Friday, November 30, 2012

UPDATES for 11/26-11/30 2012

**The students appeared to have had a restful break and returned ready to learn!  We have begun our new cross curricular theme--TRADITIONS and CELEBRATIONS.  We talked about what a tradition is--the handing down of a custom, belief or way of doing something from generation to generation or for long periods of time.  Families have traditions.  Friends have traditions.  Schools have traditions.  Classrooms have traditions. I shared with the students my tradition of doing a literature study of Gingerbread stories and comparing the various characters and outcomes.  At the end of our study we create, decorate and bake gingerbread cookies to share with family and friends.  It has been a tradition of mine for 17 years!  Please chat this weekend with your child about traditions in your family.  We will be talking more about this next week.  If you are interested in coming to talk to our class about a holiday you celebrate, let me know.  We will be talking about Diwali (India), St. Lucia (Scandinavia), St Nicholas Day (Germany), Hanukkah, the Christmas story,  Epiphany, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa and New Years around the World.  If you have a special tradition in your family and want to share it with class, let me know and we can schedule a time.
** A BIG SHOUT OUT for one more volunteer to help us bake Gingerbread Cookies!!  We have 7--Ms. Jones, Ms. Struckmeyer, Ms. Frank, Ms. Gurgas, Ms. Bovio, Ms. Pointer and Ms. Connelly who is part of our regular station day for that day.  If we could have 1 more--that would be perfect!  It is Friday, December 7th from 12:30-2:55 pm. Think about it and email me.  All you need to bring is cookie sheets and a spatula.  I have the dough, sprinkles, rolling pins and cookie cutters and aprons.  (It gets a little dusty with the flour, so don't wear your party clothes!)
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 has begun.  Your child has brought home a paper indicating the skill that they are working on.
**Report cards will go home on Tuesday, December 4th.
**The PTO sponsored program of CHINESE ACROBATS was totally awesome!  The students loved the balancing of bodies, plates and fun rope tricks as well as the colorful costumes and cool music.  The gentleman introducing the show said that the acrobats study for many years to perfect their skills.  It was a great event!  Thanks to our Irving PTO!
**The students enjoyed their second Pajama Day and literature viewing and discussion.  There were fuzzy slippers, interesting pajamas and cuddly stuffed animals.  The students viewed the talking book, "Harold and the Purple Crayon."  Afterwards, they discussed what it would be like to have a magic crayon and what they would draw.  This was a great reward for a job well done on collecting Eagle Wings as an entire class!
**Keep sending in those pennies and other coins for the Student Council sponsored, "Pennies for Sandy" drive to raise money for school children affected by Superstorm Sandy. The drive is from now until 12/7.
**The students did enjoy a dance or two at our all school PBIS outdoor dance party today.  
**The students are hard at work practicing their songs and instruments for their Winter Concert featuring Kindergarten and First Grade that will be held on Thursday, December 20th at two showings--one at 8:15 am and the second on at 9:45 am.  It will be in the Irving Auditorium.   Our room parents are finalizing plans for refreshment table and craft making project for families and students.  Families, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friend are invited to attend.
**Our Green Team reps, Amare and Ivy are helping reinforce our recycling efforts at lunch time by reminding students were to place trays and milk cartons.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms Bell Bey discussed and the students participated in an activity related to working together as a team.  She also discussed human kindness words and being thoughtful and kind to others.
This week:  
 It was all about tying up loose ends--a few more Bear stories, completing Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Series, reviewing our sight words, letter sounds, blending and segmenting words, counting and adding up sets and thinking about our next cross-curricular theme--Celebrations and Traditions.  The students began an inquiry into not only how they celebrate during the winter months, but also how children in other parts of the world celebrate that time.  The students began to look through books and internet web sites for information.  They observed that many of the celebrations both in our country and other countries, have lights, candles, or lanterns as part of that particular celebration.  Stay tuned for more!  Our station day activities included putting together sound blending wheels for homework use and sounding out the words they made, creating candles with glitter and jewels (so sparkly),  reading and following the directions in their Gingerbread Color Find Book and playing the "Roll a Gingerbread Man Game" with a partner. 
Reading/Social Studies:   The completed Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures series.  The students built background knowledge about the different ways wheels are used to move people and things around.  They worked on their listening comprehension listening to David Shannon's story, "Duck on a Bike," read both in English and in Spanish!  Students identified the characters and the plot (what is happening in the story.)  They took a closer look at the way the story is organized (a beginning, middle and end), and responded to the story by discussing the connections that can be made from the story to their daily lives. (Sometimes I see kids riding bikes in my neighborhood.)  The students retold the story in their own words using their retelling cards.  The students reviewed the sight words go and see using chants and rhymes.  This week we started using the Wacky Sentences format.  I take their sight words and pictures and create a mixed up sentence lacking such things as punctuation, capitalization, word order.  The students analyze the sentence and decide how to move the words and pictures around to make sentence make sense.  They are really beginning to think about sentence structure!!  The students reviewed target sounds Short Ii and Tt and used their elkonin boxes to sound blend and segment 3-4 phoneme words.  Lots of discussion on nouns and verbs.  The students used their photo cards to create a sentence with noun/verb order.  We also had an introduction to Consonant Blends and Digraphs.  Do you know the difference?  Ask your child!  Our Robust Vocabulary this week included ADVENTURE, WHEELS, ATTACH, HAUL and MASSIVE.  The students read their pre decodable story, "I see a Truck Go," and made predictions about story content.  The students used their oral vocabulary cards to expand their knowledge of types of trucks.  The students read, "I Can Go," and practiced reading to a partner to build fluency.  The partners discussed the story noting the characters, setting and what was happening. (plot)  Our workstation activities included read it and add to it-where students read and discuss their story and then add a new page about what might happen next and share it, playing the Humpty Dumpty short i and a Game, using the iPad app Magnetic Letters to create sentences using their sight words, using a sentence prompt with go and see and illustrating it, sorting words with consonant blends and digraphs and reading and discussing a story and using the iPad app Story Kit to record the story discussion.
Math:   The students worked on rote counting to 60.  They used their dry erase boards to listen to a given number and record it.  They are working on single and double digit numbers.  We continue to work on counting by 2"s and 5's.  The students worked on the concept of probability and estimation this week.  Next week, I will set up our guessing jar activities.  The students experimented with weight and balance scales.  They also used nonstandard measurement items such as cubes, bears, tiles and pennies to measure the distance around their classmate, the table, a book, their finger.  Next week, we will begin to learn strategies to assist in proper number formation.  The students are really beginning to listen for information in our story problems in order to tell if you add something or take away something.
Writing:   The students have finished work on the Starting Corner Capitals-H K L U V W X Y Z.  We will begin our 'Magic C" Capitals next week.  The students writing abilities continue to progress!  They are really loving their new journals and working hard at letter formation, grammar, spacing between words in a sentence and placement of letters on a given line.
Technology:   The iPads continue to support our overall learning.  In reading and literacy, student small groups are using the app Word Wizard to sound blend and spell targeted words with short i and a.  Individual students are recording there reading using the app Story Kit.  It is also used for small group discussions.  The apps Montessori Crossword and Magic Reading 2 are assisting small groups of students with blending and segmenting skills.  The app Rocket Speller is used to enhance sequencing of letters in a targeted word.  In math, the students are working with partners using the iPad app Top It Addition.  They are sharpening their memory, attention, spacial reasoning and problem solving as they work on the app Underwater Memory Match. 
Literature:   "No Jumping on the Bed," "Celebrations," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Boy," "Celebrations Around the World."



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