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What's NEW!
October was Spooktacular and we have had a Fabulous time in November in our
library. Check out your child's class and see what they have been learning.
In Kindergarten we have been working on our library manners and how to
treat books. October was a fun month and we focused on HALLOWEEN and
FIRE Safety! We viewed the "Smoke Detectives" video and worked on Stop, Drop
and Roll in the library. We also listened to "Porkenstein", an adorable book
about Pig Scientist who invents a friend just in time for Halloween! We also
heard the stories:"Skeleton Hiccups" and "The Runaway Pumpkin". They are all
great stories and make us laugh! This November we read,"Gracias the
Thanksgiving Turkey" and "The Great Turkey Race". Gracias is a turkey that
ends up becoming a friend and finally gets a home in a ... Well ask your
child where Gracias goes!
In First Grade, we also focused on Fire Safety and Spooky Stories for
HALLOWEEN!The children learned about E.D.I.T.H. drills in the home and
I sent home a floor plan and check list activity for you to use at home to
get practice your fire safety drills. Hopefully you all got to do that. We
listened to some cute stories like, "The Runaway Pumpkin", and poetry "Over
the River and Through the Woods" and "Thanksgiving Day at our House". The
children really enjoyed, " Over the River.." because the illustrations were
hilarious. The youngest son in the book floats away and ends up having a
grand adventure before he arrives at Grandma's house just when his family
does.
In Second Gradewe also did some activities for Fire Safety and
HALLOWEEN ! We watched "Smoke Detectives," and I sent home some forms
to organize your fire drills at home. We also listened to an amusing
story, "Boris and Bella", which was about a neat-freak, Boris, and a slob,
Bella, and how they eventually become friends. We are now working
on "Molly's Pilgrim", a story about a Russian girl who immigrated to America
with her family and how she ends up being accepted by her classmates in her
new town. We have completed a series of activities based on this book and
the children took them home on Monday, November 16. Ask them to tell you the
story of "Molly's Pilgrim" in their own words. They can use the worksheets to
help them remember what happened in the story.
In Third Grade we have been busy in both Library and Computer class.
In Library we have focused on identifying the different sections of
the library, identifying a Fiction book,and being able to sort Fiction books
by their call numbers, located on their spine. We worked on identifying non-
fiction boks as well. We talked about Mr. Melville Dewey and his amazing
book collection and the way he organized it. I explained to the children how
Mr. Dewey had so many books he needed to organize them so he could find
them. They were amazed to discover that this system is in use in most
libraries in the world. We learned about the main 100's and what they contain
and sorted some titles based on these major headings. We have also reviewed a
Title Page's parts and will be having an oral quiz on that soon. In
Computer Class we have focused on learning terminology and increasing
our understanding of the keyboard through a new program called, "Dance Mat
Typing". The children have enjoyed this new program and I look forward to
their typing skills improving from using it. The children took an open
notebook quiz for computer terms last week and I am very happy that they
did well. We have also begun working on a new program for the
children, "Powerpoint". This is a powerful tool for making presentations
that WOW your audience! We will start with baby steps and the chidren
will eventually make their own shows.
In the Fourth Grade the students have also been sharpening up their
library and computer skills. In Library class the children have
worked on the Dewey Decimal system and have been learning what all those
numbers mean. The children in particular are learning how to organize the
books according to the call number. The children have learned that a call
number is the Dewey number assigned to a catagory as well as the first three
letters of the author's last name. We are working with class numbers and
organizing them by deciaml points. The chidlren are catching on quick. Once
you know how to organize the books then you can find them quickly. This is
especially important in the upper grades when yo are doing research
projects.In Computer class we have focused on learning terminology
and increasing our understanding of the keyboard through a new program
called,"Dance Mat Typing". The children have enjoyed this new program and I
look forward to their typing skills improving from using it. The children had
their open notebook quiz for computer terms last week and did very well. We
also began working with Powerpoint in our classes and I am building upon what
they learned last year so that they can add the little zings to their show
that make you say WOW!, that's cool.
The Fifth Grade have been working on their grammar skills and some
research skills with me as a whole group on Mondays. We have worked on
identifying common and proper nouns and writing plurals for these nouns. We
have also worked on their spelling skills. We will be focusing on
some research skills in the coming month as well as grammar. In
Computer class we focused on identifying major parts of the computer and
their functions. We also worked on terminology and added many words to our
glossaries. We had our terminology quiz last week and the children learned
how important it was to review words even though it was an open book quiz.
We too are working on Powerpoint and the children are learning how to change
slide layouts, how to insert pictures, how to do slide transitions, and add
animations to the items on each slide. I have reminded them that less is
sometimes best and they should always save anything they are working on
frequently, or they may lose it.
BOOK WORMS
Our Bookworms have all had their first meeting and the second grade had a
second meeting at the beginning of November. The second graders got to
listen to a biography about a very special lady, Sarah Hale. She is famous
for several reasons: She wrote "Mary had a Little Lamb," she was a magazine
editor in the late 1800's, she published both Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar
Allen Poe's work and was most famous for "Saving Thanksgiving" and although
it took her 38 years and 5 presidents, she finally convinced Abraham Lincoln
to make it a national holiday. "She was brave, strong, stubborn and smart!"
Instead of watching T.V. Why not crack open a book and let your mind be your
screen?
Mrs. K.
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