Estes Extras...

What a great week! It was a short one, but really good! We started the week off with Hats-off to reading! We made the cutest If you give a Moose a Muffin hats!! We had a ton of fun at Brainstorm on Wednesday. During brainstorm, we rotated to four classrooms. In Mrs. Bell's class, we learned about the safe place in our classroom. In Mrs. Cronan's class, we dug for bugs and then sorted them. In Mrs. Porter's class we made shrinkey-dink necklaces and in my class we made home-made play-doh and wrote the recipe.  It was such a fun day! Today, was our Chick-Fl-A day. Congrats to Nadia and Michael for being our Chick-Fl-A students of the month! We also had our first Mystery Reader. Thank you to Carla's Aunt who came and read a story about manners. What a treat it was having her visit! Also, a special thank you to Sofia's mom, who has graciously accepted the job of being our room-mom for the year!

Academic Update:

Literacy: We finished up our literacy unit, "All about me". This past week in phonics, we learned two new letters, r and i. We learned that i is a vowel, just like the letter a and that there is a vowel in every word.

Learning Labs: At the end of the day, I have started interactive centers call "Learning Labs". These hands-on labs focus on science, fine-motor skills and social interaction.

Math: Last week we finished up our unit in math on sorting and a little graphing. We have jumped right into our second unit about patterns! We have learned an AB, AABB, and an AAB pattern. Ask your child this weekend to show you a pattern for extra reinforcement.

Science/Social Studies: We are starting a new unit in Science on Monday about "Where we live". We will be learning all about our surroundings in Kennesaw, Cobb County and in Georgia. **We have a map in our classroom of the United States. If your family or family members go somewhere on vacation, or for a day trip, please buy a postcard and send it in. We will attach it to our map. I went to New Orleans this summer and bought a postcard- just for this unit! The postcards will help the students will be able visualize the place and see where the place is located on a US map. The postcards will stay on the map all year long. The students will estimate how many postcards we will have by the end of the year. I can't wait to see the postcards! Eventually, I will be adding a world map. I have a good friend who lives in Germany and she will be sending a card from Germany very soon! :)

Please keep signing up for the Math Center Volunteer, Mystery Reader and Literacy Center. There is plenty of spaces left! Our wonderful para, Mrs. Fortson, helps in our class every three days, so an extra hand is always welcome. Plus, you get to know the kids and see the daily workings of our class!

Have a great weekend...and Roll Tide! :)