**December is here! The students are working hard! They are getting ready for their Winter Concert. Their handwriting is becoming very readable. They are beginning to use their sound blending skills more consistently. They are beginning to listen for key words in auditory math story problems in order to figure what process to use. The students reading fluency is taking shape. And to think it was only a few short months ago, that kindergarten began. I am so proud of their accomplishments as I know you are too!
**We have completed Unit 3 Transportation, in our Treasures Reading Series. The students will take their unit assessment on Monday.
**COOKIE DOUGH pick up is Monday, December 5th from 3-6 pm. Don't forget!!!!
**Report Cards will go home on Friday, December 9th.
**Our Annual Gingerbread Baking is set for Friday, December 9th beginning at 12:30 pm until dismissal. I have B. Chyna, J. Chyna, C. Bravo, T. Naber , I. Henry, P. Hamblin and T Orozco signed up to help. The more the merrier! Email if interested.
**A continued SHOUT OUT from Ava and Tyler's big sisters to help the Irving Girl Scouts with their annual TOY DRIVE. They are collecting new, non-violent and unwrapped toys, books and games for children ages 0-13. They will also accept donations of wrapping paper and tape. The collection boxes are in the main office and hallways. Let's help out!!!!!
**Our Student Council reps, Yaya and Alex, reported to us that the "Hats Off to Cancer" money raised went to the Mario Lemieux Foundation for Cancer Research. They also reported that they thinking of other projects to help our community. Stay tuned!
**Our Green Team rep, Salome, reported that the Green Team is working on a fundraiser that will support the Irving School Yard Project. Stay tuned!
**Our volunteer speaker list in growing! We now have speakers for St. Lucia Day, St. Nicholas Day and a family tradition in celebrating the Winter Solstice. Senora Zaragosa will speak about Las Posadas. Email me if YOU have a tradition or celebration you would like to speak about. We learn so much from each other!
** Mr Packer did a really cool lesson on PROBABILITY/CHANCE this week. Ask your child about bears in a bag and the words--sometimes--always--never! Great fun!
**In Friendship Club this week Ms. Bell Bey and Ms. Kwiatt worked with the students on activities that promote responsibility both at home and at school.
**Spelling City vocabulary has been updated.
This week:
It was all about tying up loose ends--completing our Bear unit--completing Unit 3 in our Treasures Series, reviewing our sight words, letter sounds, numbers and also beginning to think about our next cross-curricular theme--Celebrations and Traditions. The students began an inquiry into not only how they celebrate during the winter months, but also how children in other parts of the world celebrate that time. The students began to look through books and internet sites for information. They observed that many of the celebrations, both in our country and other countries, have lights, candles or lanterns as part of that particular celebration. Stay tuned for more! Our station day activities included putting together sound blending wheels and sounding out the words made, creating candles using glitter and jewels (very sparkly), working on our number/sticker books reviewing number rhymes 0-5, creating a seasonal illustration background for Mr. Bear, making our bear claws with a mold and clay and experimenting with the blubber glove (how does a polar bear feel as he is swimming in the icy water??? Is he cold??)
Reading/Social Studies: The students have completed Unit 3 Transportation in the Treasures Reading Series. They are gearing up for their unit assessment on Monday. The students built background knowledge about the different ways wheels are used to move people and things around. They worked on their comprehension listening to David Shannon's story, "Duck on a Bike." Students identified characters and plot (what's happening) in the story. They took a close look at the way the story is organized (a beginning, middle and end), and responded to the story by discussing the connections that can be made from the story to their daily lives. (Sometimes, I see kids riding bikes in my neighborhood.) The students retold the story in their our words using their retelling cards. The students reviewed sight words go and see using chants and rhymes. We combined them with our other sight words and picture cards to create sentences that were shared with a partner. The students reviewed their target sounds short i and Tt and used their sound boards to listen and record 3 -4 phoneme words. Lots of discussion around nouns and verbs. The students used their photo cards to create a sentence using noun/verb order. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included ADVENTURE, WHEELS, ATTACH, HAUL and MASSIVE. The students continued their sound blending exercises using short i words. The student read their pre decodable story, "I See a Truck Go," and made predictions about story content. The students used their oral vocabulary cards to expand their knowledge of types of trucks. Once again, they were able to access their prior knowledge and make connections in their daily lives. The students read, "I Can Go," and practiced reading to a partner to build their fluency. The partners discussed the story noting setting and characters and what was occurring (plot.) The students listened to the informational text, "How Do You Go to School." They learned a new important word--expository--to explain or give information.
This story explained other modes of transportation--snowshoes, cables, scooter, unicycle for going places like school! Lots of discussion focused on the going to school on a cable thru the rain forest. (very scary!) The students listened to a folktale called, "The Singing Wagon." Ask your child to retell it to you. Did the wagon really sing??? Our work station activities this week included cutting out magazine pictures and organizing them into categories labeled --land --air--water and choosing one vehicle and writing a sentence about where it fits, playing the phonics game, "The Long Ride," and recording the real word family words made, reader's response--reading a story, discussing it and writing/labeling your feeling about the story, composing a sentence using go and see and illustrating it and using technology along with sentence structure, grammar and punctuation to create sentences using sight words. Thanks to Alex for sharing his book about adjectives. We are adding more to our grammar piece!!!!
Math: The students worked on rote counting to 60. They used their dry erase boards to listen to a number given and record it. They are working on single and double digit numbers. (I even added some 3 digit!!!) The students have learned number formation rhymes 0-5 and are creating a writing and sticker book for practice. We continuing to work on counting by 2"s and 5's. The students worked on the concepts of probability and estimation this week. Next week, we will set up our guessing jar activities. The students worked on some small group activities around these concepts. Thanks to Mr. Packer for his cool lesson! The students continue to work on combining and decomposing sets and the processes behind addition and subtraction.
Writing: The students are working to form the Magic "C" Starting Center Capitals. They worked on letters C, O, G and Q this week. The students continue to use the writing prompts from our Treasures Reading Series. Sentence structure, spacing between words in a sentence,
placement of upper and lower case letters on a line and letter formation are the main concepts being worked on. The students continue to use their inventive spelling.
Technology: The students continue to use the IPADS as a learning enhancement tool. Ms. Applebey has added some new apps in the area of reading, math and science and creativity. In a small group work station, students used used the app Magnetic Letters to compose 2 sentences using some of their sight words. They rolled the dial as needed for upper case, lower case, punctuation and illustrative icons. They read their sentences. They then practiced writing the sentences they made on paper checking their letter formation and spacing. The app Sound Sorting was used in small group to target certain beginning sounds. The students worked individually moving the correct pictures into the sound category spaces. The students received training on how to use a stylus. This will be especially helpful when writing numbers and letters in various activities to continue to foster the tripod grasp. We will begin using them for some activities on the IPAD next week. In math, the students used the app Dot to Dot Lite to create pictures by following the dots in sequential order. The degree of difficulty was adjusted to suit the needs of the player. The alphabet and numbers were used. The students used a variety of apps in their choice time to reinforce skills in reading and in math. The app ITALK was used by students to record their reading and self evaluate their voice level and fluency.
Literature: The students participated in an author study on Karma Wilson. We took a look at her website and learned about her life and how she chose subjects to write about. The students did whole group compare and contrast Venn diagram on the stories--"Bear Snores On," "Bear Feels Sick," and "Bear Feels Scared." Other literature this week--"Sleep Big Bear, Sleep," "Gotcha," "Children Just Like Me: Celebrations," "A Book About Adjectives."
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
UPDATES for 11/21-11/22 2011
**I hope you are all enjoying the Thanksgiving weekend. I am thankful for a great class of students and their very supportive parents!
**We had a super busy 2 days! Our field trip to Brookfield Zoo was wonderful! The good weather made it possible for us to spend most of our time outside. The students spent their free time exploring big cats, penguins, rhinos, gorillas, monkeys and various activities at the Hamill Family Play Zoo. At the Great Bear Wilderness exhibit, we enjoyed a classroom experience with Bob, our instructor. He guided us through an introduction on bears of all kinds, looking at artifacts and providing activities where they could compare themselves to the different types of bears. The students got to touch real bear fur from both the brown and polar bears. They looked at paw prints from both and used their bodies to see how many students it would take to equal the size of a brown and polar bear. He then took us out into the great bear wilderness to view the bears. We had lunch outside and even saw Christmas trees decorated by local towns in the area (Oak Park included!) on display along the walking path. Our bus ride home was quiet and reflective (some napping students!) When we got back, the students completed a written reflection and illustration about their day. A big thanks to our volunteers--K. Mikos, J. Brock, B. Chyna, G. Garcia and I. Henry for their help! Our PBIS Olympic Day was also a hit! The students tested their running, jumping, team building and problem solving skills with various movement activities. They really worked well together and had lots of fun!
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 begins Monday, November 28th. At that time, students will receive notification of their skill placement.
**We are now in Trimester 2 of our school year. Report Cards will go home on Friday, December 9th.
**Our Annual Gingerbread Baking is set for Friday, December 9th beginning at 12:30 pm until dismissal. We have 5 volunteers so far but could use 4-5 more. Email me if interested. Create, decorate, bake and share! No baking experience needed!
**Looking ahead to our next cross-curricular theme--Traditions and Celebrations--I am looking for guest speakers to come and present to the students on their particular family traditions and celebrations. We will be studying the use of lights as a unifying theme in many winter celebrations. We have volunteers to speak on Sweden's, St. Lucia Day and France's celebration on St. Nicholas Day. Remember, it can be any tradition/celebration your family has. See me for more details.
**A BIG SHOUT OUT from Ava and Tyler's big sisters--It's the 11th Annual Girl Scout Toy Drive--November 28th-December 19th. The Irving Girl Scouts will be collecting new, non-violent unwrapped toys, games and books for children ages 0-13. They will also accept donations of wrapping paper and tape. There will be collection boxes located in the main office and in the hallways on each floor. All items will benefit children in the Austin neighborhood in association with the Fraternite Notre Dame. Let's help out!!!!
**Kindergarten Winter Concert is Friday, December 23rd at 9:30 am in the Irving Auditorium with a family reception following in our classroom. Stay tuned for more info.
This week:
It was all about MOVEMENT both fine motor and gross motor! We did not have regularly scheduled classes this short week. Monday had us walking and exploring on our field trip. The students used their fine motor skills to reflect and draw about their experiences. On Tuesday morning, the students participated in the PBIS Olympic Day. Here they used just about all of their gross motor skills including their thinking skills to perform each of the activities--Human Knot, Rescue Relay, Crossing the Peanut Butter River, Egg and Spoon Race were just some of the events. After our morning events were finished, the students studied about what it was like to be on the Mayflower in 1620 and what life was like for children their age at that time. We also took a look at what life was like once they arrived at Jamestown. The students used their gross motor skills to make butter. This was an activity that children in 1620 might have done as a family chore. Call it food science if you will--changing a liquid into a solid and using your upper body to shake the container of whipping cream until changes occurred. Pretty cool! After lunch, the students used their motor skills to work in the lab on Lexia. Back in our classroom, we readied the room in preparation for creating our Bear Paw Snacks. The students used their fine motor skills again to shape the dough and create little "toes" on their "paw." The paws were baked and enjoyed with our butter and honey. The remainder of the time was spent in community with each other building, conversing, drawing and sharing. A perfect ending to a busy 2 days! We are thankful for each other!
Literature: "If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, " "Who will Carve the Turkey?" "Thanksgiving is for Giving," "The World of Bears," "Duck on a Bike."
**We had a super busy 2 days! Our field trip to Brookfield Zoo was wonderful! The good weather made it possible for us to spend most of our time outside. The students spent their free time exploring big cats, penguins, rhinos, gorillas, monkeys and various activities at the Hamill Family Play Zoo. At the Great Bear Wilderness exhibit, we enjoyed a classroom experience with Bob, our instructor. He guided us through an introduction on bears of all kinds, looking at artifacts and providing activities where they could compare themselves to the different types of bears. The students got to touch real bear fur from both the brown and polar bears. They looked at paw prints from both and used their bodies to see how many students it would take to equal the size of a brown and polar bear. He then took us out into the great bear wilderness to view the bears. We had lunch outside and even saw Christmas trees decorated by local towns in the area (Oak Park included!) on display along the walking path. Our bus ride home was quiet and reflective (some napping students!) When we got back, the students completed a written reflection and illustration about their day. A big thanks to our volunteers--K. Mikos, J. Brock, B. Chyna, G. Garcia and I. Henry for their help! Our PBIS Olympic Day was also a hit! The students tested their running, jumping, team building and problem solving skills with various movement activities. They really worked well together and had lots of fun!
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 begins Monday, November 28th. At that time, students will receive notification of their skill placement.
**We are now in Trimester 2 of our school year. Report Cards will go home on Friday, December 9th.
**Our Annual Gingerbread Baking is set for Friday, December 9th beginning at 12:30 pm until dismissal. We have 5 volunteers so far but could use 4-5 more. Email me if interested. Create, decorate, bake and share! No baking experience needed!
**Looking ahead to our next cross-curricular theme--Traditions and Celebrations--I am looking for guest speakers to come and present to the students on their particular family traditions and celebrations. We will be studying the use of lights as a unifying theme in many winter celebrations. We have volunteers to speak on Sweden's, St. Lucia Day and France's celebration on St. Nicholas Day. Remember, it can be any tradition/celebration your family has. See me for more details.
**A BIG SHOUT OUT from Ava and Tyler's big sisters--It's the 11th Annual Girl Scout Toy Drive--November 28th-December 19th. The Irving Girl Scouts will be collecting new, non-violent unwrapped toys, games and books for children ages 0-13. They will also accept donations of wrapping paper and tape. There will be collection boxes located in the main office and in the hallways on each floor. All items will benefit children in the Austin neighborhood in association with the Fraternite Notre Dame. Let's help out!!!!
**Kindergarten Winter Concert is Friday, December 23rd at 9:30 am in the Irving Auditorium with a family reception following in our classroom. Stay tuned for more info.
This week:
It was all about MOVEMENT both fine motor and gross motor! We did not have regularly scheduled classes this short week. Monday had us walking and exploring on our field trip. The students used their fine motor skills to reflect and draw about their experiences. On Tuesday morning, the students participated in the PBIS Olympic Day. Here they used just about all of their gross motor skills including their thinking skills to perform each of the activities--Human Knot, Rescue Relay, Crossing the Peanut Butter River, Egg and Spoon Race were just some of the events. After our morning events were finished, the students studied about what it was like to be on the Mayflower in 1620 and what life was like for children their age at that time. We also took a look at what life was like once they arrived at Jamestown. The students used their gross motor skills to make butter. This was an activity that children in 1620 might have done as a family chore. Call it food science if you will--changing a liquid into a solid and using your upper body to shake the container of whipping cream until changes occurred. Pretty cool! After lunch, the students used their motor skills to work in the lab on Lexia. Back in our classroom, we readied the room in preparation for creating our Bear Paw Snacks. The students used their fine motor skills again to shape the dough and create little "toes" on their "paw." The paws were baked and enjoyed with our butter and honey. The remainder of the time was spent in community with each other building, conversing, drawing and sharing. A perfect ending to a busy 2 days! We are thankful for each other!
Literature: "If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, " "Who will Carve the Turkey?" "Thanksgiving is for Giving," "The World of Bears," "Duck on a Bike."
Friday, November 18, 2011
UPDATES for 11/14-11/18 2011
**The weather has turned cool and brisk, but our class is cozy and warm with the sounds of students working very hard this week on a number of skills and activities. I am thankful for their dedication to their education.
**FINAL REMINDER--Our Field Trip is Monday, November 21st. Don't forget to pack a BAG lunch (put your name on it) and dress for the weather. We will be gone most of the school day. We will tour the Great Bear Wilderness and have a 45 minute classroom experience beginning at 12:30 pm. Before that, the students will have time to walk around and see the exhibits of their choosing. We will all meet up for lunch and then proceed to our classroom. We will return to school by 2:30 pm.
**NO SCHOOL- November 23rd-Teacher Institute Day. School is closed November 24th and 25th for Thanksgiving.
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin Monday, November 28th. At that time, students will receive notification of their skill placement.
**We met with our Book Buddies from Ms. Balicki's Class on Wednesday. Our Book Buddies shared some BEARY good books. Together the students reflected and illustrated in their shared journals. There was great conversation, interactions and respect for one another. Check out the pics in the gallery section of the teacher web. We will meet with again in December.
**Many of our Book Buddies took part in the Annual Turkey Trot on Thursday. Our class made pop up signs using our new sight word--GO!
**Due to the Turkey Trot, we did not have Mr. Packer Math. He will do his whole group activity after Thanksgiving.
**Trimester 1 had ended. Report cards will go home on Friday, December 9th.
**Ms. Henry and Ms. Naber will be assisting us as we make our bear paw snacks and home made butter this coming Tuesday afternoon--thanks!
**Our all school PBIS Olympic Day will take place on Tuesday morning.
**We need lots of help for our annual gingerbread cookie baking on Friday, December 9th in the afternoon. Come join the fun. No baking experience necessary! Email me if interested.
** In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Kwiatt discussed with the students the term "thankful." The students created a turkey and on each feather wrote what they were thankful for.
**Reading Grandma Mary stopped by to meet our class. She will come to our room one afternoon a week to listen to students read and work on comprehension and fluency. She will start in January! We can't wait!
**Looking ahead to our next cross curricular theme--Traditions and Celebrations--I am looking for guest speakers to come to present to the students on their particular family traditions and celebrations. We will be studying the use of types of lights as a unifying theme in many winter celebrations. Email me if interested.
**Kindergarten Winter Concert is Friday, December 23rd at 9:30 am with a reception in our classroom immediately following.
This week:
It continues to be all about bears. This week, our focus was on polar bears. The students learned that polar bears are different from brown and black bears in basic characteristics, habitat, diet and that they do not truly hibernate. Polar bears do not have much trouble finding food in the cold. With plant life scarce, they are mostly carnivores. The students had a lively discussion on how seals are a main part of a polar bears diet. Some students were dismayed by that. We checked out some on line resources on the Artic region. The students made connections in their daily life in the winter months and a polar bears life all year round. Swimming for hours in icy water, the polar bears black skin helping to reflect sunlight and the layer of blubber under their skin that acts like a heavy jacket to keep warm are just some of the interesting facts the students found out. In our station day activities, the students made bear caves with paper bags and leaves, bear paws with noodles and torn paper and graphed polar bears (teddy grahams) and ice bergs (marshmallows) and compared the totals. The students began preparation for their field trip to the Great Bear Wilderness at Brookfield Zoo on Monday. Our field trip, Bear Paw snacks, honey and a blubber glove are some of the highlights for next week. Stay tuned!
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to work in Unit 3 Transportation of our Treasures series. The students built background knowledge on their travels both far and near. The students listened to the big book story, "On the Go." They observed how the people traveled from one place to another and the vehicles they used. In the story, each page showed a person from a particular country and their form of transportation. We looked up each country on our world map. In their comprehension study, the students compared, contrast, classified and categorized the types of travel and vehicles. The sight word GO was introduced this week. The students reviewed all the sight words they have learned thus far. Our target sound this week was short i. The students used chants and rhymes to reinforce the sound as well as their sound cards. The students continued to review the use of action words or verbs. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included TRAVEL, JOURNEY, PREPARE, RELAX and FAMILIAR. In phonemic awareness, the students used their sound boxes to sound out and blend 3-4 letter words using short i. The students read their pre decodable story, "Go, Go, Go." They made predictions about the content and sounded out the decodable words in the story. During an interactive writing exercise, the students made pop up signs using the word, go to help cheer their book buddies on in the turkey trot race. In our vocabulary card story, "Two Frogs," the students listened to the story of the frogs from two different regions and their quest to see the others areas. The students can share with you the out come of the story. It is pretty cool! We read two poems on transportation, "The Bike," and "Riding the Subway Train." The students noticed the rhyming in both and helped to track the words as I read. The students worked with partners to create sentences using their sight words and picture cards. Our work station activities this week included writing sentences using sight words go and see and creating illustrations, using the transportation cards to talk about what is the same and different about 2 cards picked, discussing it with their table mates and creating a list wheels vs. feet words, creating words using a word wheel with word families am, ap and at and then sorting words by the first letter and read it and add to it where the students each read a story, think about what could happen next and write and draw about it. The students had opportunities to read stories to each other to practice their fluency.
Math: This week the students worked on counting strategies. We continued to work our way to 100. The students began learning rhymes that will help them in forming their numbers. They used their dry erase boards to practice. The students worked on some graphing exercises. We also revisited pattern block shapes, geometric solids and penny power. The students experimented with building on more complex patterns and naming them. The students are beginning to work on the process behind addition and subtraction using manipulatives and drawings for assistance. We continued work on "thinking" math story problems. Many of the students are becoming more interested in listening for key information in the story in order to solve it. Students are also beginning to come up and illustrate their "thinking" on the blackboard.
Writing: The students continued working on sentence structure, placement of words on a given line and using nouns and verbs. This week, our book buddies helped assist in a writing exercise where a story was shared and then both kindergartner and book buddy reflected in writing and drawing their favorite part. It was great fun and very cool watch the care taken by our book buddies in guiding their younger counterparts. Great learning!!! A large portion of our writing time was spent creating our version of the "Brown Bear" story. Each student came up with their idea. They talked it through, wrote their draft, made corrections and then wrote the final copy and illustrated it. Don't forget--inventive spelling is very acceptable at this stage!!! They did a spectacular job! We have finished our Starting Corner Capitals. The "Magic C" letters are next.
Technology: The students continued to explore the many apps on the IPAD in order to enhance their learning. Ms. Applebey was back this week to assist with bringing our version of the "Brown Bear" story up a few notches!! A picture of each students page was taken and each student recorded their sentence with the app Sonic Pics. The "book" was put together and is now part of our blog. Pretty cool! The students used the app Magic Reading 2 (Beginning and Ending Blends.) They tapped the box to listen to each phoneme, sounded out the word and recorded it on their paper. The students used the app Word Family Fun to reinforce beginning letter and rhyme onset. They also used the app Phonics Lite to find short a and short o words.
For math, the students used the app Top It, reviewing concepts more and less, adding the numbers and comparing it to their partners number. The app Monster Squeeze continues to help reinforce number order and recognition. The students also began work with the app Kids Math that illustrates the process of simple addition and subtraction and also shows written format.
Literature: "Polar Bears," "Bears, Claws and Paws," "Looking at Bears," "The Last Polar Bear," "Young Larry," "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" "The Polar Bear," "Follow the Polar Bear."
**FINAL REMINDER--Our Field Trip is Monday, November 21st. Don't forget to pack a BAG lunch (put your name on it) and dress for the weather. We will be gone most of the school day. We will tour the Great Bear Wilderness and have a 45 minute classroom experience beginning at 12:30 pm. Before that, the students will have time to walk around and see the exhibits of their choosing. We will all meet up for lunch and then proceed to our classroom. We will return to school by 2:30 pm.
**NO SCHOOL- November 23rd-Teacher Institute Day. School is closed November 24th and 25th for Thanksgiving.
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin Monday, November 28th. At that time, students will receive notification of their skill placement.
**We met with our Book Buddies from Ms. Balicki's Class on Wednesday. Our Book Buddies shared some BEARY good books. Together the students reflected and illustrated in their shared journals. There was great conversation, interactions and respect for one another. Check out the pics in the gallery section of the teacher web. We will meet with again in December.
**Many of our Book Buddies took part in the Annual Turkey Trot on Thursday. Our class made pop up signs using our new sight word--GO!
**Due to the Turkey Trot, we did not have Mr. Packer Math. He will do his whole group activity after Thanksgiving.
**Trimester 1 had ended. Report cards will go home on Friday, December 9th.
**Ms. Henry and Ms. Naber will be assisting us as we make our bear paw snacks and home made butter this coming Tuesday afternoon--thanks!
**Our all school PBIS Olympic Day will take place on Tuesday morning.
**We need lots of help for our annual gingerbread cookie baking on Friday, December 9th in the afternoon. Come join the fun. No baking experience necessary! Email me if interested.
** In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Kwiatt discussed with the students the term "thankful." The students created a turkey and on each feather wrote what they were thankful for.
**Reading Grandma Mary stopped by to meet our class. She will come to our room one afternoon a week to listen to students read and work on comprehension and fluency. She will start in January! We can't wait!
**Looking ahead to our next cross curricular theme--Traditions and Celebrations--I am looking for guest speakers to come to present to the students on their particular family traditions and celebrations. We will be studying the use of types of lights as a unifying theme in many winter celebrations. Email me if interested.
**Kindergarten Winter Concert is Friday, December 23rd at 9:30 am with a reception in our classroom immediately following.
This week:
It continues to be all about bears. This week, our focus was on polar bears. The students learned that polar bears are different from brown and black bears in basic characteristics, habitat, diet and that they do not truly hibernate. Polar bears do not have much trouble finding food in the cold. With plant life scarce, they are mostly carnivores. The students had a lively discussion on how seals are a main part of a polar bears diet. Some students were dismayed by that. We checked out some on line resources on the Artic region. The students made connections in their daily life in the winter months and a polar bears life all year round. Swimming for hours in icy water, the polar bears black skin helping to reflect sunlight and the layer of blubber under their skin that acts like a heavy jacket to keep warm are just some of the interesting facts the students found out. In our station day activities, the students made bear caves with paper bags and leaves, bear paws with noodles and torn paper and graphed polar bears (teddy grahams) and ice bergs (marshmallows) and compared the totals. The students began preparation for their field trip to the Great Bear Wilderness at Brookfield Zoo on Monday. Our field trip, Bear Paw snacks, honey and a blubber glove are some of the highlights for next week. Stay tuned!
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to work in Unit 3 Transportation of our Treasures series. The students built background knowledge on their travels both far and near. The students listened to the big book story, "On the Go." They observed how the people traveled from one place to another and the vehicles they used. In the story, each page showed a person from a particular country and their form of transportation. We looked up each country on our world map. In their comprehension study, the students compared, contrast, classified and categorized the types of travel and vehicles. The sight word GO was introduced this week. The students reviewed all the sight words they have learned thus far. Our target sound this week was short i. The students used chants and rhymes to reinforce the sound as well as their sound cards. The students continued to review the use of action words or verbs. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included TRAVEL, JOURNEY, PREPARE, RELAX and FAMILIAR. In phonemic awareness, the students used their sound boxes to sound out and blend 3-4 letter words using short i. The students read their pre decodable story, "Go, Go, Go." They made predictions about the content and sounded out the decodable words in the story. During an interactive writing exercise, the students made pop up signs using the word, go to help cheer their book buddies on in the turkey trot race. In our vocabulary card story, "Two Frogs," the students listened to the story of the frogs from two different regions and their quest to see the others areas. The students can share with you the out come of the story. It is pretty cool! We read two poems on transportation, "The Bike," and "Riding the Subway Train." The students noticed the rhyming in both and helped to track the words as I read. The students worked with partners to create sentences using their sight words and picture cards. Our work station activities this week included writing sentences using sight words go and see and creating illustrations, using the transportation cards to talk about what is the same and different about 2 cards picked, discussing it with their table mates and creating a list wheels vs. feet words, creating words using a word wheel with word families am, ap and at and then sorting words by the first letter and read it and add to it where the students each read a story, think about what could happen next and write and draw about it. The students had opportunities to read stories to each other to practice their fluency.
Math: This week the students worked on counting strategies. We continued to work our way to 100. The students began learning rhymes that will help them in forming their numbers. They used their dry erase boards to practice. The students worked on some graphing exercises. We also revisited pattern block shapes, geometric solids and penny power. The students experimented with building on more complex patterns and naming them. The students are beginning to work on the process behind addition and subtraction using manipulatives and drawings for assistance. We continued work on "thinking" math story problems. Many of the students are becoming more interested in listening for key information in the story in order to solve it. Students are also beginning to come up and illustrate their "thinking" on the blackboard.
Writing: The students continued working on sentence structure, placement of words on a given line and using nouns and verbs. This week, our book buddies helped assist in a writing exercise where a story was shared and then both kindergartner and book buddy reflected in writing and drawing their favorite part. It was great fun and very cool watch the care taken by our book buddies in guiding their younger counterparts. Great learning!!! A large portion of our writing time was spent creating our version of the "Brown Bear" story. Each student came up with their idea. They talked it through, wrote their draft, made corrections and then wrote the final copy and illustrated it. Don't forget--inventive spelling is very acceptable at this stage!!! They did a spectacular job! We have finished our Starting Corner Capitals. The "Magic C" letters are next.
Technology: The students continued to explore the many apps on the IPAD in order to enhance their learning. Ms. Applebey was back this week to assist with bringing our version of the "Brown Bear" story up a few notches!! A picture of each students page was taken and each student recorded their sentence with the app Sonic Pics. The "book" was put together and is now part of our blog. Pretty cool! The students used the app Magic Reading 2 (Beginning and Ending Blends.) They tapped the box to listen to each phoneme, sounded out the word and recorded it on their paper. The students used the app Word Family Fun to reinforce beginning letter and rhyme onset. They also used the app Phonics Lite to find short a and short o words.
For math, the students used the app Top It, reviewing concepts more and less, adding the numbers and comparing it to their partners number. The app Monster Squeeze continues to help reinforce number order and recognition. The students also began work with the app Kids Math that illustrates the process of simple addition and subtraction and also shows written format.
Literature: "Polar Bears," "Bears, Claws and Paws," "Looking at Bears," "The Last Polar Bear," "Young Larry," "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" "The Polar Bear," "Follow the Polar Bear."
Our Talking Story Book
Check out our class take on Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle's great classic story.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
UPDATES for 11/4-11/10 2011
**We have had a seemingly fast but very productive week. It is hard to believe that it is November and that we are about half way to our 100th day!
**There was no school last Friday in observance of Veteran's Day. A shout out to all serving in the military--a personal shout out to my niece and nephew--Go Air Force!
**Thanks to everyone that contributed their $1.00 for "Hats off for Cancer." Our classroom raised $27 for the cause and many cool hats were worn. Thanks to our reps, Yaya and Alex for helping to spread the word.
**Don't forget to send in your child's permission slip and money for our Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo. Student and Volunteer information will be in next weeks homework packet.
**We have a few more baby pictures to collect, but our SEASONAL BABIES project looks spectacular! Come check out some of Irving's own faculty on our wall. Yes--you will see black and white photos! Some of us were around before color pics!!!
**PICTURE RETAKE DAY is Wednesday, November 16th. You received information in the homework packet.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 will be concluding next week. Students will be assessed on their skill and you will receive notification indicating the result. Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin on Monday, November 28th.
**Here's a continued shout out for old magazines. We use them to find pictures and for collage activities.
**Mr. Packer's Math continues to focus on Probability. Next week, he will do a whole group activity and I will assist.
**We will have an ALL SCHOOL PBIS Olympic Day Tuesday, November 22nd. Kindergarten will participate in the morning. More info will follow next week.
**We will need 2-3 volunteers to help us with a special cooking activity in the afternoon of Tuesday, November 22nd. Please email me if interested.
**Please note--the end of Trimester 1 is Friday, November 18th. Report Cards will go home on Friday, December 9th.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!!! We need several volunteers for our annual gingerbread cookie baking on Friday, December 9th, all afternoon. No experience needed! Create, decorate, bake and share!! I have 2 station day parents signed up but we need more. The more, the merrier!! Email me if interested.
**Students have begun preparing for the Kindergarten Winter Concert to be held Friday, December 23rd at 9:30 am in the Irving Auditorium. A reception will immediately follow in our classroom.
This week:
It continues to be all about our cross curricular theme on Bears. We continued our inquiry on brown bears and also began the study of black bears. The students continue to gather information from books and our online source, The North American Bear Center. The students learned where black bears are found, how they live, distinguishing characteristics and habitats. The students specifically looked at the North American Black Bear. We learned that it is America's most common bear. The students began to observe some differences between the brown and black bear. (smaller paws, shorter claws, smaller stature, loves honey!) The students learned that bears are omnivores. Big word! On our nature table, the students experimented with trying on a brown bear paw, matching color bears, creating a bear claw out of clay using a template and writing about bears in their journal. Stay tuned--We will talk about polar bears next week.
Reading/Social Studies: The students have begun working in Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed what is meant by transportation--a way to move people and things from one place to another. They brainstormed ways that they get around and discussed forms of transportation that move fast and slow. They listened to the big book story, "A Bus for Us." The students made a prediction about what the story could be about using the title and picture. The students made connections in their own life about the various vehicles showcased in the story. The sight word see was introduced. The students defined it and wrote it as well as reviewed all the sight words we have learned thus far. Our target sound this week is Tt. The students made the sound and began locating items and words around the room that start with the sound. The students took a look a how the letter is made in both upper and lower case form. In our grammar section, the learned about action words or verbs. They had great fun coming up with an action and having the rest of the class guess what is was. As part of listening comprehension, the students listened to the big book story for the second time and then used the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words. The students had a lively discussion about the vehicles mentioned in the story and their function. Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included TRANSPORTATION, VEHICLE, RAPIDLY, GLIDE, and CONTINUE. In our phonemic awareness activities, the students listened for and recorded when they heard the sound of Tt. They used their sound boxes to mark where they heard the sound of Tt, at the beginning or the end of the word. They practiced blending 3-4 letter words using their sound boxes. The students read their pre-decodable story, "I am Sam." They continue to finger point each word and picture. They are beginning to take note about how they are reading the sentences--choppy? smooth? They are working toward becoming fluent readers. The students listened to the informational text, "Signs in the Park." They took note of several things--types of signs, where you would see them, looking at a map, how to read the map symbols. The students practice reading their sight word see in sentences they created. In our read aloud story, "The Turtle and the Rabbit," many students had heard this fable before and were quick to retell and say what they thought the lesson of the story was. In the pre-decodable story, "Can Tam See?" the students had the opportunity to sound blend the name of the characters and share the story with a partner. Our work station activities this week included reading a story, retelling it and creating their own retelling cards, contributing to a graph of how students travel to school and writing about it, using their IPAD to spell their sight words, record reading their sight words and writing sentences containing their sight words, matching pictures to their initial sound letter and creating real and nonsense words for word family _in on their IPAD.
Math: The students began work on learning to sort based on common attribute. They participated in a game called, "What's My Rule?" where the students listened and looked for the obvious attribute being described by the teacher. Great for enhancing listening skills! The students continued to participate in generating, continuing and copying patterns using blocks, tiles and bears. In our folding paper geometry activity, the students randomly folded their paper, creasing it well. They unfolded it to see what shapes it revealed and outlined and colored the shapes. How many 3 sided shapes? How many 4 sided shapes? The students continue to work on writing and recognizing numbers 0-35 on our way to 100. They also continue to with place value and counting by 10's.
Writing: The students began working in their yellow lined journals. They are beginning to be more aware of where they write their upper and lower case letters when writing their sentences. We had a discussion on where tall lower case letters are written and where some lower case letters are written that fall below the bottom line. The students continue to work on practicing our Starting Corner Capitals they have learned thus far. The students continue to use the writing prompts from our reading series and have also made reflections based on their growing knowledge of bears. We continue to stress beginning with an upper case letter and ending with a period. We name and tell in our sentences. We are recognizing nouns and now--action words (verbs) in our sentences.
Technology: The students continue their study of and use of the IPAD as an enhancement tool for learning. The students welcomed Ms. Applebey, our great technology leader, to provide training and assistance to all of us. In reading, the students used the app Magnetic Letters along with Sonic Pics to spell their sight words, record themselves reciting them and emailing them to me so I could hear them too! The students then wrote 3 sentences using the words. The students used the app Word Wizard to work with the word family _in using their sound blending skills. They created a list of words and then recorded whether they were real words or nonsense words. After studying verbs, the students used their sponge painted bears and wrote a sentence describing an action the bear could perform. We then used the app ITALK to record each student reading their sentence and then emailing it to me. They loved hearing the playback--you will too! We learned a lot about speaking strong and clear when reading aloud. In math, the students used the app Number Find to challenge them to find 10 numbers hidden on the grid. It was all about finding a pattern to use to find all the numbers. The numbers ranged from 1-100. Challenging!!! The students also used the app Sam Phibian where they needed to find a targeted amount of each fish for the Sam's breakfast, lunch and dinner. Watch out!! Some of those fish travel fast!!! These activities were done in partners and small group. All the students sought information from the app Enchanted Learning in order to compare and contrast brown bears and black bears for our Venn Diagram.
Literature: "Black Bear Cubs," "Bears in the Forest," "Bears, Paws, Claws and Jaws," "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear," "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," "Black Bears," "Hibernation Station," "Every Autumn Comes a Bear."
**There was no school last Friday in observance of Veteran's Day. A shout out to all serving in the military--a personal shout out to my niece and nephew--Go Air Force!
**Thanks to everyone that contributed their $1.00 for "Hats off for Cancer." Our classroom raised $27 for the cause and many cool hats were worn. Thanks to our reps, Yaya and Alex for helping to spread the word.
**Don't forget to send in your child's permission slip and money for our Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo. Student and Volunteer information will be in next weeks homework packet.
**We have a few more baby pictures to collect, but our SEASONAL BABIES project looks spectacular! Come check out some of Irving's own faculty on our wall. Yes--you will see black and white photos! Some of us were around before color pics!!!
**PICTURE RETAKE DAY is Wednesday, November 16th. You received information in the homework packet.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 will be concluding next week. Students will be assessed on their skill and you will receive notification indicating the result. Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin on Monday, November 28th.
**Here's a continued shout out for old magazines. We use them to find pictures and for collage activities.
**Mr. Packer's Math continues to focus on Probability. Next week, he will do a whole group activity and I will assist.
**We will have an ALL SCHOOL PBIS Olympic Day Tuesday, November 22nd. Kindergarten will participate in the morning. More info will follow next week.
**We will need 2-3 volunteers to help us with a special cooking activity in the afternoon of Tuesday, November 22nd. Please email me if interested.
**Please note--the end of Trimester 1 is Friday, November 18th. Report Cards will go home on Friday, December 9th.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!!! We need several volunteers for our annual gingerbread cookie baking on Friday, December 9th, all afternoon. No experience needed! Create, decorate, bake and share!! I have 2 station day parents signed up but we need more. The more, the merrier!! Email me if interested.
**Students have begun preparing for the Kindergarten Winter Concert to be held Friday, December 23rd at 9:30 am in the Irving Auditorium. A reception will immediately follow in our classroom.
This week:
It continues to be all about our cross curricular theme on Bears. We continued our inquiry on brown bears and also began the study of black bears. The students continue to gather information from books and our online source, The North American Bear Center. The students learned where black bears are found, how they live, distinguishing characteristics and habitats. The students specifically looked at the North American Black Bear. We learned that it is America's most common bear. The students began to observe some differences between the brown and black bear. (smaller paws, shorter claws, smaller stature, loves honey!) The students learned that bears are omnivores. Big word! On our nature table, the students experimented with trying on a brown bear paw, matching color bears, creating a bear claw out of clay using a template and writing about bears in their journal. Stay tuned--We will talk about polar bears next week.
Reading/Social Studies: The students have begun working in Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed what is meant by transportation--a way to move people and things from one place to another. They brainstormed ways that they get around and discussed forms of transportation that move fast and slow. They listened to the big book story, "A Bus for Us." The students made a prediction about what the story could be about using the title and picture. The students made connections in their own life about the various vehicles showcased in the story. The sight word see was introduced. The students defined it and wrote it as well as reviewed all the sight words we have learned thus far. Our target sound this week is Tt. The students made the sound and began locating items and words around the room that start with the sound. The students took a look a how the letter is made in both upper and lower case form. In our grammar section, the learned about action words or verbs. They had great fun coming up with an action and having the rest of the class guess what is was. As part of listening comprehension, the students listened to the big book story for the second time and then used the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words. The students had a lively discussion about the vehicles mentioned in the story and their function. Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included TRANSPORTATION, VEHICLE, RAPIDLY, GLIDE, and CONTINUE. In our phonemic awareness activities, the students listened for and recorded when they heard the sound of Tt. They used their sound boxes to mark where they heard the sound of Tt, at the beginning or the end of the word. They practiced blending 3-4 letter words using their sound boxes. The students read their pre-decodable story, "I am Sam." They continue to finger point each word and picture. They are beginning to take note about how they are reading the sentences--choppy? smooth? They are working toward becoming fluent readers. The students listened to the informational text, "Signs in the Park." They took note of several things--types of signs, where you would see them, looking at a map, how to read the map symbols. The students practice reading their sight word see in sentences they created. In our read aloud story, "The Turtle and the Rabbit," many students had heard this fable before and were quick to retell and say what they thought the lesson of the story was. In the pre-decodable story, "Can Tam See?" the students had the opportunity to sound blend the name of the characters and share the story with a partner. Our work station activities this week included reading a story, retelling it and creating their own retelling cards, contributing to a graph of how students travel to school and writing about it, using their IPAD to spell their sight words, record reading their sight words and writing sentences containing their sight words, matching pictures to their initial sound letter and creating real and nonsense words for word family _in on their IPAD.
Math: The students began work on learning to sort based on common attribute. They participated in a game called, "What's My Rule?" where the students listened and looked for the obvious attribute being described by the teacher. Great for enhancing listening skills! The students continued to participate in generating, continuing and copying patterns using blocks, tiles and bears. In our folding paper geometry activity, the students randomly folded their paper, creasing it well. They unfolded it to see what shapes it revealed and outlined and colored the shapes. How many 3 sided shapes? How many 4 sided shapes? The students continue to work on writing and recognizing numbers 0-35 on our way to 100. They also continue to with place value and counting by 10's.
Writing: The students began working in their yellow lined journals. They are beginning to be more aware of where they write their upper and lower case letters when writing their sentences. We had a discussion on where tall lower case letters are written and where some lower case letters are written that fall below the bottom line. The students continue to work on practicing our Starting Corner Capitals they have learned thus far. The students continue to use the writing prompts from our reading series and have also made reflections based on their growing knowledge of bears. We continue to stress beginning with an upper case letter and ending with a period. We name and tell in our sentences. We are recognizing nouns and now--action words (verbs) in our sentences.
Technology: The students continue their study of and use of the IPAD as an enhancement tool for learning. The students welcomed Ms. Applebey, our great technology leader, to provide training and assistance to all of us. In reading, the students used the app Magnetic Letters along with Sonic Pics to spell their sight words, record themselves reciting them and emailing them to me so I could hear them too! The students then wrote 3 sentences using the words. The students used the app Word Wizard to work with the word family _in using their sound blending skills. They created a list of words and then recorded whether they were real words or nonsense words. After studying verbs, the students used their sponge painted bears and wrote a sentence describing an action the bear could perform. We then used the app ITALK to record each student reading their sentence and then emailing it to me. They loved hearing the playback--you will too! We learned a lot about speaking strong and clear when reading aloud. In math, the students used the app Number Find to challenge them to find 10 numbers hidden on the grid. It was all about finding a pattern to use to find all the numbers. The numbers ranged from 1-100. Challenging!!! The students also used the app Sam Phibian where they needed to find a targeted amount of each fish for the Sam's breakfast, lunch and dinner. Watch out!! Some of those fish travel fast!!! These activities were done in partners and small group. All the students sought information from the app Enchanted Learning in order to compare and contrast brown bears and black bears for our Venn Diagram.
Literature: "Black Bear Cubs," "Bears in the Forest," "Bears, Paws, Claws and Jaws," "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear," "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," "Black Bears," "Hibernation Station," "Every Autumn Comes a Bear."
Thursday, November 3, 2011
UPDATES for 10/31-11/4 2011
**What a week it has been! Our Halloween Parade, Party and Assembly was great. We had a beautiful day for a parade. Lots of very cute and cool costumes. I have pictures taken by Lindsay's dad that I will post soon. Mei-Li, Tyler, Ava, Isabel and Ben are featured on the main District 97 website. Hats of to Room 110 at Irving!
**Yaya and Alex, our Student Council reps have a flyer included in this weeks homework packet for "Hats Off for Cancer" raising money for cancer research. Hope to see dollars and hats on Tuesday.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, November 11th in observance of Veteran's Day.
**Don't forget to send in a picture of your child's baby picture for our SEASONAL BABIES project on Monday, November 7th.
**Permission slip and info for our field trip to Brookfield Zoo is enclosed in the homework packet. Please send money and slip back ASAP.
**Picture Retake Day is Wednesday, November 16th. You will be receiving more info on this from the office.
**The students participated in an informative presentation by Ms. Allen of the Multicultural Center on Dia de los Muertos, a Mexican celebration that honors the dead. Ms. Allen used pictures and artifacts in her presentation. Ask your child about the use of skeletons, sugar artifacts and special bread or pan.
**The students had a COOL TOOLS Assembly on Friday, November 4th to review procedures and appropriate behavior in the bathrooms and on the playground.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 has begun. If you have any questions about your child and the skill level he/she is working on, please contact the teacher at the bottom of the notification sheet.
**Here's a shout out for old magazines. We use them to find pictures and for collage activities. Send them in when you can. Thanks!
**Mr. Packer's Math focused on a new unit on Probability. Mr. Packer and I continue to use rotating small groups on Thursdays. All students work in both groups.
** Ms. Bell Bey and Ms. Kwiatts Friendship Club lesson centered around the appropriate behavior on the playground. Role playing and skits helped reinforced the concepts.
**We have completed Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures series and will take our unit assessment on Monday.
**The students have begun exploring the IPAD as a tool to enhance their learning. See the new heading below that will describe our weekly activities and usage.
This week:
It was all about BEARS and IPADS, but we will save IPADS for the tech section. We began with an initial discussion/dictation on what students knew about Bears. We looked at some characteristics that all bears have and talked specifically about brown bears. We gathered some information online from the North American Bear Center. The students learned about where brown bears are found, how they live, distinguishing characteristics, habitats and how they are mammals like us. The students were wowed by the fact that bears become adults when they are 2 years old and that female bears are excellent mothers. During station day activities the students created a sponge painted bear for our writing assignment, built a pattern block bear and sorted, counted and added bears in an activity. We read and shared many fiction and nonfiction books about the brown bear. The bear nature table will be up and running next week. Stay tuned!
Reading/Social Studies: The students completed Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading Series. This week centered around friends who solve problems together. The students listened to the story, "Simon and Molly plus Hester." They asked and answered questions and responded to the literature by making connections in their own lives. The students reviewed sight words a and like, wrote them and used them in a written sentence. They reviewed the sounds of Pp and Ss and what a noun is. The students retold the story using the retelling cards. In phonemic awareness activities, the students categorized and blended phonemes to make 3 letter words. The students read the pre-decodable, "I Like, We Like." The students made predictions about what the story was about and practiced their reading with a partner. We used the oral vocabulary cards to develop our robust vocabulary in the tale from Haiti called, "The Turtle and the Sheep." Our Robust Vocabulary words this week were PROBLEM, SOLVE, GRATEFUL, THOUGHTFUL and INCLUDE. Our reading puppet, Mr. Happy helped us blend more 3 letter words. We used our dry erase boards to record the initial sound we heard in a word. In our read aloud folktale. "The Little red Hen," the students listened to fluent reading, recurring phrases and discussed what the lesson was at the end of the story. The students sequenced the events in the story. The students read their pre-decodable, "We Like" and "Pam" and practiced reading for fluency. We continued to review asking questions, sight words, nouns, colors and initial sounds-Pp, Ss, Mm and Aa. Workstations activities this week included creating sounds files with A, S, T, P and M pictures, creating a sentence or sentences about what two friends might say to each other and putting it in a speech bubble, expressing your feelings by drawing yourself happy and sad and writing a sentence about both and reading and responding to a book you read and sharing it with a friend.
Math: This week the focus was on the concept of time. The students had a lively discussion about the present, past and future and what happened today and yesterday or tomorrow, what is a short time and what is a long time. We took a look at the both digital and analogue clocks. We looked at numbers, hands and talked about minutes, hours and seconds. The students participated in an activity where they marked time using a drum beat, second hand, stop watch. What does five minutes feel like? Is ten minutes a long time? We observed the movement of the various hands on an analogue clock. We continue to work with patterns and shapes and are noticing more common attributes. We continue counting our way to 100 and think about place value. In our Problem of the Day activities, the students explored the concept tallest and problem solving by using math vocabulary in all, all together. We continue to explore the concepts greater than and less then.
Writing: The students continued work on letters U and V and added W. The students continue to work on proper posture and strengthening pencil grasp. They are now working toward where to put upper and lower case letters on a given line. Next week, we will have new lined journals! The students continue to use writing prompts from our reading series. Many students are beginning to use more then their sight vocabulary in their sentences. The students do continue to use their inventive spelling. They are also using more labeling and speech bubbles to get their point across in their writing.
Technology: The students have begun using the IPADS in work stations, for small group work and for choice time. Ms. Applebey, our skilled IPAD tech will be working with us the next few weeks to help with technique and lesson choice. She is fabulous! In our work stations this week, students used the app Word Wizard to work with word families, creating real and nonsense words and then composing sentences. Students also used the app My ABC's to explore ordering the alphabet, locating upper and lower case letters, finding the pictures and corresponding letter sound and matching words. In Math, students used the app Monster Squeeze with a partner using numbers 5-15, 10-20 and 20-30. Students also used the app Intro to Numbers in small group to sequence order, locate the missing number, count and listen and recreate the musical pattern. The students also explored recoding themselves reading a story and playing it back to hear. Tons of fun and learning!
Literature: "Good Boy, Fergus," "Hispanic Holidays," "The Pumpkin Circle," "Zero is the Leaves on the Tree," "Skippy John Jones in Mummy Trouble," "T-Rex Trick or Treats," "Amazing Bears," "Time to Sleep," "Brown Bears," "If Bear Can, I Can," "A Birthday for Bear," "There's No Such Thing As Monsters."
**Yaya and Alex, our Student Council reps have a flyer included in this weeks homework packet for "Hats Off for Cancer" raising money for cancer research. Hope to see dollars and hats on Tuesday.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, November 11th in observance of Veteran's Day.
**Don't forget to send in a picture of your child's baby picture for our SEASONAL BABIES project on Monday, November 7th.
**Permission slip and info for our field trip to Brookfield Zoo is enclosed in the homework packet. Please send money and slip back ASAP.
**Picture Retake Day is Wednesday, November 16th. You will be receiving more info on this from the office.
**The students participated in an informative presentation by Ms. Allen of the Multicultural Center on Dia de los Muertos, a Mexican celebration that honors the dead. Ms. Allen used pictures and artifacts in her presentation. Ask your child about the use of skeletons, sugar artifacts and special bread or pan.
**The students had a COOL TOOLS Assembly on Friday, November 4th to review procedures and appropriate behavior in the bathrooms and on the playground.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 has begun. If you have any questions about your child and the skill level he/she is working on, please contact the teacher at the bottom of the notification sheet.
**Here's a shout out for old magazines. We use them to find pictures and for collage activities. Send them in when you can. Thanks!
**Mr. Packer's Math focused on a new unit on Probability. Mr. Packer and I continue to use rotating small groups on Thursdays. All students work in both groups.
** Ms. Bell Bey and Ms. Kwiatts Friendship Club lesson centered around the appropriate behavior on the playground. Role playing and skits helped reinforced the concepts.
**We have completed Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures series and will take our unit assessment on Monday.
**The students have begun exploring the IPAD as a tool to enhance their learning. See the new heading below that will describe our weekly activities and usage.
This week:
It was all about BEARS and IPADS, but we will save IPADS for the tech section. We began with an initial discussion/dictation on what students knew about Bears. We looked at some characteristics that all bears have and talked specifically about brown bears. We gathered some information online from the North American Bear Center. The students learned about where brown bears are found, how they live, distinguishing characteristics, habitats and how they are mammals like us. The students were wowed by the fact that bears become adults when they are 2 years old and that female bears are excellent mothers. During station day activities the students created a sponge painted bear for our writing assignment, built a pattern block bear and sorted, counted and added bears in an activity. We read and shared many fiction and nonfiction books about the brown bear. The bear nature table will be up and running next week. Stay tuned!
Reading/Social Studies: The students completed Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading Series. This week centered around friends who solve problems together. The students listened to the story, "Simon and Molly plus Hester." They asked and answered questions and responded to the literature by making connections in their own lives. The students reviewed sight words a and like, wrote them and used them in a written sentence. They reviewed the sounds of Pp and Ss and what a noun is. The students retold the story using the retelling cards. In phonemic awareness activities, the students categorized and blended phonemes to make 3 letter words. The students read the pre-decodable, "I Like, We Like." The students made predictions about what the story was about and practiced their reading with a partner. We used the oral vocabulary cards to develop our robust vocabulary in the tale from Haiti called, "The Turtle and the Sheep." Our Robust Vocabulary words this week were PROBLEM, SOLVE, GRATEFUL, THOUGHTFUL and INCLUDE. Our reading puppet, Mr. Happy helped us blend more 3 letter words. We used our dry erase boards to record the initial sound we heard in a word. In our read aloud folktale. "The Little red Hen," the students listened to fluent reading, recurring phrases and discussed what the lesson was at the end of the story. The students sequenced the events in the story. The students read their pre-decodable, "We Like" and "Pam" and practiced reading for fluency. We continued to review asking questions, sight words, nouns, colors and initial sounds-Pp, Ss, Mm and Aa. Workstations activities this week included creating sounds files with A, S, T, P and M pictures, creating a sentence or sentences about what two friends might say to each other and putting it in a speech bubble, expressing your feelings by drawing yourself happy and sad and writing a sentence about both and reading and responding to a book you read and sharing it with a friend.
Math: This week the focus was on the concept of time. The students had a lively discussion about the present, past and future and what happened today and yesterday or tomorrow, what is a short time and what is a long time. We took a look at the both digital and analogue clocks. We looked at numbers, hands and talked about minutes, hours and seconds. The students participated in an activity where they marked time using a drum beat, second hand, stop watch. What does five minutes feel like? Is ten minutes a long time? We observed the movement of the various hands on an analogue clock. We continue to work with patterns and shapes and are noticing more common attributes. We continue counting our way to 100 and think about place value. In our Problem of the Day activities, the students explored the concept tallest and problem solving by using math vocabulary in all, all together. We continue to explore the concepts greater than and less then.
Writing: The students continued work on letters U and V and added W. The students continue to work on proper posture and strengthening pencil grasp. They are now working toward where to put upper and lower case letters on a given line. Next week, we will have new lined journals! The students continue to use writing prompts from our reading series. Many students are beginning to use more then their sight vocabulary in their sentences. The students do continue to use their inventive spelling. They are also using more labeling and speech bubbles to get their point across in their writing.
Technology: The students have begun using the IPADS in work stations, for small group work and for choice time. Ms. Applebey, our skilled IPAD tech will be working with us the next few weeks to help with technique and lesson choice. She is fabulous! In our work stations this week, students used the app Word Wizard to work with word families, creating real and nonsense words and then composing sentences. Students also used the app My ABC's to explore ordering the alphabet, locating upper and lower case letters, finding the pictures and corresponding letter sound and matching words. In Math, students used the app Monster Squeeze with a partner using numbers 5-15, 10-20 and 20-30. Students also used the app Intro to Numbers in small group to sequence order, locate the missing number, count and listen and recreate the musical pattern. The students also explored recoding themselves reading a story and playing it back to hear. Tons of fun and learning!
Literature: "Good Boy, Fergus," "Hispanic Holidays," "The Pumpkin Circle," "Zero is the Leaves on the Tree," "Skippy John Jones in Mummy Trouble," "T-Rex Trick or Treats," "Amazing Bears," "Time to Sleep," "Brown Bears," "If Bear Can, I Can," "A Birthday for Bear," "There's No Such Thing As Monsters."
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