October 31 - November 4, 2011

Boo! The children had a frightfully fun Halloween at STM! The day was filled with Halloween activities such as cookie decorating, mummy making, paper plate monsters, trick-or-treat bags, candy bar covers and lollipop ghosts, spider and ghost hand prints. A big thanks to our Room Moms Melissa and Carol who organized all of these fun activities as well as the parents who volunteered at each center. Another big thanks to the Spiegel family for providing pizza for our potluck and to all of the families who sent in other goodies. There are a couple of bowls and trays left over - feel free to pop in and pick them up. The Kindergartners led the Costume Parade through the playground and across the street to Alma Via.

For Math this week we finished up Topic 2 this week with numbers 4 and 5, an intro to tallies, and our Topic Test. We began Unit 3 with More, Fewer, and Same As.

In Language Arts the children were introduced to Interactive Writing or "Sharing the Pen" where they dictate a sentence and the teacher writes it with some help with spelling from the children. Once we have a short paragraph, they come up and circle capital letters and end marks. Eventually they will be finding Sight Words.

We finished up our Apple Unit and got a taste of our Farm Animal Mini-Unit with the reading of 10 Red Apples by Pat Hutchins. One thing the children noticed about this book is that we were counting down from 10 instead of up like we usually do, much like a rocket launch. We also watched a video about Johnny Appleseed and discussed how he was a friend to the Earth and made a difference. This is tied into our School Theme this year "Go Make A Difference." You may have heard the children singing our theme song at Morning Assembly each week (Go Make A Difference by Steve Angrisano, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aopgV1o1Oo). On November 18th at the Morning Assembly, the Kindergartners will be presenting their poster to the school on how they make a difference. Mark your calendars and join us!

During Religion, the children made beautiful stained glass-like crosses that will be hanging on the windows - come and and take a look - they are gorgeous!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Remember to turn your clocks back Sunday morning. Next week is early release due to Parent/Teacher conferences. We look forward to meeting with you and discussing the progress of your child.

See you next week!