Fun with Fairy Tales!

The past two weeks have been busy and fun! We wrapped up our study of Fairy Tales today with a "beary fun" Bear Day! The children all brought their stuffed bears from home.  We shared our bears, compared and graphed the differences in our bears, sorted and tasted different flavored teddy grahams, and read stories and sang songs about bears! Our focus fairy tale of the week was Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  We read several different versions of the story, including Dustylocks and the Three Bears, which was a class favorite!
Last week our focus fairy tale was Cinderella.  We also read different versions of the story and did a Venn Diagram to compare the similarities and differences in the stories.  We painted pumpkins and fall leaves.  In Math, the children have continued working on their Jazzy Math Journals.  They made bats and measured the span of the wings using different items such as candy corns and paper clips. 

The next two weeks are going to be really busy as well! Please take note of dates and reminders:

• Tuesday, Oct. 23- CASA open house/spaghetti supper/silent auction- begins at 5:15
• Wednesday, Oct 24- Trick or Treating at Somerby Nursing Home.  Please have your child to CASA by 9:20.  DO NOT GET IN CARPOOL LINE. PULL UP TO THE HANDICAPPED SPACES AND WE WILL LOAD FROM THERE.  CHILDREN SHOULD BE DRESSED IN COSTUME AND HAVE A BAG OR BASKET TO COLLECT CANDY. PARENTS ARE WELCOME TO JOIN US.
• Tuesday, Oct. 30- Old Baker Farm field trip.  Arrive at CASA at 8:45.  We will pull out at 9:00. Please pack sack lunches (in brown paper sacks- labeled with child's name).  Please send one drink with lunch as well as an additional water bottle.  Please send disposable water bottles labeled with your child's name.  If you are chaperoning, you will need a sack lunch for yourself as well.
• Wednesday, Oct 31- Harvest Hoedown (cowboy attire)- more details to come.  If you would like to help with this party, please contact our room moms- Michelle Kendrick, Toni Glenn, or Allison Holley.
• Tuesday, Nov. 6- No CASA- Election Day
• Monday, Nov. 12- No CASA- Veteran's Day
• Week of Nov. 19-23- Thanksgiving holidays.  We will be out all week.

Painting signs for our community

Busy at centers

Dancing to the Tooty Ta!

Elbows back, tongue out, eyes shut!

Silly Kids!

Making our policemen

Decorating paper plate pumpkins

We combined classes to do this fun craft!

About to make our edible firetrucks!

Spreading the icing

Finished products

Yummy!

Community Helper Fun

The past two weeks were filled with all kinds of excitement.  The children loved learning all about our community.  We began the unit brainstorming what a community is and who makes up a community.  We turned our classroom into our own little community.  The kids painted signs as we turned many of our centers into places that we see around town.  Our book nook became the library, our writing center became the post office, homeliving was a restaurant, etc.  They had fun painting, and especially playing in each area throughout the two weeks.  We made police officers and mailboxes and the children also wrote about what type of community helper they would like to be when they grow up. 

In math, the children have been working on math journals.  These will be continued throughout the year and will come home in May.  We have also been comparing and contrasting as we did as a whole group after reading The Town Mouse and The City Mouse.  We looked at and charted the similarities and differences in the two mice in the story. 

The All About Me booklets have been so much fun to share.  We plan on laminating and binding those to make booklets for the children to read in our classrooms.  Thank you for taking the time to help your child with those.  This week, we will be sending home construction paper bears for your child to decorate and return as we begin our Fairy Tale unit. 

**Don't forget** Our CASA open house and spaghetti supper will be held on Tuesday, October 23.  Letters about that were sent home on Friday.  Please return your RSVP as soon as possible.  Also thank you to our room moms, Toni Glenn, Michelle Kendrick, and Allison Holley, as they will be putting together our class baskets that will be a part of our silent auction.  I know that you all received an email about those.  Please let them know if you have questions or if you'd like to help with that.

**Our field trip to Old Baker Farm will be on Tuesday, October 30.  We will be leaving the church at 9:00.  Please have your child to school by 8:45 on that day. 
**We will also be celebrating on Wednesday, October 31 with our Harvest Hoedown.  This will be our Harvest party.  Cowboy/Cowgirl attire is welcome and encouraged! No other costumes please.  Parents are welcome to join us on this day.  We will send out more information once we meet with the room moms.

Thank you for sharing your children with us each day! Please let us know if ever have questions or concerns.  We will hold parent/teacher conferences in November, but are happy to meet with you before then if needed. Have a wonderful week! Blessings!