Saturday, April 28, 2012

UPDATES for 4/23-4/26 2012

**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."




No comments:

Post a Comment