Thanks to Jillian, Dana, and the Little Pumpkins for letting us come down and play with you during open room day. We had fun playing and exploring your classroom.

October was Fire Safety month and the Appaloosa Rabbits invited us to their classroom to meet Miranda’s dad Philip, a Missoula City fire fighter. Philip talked to us about how important it is to try and learn our phone numbers and addresses and to talk to our family about a meeting spot in case there is a fire in our home. We learned how to Stop. Drop. And Roll. Reynolds did an excellent demonstration for us. Philip then put on his uniform so we could see what a fire fighter would look like in a fire. They are completely covered and sound like Darth Vader, which might be a little scary if we didn’t know that it was a fire fighter! But we’re not afraid. We got to touch his uniform and look into his eyes through his mask. Then…we toured the fire truck!  We learned that the fire trucks are named after the dogs that used to live in the fire house when the tanks were pulled by horses. Missoula has two trucks named Snip and Snap.

 

Our MWF kids got to see an AMAZING story acting play by our CFS teachers during all school Friday. Since then, we have absolutely loved listening to “Big Pumpkin” over and over despite the fact that Halloween has passed. We were enjoying it so much that we decided to do our own story acting. The first time, Zoe was our adorable witch, Cody was the Mummy, Jiah was the Pumpkin, Aksel was the Bat, Reynolds was our spooky Ghost, and Dillon was the Vampire. In our second round, Lucy was the witch, Zoe the Pumpkin, Silas the Bat, Thor the Vampire, Finn the Ghost, and Dillon was the Mummy. Some of our friends acted twice so all parts were filled. The props will live in the dramatic play area for a couple of days so we can continue our acting. This is a super fun story and I’m SO impressed with how brave our friends are in getting up in front of the whole class. I think it speaks volumes to how wonderful our classroom community is and how safe we all feel with each other. We are a nice family

P.S. If your child is yelling “DRAT,” in a squeaky witch voice, thank the “Big Pumpkin.”

We are beginning to explore pictures and photographs in our classroom. We are very excited with all the possibilities this topic holds. We started with our TTh class taking a close look at a picture of kids hiking in the woods. We asked: What do you notice? What is happening? What happened before? What will happen next?  This is exercise helps us look closely at details in a picture, use our real life experience to extrapolate possible scenarios, consider time and cause and effect, use and learn new vocabulary, and practice storytelling. Our answers are written below. We can’t wait to do this with the MWF group.

What do you notice? One grown up. They are big kids. They’re tall. They’re walking in the fall. The leaves are down. The leaves are yellow and red. Some kids have backpacks on. They’re doing a scavenger hunt. There are colored leaves. One boy is wearing a hat. There are leaves on the ground. They are looking for leaf colors. These kids are 6, 7 or 8. It’s a forest in NY. It’s the Rattlesnake Forest.

What is happening? They’re walking in the forest in Potomac. They’re walking going on a nature hunt for leaves. They’re looking for deer. They’re just going for a walk. Leaves are turning colors. Kids in school are doing a scavenger hunt. They are hunting for leaves. 

What will happen next? They will see grizzly bears. They’ll see deer. They’ll see birds. They’ll see butterflies, but they won’t tackle them. They’ll go back to school. The bear and moose will come back down when the kids leave. They will saunter back to school and play outside. A beaver will come to this place. Kids will go to bed from being tired.

What happened before? They took a picture. They came from school. They road on a bus. They drove cars. They ate lunch. They walked to this place. Maybe they had to cross the river. Moose and bears were in this spot.