November is sure to be a great month in our classroom! The week of November 14th we will be learning about different community helpers. Several parents and friends will be visiting our classroom this week to share information about their jobs and how they help people in our community. We have a social worker, a dental hygienist, a police officer, a nurse and an eye doctor coming in! It is sure to be a fun filled week discovering how many different types people it takes to keep a community healthy and safe!

We will take this opportunity to practice our skills by drawing and writing in our journals about each person that visits. Some of the journal entries will be group experiences completed together as a class, and some will be individual journal entries where we will encourage the children to use their phonemic awareness to write the sounds they hear in words they wish to write. This encourages children to use and expand their ever growing sound-letter awareness. It also builds confidence in their pre-reading skills.
We will create our own wallets for use at home and in dramatic play.The class will also be introduced to coin values of penny, nickel, dime and quarter. What are some things that we do with money? How do we earn money? During community helpers week we have a doctor’s office set up in dramatic play. The children will have the opportunity to explore different roles; doctor, nurse, patient, and family member. They will certainly show their creative side by both acting and creating props to enrich their dramatic play environment. We have cots, stethoscopes, gowns, blood pressure cuffs, and much more.

We have begun assessing students on patterning, name writing and cutting skills. All of these assessments will be saved and put into our portfolios. This is a perfect opportunity to determine exactly where a student is on the developmental scale. Some children will be copying and extending simple “A -B” patterns, while others may create more complex patterns. The same is certainly true for cutting skills and name writing. Some children can cut on a straight line while others may be able to cut a complex curved figure. Name writing always begins with writing first name using all capital letters. As children progress with their fine motor skills, we introduce first name in upper and lower case, gradually moving to first and last name in upper and lower case. If you ever want to check to see what we have covered so far, please just stop in to our room to take a peek at your child’s portfolio.

Looking ahead to Thanksgiving week we will have school Monday and Tuesday November 21st , and November 22nd. During these two days we will be talking about giving thanks! During the last week of November we will begin a two-week unit about Winter Wonderland.

A big thank you to all of our parents who have come into our class to read a story, or do a craft!! If you are ever interested in coming in to participate in class, please let us know and we will make arrangements!

Your child’s health is important to us!! As you can imagine, we go through LOTS of paper towels cleaning and sanitizing tables after projects, snacks and lunch. Thank you to those who have donated in the past, and thank you to those who may do so in the future…we truly appreciate it!!

Email reminder: If you are not receiving our daily class emails, please stop in to update your information!

We look forward to a great month!!