If our students current aspirations are any indication of the careers they are going to have in the future we will have a very diverse workforce coming out of Pembroke. We have students in our class who want to be everything from construction workers to ballerinas.

The first book we read in our new theme was I Can Be Anything I Want by Jerry Spinelli. This story followed a child who was trying to decide what to be. He thought of doing many things when he grew up including being a bubble popper and a mud stomper. In the end he decided there were too many choices and he wanted to have every job.

On Tuesday we had our all school field trip to Burnham Orchards. We were able to pick apples and pumpkins, watch apples being processed for sale, and watch the making of apple cider. It was a great day where we got to really explore apples.

Wednesday was the start of an alphabet activity where we came up with occupations that start with each letter of the alphabet. Some of the ideas we thought of were jobs we could think of pretty easily, like doctors, but some of them were more unique, like a juggler.

At the end of the week we started focusing on individual community helper jobs. Our first study was on postal workers. We read The Post Office Book: Mail and How It Moves by Gail Gibbons. This book introduced us to some of the basics of the postal system. We learned that we need a stamp to mail a letter and that every letter needs to tell the postal worker who the letter is for and who the letter is going to. We also discussed zip codes and that every city has a zip code. We started a classroom post office where we wrote letters, addressed letters, and made stamps. This goes hand in hand with Writer’s Workshop because we are currently learning that writers also write letters.

In Math Workshop we continued working on our counting books, but we also started a few new activities. The first lesson was called Grab and Count. The process entailed grabbing a handful of a manipulative, counting how many were in the handful, and then recording it on a sheet of paper by drawing the manipulative. Then we started an activity called Roll and Record. In this activity we all had our own die and recording sheet. We would fill in a box for the corresponding number rolled. Then we had a race to see which number could be rolled five times first.

Next week we will be looking at other community helpers. Construction workers and jobs in health care will be discussed. Please remember we do not have school on Friday, October 12th.

Have a great weekend!