Halloween Can't Scare Us!

We began our week enjoying The UnScary Book, about a little boy who wants to write a very scary, spooky, terrifying book. It all goes sideways when lovely, nice things show up to be in the book instead! We had a blast being creative and writing our own "unscary" pages, and enjoyed reading one another's work!

Warmed up and ready to write, the kiddos got to work creating their own spooky pattern stories, modeled after It Didn't Frighten Me!

Here is the criteria they followed:

The boys and girls worked over several days to complete their stories. 

Here are a few pages from these amazing books:

These spooky stories will come home today! Happy Halloween!

Making Connections When We Read

Reading becomes so much more meaningful when we are able to personally connect with the text. This past few days we have been focusing on making a personal connection with what we are reading. This means the children have been challenged to connect the story to their own life, own experiences, and own feelings. 

We enjoyed reading several books appropriate for the Halloween season! The boys and girls made meaningful text-to-self connections using these texts!

In "Creepy Carrots", we meet Jasper Rabbit, who loves carrots, until they turn on him and become scary! We connected with the story by sharing our favourite food to snack on!

Next we enjoyed the story "Where's My Mummy?"! Where is little mummy's mama? Little mummy felt scared without mama! Here are our personal connections:

"The Littlest Pumpkin" is about a teeny tiny pumpkin that nobody picks from the pumpkin patch.  The boys and girls thought of a time they felt disappointed. 

"Crankenstein" features an ordinary kid who can become very cranky! What makes us cranky?

Watch for these activities to come home soon and continue to reinforce those personal connections as your child reads. Connecting to the text is an excellent way to increase and develop your child's comprehension!

Where's My Mummy activity from Deanna Jump's unit. 
The Littlest Pumpkin activity from Cara Carroll. 
Crankenstein activity from Falling Into First. 
Creepy Carrots inspired by Anita Bremmer. 

Building Numeracy: Junk It Game!

In case you haven't heard, we were introduced to a fast-paced card game, Junk It! It helps us recognize numerals and order them to 10. 

Junk It is a 2-player game. Remove face cards, but keep Aces. 

Put 10 cards in two rows of 5 face down in front of each player. Place the remaining cards in the centre. 

The first player flips a card over, and places it in its numerical spot. 

He picked up a 3 ... 

... so he'll put it down where the 3 goes. 

When he placed his card in the 3 spot, he picked up a 4 (formerly face down in the 3rd place). Off the 4 goes to spot 4!

Notice how when he put his 4 down, he picked up the card in that spot? It's another 3! He already has a 3, so he gets to call JUNK IT and discard it in the middle. 

His opponent can either pick up the card that was just discarded, or select a new card from the pile. She chose to pick up from the pile. 

The first player to get all 10 cards flipped over in order wins! Isn't learning more fun when it's a game?

It is a little confusing to explain on our blog, but the kids are definitely the experts! Will you challenge your child to a game of Junk It?!?

Fabulous Fall Photo Hunt

Since school began, we have been exploring the seasonal changes in Fall! 

We've been hard at work discovering what animals are up to, how trees change, what plants are doing (think gardens!), and how we change our activities, clothing, and often what we eat in the Fall. 

This week we did a quick check-in, grabbing sticky notes and jotting down a picture and/or word describing what we have learned so far about Fall:

Let's share some signs of Fall around us over the next few days! Here is how our photo hunt challenge works:

We have a "virtual wall" below where we can all contribute our signs of Fall. 

First, ask your child to take a picture showing a sign of Fall.

Then, to share your child's photo / comment:

(a) Click on the pink plus sign on our "Fall in Love with Fall" virtual wall below. 

(b) Type in a comment and upload a picture. Ta da!

(c) Be dazzled with all the signs of Fall we have discovered!

Thank you for not mentioning first or last names on our blog. If you run into any hiccups, feel free to email your photos and captions and I'll happily post them for you. (Hot tip: Adding photos tends to work better from a computer, rather than a phone). 

What signs of Fall can we find?

Gratitude and Thanks

This week we spent a little extra time exploring how blessed we truly are. Our blessings so are abundant and we seized every opportunity we could to thank God!

With just the mention of the word "thankful", the students' hands were shooting up and ideas were overflowing. They were bursting with gratitude!

Then the students (and their teacher) all had the opportunity to practice perseverance and patience! We tackled a challenging Thanksgiving project ... woven place mats!

We began by writing and colouring.

Then the students learned to weave paper strips over, under, over, and under. Many also showed off their patterning skills!

Amazing work! These will, without a doubt, be the center of the Thanksgiving tables this weekend!

We have been blessed beyond measure and it is so important to take time and give thanks. God is indeed SO GOOD! 

If you and your family are feeling energetic and grateful this long weekend, give this scavenger hunt from Natural Beach Living a try together!