MRS. ANDREA H. DAVIS
Weekly Newsletter
October 2, 2015
THEME: All About Me
UNIT: Seasons - Fall
EXTENSION: Life on the farm
Key Measure: Fall is a time for harvesting. Farms produce most of the food we eat.
Dear Parents,
We talked about farm animals, looked at pictures of farm animals, and acted out different
farm animals (squirrels, mostly:). We played a game where an animal picture was behind a
child's back so that s/he couldn't see what animal it was. The other children gave that
child clues about that animal until s/he guessed it. It was so hard for the kids who were
giving clues to not BLURT out the answer!! Next week our unit study will continue with life
on the farm in the fall and will include PETS.
LANGUAGE ARTS
LISTENING: At the Listening center, we heard the book on tape, The Farm Concert. We
will illustrate our own copy of it to practice reading at home. Good books for beginning
readers have predictable stories and repetitive text.
SPEAKING: Your child is developing competence answering questions and contributing
ideas to discussions. Ask your child, “What is a pasture?”
PHONEMIC AWARENESS AND PHONICS: We are beginning to practice the skill of
sound spelling. Sound spelling is when your child writes the letters that s/he hears, for
example ‘watermelon’ might be written as W because that is the only sound your child
knows the letter for, or WTM or WTRMLN....be excited about your child’s attempt at
reading what s/he wrote. This will get easier with practice!
WRITING: The students made their own farm books, using farm animal stencils. On each
page they wrote “My” and then the name of the animal they drew. We are working on
making our illustrations more representational – ex. coloring the cow brown or black, not
purple.
READING: We read these books: The Little Red Hen, The Three Little Pigs, The Three
Billy Goats Gruff, as well as many other great books about farms and farming.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We had discussions about how important the farmer is to our lives because farmers
provide so much of the food we eat. Farmers need to know how to use their land well.
Many farmers study plants and animals at Agriculture College. They learn how to make
money for their farm work.
MATH
A new game at work time taught us the concept of plus and minus. We gathered eggs into
our carton by rolling a plus or minus dice. The farmer who got his/her dozen first was the
winner. We had our very own Cookie Judging Contest. We got to eat two kinds of cookies,
then award our favorite one a blue ribbon, just like at the Fair. We graphed the results
with our blue ribbons.
SCIENCE
We learned that cows have four stomachs and that they chew their cud to help them
digest their food. Ew! The kids learned that pigs can’t sweat to cool themselves. On hot
days, they cool off by rolling in mud puddles. We talked about the correct names for baby
animals. See if your child can match the names for you...Cow/calf, Horse/foal, Pig/piglet,
Chicken/chick, Sheep/lamb, Goat/kid, Turkey/poult, and Goose/gosling.
ART
VISUAL: We looked at newspaper clippings of farm animals from the Tulsa State Fair.
MUSICAL: We learned a new song about a farm dog named “Rags.”
MOVEMENT: One of our favorite records that gets our wiggly bodies moving around the
classroom is called “Listen and Move.” It has great galloping music - Yeehaw! We played a
funny game using farm animal pictures pinned onto our backs. It was a chasing game. Ask
about it!
DRAMATIC PLAY: We have a wooden barn with farm animals at the block center.
TECHNOLOGY
The students are acquiring experience in independently opening and closing all of the
academic computer games using the mouse. On our classroom laptops it a different type
of mouse called a touchpad mouse. At the computer lab, we are using a traditional mouse.
FYI
Thursday Reader is Carrie Storms - bring 3-4 books from home. Come at 8:30.
We wear our class shirts on Fridays!
Have a great weekend!
Andrea Davis