This is Fire Safety Week and the children were delighted by a simulation of a real house fire in the Dining Room. They watched as a pretend tissue paper fire along with smoke (a fog machine) was piped into the darkened room. Then they watched as fire fighters crept low to the ground in full gear to save the teacher that was sleeping. The children couldn't take their eyes off the fire fighters.


Next the children asked questions and were reminded about calling 911 in case of emergencies, having a family meeting place outside with their family in case of fire and and were even given a homework assignment. They were told to go home and ask their family when they last changed the batteries in their fire alarm(s). There will be prizes for those children that remember to ask!

Finally the children were invited outside to see the big red engine and all of the fire fighter gear. Make sure to ask your child about this life saving assembly!

Fall Traditions

Today we came dressed as our favorite book characters and then paraded around the halls for all the school to see. Below are some of the characters that walked the parade!

Next we had centers in the classroom. We enjoyed making orange and black necklaces with patterns; playing Number Bingo; making Fall hats with letters, leaves and pumpkins; decorating pumpkin shaped cookies; practicing our color words by coloring a seasonal booklet; and making seasonal shapes with play dough. Thanks to all the parents that joined us for the fun and games!

After our fun day, we asked each child: What was your favorite part of today?

Alexander - making a cookie
Alexis - playing Bingo because we got to eat two candy corns
Alyssa - doing Number bingo... and winning!
Caleb - doing the centers!
Chloe - making crowns and necklaces
Crawford - giving high fives when we marched in the parade
Dominic - being Robin!
Eleana - when I saw our patrols in the parade
Elissa - eating candy corn
Evan - decorating the cookie
Felix - eating my cookie!
Hunter - making cookies and being the Cat in the Hat
Ishaan - I can't wait for the Carnival tonight
Jaden - playing outside with my friends
Joey - when we made the necklaces and the cookies and everything
John - when the kids gave us high fives in the parade
Madison - I like the Bingo and when I decorated my cookie
Maria - being a dancer and eating a cookie
Matthew - playing Bingo
Maya - I liked the bead "thingees"

Michael - I like the sprinkles on the cookies

Mikayla - being the good witch!

Natalie - making a pattern with my necklace

Nathan - giving everybody high fives - including my cousin

Parker - I loved every single thing!

Taniyah - wearing my Princess costume

Unique - doing play dough with those cookie cutters

Will it Sink or Float?

Thank you for sending in all the pumpkins! We have pumpkins in all shapes and sizes and have been enjoying lots of fun activities. Below is our representation of our favorite read aloud, Goldilocks and the Three Bears - designed with pumpkins! We hope you will stop by and see our presentation in the school lobby!We have been working on lots of pumpkin activities including measuring the circumference of a pumpkin; making pumpkin pudding; singing our favorite poem, Five Little Pumpkins; reading lots of books about pumpkins; and learning lots of pumpkin facts! Today we went up to the Science lab to see if pumpkins sink or float.

First we made predictions about whether we thought the pumpkins would sink or float.

Then we tried some little pumpkins. Some of us were surprised when the little pumpkins floated.

Next we decided to try a great big, heavy pumpkin.

Some of us were very surprised with what happened...

Did the big, heavy pumpkin sink or float? If you want to know, you'll just have to ask your child!

Hooray for Pumpkin Pudding!

As part of our study of non-fiction text and pumpkins, the Timmontes followed a recipe and made Pumpkin Pudding. Of course, the students were not thrilled that we had to let it "chill" for an hour, but in the end, they gave raving reviews of the delicious treat topped with graham cracker crumbs and cool whip!

Retelling Theater

Before children learn to read a book, they enjoy acting out the parts of a story as it is retold. In the pictures below you can see the children retell one of their favorite "Star" books, The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The narrator reads. Each child has a part and says his part when it is time. At the end of the story all the characters take a bow as the audience applauds!

Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet
Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider and sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Whether it was Little Miss Muffet or Little Mister Muffet, the spider got them every time! We enjoyed acting out this nursery rhyme this week, but we also worked on rhyming and the sounds we hear in words. As a little review, ask your child to complete these rhyming sentences.

I'm thinking of a food that Miss Muffet might like.
It rhymes with _____ (horn). It must be _____. (corn)

Furnish the first word each time and then invite your child to finish the sentence with a rhyming word. Try these others:
cape-grape
reach-peach
rare-pear
seat-beet
dime-lime
sees-peas

Frightened has also been one of our vocabulary words. Make sure you ask your child to show you his/her frightened face! It's not to be missed!

Wonder Filled Wonderings

This week's "Wonder Filled Wondering" was submitted by our most amazing and beautiful Chloe M. Chloe was wondering what hermit crabs eat. Well we were completely stumped Chloe, so we decided to do a little research. Here is a bit of information we hope will satisfy that curiosity of yours we love so much.

Hermit crabs can eat all sorts of things like dried fruit,crab apples, bananas, lettuce, cucumbers, popcorn, crackers, peanut butter, carrots and even dandelions right out of your backyard! It is a great idea to provide a calcium source for them as well. . . such as dry egg shells or cuttle bone. The two latter items are available in the bird section at the pet store.

Most pet stores carry "hermit crab food" which is a mixture of powder with ground up shrimp bites in it. Crabs eat very slowly and very little at a time. You always need to make sure your crabs have plenty of drinking water too! And believe it or not you can buy "treats" for your hermit crab like hermit crab cookies and fruit salad for special occasions. Watch out feeding those "hermies" too many treats though or you may find yourself looking for a bigger shell for that little guy.

You all know we can't ever resist a teachable moment so we thought we would throw in this tidbit of extra information. Did you know hermit crabs have mouths just like you and me, except you will probably never see a hermit crab's mouth due to it's small size. They do however have a body part very different from you and me.
Hermit crabs have a "miniature elephant-looking trunk" that scoops up their food. If you look closely, they will pick up food/water in their claws and then their little "trunks" uncurl out from underneath to grab it and put it in their mouths. You will find this body part curled up near their abdomen when they are not eating.Simply extraordinary!!!

Thanks Miss Chloe for wondering about hermit crabs. Do you or any other Timmonte have a "hermie" of your own? If so we would love to learn and share more!!