September - November Literacy Events
Most recent are listed first.
Week5: November 27-December 1
November 27
(Monday)
Reading-
- Teacher Selected Books
- What do Fairies do with All of Those Teeth
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Child Selected Books
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Books We Read Together
Other-
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We
finished our science experiment about germs today. We noticed that the bread
that we had touched with dirty hands grew much more mold than the bread we
touched with clean hands. We also spent some time describing and comparing
the bread- we found that the “clean” bread still felt like bread while
the “germy” bread felt squooshy, slimy, icky, yucky, and soft. We also
noticed that the “germy” bread had the colors orange and green on it,
and that it had fuzzy parts.
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After our discussion, we then
recorded our observations in our Science Experiment booklet. The students
drew the two pieces of bread and what had happened to each. We labeled each
picture with clean or dirty. Then, the grownups in the classroom recorded
what the students could remember about each piece.
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We also finished our science
experiment about dental health. We noticed that the egg we had left in the
Coke had turned brown, while the egg we had left in the vinegar turned
bubbly, smooth, and that the shell had disappeared.
We learned that the egg had calcium in its shell, just like our
teeth. We then decided what we could do to the egg to make it turn white
again. Since it was just like our teeth we decided to brush it. Surprise!
The egg turned white again. We
recorded this observation in our other science log book, by drawing a brown
egg, a toothbrush brushing it, and leaving a part of it white where the tooth brushing
had helped. The
students wrote the word “brush” below their pictures. The grownups also
scribed whether the students’ predictions about what happened to the eggs
were correct or not.
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We continued to play our new
favorite game “A Hunting We Will Go” This time, each student had 2 sets
of cards to play with.
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For our extended program, we had
our first of 10 sessions of the Footlights and Fancy Feet program from the
City Arts Centre. Our instructor was terrific, and completed activities
including beat, clapping our the students ages and names, an assortment of
songs and rhymes, as well as dance activities.
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As always, we continued our daily
readings from the Bible and our prayers
November
28 (Tuesday)
Rea
ding-
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Teacher Selected
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Child Selected
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Together
Other-
9-1-1, 9-1-1
Help’s on the way, help’s on
the way
If I need Help I know what to do
I can call the police and the
firefighters too
It Makes me Feel Safe to know what
to do
Call 9-1-1, 9-1-1
We discussed
what to do if there was a fire in your house.
We practiced dialing 9-1-1 on our
pretend telephones, and then wrote out 9-1-1 on our list of important numbers
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We watched the Video called the
Fire Station by Robert Munsch. We then compared what was in the video to how
the book was. Each child contributed one thing that was the same and one
thing that was different
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We had a “pretend” fire drill,
and talked about how important it is to move quickly in case of an
emergency’
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We composed a letter to our
Gymnastics instructor as it was our last gymnastics day
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In our extended program, we had
our last gymnastics lesson
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As our Attendance question of the
day, each student was responsible for providing me with 2 rhyming words
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As always, we continued our daily
Bible readings and prayers
November
29 (Wednesday
day)
Reading-
-
Teacher Selected
-
Child Selected
Other-
- We discussed what to do if a fire
happened to be on you (Stop, Drop, and Roll) At gymnastics yesterday, the
instructor had us rocking and rolling all over the play. As a result, the
students have renamed the familiar Stop, Drop, and roll to Stop, Drop, and
Rock and roll. It seems to be helping them remember the concept so what can
I say! After placing a pretend flame on each child and having them
demonstrate the concept, we then sequenced pictures of students stopping,
dropping, and rolling, and glued them onto a paper.
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The students discussed all the
things that they had learned about fire safety and the grownups in our
classroom recorded those on a picture of a flame.
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We continued to sing the song
9-1-1
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As part of our extended program,
we spent some time in the music room. We sang and danced to the Hokey Pokey,
Shake your Sillies Out, Brush Your Teeth, Peanut Butter and Jelly, and also
started practicing our song for the Christmas Concert- Oh Clap and Be Joyful
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We played the game “ A Hunting
We Will Go” with 3 card sets each.
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As our attendance question of the
day, each student was responsible for providing me with 2 rhyming words.
November
30 (Thursday)
Reading
Other-
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We had our field trip to the fire
station. On the way we composed our own song- The wheels on the van (in
reference to our means of transportation- the school van)
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After learning about the different
parts of the fire station, as well as the trucks and protective gear, the
students journaled about their experience. They recorded fire station in
their journals, and drew a picture about some of the things they had seen.
The grownups then scribed all of the things the children could tell them
about the field trip
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We played “A Hunting We Will
Go” with 3 sets each
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We sang the songs-
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As always, we continued with our
daily Bible reading and prayers
December 1 (Friday)
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Although we normally don’t
operate on Fridays, the students came in today for a field trip to the Festival
of Trees. We took the School Bus (a luxury) with the Kindergarten class from St.
Clare/Ben Calf Robe school. At the
Festival, students participated in the different craft activities and also
looked at the Christmas Trees and Gingerbread Houses
Week
4: November 20-24
This week we moved to a focus on
Health (both Dental and Physical).
Reading:
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Teacher Selected Books-
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Franklin Goes to the Hospital-
Paulette Bourgeois - I selected this book to provide a
good indication of what we might see on the following day’s Hospital
Field Trip. After we finished, we compiled a list of questions that the
book brought up for us, to ask our guide at the field trip.
We spent some time discussing the characters in the book, and
Franklin was definitely the favorite. Some students did also like Dr.
Bear, and were glad to see that she was nice to Franklin during his trip
to the hospital. We were very excited to share our own hospital stories,
which primarily included being born in the hospital and then a myriad of
stories about being babies. The number 1 thing they wanted to see at the
Hospital became babies.
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I Know How We Fight Germs- Kate
Rowan - Again. A story that includes a
great deal of information for the students. About 1/2way through the
book one of my students realized that this book had the same character
as a book from last week. We compared the title pages and saw that the
author and illustrator’s names looked the same and also at the
pictures to see that they were the same. Amazingly, they even noticed
that the way the words looked (font) was the same, and they started
bringing me examples of other books where the words looked different.
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Curious George Goes to the
Hospital- H.E. Ray - We also read this book before we
went to the hospital, and spent a great deal of time comparing
George’s visit with Franklin’s visit. We again discussed favorite
characters, and Franklin is still coming out on top (even over that
curious little monkey!)
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Open Wide Tooth School Inside-
Laurie Keller -
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The Berenstein Bears Visit the
Doctor. – Stan and Jan Berenstein - The students were extremely
interested in the authors of this book. Why did their names rhyme? How
come their names were the same? We brainstormed some reasons why their
names could be the same and finally came up with the fact that they were
either married or brother and sister. We also spent some time comparing
the Doctor in the book to the Doctor’s in our Franklin and Curious
George Books. We realized that in all cases the Doctors were pretty nice
and tried to help the characters in the book. We also decided that we
don’t need to be scared of Doctors.
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We Continued our daily reading
from the Bible as well
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Child Selected Books-
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The Seals on the Bus- Lenny Hort -
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How Are You Peeling- Saxton
Freymann -
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Wombat Divine- Mem Fox -
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From Head to Toe- Eric Carle -
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Books We Read Together-
With these books, we focused
on the words I and See. We noticed that I and See appeared together in many of
the books.
Regular Program Field Trips
On Tuesday morning, we went to the
Royal Alexandra Hospital. Our volunteer was fabulous, and made sure that she
answered all of the questions the students had compiled the day before.
We visited the ambulance bays, the cafeteria, emergency, maternity,
children’s ward, and even left with our very own casts on! A very big hit
which provided a lot of language that was then transferred to the hospital
center for the rest of the week.
Extended Program Field Trips
We finished our last week of
TaeKwonDo. The children were very sad, but they enjoyed giving our letter to our
instructor. We also had another week of gymnastics, which continues to be a big
hit with the students. On Wednesday, we had our biweekly visit to the public
library, and she again did a wonderful storytime program.
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Hush Little Alien- Daniel Kirk
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Midnight Snowman- Caroline Bauer
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The Aliens are Coming- Colin
McNaughton
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Sang Looby Loo
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Had a 3 Billy Goats Gruff Puppet
Show
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And Made an Alien headband for
each child.
We continued to select items to
take home with us, and this week the students also selected some items that they
wanted me to take to read to them in the classroom. We are starting to identify
topics that we want to learn about, and so we also spent some time determining
where we would find those books. One thing the students noticed is that where
the shelf says “B” are a lot of good books! (Franklin, Arthur, Babar are all
shelved there!)
Writing Activities-
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We completed a science experiment
about germs that we logged in our science notebooks. We also completed a
science experiment about teeth that we also logged in our science notebook.
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We journaled about our field trip
to the hospital. They labeled their page with the word hospital, and then
drew a picture. We scribed their stories onto their pages.
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The student made doctors bags and
labeled them with Dr. ________ (name) on the front
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The student finished the sentence
“I __________ my teeth” by writing in the word brush.
Songs:
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We continue to play A Hunting We
Will Go -
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We also learned the song Brush
your Teeth- by Raffi
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We continued to sing Johnny works
with 1 Hammer and Peanut Butter and Jelly.
Week
3: November 13-17
Our broad theme continued to be
our community, and more specifically we continued discussing nutrition.
Reading:
- Teacher Selected Books-
-
Child Selected Books
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I Know Why I Brush My Teeth-by
Kate Rowan - This was going to be one of my
selections for next week, but the students beat me to it. The students
really seem to relate to Sam’s “silly” questions that he asks of
his mother, and retained quite a bit of the information from the story.
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Shh! Don’t Tell Mr. Wolf- Colin
McNaughton - A great story for predicting. On
each page, there are several places where the pig could be hiding and
the children got to guess where he was. It was interesting to listen to
their rationales as to why he should be hiding in a particular place. My
children really seem to love the lift the flap books. We spent some time
talking about if we should tell Mr. Wolf where the pig was or not.
It was interesting to see some of the viewpoints- especially the
ones who stated that Mr. Wolf deserved to know where the pig was simply
because he was trying so hard.
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Books we Read Together
Field Trips-
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In our regular program, we had 2
field trips this week. On Tuesday, we went to the CIBC bank within walking
distance of the school. They did a very interesting tour for us, and the
students were particularly interested to see the vault. It was really
interesting for me to listen to the discussion because many of the students
thought that one of the puppets from our puppet show in September, should
have kept his jewels there. Another
big hit were the security cameras and the bank machines.
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On Friday, we went to Boston
Pizza. There, we had a tour of the restaurant, and learned what the
different components were for. We also
had the opportunity to bake pizzas and eat them. This was a fantastic field
trip, and our guide was excellent. At the end, we plugged some money into
the jukebox and danced up a storm to some of our favorite songs.
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Our extended program allows us to
participate in fieldtrips where we go more than once. On Monday, we went to
our 5th of 6 TaeKwonDo classes. On Tuesday, we went to 2nd
of 4 Gymnastics classes. And on Wednesday, we had skates and helmets donated
to us, so we had the opportunity to go pick them up. I really enjoy the return time with the students because they
primarily talk about the trips. It is interesting to hear their different
perspectives, and also to listen to the details that they pick up. Often,
they notice things that I am completely oblivious too, either because I am
assisting in a different area, or for whatever other reason. We are continuing to play our game where I drive them to
different schools and have them tell me why we are in the wrong spot. This
week, we also drove to Borden Park and Save on Foods for a little variety in
our descriptions. I love listening to the students focusing on the signage
as a means of helping them describe the differences.
Writing Activities-
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After completing If You Give a
Moose a Muffin, we had a little scavenger hunt for M words around the
classroom and also for words we remembered with that MMMM sound from our
brains. The list we came up with included:
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Moose, Muffin, Make, Mom, Monster,
Math, Monkey, Monday, Moon, Mouse, Milk, Meat, Marbles, Macaroni, and
Mother. We then practiced forming the letter M with our Magic Pencils in the
air, and also in our Alphabet books. The students also recorded their
favorite M word and drew a picture of it in the book.
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After our Field Trips to the Bank and Boston Pizza, we journaled about our
experiences there. As always, they copied the place down into their journals
and drew a picture of their experiences. The adults then scribed 5 things
they learned or saw during the field trip.
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This week we also began working on letters. We composed letters to Save on
Foods, CIBC, Boston Pizza, and TaeKwonDo, thanking them for letting us
visit. They really have a grasp on the beginning and closing portions (our
favorite closing remarks are Have a lucky winter and Have a good Christmas),
and are surprising me at the details they want to include in the body of the
letter. At the end, they all print their names..
Songs:
A Hunting We Will Go
A Hunting We Will Go
We’ll Catch a (picture cue from individual students)
And (picture cue from individual students)
And then we’ll let it go
Some of the words that we are
integrating currently are: Mouse-House, Frog- Log, King- Ring, Bee- Knee, Pig-
Wig, Cat- Hat, Bat- Mat, Fish- Dish, and Duck- Truck. This is a big hit and we
have played it around 10 times so far.
Week
2 - November 6-10
As I was browsing on the new
website, I have decided that I haven’t been doing a very comprehensive job of
my summaries. I will be trying to elaborate more upon the why’s of what we do
in the futureJ
Books
we Read in the Class this week
Writing Activities-
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We continued working in the
Healthy foods book that our student teacher developed for us. Each day, we
learned about one new food group, and wrote the name of our favorite food from
that food group, as well as drawing a picture of it. The student teacher,
myself, and our PUF assistant also scribed the reasons why that food is good for
their bodies.
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The student teacher also
developed a Muffin craft for the students to do. After completing the craft, the
students wrote the word muffin on their creations.
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After our Save on Foods Field
Trip, we had a long discussion about what we saw there (the Seafood section was
the biggest hit with our students, and we ended up spending over 20 minutes in
that department alone! The lobster and crab were absolutely fascinating!)
Afterwards, we drew a picture of our favorite thing we had seen in our journals,
and wrote the words Save on Foods. The student teacher, PUF assistant, and I
scribed their stories about what they saw. It is amazing to see how much the
students are remembering, and how much more they are willing to tell from the
beginning of the year. At first, I could only get one liners from them, but now
their stories are often filling a whole page and more!
Oral Language-
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This is also a section I fear I
have been neglecting during my previous submissions. We spend so much time in
the classroom talking, that I think I take it for granted! I must note that our
morning attendance every day involves a question that the students must answer,
and that ranges from telling us what they did over the weekend to predicting
what we are going to learn about that day. This is an activity we complete every
day!
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This week, our student teacher
taught my students several new songs. The hit was definitely Johnny works with
One Hammer, which has been sung and the actions done over 10 times now in the
classroom. She has also been teaching songs to develop a sense of beat and
rhythm, but they are more made up creations than any documented song.
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We are continuing with our daily
prayers, and now have all 4 down pat! Next week we are responsible for reading
the prayer over the intercom every morning, so we spent additional time this
week practicing all 4, as well as practicing our tone and pitch in order to
maximize our presentation.
Other-
- Our extended programming field trips
this week took us to TaeKwonDo, Gymnastics, and the Edmonton Public Library.
We have a small enough class that we fit into the school van, so I drive
on these excursions. This leaves me a lot of freedom on our routes. As part of
our trips back, I like to play a little game with the students. I drive up to
different schools and pretend that I am going to unload the students. At first
they would just tell me that we were at the wrong school because our school is
brown, or brick, or a variety of descriptors. Now they are looking at the signs
and can tell me that we are at the wrong school because our school is called St.
Alphonsus, and that is ST. ALPHONSUS and this school is whatever letters are on
the signs. We then spend some time discussing the letters that are on the sign,
and the words that the letters make. I
had a parent volunteer who I think thought I was crazy (or really lost!) until
she heard the language that the students were using. It was incredible! They
also are then responsible for getting us back to school, so they have mastered
words like left, right, straight, turn etc… I am really impressed with their
sense of direction to get us back! We spend time reading other signs we
encounter along the way, as well as the signs that we see at our different trips
(Sung Lee TaeKwonDo, North Edmonton Gymnastics Club. Edmonton Public Library).
They have also started to make the connection between the words on the signs and
the words that they are writing in their journals. I am so proud of them!
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At our visit to the Edmonton
Public Library, we listened to 3 books. They were
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Our instructor also had us do a
storytime finger play, and also sing and dance to Looby Loo. As a wrap up for our session, we made little pig puppets.
The students were very excited to take books out this week as the
Highlands Branch had put out their Christmas Selections. More and more students
are also recognizing books by their favorite authors and taking those as well.
What is even more impressive is that they are remembering to look under the
“B” to find books about Franklin, Clifford, and Arthur because all of their
authors last name’s begin with B.
I think that is about all we
accomplished literacy wise this week. Hopefully I will be able to continue my
more comprehensive submissionsJ
Week 1 - November 4
Reading:
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Teacher Selected:
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Screech- Melvin and Gilda Berger
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The Night Before Halloween- Natasha Wing
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13 Nights of Halloween- Rebecca Dickinson
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Clifford's First Halloween- Norman Bridwell
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Clifford's Halloween- Norman Bridwell
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Eating the Alphabet- Lois Ehlert
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The Very Hungry Caterpillar- Eric Carle
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Child Selected-
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The Night Before Halloween- Natasha Wing
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5 Little Pumpkins- Dan Yaccarino
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Clifford the Firehouse Dog- Norman Bridwell
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Read Together-
Writing-
In the extended program, students also drew about and wrote TaeKwonDo
and Halloween
Party. I also scribed their stories about the events.
Other-
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Our student teacher developed a nutritional book for the
students. On Thursday, they selected their favorite fruit or vegetable and
drew a picture of it, then labeled the picture. The student teacher, our PUF
assistant, and I then wrote the students reasons for liking the fruit or
vegetable, and why it is healthy for their bodies.
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We also sang the Looking for Dracula song 5 more times this
week- it is a big hit, and they don't seem to care that Halloween is over :)
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As always, we continued our prayers and Bible time daily.
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