Wednesday

       The past few school days have flown by. I guess that's what you get when your fish fly. We've been lead through morning meeting this week by Hayes. Over the past few days, we've read a number of books during morning meeting. Holly has came in and read How are you Peeling? by Saxton Fraymann and Joost Elffers and Piggies by Don and Audrey Wood.

     

     I have continued to work on assessing the children when I have help in the classroom. I have Hollins University student employees who work in our room three days a week. Their names are Denise, Marissa, and Erika. If you hear about them, they work in our room to either help me (copying, cutting, laminating, etc.) or do activities with the children. Currently, they're helping me out by playing with or reading to the children while I work one-on-one with them to complete assessments. I am hoping to have them all finished up by early next week. We will begin adapting our daily "schedule" more closely next week, although we have Fall Festival. 

     The children have familiarized themselves with the things in the classroom and language used in the classroom (clear bins, floor toys, and free art for example). Here is the answer to the hint I posted in our Facebook group last week. We're exploring Water Beads. They start out in tiny little baggies. Once submerged in water, they look like this after about 5 minutes:

After about 5 hours, they look like this:

     We've been watching them grow and today they were put in our sensory table. A couple of the kids tried them out after lunch. Some words they used to describe them were: wet, slimy, squishy, cold, and bouncy. We took a couple out and dropped them on the floor to see what would happen - they certainly bounce! We'll sit a couple out and let the air dry them out and watch them shrink back down. 

 

     Please make sure you're visiting the school Calendar, Quick Notes, and our Facebook page often. Several of you were surprised about not having school Monday and picture day today. Please utilize all of the tools available to you so you're up to date on what's going on. 

This week, we've been lead through morning meeting by Wilson. Our class "jobs" have officially started, so you may hear about being the "light switcher" or "scrap master." We have read several new books about fish, and have completed several projects. Our fish made from CDs are hanging in our window along with the project inspired by this book:

     We learned about six different types of fish in this book, and created out own. They are also hanging in our windows. Please come by and check them out when you get a chance! Each child created their own fish and described what kind of food the fish eats, where it lives, and what it likes to do. 

     We've also completed two journal pages this week. The first one is prompted: "What I like best about school is..." while the second one was inspired by this book:

     In this story, there is a minnow and a tadpole. When the tadpole grows up, he goes out and explores the world and tells the minnow all about it. The minnow would like to give exploring a try, but quickly discovers "fish is fish" and that the water is where he belongs. We then pretended to be fish and went on an adventure of our own. We then did a journal page that followed the prompt: "If I were a fish going on a journey, I'd discover..."

We've also already had music, drama, and Spanish so far this week. The children will have an opportunity to use the keyboard lab in music class once a week. They used them on Monday, and photos have been posted on our closed Facebook group for you to enjoy. 

There are still a couple parents who haven't sent back in the blue Communications form and the orange Fall Festival form. Please make sure you send them in if you haven't done so. I need these forms in order to plan appropriately for transportation to Jeter's Farm and Carvin's Cove. Thanks so much!

Thursday

This morning, we read McElligot's Pool by Dr. Seuss. In this story, Marco talks about all kinds of fish that he just might catch while fishing in McElligot's Pool. From this book, we decided on our class name for this year. We will reveal that name tomorrow during name skits. Name skits will begin at 10:30 and we will go first. Our performance is a total of about 30 seconds, so please know if you can't make it across town from work for a 30 second performance, it's ok! If you're able, please do join us for this Community School tradition as we perform and then become part of the audience and watch all of the other classes at school perform.

     After fruit break recess, we headed down to Betsy's class for Buddies. We had help from our buddies in making "costumes" that we will wear tomorrow. Here's your hint! Any guesses on our class name?!

     We have been busy both yesterday and today finishing up some fish projects. We have one more to complete from the past couple weeks' projects. 

     After buddies, we returned to the classroom and used TAG Readers with Karen. After that, we had just enough time to squeeze in one more book before recess. I read One Less Fish by Kim Michelle Toft and Allan Sheather. This is a counting book that begins with twelve fish and counts down to zero. 

     As you're looking over paperwork from Gatherings, please let me know if you have any questions. There are two forms in there - one is orange and one is blue - that I need for you to fill out and send in. These papers are about our upcoming field trips for Fall Festival and Communication. Thanks so much!

Monday

This morning we were lead through morning meeting by Max. Afterwards, we dove right into some talk about fish. We read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss. They then asked for another story (talk about melting my heart!), so we read Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.

      

     We then decided to make our own fish, by decorating cds with gems and jewels. We'll finish them later this week by adding more jewels and gems to the other side and adding fins and a tail. We then cleaned up for fruit break and fruit break recess. After fruit break recess, we had music class. They listened for sounds and identified the air conditioner running and people talking. They also did the wiggle dance. Be sure to ask them to show it to you!

     After music, they asked for yet another story. I didn't want to disappoint, so we read Fish Eyes by Lois Ehlert. This is a counting book. We discovered after counting the fish, there are ten total in the story. We then counted our classmates and discovered that if we were fish, we'd have eight fish.

Later this morning, we used some watercolor paints and painted fish. It's been a fishy morning! ;-)

Have you been added to our closed group on Facebook yet? I sent messages to most of you all from my personal Facebook account. Sorry if I missed anyone! If you're not a member yet, please go HERE and request to join. I will approve your request so you can be a member. If you have trouble getting to the group page or being added, please let me know. I am using the closed Facebook group to share pictures with you all. You can't search for this group nor view anything in it unless you are a member. I'm hoping this will keep your children's photos private. If you have any questions, please let me know!

Thursday

     What a wonderful first week it has been. We have met lots of new people and familiarized ourselves with the Community School campus. Yesterday, we met our Drama teacher, Louise. We danced and learned about our personal space. We also buddied up with our friends next door in Andrea's classroom for some science fun. We made playdough and mixed in shells and glitter for a little sparkle. One of the children said it looked like a beach, so beach playdough it was!
     This morning, Lily moved us through our morning meeting and we each shared our favorite thing about school so far. Lunch and recess were popular! We then discovered our art caddies and did some drawing and coloring. I used this time to do some one-on-one assessments with the children to figure out where everyone is and how I can best meet their needs for growth and development this year. We had buddies again today, but this time we buddied up with Betsy's class (one of the 8-11 year old classes) and made a craft that will make it's way home tomorrow after a little drying time. We will have buddies with Betsy's class every Thursday.We then came back to our room and used TAG Readers with our Technology teacher, Karen. She will come in once a week and work with the class. Some children brought a copy of our class schedule home yesterday, the rest will today. Some parents like to have a copy tucked under their visor in the car and they just glance at it before picking their child up. That way they can ask specific questions like "What did you do in music class today?" and "Did you play with your big buddy today?" Be prepared for most of the answers from your child sounding something like "nothing" and "we played." We aren't strictly sticking to our schedule the first couple of weeks, but will getting into the routine soon.
     I am working on setting up photo albums through Photobucket for our blog. I'm not a huge fan of children's photos floating around on the internet. They are currently password protected and as soon as I have it all set up, I will share the password with you all. Feel free to share the password with family that also look at the class blog.

That's all I have for now - everyone is doing awesome and adjusting well. It is going to be a great year!

Please make sure you've checked out this week's edition of Quick Notes. Let me know if you have any questions. :)

Welcome!

     Welcome to our "Itty Bitty" class blog! I refer to the class as a whole as my "Itty Bitties." On this blog, I will share events that happen throughout our day, upcoming events, etc. There will also be lots of pictures from what is happening around school and your child's day. If you would like our blog emailed to you every time a new post is posted, please send an email to me (katlync@communityschool.net). I will post on our blog several times a week - you won't want to miss out!
     Our first day was awesome! We are missing a couple of our friends (one is out of town and one is out sick), but we jumped right into our day at 8:45 this morning. We had our "morning meeting," where we learned all about the routine of attendance and the calendar. Afterwards, we all shared something with the class that we did over the summer. I heard about lots of beach trips and family visits. We then scooted off to music class, where the children met our music teacher, Kim.

     We then came back to the classroom and had our fruit break. After fruit break, the children went outside for fruit break recess, where several made new friends right away. Playing in the sand box and the "little woods" (as we CS folk refer to the area with trees are) was popular. When the bell rang, we all met back in the classroom where we lined up and headed to Spanish class. There, we met Elena, our Spanish teacher. The children learned "hola" (hello) and "rojo" (red) today. They got a red sticker when leaving, that may still be on their shirt when they get home today. We took the next chunk of time and explored the classroom. We built, sorted, and lined up dinosaurs to name a few. 

     Soon it was time for recess, and we headed out the door to make new friends once again. After recess, the full day gang and I ate lunch. The excitement of the day has left us all longing for a nap! ;-) See you all tomorrow! 

Be sure to check your email you provided to the school for our weekly edition of Quick Notes. They are sent out every Tuesday.  I realize there is a lot coming to you at once. As always, please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions that come up!