News From Mrs. Gabler’s K-2 Classroom - October 2011
October is such an exciting month! Truly a favorite of both students and
teachers. Your precious children have been making tremendous progress and we
are very proud of them. They have become familiar with all our classroom
procedures and school rules and are enthusiastic about all the new skills they
have mastered.
On October 3 Kindergarten had a prayer service honoring our class patron
saint, St. Francis of Assisi. The children brought a stuffed animal that day
to commemorate his love of all God's creatures. Each child received a St.
Francis medal and holy card. Our prayers for the month are the Hail Mary and
the Hail Holy Queen. We will study Mary's life and practice the prayers of the
Rosary as well as discuss the Mysteries. We'll witness a "Living Rosary"
Prayer Service on October 12 at 2:00 pm. The students may bring a rosary that
day and parents may join us in Church. Mass days in October are October 6,
14, 19, and 28.
The children have been quite the chefs in preparing special snacks in class
like Awesome Owls and Ants on a Log. They really enjoyed the waffles and
blueberries (for children's book author Robert McCloskey’s birthday) as well
as making yummy applesauce (for Johnny Appleseed Day). Comparing types of
apples, tasting them, and graphing our favorites was a delicious math and
science lesson. There will be more delicious edibles like Dogs in a Blanket,
Ghost Toast, and Spooky Spiders to enjoy in the month ahead.
In Science class we’ve discussed the changing seasons and what happens to
leaves. We’ve collected leaves and sorted them by type and size and even made
leaf prints by coloring and ironing real leaves. We had fun discussing the
center of gravity and then balancing our paper acrobats on our fingers,
pencils, chairs, and even our noses! We anticipate learning about our
skeletons, and our favorite arachnids, spiders, later this month.
During October we will complete letterbooks Dd, Ss, and Ll. We are beginning
to blend all the letter sounds we've studied thus far to read simple words.
Practice this at home with your child. Be sure to go over the letterbooks,
math papers, and all worksheets that are sent home and please empty the blue
folder each evening. Practice writing letters, words, and sentences on lined
paper. Also have your child practice his/her name using a capital letter at
the beginning and the rest lowercase. For letterbook Dd we'll have a special
“Dads-N-Donuts" breakfast in our classroom on October 4. Our Dog Show event is
scheduled for Thursday, October 6, when the children bring a stuffed animal
dog for Show-N-Tell. Kindergartners may wear silly socks on October 13 in
honor of letterbook Ss.
Have your child practice counting to 100 (without help) and also count by 1's,
2's, 5's, and 10's. Review one to one correspondence and the concepts of one
more and one fewer (less). Practice writing the numbers on lined paper and
review the order of numbers as well as identification of numbers when
presented out of sequence. Encourage your student to use manipulatives at home
and review patterns, shapes, sorting, and graphing. We'll break out the
pennies, nickels, and dimes to practice counting by ones, fives, and tens.
When our Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin comes to class we'll do some special
estimating and measuring activities.
On Monday, October 10, individual photographs will be taken. The students are
allowed to wear appropriate free dress. Remember that Parent-Teacher
Conferences are coming up on October 20 and 21. There will be no regular
classes or BASP on those days. Only parents should attend the conferences in
the primary (PK-3rd) building. Mrs. Gabler looks forward to meeting with you
and discussing your wonderful child’s progress.
October always marks the beginning of the BOOK-IT Program. You have received
information about this from your child. We teachers in grades K-5 feel very
strongly about this especially worthwhile incentive to encourage children and
families to read together. The program runs for six months, from October
through March. Kinders are expected to read (or have read to them) 5 books
each month. Write down the titles, sign the list, and send it to school by
the end of each month and we’ll give your child a certificate for a free
personal pan pizza (only one pizza certificate can be awarded each month).
Special rewards are given to those students who read the five books for all
six months of the program and the class gets a special reward at the end of
the program if all of our students have participated.
October has some special weeks to remember: During Pink Week beginning Monday,
October 17, we focus on breast cancer awareness by wearing pink. A number of
St. Francis present and former staff members are breast cancer survivors as
well as some parents and relatives of students. Others have lost their lives
to the disease. Monday the new school pink week shirt (order forms for these
are printable from the DeSales Details and Update) can be worn. Tuesday is
"Pink Out" day and anything pink will work - shirts, pants, socks, shoes,
caps, etc. That Wednesday everyone is encouraged to wear a pink ribbon on
their dress uniform. The following week is Red Ribbon Week. This week is all
about preventing drug abuse. We'll have blue and gold day on Monday, October
24. Tuesday is "Put a Cap on Drug Abuse Day" and students may wear any hat or
cap. Wednesday we will "Team up against Drug Abuse" by wearing any sports
team shirt. Thursday we'll give drugs "the boot" by wearing boots and western
or Texan clothes. Finally on Friday the children are encouraged to bring a
canned good for the poor to show the we "can" prevent drug abuse.
At the end of the month Kindergarten will celebrate Halloween. The children
will be allowed to wear a costume instead of their uniform that day. They may
choose to wear a "saint" or "angel" outfit (since the next day is All Saints
Day), or a more traditional Halloween costume, or they may wear their spirit
shirt and jeans. A party and games are being planned. Many have volunteered
to help already. If you would like to be a part of this celebration please
contact our Kindergarten Room Parent Coordinator, Mrs. Sharlla Serrano. Her
email address is shar_serrano@yahoo.com. That day the Kinders through 2nd
graders will be dismissed at 11:45 while the rest of the school gets out at 12
noon so teachers can attend a special Diocesan meeting.
Many thanks to all those who have sent in Box Tops for Education. There is a
school-wide contest this month and the class that collects the most box tops
gets a free dress day and the child in each division that turns in the most
box tops gets a cash reward.
Thank you for all your prayers, love, and support. Your children are such a
joy to teach and we look forward to every day spent with them. Each one is a
precious gift from God. May God bless all of you.
Your Partners in Education,
Mrs. Gabler and Mrs. Kaiser