week of September 7 | snapshot

We continued our community helper study last week.
On Tuesday, we talked about what community helper helps us stay safe, police officers. 

This is what we know:

On Wednesday, we talked about bakers.

And then it wouldn't be any fun without looking like a baker!

On Thursday, we talked about mail carriers and why their jobs are very important.

 Ainsley's mom works at the post office. :)

we watched a Post Office field trip!

Friday was the 14th anniversary of 9/11. We revisited our discussion on communities. I talked to the students about 9/11 as a time in our country when communities had to come together and help each other. We thought of times we or a member of our families got help from our community. And how we said thank you.

We watched September 11: Explanation and Heroes. We talked about what we saw, what we felt, and the community helpers we saw along the way. 

Then we sat in a “Thank You Circle.” and we retold an experience when we were helped and how we said thank you (or how we gave help and someone else thanked us).

We had lots of fun playing Community Helper Bingo all week, too!

We worked on making AB patterns all week in math.

limited centers this week:

blocks- build a police station, bakery, a post office, or a community

discovery- crime solver kit

we made badges to go in the dramatic play center

dramatic play- bakery, police station, or post office

writing- cut pictures out of magazines to make menus for the bakery

I had a wonderful, early birthday celebration Friday with all my favorite people.

They make my life brighter.

#happyclassrooms

last week's snapshot

we have started back with our Spanish lessons every Tuesday at 1:30 with Mr. Luis :)

<3 here's a pic of my girls at dance this week <3

since fall has arrived, we discussed what we thought of when someone mentioned fall.

the students searched through magazines and cut out pictures of food, animals, colors, etc that reminded them of fall and made an awesome collage.

we went on a shape hunt during math this week.

the students observed and recorded their observations in their journals.

we will turn our pictures into a classroom book for our library.

we are also working on our AB, ABB, and ABC patterns.

the students are really enjoying this Pattern Match game at Turtle Diary!

we added an ABC Bingo game...

and a new counting activity.

I also assisted the students in creating a classroom season book using PowerPoint  I typed for students after they were asked about an activity they enjoy for a season. the students chose the clip art, where to place the clipart, and what color they wanted their words to be. we will print this book out to be placed in our classroom library.

we voted on a name for our book.

and here is the finished project.

The Season Book by Jaysa Smith

since I was out sick at the beginning of last week, I wanted to make sure the students completed their part to whole activity to finish up our maps and globes study. 

another teacher located this activity and I made the template for it so I am not sure who to give the credit for the original idea. 

the students started with the name of their school, then their street, then their city, then their state, then their country, then their continent.

and it wouldn't be complete without making globe cupcakes.

the students followed the directions of the recipe...

then I split the batter into 2 parts and added green food coloring to one and blue to the other.

the students learned that blue on a globe always is the water and green is always the land.

then the students got to design their own cupcake with the blue and green batter.

then we added some white frosting for the clouds!

one of our math journals this week:

the students learned what it means to be a "good apple" and a "bad apple" after reading Apples, Apples, Apples in the library. 

Ms. Ross read them a situation or act and they had to decide if it was a good act or bad act.

a few of our journal writings:

draw a square you have seen in your environment.

draw a circle you have seen in your environment. 

draw a picture showing this fall season.

what have you learned about autumn?

what is your favorite season?