Mrs.O'Bryan's

 Our home page features updates about our weekly adventures in the JK class!

We are officially in what Mrs. O'Bryan refers to as 'The Holiday Season.' For most, that just refers mostly if not only to Christmas but Christmas and Thanksgiving happen to be my two favorite holidays so I start rolling November 1st. Yes... we have started listening to Christmas music! However, it's only been instrumental... so far. ;) 

This week we looked at pumpkins and started comparing and contrasting. We talked about similarities (what that means) and differences. I had 3 pumpkins of varying shape, size, color...ect. I was really impressed with their ability to spot all the similarities and all the differences. They really put a lot of thought into it. We also looked at the parts of a pumpkin as well as the life cycle of a pumpkin (pictures in picture tab). We will go over this again next week. We talked about the similarities and differences between the parts/lifecycles of apples and pumpkins. 

Continuing with our pumpkin theme, we decorated our own paper pumpkins. They had many options to cut or draw but were encouraged to make the pumpkin their own; however they wanted to decorate their pumpkin was the right way to decorate it! Then we talked about our pumpkins that we decorated and either wrote a sentence describing our pumpkin or wrote 3 good adjectives to describe our pumpkin. I helped friends by spelling things out and or writing things down for them to copy. 

We continued working in our handwriting book this week by looking at the letter K and the number 5. We also have fine motor journals that we work on from time to time (typically Wednesday before church instead of our fine motor boxes). This week we drew two pumpkins (one BIG and one SMALL) and labeled them as such. Lastly, this week we worked on our fine motor skills, number recognition and one to one correspondence all in one project! I provided them with a grid, qtips and paint. Then I showed them a number. They told me the number then made that many dots in the designated box. They had a blast doing this and for the most part seemed to understand the concept, especially one -five. We will continue to work on one to one correspondence and number recognition throughout the year. 

This week we celebrated Mrs. Gatewood's and Xai Xai's birthdays! Mrs. Gatewood loved wearing the crown (for a minute) and the class singing happy birthday to her. Xai Xai loved passing out his snack. We also had 3 mystery readers this week. Beth Wibbels (Elias and Eva read to us on Tuesday. Donna Taylor (Grace and Carson) read to us on Thursday. Ella from the 2nd grade class read to us on Friday. I love reading to them but it can become routine when I read so it is very meaningful and special to have someone else come read to us, especially a young kid close to their age. It gets them excited about reading themselves! 

We did not have Mrs. Cahoe in this week, she was feeling under the weather. We look forward to having her back next week. This week, i did start having my friends lead prayer, specifically our easy lunch prayer. They have really enjoyed that and we will continue to have kiddos lead that prayer each day. Mrs. Gatewood and I are also going to start teaching them 3 prayers between now and Christmas break. We are going to work on the Hail Mary (we say this a lot in Mass and many are already close to having this one down), the Guardian Angel prayer (they learned this with Mrs. Cahoe and she will continue to work on that with them on Wednesdays) and the Our Father. I will work on this one at the end of each day and we will take it slow as it's a big one!

Grandparents day is next week and I hope everyone will have at least one Grandparent able to attend! Grandparents can come into the classroom in the morning and take their kiddo to Mass with them (please have them check in with me before taking them to Mass). They are also welcome to sit with us in our pew if they would like, but they are not required to. Once Mass is over, they can take their kiddo to the cafeteria for refreshments. As they are ready to leave, they will need bring their kiddo to me so I can count them back into my attendance list. Verbal confirmation of hand off is always appreciated. Please reach out with any questions as Grandparents day is always clear as mud and never causes any confusion. ;) 

Next week, we will continue our pumpkin study, look at the letter L and number 6 as well as introduce the concept of greater then/less then (of which greater then is always easier to understand). I have had a few parents ask if there is anything needed in the classroom and I do have a few general needs (many of which can be purchased at the dollar store). We are in need of watercolors, washable markers (we go through this fast as we are still learning the value and importance of putting lids back on), tape and expo markers. If you are able to buy 1 or two of these items that would be awesome! I have already had a few parents bring in some of these and I appreciate it so much!

I had about 3 different quotes to share with you this week, alas by the time I sat down to record them in my phone... I had forgotten them. Hopefully next week I am able to record them promptly. Know that your kids are hilarious and compassionate and everyday in the classroom is full of laughter, growth and joy!