October

 Wow, the weeks are flying by! It is fun to see the students settled into their routines and really starting to bloom. We continue to have lots of play and outside time while we build up our stamina for our academic routines.

In literacy we are working on phonemic awareness skills, which we call "word play" time in class. We are learning the letter names and sounds for two letters each week, practicing them in a variety of ways! Handwriting is a big focus and we are learning how to correctly form the letters of the week as well as the letters in our names. It's hard to break old habits!

In math we continue strengthening number sense with numbers 1-5 as we shift to begin more focus on 6-10. Students are practicing counting orally forward and backward, naming shapes, subitizing groups of dots, and more. Each week there are new games to explore at our stations that focus on new concepts and help practice the skills we're learning. Playing partner games is a whole skill in itself, as an added bonus! 

We had a blast on our first field trip to the apple orchard! We learned a lot about apples and honeybees and even got to taste some cider. Check out more pictures from our trip here! 

This Friday we had our first forest time where we mixed groups and tried some stations! This week students were grouped with Ms. Read's class and visited her station and my station where they learned about why leaves changed color and did a nature scavenger hunt! Next week they will go to Mrs. LaBerge and Mr. Deyo for their station time.