Hi Everyone,

October is always a very exciting month. Some of us are starting to get ready for the holidays. Some of us are planning for a possible cold winter. Most of us are feeling like the year is really under way. I hope you'll help us enjoy this wonderful season.

Starting Monday we'll be starting to learn about living with others. We'll learn more about sharing, being considerate of others, and taking on new roles and responsibilities. We'll be learning about our emotions and what we do with them as we interact with others. This interaction happens in our classroom, in our families and in our neighborhood. As part of this, we'll be going on a walking trip to the local fire station so we can learn about these very important helping people (as well as learn fire safety).

Some of the skills we'll be learning are making predictions, understanding non-fiction (we're already talking about fiction vs. non-fiction), and sounds in words including rhymes, beginning and middle sounds. In math we'll be learning about patterns and size comparisons (foundations of algebra).

In science we'll be honing our observational skills, using all our senses to observe the season changes. Whether its raking and playing in the leaves, investigating fall foods, cooking apple sauce and pumpkin pie, learning what we mean by &quot;crisp&quot; as the cool air moves in, or hearing the sounds of fall (leaves, geese flying south, etc.), fall is a great time for scientific study in preschool.

Dates to keep in mind:

Oct. 8  Walk/ride to school day (if you meet me at CVS 53rd and Kimbark, we can a

Oct. 23 Trip to the firehouse

Nov. 6  Trip to Emerald City Theater to see &quot;If You Take a Mouse To School&quot;