UPDATES for 9/4-9/7 2012

**The students shared many Labor Day stories about family and friends.  We all enjoyed our long weekend.  I enjoyed spending time with family in Arizona.  The students enjoyed a book I brought back called "Cactus Hotel," about all the desert creatures who take advantage of the marvelous cactus plant.  They sampled cactus candy to mixed reviews (too sweet, too sticky, pretty good , very good.)
**Thanks to all of our parent volunteers for their help at lunch.  The students are used to the lunch routine.  They are still getting used to the school lunch menu.  Many times the food does not look like what mom makes at home!  Next week, we will be on our own.  I will continue to work lunch Monday thru Thursday.  On Fridays, Ms. Creehan will take over for me.  Ms. Dennis will be working all five days.  Once again, thanks for sending great home lunches and snacks!
**Zaria shared with the class the first Travel Journal.  She traveled to Aurora, Illinois.  The students helped me locate it on our map.  She shared some experiences from her weekend. 
**COME ONE, COME ALL to IRVING SCHOOL'S OPEN HOUSE this coming Thursday, September 13th from 6:30-7:30 pm.  Stop by our classroom first to sign in and sign up for parent conferences and other cool volunteer stuff.  Your child will be your tour guide!  See the room and student work and then move on to meet all the teachers involved in your child's learning at Irving.  Fun! Fun! Fun!
**KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM NIGHT is Thursday, September 20th from 6:00-7:00 pm in the Irving Auditorium.  This adult only event will provide you with absolutely everything you really need to know about the tools used to educate your child.  Hope to see you there.  Bring your questions.
**I am currently in the process of assessing students with the DIBELS test and PHONIC SCREENERS.  These assessments will help in determining each students placement in our skill specific Route to Reading Groups.  You will hear much more about this at Curriculum Night.  This week all KRT (Kindergarten Readiness Test) were given to students who did not take them prior to the beginning of kindergarten.  The score is in your child's backpack.  Any questions...email me.
**The students chose their first library book this week.  They keep it for 1 week, bring it back and then can check out 2 books.  They must return the book to check out more.  Make sure to keep the book in your child's back pack when not reading it to keep it from getting lost.
**Friendship Club and Mr. Packer Math Enrichment will begin next week.
**MILLION MINUTES READING CHALLENGE will begin in October.  You will be receiving more info on it soon.  The whole school is taking part!  I will need a parent volunteer to help co-ordinate the weekly minutes.
**Magical Minds after school Program could use a few more students.  See me if interested.
**For this school year, I will not be posting any student projects or pictures of students on the web.  I have parents who have signed to not have their child's picture out there.  I do respect this.  Any projects or student work will be directly emailed to each of you.  I will also show projects in our classroom via slideshow.
**The students are earning their EAGLE WINGS and individual EAGLE SLIPS!!!  Let's hear it for great following of the EAGLE ESSENTIALS!!!! (Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe, Be Peaceful Everywhere and Have Fun) A special shout out to our first Eagle Slip winner--WILL.  His EAGLE SLIP was pick out of the big box by Mr. Hodge!!!!!  Our whole class earned enough EAGLE WINGS to choose a special activity.  Way to go!!!!
This week:
It was all about getting to know ourselves, our classmates and teachers.  What do we look like?  What activities do we like to do?  Where do we like to go? Have we made any new friends? Who is in our family?  What do we like best about school?  The students have begun to share many aspects of their lives with me and each other.  The students looked in the giant mirror to see what they look like.  They used MAT MAN as a guide to include body parts when drawing their self portrait.  They made a paper doll of themselves. (totally adorable!) and we looked at their "HEADS" to see the commonalities in our hobbies, favorite foods, family members, favorite activities and books.  We had our first Station Day where the students are responsible for completing 4 activities before snack and choice.  They are learning to follow directions, manage time and produce quality work.  Our Station Day activities included creating a number board using numbers 0-10, sticker pattern charts, stamping your name and building a dog out of pattern blocks. (great for spacial awareness and visual discrimination development) 
Reading/Social Studies:   The students continue to work in week 2 of our prep for Treasures called START SMART.  They reviewed their sound foundation for letters A-H.  We used our mirrors to help imprint how the sound looks.  The students listened to a read aloud story, "The Gingerbread Man."  The students are beginning to learn terms such as genre-type of story and folktale-a story from long ago that has been told many times and sometimes changes.  They created a picture in their minds about what was happening in the story.  We discussed the story and students then retold it in their own words.  Students worked on letter recognition with letters J-P.  They played letter match up and pop for letters.  Students read their pre-decodable story "I Can."  They located the front and back cover, the title and title picture and where to begin to read the words. (from the left to the right)  We practiced finger pointing each word and picture and found out that all sentences begin with a big letter and have some ending mark.  The students took turns reading the sentence and the others followed along with their finger. I shared the trade book, "Jazz Baby."  The students made predictions about story content and made connections in their daily lives about the instruments mentioned.  They used the retelling cards to sequence the instruments mentioned.  The students reviewed sight words using the games, "Hands Up, Hands Down"  and "Walk your Words."  They are getting quicker at recognizing these words. We created a word web about how we dance.  They recited rhymes they learned in their early childhood like  "Little Boy Blue" and "Humpty Dumpty,"  They have begun to listen to the parts or syllables of words such as hor-ses (2 parts or syllables.)  Our workstations this week included "Froggy, Froggy Where's your Home," sound matching game, "The Three Pigs," Sound Toy Bag Game and iPad app activities ABC Touch, Sound Sort, ABC Magic and ABC Lite.  The students also continue work on the Haggerty Blue Book exercises.
Math:   The students worked on pattern block shape recognition.  We even did the Shape Hokey Pokey!!  Did you know that a diamond can also be called a rhombus?!!  They also worked on basic patterning skills and the idea that a pattern repeats or starts over again.  The students chose a partner for their boarder pattern project.  They will be on display at Open House.  Nice job, great taking turns and good encouragement from each other.  The students worked on recognizing numbers 0-12.  We used egg carton math, counting and building number boards and "What's My Number" to reinforce skills.  The students listened to tell how many pennies they heard drop into the Listening Jar.  We began a discussion about what tally marks are.  The students are also creating patterns using unifix cubes.
Writing:   The students reviewed the types of lines used in making letters.  They were introduced to the format used in teaching how to form their letters.  The first set in our Handwriting Without Tears Series in our FROG JUMP LETTERS.  To get our hands and fingers ready they explored the HAND STRENGTHENING BOX filled with activities to strengthen grip and tripod grasp.  These items will also be on display at Open House.  Fun! Fun! Fun!  We worked on the letters F and E.  Our new mantra--Where do you start your letters----At the top!!!!!  The students also continue to use our great smelling clay to work all the muscles and joints in their fingers and hands.  The students continue to use the writing prompts from our Treasures series in their journals.  They continue to experiment with drawing their picture and recording the sounds they hear in a word that describes their picture.  They are working on starting their sentence with a big letter and that a sentence NAMES and TELLS.
Technology:   The students continue to learn about the operation and care of the iPad.  We are currently using apps about the ABC's and Sounds.  Next week apps on math/numbers and more on language arts will be introduced.
Literature:   "The Best Teacher in the World," "Smile If Your'e Human," "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," "The Cactus Hotel," "Yes We Can," "The Pout Pout Fish," "Hedgies Surprise," "How Do Dinosaurs Go to School," "The Alphabet Adventure," "The Pout Pout Fish in the Big Big Dark," "Fox in Socks," "Silly Sally."