We had our first Community Meeting today and it was wonderful.  The kindergarteners were an excellent audience and enjoyed learning a new song that I hope our 5th grade buddies will reinforce with us tomorrow.  Speaking of 5th Grade Buddies, each student painted a sunset background today so when we meet with our buddies tomorrow, they can help to create a scarecrow out of scrap fabric and paper to complete the picture.  These will be posted on the bulletin board in the hall.  The letter today was J /j/ jump.  We continued working on Counting Jars in Math and students are doing quite well at making one to one correspondence when counting.  This is a skill that you could reinforce at home whenever a counting opportunity arises.  For example, you could put out some pennies to have your child count or count how many items are in the grocery bag, etc.  I forgot to mention that one of our students, Miles, noticed a praying mantis in the grass yesterday which I was able to catch in our butterfly house so we could examine it for the afternoon.  We also watched a short video on YouTube and learned how praying mantis capture prey three times their size with their front legs that are covered with little spikes.  We also learned they have big eyes, can turn their heads almost 180 degrees, and change colors to camouflage themselves on sticks or leaves.