Language Arts

Hello dear First/Second families,

I hope all is well with you. It was great fun to celebrate the harvest with everyone. This is my first Harvest Festival at Orchard School and it was so enjoyable! I loved all of the different and delicious things that the children had prepared and that families had brought to share. Friends and family gathering to celebrate together! What a beautiful tradition!

This week was the first week of October. I love October and Halloween, as many of the children do. I like to make the classroom reflective of what is happening in the world; seasons, holidays, etc. As such, we began doing Halloween Mad Libs this week. You may have seen a couple of them come home. Most of you probably know what Mad Libs are but for those of you that don’t, they are funny little stories with some words missing from the story. You need at least two people to do one. One person must be able to read. So one person reads the story to themself and asks for a word ,where one is missing, from the other person. Underneath the blank space there is an indication as to what type of word is needed: noun, adjective, verb, adverb, occupation, exclamation, type of food, etc. When all of the blanks have been filled in, the reader may read the now even sillier story to the other person. I loved doing these when I was a kid! It is fun and a great way to begin thinking about different parts of speech too. We have done a couple as a class this week with the children taking turns to give me words and then some children did them independently. As we were on the subject of parts of speech, I have also been giving lessons to small groups of people, getting more specific with nouns, verbs, adjectives and articles. This has been fun and quite successful. We will continue our Mad Libs and study of word functions throughout the school year.

The children have also been practicing reading in the classroom this week. Several have been sent home with books that they would like to read to you. Please help your child remember to return the book when they are finished with it. Once they have returned a book, they may take another one home. Also, these are books that we all share, so please ask your child to make sure and treat the book with care and respect.

I also have three or four children that have written letters but don’t have addresses for the recipients. If you get a chance to, please ask your child if they are writing a letter and if so, to whom. Please send an address to school with them. I have addresses for everyone in the class but that is all. If it is easier, you can also email me the address and I will add it to the address book in class.

At the end of this month, I would like to celebrate Dia de los Muertes with the class. We will make a little altar and each person can bring a picture of a person, family or friend, that has passed. Please help your child choose a person to honor in this way. When I have done this in the past, it has been a great way for each child to find out a little bit more about their family. When you have selected a photo, please tell your child a bit about the person in it if they don’t know already. Each child will tell the rest of us about the person in the picture that they bring. Pictures can come in at anytime this month. We will learn about the person in each photo throughout October as they arrive.

In our listening station, there is music and stories on cd’s and cassette tapes. The children had been enjoying listening to Ray Charles, especially “Hit the Road Jack” and “Georgia on My Mind”. Unfortunately, I did not look carefully at that cd before l put it in the basket. When I did, there was an inappropriate song on the cd so I had to take it out of the basket. I told the children and will find another Ray Charles cd with the preferred songs and without the other for Monday. I love for music to be reflective of each family’s culture. If your family has music that you like to listen to or that is traditional to you, please feel free to send a cd or cassette to school for us to enjoy.

I also like to celebrate all holidays in the class. If you would like to come in and make a presentation to the class about a holiday that you celebrate, let me know. I usually suggest bringing a short book about the holiday to read and then maybe something to eat that is traditional, or a song, or a game, etc. If you have something that you would like to share, let me know and we will figure it out together. About 15 minutes is a good amount of time for a presentation. If any of you celebrates Day of the Dead, we would love to have you. Also, it is Rosh Hashanah. Would anyone like to come in to present? Shanah tovah!

We celebrated a couple of birthdays already this year. On your child’s birthday they are welcome to bring a treat: muffins, popcorn, popsicles, etc are all good treats. You are also welcome to join us for the last 15 minutes of first period to sing Happy Birthday with us and enjoy the treat. If you are not able to do so, don’t worry, not everyone does.

I began to read Harry Potter, the first book, to some of the kids at the end of second period for ten minutes or so. No one is obliged to come and listen. They can work on something else if they prefer. A couple of the children didn’t want to because they thought they might be scared. Please let me know if you have any objections to this book being read in class. Thanks.

Lastly, I am attaching a few pictures. We went to the redwood grove this week. I had never been. There is a picture from there and several from the harvest festival. I am not a terrific picture taker. I usually forget and occasionally a thumb turns up in photos. I will try harder now that I am blogging.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Fondly,

Joy