The Cherokee First graders certainly had a busy October. On October 4th our Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade classrooms visited the Hickory Farms Pumpkin Patch, over by McCune. The weather was perfect!! The children enjoyed a hayrack ride, finding their way through a corn maze, playing in a corn bin, petting some farm animals, and then picking out their very own pumpkin to bring home. Once back at school, the first graders drew a picture of their pumpkin, and wrote a “My Pumpkin” story, which was about how a pumpkin grows.

October 15, the 1st graders traveled to Greenbush. Our 1st grade class learning experiences were titled: Matter Splatter and Rainforest Plants and Animals. In Matter Splatter, the children got to experiment with adding a liquid to several different solids, and then recording the results. They also got to view slides under a microscope of different solids such as salt and baking soda. The final activity was making goo. During our Rainforest Plants and Animals experience, the children got to partake in a scavenger hunt in the Rainforest using ipads to take pictures of the item to be found. It was AWESOME!!!! We loved using the ipads and walking around the Rainforest at Greenbush!!, We got to watch a video about a caterpillar in the rainforest then we got to see some live animals that live in the rainforest such as: a Tarantula, Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, a small Python snake, and a Sugar Glider. I do believe these 1st graders had a fun, memorable, learning trip!

On October 17, Cherokee PTO and Cherokee Elementary Teachers helped to put on our Fall Carnival. The children from around the area and Cherokee School came to join in the fun. There were several events including pumpkin bowling, hair painting, tattooing, cake walk, and ring toss to name a few. Also, Cherokee PTO had purchased some ceramic pumpkins for the kids to paint in school. These were on display in the cafeteria and were taken home at the end of the evening. To end the evening, the children who were there and had put their name in a drawing got to win prizes from the goody table. All the children walked away happy winners!! Thank you CHEROKEE PTO for making this a fun night to remember!!

A continuing October project included studying about spiders. Using technology, we all learned about several different spiders including a Tarantula, Black Widow, Wolf spider, and Crab spider. After doing the research on these spiders, the children picked out their favorite spider and wrote about it. We also made webs out of glitter…they were beautiful and oh-so-shiny!!! Miss Carolyn has been a great sport about all the glitter that has fallen in the hallway. Thank you Miss Carolyn for cleaning up after us!!

October was also fire prevention month. To begin our month on fire prevention, we read our Scholastic Magazine on Fire Prevention, watched a short video then did a couple of follow up activities throughout the month.

To end the month, we celebrated our 9 Weeks Party. This included those children who had limited discipline problems, and who turned in their homework. They were rewarded with a fun afternoon of treats and a movie. It was a great way to end the month of October!!