Happy Halloween!

It was an excited crew of costumed kids coming into class today!! Everyone was eager to see each other's costume, and ready to get to trick or treating right away.  We had a little bit of time to wait though, so we started off by making jack o lanterns at the table with some foam stickers and orange paper plates. Then we had our pictures taken for our books, and had time for a few read alouds on the rug before we saw the 3s lining up outside our window. That was our cue to grab our buckets and get in line! We walked through the gardens over to Summer Breeze nursing home. The residents were all lined up with big bowls full of candy, and we trick or treated our way through. It was such fun, both for the kids and the residents! The children were extremely well behaved and polite- Ms. Heather heard a whole bunch of "thank you's" and "Trick or Treat!" After getting to the end of the line, we sat down on the carpet to wait for the other classes to finish. Our very full buckets of candy were tempting us- but we managed to hold off eating it. As soon as everyone was done, we sang several songs to big applause. Many hi-fives were shared with the residents on our way out of the building! A little playground time to run around (and keep warm on a chilly morning) and then it was time to go in and see the yummy treats our parents had set up for us. Thank you so much to everyone for helping us have such a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

October Birthdays

Before the excitement, sugar, and FUN of our big Halloween celebration tomorrow, let's take a look at some of our other special celebrations in class this month! October was another big birthday month in our class, and we had 3 special friends celebrate getting another year older with cupcakes for their classmates (and teachers- we love cupcakes too!).

Our Pet Rocks

We're going to go back in time a week or 2 for this post, since a few friends who were absent had to finish up their projects. To end our pet unit, we read 2 great books : Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor and My Pet Rock- Greg Granite by Jerry Brotzge. Then it was time to get started on creating our own pet rocks. Unfortunately, rocks aren't exactly thick on the ground around school, so instead of an old fashioned nature walk to find our rocks, Ms. Heather pulled out the buckets of rocks she hauled home from her summer trip to Rockport, Massachusetts. As you can see from the picture below- finding rocks is not a problem there at all!

First, everyone had to choose just the right rock. 

Then, we needed to add paint, yarn hair, feathers, eyes- whatever our imagination demanded. It's hard to change a rock, so we used a lot of glue!

After everything was dry, we sat down with Ms. Heather and Mrs. Horton to make a book page about our new pet rocks. We have a big book in class we can read at book time, but if you click on the link below, you can see our pet rocks in our digital book on your computer, smartphone or tablet. 

Our Pet Rocks- By Ms. Heather and Mrs. Horton's 4s

Our Day in the Dark- Pt 2

Mrs. Horton and her camera caught some great shots of our day in the dark!