited about making Stone Soup last year in preschool, that they want to do it again. This time we are reading several different versions of the story.  We will be comparing and contrasting the different versions of this folktale, as well as completing other extension activities.  Next week we will make our own Stone Soup to eat! During atelier time today several students wanted to create stone soup using play dough.  The play dough stone soup below was created by Ronin. It contains mushrooms, carrots, and snakes. Yum!

Today we also started Community Jobs.  Last week we spent a few class meetings brainstorming and dicussing jobs that would help life in our community run smoothly.  Students helped take photos and create a job chart for our community jobs. Today we all chose a job.  Every Monday students will choose a new job for the week. Here’s our jobs for the week:

Attendance Manager (Records attendance and delivers to Ms. Shelley)- Lola

Handwashing Leader (Leads us in a handwashing song and helps students remember to use soap and water)- Lily

Pencil Sharpener (Sharpens all classroom pencils)- Ewan

Librarian (Keeps library tidy and recommends books to readers)- Joaquin

Snack Server (Sets up snack center, announces snack time, and cleans-up after snack)- Michael

Mail Carrier (Delivers letters to friends and carries parent letter to the front at the end of the day)- Brendan and Ms. Katie

Clean-Up Manager (Announces clean-up time, helps supervise clean-up, and excuses students)- Kaleb

Blog Manager (Reflects on our daily learning and composes a blog message for families)- Ella

Lunch Managers (Transports our lunches to and from the classroom)- Isabela, John Michael, Ronin

Expert Authors (Manages writing toolboxes and helps authors sound out words)- PJ, Whitney, Jack

Today we admired each other’s art about feelings.  Please stop by our classroom and admire our art and check out our new community jobs chart.

Our star of the day today we PJ.  We studied his name and discussed the use of initials.  Here’s what we learned about PJ:
-His favorite things at school are books and puzzles.
-His favorite holidays are Halloween and Christmas.
-He likes to play Legos.
-His favorite food is pizza sauce.
-He plays on a soccer team.

Last Friday our star of the day was Kaleb. Here’s what we learned about Kaleb:
-He likes popsicles, lollipops and mints.
-His favorite food is pancakes.
-He likes Creative Play.
-His favorite sport is swimming.
-He enjoys building space ships out of Legos.

View more photos from today in our Oct 5-9 Photo Gallery
View photos taken on Friday in our Sept 28-Oct 2 Photo Gallery

Today during our movement time we worked together as a team to complete relay races.  We figured out how to divide the class in half so that an equal number of students stood on each side of the yard.  After much discussion we decided that we needed seven students on each side of the yard in order to have an equal number.  A student from one side of the yard ran across the yard and tagged a student on the opposite side. Then the student who got tagged ran across the yard and tagged someone the on the other side of the yard. Students kept running back and forth until everyone had a chance to run.  Then we tried the relay running backwards, sideways, and spinning. It was great fun!

One of our friends lost a tooth today! It was very exciting. We examined the tooth and discussed what she could do with her tooth.  Then we read a funny story called Moose’s Loose Tooth.

During center time today Mr. Danny showed us a website about NASA.  We discussed what gear astronauts need to go into space and then we played a short, interactive game.

We choose a new star of the day today! We got to study his name and ask him interview questions. Here’s what we learned about our star:

-His favorite food is tomatoes.
-His favorite shoes are green and black.
-His favorite sport his football.
-His favorite holiday is Halloween.
-His favorite toy is a fire truck.
-His favorite book is about Hawaiian Pizza.

Today we also changed our calendar to October.  We figure out special dates in October and added them to our calendar.  Our special October events are tie dying, Halloween, and our pumpkin patch field trip.

View more photos from today in our Sept 28-Oct 2 Photo Gallery

Today at school we had a fire drill.  We practiced getting ourselves and our friends safely out of the building in case there is ever a fire.  We did a great job using walking feet and quiet voices.  We got ourselves quickly out of the building without getting our belongings and/or shoes.  We felt proud of ourselves. 

Today we did an activity where we envisioned a certain scenerio. Then we drew a picture of how we would feel in that situation.  We brain-stormed how we would feel in four different situations and we came up with lots of great feeling words.  We used words like ‘joyful’, ‘devastated’, ‘excited’, and ‘frustrated’.

At recess today we noticed that the pumpkin seeds we planted last year grew into large pumpkins. We can’t wait to go to the pumpkin patch in a few days!

Our star of the day today was Ewan.  We studied the letters, sounds, and syllables in Ewan’s name.  We also got to ask Ewan some interview questions.
-Ewan’s favorite food is black beans.
-Ewan likes light-up shoes.
-He likes dogs. 
-His favorite holiday is Halloween.
-Ewan’s favorite game is Lego Mario
-Ewan’s favorite color is turquoise.

View more photos from today in our Sept 28-Oct 2 Photo Gallery