Ms. Nicky and Ms. Julie’s News
Happy Fall! It has been a busy month for us. We have started working on letter identification, formation, and the sounds that letters make. We have also talked about numbers, and have been working on quantifying frequently. We are well into our STEM unit on Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling. We have talked about where our garbage goes, what litter is, and the importance of reusing and recycling. We have gotten to explore math concepts like measuring by measuring the height of the garbage in our garbage can at the end of each day, and comparing by graphing our results and seeing which days we collect more or less trash. We also took a tour around the school to follow the route our garbage takes once it leaves our classroom, which gave us the opportunity to count the number of garbage cans in our school and also introduce the vocabulary small, medium, and large as we compared the sizes of garbage cans around the school. We were also lucky enough to have eco-cycle come in and do a presentation. However, the students have been most excited about the child-sized garbage truck/recycling truck that Ms. Julie designed in our Dramatic Play area!
We have started going to the library and, hopefully, the students have all shared the book they chose with you. We will visit the library the second and fourth Wednesday of every month, so please have your child return their book at that time so they are able to choose a new one.
STEM Profile of the Month: Cooperative
“I work with others and am willing to lead or follow as needed.”
Books to encourage cooperation:
Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
Swimmy by Leo Leoni
Parent-Teacher Conferences
Fall conferences are October 4-6. Our GOLD assessments will not yet be completed, but I will be sharing the progress we have seen so far. I look forward to seeing all of you!
Home-School Connections
Thank you for working with your child on their letter-writing homework! We have been practicing our letter-writing skills a lot at school so, hopefully, the students are able to do the work at home without much guidance. As I’m sure you’ve probably noticed, the lowercase letters are much harder for the students to write. Don’t worry if they don’t seem to be “getting it”. With continued practice, they will continue to improve!
Our Big Idea for Math for the month of October is Number Sense. Some ideas of things you can do at home to work on this skill are:
-Do a Number Scavenger Hunt where you ask your child to find a specific quantity of the same thing (e.g. “See if you can find three leaves).
-Hold up a certain number of fingers and ask your child to name the quantity without counting.
-Call out a number and ask your child to show you the number by holding up that many fingers.
STEM Profile of the Month: Cooperative
“I work with others and am willing to lead or follow as needed.”
Books to encourage cooperation:
Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
Swimmy by Leo Leoni
Important Dates
September 28-October 12: October count days–Please make every effort to have
your child at school
October 3 & 4: All-School Movement
October 4-6: Parent-Teacher Conferences
October 6: PBIS Reward-Bubble party!
October 13: Fire safety presentation by the Frederick-Firestone Fire Protection District
October 17: NO SCHOOL
October 20: PTO-sponsored Pajama Day-Bring $1 and wear your PJs to school
October 20: Parent Education session-Literacy Development (6 pm-7 pm)
October 26-27: Hearing and vision screening
October 28: Trick or Treat Street through the halls of Spark! (4:30 pm-6 pm)
Thank you!
Thank you so much to all of you who donated items from our wish list! We feel lucky to have you all so willing to help!