Twenty Yawns a la Hinesburg

This week's global read aloud book was a very sleepy story called Twenty Yawns.  In this story a young girl named Lucy has a long, busy day and when it's finally bedtime, she drifts off to sleep while her mom reads to her.  She awakens in the night and can't fall asleep again.

When I read this book the first time I noticed that every time I read the word "yawn" someone actually yawned!  Sometimes it was me!  As you know we celebrated our week by having our very first pajama day on Friday.  Each child also brought a favorite stuffed animal.  Our project for this week was to create a movie where each child described what he or she does when having trouble falling asleep.  Below is the link to my youTube channel with the movie for you to enjoy!

Global Read Aloud, Capes and Pumpkins!

Today really was a Fantastic Friday!  This week our class began the Global Read Aloud Project by reading the book Nana in the City by Lauren Castillo.

Global Read Aloud was started in 2010 with a simple mission-one book to connect the world.  Now it has grown and classrooms all around the world connect with each other after reading the very same books.  Today your children were able to talk with children in New Jersey at a Jewish day school and children in Michigan in a suburb of Detroit.  They asked each other questions and shared our writing about being brave.  In class we spent time this week discussing Nana in the City.  The boy in the book goes to the city to visit his Nana and is afraid of the bustling, noisy city.  Nana makes him a cape and he spends the following day bravely exploring the city with Nana.  We talked a lot about what makes us brave sometimes.  Each child wrote a short piece about being brave.  Mrs. Stanton and I made each child their very own red cape just like the boy's cape in the story.  Most children wore that cape all day long!

One of our students brought a pumpkin for each child today!  This was a most exciting Friday!  This is G. looking very brave in her cape and happy about her pumpkin!

Fire Safety and Firefighter Visit

Monday our local Hinesburg firefighters visited Hinesburg Community School.  Our day began with an assembly in the cafeteria with Firefighters Spivak and Crawford.  They explained what to do if there's a fire at home and how to make a plan with your family to meet outside.  Firefighter Crawford put on the gear including the loud and noisy air pack.

Later we went outside to see a fire truck and rescue vehicle.  Each child was able to get into the fire truck and see the equipment inside.

 They also looked inside the rescue vehicle and asked questions.  They were also lucky enough to get their own fire hats and pencil cases!  Thank you, Hinesburg Fire Department, for coming to HCS!