**Congratulations to our Spelling Bee Reps--Lottie and Yaya. Ben will serve as the alternate. These students will participate in the Irving School Annual Spelling Bee on Wednesday, April 11th at lunchtime in the Irving Auditorium. Fifteen of our classmates took part in the bee. It was a great show of interest and effort. All of them are to be commended for their great sportsmanship and support of others.
**PBIS Celebration Station--Our class participated in the FREEZE DANCE station on Friday afternoon. Great music and some very smooth moves! It was a great way to exercise and share our friendship! We came back to class to have some yummy cupcakes to celebrate Yaya's birthday.
**Spring Break is begins 3/24-4/1. Class resumes on Monday, April 2nd. All students who are traveling near or far have their travel journals. Can't wait to read of their adventures!
**Permission slips for our Field Trip to the Adler Planetarium will be sent out the week we get back from break. The trip is scheduled for Thursday, April 19th from 9:00-2:00 pm. I will need 6 volunteers for the trip.
**Please note the change in date--The Egg Drop/Academic Fair is now scheduled for Wednesday, April 25th. Can you create a vehicle that will support an egg as it is dropped from a third floor window? What are you interested in? Can you create a project out of it? Students are already sharing ideas about possible vehicles and projects!! Formal information concerning these activities will be sent out after break. What a great way to extend learning--aerodynamics--engineering--testing a hypothesis--answering a question--reporting on new found information---WOW! This could be great! Mom or dad can assist. Irving school has resources too. (Think Ms. Noonan, Ms. Gullo) Ms. Creehan will be coming to classrooms to share examples of projects and where to find more information.
**Bring in your giant boxes, medium and small boxes, paper towel tubes/wrapping paper tubes, cup tops, empty containers and any other cool things you have saved!! Yes, you can bring them in after break! Our space station prep, design, construction and detailing will be the week of April 16th-20th in the afternoons. We may need some hot glue volunteers during the detailing process. Stay tuned.
**Future date--Green Team/Schoolyard Project sponsored "Solarbration" Assembly will be Thursday, April 26th from 2-3 pm.
**Mr. Packer continued his small group lesson on shapes this week.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Kwiatt read the students a story and then stopped in the middle and had the students discuss what they thought might happen at the end. The students then went to their seats and wrote and drew what they thought would happen. The students gathered back with Ms. Kwiatt to finish the story. Was their prediction correct?
**Our Wednesday assistant, Ms. Amanda, read a special story to the students about a new student at school who is different (in a wheelchair) and how he finds out he is not so different from the rest of his class. It was a great story on celebrating our differences and similarities.
**Please have a safe and restful spring break! It is a homework holiday but, you can read your Busy Reader (don't forget to record your story on your log), log on to LEXIA, play some of our homework games and Word Play that you have stored at home, go to Spelling City to review your word lists, get outside and exercise, try some of our yoga poses, observe nature, keep a travel journal and spend some quality time with your family!
This week:
It was all about our unusual weather, sun, fun, shadows and space! We were able to be outside and use the sun as our light source for our experiments. More about that in our science section. Our tubers are beginning to take root. The students examined a piece of purple potato and a piece of white potato under the microscope. They made a note of similarities and differences in each specimen. It was great to find out that some of the students are trying out the hydroponic process at home. Our station day activities this week included creating a collage sun, building pattern block 2-3 dimensional animals and counting the number of blocks used and making our frames for our side silhouettes.
Reading/Social Studies: The students began Unit 8 Plants this week in our Treasures Reading Series. They began by building background knowledge around how trees grow. The students talked about Oak Park and how there are so many trees here. They understood that a tree is a plant that takes many years to grow big. They also knew that a tree begins with a seed. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Oak Trees." The students noted that the genre was informational or expository. The students responded to the literature expressing that they had seen acorns (the seed) and some students even collected them. Once again they understood that it takes many years for the oak tree to grow big and that some oak trees are over 100 years old. Our sight words for this week are little and said. The students reviewed these words and all other sight words. The students noted that the word said does not sound like it looks. Our target sounds this week are short u and Kk. The students located Kk words and wikkie circled them in our rhyme and chime. We reread the Big Book story again. This time the students listened for the sequence---flowers-acorn-little tree-big tree. The student also reviewed the term, glossary and what it is. Small students groups took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words. Our puppet friend, Mr. Happy, helped model our blending practice using using our elkonin boxes. The students continue to work on blending 3,4, and 5 phoneme words. The students read the decodable reader, "Sad Hen." They made predictions about story content and orally answered comprehension questions at the end of the story. The students then reread the story to a partner. Our Robust Vocabulary included PLANT, GROW, CONCEITED, EQUAL and CHARMING. Our oral vocabulary story, "The Conceited Apple Branch," gave all of us a healthy new respect for the dandelion. Ask your child to tell you the story. The students listened to a poem called "Acorns." They discussed what the poem was all about and noted the rhyming pattern. Small groups of students used their word and picture cards to create sentences using their new sight words said and little. Like speech bubbles, the word said tells us who is talking. The students practiced their fluency by reading their paper story, "A Little Acorn." They also observed the use of "quotation marks," which also tells who is talking. Students practiced working with the word ending ck. They worked in their activity books. Workstations this week included, story reading/small group discussion and completion of the Story Chart, using the app Montessori Crossword focusing on short u and ck words for blending and writing practice, Short u cvc and word family sorts with partners and writing the rainbow with your sight words.
Math: The students continue to work on counting by 2's, 5's and 10's. Some students can count all the way to 100 by 2's, 5's and beyond 100 by 10's! Students began more extensive work on the process of subtraction. The game, "The Disappearing Train," was introduced. Students are also beginning to use the number line to assist them in solving story problems. Students continue to work on writing 2-3 digit numbers and telling how many groups of 100, how many 10's and how many 1's. They also worked in small groups on playing the "Plus or Minus Game," the apps Math Bug Lite and Find Sums. We also reviewed time by the hour. We continue with our daily process story problems in our math journal.
Writing: The students continue to work on writing prompts from their Treasures Reading series. This week we began talking about what a paragraph is. The students looked in books at paragraphs. In its simplest form, a paragraph is a collection of sentences that deals with one topic. The students are going to use their shadow photos as the topic of their paragraph. We also discussed how their paragraphs could be realistic or fantasy. The students spent time examining their photos and generating ideas about what they could write about. As a group, we wrote down the ideas and settled on a few basic questions that each one would answer. The students used that format to begin their writing. The students are learning to organize their ideas. Their first writing will be in a draft form that they can proofread to make corrections if needed. The students are working on their drafts.
Science: The students continued to study shadows. In Experiments 4 and 5, the students observed how a shadow changes due to the movement of the sun. The suns position in the sky changes due to the rotation of the earth. Yaya was our shadow maker throughout the day. At 9:00 am, we gathered outside to trace the shadow Yaya made as she stood. We marked that place and observed the shadow. The students went back into the room to rough sketch where the shadow was and how is looked. We did the same again at 12:00 and at 2:30 pm with Yaya standing in the exact same place. The students sketched the position and shape of the noon and 2:30 pm shadows. The students then reflected in their science journal their thoughts and drawings. Many student noticed that Yaya's shadow was long and skinny and right in front of her in the morning, shorter and and more to the left at noon and shorter and more to the side at 2:30 pm. The concept here is that the shadows change. In Experiment 6, each table of students constructed a sundial using paper, clay and a dowel rod. We looked at background information about what a sundial was and why it was used. It is one of the oldest measuring instruments measuring time of day by casting a shadow on a surface. Each table took their sundial out at 9:00 am, 12:15 pm and 2:30 pm. The students looked at the sundial as if it were a clock and thought about the numbers. In the classroom, the students drew a sketch and made an arrow where the shadow was cast. They then sketched a picture of what they do at that time of day. The students wrote about what they observed in their science journal. The students continued on in their scace study. We read stories about the sun and stars.
Technology: In reading, the student small groups used the app Montessori Crossword to sound and blend short u words and ck words and create sentences using some of their words, and students worked with a partner on the crossword section to locate letters to spell words. In math, students continued to use the apps Find Sums, Math Bug, Top It, Number Find and Coins in small group and individually to sharpen their skills. In science, the students continue tracking weather on the app Accuweather. They have become very interested looking up weather in other states and countries. Students have begun exploring the NASA space site app as we go deeper into our study of space. The students looked up some information on the sun to begin with. The students also looked on the internet for pictures of sundials and found that their were all kinds!
Literature: "Atlas of the Universe," "Sun and Moon," "1000 Facts About Space," "What's Out There?" "Sun and Moon," by Marcus Pfister, "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Clover," "Boom Zoom," "Sun," "Little Rockets Special Star."
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
UPDATES for 3/12-3/16
**Next week is SCHOOL SPIRIT WEEK. Please refer to the orange sheet located in your child's homework folder. Monday is SWIM DAY--NO swimsuits but sunglasses, goggles, beach toys, beach towels, floaties and sun hats are totally acceptable.
**The Hephzibah Talent Show was super cute!!! Let's give a shout out to Mei-Li, Lottie, Tyler, Yaya and Isabel for a job well done! My nieces, Mary and Lauren especially liked that you all were wearing your pajamas on stage and had big pillows!!!
**Report cards are in your child's homework folder. Any questions--please email me.
**Super Tuber Day was pretty super! More about that in the This week's section!
**We have completed Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading Series and will be taking our unit assessment on Monday.
**We will have our Classroom "Bee" to determine who our homeroom participants will be for the Irving Spelling Bee on Wednesday, March 21st in the afternoon.
**Swap, Shop and Read was really fun! Thanks to all those who came out to swap and choose great books. The cookies and milk were great too! A shout out to the person who left me a surprise in my mail tray (Bob Books!) My class and I thank you. We love our Bob Books!
**A super shout out to Alex and Lindsay for their performance in "Everybody Rocks." They did a spectacular job in the show. The students enjoyed watching them. There are still available spots to participate in this Eagle Essential program. See me if interested.
**The students are practicing their singing parts for this years OPERA for the YOUNG. The story of "Hansel and Gretel" will be on Tuesday, April 3rd at 9:30 am in the gym. How cool--Senora Zaragoza is reading us the story in Spanish!!
**Our school wide PBIS celebration is Friday, March 23rd at 1:30 pm. Our regular station day helpers will assist us in school wide learning stations.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, march 20th. This is an individual picture with a back drop. Let me know if you want a sibling picture. Thanks!
**Spring Break is 3/24-4/1. School will resume on Monday, April 2nd.
**Future Field Trip to the Adler Planetarium on Thursday, April 19th from 9:00-2:00 pm. I will need 6 volunteers for the trip. Stay tuned for more information.
**Our own Salome, reported that the Green Team was reviewing what things to compost or recycle and what is trash. The Team participated in an activity about it.
**Our Student Council rep, Jordan, shared with us the ideas for School Spirit Week. It all sounds like fun!
**Mr. Packer did a small group math activity about shapes with students.
**In Friendship Club this week, the topic was managing our anger. The students shared and were quite candid about situations that get them mad. They shares how their bodies feel, (shaking, crying, stomping etc.) Ms Kwiatt guided the students into a discussion about how they sooth their anger. Students mentioned finding a quiet place, punching a pillow, counting, deep breathing, doing a physical activity, laying down on their bed, listening to music and watching T. V. were among the favorites.
This week:
It was all about potatoes and shadows! First--the potato! Each student brought in a potato of their choice. They learned that a TUBER is the short thick part of the underground stem of the potato plant. You can grow a potato from a potato! The students learned about the history of the potato. The plant was first found in South America in the Andes Mountains. We used our reading and map skills to find South America and then locate the Andes Mountains. We used both a topographical map and regular map. Students then traced the route of the potato to England and then to Ireland where the Irish soil made it a perfect plant to grow. During the 1800's, the potato became the main food of the Irish people. The students found the "eyes" of the potato and they used the internet to locate pictures of potato plants. The students learned that potatoes contained calcium and vitamin C as well as starch and lots of water. I had a variety of potatoes for the students to examine. With our magnifiers, we took a look at the skin and flesh of a purple, russset, yukon gold, red, fingerling and the classic idaho potato. The students returned to their seats and used their potato for the Super Tuber Activity. They drew a picture of it, counted the "eyes," measured its length using unifix cubes and recorded how many "bears" it weighed. The longest potato- 8 cubes--the heaviest potato-51 bears. We then completed a group graph about how we liked to eat our potatoes. Mashed and french fried were neck in neck! The students enjoyed stories about Irish folklore--four leaf clovers or shamrocks, pots of gold, rainbows and tiny leprechauns and learned about the musical instruments-bagpipes and penny whistle. We chose 3 types of potatoes for our class growing project. A purple potato, Ben's potato with a tuber already exposed and Salome's potato with many tubers and roots already growing. I showed the students how to set up the potato in order for it to grow. They can share that with you. It's hydroponics 101! Stay tuned to see what happens! I will save shadows for the science section!
Reading/Social Studies: The students completed Unit 7 Weather this week. They read about and discuss how weather affects people and animals. The students related their personal experiences in different types of weather. The discussion shifted to animals and how they also are affected by the weather. Each day, one student was responsible for checking the weather forecast on their IPAD using the app Accuweather. The students remarked how crazy it was that it was actually still winter and our temperatures were so warm. During our story time done outside, the students did observe a perfect V formation of Canada Geese flying back to us. Pretty cool! The students worked on their listening comprehension by listening to the story, "Bear Snores On." We had previously read this book when we studied author, Karma Wilson. The students revisited the word, "genre" and noted that this story was fantasy and could not really happen. After the story was read, students took turns using the retelling cards to tell the story in their own words. They made connections in this story to other Karma Wilson stories. They noted repetition of certain words, style and pictures. Ask your child to tell you the story. The student reviewed sight words, this, do, and, what. The students enjoyed using the words in a word scramble and playing "Hands Up, Hands Down." The students reviewed their target sounds Bb, Ll and Ee. They used their picture cards and sound toys in a guided practice. Our puppet, Mr. Happy, assisted the students in their word blending exercises. The students read the decodable reader, "Pat and Tip." They used the title and cover to make predictions about story content. Each child took a turn to read a sentence. Other students then would ask a question about something that happened in the story. The students then chose a partner to read the story to and used the Reader's Checklist to critique their fluency. Robust vocabulary for this week included CLEAR, COZY, EXPERIENCE, HIBERNATE, RETREAT. The students used the Oral Vocabulary cards to talk about Animals in Winter and read the information/expository text, "Let It Snow." Students partnered up to use the their word and picture cards to create sentences and then read them back to each other. The students read the paper story, "This Is What I Can Do!" They used their Story Elements Butterfly to independently record the title, characters, setting, time and plot of the story. The students listened to the read aloud folktale, "The Mitten." They made connections to the other mitten stories they had heard and compared and contrasted characters and plot development. The students used their elkonin boxes to put a block in the square there they heard the target sound. Workstations this week included, reading a selected story and recording their story element discussion using the app Story Kit, graphing their favorite season and writing about the results, sorting groups of words 3 ways and record how you did it, labeling parts of the drawing you made to illustrate their favorite season and reading a selected story and making your own retelling cards.
Math: The students continued their study of coins and coin values. We reviewed penny, nickel, dime and quarter. Salome brought in her state quarter collection and the students got a chance to use their magnifiers to see what was on the back of each state's quarter. She also brought in money from her native France and the students compared and contrasted the shape and pictures on the coins. The students continue to work in their math process journals. We will begin working with subtraction story problems next week. The students also continue to work on counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's. This was new math game week. The students played the "Plus or Minus game," "Pop for Numbers," "Monster Truck Addition and Subtraction," "Race Car Math," "It Takes Two," 2 digit number game and "Change to Less." Wednesday and Thursday were devoted to small group game stations.
Writing: The students continued to work on using their prompts from our Treasures Reading series in their sentence writing. We have also just begun prep work on beginning paragraph writing which includes pre-writing discussion/notes, draft writing, proofing your draft and writing the final copy. The students will be creating a story around their shadow pictures.
Science: The students reviewed the 3 things necessary to make a shadow--a source of light, an object to block the light, a surface to see the shadow. They worked on Experiment 2--creating a silhouette with their hand and comparing it to their actual hand and noting the similarities. The students were familiar with the process as they just had their face silhouettes done the previous week. The students reflected in their journals a recipe for a shadow and sketch the order of making a shadow. In Experiment 3, the students took turns creating shadows using a variety of different objects--book, small box, plastic wrap, waxed paper, water in a clear cup. They each created a graph answering yes or no to the questions--Does light pass the through it? Does it make a shadow? The students discovered that objects can produce light shadows, dark shadows or no shadow. They also found out it depends how much light they allow to pass through the object. I provided them with some very scientific words. Shadows can be opaque--they do not allow any light to pass through, so they produce a dark shadow or translucent-- some light does pass through and produces a light shadow. The students enjoyed trying out other objects in their choice time. They reflected their thoughts in their science journal. We went outside to observe shadows in our school neighborhood. On this bright sunny day, each student struck a pose with their shadow and I took a picture of it. The students will use this photograph as the source of their paragraph project. The students took a look at their face silhouettes from last week. They will be making a frame for them and we will be playing a little guessing game with them. Stay tuned!
Technology: In reading, small groups of students read a selected story and recorded their discussion using the app Story Kit and the assistance of Ms. Applebey. Totally marvelous!!! Small groups of students used the app Sight Words to say, record and play back sight vocabulary and practice the word in written form, the app Word Wizard was also used to work on sound blending skills. In the math this week, the students continue to use the app Number Find for work on number patterns, 2 digit numbers and sequencing. The app Whiteboard was used by individual students to practice number forms. The app Doodle Buddy was used by student small groups to illustrate addition and subtraction process after listening to a story problem. A selected group of students continue to use the app Coins to add and subtract coin values. The app Accuweather was used by students to track daily weather to share with the class. The students continue to use apps that have been introduced in reading, math and science during their choice time.
Literature: "Secret Agent Splat the Cat," (thanks, Lottie!) "Green Shamrocks," "Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato," "The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow," "Planets-True or False," "1000 Facts about Space," "Moon Game," "Moon Dance," "The Solar System," "What Color is the Sky?" "Space Race," "Dogs in Space," "My Shadow," "What Makes Day and Night?" "What is a Shadow."
**The Hephzibah Talent Show was super cute!!! Let's give a shout out to Mei-Li, Lottie, Tyler, Yaya and Isabel for a job well done! My nieces, Mary and Lauren especially liked that you all were wearing your pajamas on stage and had big pillows!!!
**Report cards are in your child's homework folder. Any questions--please email me.
**Super Tuber Day was pretty super! More about that in the This week's section!
**We have completed Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading Series and will be taking our unit assessment on Monday.
**We will have our Classroom "Bee" to determine who our homeroom participants will be for the Irving Spelling Bee on Wednesday, March 21st in the afternoon.
**Swap, Shop and Read was really fun! Thanks to all those who came out to swap and choose great books. The cookies and milk were great too! A shout out to the person who left me a surprise in my mail tray (Bob Books!) My class and I thank you. We love our Bob Books!
**A super shout out to Alex and Lindsay for their performance in "Everybody Rocks." They did a spectacular job in the show. The students enjoyed watching them. There are still available spots to participate in this Eagle Essential program. See me if interested.
**The students are practicing their singing parts for this years OPERA for the YOUNG. The story of "Hansel and Gretel" will be on Tuesday, April 3rd at 9:30 am in the gym. How cool--Senora Zaragoza is reading us the story in Spanish!!
**Our school wide PBIS celebration is Friday, March 23rd at 1:30 pm. Our regular station day helpers will assist us in school wide learning stations.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, march 20th. This is an individual picture with a back drop. Let me know if you want a sibling picture. Thanks!
**Spring Break is 3/24-4/1. School will resume on Monday, April 2nd.
**Future Field Trip to the Adler Planetarium on Thursday, April 19th from 9:00-2:00 pm. I will need 6 volunteers for the trip. Stay tuned for more information.
**Our own Salome, reported that the Green Team was reviewing what things to compost or recycle and what is trash. The Team participated in an activity about it.
**Our Student Council rep, Jordan, shared with us the ideas for School Spirit Week. It all sounds like fun!
**Mr. Packer did a small group math activity about shapes with students.
**In Friendship Club this week, the topic was managing our anger. The students shared and were quite candid about situations that get them mad. They shares how their bodies feel, (shaking, crying, stomping etc.) Ms Kwiatt guided the students into a discussion about how they sooth their anger. Students mentioned finding a quiet place, punching a pillow, counting, deep breathing, doing a physical activity, laying down on their bed, listening to music and watching T. V. were among the favorites.
This week:
It was all about potatoes and shadows! First--the potato! Each student brought in a potato of their choice. They learned that a TUBER is the short thick part of the underground stem of the potato plant. You can grow a potato from a potato! The students learned about the history of the potato. The plant was first found in South America in the Andes Mountains. We used our reading and map skills to find South America and then locate the Andes Mountains. We used both a topographical map and regular map. Students then traced the route of the potato to England and then to Ireland where the Irish soil made it a perfect plant to grow. During the 1800's, the potato became the main food of the Irish people. The students found the "eyes" of the potato and they used the internet to locate pictures of potato plants. The students learned that potatoes contained calcium and vitamin C as well as starch and lots of water. I had a variety of potatoes for the students to examine. With our magnifiers, we took a look at the skin and flesh of a purple, russset, yukon gold, red, fingerling and the classic idaho potato. The students returned to their seats and used their potato for the Super Tuber Activity. They drew a picture of it, counted the "eyes," measured its length using unifix cubes and recorded how many "bears" it weighed. The longest potato- 8 cubes--the heaviest potato-51 bears. We then completed a group graph about how we liked to eat our potatoes. Mashed and french fried were neck in neck! The students enjoyed stories about Irish folklore--four leaf clovers or shamrocks, pots of gold, rainbows and tiny leprechauns and learned about the musical instruments-bagpipes and penny whistle. We chose 3 types of potatoes for our class growing project. A purple potato, Ben's potato with a tuber already exposed and Salome's potato with many tubers and roots already growing. I showed the students how to set up the potato in order for it to grow. They can share that with you. It's hydroponics 101! Stay tuned to see what happens! I will save shadows for the science section!
Reading/Social Studies: The students completed Unit 7 Weather this week. They read about and discuss how weather affects people and animals. The students related their personal experiences in different types of weather. The discussion shifted to animals and how they also are affected by the weather. Each day, one student was responsible for checking the weather forecast on their IPAD using the app Accuweather. The students remarked how crazy it was that it was actually still winter and our temperatures were so warm. During our story time done outside, the students did observe a perfect V formation of Canada Geese flying back to us. Pretty cool! The students worked on their listening comprehension by listening to the story, "Bear Snores On." We had previously read this book when we studied author, Karma Wilson. The students revisited the word, "genre" and noted that this story was fantasy and could not really happen. After the story was read, students took turns using the retelling cards to tell the story in their own words. They made connections in this story to other Karma Wilson stories. They noted repetition of certain words, style and pictures. Ask your child to tell you the story. The student reviewed sight words, this, do, and, what. The students enjoyed using the words in a word scramble and playing "Hands Up, Hands Down." The students reviewed their target sounds Bb, Ll and Ee. They used their picture cards and sound toys in a guided practice. Our puppet, Mr. Happy, assisted the students in their word blending exercises. The students read the decodable reader, "Pat and Tip." They used the title and cover to make predictions about story content. Each child took a turn to read a sentence. Other students then would ask a question about something that happened in the story. The students then chose a partner to read the story to and used the Reader's Checklist to critique their fluency. Robust vocabulary for this week included CLEAR, COZY, EXPERIENCE, HIBERNATE, RETREAT. The students used the Oral Vocabulary cards to talk about Animals in Winter and read the information/expository text, "Let It Snow." Students partnered up to use the their word and picture cards to create sentences and then read them back to each other. The students read the paper story, "This Is What I Can Do!" They used their Story Elements Butterfly to independently record the title, characters, setting, time and plot of the story. The students listened to the read aloud folktale, "The Mitten." They made connections to the other mitten stories they had heard and compared and contrasted characters and plot development. The students used their elkonin boxes to put a block in the square there they heard the target sound. Workstations this week included, reading a selected story and recording their story element discussion using the app Story Kit, graphing their favorite season and writing about the results, sorting groups of words 3 ways and record how you did it, labeling parts of the drawing you made to illustrate their favorite season and reading a selected story and making your own retelling cards.
Math: The students continued their study of coins and coin values. We reviewed penny, nickel, dime and quarter. Salome brought in her state quarter collection and the students got a chance to use their magnifiers to see what was on the back of each state's quarter. She also brought in money from her native France and the students compared and contrasted the shape and pictures on the coins. The students continue to work in their math process journals. We will begin working with subtraction story problems next week. The students also continue to work on counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's. This was new math game week. The students played the "Plus or Minus game," "Pop for Numbers," "Monster Truck Addition and Subtraction," "Race Car Math," "It Takes Two," 2 digit number game and "Change to Less." Wednesday and Thursday were devoted to small group game stations.
Writing: The students continued to work on using their prompts from our Treasures Reading series in their sentence writing. We have also just begun prep work on beginning paragraph writing which includes pre-writing discussion/notes, draft writing, proofing your draft and writing the final copy. The students will be creating a story around their shadow pictures.
Science: The students reviewed the 3 things necessary to make a shadow--a source of light, an object to block the light, a surface to see the shadow. They worked on Experiment 2--creating a silhouette with their hand and comparing it to their actual hand and noting the similarities. The students were familiar with the process as they just had their face silhouettes done the previous week. The students reflected in their journals a recipe for a shadow and sketch the order of making a shadow. In Experiment 3, the students took turns creating shadows using a variety of different objects--book, small box, plastic wrap, waxed paper, water in a clear cup. They each created a graph answering yes or no to the questions--Does light pass the through it? Does it make a shadow? The students discovered that objects can produce light shadows, dark shadows or no shadow. They also found out it depends how much light they allow to pass through the object. I provided them with some very scientific words. Shadows can be opaque--they do not allow any light to pass through, so they produce a dark shadow or translucent-- some light does pass through and produces a light shadow. The students enjoyed trying out other objects in their choice time. They reflected their thoughts in their science journal. We went outside to observe shadows in our school neighborhood. On this bright sunny day, each student struck a pose with their shadow and I took a picture of it. The students will use this photograph as the source of their paragraph project. The students took a look at their face silhouettes from last week. They will be making a frame for them and we will be playing a little guessing game with them. Stay tuned!
Technology: In reading, small groups of students read a selected story and recorded their discussion using the app Story Kit and the assistance of Ms. Applebey. Totally marvelous!!! Small groups of students used the app Sight Words to say, record and play back sight vocabulary and practice the word in written form, the app Word Wizard was also used to work on sound blending skills. In the math this week, the students continue to use the app Number Find for work on number patterns, 2 digit numbers and sequencing. The app Whiteboard was used by individual students to practice number forms. The app Doodle Buddy was used by student small groups to illustrate addition and subtraction process after listening to a story problem. A selected group of students continue to use the app Coins to add and subtract coin values. The app Accuweather was used by students to track daily weather to share with the class. The students continue to use apps that have been introduced in reading, math and science during their choice time.
Literature: "Secret Agent Splat the Cat," (thanks, Lottie!) "Green Shamrocks," "Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato," "The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow," "Planets-True or False," "1000 Facts about Space," "Moon Game," "Moon Dance," "The Solar System," "What Color is the Sky?" "Space Race," "Dogs in Space," "My Shadow," "What Makes Day and Night?" "What is a Shadow."
Friday, March 9, 2012
UPDATES for 3/6-3/9 2012
**Please send a potato of your choice to school on FRIDAY, MARCH 16th for our Super Tuber Activity. Yes---a potato! Do not cook it!!!! We will learn its history, examine, perform some graphing exercises, measure, look for its "eyes," take a look at different varieties and learn more about its connection to Ireland. I still need 1 or 2 more volunteers in addition to our regular station day helpers M. Meagher and H. Hamblin. Email me if interested.
**"Everybody Rocks" performance featuring our own Linsday and Alex will be on Tuesday, March 13th at 2:20 pm in the Irving Auditorium.
**Continue to bring gently used books in for Swap, Shop and Read that will be held Thursday, March 15th from 6:30-8:00 pm. It is a great way to spend a family evening, choose great books and have a treat or two!
**Future Field Trip to Adler Planetarium on Thursday, April 19th from 9:00-2:00 pm. More info will follow soon.
**Report Cards go home next Friday, March 16th. Trimester 2 has concluded. We have now begun our third and final trimester. Can you believe it!!!!
**OPERA for the YOUNG is Tuesday, April 3rd from 9:30-10:30 am in the gym. The story of "Hansel and Gretel" will be sung with audience participation.
**Spring pictures will be taken on Tuesday, March 20th.
**Spring Break is 3/24-4/1. School will resume on Monday, April 2nd. Please let me know if your child needs a travel journal.
**It's PACK WEEK! Wear and pack the color of the day in your lunch. Think fruits and vegetables!!! We are encouraging all students to "Eat the Rainbow." The school lunch program will also be participating. Monday-pack and wear Purple. Tuesday-pack and wear White. Wednesday-pack and wear Red. Thursday-pack and wear Yellow/Orange. Friday-pack and wear Green.
**All School Annual Spelling Bee is Wednesday, April 11th from 11-12:00 pm. More info soon.
**Future Event--Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest--Friday, April 20th. Do you have something you are really interested in? Can you make a project out of it? Can you construct a vehicle that will keep an egg from breaking when dropped out of a third floor window? Questions to ponder. More info on these events coming soon.
**All School PBIS Celebration is Friday, March 23rd from 1:30-2:30 pm throughout the school.
**Mr. Packer did a cool project with the LCD projector on what it takes to solve riddles. Think of Mr. Packer's "hints" when working on the "Mystery Number" in challenge math!
**It is getting closer to collection of giant boxes and other cool things for our space station station projects. Keep saving them!!! You can bring them in after spring break.
This week:
It was all about the start of our new theme, "Space." We are slowly transforming our classroom into a space workshop. The students are exploring the different items on our Space Table. Natalia helped spark further interest by bringing in a pop up Space Book. The current events of the week peeked our interest with the mention of a "solar flare" possibly disrupting things on earth. The students gathered information from internet sources. On our IPADS, the students accessed information and pictures from NASA . While it didn't amount to much, the students now know where solar flares come from and what they look like. We have begun to study what makes a shadow. More about that under the science heading! Station Day activities included an estimation activity, pattern block sponge prints, creating Mr. Clown Clock and moving his clock hands to the rhyme and tracing our face silhouette.
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to work in Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading Series. This week, students built background around the idea of seasons or certain times of the year and the different activities and ways people and animals relate to them. The students listened to the Big Book story, "In the Yard." They made predictions about story content by reading the title and looking at the cover picture. The students explored the concept of genre or what kind of story it was. Through their library sessions with Ms. Noonan, the students have begun to work with classifying stories by type or genre. This story is realistic fiction. The students identified the setting and also the BIG idea of the story. They made connections in the story about their own activities they do in their back yard with their families.
The sight words and and what were introduced this week. We looked for them in our rhyme and chime and circled them. The students added them to the rest of their sight vocabulary and they played, "Hands Up, Hands Down." The students continued to work on target sounds Bb and Ll both at the beginning and the end of words. The students worked on reviewing what an adjective does to a word. (it further describes it) They took turns using an adjective to further describe some of our picture cards. (ie- big bike, juicy watermelon) The students brainstormed a list of verbs to describe what they can do in each season. We reread the story again focusing on the setting and making inferences about its content. Students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words. Our puppet friend, Mr. Happy, helped guide us in our phoneme blending exercises using our elkonin boxes. The students read the decodable story, "Hot Ben, Hot Lin." They reviewed their target sight words and made a prediction about story content. We worked on comprehension strategies. The students each reread their story to a partner and shared questions and answers about the story. Robust Vocabulary for this week included the words MONTH, SEASON, SHIVER, MILD, WARNING. The students listened to the folktale, "Paul Bunyan and the Popcorn Blizzard." They compared and contrasted what occurred in each season. They sequenced events in the story. The students listened to the informational text, "A Year With Bears." The students contributed much prior knowledge being quite the experts in bear knowledge! As they listened to the content, they commented and added more facts. The students read aloud the paper story, "What do I Have?" They reviewed story elements and critiqued their own reading aloud. Could everyone hear them? Did they stop at the end of a sentence? Did their voice go up slightly as they read a question? Was their reading smooth or choppy? Could they sound out words they did not know? Were they honest about their reading? The students listened to the Native American tale, "How the Turtle Flew South for the Winter." Why did the turtle have to fly south? Why couldn't he walk? Why did the author tell this story? Ask your child these questions. The students finished the week with new Word Play letters and script. Try it this weekend if you haven't already. Workstations this week included word sort with short e word families and cvc sort short e, read it and add to it-write and illustrate, writing question and statement sentences and illustrating, creating a seasonal jobs chart using verbs and pictures and recording your own reading of a story and playing it back and critiquing yourself via the Reader's Checklist and work in the activity book.
Math: The students revisited the color and shapes in their pattern blocks designs. They reworked various puzzles and created new ones. The students continued work on coins and their values. We have worked on penny, nickel and dime and have just introduced the quarter. They worked on the activities Penny Grab and Coin Exchange and the game Mushroom Money was introduced. We continue to work on time by the hour. We have begun using our math process journals. Each day I read a different story problem. The students listen to the story. They then record in their journals the topic, illustrate with drawings the process, write the number sentence and record how they arrived at their answer. One student is chosen to record on the board and we discuss and make corrections as needed. The students are really beginning to listen more consistently for information in the story to determine whether they add or subtract.
Writing: The students continue to work on refining the lowercase letters that were introduced in the last 2 weeks. Each student is writing from 2-4 sentences using the journal prompts from our Treasures Reading Series. Some students are beginning to add adjectives so their sentences have become more descriptive in nature. All students continue to refine sentence structure. Do I begin with a capital letter? Did I name and tell? Did I capitalize a proper name? Do I have an ending mark? Did I space between words in a sentence? Did I place my letters properly on the given line? Lots to remember!!!
Science: The students began a unit in science called, "Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon." They used the overhead projector to create various shadows of themselves and other objects. I posed the questions--How are these shadows made? Do we need certain elements before we can have a shadow occur? I recorded ideas that the students had on this subject. All students agreed that we needed some kind of light source. Other students noticed that either a body or some other object was blocking the light. One student remarked that we needed some kind of area to see the shadow. The recipe for a shadow became light source, object to block the light and surface in order to see the shadow. Some students noticed that some shadows were totally black, while other shadows were light color or gray. Why is that? (Can the light pass through an object?) The students began work in their science journals. The students thought about how the whole universe was made. A very interesting conversation began about beliefs, bible stories, scientific ideas, big bang theory---wow! Thoughts and ideas can get pretty heavy here in kindergarten!! We all agreed to respect all beliefs and ideas. We reviewed the concept of what makes day and night. We also talked about how the nature of space is always changing as new things are always being discovered. (new planets, dwarf planets) Stay tuned-- we are just beginning our study!
Technology: In reading, individual students practice read and then recorded their reading with the app Story Kit. They then played it back to see how they sounded. Students worked independently in small group with the app Montessori Crossword focusing on either short e words, ck ending words or digraph wh. In math, the student small groups continue to use the app Number Find to develop knowledge of number patterns and place value. In science, we checked the weather app for the weeks forecast. The students also used the app Enchanted Learning to look up information on clouds and solar flares. A small group of students explored the app Coins which involves counting coin quantities. Small groups of students also revisited the apps TanZen and Labyrinth for extra brain work!
Literature: "Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System," "What Makes Day and Night," "Big Tracks, Little Tracks," "Guess Whose Shadow?" "Bears Loose Tooth," "Clocks and Calendars," "I Can See My Shadow," "Hop On Pop," "The Eye Book," "Lightning," "Never Give a Fish an Umbrella," "Rain," "Big Bang," "A Pop Up Book of Space."
**"Everybody Rocks" performance featuring our own Linsday and Alex will be on Tuesday, March 13th at 2:20 pm in the Irving Auditorium.
**Continue to bring gently used books in for Swap, Shop and Read that will be held Thursday, March 15th from 6:30-8:00 pm. It is a great way to spend a family evening, choose great books and have a treat or two!
**Future Field Trip to Adler Planetarium on Thursday, April 19th from 9:00-2:00 pm. More info will follow soon.
**Report Cards go home next Friday, March 16th. Trimester 2 has concluded. We have now begun our third and final trimester. Can you believe it!!!!
**OPERA for the YOUNG is Tuesday, April 3rd from 9:30-10:30 am in the gym. The story of "Hansel and Gretel" will be sung with audience participation.
**Spring pictures will be taken on Tuesday, March 20th.
**Spring Break is 3/24-4/1. School will resume on Monday, April 2nd. Please let me know if your child needs a travel journal.
**It's PACK WEEK! Wear and pack the color of the day in your lunch. Think fruits and vegetables!!! We are encouraging all students to "Eat the Rainbow." The school lunch program will also be participating. Monday-pack and wear Purple. Tuesday-pack and wear White. Wednesday-pack and wear Red. Thursday-pack and wear Yellow/Orange. Friday-pack and wear Green.
**All School Annual Spelling Bee is Wednesday, April 11th from 11-12:00 pm. More info soon.
**Future Event--Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest--Friday, April 20th. Do you have something you are really interested in? Can you make a project out of it? Can you construct a vehicle that will keep an egg from breaking when dropped out of a third floor window? Questions to ponder. More info on these events coming soon.
**All School PBIS Celebration is Friday, March 23rd from 1:30-2:30 pm throughout the school.
**Mr. Packer did a cool project with the LCD projector on what it takes to solve riddles. Think of Mr. Packer's "hints" when working on the "Mystery Number" in challenge math!
**It is getting closer to collection of giant boxes and other cool things for our space station station projects. Keep saving them!!! You can bring them in after spring break.
This week:
It was all about the start of our new theme, "Space." We are slowly transforming our classroom into a space workshop. The students are exploring the different items on our Space Table. Natalia helped spark further interest by bringing in a pop up Space Book. The current events of the week peeked our interest with the mention of a "solar flare" possibly disrupting things on earth. The students gathered information from internet sources. On our IPADS, the students accessed information and pictures from NASA . While it didn't amount to much, the students now know where solar flares come from and what they look like. We have begun to study what makes a shadow. More about that under the science heading! Station Day activities included an estimation activity, pattern block sponge prints, creating Mr. Clown Clock and moving his clock hands to the rhyme and tracing our face silhouette.
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to work in Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading Series. This week, students built background around the idea of seasons or certain times of the year and the different activities and ways people and animals relate to them. The students listened to the Big Book story, "In the Yard." They made predictions about story content by reading the title and looking at the cover picture. The students explored the concept of genre or what kind of story it was. Through their library sessions with Ms. Noonan, the students have begun to work with classifying stories by type or genre. This story is realistic fiction. The students identified the setting and also the BIG idea of the story. They made connections in the story about their own activities they do in their back yard with their families.
The sight words and and what were introduced this week. We looked for them in our rhyme and chime and circled them. The students added them to the rest of their sight vocabulary and they played, "Hands Up, Hands Down." The students continued to work on target sounds Bb and Ll both at the beginning and the end of words. The students worked on reviewing what an adjective does to a word. (it further describes it) They took turns using an adjective to further describe some of our picture cards. (ie- big bike, juicy watermelon) The students brainstormed a list of verbs to describe what they can do in each season. We reread the story again focusing on the setting and making inferences about its content. Students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words. Our puppet friend, Mr. Happy, helped guide us in our phoneme blending exercises using our elkonin boxes. The students read the decodable story, "Hot Ben, Hot Lin." They reviewed their target sight words and made a prediction about story content. We worked on comprehension strategies. The students each reread their story to a partner and shared questions and answers about the story. Robust Vocabulary for this week included the words MONTH, SEASON, SHIVER, MILD, WARNING. The students listened to the folktale, "Paul Bunyan and the Popcorn Blizzard." They compared and contrasted what occurred in each season. They sequenced events in the story. The students listened to the informational text, "A Year With Bears." The students contributed much prior knowledge being quite the experts in bear knowledge! As they listened to the content, they commented and added more facts. The students read aloud the paper story, "What do I Have?" They reviewed story elements and critiqued their own reading aloud. Could everyone hear them? Did they stop at the end of a sentence? Did their voice go up slightly as they read a question? Was their reading smooth or choppy? Could they sound out words they did not know? Were they honest about their reading? The students listened to the Native American tale, "How the Turtle Flew South for the Winter." Why did the turtle have to fly south? Why couldn't he walk? Why did the author tell this story? Ask your child these questions. The students finished the week with new Word Play letters and script. Try it this weekend if you haven't already. Workstations this week included word sort with short e word families and cvc sort short e, read it and add to it-write and illustrate, writing question and statement sentences and illustrating, creating a seasonal jobs chart using verbs and pictures and recording your own reading of a story and playing it back and critiquing yourself via the Reader's Checklist and work in the activity book.
Math: The students revisited the color and shapes in their pattern blocks designs. They reworked various puzzles and created new ones. The students continued work on coins and their values. We have worked on penny, nickel and dime and have just introduced the quarter. They worked on the activities Penny Grab and Coin Exchange and the game Mushroom Money was introduced. We continue to work on time by the hour. We have begun using our math process journals. Each day I read a different story problem. The students listen to the story. They then record in their journals the topic, illustrate with drawings the process, write the number sentence and record how they arrived at their answer. One student is chosen to record on the board and we discuss and make corrections as needed. The students are really beginning to listen more consistently for information in the story to determine whether they add or subtract.
Writing: The students continue to work on refining the lowercase letters that were introduced in the last 2 weeks. Each student is writing from 2-4 sentences using the journal prompts from our Treasures Reading Series. Some students are beginning to add adjectives so their sentences have become more descriptive in nature. All students continue to refine sentence structure. Do I begin with a capital letter? Did I name and tell? Did I capitalize a proper name? Do I have an ending mark? Did I space between words in a sentence? Did I place my letters properly on the given line? Lots to remember!!!
Science: The students began a unit in science called, "Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon." They used the overhead projector to create various shadows of themselves and other objects. I posed the questions--How are these shadows made? Do we need certain elements before we can have a shadow occur? I recorded ideas that the students had on this subject. All students agreed that we needed some kind of light source. Other students noticed that either a body or some other object was blocking the light. One student remarked that we needed some kind of area to see the shadow. The recipe for a shadow became light source, object to block the light and surface in order to see the shadow. Some students noticed that some shadows were totally black, while other shadows were light color or gray. Why is that? (Can the light pass through an object?) The students began work in their science journals. The students thought about how the whole universe was made. A very interesting conversation began about beliefs, bible stories, scientific ideas, big bang theory---wow! Thoughts and ideas can get pretty heavy here in kindergarten!! We all agreed to respect all beliefs and ideas. We reviewed the concept of what makes day and night. We also talked about how the nature of space is always changing as new things are always being discovered. (new planets, dwarf planets) Stay tuned-- we are just beginning our study!
Technology: In reading, individual students practice read and then recorded their reading with the app Story Kit. They then played it back to see how they sounded. Students worked independently in small group with the app Montessori Crossword focusing on either short e words, ck ending words or digraph wh. In math, the student small groups continue to use the app Number Find to develop knowledge of number patterns and place value. In science, we checked the weather app for the weeks forecast. The students also used the app Enchanted Learning to look up information on clouds and solar flares. A small group of students explored the app Coins which involves counting coin quantities. Small groups of students also revisited the apps TanZen and Labyrinth for extra brain work!
Literature: "Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System," "What Makes Day and Night," "Big Tracks, Little Tracks," "Guess Whose Shadow?" "Bears Loose Tooth," "Clocks and Calendars," "I Can See My Shadow," "Hop On Pop," "The Eye Book," "Lightning," "Never Give a Fish an Umbrella," "Rain," "Big Bang," "A Pop Up Book of Space."
Saturday, March 3, 2012
UPDATES for 2/27-3/2 2012
**NO SCHOOL--March 5th in observance of Casimir Pulaski Day.
**Don't forget your "Weather Diary Project" is due Tuesday, March 6th. Can't wait!!
**Please read the letter enclosed by Nurse Jamie concerning the Children's Dental Clinic free clinic to all Irving students. The clinic will be held at Irving.
**Route to Reading Rotation 6 has concluded. All students received information on skill acquisition. Route to Reading Rotation 7 will begin on March 19th after upper grade ISAT testing.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell-Bey did an activity on noticing/observing details in one another and being able to wait your turn to volunteer an answer.
**Mr. Packer concluded his unit on sequencing with an activity surrounding the story, "The Mitten." Using the LCD projector and mouse, the students sequenced events in the story.
**The Busy Reader Program is in full swing!! Keep reading and recording your books. Don't forget you must read to a grown up each night.
**Swap, Shop and Read information is located in the homework packet. It is a fun way to spend the evening and choose good books.
**Report cards go home on Friday, March 16th.
**Spring pictures will be taken on Tuesday, March 20th.
**Spring Break is 3/24-4/1. School will resume on Monday, April 2nd. Please let me know if your child needs a travel journal.
**I need 2 more volunteers for our Super Tuber Activity on Friday, March 16th from 1:30-2:30 pm. I have regular station day helpers H. Hamblin and M. Meagher, but would love 2 more to help facilitate a learning station. Email me if you can help.
**The All School Annual Spelling Bee is Wednesday, April 11th. More information will be coming soon. Each homeroom will choose 2 participants.
**Our All School PBIS Celebration is Friday, March 23rd from 1:30-2:30 pm. The students will participate in learning stations throughout the school. We will have our regular station day helpers that day to assist.
**We have concluded our science unit-Investigating Water. We will begin our new theme, "Space" and our new science unit,"Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon" this coming week.
**It is getting closer to collection of giant boxes and other cool things for our space station projects. Keep saving them! You can begin bringing them in after break!
This week: This week it was all about the weather. We began tracking the weather via Weather Underground each day as we relate it to our Treasures Unit 7. As you already know, we have a fascination about tracking weather in Room 110! Students are observing "fronts " moving in and the direction that weather patterns move. The students loved watching the color changes on the animated radar. They are becoming experts at locating areas of rain, snow, wind speeds, ice. We now know where to locate the moon phases as we begin our study of the moon. The students have also become interested in the chances or percentage of a storm occurring. The students have also looked at types of storms including-tornadoes, thunder/lightning and snow in our area. Perhaps we have some budding meteorologists in our midst! Station Day activities for this week included descriptive writing/sponge painting assignment about clouds, word wheel construction for word-this, and word family scramble. Students also chose stories to read to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss and did accompanying activities. The students took a look at the journey of Casimir Pulaski from his childhood in Poland to his eventual travel to the United States to assist George Washington in the Revolutionary War.
Reading/Social Studies: The students began Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading Series. We began with a simple question--"What is the weather like today?" The students accessed prior knowledge about what they understood weather to be like not only in their own area, but in other parts of the United States. The students listened to the expository (information) text, "The Rainy Day." They thought about what the main idea of the story could be. They made connections about rain in their daily lives. Our sight words for this week are this and do. The students used them and all of our current sight vocabulary in playing "Hands Up, Hands Down" and creating sentences using words and pictures during their workstation time. The target sound for this week is Ee in its short form. The students used pictures as well as created a word web of short Ee pictures and words. The students began the study of adjectives or words that describe. They came up with word lists that could describe themselves, their pets, their home and the weather. Together the students created a word web of words that describe a rainy day. We reread the story again and this time the students looked for details and created a picture in their mind (visualized) of what it would look like after the rain. The students then reviewed the water cycle (go science!) and facts about rain. They examined 2 parts of a book--the glossary and index and what they are used for. The students then took turns retelling the story. Our puppet, Mr. Happy, help guide us in our blending exercises using short e words. The students read aloud from their decodable book, "Ed Can, Ted Can." They then answered comprehension questions orally about the story. The students reread their story to a partner to practice their fluency. Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included, BLUSTERY, DRIZZLE, CHILLY, CLOUD and WEATHER. The students listened to the tale of "How the Thunder and Lightning Came to Be." Ask your child to tell it to you. The students also had a chance to listen to 4 poems about weather. They made predictions about the each poems content by reading the title and viewing the illustrations. The students read their paper story, "I Can Do This," aloud as a group and then reread it to a partner. The students used their elkonin boxes to isolated where they heard a targeted letter sound--was it at the beginning, in the middle or at the end? The students listened to the Pueblo Native American legend, "The Frog and Locust." We discussed rain dances and songs sung in order to bring rain to a very dry place. We located on a map, where the Pueblo Native Americans lived and looked at a surface map to see how the land looked. What did the frog do to get rain? (sang) Why didn't his plan work? (It wasn't loud enough) What happened at the end of the story? (Frog and locust worked together to sing a loud song) What do you think is the story tellers message? See if your child can recall. The students did some comparing across texts. Our workstations this week included, creating a page for our class book on writing and illustrating about your favorite weather activity, word sort for short Ee and CVC word/picture spell, unscramble the sentence and record it on your paper, weather wear sort-creating a chart and labeling parts and practice reading-reading-recording on Story Kit and filling out a Reader's Response form and whole group Word Play activity.
Math: The students continued their small group on Tricky Teens with Ms. Applebey. They worked on creating 2 digit numbers and naming how many tens and ones were in each number. They learned to play the 2 digit game, "It Takes Two." They played this game with a partner.
We reviewed numbers 1-100 and played the game, "Top It Tally." We began a unit this week on coins. The students reviewed the penny and its value. The nickel was introduced. Students observed the front and back of the coin. We shared a story on the nickel. Who is on the front? (Thomas Jefferson, president #3) What is on the back? (His home in Monticello) How much is a nickel worth? The students also took a closer look at a dime. We also shared a story about the dime. Who is on the front? (Franklin Roosevelt, president #32) What is on the back? (olive branch, torch and oak branch) What does that mean? How much is it worth? The students worked a bit on money exchange. They played the game, "Penny Grab."
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. Lowercase letters a, c, e, g, i, j, k, l, o, p, s, t, u, v and w have been introduced thus far. The students continue to work on letter practice both on their mini boards as well as taking turns using the White Board app on the IPAD. With the introduction of the adjective this week in reading, students have been encouraged to try using one or two in their journal sentences this week. We continue to use the journal prompts from our Treasures series.
Science: We finished our Science Unit-Investigating Water this week. The students observed
"condensation" forming on the outside of a water glass that had been placed in the freezer. The students looked at the illustration of the water cycle. They noted it was a pattern that happens over and over again. We reviewed the 3 states of water--liquid, solid and gas. They reflected in their science journals about their feeling on the unit and what they thought was the most important about it. The students also wrote about their favorite experiment. On to Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon!
Technology: In the area of reading, the students continue to practice and record their reading of stories using the app Story Kit. The app Montessori Crossword continues to be used in student small group at various levels for study of word families, blends, digraphs. The app Sight Word Bug was used by student small groups to recite and review sight vocabulary. In the area of math, students continue to use Doodle Buddy for practice in illustrating Tricky Teens and other 2 digit numbers. Number Find app has been used in the whole group for number patterning and place value.
Literature: "Footprints in the Snow," "What Do They Do when It Rains?" "The Loose Tooth," "The Water Cycle," "Lola Loves Stories," "Little Cloud," "It Looks Like Spilt Milk," "Of Thee I Sing," "Barack Obama-Son of Promise, Child of Hope," "Five Notable Black Inventors," "Casimir Pulaski," "Nickels," "Dimes."
**Don't forget your "Weather Diary Project" is due Tuesday, March 6th. Can't wait!!
**Please read the letter enclosed by Nurse Jamie concerning the Children's Dental Clinic free clinic to all Irving students. The clinic will be held at Irving.
**Route to Reading Rotation 6 has concluded. All students received information on skill acquisition. Route to Reading Rotation 7 will begin on March 19th after upper grade ISAT testing.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell-Bey did an activity on noticing/observing details in one another and being able to wait your turn to volunteer an answer.
**Mr. Packer concluded his unit on sequencing with an activity surrounding the story, "The Mitten." Using the LCD projector and mouse, the students sequenced events in the story.
**The Busy Reader Program is in full swing!! Keep reading and recording your books. Don't forget you must read to a grown up each night.
**Swap, Shop and Read information is located in the homework packet. It is a fun way to spend the evening and choose good books.
**Report cards go home on Friday, March 16th.
**Spring pictures will be taken on Tuesday, March 20th.
**Spring Break is 3/24-4/1. School will resume on Monday, April 2nd. Please let me know if your child needs a travel journal.
**I need 2 more volunteers for our Super Tuber Activity on Friday, March 16th from 1:30-2:30 pm. I have regular station day helpers H. Hamblin and M. Meagher, but would love 2 more to help facilitate a learning station. Email me if you can help.
**The All School Annual Spelling Bee is Wednesday, April 11th. More information will be coming soon. Each homeroom will choose 2 participants.
**Our All School PBIS Celebration is Friday, March 23rd from 1:30-2:30 pm. The students will participate in learning stations throughout the school. We will have our regular station day helpers that day to assist.
**We have concluded our science unit-Investigating Water. We will begin our new theme, "Space" and our new science unit,"Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon" this coming week.
**It is getting closer to collection of giant boxes and other cool things for our space station projects. Keep saving them! You can begin bringing them in after break!
This week: This week it was all about the weather. We began tracking the weather via Weather Underground each day as we relate it to our Treasures Unit 7. As you already know, we have a fascination about tracking weather in Room 110! Students are observing "fronts " moving in and the direction that weather patterns move. The students loved watching the color changes on the animated radar. They are becoming experts at locating areas of rain, snow, wind speeds, ice. We now know where to locate the moon phases as we begin our study of the moon. The students have also become interested in the chances or percentage of a storm occurring. The students have also looked at types of storms including-tornadoes, thunder/lightning and snow in our area. Perhaps we have some budding meteorologists in our midst! Station Day activities for this week included descriptive writing/sponge painting assignment about clouds, word wheel construction for word-this, and word family scramble. Students also chose stories to read to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss and did accompanying activities. The students took a look at the journey of Casimir Pulaski from his childhood in Poland to his eventual travel to the United States to assist George Washington in the Revolutionary War.
Reading/Social Studies: The students began Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading Series. We began with a simple question--"What is the weather like today?" The students accessed prior knowledge about what they understood weather to be like not only in their own area, but in other parts of the United States. The students listened to the expository (information) text, "The Rainy Day." They thought about what the main idea of the story could be. They made connections about rain in their daily lives. Our sight words for this week are this and do. The students used them and all of our current sight vocabulary in playing "Hands Up, Hands Down" and creating sentences using words and pictures during their workstation time. The target sound for this week is Ee in its short form. The students used pictures as well as created a word web of short Ee pictures and words. The students began the study of adjectives or words that describe. They came up with word lists that could describe themselves, their pets, their home and the weather. Together the students created a word web of words that describe a rainy day. We reread the story again and this time the students looked for details and created a picture in their mind (visualized) of what it would look like after the rain. The students then reviewed the water cycle (go science!) and facts about rain. They examined 2 parts of a book--the glossary and index and what they are used for. The students then took turns retelling the story. Our puppet, Mr. Happy, help guide us in our blending exercises using short e words. The students read aloud from their decodable book, "Ed Can, Ted Can." They then answered comprehension questions orally about the story. The students reread their story to a partner to practice their fluency. Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included, BLUSTERY, DRIZZLE, CHILLY, CLOUD and WEATHER. The students listened to the tale of "How the Thunder and Lightning Came to Be." Ask your child to tell it to you. The students also had a chance to listen to 4 poems about weather. They made predictions about the each poems content by reading the title and viewing the illustrations. The students read their paper story, "I Can Do This," aloud as a group and then reread it to a partner. The students used their elkonin boxes to isolated where they heard a targeted letter sound--was it at the beginning, in the middle or at the end? The students listened to the Pueblo Native American legend, "The Frog and Locust." We discussed rain dances and songs sung in order to bring rain to a very dry place. We located on a map, where the Pueblo Native Americans lived and looked at a surface map to see how the land looked. What did the frog do to get rain? (sang) Why didn't his plan work? (It wasn't loud enough) What happened at the end of the story? (Frog and locust worked together to sing a loud song) What do you think is the story tellers message? See if your child can recall. The students did some comparing across texts. Our workstations this week included, creating a page for our class book on writing and illustrating about your favorite weather activity, word sort for short Ee and CVC word/picture spell, unscramble the sentence and record it on your paper, weather wear sort-creating a chart and labeling parts and practice reading-reading-recording on Story Kit and filling out a Reader's Response form and whole group Word Play activity.
Math: The students continued their small group on Tricky Teens with Ms. Applebey. They worked on creating 2 digit numbers and naming how many tens and ones were in each number. They learned to play the 2 digit game, "It Takes Two." They played this game with a partner.
We reviewed numbers 1-100 and played the game, "Top It Tally." We began a unit this week on coins. The students reviewed the penny and its value. The nickel was introduced. Students observed the front and back of the coin. We shared a story on the nickel. Who is on the front? (Thomas Jefferson, president #3) What is on the back? (His home in Monticello) How much is a nickel worth? The students also took a closer look at a dime. We also shared a story about the dime. Who is on the front? (Franklin Roosevelt, president #32) What is on the back? (olive branch, torch and oak branch) What does that mean? How much is it worth? The students worked a bit on money exchange. They played the game, "Penny Grab."
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. Lowercase letters a, c, e, g, i, j, k, l, o, p, s, t, u, v and w have been introduced thus far. The students continue to work on letter practice both on their mini boards as well as taking turns using the White Board app on the IPAD. With the introduction of the adjective this week in reading, students have been encouraged to try using one or two in their journal sentences this week. We continue to use the journal prompts from our Treasures series.
Science: We finished our Science Unit-Investigating Water this week. The students observed
"condensation" forming on the outside of a water glass that had been placed in the freezer. The students looked at the illustration of the water cycle. They noted it was a pattern that happens over and over again. We reviewed the 3 states of water--liquid, solid and gas. They reflected in their science journals about their feeling on the unit and what they thought was the most important about it. The students also wrote about their favorite experiment. On to Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon!
Technology: In the area of reading, the students continue to practice and record their reading of stories using the app Story Kit. The app Montessori Crossword continues to be used in student small group at various levels for study of word families, blends, digraphs. The app Sight Word Bug was used by student small groups to recite and review sight vocabulary. In the area of math, students continue to use Doodle Buddy for practice in illustrating Tricky Teens and other 2 digit numbers. Number Find app has been used in the whole group for number patterning and place value.
Literature: "Footprints in the Snow," "What Do They Do when It Rains?" "The Loose Tooth," "The Water Cycle," "Lola Loves Stories," "Little Cloud," "It Looks Like Spilt Milk," "Of Thee I Sing," "Barack Obama-Son of Promise, Child of Hope," "Five Notable Black Inventors," "Casimir Pulaski," "Nickels," "Dimes."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)