**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."
