A Peek at the Week
Happy Fall! It sure has been a beautiful fall so far. The JK students have been busy watching the weather each day and have been happy to report 10 sunny school days this month!
The JK kids started the week by taking a walk around the outside of the building on a leaf hunt! Everyone collected lots of leaves from the courtyard where they are now proudly on display and have been a focus point of discussion.
The JK kids also participated in the Lower School kindness week and added a leaf to the "Fall Into Kindness" Tree. If you want to see your child's leaf, it is on the bulletin board between the EDP room and the 2nd grade classroom.
We read several stories about the season of Autumn and learned that animals use the fallen leaves to make their homes more cozy and warm for the winter. The children created puppets during theme study time recreating and retelling the story of the old lady who swallowed some leaves. Everyone worked diligently on their Fall Words books that they colored and inspired lots of talk about Fall. All children were able to write in their journals too using words and ideas about Fall. During circle time, we read a book called, "The Leaves are Falling." The book is written like the lyrics of the song, "The Ants Go Marching." We all enjoyed singing the words in the book and then played a word matching game with leaves falling. Each leaf had a Fall word written on it and two leaves had the same Fall word. The children and I sang the song and threw the leaves in the air. The children caught the leaves and found the person with the same word. It was great fun and we hope to play again next week!
We will meet with the third grade class every other Thursday for reading buddies. Here are some pictures for our first day with our new pals!
For the art center this week everyone created a spider, working on following the lines on the paper to cut out circles for the body and long rectangles for the legs. They made sure to count out eight legs for their spiders (although some decided that spiders need less than eight legs). Everyone was introduced to the listening center this week, where they listened to songs and poems on CD and listened to books with our Leap Pads. In the math center, the children played Slap It. This game targeted skills such as recognizing and counting numbers to 12 and relating numbers to sets of objects. To differentiate the lesson, some children worked on just counting objects and others worked on adding objects together. All had fun taking the hand wands and slapping the number cards! In the fine motor center, the children rolled out long playdoh snakes and made letters using the Handwriting Without Tears language and formation. Some spelled out their names and other words while others worked on letter identification and letter sounds. In the language arts center, the students worked on letter identification, letter sounds, and reading words using picture/word cards. After identifying a letter and practicing the sound, they matched the sound with a picture that began with that sound and completed the picture/word card with the beginning sound. This was a good chance to see how each letter produces a sound and then connect that letter to a word.

The Fall backpacks have been going home with the children. Please try to complete the activities inside the bag with your child. If you don't, no worries. Please return the bag the next day so the other children can have their turn. The children will get a chance to share what they did with the class and then pass the bag onto the next child.
In the mornings, I have been working with small groups on a variety of things. Last week we focused on letters and number identification. This week we worked on predictable books and sight word recognition. If I did not work with your child on these things yet I will! My goal is to keep each child challenged and engaged through the whole day.
Trick or Treat for Unicef
In your child's mailbox was a flyer and box for participation in Trick or Treating for Unicef. 
Happy Birthday Hikaru! Happy Birthday Eli! Happy Birthday Hunter!

Scholastic book orders are due on Friday, October 29. You can go online to order or turn your order in to me with a check to Scholastic Books.
Volunteers
We have enough volunters for the Didier Farm Field Trip, Thank you!
We are in need of volunteers for The Fall Workshop on Friday morning before the school carnival. We will need help changing into costumes after lunch. We will need many volunteers to take the children around to the carnival.
More Upcoming Events
Mrs. Orzoff sent out an email and letter about Parent Teacher conferences that are approaching soon. Please be sure to get your form in.Lower School Pumpkin carving night is next Friday! We hope to see you there.
A Peek Into Next Week
Next week, we will be focusing on the life cycle of the apple. The children will be able to explore where an apple comes from, what's inside an apple, and how different apples taste! Learning centers will be math, language arts, art, fine motor, and listening. I will continue working with children in the morning on a variety of skills. If you don't see me right away look up on the stage. This is the best place for me to work with the kids.



