Saturday, January 19, 2013

UPDATES for 1/11-1/18 2013

**This week has really flown by!  The students are hoping for some snow but are excited about the coming frigid weather and experiments with ice!!   Thanks for doing a great job of dressing them appropriately for the weather.  Don't forget to send gym shoes on gym days!
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 21st in observance of M. L. King Day.  The students discussed the many accomplishments of Dr. King.  They listened to the "I Have a Dream" speech.  They made some connections in their own lives of becoming thoughtful, caring and peaceful adults.  All agreed that Dr. King really followed the Eagle Essentials in his daily life!
**All DIBELS assessments and midyear assessments have been completed.  The students are working so hard!  I look forward to sharing their progress with you at conferences.
**Conferences for my class will be held Monday, January 28th, Tuesday, January 29th, Wednesday, January 30th and Thursday, January 31st.  If you have not done so already, please confirm your assigned time.  I am in the process of working on rescheduling those who have requested a new time.  I will get back to you this week.  Please note--There is no class the afternoon of Thursday, January 31st and Friday, February 1st.  Dismissal will be a 11:00 am.  Hephzibah and River Forest Community Center pick up is at 11:00 am.
**Our 100th Day Celebration is fast approaching!!  No doubt you have seen the giant heart project that went home on Friday.  The students are so excited about this.  Our celebration will take place on Friday, February 1st from 9-11 am.   I have M. Schwager, T. Larnell, A. Struckmeyer, L. Banghart, C. Cummings, K. Jones, D. Frank and L. Pointer and Grandma who have volunteered to help.  The more the merrier!!!  Email me if you would like to volunteer.  The 100 item Heart Project is due Wednesday, January 29th.  Have fun!
**Don't forget to check the Irving website for info and registration on the Young Scientist Conference.  It will be held February, 23rd at Mann School.  It is a really cool conference for all ages--check it out!
**Please read the info on the 2 new additions to our classroom fun--Busy Reader Club and Word Play.  All information is located in your child's homework folder.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey worked with the students on a review of activities covered thus far on the topics of Feelings, Doing your Best, Personal Safety, Friendship, Conflict Resolution.
** In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer did a totally cool higher level thinking activity with the students using their ability to be detectives and look for clues when listening to a script and having them select or rule out pictures that will eventually help them solve the problem.
**A continued shout out for saving Giant Boxes and other cool stuff for our space station projects that will be done in April.  I cannot store them now.  Keep them until after spring break.  Thanks!
**Spelling City has been updated.  Remember, you can always access previous lessons.  We are moving into our First Grade words.
This week:
It continues to be about Weather and Water.  The students thought it was totally cool and a bit scary that ice had formed on all the playground equipment earlier in the week.  We all had to move to the blacktop at lunch recess for a few days.  Students broke off ice pieces to bring inside.  It did not take long for them to turn into water.  That solid-liquid thing....We kept a close eye on our iPad weather app to check the weather for the coming week----oh my----frigid conditions for a few days.  It is great for our next set of experiments-water as ice and bubbles.  Can't wait!  Our station day activities this week included snowman sequence, graphing and analyzing winter clothing, snowflake symmetry and color the code--ending sound review.
Reading/Social Studies:   The students continue to work in Unit 5 Animals in our Treasurers Reading series.  The students built background knowledge surrounding how an animal changes and grows.  They listened to the big book story," Animal Babies ABC's."  We talked about the word "expository" as meaning information about a subject.  Our story was an expository text.  The students made connections from the story about animals they had seen grow from babies to grown ups.  Many students talked about their pets or animals they had seen in the zoo or on t.v.  Some animal changes are pretty dramatic like tadpoles to frogs or very curious like a joey living in their moms pouch.  The students used the retelling cards to retell the animals story in their own words.  Our target word for this week was play.  The students added this word to their growing list of words and used them in the activity, "Walk Your Words."  They continue to work on the exercises in our Haggerty Blue Book.  They are so much quicker in their ability to segment, add, delete and substitute phonemes in words.  They continue to review the use of nouns and verbs in their sentence reading.  The students used their elkonin boxes to segment 3-4 phoneme words.  The students also used the boxes to place a marker in the box where they heard the target sound.  They reviewed the target sound on Ff at the beginning and ending of words and the vowel short o.  The students read their decodable story, "Can It Fit?" and made predictions about story content.  Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included FRAGILE, BELONG, SEVERAL, PARENT, INFORMATION.  The students practiced reading their leveled readers to a partner and receiving feedback in the form of a Reader's Checklist.   Some questions to pondered--Where you able to hear my reading?  Did I finger point to each word?  Did I stop at the ending mark?  Was my reading smooth or choppy?  How do I think I personally sounded when I read?  The students read the paper story, "We Play," and used it for fluency building.  The student listened to the read aloud story, "The Three Bears."  Many students commented that they had heard this story many times.  The students thought and responded about what would have happened if the bears had returned home early?  The students recorded some of their ideas.  Workstation activities this week included group animal sort and categorization using appropriate verbs, using the app Montessori Crossword to blend short o and digraph ch words and write a sentence to go with them, partner reading and discussion using the Reader's Checklist with support from the teacher and assistant, creating a topic collage using the sentence "We Play."
Math:   The students continue to work on counting to 100 and counting on from a random starting point.  They have begun working more exclusively with place value--counting by 10's, how many 10's in a number and how many 1's.  They are also becoming more familiar with counting by 2's and 5's.  They are loving working in their daily math journals.  They are beginning to listen more closely to the information given and the vocabulary used in order to determine if they add or take away.  Their illustration and analyzing through their drawings is really beginning to take shape.  They are starting to think about number families and ways to say a number.  In the activity "Plus or Minus," they used 10 pennies and listened listened to the directive to show how many to take away or add and what the resulting number was.  The students are in various stages of understanding---some counting penny by penny, some counting by 2's, some realizing that if they start with 10 pennies and the call is "minus 3" they calculate quickly via fingers or thinking with no manipulatives what the answer is.  It is fascinating to watch!!  The students also revisited symmetry and graphing and analyzing data in other activities this week. 
Writing:   The students are working on "Magic C" lowercase letters c, o, a, s.  They are continuing to use their mini boards and chalk/sponges as well as practice in their Orange Books.  They continue to use the prompts in our Treasurers series for writing practice.  This week the students wrote 3 sentences on the topic of their choice in their journals.
Science:   The students reviewed what they knew about WATER so far.  This week they worked with the question--what happens when you have a spill?  I spilled some water on a surface and student volunteers came up to "fix" it.  Kleenex, paper towels, regular paper, sponge, cloth were the tools they used.  They discovered that some of the tools were better able to "suck up" the water than others.  We discussed the word  "absorb."   The water was absorbed by some of the tools better than others.  Another Why?  Students remarked that the sponges and paper towels absorbed the water faster.   Students said that the sponges had holes in them and they observed the towels were bumpy.  A closer look under the microscope of the paper towel and sponge revealed tiny holes or spaces.  In Experiment 3, the students discovered that certain items have more holes or spaces than others and that lets the water "climb" up faster into them.  Students used paper towels in red water and celery in red water.  The water immediately climbed up the towel.  The students left the celery in overnight and discovered the tips and leaves of the celery were red.  WOW--foods have spaces for water to travel---We looked at the celery leaves under the microscope and the spaces very very visible--cool!  Question--What happens to your fingers when you stay in the bathtub a long time?  One students described it as "prune fingers."  Revelation--our skin has spaces where water can climb into!!!  In Experiment 4 the students experimented with the shape of water and concluded that water takes the shape of its container.  Students recorded their thoughts and sketches in their science reflection journal.  They continue to have great fun experimenting with objects in the water table and using the water tornadoes.  Next week--sink/float and water as ice.
Technology:    In reading, student small groups used the app Montessori Crossword for blending, segmenting and word building using short o and ch words.  Students also used the apps Rocket Speller and Reading Sight Words in their independent study.  The app Story Kit continues to benefit student small groups in the ability to hear their reading and discussions in order to build fluency and increase comprehension and participation.   In math, student small groups continue to use the apps Number Find, Top It Addition and Addition Bug independently and small groups to enhance their study of numbers and patterns.  In science, the students are using the apps Weather and Weather Underground to examine snow, ice and water patterns occurring in the United States and to track daily weather.
Literature:   "Martin's Dream," "A Picture Book of ML King," "Snowball Soup," "Footprints in the Snow," "A Drop of Water," "ML King Jr," "Martin's Big Words," "Winter," "Turn on the Faucet," "Slip, Slide, Skate," "Snow Dude," "Water," "The Words and Inspiration on Martin Luther King's Dream," "50 Degrees Below Zero."





Saturday, January 12, 2013

UPDATES for 1/7-1/11 2013

**Happy New Year and welcome back everyone!  I trust everyone had a restful and fun break.  Many students traveled over the break and shared their travel journal writings and illustrations.  The forecast of snow next week has gotten everyone excited.  We will see!!
**The students participated in a school wide lock down drill on Friday afternoon.  Our class had a great discussion about all kinds of safety.  The importance of being prepared-- whether it is for bad weather, a fire or a stranger entering our building was discussed.   
**Parent/ Teacher Conference info is in your child's homework folder.  Please confirm your time and send it back to me.  Parent/Teacher Conferences for mid year will be held on Monday, January 28th, Tuesday, January 29th, Wednesday, January 30th and Thursday, January 31st.  Please note that Thursday and Friday, January 30th and 31st school is in session in the MORNING ONLY.  Dismissal is at 11:00 am.  Hephzibah and River Forest Community Center pick up is at 11:00 am.
**Vision Screening for Kindergarten students will be held on Friday, January 18th beginning at 9:00 am.
** Mid year DIBELS testing will take place next week.  I will be sharing the results with you at conference time.  Letter recognition, letter sound recognition and blending sounds to create words will be assessed.
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 will resume on Tuesday, January 29th.
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 21st in observance of M. L. King Day.
**Our 100th Day in School is fast approaching!!!  Our 100th Day Celebration will take place on Friday, February 1, 2013 from 9-11 am.  I have 8 volunteers who signed up during Open House.  They are K. Jones, D. Bovio, M. Schwager, T. Larnell, A. Struckmeyer, L. Banghart, C. Cummings and M. Meagher.  Some of you have already confirmed that you are still coming.  Please confirm with me if you have not already.  We could still use a few more.  The more, the merrier!!!  A special project will go home with each student with instructions this coming Friday, January 18th.  The project is due on Tuesday, January 29th.  Our celebration will focus on the number 100 and counting by 10's to 100.
**Check out the Irving website for information on the YOUNG SCIENTIST CONFERENCE being held on February 23rd at Mann School.  Registration is being handled online this year.  It is a really cool conference for all ages!  I highly recommend you check it out. 
**I am beginning mid year assessments next week in math, reading and writing.  These assessments will also be shared with you at conference time.  The students are really working hard!
**Reading Grandma Mary began her 6th year listening to young readers this past Friday.  She will be with us every Friday morning from 9-11 am.  She is thrilled to be back and we are so happy to have her!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey worked with the students on the concept of working together toward a common goal.
**Mr. Packer continued his lesson on being a detective and looking for clues to solve story problems.
**As the weather gets chillier and maybe snowier--don't forget to dress for the weather each day.  Snow pants, gloves, boots, scarves and hats or hoods are a must!  Don't forget to send gym shoes on gym days. 
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES (the kind you can climb in) and other COOL stuff for our space station construction in APRIL, during our Space theme.  I cannot store anything now.  I will have you start sending things in after spring break.
**What--nothing to do this Sunday afternoon (January 13th)--come join me at Ridgeland Ice Rink from 2-4 pm for ice skating!!  Some of my first grade friends will also be there.  I hear there are special walkers to help assist beginning skaters.  Check the ice rink website for details.  
This week:
It was all about wishing for snow and observing water.  The students turned our Friendship Tree into a Mitten Tree after reading and discussing the inspirational story, "The Mitten Tree," by Candace Christiansen. Ask your child to retell the story.  The students began an inquiry about the properties and behaviors of WATER.  Who knew a water droplet could be so much fun!!  Station Day activities included, creating a windsock snowman, conversational snowmen, written reflections about winter and counting on with snowmen to solve addition problems.  We had a teachable moment this week when Sierra announced that her pet fish had passed away.  The students talked about their pets being like part of their family and how sad it was to lose your pet.  Sierra wanted to bring in her fish so we could see what it looked like.  Sierra brought it in and talked about how she cared for it and why it might have died.  All the students took turns observing the fish under the magnifier.  Students commented how pretty the eyes were and about the fins  and tail.  The students shared kind words with Sierra that carried through her day!
Reading/Social Studies:    The students began Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series.  The students accessed background knowledge by discussing animals they know as pets and animals they might know from seeing them in the zoo.  The students listened to the big book story, "Mama Cat has Three Kittens."  They made predictions about story content and talked about the actions the cat or kitten might perform.  Those students who had cats as pets made connections between their pet and the cats in the story.  Our sight word this week is the word is.  We reviewed it along with all the words taught thus far.  The students played "Hands Up, Hands Down."  Many students commented on how many words we now have in the game.  Our target sound this week is Oo.  The students worked on associating the sound with picture cards.  The students listened to the rhyme, "The Ostrich is Talking."  They were able to pick out the rhyming words as well as the word that had a short Oo in them.  The students continued to review and work with verbs by making a list of what kittens can do.  Our robust vocabulary for this week included ACTION, COMPARE, CONTENT, GENTLE, POUNCES.  The students made comparisons in the Big Book story about what the two kittens do compared to the third kitten named Boris.  The students worked with their elkonin boxes to blend sounds using short o to make words.  They read their decodable story, "Sit," making predictions and commenting at the end of the story about the fish.  The students listened to the vocabulary card tale, "Mama Mouse and El Gato."  They discussed the similarities and differences between cats and mice.  In the expository text, "Let's Go To The Vet," the students reviewed what a diagram was and focused on the content of the story.  They worked together with a partner to create sentences using target words and pictures and read them back to one another.  They did an exercise where they placed a marker in the place where they heard the short o sound. (beginning, middle or end)  Our workstations this week included word maker, where the students chose a picture and found the letters to spell it (3-4 phonemes), sight word spell and sentence practice using the app Magnetic Letters, I Can-They Can-people and animal sentences and illustrations, reading, recording and critiquing a leveled reader story using Story Kit, creating a Favorite Pet Graph and Buddy Reading where a pair of students shared a story, discussed it and told about their favorite part.
Math:    The students continue to work on rote counting to 70 and beyond and writing single and double digit numbers.  The students did some special work with counting on addition and writing teen numbers.  The students began working in their Math Process Journals.  They are learning to listened for information in a story problem, illustrating its particular problem and writing the solution in the form of a number sentence and writing about how they solved the problem.  They are also working on pertinent math vocabulary--plus, minus, equals, all together, in all, are left, problem, solution, equation.  The students are also learning about joining two sets (addition) and decomposing sets (subtraction). 
Writing:    The students revisited forming uppercase letters using the cues from our Handwriting Without Tears series.   The students continue to work on sentence formation--beginning with a capital letter, spacing between words in a sentence, having some kind of ending mark, placement of words on a given line, rereading their sentences to see if they name and tell and refining their letter formation.  Next week, we will begin formal teaching of lowercase letters.
Science:   The students began with an inquiry discussion/dictation on what they knew about WATER.  The students were introduced to the word property and what it means.  A property is a type of behavior.  Each student was given an experiment book along with a science reflection journal to record their experiment results as well as their own thoughts and drawings or sketches.  In Experiment 1, the students explored water using a variety of tools--straws, sticks, cups etc.  Using these tools, they described how water feels, smells, sounds and looks.  In Experiment 2, the students discovered water droplets have their own shape and can "stick" to one another.  Using a pipet, the students practiced sucking up water into it and releasing the water back into the cup. It was really cool to observe them carefully trying to capture just one drop of water and putting it on their wax paper.  The students delighted in pushing one water droplet into another to form a bigger droplet.  We talked about the scientific word--cohesion, to describe this process.  The students found it hard to separate the droplets.  The students went over the rules for water table use.  They found a variety of tools and toys to experiment with.  Our class water tornadoes big and small are out for use.  Ms. Dennis and Amare brought their battery operated water tornadoes for use also!  Next week--"climbing water."
Technology:    In reading, the students are using the apps Story Kit to record themselves reading and story and critique how they sound for building fluency.  The app Magnetic Letters is was used to create sentences using sight words with appropriate capitalization and punctuation.  The app Reading Sightwords was used with partners to read the word--record themselves reading the word and playing it back and using the stylus to practice writing the word.  In math student small groups continue to use the apps Number Find, 100's Board and Top It Addition as an enrichment to their math curriculum.  At Choice Time, the student began exploring  manually the Marble Works blocks and inclines.  They are having lots of discussion on how to build in order to get the marble down and through.
Literature:    "Water," "I'm Bored," "A Drop of Water," "Water," "Ice," "Investigating Water," Chapter 1, "It's Winter," "Penguins to the Rescue," "When Will It Snow?" "Gingerbread Pirates," (thanks, Sophie!) "Winter is Here," "Thomas' Snowsuit," "Bear Feels Sick," "Snow Day for Mouse."