"THE SUN IS NOT SUNNY"

Dear Everyone,

As Dr. Seuss says, ("Cat in the Hat"), children can still have fun when it rains -- although our fieldtrip, to the farm, has been postponed until Thursday, we made the Dr. proud, today!!

After cleaning-up the toys and activities of the early morning , I read David Carter's "Halloween Bugs", to the children -- David's pop-up books are among my favorites, and, said is no exception.

While Kelly engaged the Butterflies in her Circle Center focused gathering, Liz reviewed the calendar and, together, we sang songs and "went bananas" with the Puppies -- Liz made each Puppy a pair of "binoculars", and as she read "In the Small, Small Pond", both written and illustrated by Denise Fleming, encouraged our group to use them in spotting things of interest.

During Activity Time, in tandem with Amy and Minuteman's Sophomores from the "Big School", here with us, this week, we painted our binoculars, which we plan to use outdoors; examined really, really long corn stalks, which now adorn the hallway, thanks to Kelly and Alana (!!); played on farm-themed mats, with toy animals and vehicles; and, explored the many open Learning Centers -- stocked with costumes, now, Dramatic Play continues to be a favorite.

Both Butterflies and Puppies alike really enjoyed playing "teachers", today, in the book area, as Nyah, John, Nicky and Phil took turns describing the fronts, backs and spines of the books, the authors and artists, and "reading" stories to others.

And, of course, everyone was thrilled to see Sprint and Buddy back at School -- the day was thoroughly full of fun and friends!!

Tomorrow, you will notice, next to our Spooky Tree, a witch and a mummy, lavishly decorated at School, today.

We had many laughs at meeting, as I read "Halloween Colors", a turn-the-flap book by Carla Dijs, and "Whose Hat is That", "Halloween Parade" and "Boo! Scram! Happy Halloween" -- three pop-up books by the makers of Sesame Street -- we do love our books and toys, and took a few minutes to play tunes with interactive kitties, a ghost and a chameleon.

We are planning to paint with the corn, retrieved from the stalks, later on this week, and finish-up several more festive projects, as well.

Liz has sent home "leaves" with all of the children, for their families to decorate with photos and other symbols of special memories -- when complete, they will combine to make a large "Family Tree", for all to enjoy -- thank you, Mrs. Dolham!!

And, "yahoo!!" -- our first order of Scholastic books has arrived and been distrubuted, accordingly -- we earned lots of bonus points, already, and several new books for the classroom -- I am hoping to coordinate a "reading challenge", designed by Scholastic, to provide books to children in need -- I think that our little friends will have no problem, whatsoever, reading 100 books by December -- (we have probably read more than said, by now!!) -- I plan to keep you all informed of our progress, by tracking what we read, on a wall chart -- thank you, to all participating families, for your continued support!!

Nella mattina!!

Love Miss Peacock XOXO!!!!