**This week has really flown by! Our EAGLE WING LUNCH at BARRIE PARK is scheduled for Monday, April 30th from 11-12 pm. If it is soggy or rainy, we will reschedule later in May. I am still missing 5 permission slips, so please send them in. M. Meagher and M. Chlebek will walk with us. If your child gets a school lunch that day, they will choose salad or sandwich. Milk is as usual. Let's hope for pleasant weather!
**Can you read or recite your poem???? The Traveling Poets Activity begins on Monday. Our class will travel on Tuesday providing a "Poetry Break" to those in need.
**The Irving Academic Fair and Egg Drop were completely amazing!!! All students put so much thought and hard work into all projects and vehicles. I am so proud of our classes participants. Room 110 had 9 participants in the Academic Fair (an all time high) and 8 Egg Drop vehicles. Thank you parents, for your support and nurturing of their little creative minds!
**As you can see, our SOLARBRATION SUN SCAPE is pretty cool. The whole school did a super job in getting it together. Thanks to Green Team for the idea! Let's also salute the RAGNAR RELAY runners who will raise money for our Schoolyard Project. Want to contribute----Go to the Irving School or PTO site.
**Salome's mom helped us begin our prep for our new science unit on Seeds and Plants by explaining the composting process. She brought starter soil, composting material and of course, our little "wormy" friends to help get the soil making going! The students observed our worm friends with the giant magnifiers and some students even let them crawl on their hands. Salome helped the students to know what to "feed" our compost. Students may bring in small bits of newspaper, fruit and veggies (no orange peels, but banana peels-ok.) We will keep you updated on the process.
**The students were treated to a performance by the Hubbard Street Dance Company on Monday. Wonderful movement and music!
**Our Walking Field Trip to Maze Library is set for Thursday, May, 10th. I will send out a permission slip this Monday. I will also need 2 volunteers to walk with us. I have already sent out applications for Library Cards. I need those back by May 1st for processing.
**Future Walking Field Trip to the Oak Park Conservatory on Thursday, May 17th. I will also send those permission slips out on Monday too! I will need 3 volunteers to walk with us and help supervise during class time and walk through.
**On Friday, I sent home a calendar with activities for our ABC Countdown to the End of School. We missed Letter A but we did have two Bubble machine breaks on Friday for Letter B. This Monday, don't forget to wear your favorite Color for Letter C.
**Come run with me at the District 97 FUN RUN on Saturday, May 12th at 8:00 am at Lindberg Park. See me for the information sheet.
**IRVING ART FEST is Thursday, May 17th from 6-8 pm. This is going to to be great! Lots of great activities including the annual POETRY SLAM, chorus performance, Shakespeare readings and art all around. More info will follow.
**Taste of Irving is Friday, May 18th. Stay tuned for more info.
**Future Field Trip--Pizza and Play End of the Year Family Picnic will be held on Wednesday, May 30th from 10:30-12:30 pm at Rehm Park. Stay tuned for more info.
This week:
The students completed the detailing on their Space Stations. Lots of work went into the drawing, making, placing and staging of items and materials in, on and around their stations. Great use of conversation, negotiation, compromise and teamwork during this process. For some groups, the idea of "less is more" worked well and for other groups the idea of "more is more" was the order of the day. The groups had to come up with a name for their Space Station. All that was left was to try them out and see the what other groups had done. Flashlights were an option for "astronauts" wanting to read or share stories inside their stations. Great imaginative play mixed in with factful information and role playing. They all are SENSATIONAL! Please stop by to see them along with the prototype drawings before or after school. They will be in our classroom until the end of the school year.
Reading/Social Studies: In week 2 of Unit 9 in our Treasures Reading series, the students contemplated the question, What lives in the ocean? They accessed their prior knowledge of oceans, seas and the creatures found there. The students listed descriptions of the water and fish they saw. They listened tot the Big Book story, "Fishy Faces." They noted the genre was informational or expository. The focus of the story was a compare and contrast of the different types of fish. The students were fascinated by spots, stripes, color and size of these ocean fish. Our words for this week were has and look. The students reviewed these and all the rest of their sight vocabulary. Students work with a partner using their word cards and pictures to create a sentence. They then shared their sentences with each other. The target sounds for this week were Xx and Vv. They used the Rhyme and Chime to point out all the x's and v's in the words. The students reviewed what a pronoun was. They used pictures to denote a he, she, it, they, we, you. The class created a word web about how fish are alike. I reread the story, "Fish Faces." This time, the students compared and contrast, classified and categorized the types of fish. They took turns using the retelling cards to tell the story in their own words. Many student recalled lots of details. Our puppet friend, "Mr. Happy," guided the students through phoneme blending exercises. Many students are blending 4,5 and even 6 phoneme words! The students read their decodable story, "A Vet Can Fix It!" They made predictions about story content and practiced their fluency. Our Robust Vocabulary for their week included INVITE, DEEP, REASON, OCEAN, AMAZING. The students listened to the Vocabulary Story, "When the Water Came to Visit." The students read their paper story, "Look!" Many students remarked, "This story is so easy." They used the story to work on story elements. Workstations for this week included drawing a picture and writing a fishy caption and writing a story about your fish, reading a leveled story with your partner and completing the literacy activities on the last page using the apps Magnetic Letters and Doodle Buddy to show you work and emailing it to me, sorting ocean creatures with a partner and writing a fish fact list, phonics/word study-building and writing sentences using target and all the rest of our vocabulary.
Math: The students are continuing to work on recognizing and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers and working on place value. They continue to work on their story problem process illustrations and number sentences. The student are also working on an activity called, "What's May Rule," where they have to identify a function and generate numbers that follow that rule with pairs of numbers, numbers in sequence and large numbers. All students continue to work with analog and digital time telling. Next week, we will begin working with dollar amounts and coins that can add up to a dollar.
Writing: The students are near completion in their orange handwriting books. A review of number formation is last in the book. Students are working on composing 2-4 sentences in their journals on topics contained in the Treasures series. They students are encouraged to use descriptive words (adjectives) and pronouns in their sentences. They continue to work on letter formation for upper and lowercase letters, placement of letters on a given line, spacing between words in a sentence and making sure their sentences name and tell. It is great to see many students reading back their sentences to themselves to see how they sound before they come to journal conference.
Science: We have completed our science unit on Sunshine, Shadows, the Moon and Space. Students will write their final reflections in their science journals on Monday. On to our final unit-Seeds to Plants. The students have begun prep by listening and participating in Salome's mom presentation on creating soil and composting. We will begin seed exploration on Monday. The students will be nurturing and growing their own flower plant, contributing to a indoor class garden and ultimately select, plant and tend our outside class garden plot.
Technology: In reading, the students worked in pairs, small groups and individually on apps including Montessori Crossword, Word Find, Tic Tac Toe Words, Magnetic Letters, Doodle Buddy. In math, the students worked in the same capacity on Addition and Subtraction Bug, Number Find, Writing Numbers, White Board, Math Dog. In science we continue to use NASA Kids, Enchanted Learning and Weather.
Literature: "The Sun," "I Always Turn Out the Lights," "Energy Activities by Energy Ant," "Splat the Cat-The Perfect Present for Mom and Dad," "Even Monsters Need Haircuts," "A Guide to Composting."
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
UPDATES for 4/16-4/20 2012
**What a busy week we have had! Our space stations are coming along fabulously! The students are using their design ideas, thinking skills, creative skills and team work skills to produce a great, creative product. We will continue to work on detailing through Monday. Our field trip to the Adler Planetarium was so much fun! The students had a great time exploring the different areas of the planetarium including the moon wall, Apollo Mission Room, Solar System area and the most fun of all--The Planet Explorers interactive room. Many students tried on space gear, helped blast off into space, drove a lunar buggy, handled moon rocks, saw a space toilet and space food and slept in a space bed! Thanks to our volunteers B. Chyna, C. Bravo, I. Henry, Yaya's Grandma, M. Chlebek, T. Naber and J. and C. Brock for their all their help.
**Please take a look at the "Solarbration" Activities for this coming week in the homework packet.. Don't forget to have your child wear YELLOW or ORANGE on Thursday, April 26th for our SOLAR picture.
**"Sunny Notes" will be delivered to students on Tuesday, April 24th.
**The Irving School Academic Fair and Egg Drop contest will be held on Wednesday, April 25th. We have 8 students representing our class with projects. We have 5 students representing our class with egg drop vehicles. Come join us out on the blacktop on Wednesday from 12-1 pm to see the egg drop action!
**Irving School will have its Spring BOOK FAIR next week from 4/23-4/25 from 3:30-6:30 pm daily.
**Please take a look at the information on the TRAVELING POETS Project, under the direction of our own Ms. Noonan, located in the homework packet. The students will also practice their poem in the classroom.
**Route to Reading Rotation 8 will begin on Monday, April 23rd. This will be our last rotation for the year.
**Please send in the permission slip for our Eagle Wing Lunch at Barrie Park. I will need 1 or 2 parents to walk with us. We will go, weather permitting, on April 30th from 11-12 pm.
**Parent Career Day sponsored by Student Council will be held the afternoon of April 30th.
**Mr. Packer is currently doing a small group lesson on position and sequencing using specific vocabulary.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Kwiatt worked on team building skills and sharing using games.
**There is NO SCHOOL on Friday, April 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
This week:
It was all about our space stations! Thanks to all who contributed boxes and other cool things. The students were assigned a group and chose a group leader. They set about drawing a prototype of what their space station might look like. Each group listened to the ideas of its members to produce the drawing. The students used their prior and new knowledge of space and space station design. Our room was filled with boxes!!! Each group had one giant box to begin with and they then gathered more according to their design. The students needed to decided where windows, doors, hatches and spaces for telescopes were going to go and where boxes were going to be connected. My job was to execute the cutting out of these spaces and to use the famed "gorilla tape" to secure each box in its rightful spot. There was constant conferencing on my part with the groups. Some students were quite particular about where boxes should be connected! The students checked my work and then met to choose paint colors. The students wore their special red paint shirts and they had a crash course in "painting 101" for maximum use of their time. The painting began! The students did a great job checking in with each other to confirm what color should be used where. This process took two days. On to the detailing! The students had a variety of recycled items to use as details. They had tubes, knobs, old computer parts, vacuum cleaner parts, jars, fabric, netting, ducting, paper, stickers and computer keyboards to use. The students set about discussing what they would use. All items were in a central location where student groups could get what they needed. I had my trusty glue gun ready and with the help of my sidekick, Ben's mom, we made the rounds gluing where needed. Students were detailing both inside and outside the station. If you all could have been a flies on the wall.....lots of great, appropriate interaction among students checking with group members before proceeding with anything, asking for opinions, giving positive reinforcement and praise to members....so rewarding for me to see how far they had come as a functioning group since the beginning of school. I am very proud of them! We should be finished by Tuesday. Please stop in and see them. They will be in our classroom until the end of May and then recycled.
Reading/Social Studies: The students began work in Unit 9 Amazing Creatures in our Treasurers Reading series. First up on our amazing creature list were insects and bugs. The students accessed prior knowledge about what they knew about insects and bugs. Is there a difference? The students listened to the song, "The Ants Marching One by One." They discussed the bugs and insects mentioned in the song. I shared the Big Book story, "Beetles." The students talked about expository or informational as being the genre. The students made connections with what they knew about beetles. Our target words for this seek are he and she. The students learned that these words are known as pronouns or nouns that can take the place of other nouns. The students took turns using the pronouns, telling me about other pronouns they know and telling what noun they take the place of. Our target sounds for this unit are Gg and Ww. The students generated a list of both Gg sounding words (hard and soft) and Ww words. The students used their Rhyme and Chime to point out pronouns he and she and words that begin with Gg. We reread the Big Book story again, this time examining story details and working on classifying and categorizing skills. The students took a look at the Index and Content pages and discussed what can be found on them. Our puppet friend, Mr. Happy, assisted the students in activities in phoneme isolation, phoneme blending and phoneme segmentation. The students read their decodable reader, "Bug in a Web." They worked on comprehension questions from the story and then reread the story with a partner. Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included ANNOY, FLUTTER, DISTINCTIVE, INSECT, INTERESTING. The students listened to the Oral Vocabulary story, "Insect Hide and Seek." They were able to access background knowledge as well as retell the facts of each insect. The students worked with a partner to create sentences using their word and picture cards and appropriate punctuation. Each students read their paper story, "He Said, She Said" aloud for fluency. Workstations this week included writing about bugs using the pronouns he and she, matching insects to workers and writing a 3 sentence paragraph, reading appropriate leveled reader and completing the literacy activities on the back cover using the app Magnetic Letters and Doodle Buddy and emailing it to me, letter Gg and Ww sound foundation using the app Montessori Crossword.
Math: The students worked with sequencing numbers from 1-150, counting by 2's, 5's and 10's beyond 100 and time by the hour. They are also worked with a partner on many of the new math apps introduced earlier this month according to specific skill level. All of our afternoons were spent working on our space stations.
Writing: Students continue to reflect in their journal using the journal prompts from our Treasurers Reading series. Most of their writing this week centered around their space station creations and field trip to the Adler Planetarium.
Science: The students showed what they knew during their visit to the Planetarium. Our unit on Sunshine, Shadows, The Moon and Space will conclude on Thursday.
Technology: In reading, the student small groups used the apps Montessori Crossword, Magnetic Letters and Doodle Buddy to complete assignments. Individuals used the app ITALK to record fluency sentence reading and reading of vocabulary words. The app Tic Tac Toe was used to answer questions on phoneme awareness. In math, student small groups and partners used the apps Math Bug Lite, Addition, Monster Squeeze, Number Find and Number Dog. In science all students used the apps NASA Kids and Enchanted Learning to find answers to their lingering questions.
Literature: "Finding the Moon," "Children's Atlas of the Universe," "A Trip to Cape Canaveral," "Neil Armstrong," "A Walk on the Moon," "Space Travel," video-"Magic School, Lost in the Solar System," "The Dwarf Planet, Pluto," "Beyond the Universe."
**Please take a look at the "Solarbration" Activities for this coming week in the homework packet.. Don't forget to have your child wear YELLOW or ORANGE on Thursday, April 26th for our SOLAR picture.
**"Sunny Notes" will be delivered to students on Tuesday, April 24th.
**The Irving School Academic Fair and Egg Drop contest will be held on Wednesday, April 25th. We have 8 students representing our class with projects. We have 5 students representing our class with egg drop vehicles. Come join us out on the blacktop on Wednesday from 12-1 pm to see the egg drop action!
**Irving School will have its Spring BOOK FAIR next week from 4/23-4/25 from 3:30-6:30 pm daily.
**Please take a look at the information on the TRAVELING POETS Project, under the direction of our own Ms. Noonan, located in the homework packet. The students will also practice their poem in the classroom.
**Route to Reading Rotation 8 will begin on Monday, April 23rd. This will be our last rotation for the year.
**Please send in the permission slip for our Eagle Wing Lunch at Barrie Park. I will need 1 or 2 parents to walk with us. We will go, weather permitting, on April 30th from 11-12 pm.
**Parent Career Day sponsored by Student Council will be held the afternoon of April 30th.
**Mr. Packer is currently doing a small group lesson on position and sequencing using specific vocabulary.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Kwiatt worked on team building skills and sharing using games.
**There is NO SCHOOL on Friday, April 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
This week:
It was all about our space stations! Thanks to all who contributed boxes and other cool things. The students were assigned a group and chose a group leader. They set about drawing a prototype of what their space station might look like. Each group listened to the ideas of its members to produce the drawing. The students used their prior and new knowledge of space and space station design. Our room was filled with boxes!!! Each group had one giant box to begin with and they then gathered more according to their design. The students needed to decided where windows, doors, hatches and spaces for telescopes were going to go and where boxes were going to be connected. My job was to execute the cutting out of these spaces and to use the famed "gorilla tape" to secure each box in its rightful spot. There was constant conferencing on my part with the groups. Some students were quite particular about where boxes should be connected! The students checked my work and then met to choose paint colors. The students wore their special red paint shirts and they had a crash course in "painting 101" for maximum use of their time. The painting began! The students did a great job checking in with each other to confirm what color should be used where. This process took two days. On to the detailing! The students had a variety of recycled items to use as details. They had tubes, knobs, old computer parts, vacuum cleaner parts, jars, fabric, netting, ducting, paper, stickers and computer keyboards to use. The students set about discussing what they would use. All items were in a central location where student groups could get what they needed. I had my trusty glue gun ready and with the help of my sidekick, Ben's mom, we made the rounds gluing where needed. Students were detailing both inside and outside the station. If you all could have been a flies on the wall.....lots of great, appropriate interaction among students checking with group members before proceeding with anything, asking for opinions, giving positive reinforcement and praise to members....so rewarding for me to see how far they had come as a functioning group since the beginning of school. I am very proud of them! We should be finished by Tuesday. Please stop in and see them. They will be in our classroom until the end of May and then recycled.
Reading/Social Studies: The students began work in Unit 9 Amazing Creatures in our Treasurers Reading series. First up on our amazing creature list were insects and bugs. The students accessed prior knowledge about what they knew about insects and bugs. Is there a difference? The students listened to the song, "The Ants Marching One by One." They discussed the bugs and insects mentioned in the song. I shared the Big Book story, "Beetles." The students talked about expository or informational as being the genre. The students made connections with what they knew about beetles. Our target words for this seek are he and she. The students learned that these words are known as pronouns or nouns that can take the place of other nouns. The students took turns using the pronouns, telling me about other pronouns they know and telling what noun they take the place of. Our target sounds for this unit are Gg and Ww. The students generated a list of both Gg sounding words (hard and soft) and Ww words. The students used their Rhyme and Chime to point out pronouns he and she and words that begin with Gg. We reread the Big Book story again, this time examining story details and working on classifying and categorizing skills. The students took a look at the Index and Content pages and discussed what can be found on them. Our puppet friend, Mr. Happy, assisted the students in activities in phoneme isolation, phoneme blending and phoneme segmentation. The students read their decodable reader, "Bug in a Web." They worked on comprehension questions from the story and then reread the story with a partner. Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included ANNOY, FLUTTER, DISTINCTIVE, INSECT, INTERESTING. The students listened to the Oral Vocabulary story, "Insect Hide and Seek." They were able to access background knowledge as well as retell the facts of each insect. The students worked with a partner to create sentences using their word and picture cards and appropriate punctuation. Each students read their paper story, "He Said, She Said" aloud for fluency. Workstations this week included writing about bugs using the pronouns he and she, matching insects to workers and writing a 3 sentence paragraph, reading appropriate leveled reader and completing the literacy activities on the back cover using the app Magnetic Letters and Doodle Buddy and emailing it to me, letter Gg and Ww sound foundation using the app Montessori Crossword.
Math: The students worked with sequencing numbers from 1-150, counting by 2's, 5's and 10's beyond 100 and time by the hour. They are also worked with a partner on many of the new math apps introduced earlier this month according to specific skill level. All of our afternoons were spent working on our space stations.
Writing: Students continue to reflect in their journal using the journal prompts from our Treasurers Reading series. Most of their writing this week centered around their space station creations and field trip to the Adler Planetarium.
Science: The students showed what they knew during their visit to the Planetarium. Our unit on Sunshine, Shadows, The Moon and Space will conclude on Thursday.
Technology: In reading, the student small groups used the apps Montessori Crossword, Magnetic Letters and Doodle Buddy to complete assignments. Individuals used the app ITALK to record fluency sentence reading and reading of vocabulary words. The app Tic Tac Toe was used to answer questions on phoneme awareness. In math, student small groups and partners used the apps Math Bug Lite, Addition, Monster Squeeze, Number Find and Number Dog. In science all students used the apps NASA Kids and Enchanted Learning to find answers to their lingering questions.
Literature: "Finding the Moon," "Children's Atlas of the Universe," "A Trip to Cape Canaveral," "Neil Armstrong," "A Walk on the Moon," "Space Travel," video-"Magic School, Lost in the Solar System," "The Dwarf Planet, Pluto," "Beyond the Universe."
Friday, April 13, 2012
UPDATES for 4/9-4/13 2012
**Congratulations to our own Yaya and Lottie for their participation is this years Spelling Bee! They were among the last kindergartners standing on the stage! Well done! Our alternate, Ben was very supportive to the participants. This is also the first time in our Spelling Bee history that twins, Yaya and Helen represented their classes!
** Our field trip to Adler Planetarium is this coming Thursday, April 19th from 9:00-1:15 pm. Please read all the information enclosed in the homework folder carefully. All students must bring a COLD LUNCH in a disposable bag.
**Let the creation and construction begin!!! All of our afternoons next week will be devoted to our Space Station Projects. Thanks so much for all the boxes and cool stuff. I may need some volunteers handy with a glue gun on Friday afternoon for the finishing touches. I will send out an email. If you still want to send things in--be my guest.
**Green Team will be selling "Sunny Notes" on Tuesday, April 17th at lunch time. The notes cost 25 cents. Send a sunny note to say have a great day to your family, teachers, siblings or friends. They will be delivered by the Green Team on Tuesday, April 24th.
**I have turned in all papers for students participating in the Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest. We have some very interesting subjects to be studied! If anyone else is interested in participating....I can send information your way. Both will be held on Wednesday, April 25th.
**Student Council is sponsoring Parent Career Day on the afternoon of April 30th. Two of our parents are graciously giving their time. If you are interested in sharing information about your job, let me know.
**Schoolyard Project sponsored, "SOLARBRATION" will be held on Thursday, April 26th from 2-3 pm. We are going to create a picture of the sun much like our spelling of GREEN last year. Kindergarten students are asked to wear yellow or orange that day for the picture. More info will follow!
**Mr. Packer's small group lesson on visual spatial and visual perception patterning has concluded.
** In Friendship Club, Ms. Kwiatt explored the topic of feelings with the class. She read the story, "The Way I Feel," and conducted a discussion where students shared about when a certain feeling came over them and in what situations and how they handled that feeling.
**There is NO SCHOOL on Friday, April 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
This week:
It was all about a few things. The students are getting very excited about the upcoming Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest. There was lots of discussion about potential projects. I am loving it! Everything about space continues to be HUGE with students. Students are preparing for their field trip. We are also ready to begin prep for our small group Space Station Projects. We have talked about functioning as a group and the art of compromise. We will start on Monday getting together with our group and sketching out potential prototypes. Tuesday, we will put our boxes together and begin construction. Wednesday, we will paint the outside of our stations. Thursday and Friday will be devoted to detailing inside and outside. The students will be using the social, analytical, scientific and behavioral skills that they have learned throughout the year. It is TEAMWORK with a capital T my friends! They are ready for this challenge. The study of the moon was also of great importance. More about that in the science section. Station day activities included creating a topographical map of the moon, rocket math addition, 3 dimensional building with unifix cubes, space word search.
Reading/Social Studies: The students have completed Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures reading series. They will take their unit assessment on Monday. This week the students read and talked about what grows in a garden. Students thought aloud and accessed prior knowledge about gardens in their back yard and other gardens they know about. The students listened to the trade book, "Sunflower House." Many students noted that the genre was fiction. The students payed special attention to the story's beginning, middle and ending. They responded to the literature by making connections in their own lives to the process of growing a sunflower and seeing how big it can get. All students reviewed the target words here, little, said and was. They used the Rhyme and Chime to place a wikkie circle around each word. The students chose a partner and created sentences using words and pictures and read them to the other students. The students continued to review our target sounds Uu and Kk. The students also reviewed the use of adjectives and created a list during their journal time of adjectives that describe a sunflower. The story, "Sunflower House" was reread to the students and they contemplated aloud clues that helped them to draw conclusions about the story. The students participated in a variety of activities directed at phoneme segmentation, deletion and blending. The students were also able to work in small groups using the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words. The students read their decodable story, "Pick It!" They made predictions about story content and practiced their reading fluency. The students read the story to a partner. Robust Vocabulary included ARRANGE, TEND, BASIC, SENSES, GARDEN. The students listened to the expository text, "How Does Your Garden Grow?" They were able to retell important facts and identify the main topic. The students read their paper story, "Little Red." All students accessed prior knowledge and made connections to facts from our fall unit on Apples. Our workstations this week included drawing a garden map and writing about what you would plant in it, story read aloud and discussion of story elements and vocabulary, writing about seeds and plants using a sentence starter, reading a leveled story and completing a question and answer form.
Math: The students continue to work on the process behind subtraction story problems. They reviewed time by the hour and half hour as well as counting by 2's, 5's and 10's beyond 60. The students practiced reading and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers. Coins and their values were also revisited. The students began working on an activity called, "What's My Rule?" using pairs of numbers that are related to each other according to a specific rule. They infer what that rule is by examining pairs of numbers that are related according to the rule and then demonstrate their reasoning by generating additional pairs of numbers that follow the same rule. The projects on multi dimensional structures with marshmallows and toothpicks are great! We have big marshmallows, cereal pieces, colored marshmallows etc. Great effort and creativity.
Writing: Students are working to refine lowercase letters k, j, y, p, r, n, m. They continue to use the writing prompts from our Treasures Reading series. The Shadow paragraphs are on display in the hall. Check them out!
Science: The students pondered the question...what is the moon? They compared elements of the daytime and nighttime sky. They also found out that unlike the sun, the moon can be seen both in the day and the night. The students discussed the terms...sun rise and sunset. They examined the moon's topography looking at pictures. In an experiment, the students recreated the surface of the moon using flour, cocoa powder as the surface and then dropping marbles to create craters, "seas," (flat spaces) and mountains. Very cool! The students took a look at the different shapes the moon appears to make in the sky at night in the course of the month. It appears the phases of the moon repeat themselves like a pattern every month. In the world of space, the students viewed the 1969 moon landing and looked up information on Neil Armstrong on the computer. The students viewed several videos on launches of the space shuttle and apollo modules. Space is sure fun! Next we we take a looked at the planets, dwarf planets, current information on space and space travel. We will take our trip to the planetarium.
Technology: In science this week, students recorded the reading of their Shadow paragraphs on the app Storykit. (You are in for a treat!) In math, small groups of students worked with the apps Zombies and Math Dog (both addition and subtraction) and Symmetry in the app Geometry. The students continue to use the app NASA kids and Enchanted Learning to gain current information on our space topics. The students used a variety of apps they are familiar with during their choice time.
Literature: "The Moon Book," Eyewitness Books--"The Moon," "What the Moon is Like," "The Moon," "Finding the Moon," "Look for the Lorax," "Riddles About the Universe," "Moon Buggy," "Space Shuttle," "Un raza de la luna," "Billy Bean's Dream," "First to the Moon."
** Our field trip to Adler Planetarium is this coming Thursday, April 19th from 9:00-1:15 pm. Please read all the information enclosed in the homework folder carefully. All students must bring a COLD LUNCH in a disposable bag.
**Let the creation and construction begin!!! All of our afternoons next week will be devoted to our Space Station Projects. Thanks so much for all the boxes and cool stuff. I may need some volunteers handy with a glue gun on Friday afternoon for the finishing touches. I will send out an email. If you still want to send things in--be my guest.
**Green Team will be selling "Sunny Notes" on Tuesday, April 17th at lunch time. The notes cost 25 cents. Send a sunny note to say have a great day to your family, teachers, siblings or friends. They will be delivered by the Green Team on Tuesday, April 24th.
**I have turned in all papers for students participating in the Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest. We have some very interesting subjects to be studied! If anyone else is interested in participating....I can send information your way. Both will be held on Wednesday, April 25th.
**Student Council is sponsoring Parent Career Day on the afternoon of April 30th. Two of our parents are graciously giving their time. If you are interested in sharing information about your job, let me know.
**Schoolyard Project sponsored, "SOLARBRATION" will be held on Thursday, April 26th from 2-3 pm. We are going to create a picture of the sun much like our spelling of GREEN last year. Kindergarten students are asked to wear yellow or orange that day for the picture. More info will follow!
**Mr. Packer's small group lesson on visual spatial and visual perception patterning has concluded.
** In Friendship Club, Ms. Kwiatt explored the topic of feelings with the class. She read the story, "The Way I Feel," and conducted a discussion where students shared about when a certain feeling came over them and in what situations and how they handled that feeling.
**There is NO SCHOOL on Friday, April 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
This week:
It was all about a few things. The students are getting very excited about the upcoming Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest. There was lots of discussion about potential projects. I am loving it! Everything about space continues to be HUGE with students. Students are preparing for their field trip. We are also ready to begin prep for our small group Space Station Projects. We have talked about functioning as a group and the art of compromise. We will start on Monday getting together with our group and sketching out potential prototypes. Tuesday, we will put our boxes together and begin construction. Wednesday, we will paint the outside of our stations. Thursday and Friday will be devoted to detailing inside and outside. The students will be using the social, analytical, scientific and behavioral skills that they have learned throughout the year. It is TEAMWORK with a capital T my friends! They are ready for this challenge. The study of the moon was also of great importance. More about that in the science section. Station day activities included creating a topographical map of the moon, rocket math addition, 3 dimensional building with unifix cubes, space word search.
Reading/Social Studies: The students have completed Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures reading series. They will take their unit assessment on Monday. This week the students read and talked about what grows in a garden. Students thought aloud and accessed prior knowledge about gardens in their back yard and other gardens they know about. The students listened to the trade book, "Sunflower House." Many students noted that the genre was fiction. The students payed special attention to the story's beginning, middle and ending. They responded to the literature by making connections in their own lives to the process of growing a sunflower and seeing how big it can get. All students reviewed the target words here, little, said and was. They used the Rhyme and Chime to place a wikkie circle around each word. The students chose a partner and created sentences using words and pictures and read them to the other students. The students continued to review our target sounds Uu and Kk. The students also reviewed the use of adjectives and created a list during their journal time of adjectives that describe a sunflower. The story, "Sunflower House" was reread to the students and they contemplated aloud clues that helped them to draw conclusions about the story. The students participated in a variety of activities directed at phoneme segmentation, deletion and blending. The students were also able to work in small groups using the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words. The students read their decodable story, "Pick It!" They made predictions about story content and practiced their reading fluency. The students read the story to a partner. Robust Vocabulary included ARRANGE, TEND, BASIC, SENSES, GARDEN. The students listened to the expository text, "How Does Your Garden Grow?" They were able to retell important facts and identify the main topic. The students read their paper story, "Little Red." All students accessed prior knowledge and made connections to facts from our fall unit on Apples. Our workstations this week included drawing a garden map and writing about what you would plant in it, story read aloud and discussion of story elements and vocabulary, writing about seeds and plants using a sentence starter, reading a leveled story and completing a question and answer form.
Math: The students continue to work on the process behind subtraction story problems. They reviewed time by the hour and half hour as well as counting by 2's, 5's and 10's beyond 60. The students practiced reading and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers. Coins and their values were also revisited. The students began working on an activity called, "What's My Rule?" using pairs of numbers that are related to each other according to a specific rule. They infer what that rule is by examining pairs of numbers that are related according to the rule and then demonstrate their reasoning by generating additional pairs of numbers that follow the same rule. The projects on multi dimensional structures with marshmallows and toothpicks are great! We have big marshmallows, cereal pieces, colored marshmallows etc. Great effort and creativity.
Writing: Students are working to refine lowercase letters k, j, y, p, r, n, m. They continue to use the writing prompts from our Treasures Reading series. The Shadow paragraphs are on display in the hall. Check them out!
Science: The students pondered the question...what is the moon? They compared elements of the daytime and nighttime sky. They also found out that unlike the sun, the moon can be seen both in the day and the night. The students discussed the terms...sun rise and sunset. They examined the moon's topography looking at pictures. In an experiment, the students recreated the surface of the moon using flour, cocoa powder as the surface and then dropping marbles to create craters, "seas," (flat spaces) and mountains. Very cool! The students took a look at the different shapes the moon appears to make in the sky at night in the course of the month. It appears the phases of the moon repeat themselves like a pattern every month. In the world of space, the students viewed the 1969 moon landing and looked up information on Neil Armstrong on the computer. The students viewed several videos on launches of the space shuttle and apollo modules. Space is sure fun! Next we we take a looked at the planets, dwarf planets, current information on space and space travel. We will take our trip to the planetarium.
Technology: In science this week, students recorded the reading of their Shadow paragraphs on the app Storykit. (You are in for a treat!) In math, small groups of students worked with the apps Zombies and Math Dog (both addition and subtraction) and Symmetry in the app Geometry. The students continue to use the app NASA kids and Enchanted Learning to gain current information on our space topics. The students used a variety of apps they are familiar with during their choice time.
Literature: "The Moon Book," Eyewitness Books--"The Moon," "What the Moon is Like," "The Moon," "Finding the Moon," "Look for the Lorax," "Riddles About the Universe," "Moon Buggy," "Space Shuttle," "Un raza de la luna," "Billy Bean's Dream," "First to the Moon."
Thursday, April 5, 2012
UPDATES for 4/2-4/5 2012
**The Irving K-2 Spelling Bee is this Wednesday, April 11th at 11:00 am in the Irving Auditorium. We will cheer on our homeroom participants Yaya and Lottie and alternate Ben. They have been studying hard! It will be exciting!
**WANTED: GIANT BOXES, other boxes and cool stuff for our space station construction. Send them in ASAP! Our space station prep, design, construction and detailing will be done the week of April 16th -20th in the afternoon. The students can't wait!!!
**Opera for the Young was fantastic! Students loved this production of "Hansel and Gretel." Check out the photos on the Irving School website. The students couldn't stop writing about it in their journals.
**Please see the permission slip and information for our Adler Planetarium Field Trip on Thursday, April 19th from 9-1 pm. The cost is $7.00. Please send in slip and money ASAP.
**Information and sign up form for the Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest are also enclosed. What a cool way to be involved! The Academic Project can be on anything. Got some engineering or aerodynamic ideas about vehicles that can keep an egg from breaking when dropped from a third floor window???? Try them out. Ms. Creehen will come to our classroom to chat about the fair and show some past presentation boards next week. The Academic Fair and Egg Drop contest will be held on Wednesday, April 25th.
**Please send back the BUSY READER FEEDBACK sheet soon. Thanks!
**News from our Student council reps, Reuben and Jordan--Student Council is sponsoring the Second Annual Parent Career Day on the afternoon of April 30th. Are you interested in speaking about your job to small groups of Irving students? Please fill out the enclosed form and send it back to me.
**Future Date--Green Team/Schoolyard Project sponsored "Solarbration" Assembly will be Thursday, April 26th from 2-3pm. Stay tuned for more info.
**Mr. Packer's small group math lesson centered on visual perception and visual spatial patterning. It was cool observing the students using their vision and thinking skills to create the specific shapes.
This week:
It was all about the sun, stars and constellations! Also, our tubers are really starting to take root! Salome's tuber has a super long root system growing. What a great intro it will be for our upcoming science unit on Plants in May. Back to sun, stars and constellations---The students looked up information on the sun using the their IPADS. They also looked up information on the history of constellations. They became interested on how constellations were formed and named. We read several books on Roman and Greek Mythology and found out the stories behind the names of the constellations. The students were fascinated by the interesting stories. The students created and named their "own " constellation. They are displayed in the hall. Come check them out! Next week, we will begin our study of the moon. Our station day activities this week included students creating and naming their own constellations, creating multi dimensional structures using toothpicks and marshmallows and revisiting symmetry with partners creating symmetrical drawings of an "egg." We saluted all things created from an egg and read about rabbits. On a serious note---the students talked about the Christian observance of Easter and the Jewish observance of Passover. We are different, but yet the same!
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to work on Unit 8 Plants in the Treasures Reading series. This week they talked and read about seeds and plants. They accessed prior knowledge from the earlier fall unit we did on apples. The students revisited our apple seed study tray and our current tubers. The students made connections in their own lives of blowing dandelion seeds everywhere or helping their parents in backyard gardens planting different types of seed. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Seed Secrets." The story contained ways that seeds can travel. The students observed the pictures and helped track the print as I read the story. We revisited the word genre. Many students guessed that this text was expository or informational. Our target words for this week were here and was. The students used these words and all the words that have been introduced along with pictures to create sentences and reading them aloud. Our target sound continues to be short Uu. The students used wikkie circles to mark each time they read a short Uu word on their Rhyme and Chime.
We continue to revisit adjectives and how to use them to enhance the way we speak and write. The students recalled events in the Big Book story and as a group, we took turns listing how seeds travel. Students took turns using the retelling cards seeing how many details they remembered. In our additional vocabulary development, the student worked on position words. Our puppet friend, Mr. Happy, assisted us in our phoneme blending activities. The students blended a variety of 3, 4, and 5 phoneme words using their elkonin boxes. The students read their decodable story, "A Bud Is Up." They made predictions about story content. The students noted the sequential order of steps involved in planting a seed. They reread the story to a partner. Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included NECESSARY, MOIST, GRADUALLY, SEEDS, OBSERVE. The students used the oral vocabulary story, "Let's Go to the National Parks," to learn about plants and animals in national parks. Some students were able to make a connection to a park that they had been to. The students read aloud the paper story, "Was Kip Here?" and used their story elements butterfly to discuss story elements in small groups. Our work stations this week included choosing 3 position words and drawing a picture that included items in that position and labeling them, choosing a plant job picture and using the app Magnetic Letters to create 2-3 sentences about the picture and using the Writer's Checklist for feedback. The students then emailed their word to me. They also read an assigned story and completed the Literacy Activity on the back cover using the app Doodle Buddy. The student groups wrote about tree facts for our class book and reading a story of their choosing and discussed and completed the Literacy Activity with a partner.
Math: The students continue to work in their math process journals. This week the focus was on listening and illustrating subtraction story problems. The students are continuing to listen for key words in the story to help them identify what operation to illustrate. The words are left are beginning to sink in! The students are working on time by the hour and we began to talk about time by the half hour. The students examined an analog clock and are beginning to understand the 5 minute increments on the clock and that 30 is the half way point. This was a great way to count by 5"s to 60. The students revisited symmetry. We were studying animals that come from eggs and students partnered up to make "egg" symmetry. In addition, the students are using craft sticks to create ways to say numbers. An example would be --ways to say the number 6---1 and 5, 2 and 4, 3 and 3 etc. The students had a super time building their multi dimensional structures with toothpicks and marshmallows. They will be on display in our "structural museum." I can't wait to see how their homework projects turn out!
Writing: The students continue to work on their beginning paragraphs about their shadows. Students have discussed details, wrote their draft, proofread their draft to see how is sounds and if it needs any corrections, and then began transferring their writing to their final copy in their best handwriting. They are looking really good! There is lots of thought and effort put into their writing. Stop by and see the finished product outside of our classroom. We will finish up our formal work with lowercase letter formation next week. Students are reflecting in their journals most days using the writing prompts from our Treasures series or writing about what interests them. Most students are using 2-4 sentences on a specific topic.
Science: The students have finished up the Shadows portion of their science unit. Next week, we will begin to study the Moon. In our cross curricular theme, space, I mentioned the students study of sun, stars and constellations. The students were so interested in the stories about how a constellation got its name. The students also learned about shooting stars, meteors and comets. The students also took a closer look at new, middle age and old stars and why some stars look bigger then others. They were completely fascinated by the fact that stars that are old explode and some of the material from that old star creates a new star. We are continuing to prepare for our trip to the Adler Planetarium.
Technology: In reading, student small group use the app Magnetic Letters to write about plant jobs and the app Doodle Buddy to complete their Literacy Activity. In math, small group and individuals used the apps Number Find, Addition Bug and Coins. This week, some students began to experiment with the app Time. In science, the students are using the apps NASA kids and Enchanted Learning to access information on the sun, stars, constellations and plants.
Literature: "Zoo in the Sky," "The Sun and Stars," "Stories of the Stars," "Seeing Stars," "Shooting Stars," "I like Stars," "Rabbit," "Bad, Bad Bunny Trouble," "Timothy Tunny Swallowed a Bunny," "The Great Big Especially Beautiful Easter Egg," "It's Passover," "Splat the Cat-When is it Easter."
**WANTED: GIANT BOXES, other boxes and cool stuff for our space station construction. Send them in ASAP! Our space station prep, design, construction and detailing will be done the week of April 16th -20th in the afternoon. The students can't wait!!!
**Opera for the Young was fantastic! Students loved this production of "Hansel and Gretel." Check out the photos on the Irving School website. The students couldn't stop writing about it in their journals.
**Please see the permission slip and information for our Adler Planetarium Field Trip on Thursday, April 19th from 9-1 pm. The cost is $7.00. Please send in slip and money ASAP.
**Information and sign up form for the Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest are also enclosed. What a cool way to be involved! The Academic Project can be on anything. Got some engineering or aerodynamic ideas about vehicles that can keep an egg from breaking when dropped from a third floor window???? Try them out. Ms. Creehen will come to our classroom to chat about the fair and show some past presentation boards next week. The Academic Fair and Egg Drop contest will be held on Wednesday, April 25th.
**Please send back the BUSY READER FEEDBACK sheet soon. Thanks!
**News from our Student council reps, Reuben and Jordan--Student Council is sponsoring the Second Annual Parent Career Day on the afternoon of April 30th. Are you interested in speaking about your job to small groups of Irving students? Please fill out the enclosed form and send it back to me.
**Future Date--Green Team/Schoolyard Project sponsored "Solarbration" Assembly will be Thursday, April 26th from 2-3pm. Stay tuned for more info.
**Mr. Packer's small group math lesson centered on visual perception and visual spatial patterning. It was cool observing the students using their vision and thinking skills to create the specific shapes.
This week:
It was all about the sun, stars and constellations! Also, our tubers are really starting to take root! Salome's tuber has a super long root system growing. What a great intro it will be for our upcoming science unit on Plants in May. Back to sun, stars and constellations---The students looked up information on the sun using the their IPADS. They also looked up information on the history of constellations. They became interested on how constellations were formed and named. We read several books on Roman and Greek Mythology and found out the stories behind the names of the constellations. The students were fascinated by the interesting stories. The students created and named their "own " constellation. They are displayed in the hall. Come check them out! Next week, we will begin our study of the moon. Our station day activities this week included students creating and naming their own constellations, creating multi dimensional structures using toothpicks and marshmallows and revisiting symmetry with partners creating symmetrical drawings of an "egg." We saluted all things created from an egg and read about rabbits. On a serious note---the students talked about the Christian observance of Easter and the Jewish observance of Passover. We are different, but yet the same!
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to work on Unit 8 Plants in the Treasures Reading series. This week they talked and read about seeds and plants. They accessed prior knowledge from the earlier fall unit we did on apples. The students revisited our apple seed study tray and our current tubers. The students made connections in their own lives of blowing dandelion seeds everywhere or helping their parents in backyard gardens planting different types of seed. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Seed Secrets." The story contained ways that seeds can travel. The students observed the pictures and helped track the print as I read the story. We revisited the word genre. Many students guessed that this text was expository or informational. Our target words for this week were here and was. The students used these words and all the words that have been introduced along with pictures to create sentences and reading them aloud. Our target sound continues to be short Uu. The students used wikkie circles to mark each time they read a short Uu word on their Rhyme and Chime.
We continue to revisit adjectives and how to use them to enhance the way we speak and write. The students recalled events in the Big Book story and as a group, we took turns listing how seeds travel. Students took turns using the retelling cards seeing how many details they remembered. In our additional vocabulary development, the student worked on position words. Our puppet friend, Mr. Happy, assisted us in our phoneme blending activities. The students blended a variety of 3, 4, and 5 phoneme words using their elkonin boxes. The students read their decodable story, "A Bud Is Up." They made predictions about story content. The students noted the sequential order of steps involved in planting a seed. They reread the story to a partner. Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included NECESSARY, MOIST, GRADUALLY, SEEDS, OBSERVE. The students used the oral vocabulary story, "Let's Go to the National Parks," to learn about plants and animals in national parks. Some students were able to make a connection to a park that they had been to. The students read aloud the paper story, "Was Kip Here?" and used their story elements butterfly to discuss story elements in small groups. Our work stations this week included choosing 3 position words and drawing a picture that included items in that position and labeling them, choosing a plant job picture and using the app Magnetic Letters to create 2-3 sentences about the picture and using the Writer's Checklist for feedback. The students then emailed their word to me. They also read an assigned story and completed the Literacy Activity on the back cover using the app Doodle Buddy. The student groups wrote about tree facts for our class book and reading a story of their choosing and discussed and completed the Literacy Activity with a partner.
Math: The students continue to work in their math process journals. This week the focus was on listening and illustrating subtraction story problems. The students are continuing to listen for key words in the story to help them identify what operation to illustrate. The words are left are beginning to sink in! The students are working on time by the hour and we began to talk about time by the half hour. The students examined an analog clock and are beginning to understand the 5 minute increments on the clock and that 30 is the half way point. This was a great way to count by 5"s to 60. The students revisited symmetry. We were studying animals that come from eggs and students partnered up to make "egg" symmetry. In addition, the students are using craft sticks to create ways to say numbers. An example would be --ways to say the number 6---1 and 5, 2 and 4, 3 and 3 etc. The students had a super time building their multi dimensional structures with toothpicks and marshmallows. They will be on display in our "structural museum." I can't wait to see how their homework projects turn out!
Writing: The students continue to work on their beginning paragraphs about their shadows. Students have discussed details, wrote their draft, proofread their draft to see how is sounds and if it needs any corrections, and then began transferring their writing to their final copy in their best handwriting. They are looking really good! There is lots of thought and effort put into their writing. Stop by and see the finished product outside of our classroom. We will finish up our formal work with lowercase letter formation next week. Students are reflecting in their journals most days using the writing prompts from our Treasures series or writing about what interests them. Most students are using 2-4 sentences on a specific topic.
Science: The students have finished up the Shadows portion of their science unit. Next week, we will begin to study the Moon. In our cross curricular theme, space, I mentioned the students study of sun, stars and constellations. The students were so interested in the stories about how a constellation got its name. The students also learned about shooting stars, meteors and comets. The students also took a closer look at new, middle age and old stars and why some stars look bigger then others. They were completely fascinated by the fact that stars that are old explode and some of the material from that old star creates a new star. We are continuing to prepare for our trip to the Adler Planetarium.
Technology: In reading, student small group use the app Magnetic Letters to write about plant jobs and the app Doodle Buddy to complete their Literacy Activity. In math, small group and individuals used the apps Number Find, Addition Bug and Coins. This week, some students began to experiment with the app Time. In science, the students are using the apps NASA kids and Enchanted Learning to access information on the sun, stars, constellations and plants.
Literature: "Zoo in the Sky," "The Sun and Stars," "Stories of the Stars," "Seeing Stars," "Shooting Stars," "I like Stars," "Rabbit," "Bad, Bad Bunny Trouble," "Timothy Tunny Swallowed a Bunny," "The Great Big Especially Beautiful Easter Egg," "It's Passover," "Splat the Cat-When is it Easter."
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