Apple Sauce, 4 Winds, Reader's Workshop and more!

Hello Friends,

I hope this finds you well. The foliage is starting to wane and the temperature is fall. Autumn is fully here! We have been singing our hearts our during Primary Sing to celebrate the changing of the seasons.

Today we got the opportunity to use some of the apples from my house to make apple sauce! Thanks so much to Talitha for sharing her Instant Pot, food mill and time to help make this happen. The kids even got to have some at lunch, too! It is amazing to see how much sauce you can make from a 5 gallon barrel!

Adrienne Magida came in to do our first 4-Wind session on the sun and its position in the sky. I even got to do some acting in the puppet show. This month we will be look at erosion. I really appreciate the time all of our volunteers put in to help make our days a bit more enriching and I know the kids feel the same.

We have been working on our senses in our science journals and will be moving into solids, gasses and liquids in the coming weeks to come to some basic understandings on States of Matter. I look forward to making some oobleck, looking at ice melt and evaporate and other investigations.

We have begin our work in Reader's Workshop as well. The kids split for the beginning part of literacy by grade, second grade stays with me and first grade goes with Caitlin. We are following the Lucy Calkins continuum, which is a great guide to help kids get to know themselves as readers.

We will beginning some story writing next week as part of Writer's Workshop. The kids will be writing about a time when they learned something about themselves. We have been talking a lot about the author's message (moral) and we will be incorporating the use of transition words, descriptive language and compelling beginnings and endings to our stories. 

As a heads-up, we do not have a celebration for Halloween like a parade or a party, no need to send in a costume or treats on the 31st. We try to keep things as sane as possible!

I think that's it for now. Please let me know if you have questions, concerns or celebrations anytime!

Have a wonderful weekend!

~B