December Book Club Ordering

I want to make sure that we have time for Scholastic book ordering in December, because there are a lot of great holiday books available!  In order to get the books here in time, we will only do online ordering this time, and all orders will need to be submitted by Friday, December 5th.

You can go to www.scholastic.com/parentordering to view this month's flyers.  Or class user name is Krank, and the password is books.  On the site, there are the two regular order forms, as well as a special Holiday Gift Book flyer that includes books for children of all ages.

If you place an order and would like the books to be kept "secret," please let me know, and we can arrange that! 

The Giving Center

Beginning next week, we will have a “Giving Center” in our classroom. At this time of year, children are often focused on what they want; my hope with this new center is to teach children how good it feels to give to others. While at the Giving Center, children can make cards or wrap small presents for classmates or family members.

In order to get this center up and running, please consider donating any of the following items:

• Wrapping Paper Scraps or Leftovers (any style, wrinkled paper is fine)
  
• Old Bows or Ribbon (smushed bows are ok)
  
• Blank Gift Tags
  
• Small Gift Boxes (jewelry size)
  
• Used Greeting Cards (any style, just the front picture is needed)

Please don’t buy new items; just look through your gift wrapping supplies for things that you won’t use any more. You can begin sending in items on Monday.  Thank you so much!

Feasting Families

Feast Prep

Thanksgiving Feast

Thursday is our Thanksgiving Feast! The children will be performing as turkeys and need to come to school wearing brown or tan clothing.

We will begin our singing performance right at 11:30, so please plan on arriving around 11:15. The show will be in our backyard; please enter from that way. There will be signs guiding you.

Most of the feast seating will also be outdoors. With the cold weather, please dress accordingly. The feast will end at 12:30.

Reminders for set-up and clean-up helpers will be sent home in Spot folders tomorrow. Thank you to all of the families who have sent in items already; we are so appreciative of all of the generosity.

We look forward to seeing you Thursday! The children have been working very hard to get all of the food and decorations ready and are so excited to sing for you.

If you wish to take your child home with you after the feast, please make sure to see me or Ms. Stacy first. We will have a clipboard with a sign-out sheet from the attendance office.

Apples

While at Publix, each child picked out two apples. When we returned to school, we compared and graphed the apples. On Friday, we turned our apples into homemade applesauce for the feast!

Field Trip to Publix and Westside Park

More Feast Needs

As I learn more and more about all of our feast preparations, I am realizing how much we need to make it work! Please feel free to send in any of the following items:

-Ziploc Freezer Bags, gallon size
-Dish soap, Dawn or Joy
-Disinfectant hand wipes (not Clorox wipes, ones made especially for hands)
-Styrofoam trays (from meat or produce)
-Small, natural-colored craft feathers (available at Michael's)

Thank you! Thank you! Thank You!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!

Our pumpkin activities this week were a lot of fun! On Thursday, we cut into a pumpkin, counted the seeds, roasted and ate them, then graphed whether the kids liked them or not. On Friday, the children went to five different pumpkin stations -- decorating mini-pumpkins, testing whether pumpkins will sink or float, measuring heights, weights, and circumferences of pumpkins, making pumpkin life cycle crowns, and creating a pumpkin patch with pumpkins in size order. Check out the pictures below:



The children also learned the song "Five Little Pumpkins" by Raffi. Together, we came up with motions to the song, then put it into our poetry notebooks with a matching illustration. Check out the kids singing along to the song:

Picture Update -- 10/13 - 10/29