Look Up, Look Down, Look All Around!

Science/Social Studies: Our human body unit continues. Today we learned about the human eye. Cow eyes are very similar to human eyes. Lisa Peck brought cow eyes to dissect with the children to help them see how the eye works. We learned about the different parts of the eye and their functions. One of the really interesting things we learned is that the job of the lens is to focus the light in our eye to project the image of what we see back to the optic nerve and then to our brain. Mrs. Peck removed the lenses from the cow eyes and we have them drying in our classroom. After a couple days we will be able to lay the lens on a book or newspaper and look right through the lens to see words magnified! How cool is that?


Language Arts: This week are are working on words with short vowel /u/ and reviewing words with the digraph /th/. This week's wall words are live, does, grow, many, be, and food. The robust vocabulary for this week include claimed, dine, groaned, function, nutritious, and classify. We will also introduce initial blends with r, as in truck or crack. We will continue to work on nouns, concentrating on nouns that name animals or things. This week's genre focus will be on nonfiction writing with rhyming text. As we read, we will look for details in the text and focus on adjusting our reading rate, being sure to slow down when we need to focus on important information.

Writing Workshop: We are working on storytelling with our partners and the roles each play, spelling our "no excuse" words in a snap, and revealing internal stories - our "feelings and thoughts" as opposed to the external story which describes the action.

Math: We are introducing a new routine called Frames and Arrows and will be working on counting up and back on a calculator.

Things to Remember:

• Word ring comes home on Monday and is returned on Thursday.
  
• Red reading folder comes home on Wednesday and is returned on Monday.
• Spirit Day will be this Friday, October 22. This week is Homecoming week at Shorecrest! We will be attending an all school pep rally on Friday afternoon.
• Picture Retake Day will be Thursday, October 28.
• Fall Festival will be Friday, October 29. The parade will be at 8:30 and then the children will be dismissed from the classroom at 10:00 a.m. to attend the festival.
• Poetry in the Park will be Wednesday, November 10. The children listened to three different poems and were able to vote for the one they wanted our class to do. The winning poem came home in today's folder. PLEASE practice it at home with your child as often as you can!
  

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art - Chris Chen (12:05)
• Thursday - Library Checkout - Ailsa Hudson and Liz Jack (2:05)
• Friday - Math Game - Margaret Young
• Friday - Parent Reader - Octavia or Tom Perfetto (1:00-1:30 due to Pep Rally)

Odds and Ends:

Last Tuesday, our first Picture Lady, Esther Happle, introduced the children to Max Ernst, a German surrealist painter. He had a fascination with a particular animal and often put it in his paintings. Ask your child if they remember what animal this was!

Thank you to our wonderful parent readers for modeling such wonderful expressiveness and the love of reading when you come to read to our class! It is definitely one of the favorite parts of our week!