Celebrating Fall

      Our class enjoyed celebrating fall this week. We made lots of fall crafts, two Thanksgiving class books, many art projects, and our Thanksgiving soup. Students learned about the first Thanksgiving and compared our traditions to those of the Pilgrims and Native Americans.  Students also wrote about what they were thankful for in their writer's notebooks and in our class book.  They also made "Thankful Turkeys" reviewing what a noun was, by listing a "person, place, and thing" they were each thankful for.  Enjoy reading these with your children.  They were very thoughtful with their choices. 

      We had our fall party on Tuesday. Thank you to all of the parent volunteers for your help in organizing the party. It was fantastic! We had a scarecrow station, an acorn station, chopstick game station, apple game station, and turkey treat station.  The party was a success thanks to the volunteers that took time to come and help out with the stations.  Students had a wonderful time at the party and will have some great memories. 



Students enjoyed making pine cone turkeys on Monday.



This was a fun fall game at our party. Students loved it and

it was a great fine motor skills activity for young learners! 

Students made these yummy turkeys!

  

Students enjoyed making their paper bag scarecrows at this station.

(picture from Amazon.com)

Mrs. Sampson read the book, Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano.

       Mrs. Page was a good sport to wear the silly hat and bring the pizza that the turkey in the story decided to have for Thanksgiving dinner.  The kids loved it!!

      Thank you again to the parents for making this a special party for the children. Everyone was very involved in working with the children in making their crafts and enjoying the games. This will be a day the children will never forget. I am thankful for such supportive parents and each of my students. Happy Thanksgiving!

Good Faith Effort Celebration

Students before they were aware of the reason for coming
down to the gym after specials this morning.

Students as I announced the fun we were about to have with balloons
because they all showed good faith effort during our Unit 2 Reading tests.

Our kindergarten and first grade students have been showing good faith effort when taking tests. We have talked about good faith effort this fall and how we should always try our best.  Examples of good faith effort are:

1.  Answering all questions. 

2.  Pacing yourself.  Taking your time and reading questions carefully.

3.  Staying determined even when questions are difficult.

4.  Remaining quiet during testing time.

5.  Staying focused during testing time and not distracting others.

Students are well aware of what it takes to show a good faith effort.  Our kindergarten and first graders have a wonderful foundation of test-taking strategies that will help them for years to come. 

Check out our Good Faith Effort Celebration where we got to run around the gym and have a balloon party.  What fun! Students had a blast laughing and hitting their balloons up in the air.  It was good exercise, too.  We will have several celebrations throughout the year to celebrate good faith effort on assessments.  Each one will be different, but each will be fun!