Today our school practiced a lockdown drill.  Our class read a book that explained why we do this.  We learned that just like we practice safety in other areas of life (looking both ways when we cross the road to keep us safe from cars, washing our hands to keep us safe from germs etc) we practice being safe at school to protect us from anything that might be happening in our neighborhood or school (maybe a lion has escaped from the zoo!).  Just before lunchtime we heard an alarm and we quickly and quietly went to our designated area in our room (behind the word work shelf) and sat silently until Ms. Evans came and released us.  The kids did great!  I was so proud of how well did their two jobs: listening and being still and silent.

Today we had some fun with pumpkins!

In Bible we learned how God is like a farmer who picks a special pumpkin (us), cleans it up (our sins), carves a happy face (gives us joy), and puts a light inside (so we can shine his love).  When we see a jack-o-lantern we can think about God!

At nap time we turned out all the lights to see our pumpkin glow!

Later we passed around a pumpkin bucket and chanted a poem.

“Pumpkin, pumpkin, going ’round

Take out a letter and say the sound”

When the poem ended the person holding the bucket had to take out a phonogram card and we all said the sound.

We described pumpkins using our five senses.

We also read a book called Sixteen Runaway Pumpkins and then did an experiment to see how differently a pumpkin and a ball can move.

Who knew pumpkins could teach us so much?

Another month has gone by so quickly!  Here are some important upcoming dates:

Wednesday, October 31 – Fall Colours Dress Up Day (no costumes, please) + hot lunch (if pre-ordered last week)

Tuesday, October 30 – Thursday, November 1 – Scholastic Book Fair in school lobby

Thursday, November 1 – Winter uniform begins (so, no more shorts and sandals)

Monday, November 5 – Class photos (full dress uniform required)

Monday, November 12 – No School (Remembrance Day holiday)

Tuesday, November 20 – Pajama Day

Wednesday, November 21 – SWR Parent Seminar (3:15-4:15)  More information to follow

Wednesday, November 28 – Knight Day

 

 

 

Yesterday we did some work with candy corn!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We learned that the colours can remind us about Jesus:

We learned how to use them to show numbers on our ten frame cards:

Oh, and we also ate some!

 

We played a fun game this morning with these thumb balls I found at Dollarama.  First, I divided the children into small groups and gave each group a thumb ball.  Then the children gently tossed the thumb ball to each other.  The person who caught the ball had to look at the number that their thumbs were touching and say it.   It was a great way to review our numbers!

We’ve been making AB patterns in our classroom.

We’ve made one on our calendar (eg. apple-book-apple-book etc), with our actions (eg. shoulders-knees-shoulders-knees etc), and with apples:

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What other AB patterns can your child make at home?

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Because today wasn’t already busy enough…we also went on a shape hunt outside!

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Thank you for bringing in your apples!  We made our mystery recipe today.

Mrs. Britz helped us cut the apples up this morning.

We added some water, sugar, and cinnamon and put it into a pot to cook.

Of course, we composted the peels.

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The children had some guesses on what the ingredients would turn out to be.

The classroom smelled delicious as our mystery recipe cooked.  Finally, after gym in the afternoon we opened the pot to discover…applesauce!  We all tried it.

We shared what we thought about it by colouring one of the faces on our taste test page.

What a fun fall treat!

On Tuesday our class will be making a mystery recipe and we are asking each child to contribute an apple.  We will put all the ingredients into a special pot and then will try to guess what it will be.  At lunch when it is ready we will have a taste.  Don’t you just love mysteries?