"October...Rocktober...My Favorite Time of Year!"

It's hard to believe October has already come to a close...but Fall is here and we have been having fun!! I hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween with your families. I know we did. Now, buckle your seat belts, because the next two months are going to go FAST! Thanksgiving will be here before we know it.

With that being said, take a look at what we were up to this month!

Many thanks to Analiese's Grandfather for his surprise visit!!
Thank you for sharing your Army experiences and memories with us. 

SCIENCE: Magnets

Students loved the magnetic wand and ball races! Predicting, testing, and sorting out items that are magnetic and non-magnetic had students working together in a fun/hands-on way.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Maps 

After reading the book, How I Became a Pirate, students got to create their own treasure maps, and then use tea bags to make them look old-fashioned.

We then moved on to learning about the United States map and some of its major landforms, such as the Appalachian Mountains, Rocky Mountains, Mississippi River, Rio Grande River, James River, and the 5 Great Lakes. What better way to reinforce those concepts than out on the playground!!

 

 

Appalachian Mountains: "small" and round 

The Mississippi River - the longest river in the United States
(Hard to see...but it's represented by the long blue jump rope) 

The James River - right here in Virginia!! 

The Rocky Mountains - Nice and BIG and good for skiing! 

The Rio Grande running the border of Texas and Mexico

READING: Literature Circles and Making Predictions

October kicked off chapter books and literature circles!! Students have started working in their reading groups to learn how to run their own independent literature circles...where they can read together and work together to build fluency and comprehension.

Students working together to summarize their latest chapter!

Making predictions was a big skill we hit this month as well. A fan favorite was our read aloud of Two Bad Ants. If you haven't this one yet, I highly recommend it. Mrs. Kephart read the book aloud to the class, pausing throughout for students to make predictions as to where they thought the ants were. We were impressed with their creative ideas!!

Making Predictions with Two Bad Ants 

MATH: Fact Families 
We have been working hard on our fact families!! Here is a picture of our newest, interactive, fact family math stations. Students build fact family number sentences by dragging and dropping numbers into the correct order. They can also roll two dice (interactively) and create their own fact families by adding the two numbers together *not pictured.

Aaaaand......We've saved the best for last, of course...Pumpkin Estimation Stations! 
Once again, with the help of parent volunteers, we completed a successful afternoon of Pumpkin Estimation Stations. Students rotated through three stations to guess weight, circumference and how many seeds they could grab with their hands.

How Big Around? 

How Much do They Weigh? 

How Many Seeds? 

Many thanks to our fabulous volunteers!

 

My future's so bright, I've gotta wear shades!!