Mystery Reader

Thank you so much to Maureen S., this week's mystery reader! The children loved the story you shared with us!

Our Monster Mash!

We had such an amazing time at our Halloween party today! Thank you so much to the families of room 100 for helping us with our celebration!

Here we are making skeletons out of marshmallows and Q-tips:

We strengthened our fine motor skills by weaving spiderwebs on paper plates:

We jumped for donuts:

We even mixed potions using water bottles and Mio drops:

That's Mr. Price, our PE teacher, as Winnie the Pooh!

No party would be complete without decorating cookies:

We also made cake pops, played pin the tail on the cat and shared our wishes for each other during our wizards wish raffle game!

Happy Halloween from Room 100!

Family Project and Pictures

This is a gentle reminder to please send in your child's family heritage poster if you have not yet done so. We have been discussing the ones that have been returned and comparing the flags to see who has family that comes from the same countries!  I will be hanging the posters in the hallway this Friday. 

Also, our family tree is still missing a few family pictures. Pleas send in your standard-sized family photo for our display. If you send it in your child's blue tomorrow, I will put it in our tree for the Halloween Party!

Thank you!

We Have Been Boo-ed!

Today we kept hearing someone knock on our door. Every time we would answer the door no one would be there. Finally when we went out in the hall to investigate we found a basket of goodies and a note that says we have been boo-ed!

The note told us to fill the bucket with goodies and pass it on to another class so that they can be boo-ed!

We are excited for Halloween!

Spinning Ghosts Experiment

Today our class conducted a Halloween science experiment! We looked at four different ghosts – one with a paperclip at the bottom and their arms up, one with no paperclip and it's arms up, one with no paperclip and both arms pointed forward and finally one with a paperclip at the bottom and one arm pointed forward and one arm pointed backward.

We then created a graph of which one we thought would spin if we dropped it from a high point.

We discovered that the ghost with a paperclip at the bottom and both arms pointed in different directions created a spinning ghost! We discussed how the paperclip made the bottom of the ghost heavy and therefore pulled it straight down and the arms going in both directions worked like the propellers of a helicopter!

Mystery Reader

Here is this week's Mystery Reader, Andrea B., as she reads us different Mother Goose rhymes!

Thank you so much for joining us in Room 100!

Strawberry Day

Thank you to Patti S. for bringing in strawberries for this week's Fresh Fruit Friday. They were a big hit!  I think each table went through 2 baskets each!

If you are interested in participating in Fresh Fruit Fridays, please see the sign up on the left side of our blog. 

Gentle Reminders

Please remember to return library books and poetry binders tomorrow, Monday, October 28.

Specials Schedule for the Week of 10/28 - 11/1

Monday (D) - PE & Media Center
Tuesday (A)  - Art
Wednesday (B) - Music
Thursday (C) - PE
Friday (D) - PE & Media Center

Please remember to bring gym shoes on days we have PE and return library books on days we visit the media center.

Pattern Shirts

Tomorrow we will be completing our mini unit on patterns.  We have been working hard to create, extend and identify different types of patterns.  This includes simple AB patterns, as well as ABB, AAB, and ABC patterns.

Before we move on to our next math unit, we will be doing a pattern activity using the patterns we find on our clothes.  Please send your child to school tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 25 wearing a shirt with a pattern on it.  This may included stripes, pictures, dots, or anything else that has been printed in a repeating pattern!

(I think that is the most I have ever used the word pattern!)

I am looking forward to seeing all the pattern shirts!

A Visit From the Firetruck!

Last Friday our class was visited by a local firetruck at our school! In addition to the firetruck there was an ambulance and several local firefighters and EMS drivers.

In case you haven't heard from your kindergartener yet, we didn't finish listening to the presentation because the firefighters got an emergency call about halfway through! It was so exciting to see the firetruck lights flashing, hear the siren blaring and the instructions coming through the firefighters' walkie-talkies!

One of the things we did get to listen to was about all the different things firefighters wear to protect themselves in burning buildings. These included pants, boots, jackets, hoods, helmets, masks and oxygen tanks.

The kindergartners were even able to touch all the different gear!

The firefighters also talked about what to do if your clothes catch on fire. The kindergarteners all shouted stop, drop and roll! The firefighters were very impressed!

Next we discussed what you do if there is smoke in your house. Here are the kindergarteners getting as low to the ground as possible because that's where the cleanest air will be.

We also got to take a tour of the inside of an ambulance! I hope we never have to be inside one of those again!

Here we are learning about the different equipment that firefighters keep on their trucks.

All of a sudden, peoples voices started coming through their walkie-talkies! Then the sirens and lights started flashing! As the firefighters jumped into their trucks, we waved goodbye and reminded them to stay safe!

The firefighters did leave us with some homework. They said that we should all have a conversation with our families to decide on a meeting place in case there is a fire in our house. That means that when you get out of your house your whole family will know where to go. Please talk to your kindergartener to decide where your emergency meeting place will be.

Library Books

This is gentle reminder that we will be visiting the media center tomorrow, Tuesday, October 22.  Please remember to return your library books tomorrow.

Popcorn Sale Reminder

There will be a Popcorn Sale tomorrow, Tuesday, October 22.  Each bag will cost $0.50 per bag and will be delivered by our morning snack time.

Annual Reflections Contest

Please see the below letter from 4th Grade Teacher Mrs. Leslie -

Dear Parents,

It is once again time for the annual Reflections Contest!  I am really hoping to have more participants than last year.  Last year we had 19 students enter the contest.  I know with our help we will have more entries this year!  This is a great program and I hope you will help encourage your son or daughter to be involved.  Last year a Harlan student received the highest honors by receiving an Award of Excellence at the National Level in the Literature Division!  Let's build on her success!

The Reflections Contest is a national PTA contest that encourages the arts.  The program offers students in preschool through grade 12 the opportunity to create works of art for fun and recognition.  It celebrates the many skills of our students and encourages them to pursue artistic expression in a number of different ways.  There are six different categories:  Film Production, Literature, Dance Choreography, Music Composition, Visual Arts and Photography.  There is also a Special Art Division. 

The theme this year is Believe, Dream, Inspire.

Students should have brought home an entry form.  To see specific rules for each category, please visit http://harlanpta.com/programs/reflections

Entries are due in 1 month on Nov. 15 and can be turned into the office.

If you would like more information, please contact me at dl06bps@birmingham.k12.mi.us

Thanks!

Dawn Leslie
Reflections Chair

Papaya Day!

On Fresh Fruit Friday, we tried papaya! This is the fruit that several friends were nervous to try because only two children said that they had ever had it before. After some hesitation, almost everyone in the class tried one piece. The reception was about half-and-half. We talked about how it's okay not to like something, but I was so proud of them for trying something new!

Thank you to Alejandra A. for bringing us such a delicious snack!

Since it was also Bat Day, some of us ate our papaya in little bites just like fruit bats!

If you are interested in participating in Fresh Fruit Fridays, please see the sign up on the left side of our blog.

Mystery Reader

Thank you to Cristine N. for joining room 100 and being our Mystery Reader this past week! We loved the Disney book!

Bat Day!

On Friday we celebrated Bat Day! As we get closer and closer to Halloween, we are learning about all sorts of creepy, crawley animals!

During our morning meeting, we used a graphic organizer called a KWL chart. The K stands for what we know, the W is what we wonder about and the L is what we learned. Here's a picture of our completed KWL chart at the end of the day.  (We had to create it twice when some of us got "erasure happy" during morning clean up 😃)

We also read the book Stellaluna. This book tells the story of a bat who gets lost and joins a family of birds. It really gave us a great way to compare the differences between bats and birds!

In the afternoon, we watched a video from the Cranbrook Science Institute on their bat conservation project!

Finally, we created our own bats that even flapped their wings!

Some of the things we learned about bats are that bats use echolocation to find things. That means that they send sounds and wait for this sounds to bounce off of objects and back to them. We also learned that bats sleep during the day and play at night and learned a new science word, nocturnal!

We are really looking forward to Spider Day next Friday!

M is for Monsters!

Here we are creating Mm monsters!  After making our monsters, we cut out pictures of things that start with Mm to feed them!  They were very hungry monsters!