**What qualities make a strong leader? The students pondered that question as well as learning about the process of voting for a president. The students learned about the candidates and found that they are men with families and pets and interests just like everyone else. They both have a strong desire to lead the country. The students listened to the story, "I Can Be President Too." We had a great discussion about the qualities of a strong leader. Many students talked about our own school's Eagle Essentials. Some of the girls wondered if there would ever be a woman president. Some wondered if they could be president when they are older. It was so cool to see how they saw themselves as citizens wanting to make a difference. The students cast their ballot in a school wide election under the direction of Mr. Packer. They got to sign in and go to a voting booth. Many students expressed a interest in going with their parents to view the voting process up close and personal.
**Don't forget to send in permission slip and money for our Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo. I would like them all in by Wednesday. I will email those of you who have expressed an interest in volunteering to come with us. Our trip is Monday, November 19th. We will leave school at 9:30 am. and return by 2:00 pm. Students and teachers will ride our school bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I have money for your parking fee. Students need to bring a bag lunch and dress for the weather.
**There has been a change in the date of author Fran Manushkin's visit. It has been changed to Monday, November 19th. We will not be able to attend due tour field trip but your child can still order books if you choose to. The order blank is in you child's homework folder.
**Picture Retake Day is Tuesday, November 13th most likely in the morning. Please note that if you ordered pictures you will automatically receive a class picture too.
**The Turkey Trot Race for grades 3-5 is Thursday, November 15th at 2:00 pm. We will be out to cheer them on. Who will win the turkey??!!
**Our Student Council reps, Angus and Isabella were so excited to share with us that there were so many boxes of food collected, it was all over Mr. Gray's room. Great Job! They also reported that they are discussing ways to help the people affected by Superstorm Sandy. More info will follow--stay tuned.
**The Wellness Committee sponsored another Taste Test on Wednesday. This time they served quinoa and asked for reactions. Some students had heard of it and even tasted it before. Some students said NO WAY to trying it but others were more adventurous.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 will conclude on Wednesday. At that time, you will receive information on your child's skill mastery. Route to Reading Rotation 3 will begin on Tuesday, November 27th.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!! We will need several volunteers for our annual gingerbread cookie baking on Friday, December 7th from 12:30-2:l55 pm. No experience needed!! Create, decorate, bake and share. Email me if interested. This activity is part of our cross-curricular unit on Traditions and Celebrations.
**SAVE the DATE! Our WINTER CONCERT featuring Kindergarten and First Grade is Thursday, December 20th. Because of our large class sizes, the concert will be held twice--first performance is at 8:15 am.--the second performance is at 9:45 am. in the Irving Auditorium. The students are already practicing!!
This week:
It was all about BEARS! We continued our inquiry on black and brown bears. The students gather information from books and online resources on habitats, characteristics and food. We have a black bear skull, bear fur, bear claw and some other interesting artifacts courtesy of the Field Museum on our nature table. The students learned that the black bear is the most common bear in North America. The students began to notice some differences between the brown and black bears (smaller paws, smaller claws, loves honey!) Stay tuned--our study will include polar bears next week. Our station day activities this week included, creating a pattern block design and counting and recording the number of shapes used, writing and illustrating a page for our talking book (our take on the Brown Bear, Brown Bear story,) sequencing the stages in a bears growth and development, creating a bear paw using mixed media and word search with short i words.
Reading/Social Studies: The students have begun work on Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed what is meant by transportation--a way to move people and things from one place to another. They brainstormed ways that they get around and discussed forms of transportation that move fast and slow. They listened to the Big Book story, "A Bus for Us." The students made predictions about story content using the title and picture. The students made connections in their own lives about the various vehicles showcased in the story. The sight words see and go were introduced. Our target sounds for this week are Tt and short i. They worked on activities that had Tt as the first and last sound in a word and hearing short i in the middle of words. (think of Pickles the Pig!!) In our grammar section, the students learned about action words or verbs. They had a blast acting out an action word and having others guess it. As part of listening comprehension, the students listened to the big book story for a second time and then used the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words. The students had a lively discussion about vehicles mentioned in the story and their function. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included TRANSPORTATION, VEHICLE, RAPIDLY, GLIDE and CONTINUE. In our phonemic awareness study, the students used their sound boxes to mark where they heard the sound. They practiced blending 3-4 letter words using their sound boxes. The students read their predecodable story, "I am Sam." They continue to finger point each word and picture. They are beginning to take note of how they read--choppy or smooth? They are working toward becoming more fluent readers. In our story, "Tam Can See," students practiced their sound blending and share their story with a partner. Our workstation activities this week included, contributing to a graph about how we travel to school, writing a sentence about how we travel to school, illustrating and writing about a vehicle, reading a selected story, discussing it with a partner and filling out a Readers Response form, recording their sight words and creating real and nonsense words using the word family in on the iPad.
Math: The students reviewed all basic shapes and pattern block shapes. They worked on recognizing geometric solids--cones, cubes, cylinders, spheres and finding examples in the classroom. They continue to work on creating and continuing a pattern and finding patterns in math. (what is the pattern in counting by 5's?) The students worked on counting on from a random number, counting by 10's to 60 and recognizing numbers 0-75. The activities Top It Tally --draw 2 cards--what person has the higher number--you get a tally--was introduced as well as Top It Tally Addition on the iPad. They continue to explore creating multidimensional structures. Lots of team work in the creating!!
Writing: The students are working on Starting Corner Capitals--H, L, K. They worked on their mini boards with chalk and sponges. In our journals this week, the student used the last of their beginning journal
folders. They wrote about what they knew about bears. Next week, they will be starting in their Yellow Journals. These journal have lines for upper and lowercase letters. The students are very excited about this. They are beginning to take a much closer look at where they place letters. There is a place for upper case--dark lines on top and bottom, and a place for lowercase--dotted line. The students were also made aware of tall lowercase and lowercase letters that go below the black line. I notice them being more aware of where they place letters on lined paper.
Technology: In reading, small student groups worked with the app Montessori Crossword to listen and create 3 letter words. The app Magnetic Letters was used as students made sentences containing their sight words and learned to save the image and then recorded themselves reading their sentences and critiquing how they sound. Small student groups use the app Reading Magic to create real and nonsense words using the word family in. Students continue to read into the app iTalk to hear how they sound when reading. In math, small groups, students were introduced to the app Top It Addition and worked with a partner to add the number to see who had the greater sum. Monster Squeeze, Dot to Dot Lite, Into to Math, Sam Phibian and Number Find continue to be favorites to enhance skills being taught in the classroom.
Literature: "I Can be President Too," "So You Want to be the President?" "Amazing Bears," "Bears in the Forest," "A Baby Bear," "Black Bear Cubs," "Hibernation," "Hibernation Station," "Bears," "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?" "Black Bears-Osos Negros," "Every Autumn Comes a Bear."
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