**Fall is in the air. The students are commenting on the falling leaves, leaf colors, animals looking for food in their neighborhood, cooler weather and having to wear jackets and even gloves and hats.
**The students have a marvelous leaf collection ongoing! They continue to sort all types of leaves. Currently they have sorted by color, characteristic (dots) and shape (pointed). Stay tuned--our sorting and labeling will conclude next week.
**Our walking field trip to the Maze Library was great. We had a very pleasant walk there and back. Maze librarian, Ms. Pulliam was fantastic! The students had tour of the library, learned where certain types of books (fiction and nonfiction, readers, chapter books) dvds, cds are located. In our classroom experience downstairs, Ms. Pulliam used a variety of songs, poetry, stories and movement. The students favorite story was called, "Press Here." A big Thanks to Amare's Dad, Cobie's Mom and Grandma, Ellie's Mom, Isabella's Mom and Will's Mom for volunteering to help. All students who filled out their applications received their library cards. They are in their backpacks. Let's go to the library!!
**The students listened to the very animated story teller, Chris Fascione. He was part of our Million Minutes Reading pep rally. Let's keep reading! More Minutes!! More Minutes!!
**Reminder--Wednesday, October 31st our Halloween Parade and Celebration. We will have a semi-regular morning. The students will bring their costumes and accessories in a bag. At 10:00 am, our class will do our bat origami project. I have some parent volunteers for this, but the more the merrier! Emma's Mom has donated a leaf scraping activity too! Cool! We will have regular lunch hour. After lunch, all parent volunteers are needed to assist in the students changing into their costumes. We will have a story time and then get ready to line up for the parade. Our all school parade begins at 1:00 pm. We will parade around the block and then into the playground to form a spiral. After the parade, our room parents have provided a treat of juice boxes and popcorn. In keeping with our non violent classroom atmosphere, please do not send toy guns, swords, hooks, light sabers, poles, knives, brooms or handcuffs. Students may bring a treat for the class if they wish. We will be making treat bags in our classroom. Everyone is invited to attend!
**Thursday, November, 1st is our 50th day of school! We will be half way to 100!! On Monday, the students will learn a little about what is was like to live in the 1950's. On Thursday, the students can dress up like the 50"s. It can be as simple as a white tee shirt and jeans, slick back hair for the boys and pony tails for the girls. If you should have a poodle skirt--WOW! Our math workstations on Thursday afternoon will center on activities and games that feature the number 50.
**Our student council reps, Isabella and Angus spoke to us about an event the student council is planning called ROCK THE PANTRY. Kindergarten students bring in CANNED FRUIT, APPLESAUCE and DRIED FRUIT for the food drive. Student council has provided 2 boxes for us to put our goods in. If you can bring in one of these items--you are a rock star and can wear your sunglasses to school on Friday, November 2nd!
**Our Helping Grandma, Ms. D has returned from her trip to China. She shared with the students bits of her travels including books that kindergarten students use, a picture of the Great Wall, pointing out areas on our world map where she visited, a Chinese coin and a special gift to all the students of a piece of Chinese candy and a pencil. These items are in your child's back pack.
**Information including a permission slip for our future field trip to the Brookfield Zoo will be sent out next Friday. We need many parent volunteers. Our trip is Monday, November 19th for 9:00-2:00 pm.
**There is a very important board meeting concerning the Irving Schoolyard Project which will be held on Tuesday, October 30th at 7:30 pm. in the District 97 Board Room. Please attend if you can.
**In Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey continued her lessons on Feelings and Personal Safety.
**Mr. Packer continues to work on his unit on Probability and Chance with small student groups.
**The Wellness Committee had a Taste Test to get kids interested in trying new foods. The only clue that was given was that the food was orange. Some of the students did try the food. Many thought it was sweet potatoes but in fact it was SQUASH! Next taste test is in two weeks!
This week:
It was all about spiders and our growing leaf collection! Those spiders are not so spooky. They are really very helpful to our earth. The students learned the difference between spiders and insects and viewed some spider specimens. The students learned the term--arachnid. The students learned that spiders live almost everywhere on earth and that they hatch from eggs. Little babies are called spiderlings. Spiders can be very colorful. Students listened to fiction and nonfiction stories about spiders. We accessed information on the internet on spiders of interest like tarantulas and black widows. Many spiders eat pesty insects and bugs that bother humans and plants. Our station day activities included creating a marble painted spider web, coloring their special spider and sorting and counting "treats," in greater than 10 and less than 10 columns. Next week--skeletons!
Reading/Social Studies: The students continued work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures series, They built background knowledge about how friends in different parts of the word share activities, The students listened to the Big Book story, "Friends Around Us." They made connections looking and listening to the activities and places in the world where the friends lived. We located the countries on the map so students could get an idea of where they lived in relation to the friends in the story. The sight word a was added to our sight word list. We reviewed all other sight words and played "Hands Up, Hands Down." Our letter in isolation this week was Pp. The brainstormed words that began with the sound of Pp. Our Robust Vocabulary words included WORLD, GAMES, PLEASANT, ASSIST and HONEST. The students worked on listening comprehension skills using our big book story. We also used the photos on our retelling cards to tell the order of events. Our puppet friend, Mr. Happy, assisted the students in practicing the blending of letter sounds to make 3 letter words. The students used their sound boxes to isolate where they heard the Pp sound--at the beginning or the ending of a word. We read our pre decodable story, "I am a Doctor." The students tracking skills are really developing! They also read their pre decodable story, "I Am." The students practiced reading to a partner to practice their beginning fluency development. Workstations this week included choosing a puppet too read to, drawing a picture of your puppet and you and writing a sentence retelling and event in the story, Using the app Magnetic Letters to practice spelling your sight words, recording the reading of the sight words and beginning to learn how to email your work to the teacher, sound picture sort with beginning sounds--M, S, P, A, blending sounds to create 3 letter words. What is a phoneme?
Math: The students continue to work on counting sequence from 0-50, what number comes before or after a random number, the concept of greater than and less than and beginning place value. The students began experimenting with creating 2-3 dimensional shapes using straws and pipe cleaners. We talked about flat shapes and shapes that have depth. The students used vocabulary words--corners, sides and angles as they built their structures. Magneetos and Connects were also included in their experimentation and creation. We are also beginning to work with geometric solids.
Writing: The students continue to use writing prompts from our Treasures series. This week, they wrote about bats. We reviewed all of our Frog Jump letters and began talking about our Starting Corner Capitals.
Technology: In reading this week, students used the app Word Wizard to work on CVC word practice, small group work focused on the the app Montessori Crossword and short a words. Students are beginning to use the camera function to take pictures of their work. Small groups of students used the apps Magic Reading, Spelling Bug and iWrite Words to work on spelling, blending and letter formation. In math, student used the app Dot to Dot Lite, Sam Phibian and Monster Squeeze to work on sequencial order, greater than and less than and counting quantities. The students are learning how to email their completed work to me.
Literature: "Diary of a Spider," "Three Hungry Spiders and 1 Fat Fly," "Book of Spiders," "The World of Spiders," "Fly Guy, Fly Girl," "Cock a Doodle HOOOOO," "Spiders of the Midwest," "The Halloweener."
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
UPDATES for 10/15-10/19 2012
**Thank you so much for your attendance at Parent/Teacher Conferences. I enjoyed chatting with you about your child's progress. We are working hard in Kindergarten!
**The Irving Book Fair was very busy! There were many great book choices. I did purchase some great titles for our classroom. A BIG THANKS to families who also purchased books from our classroom wish list. Reading is the way to go!
**FIELD TRIP REMINDER--Friday, October 26th is our walking field trip to the Maze Branch Library. We will begin walking at 8:30 am. Our tour of the library and classroom experience will be from 9-10 and we will be back at Irving by 10:30 am. It looks like it will be chillier weather. Please have your child dressed accordingly. We have field trip volunteers--D. Bovio, N. Smith and A. Struckmeyer to assist our class.
**Halloween will soon be here! I have been in contact with our room parents and they have been in contact with you. We have 8 volunteers also signed up. Wednesday, October 31st is an early dismissal day. We will have a regular morning, but from 10:00-11:00 am, I would like to do our culminating craft from our study of bats. We will have no time to do this in the afternoon. Our room parents will contact our volunteers to see if we can get some assistance with our craft. The rest of the schedule is as follows: We will have a regular lunch hour. All volunteers please come to school at noon. The students will be bringing their costumes in a bag to change into after lunch. You can help assist with this and any make up or hair props. In keeping with our non violent classroom atmosphere, please do not send toy guns, swords, hooks, light sabers, poles, knives, brooms or hand cuffs to school. Thanks! The students will line up for the parade around 12:40 and the parade will begin around 1:00 pm. The all school parade will be around the block and then continue into the playground in a spiral form. We will then return to the classroom for our party. Our room parents will provide a juice boxes and a snack for our us. The students will be making treat bags. Students can bring a treat for their classmates that will go in their bags. All parents and sibs are invited to come and hang out with us!
**The FUN RUN was great! Our school raised over $15,000!!! Our class raised $1,300. Way to Go!!!
Everybody ran. The proceeds from the run will go to our Schoolyard Project. Many thanks to our participants.
**Ms. Howell reports that our class has read 9,500 minutes. Keep reading and recording those minutes!!
**Route to Reading Rotation 1 has concluded. You should have a received information on skill mastery. Route to Reading Rotation 2 begins on Tuesday, October 23rd. You will receive information on your child's current skill level at that time.
**Our wonderful art teacher, Ms Tague sent each student their screen name and security code to view their art work on ARTSONIA. It is in your child's homework folder.
**Future Field Trip--Our next cross curricular theme is Bears. The students will be taking a field trip to the Brookfield Zoo for a classroom experience and tour of the Bear Grotto on Monday, November 19th. The permission slips and info for this trip will be sent out next week. We will need lots of volunteers. We will leave at 9:00 am and be back by 2:00 pm. Students need to bring a bag lunch. Students and teachers will ride a school bus. Parent volunteers will car pool. We will pay for your parking.
**In Friendship club this week, Ms. Bell Bey worked with the students on the topic of FEELINGS.
**We have E. Hagedorn and E. Cummings as Station Day volunteers for Friday, October 26th.
This week:
It was all about bats!! We took the fright out of these amazing creatures. The students listened to informational texts as well as fiction texts on bats. They viewed a bat skeleton, a Brown Bat and an Indian Flying Fox courtesy of the Field Museum. Ellie was our student bat expert and amazed her classmates and teacher!) with knowledge of bat habitats, bat physiology and bat diets. The students learned that humans and bats have something in common--they are both mammals. Ask your child what a mammal is. The students sought information about bat types, diet, characteristics (super long fingers and a tiny thumb) and bat baby facts (pink pups.) The students counted bats, wrote about them in their journals and read about them. They are in the process of learning to play BAT GAMES in reading and math. Those games will come home next week. Next week: spiders!
Reading/Social Studies: The students began work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading Series. They built background knowledge about what a friend is and what types of activities you can do with a friend. We listened to the song, "The More We Get Together." Many students recalled this song from their time in preschool. The students listened to the Big Book story, "What Do You Like?" They responded and made connections about different activities they do with their friends. The sight word LIKE was introduced. We reviewed our previous words and created sentences with them. Our sound in isolation this week is Ss. We used our sound toys and sounds cards to guide us. The students used chants and rhymes to reinforce the sound. The students made the sound/symbol connection by writing the letter Ss. They reviewed what a noun was and looked for examples throughout the room. We added the Robust Vocabulary words FAVORITE, FRIENDS, PARTNER, HOBBY and COMPLETE to our list. The students worked on listening comprehension and retelling skills. They reviewed their color words. Our puppet, Mr. Happy helped the students work on blending sounds to form 3 letter words. The students read their pre decodable story, We Like," and made predictions about story content. The student shared their story with a partner. The students listened and responded to the informational text, "Friends Follow Rules." They read their story, "I Like," and discussed what a speech balloon or bubble was. Workstation activities this week included working on a mural about friendship and using the sentence starter--We can.....to tell about the pictures they selected, reading a story and creating their own retelling cards, picture sort with sounds A, M, S and vocabulary review--saying and using the app Magnetic Letters to practice their spelling.
Math: The students worked on a variety of math concepts this week. They are up to numbers 1-30 in our MONSTER SQUEEZE game. The students continue to review number recognition 0-20, counting quantities and telling what number comes before or after a random number. They continued their exploration of symmetry by dripping paint and folding the paper to create two symmetrical sides. What does it look like to you? The students recorded their responses. The students continue work using tally marks to count by 5's and straws and rubber bands to count by 10's.
Writing: The students completed their Frog Jump Capitals. They continue to work on starting at the top of the page to make a letter. The students are working on their writing posture--sitting up straight, one hand holding the pencil and the other holding down the paper. They use writing prompts from our Treasures Series. Beginning sentence structure is stressed-- an uppercase letter starts the sentence, space between words in a sentence and some type of mark is needed at the end. Our sentences name and tell!
Technology: The students continue to use the iPad as a tool for enhancement of skills taught. This week the students are learning how to take a picture of their work. They are practicing a steady aim! Our app Monster Squeeze is now using numbers 1-30. The apps Number Find, Dot to Dot and Sam Phibian are assisting with recognition, sequencing and counting. Some students are experimenting with the app Hundred's Board and Patterns. In reading the students continue to enjoy the apps Montessori Crossword, Sound Sort, Magnetic ABC's and Word Find.
Literature: "Little Red Bat," "Bats," "Bats Big Game," "Boo To You," "Pumpkin Soup," "Stellaluna," "Blackout! Animals That Live in the Dark," "Night Creatures," "Extremely Weird Bats."
**The Irving Book Fair was very busy! There were many great book choices. I did purchase some great titles for our classroom. A BIG THANKS to families who also purchased books from our classroom wish list. Reading is the way to go!
**FIELD TRIP REMINDER--Friday, October 26th is our walking field trip to the Maze Branch Library. We will begin walking at 8:30 am. Our tour of the library and classroom experience will be from 9-10 and we will be back at Irving by 10:30 am. It looks like it will be chillier weather. Please have your child dressed accordingly. We have field trip volunteers--D. Bovio, N. Smith and A. Struckmeyer to assist our class.
**Halloween will soon be here! I have been in contact with our room parents and they have been in contact with you. We have 8 volunteers also signed up. Wednesday, October 31st is an early dismissal day. We will have a regular morning, but from 10:00-11:00 am, I would like to do our culminating craft from our study of bats. We will have no time to do this in the afternoon. Our room parents will contact our volunteers to see if we can get some assistance with our craft. The rest of the schedule is as follows: We will have a regular lunch hour. All volunteers please come to school at noon. The students will be bringing their costumes in a bag to change into after lunch. You can help assist with this and any make up or hair props. In keeping with our non violent classroom atmosphere, please do not send toy guns, swords, hooks, light sabers, poles, knives, brooms or hand cuffs to school. Thanks! The students will line up for the parade around 12:40 and the parade will begin around 1:00 pm. The all school parade will be around the block and then continue into the playground in a spiral form. We will then return to the classroom for our party. Our room parents will provide a juice boxes and a snack for our us. The students will be making treat bags. Students can bring a treat for their classmates that will go in their bags. All parents and sibs are invited to come and hang out with us!
**The FUN RUN was great! Our school raised over $15,000!!! Our class raised $1,300. Way to Go!!!
Everybody ran. The proceeds from the run will go to our Schoolyard Project. Many thanks to our participants.
**Ms. Howell reports that our class has read 9,500 minutes. Keep reading and recording those minutes!!
**Route to Reading Rotation 1 has concluded. You should have a received information on skill mastery. Route to Reading Rotation 2 begins on Tuesday, October 23rd. You will receive information on your child's current skill level at that time.
**Our wonderful art teacher, Ms Tague sent each student their screen name and security code to view their art work on ARTSONIA. It is in your child's homework folder.
**Future Field Trip--Our next cross curricular theme is Bears. The students will be taking a field trip to the Brookfield Zoo for a classroom experience and tour of the Bear Grotto on Monday, November 19th. The permission slips and info for this trip will be sent out next week. We will need lots of volunteers. We will leave at 9:00 am and be back by 2:00 pm. Students need to bring a bag lunch. Students and teachers will ride a school bus. Parent volunteers will car pool. We will pay for your parking.
**In Friendship club this week, Ms. Bell Bey worked with the students on the topic of FEELINGS.
**We have E. Hagedorn and E. Cummings as Station Day volunteers for Friday, October 26th.
This week:
It was all about bats!! We took the fright out of these amazing creatures. The students listened to informational texts as well as fiction texts on bats. They viewed a bat skeleton, a Brown Bat and an Indian Flying Fox courtesy of the Field Museum. Ellie was our student bat expert and amazed her classmates and teacher!) with knowledge of bat habitats, bat physiology and bat diets. The students learned that humans and bats have something in common--they are both mammals. Ask your child what a mammal is. The students sought information about bat types, diet, characteristics (super long fingers and a tiny thumb) and bat baby facts (pink pups.) The students counted bats, wrote about them in their journals and read about them. They are in the process of learning to play BAT GAMES in reading and math. Those games will come home next week. Next week: spiders!
Reading/Social Studies: The students began work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading Series. They built background knowledge about what a friend is and what types of activities you can do with a friend. We listened to the song, "The More We Get Together." Many students recalled this song from their time in preschool. The students listened to the Big Book story, "What Do You Like?" They responded and made connections about different activities they do with their friends. The sight word LIKE was introduced. We reviewed our previous words and created sentences with them. Our sound in isolation this week is Ss. We used our sound toys and sounds cards to guide us. The students used chants and rhymes to reinforce the sound. The students made the sound/symbol connection by writing the letter Ss. They reviewed what a noun was and looked for examples throughout the room. We added the Robust Vocabulary words FAVORITE, FRIENDS, PARTNER, HOBBY and COMPLETE to our list. The students worked on listening comprehension and retelling skills. They reviewed their color words. Our puppet, Mr. Happy helped the students work on blending sounds to form 3 letter words. The students read their pre decodable story, We Like," and made predictions about story content. The student shared their story with a partner. The students listened and responded to the informational text, "Friends Follow Rules." They read their story, "I Like," and discussed what a speech balloon or bubble was. Workstation activities this week included working on a mural about friendship and using the sentence starter--We can.....to tell about the pictures they selected, reading a story and creating their own retelling cards, picture sort with sounds A, M, S and vocabulary review--saying and using the app Magnetic Letters to practice their spelling.
Math: The students worked on a variety of math concepts this week. They are up to numbers 1-30 in our MONSTER SQUEEZE game. The students continue to review number recognition 0-20, counting quantities and telling what number comes before or after a random number. They continued their exploration of symmetry by dripping paint and folding the paper to create two symmetrical sides. What does it look like to you? The students recorded their responses. The students continue work using tally marks to count by 5's and straws and rubber bands to count by 10's.
Writing: The students completed their Frog Jump Capitals. They continue to work on starting at the top of the page to make a letter. The students are working on their writing posture--sitting up straight, one hand holding the pencil and the other holding down the paper. They use writing prompts from our Treasures Series. Beginning sentence structure is stressed-- an uppercase letter starts the sentence, space between words in a sentence and some type of mark is needed at the end. Our sentences name and tell!
Technology: The students continue to use the iPad as a tool for enhancement of skills taught. This week the students are learning how to take a picture of their work. They are practicing a steady aim! Our app Monster Squeeze is now using numbers 1-30. The apps Number Find, Dot to Dot and Sam Phibian are assisting with recognition, sequencing and counting. Some students are experimenting with the app Hundred's Board and Patterns. In reading the students continue to enjoy the apps Montessori Crossword, Sound Sort, Magnetic ABC's and Word Find.
Literature: "Little Red Bat," "Bats," "Bats Big Game," "Boo To You," "Pumpkin Soup," "Stellaluna," "Blackout! Animals That Live in the Dark," "Night Creatures," "Extremely Weird Bats."
Friday, October 12, 2012
UPDATES for 10/1-10/5 and 10/9-10/12 2012
**These last 2 weeks have gone by so quickly. It is hard to believe we are in the middle of October! The students continue to learn to work together and also independently. They are learning valuable lessons about themselves and others. I have seen some nice growth in their skill acquisition. Hats off to their successes!
**WOW! Our class has raised over $900 in pledges for the RUN FUN!!! We have 11 students from our class participating. Come out and cheer on Tuesday, October 16th. We are running at 8:30 am. Kindergarten runners are wearing BLUE. Let's all wear BLUE to show our support!!!!
**WALKING FIELD TRIP to the MAZE BRANCH LIBRARY on Friday, October 26th from 8:30-10:30 am. All applications for new cards needed to be in today! Please send back permission slip ASAP. I will contact parents who are interested in walking with us.
**Ms. Howell has recorded 4,200 minutes for our class in the Million Minutes Reading Challenge so far. Keep reading and recording those minutes!
**Picture Day was successful. We had our group picture taken outside. Great smiles! A big thanks to C. Mims, M. Shwager and L. Pointer for their help!
**All students participated in Walk to School Day. Students who did not have a chance to walk to school, walked at lunch time with Mr. Hancock. All students received a hand stamp and colored their shoe. Mr. Hancock will decorate the gym with them.
**Don't forget to send back your Parent Conference response forms. I have finished up my fall assessments in preparation. I am looking forward to meeting with you to share your child's progress.
**Please Note that school is in session only in the morning on Thursday, October 18th and Friday, October 19th. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah and Magical Minds pick up at 11:00 am. as well the district school bus.
**Route to Reading Rotation 1 will conclude on Thursday, October 17th. At that time you will receive information on skill mastery. Route to Reading Rotation 2 will begin on Tuesday, October 23rd.
**Congratulations to our Student Council Reps--Isabella and Angus! That had their first meeting on Tuesday. In their report they indicated the they will sponsor a food drive.
**Green Team Reps Ivy and Amare reported that their team discussed ways to be "green" in the classroom. We talked about it as a class.
**Our Parent Helper Station Day began today. K. Jones was on hand to assist with a learning station. Look on the left side of my blog for the schedule. If you still would like to sign up....just email me!
**The October Book Order is due October 16th. You may order on line or through the magazine.
**In Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey has begun a unit on safety which includes lessons from Second Step and Talking about Touching (personal safety curriculum.)
**Mr. Packer is beginning a unit of study on Chance and Probability in math enrichment.
The past 2 weeks:
It continues to be about apples. We explored types of apples and apple names and how they are alike and different. The students learned how to diagram and created a diagram of an apple including its parts. They took a look under the microscope at skin from a Red Delicious and Golden Delicious. Way Cool!
The students participated in a taste test and graphed their results. You can check out their choices at conference time. The students counted apple seeds. We made apple sauce as our culminating treat! The students discussed the sequence of events in making apple sauce. They observed the apple peeling machine work its magic! We discussed the cooking process. The students sorted the apple stars, tops, bottoms with the left over flower or blossom and skin that came out like a ribbon. After cooking, the students watched the immersion blender spin and make very smooth apple sauce. Lots of language and conversation! Many students sampled the fresh apple sauce. The students read both fiction and nonfiction books about apples. Our station day activities included creating an Apple Book, making apple print trees, printing with the apple star, writing and illustrating about the change in the season (fall,) turning pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, sorting by exclusion short a pictures and coloring by code. Next week we will begin mini units on bats, spiders and skeletons. Yes, we do have 2 bats in our room! Oh, and 4 spiders!!! They will be visiting until Halloween. Did I mention there is a leg bone in our room????!!
Reading/Social Studies: These past 2 weeks the students worked on completing Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading Series. Our first reading assessment is Monday. Our phonics portion keyed in on target sounds short a and letter Mm. The students completed their lists of people, places, animals and things and learned the formal word NOUN. The students worked on listening comprehension using the big book stories, "Picnic at Apple Park," "Night Animals" and "Family Fun." They identified where the stories took place (setting) and made predictions on what would happen next. The students responded and retold events in a story sequence. We discussed how the story structure can help provide evidence for our predictions. The students worked on concept words--same, different. We began the process of phoneme blending or putting sounds together to form a word. We used A and M and A and T. Our puppet friend, Mr. Happy helped us. He is way more fun than Ms. Gullo when he sounds things out!! Robust Vocabulary for the past 2 weeks included ACTIVITY, COOPERATE, EXCITING, EXHAUSTED, GATHER, CELEBRATE, CHANGE, EAGER, OCCASION and RELATIVE. Please ask your child about these words. Our thinking stories were "The Squeaky Bed" and "Jennifer Bing Why Won't You Sing?" The students thought and responded about the cultural perspective (taking place in Puerto Rico and music and dance in other cultures.) The students review all their sight vocabulary thus far. They practiced spelling their words on their dry erase boards. Students worked on reading aloud and shared their pre-decodable stories with a partner. The students had great fun during their workstation time. Their workstations for the past 2 weeks included creating sentences from sight words and pictures, reading a story and adding a new page to the end (what could happen next?) Writing a sentence about themselves and reading it to a partner, reading a story and filling out a Reader's Response sheet, drawing a picture of themselves as a baby and then as a 5 or 6 year old and writing a sentence about what did then and what they can do now, working with word families and using the iPad to create a sentence using 3 of their sight words and taking a picture of it.
Math: We are counting everything in sight!! How high can we go? 20? 30? 50? higher?? The students are working on the concept of place value using straws in groups of ten. We review the word DIGIT. The students learned how to play "Monster Squeeze" as a floor game and on their iPad using concepts of greater and less than to find a mystery number. It's a great partner game. We are "feeling" number by using our sand paper numbers. The students continue to work on number recognition 0-20. They began the introduction and exploration of symmetry. What is symmetry? What makes something symmetrical? We took a look at symmetry in nature (leaves, rocks, flowers,) symmetry in our body (what if we drew a line down the middle of our bodies?) The students experimented with cutting out a circle and creating a symmetrical design on each side. Cool!!! Students reviewed common and pattern block shape names and are beginning to recognize geometric solids.
Writing: The students continue to work on adding more details to their drawings and having their drawings reflect the words they use to describe them. They continue to use the prompts from our Treasures Reading series. They are working on forming a simple sentence (naming and telling) and to leave a space between each word. We always begin each sentence with a capital letter and use an end mark (period.) The students continue to work on their Frog Jump Letters. They have learned the formation for F, E, D, P, B, R and N.
Technology: The iPad continues to be a valuable tool to enhance our learning! In reading and writing the apps Intro to Letters, My ABC's, ABC Touch and Sound Sort are assisting with letter recognition and sound foundation. The students are using the apps Montessori Crossword to assist sound/symbol development and Alphabet Magic to assist with sentence formation and illustration. In Math, the students are using the apps Intro to Math, Number Find and Numbers to assist in number recognition and patterns. This week the app Monster Squeeze and Sam Phibian were introduced. The students work independently or with a partner on these apps.
Literature: "The Best Class Picture Ever," "The Pumpkin Patch," "The Bumpy Little Pumpkin," "Johnny Appleseed," "The Four Seasons," "A Book About Christopher Columbus," "Let's Read About Christopher Columbus," "If you Give a Cat a Cupcake," "Autumn Days," "Autumn," "Colorful Leaves," "The Big Apple Mystery," "Picking Apples," "Let's Go Apple Picking."
**WOW! Our class has raised over $900 in pledges for the RUN FUN!!! We have 11 students from our class participating. Come out and cheer on Tuesday, October 16th. We are running at 8:30 am. Kindergarten runners are wearing BLUE. Let's all wear BLUE to show our support!!!!
**WALKING FIELD TRIP to the MAZE BRANCH LIBRARY on Friday, October 26th from 8:30-10:30 am. All applications for new cards needed to be in today! Please send back permission slip ASAP. I will contact parents who are interested in walking with us.
**Ms. Howell has recorded 4,200 minutes for our class in the Million Minutes Reading Challenge so far. Keep reading and recording those minutes!
**Picture Day was successful. We had our group picture taken outside. Great smiles! A big thanks to C. Mims, M. Shwager and L. Pointer for their help!
**All students participated in Walk to School Day. Students who did not have a chance to walk to school, walked at lunch time with Mr. Hancock. All students received a hand stamp and colored their shoe. Mr. Hancock will decorate the gym with them.
**Don't forget to send back your Parent Conference response forms. I have finished up my fall assessments in preparation. I am looking forward to meeting with you to share your child's progress.
**Please Note that school is in session only in the morning on Thursday, October 18th and Friday, October 19th. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah and Magical Minds pick up at 11:00 am. as well the district school bus.
**Route to Reading Rotation 1 will conclude on Thursday, October 17th. At that time you will receive information on skill mastery. Route to Reading Rotation 2 will begin on Tuesday, October 23rd.
**Congratulations to our Student Council Reps--Isabella and Angus! That had their first meeting on Tuesday. In their report they indicated the they will sponsor a food drive.
**Green Team Reps Ivy and Amare reported that their team discussed ways to be "green" in the classroom. We talked about it as a class.
**Our Parent Helper Station Day began today. K. Jones was on hand to assist with a learning station. Look on the left side of my blog for the schedule. If you still would like to sign up....just email me!
**The October Book Order is due October 16th. You may order on line or through the magazine.
**In Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey has begun a unit on safety which includes lessons from Second Step and Talking about Touching (personal safety curriculum.)
**Mr. Packer is beginning a unit of study on Chance and Probability in math enrichment.
The past 2 weeks:
It continues to be about apples. We explored types of apples and apple names and how they are alike and different. The students learned how to diagram and created a diagram of an apple including its parts. They took a look under the microscope at skin from a Red Delicious and Golden Delicious. Way Cool!
The students participated in a taste test and graphed their results. You can check out their choices at conference time. The students counted apple seeds. We made apple sauce as our culminating treat! The students discussed the sequence of events in making apple sauce. They observed the apple peeling machine work its magic! We discussed the cooking process. The students sorted the apple stars, tops, bottoms with the left over flower or blossom and skin that came out like a ribbon. After cooking, the students watched the immersion blender spin and make very smooth apple sauce. Lots of language and conversation! Many students sampled the fresh apple sauce. The students read both fiction and nonfiction books about apples. Our station day activities included creating an Apple Book, making apple print trees, printing with the apple star, writing and illustrating about the change in the season (fall,) turning pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, sorting by exclusion short a pictures and coloring by code. Next week we will begin mini units on bats, spiders and skeletons. Yes, we do have 2 bats in our room! Oh, and 4 spiders!!! They will be visiting until Halloween. Did I mention there is a leg bone in our room????!!
Reading/Social Studies: These past 2 weeks the students worked on completing Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading Series. Our first reading assessment is Monday. Our phonics portion keyed in on target sounds short a and letter Mm. The students completed their lists of people, places, animals and things and learned the formal word NOUN. The students worked on listening comprehension using the big book stories, "Picnic at Apple Park," "Night Animals" and "Family Fun." They identified where the stories took place (setting) and made predictions on what would happen next. The students responded and retold events in a story sequence. We discussed how the story structure can help provide evidence for our predictions. The students worked on concept words--same, different. We began the process of phoneme blending or putting sounds together to form a word. We used A and M and A and T. Our puppet friend, Mr. Happy helped us. He is way more fun than Ms. Gullo when he sounds things out!! Robust Vocabulary for the past 2 weeks included ACTIVITY, COOPERATE, EXCITING, EXHAUSTED, GATHER, CELEBRATE, CHANGE, EAGER, OCCASION and RELATIVE. Please ask your child about these words. Our thinking stories were "The Squeaky Bed" and "Jennifer Bing Why Won't You Sing?" The students thought and responded about the cultural perspective (taking place in Puerto Rico and music and dance in other cultures.) The students review all their sight vocabulary thus far. They practiced spelling their words on their dry erase boards. Students worked on reading aloud and shared their pre-decodable stories with a partner. The students had great fun during their workstation time. Their workstations for the past 2 weeks included creating sentences from sight words and pictures, reading a story and adding a new page to the end (what could happen next?) Writing a sentence about themselves and reading it to a partner, reading a story and filling out a Reader's Response sheet, drawing a picture of themselves as a baby and then as a 5 or 6 year old and writing a sentence about what did then and what they can do now, working with word families and using the iPad to create a sentence using 3 of their sight words and taking a picture of it.
Math: We are counting everything in sight!! How high can we go? 20? 30? 50? higher?? The students are working on the concept of place value using straws in groups of ten. We review the word DIGIT. The students learned how to play "Monster Squeeze" as a floor game and on their iPad using concepts of greater and less than to find a mystery number. It's a great partner game. We are "feeling" number by using our sand paper numbers. The students continue to work on number recognition 0-20. They began the introduction and exploration of symmetry. What is symmetry? What makes something symmetrical? We took a look at symmetry in nature (leaves, rocks, flowers,) symmetry in our body (what if we drew a line down the middle of our bodies?) The students experimented with cutting out a circle and creating a symmetrical design on each side. Cool!!! Students reviewed common and pattern block shape names and are beginning to recognize geometric solids.
Writing: The students continue to work on adding more details to their drawings and having their drawings reflect the words they use to describe them. They continue to use the prompts from our Treasures Reading series. They are working on forming a simple sentence (naming and telling) and to leave a space between each word. We always begin each sentence with a capital letter and use an end mark (period.) The students continue to work on their Frog Jump Letters. They have learned the formation for F, E, D, P, B, R and N.
Technology: The iPad continues to be a valuable tool to enhance our learning! In reading and writing the apps Intro to Letters, My ABC's, ABC Touch and Sound Sort are assisting with letter recognition and sound foundation. The students are using the apps Montessori Crossword to assist sound/symbol development and Alphabet Magic to assist with sentence formation and illustration. In Math, the students are using the apps Intro to Math, Number Find and Numbers to assist in number recognition and patterns. This week the app Monster Squeeze and Sam Phibian were introduced. The students work independently or with a partner on these apps.
Literature: "The Best Class Picture Ever," "The Pumpkin Patch," "The Bumpy Little Pumpkin," "Johnny Appleseed," "The Four Seasons," "A Book About Christopher Columbus," "Let's Read About Christopher Columbus," "If you Give a Cat a Cupcake," "Autumn Days," "Autumn," "Colorful Leaves," "The Big Apple Mystery," "Picking Apples," "Let's Go Apple Picking."
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