HOW BIG COULD YOUR PUMPKING GROW?!

Before care is available starting at 7:30 am in the gym. Dismissal begins at 3:00 pm, with After Care available until 5:00 pm.

October 31st – Halloween Festivities

Children should come dressed in costume
9:00, Whole school costume parade on the loop (weather permitting) Parents are welcome to come and watch. Followed by a Halloween Party in the classroom.
- Sign up here to help throw SK a party with no tricks and lots of treats! :
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d7gT-A3IzW2HG9SIOZt2ucb0toFjuY-i5U_IaOLtU_I/edit?usp=sharing
11:30 am dismissal with aftercare available until 3:00 pm. Children staying for the afternoon MUST have a packed lunch.

What a beautiful, chilly week it has been in SK! The crisp fall air greeted us each morning, bringing rosy cheeks, cozy sweaters, and plenty of excitement for learning. The cooler temperatures certainly didn’t stop us from exploring, playing, and discovering new things—both indoors and out. Our week was filled with creativity, curiosity, and joyful energy from start to finish!

📚 Reading

Each reading group is growing so comfortable and confident in their literacy journey!

Some students are learning the new letter “J” and practicing its sound and formation.
Others are working on blending drills—putting sounds together to make smooth, fluent words.
Our most advanced readers are coding CVC words (consonant–vowel–consonant), building their decoding skills and independence.

It’s been wonderful to see everyone finding joy and confidence in their own reading stage.

🎃 Math

We worked really hard this week in math—and had so much fun doing it!

We kicked things off by creating our own potions! Each student measured and counted how many “parts” they used and then wrote an equation to match.

Henry: “The Blood Potion“

Sophia: “The T-Shirt Potion“

Bradford: “The Eye-ball Potion”

— ooooh, how spooky!

Next, we explored numbers on a number line using mini pumpkins! Kiddos arranged pumpkins from 1–21 and then solved the mystery of the missing number—a great exercise in numerical reasoning.

Our week continued with pumpkin investigations using mini pumpkins! Students rotated through three stations:

Weight: measuring with food and balance scales to explore greater than / less than
Height: using measuring tapes, blocks, and links to compare tall vs short
Circumference: using tape measures and links to count and measure how round their pumpkin was

Then came our giant pumpkin challenge! Students formed hypotheses about which of the five big pumpkins would “win” in size—Pumpkin 1 took the crown! 🎉

💭 Provocations

Our provocations this week took us down a beautiful rabbit hole! We read How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow? by Wendell Minor, which compares enormous pumpkins to famous U.S. landmarks.

Inspired by this, students chose their favorite landmarks and began drafting their “Landmark City” on paper so it can come to life in clay form! They also wrote rich journal entries using descriptive language—words like giant, mighty, and stupendous filled our pages.

Here is what each kiddo chose for their landmark:

Parker- Sydney Opera House

Ollie- Yosemite

Daxton- The Lincoln Memorial

Bodhi- St. Louis Arch

Sophia- Mount Rushmore

Leonardo- Statue of Liberty

Henry- U.S. Capital Building

Alyx- Kingda Ka Roller Coaster

Noah- The Great Pyramid of Giza

Mylah- Albuquerque New Mexico hot air balloon festival

Hailey- Stone Henge

Lola- The London Eye

Scarlett- The Delicate Arches

Izaak- Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Rory- Paul Bunyan

Wendell- The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Bria- Taj Mahal

Lucas- Niagara Falls

Moxley- The Colosseum

Emma- Big Ben

Evelyn- Kennedy Space Center

Bradford- The Golden Gate Bridge

Stay tuned next week as our city continues to grow!

🐛 Bug Studies

To top off our busy week, we had a special classroom visit from Brittany Ferris (Mylah’s mom) who brought in live crickets! Each student got to mark their cricket with a colored marker to keep track of their own in the tank—how cool!

We divided into two experiment groups:

Light vs. Dark
Warm vs. Cold

Students formed hypotheses about where crickets would chirp more. The Light vs. Dark tank started out in full light for four days, and now it’s covered with black paper. Will the crickets chirp more in the dark?

Meanwhile, the Warm vs. Cold tank began at room temperature and now has ice packs surrounding it. Which environment will spark more chirping?

We can’t wait to find out what our young scientists discover!

See you Monday!

Miss Hanna & Miss Arden

LANDMARKS: