A Big Announcement and Fall Learning

I cannot believe that as I write this, Thanksgiving is only 11 days away and Christmas is only 39 days away... where has the time gone this year?? As we approach my favorite season of the year and I know time will slip away from me very quickly I want to reflect and share some of the exciting things and learning that has been happening in my classroom the last few weeks.

Just about 4 weeks ago, I had the joy to share with my class that Elliot and I will be expecting a little baby in May. The kids responses were priceless and so compassionate for 6 and 7 year olds. Each and every day since then they ask questions such as, "Has your baby grown today?", "Can you tell me again when your baby will be born?", "How many more days till we find out if its a boy or girl?", and  "When will your tummy start to get big". Each question comes with so much love and curiosity.

 After I announced our pregnancy to my class they each filled out one of these sheets. I am saving them and will create a little book with them. I wanted to share two of them:

After each child finished drawing what they think Baby Nolan will look like and writing a note to Baby Nolan I took some suggestions for baby names. I was surprised to see most names were normal names until we got to "Ariana Grande".

 

 

This fall in our class we have been doing a lot of nonfiction studies and learning. In October, we read a variety of nonfiction books, watched some video clips, and even did some research of our own to learn new facts about pumpkins, bats, and spiders. For each topic we created a class chart of information we already knew about the given topic and as we studied and learned more we added to our charts each day. Here is what our finished charts looked like:



 

The last bit of fall learning that I want to share about was our study on Benjamin Franklin. This year while studying Benjamin Franklin I created an interactive folder/book for students to fill out and create as we learn a variety of facts and information about Benjamin Franklins life. Here is an example of the book. In this book students were able to decorate the front cover. Inside the folder as we did our learning and conversations about Ben Franklin students filled out a KWL chart, compared and contrasted themselves to Ben, filled in new vocabulary words, and recorded inventions that Ben created.

 

If you are interested in doing this interactive book/folder with your class please click on the link:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Benjamin-Franklin-Interactive-Book-1462363



 

That is all for now!!! Look back soon for more updates about our classroom fun and learning! :)