October is here!

Hi!  Hard to believe that September slipped by so quickly!  The Kindergarteners are off to a FANTASTIC start of the year! 

Last week we studied APPLES!!  On Monday we celebrated Johnny Appleseed's Birthday!!  Thank you to Becky, Lahaela's mom, for helping us on this day.  We celebrated with hearing the story 'The Little Red House With No Windows, No Doors and a Star Inside'...we then made our own colorful star prints with the apples.  To finish up we had some cider and apple slices with caramel.  The kids loved it!  Earlier that day we watched 'Johnny Appleseed' by Disney (an old favorite of mine from my childhood) and learned the song 'The Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord...for giving me the things I need, the sun and the rain and the appleseeds.  Oh the Lord is good to me!' 

Later that week we traveled north to Bayfield, WI to visit the Bayfield Apple Company.  It was an overcast rainy day in Bayfield, but we all piled in the vehicles and went.  We were able to tour their facility, watch how they make apple cider and got some fresh apple cider of our own to take home with us.  We ended up skipping going to the Coastguard Park in Bayfield because of the weather.  We returned home and had a nice picnic lunch on our ocean carpet.  We all really did have a fun time that day!

Last week we also received our first letter from our pen pals in Proctor, MN.  We will be pen pal-ing with Mrs. Meredith Salus' Kindergarten class at St. Rose Catholic School in Proctor, MN.  Mrs. Salus is a good friend of mine and we have both enjoyed this project very much.  We did this for the first time last year and it was a HUGE hit.  The first couple of letters we send our 'class' letters....the children dictate to me what to write and we make one large letter all together.  St. Rose's letter to us is posted in our hallway if you ever want to pop in and take a look.  Then, we will break them up into pairs or small groups (she has a slightly larger class than we do).  The children, with my help, will write individual letters to their friends at St. Rose.  At the very end of the year, we meet each other as both classes come together at the UMD Planetarium for a Space Exploration Field Trip and have lunch together at Playfront Park.  I'm so excited to start this again with a new class.  I know that they will enjoy it throughout the year!

October 3rd - 7th:
We've been continuing to work on recognizing and writing our letters.  We are learning about starting our names with capital letters and writing the rest of our name in lowercase.  Also, we've been focusing on reading and writing going from our left to our right. 

In Math we have been working on classifying and putting things into groups based on different attributes such as color, shape and other similarities.  We are now starting patterns and the children are having a really fun time with this using different items and colors.  We'll also be exploring our left and our right, which I'm confident will go well because I notice that when we all stand for the Pledge of Allegience that our right hands are where they should be!  =) 

I've really enjoyed doing Science with the children.  We've just started our new National Geographic for Young Explorers and the kids were eager to look through them.  October's issue has three themes...A Tree's Life, Spiders, and Animals that Columbus Saw.  The pictures are amazing AND National Geographic has interactive whiteboard lessons to go with their magazines.  As of right now, we don't have one in the Kindergarten room (but please help us raise money for this during our Pancake Breakfast on October 16th after Liturgy!)

In Social Studies we've been learning about our families and our friendships.  This months core value is Respect, which ties in nicely with our Friendship theme.  We'll soon be talking about Christopher Columbus and what life was like a long time ago.  A couple of weeks ago now we celebrated Native American Cultures and had a special Liturgy.  The Kindergarteners really enjoyed seeing the Native attire that was worn during this Liturgy and we were able to watch a couple of nice videos on some different dances...the jingle dress dance and the hoop dance.  We talked about traditions that we have in our own families and traditions that others may have. 

In Religion we've been learning about God as our Creator.  We've read the story from Genesis about Creation and shared the things that God has given us that we are the most thankful for.  We also discussed our many talents and gifts that we have and how we can and should share them with others. 
***If you have a special talent or hobby, please let me know.  I'd love to have you come in and share during some time throughout the year.

This upcoming week we have TWO days off.  Monday, October 10th ~ Teacher Inservice at our school AND Wednesday, October 13th ~ Diocesian Inservice at Rice Lake.

On Tuesday, October 11th, we'll be learning about Christopher Columbus.  We'll also get to do an October activity with the 4th graders.  We've worked with them before...in September we worked together to make our Apple Core mobiles and both the Kindergarteners and the 4th Graders did a great job and had a wonderful time!

We'll finish off that week (Thursday and Friday, October 14th and 15th) by learning about Fire Safety.  Friday, October 15th we'll get a Fire Safety Presentation from our local fire department.  The children will get a goody bag of Fire Prevention items to take home.  One will be a map for an escape plan for your home...make sure to go over what to do and where to go if there would ever be a fire in your home! 

Later this month, we'll be traveling to Don's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze with the 2nd Graders.  This will be on Friday, October 21st.  Please watch your child's folder for more info. 
The following week we will have a "It's the Great Pumpkin" night with Kindergarten and 2nd Grade.  We'll be doing Pumpkin Math, having pumpkin treats and end with some pumpkin carving (with mom and dad's help, of course). 

That's all for now!!!  Have a great week!  Thanks for stopping by!
~Mrs. Westlund  =)