**Let me update you on the past 2 weeks of learning fun for my students as well as myself. I was fortunate to attend the International Learning Disabilities Conference last week. I was able to meet and listen to many professionals speak on the subjects of math, reading, science, technology and behavior. It was very enlightening and motivating. I returned with some great ideas.
**Our Valentine Sharing Party was wonderful! Many samples of "heart felt" feelings of love and friendship were shared among the students. They passed out and read their Valentines, played "Heart to Heart," and ate some treats. Thanks to the great show of parents, siblings and grandparents at our celebration. We were so glad you came!
**Route to Reading Rotation 5 began February 19th. You should have received a letter of notification concerning your child's skill level. Route to Reading Rotation 5 will conclude on March 6th.
**The FUN FAIR is almost here!!!! Come on out and play a game with me on Saturday, February 23rd from 11-3 pm. There will be games, prizes, food, dancing for desserts and a silent auction (a bed time story read by me---lunch with your bf's at the Junction Diner-bid-bid!!! Tickets will be sold after school and on the day of the fair. Special Attraction--What TEAM will get the PIE in the FACE??????!!! Toward the end of the Fun Fair, join Mr. Packer as he serves as MC for Irving's version of "America Has Talent." You may see some familiar faces!! Bring your money to put in the containers of your favorite team. The team with the most money gets the pie the face! It's the battle of the Cutie Pies, Pie Terminators, Who Me's and the 2 Sak P's!!!
**Asher's mom has put the finishing touches on our classroom FUN DAY BASKET. Thanks to all who have donated money or items.
** Kindergarten students participated in a Hearing Screening this past Friday at 9:00 am.
**Congratulations to our new Student Council Reps--Ellie and Keyshaun! Their first meeting is Tuesday, February 26th during the lunch hour.
**Dr. Seuss Family Reading Night is Thursday, February 28th from 6:30-7:30 pm. There is still time to sign up! Let's celebrate the love of reading!
**February is National Dental Month! Amare's mom is coming to give a little program about good dental care of Tuesday, February 26th at 10:00 am.
**It's our first meeting of the new year with our Book Buddies from Ms. Balicki's room. They will join us on Friday, March 1st at 1:30 pm.
**In Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey shared with the students ways to be caring and considerate to others. The students discussed the people, animals and things they most care about. We turned our Christmas Tree into the "I Care" Tree.
**Mr. Packer continues to work with small groups of students on his organizing details lesson.
** The new UPDATED list of Station Day Volunteers for the rest of the school is posted. I will also send a hard copy.
**I would like your feedback about our Busy Reader Program. Please take a few minutes to fill out the feedback sheet and return it to me. Thanks!
**The students have completed their Science Unit on Investigating Water. They really enjoyed it! Our next Science Unit is "Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon." Our next cross curricular theme is SPACE!
**Keep saving those giant boxes and other cool things for our Space Station Projects. You can send them in after spring break.
**Future Field Trip--ADLER PLANETARIUM--Thursday, April 11th from 9-1:l30 pm. The permission slip and info is in your child's homework folder. We would like all the money and permission slips in before spring break to secure our spot at the planetarium.
These past two weeks:
It has been all about sharing and caring, kindness,Valentine's Day and Abraham, George and teeth. The students paid special attention these past two weeks to their attitudes and actions toward their classmates and teachers. Saying a kind word to someone not having a good day, offering words of encouragement to a friend, praising someone for a job well done and thanking an adult for a particular lesson were just some of the ways students celebrated. The students also read about the accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. They studied about what makes a good leader of a country. The students learned that presidents come from all walks of life. The students also studied the accomplishments of Ruby Bridges. They were proud to know that even a child of their age can affect change in our country. The students also read about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. The students were fascinated by the fact that it was not really a railroad but a series of safe homes, places and areas that were used to help slaves escape to the north to freedom. Hooray for teeth! The students learned that many living things have teeth and the care that goes into keeping them healthy. Station Day activities included making a tri-corner hat, working with a word wheel and writing the sentences, graphing and analyzing data on the Valentine board, ending sound fun and pattern block design building. Other Station Day activities included Penguin "Dial-a-Sum," more word wheel and writing sentences and more pattern block design building side by side. (great visual motor and visual integration/figure ground brain work!)
Reading/Social Studies: The students worked to continue and complete Unit 6 Neighborhoods in our Treasures series. They accessed prior knowledge about places in and around their neighborhood and who you can find there. The students talked about what the words community and workers meant. They listened to the Big Book story, "Bus Stops." The students made predictions about what the story could be about and were asked to listen for what happens at the beginning, middle and end of the story. They made connections about places in the story and how they relate to their own community. Who got off the bus? The students reviewed our target words, for, are, you and target sounds Dd, Hh and Rr. The students worked in small groups to create sentences using words and pictures. The students reread the story and worked on retelling as well as story elements. They worked on sound blending skills using their elkonin boxes. It is really cool to see them blending and segmenting 4-5 phoneme word! In the decodable story, "Rod Can See It," the students worked on main idea. Robust Vocabulary for the past two weeks included ADMIRE, DELIVER, SCHEDULE, COMMUNITY, WORKER, ALERT, JOB, CELEBRATION, PRECISE, REPAIR. The students listened to the vocabulary story, "Acrefoot, the Barefoot Man." They made predictions about story content. They responded to the poem, "The Park." The students retold parts of the poem. The students read their paper story, "For You." They each read aloud to practice their fluency. The students added to our neighborhood word web and created a Venn diagram about similarities and differences between hospitals and schools. The students reread the story, "Rod can See It" with a partner and quizzed each other on story elements. Workstations that week included map it out--drawing and labeling a neighborhood map with their group, Word Wizard app-cvc short u words create and record, tool sort--classifying tools and drawing a picture of someone who might use one of those tools, leveled readers read aloud, fluency check and story elements discussion and group sort --short a, long a words and word search. In the final week of Unit 6, the students discussed jobs that people in their neighborhood do. They accessed prior knowledge about workers they see in their neighborhood. The students listened to the trade book, "Alicia's Happy Day." As she walks down the street, what does Alicia hear and see? Why did Alicia feel happy? The students summarized and retold the story in their own words. The students worked in small groups to create words using the word families an, at, en, et, it, op, up. The students used consonant blends, single consonants and consonant digraphs. The students read their paper story, "Are You?" They each read a sentence aloud practicing their fluency. They also reread their story to a partner and each discussed how they sounded. The students listened to the expository text, "Is This Job For You?" and made future predictions on what job they would have and why. Workstations for the week included leveled readers with comprehension/discussion checks, creating a neighborhood worker puzzle, sentence building using the app Magnetic Letters and sight words, writing a friendly message to a friend and posting it on our friendship board and putting the finishing details on group neighborhood maps.
Math: The students worked on following a simple map for in school destinations. They worked in small groups from a given starting point to a certain destination. They discussed the sequence of events in their daily lives and created a timeline of drawings and words to reflect what they do in the morning, noon and at night. The students continue to explore building with pattern block templates that use internal lines, without internal lines and templates that have small pictures the students cannot build directly onto but next to. It's all about visual perception! We continue working on place value in the 100's place, writing numbers and telling how many hundreds, tens, ones each number has. The students worked on introduction of the quarter, dime and nickel. They learned some fun facts about the men on these coins and coin values. Much fun was had playing addition and subtraction games "Broken Heart Math," "Take Away," and "Dial a Sum." The students experimented with lots of new math apps and the problem solving, mind blowing app, "Labyrinth."
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase forms l, k, y, and j. Most students are writing their first and last names. We continue to use the writing prompts in our Treasures series to create lists, write sentence using target vocabulary, write 3-4 sentence about one topic and work on sentence structure-- beginning with a capital letter, spacing between words in a sentence and putting a ending mark on the end.
Most students are using nouns and verbs, naming and telling and some have begun to expand their sentence length using adjectives and prepositions.
Science: The students revisited all their experiments as we concluded our Investigating Water unit. They viewed the DVD "Peeps Big Wide World Explores Water" as a culminating activity. Students made their final comments in their science journals about the experiment they enjoyed most, which one had surprising outcomes and which experiment they would like to do again. All the students commented that they would like to see bubbles come out of the bubble machine! We will wait for the weather to be a little warmer! Next week, we will begin prep for our new unit--"Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon."
Technology: It was truly all about the math apps these past two weeks! As their knowledge of addition and subtraction processes grows, the students were introduced to the apps Math Bug (addition/subtraction,) Find Sums base 10, Kids Math Fun (vertical sums,) Kids Math Free (addition/subtraction,) Ace Mathland (solving addition/subtraction problems and solve a puzzle,) and Butterfly Math Addition (making butterflies for correct sum.) The brainful problem solving app Labyrinth has got all students working on their own strategies to get the little ball thru the mazes!
Literature: "Splat the Cat-Funny Valentine," "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose," "Howard Wigglebottom Has a Heart," "Will You Be My Valentine?" "Bears Loose Tooth," "The Story of Ruby Bridges," "Arthur's Valentine," "George Washington," "Abraham Lincoln," "A Picture of George Washington," "Love Splat!" "Magic School Bus Has a Heart," "Young Abraham Lincoln," "My Tooth is About to Fall Out," ""Hooray for Teeth," "Open Wide," "Tar Beach," "You Think it is Easy Being a Tooth Fairy?" "Harriet Tubman," "Zoomer," (thanks, Noah!) "Bunnies." (thanks, Amare!)
Friday, February 22, 2013
Friday, February 8, 2013
UPDATES for 2/4-2/8 2013
**The students are enjoying our mini snow hills at Irving. Thanks for your attention to their dress for our lunch time recess. They are having fun and staying warm. Don't forget gym shoes on our gym days.
**I am in the process of updating our Station Day volunteer list to reflect dates until the end of the year. Let me know if there are any new names to add. If you have a specific Friday you would like to come, please email with that date. I have volunteers until February 22nd. The new list will begin March 1st until May 17th.
**Please read the info on our Valentine Party and the Valentine container project. Our Valentine Sharing Party will be Wednesday, February 13th from 1:00-1:55 pm. Students will share valentines, have treats and work on some activities. Family members are welcome to come enjoy the festivities.
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, February 18th in observance of President's Day.
**There will be a Hearing Screening on Friday, February 22nd for Kindergarten students.
**The FUN FAIR is coming! The FUN FAIR is coming! Come play a game with me on Saturday, February 23rd from 11-3 pm. I will also have some experiences to bid on at the silent auction!! There will be games, prizes, food, dancing for desserts, silent auction and a special activity----Who will get the pie in the face????? Stay tuned to see how you can become part of it. Our Room Parents are working on a FUN DAY CLASS BASKET for the silent auction. There is still time to contribute. Items and donations will be accepted until the end of this week. Let's make our basket the best!!!
**Dr. Seuss Family Reading Night is Thursday, February 28th from 6:30-7:30. The sign up form is in your child's homework folder. Let's celebrate the love of reading!
**February is National Dental Month! Amare's mom is coming to give a little program about good dental care on Tuesday, February 26th at 10:00 am.
**Save the Date---FIELD TRIP to Adler Planetarium on Thursday, April 11th from 9:00-1:30 pm. Our next cross curricular theme is SPACE!
**Keep reading the BUSY READERS and recording your books on the reading log. The first 10 minutes of our morning is spent sharing our book with others or reading independently. Oh, the sound of readers!!!
**Keep saving those boxes and cool things for our space stations. We are getting closer!
This week:
It was all about snow hills, Chinese New Year and Tangrams. The students welcomed the YEAR of the SNAKE representing the Chinese New Year. What animal sign were you born under? We read about how the Chinese prepare for the arrival of the new year, cleaning, special colors and foods, lanterns and dragon parade. In a nod to the Chinese New Year and geometry, the students studied tangrams. (ancient Chinese puzzles) More about this in the math section! Our station day activities this week included graphing and analyzing animals in the winter, heart sequence--cutting out and ranking hearts from largest to smallest, teen number review where the students count how many snowballs will fit on the shovel and building 3 dimensional structures using unifix cubes. It was so fascinating to watch young brain power at work viewing a model and then working to solve how to build it. Great problem solving and perseverance to complete the task!
Social Studies/ Reading: The students began Unit 6 Neighborhoods in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed prior knowledge about what a neighbor is and what a neighborhood is. The students made a group list of places and things a neighborhood might have. They listened to the Big Book story, "Russ and the Firehouse." We reviewed the word expository (information) text. The students were reminded to think about story elements as I read the story. Who is Russ? What is he doing at the firehouse? Why is he there?
Our new sight word is are. The students added it to their growing list of words. Our target sound this week was Hh. The students reviewed all our sound toy boxes so far. They work in small groups using words and pictures to create sentences. In the second reading of our story, the students told what they thought the main idea of the story was and recalled details about the work that Russ did at the firehouse. The students summarized events in the story using the retelling cards. They used their elkonin boxes to segment 4-5 phoneme words. They read the decodable story, "Are Caps Hats?" They made predictions about story content. Each student had the opportunity to read a sentence aloud. Some questions to ponder--Could the group hear you? Did you stop at each ending mark? Did you pause at the comma? Where you able to sound blend phonemes to say a word? Did your reading sound choppy or smooth? The students chose a partner to reread the story to. The partners discussed and critiqued each others work using the Readers Checklist. Workstations this week included leveled readers and discussion, word family fun--where you choose from the word family cards-an, at, in, ot, in, it and add a single consonant,consonant blend or digraph to create a word and record it on paper--create ten words and use 2 in a sentence, Montessori Crossword skill groups working on sound blending words with short i, short e and ch and writing about neighborhood places using the sentence starter...I go to the... and drawing a picture to go with it.
Writing: The students reviewed how to write a sentence. A sentence names and tells. They wrote sentences in their journal about the Treasures story, "Russ and the Firehouse." They also began to work on simple prepositions--for, on, at and in and included them in their journal entries. The students had great fun revisiting the use of speech bubbles in writing dialogue. Formal handwriting practice included a review of lowercase letters c, o,a,d,g,s,v,w,t.
Math: The students practiced counting to 100 and counting by 10's. As a group, they are working on counting by 2's and 5's. As an introduction to tangrams, I read the story, "Grandfather Tang's Story." The grandfather and granddaughter share a story under the tree. On each page, a tangram becomes part of the story. I introduced the shapes called tans that are used in the tangrams. There are 7 tans. From those 7 tans, many different pictures can be created. The students experimented with their own set of tans and used a set of model pictures to see if they could create the picture from the model. The next day, students were introduced to the app TanZen Lite and chose a puzzle to complete. Lots of great brain work going on! The students had to manipulate the tans into the puzzle space with a light touch. They could also flip the tan over by tapping it twice. Not as easy as it looks! Very challenging!! I observed amazing concentration and determination to keep trying! The look on their faces when they have all the pieces in place--priceless!! A follow up project is part of their homework.The students continue to work in their math process journals.
Science: The students talked about the experiments they have done so far. They noted also that the water bottles that once held ice and then water were now low in water. Students used the word evaporation. The students know water as a liquid and a solid. Another property of water is as a gas. We discussed freezing (32 degrees) and boiling (212 degrees) points and created steam. The students observed the "smoke" or steam coming out of the glass container of boiling water. We marked the water line with a marker. The students also took note of a piece of plastic wrap I put over the glass container of boiling water. Question: What did you observe? Students reported seeing water drops forming on the inside of the plastic wrap and on the side of the glass. Condensation!! The students also viewed evaporation in action when they "painted" with water and paint brush on the blackboard. After a few minutes--where did the water go??? The students reflected both in written and drawing form about their thoughts on the experiments. They will continue to keep watch on the glass container and the water line. Let's see if there are any changes when they come back on Monday!!
Technology: The students main app this week in math was TanZen Lite. While the students were working on their puzzle, the app also played Chinese music that was very soothing to a mind at work. Students continue to use the apps Math Bug, Number Find, Top It-Addition and Underwater Memory in their math studies. In reading, the apps Montessori Crossword, Sight Words, Reading Magic 3 were used in student small groups and with partners. The students continue to work with the app Story Kit to record read alouds and discussions.
Literature: "Grandfather Tang's Story," "Ruby's Wish," "Chinese New Year," "Curious George-A Winter's Nap," "The 100th Day," "Rosa Parks," "One Hundred Shoes," "One Hundred Hungry Ants," "Snow," "Bringing in the New Year," "Water's Journey," "A Drop of Water-Chapter 4-Steam," "Evaporation/Condensation."
**I am in the process of updating our Station Day volunteer list to reflect dates until the end of the year. Let me know if there are any new names to add. If you have a specific Friday you would like to come, please email with that date. I have volunteers until February 22nd. The new list will begin March 1st until May 17th.
**Please read the info on our Valentine Party and the Valentine container project. Our Valentine Sharing Party will be Wednesday, February 13th from 1:00-1:55 pm. Students will share valentines, have treats and work on some activities. Family members are welcome to come enjoy the festivities.
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, February 18th in observance of President's Day.
**There will be a Hearing Screening on Friday, February 22nd for Kindergarten students.
**The FUN FAIR is coming! The FUN FAIR is coming! Come play a game with me on Saturday, February 23rd from 11-3 pm. I will also have some experiences to bid on at the silent auction!! There will be games, prizes, food, dancing for desserts, silent auction and a special activity----Who will get the pie in the face????? Stay tuned to see how you can become part of it. Our Room Parents are working on a FUN DAY CLASS BASKET for the silent auction. There is still time to contribute. Items and donations will be accepted until the end of this week. Let's make our basket the best!!!
**Dr. Seuss Family Reading Night is Thursday, February 28th from 6:30-7:30. The sign up form is in your child's homework folder. Let's celebrate the love of reading!
**February is National Dental Month! Amare's mom is coming to give a little program about good dental care on Tuesday, February 26th at 10:00 am.
**Save the Date---FIELD TRIP to Adler Planetarium on Thursday, April 11th from 9:00-1:30 pm. Our next cross curricular theme is SPACE!
**Keep reading the BUSY READERS and recording your books on the reading log. The first 10 minutes of our morning is spent sharing our book with others or reading independently. Oh, the sound of readers!!!
**Keep saving those boxes and cool things for our space stations. We are getting closer!
This week:
It was all about snow hills, Chinese New Year and Tangrams. The students welcomed the YEAR of the SNAKE representing the Chinese New Year. What animal sign were you born under? We read about how the Chinese prepare for the arrival of the new year, cleaning, special colors and foods, lanterns and dragon parade. In a nod to the Chinese New Year and geometry, the students studied tangrams. (ancient Chinese puzzles) More about this in the math section! Our station day activities this week included graphing and analyzing animals in the winter, heart sequence--cutting out and ranking hearts from largest to smallest, teen number review where the students count how many snowballs will fit on the shovel and building 3 dimensional structures using unifix cubes. It was so fascinating to watch young brain power at work viewing a model and then working to solve how to build it. Great problem solving and perseverance to complete the task!
Social Studies/ Reading: The students began Unit 6 Neighborhoods in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed prior knowledge about what a neighbor is and what a neighborhood is. The students made a group list of places and things a neighborhood might have. They listened to the Big Book story, "Russ and the Firehouse." We reviewed the word expository (information) text. The students were reminded to think about story elements as I read the story. Who is Russ? What is he doing at the firehouse? Why is he there?
Our new sight word is are. The students added it to their growing list of words. Our target sound this week was Hh. The students reviewed all our sound toy boxes so far. They work in small groups using words and pictures to create sentences. In the second reading of our story, the students told what they thought the main idea of the story was and recalled details about the work that Russ did at the firehouse. The students summarized events in the story using the retelling cards. They used their elkonin boxes to segment 4-5 phoneme words. They read the decodable story, "Are Caps Hats?" They made predictions about story content. Each student had the opportunity to read a sentence aloud. Some questions to ponder--Could the group hear you? Did you stop at each ending mark? Did you pause at the comma? Where you able to sound blend phonemes to say a word? Did your reading sound choppy or smooth? The students chose a partner to reread the story to. The partners discussed and critiqued each others work using the Readers Checklist. Workstations this week included leveled readers and discussion, word family fun--where you choose from the word family cards-an, at, in, ot, in, it and add a single consonant,consonant blend or digraph to create a word and record it on paper--create ten words and use 2 in a sentence, Montessori Crossword skill groups working on sound blending words with short i, short e and ch and writing about neighborhood places using the sentence starter...I go to the... and drawing a picture to go with it.
Writing: The students reviewed how to write a sentence. A sentence names and tells. They wrote sentences in their journal about the Treasures story, "Russ and the Firehouse." They also began to work on simple prepositions--for, on, at and in and included them in their journal entries. The students had great fun revisiting the use of speech bubbles in writing dialogue. Formal handwriting practice included a review of lowercase letters c, o,a,d,g,s,v,w,t.
Math: The students practiced counting to 100 and counting by 10's. As a group, they are working on counting by 2's and 5's. As an introduction to tangrams, I read the story, "Grandfather Tang's Story." The grandfather and granddaughter share a story under the tree. On each page, a tangram becomes part of the story. I introduced the shapes called tans that are used in the tangrams. There are 7 tans. From those 7 tans, many different pictures can be created. The students experimented with their own set of tans and used a set of model pictures to see if they could create the picture from the model. The next day, students were introduced to the app TanZen Lite and chose a puzzle to complete. Lots of great brain work going on! The students had to manipulate the tans into the puzzle space with a light touch. They could also flip the tan over by tapping it twice. Not as easy as it looks! Very challenging!! I observed amazing concentration and determination to keep trying! The look on their faces when they have all the pieces in place--priceless!! A follow up project is part of their homework.The students continue to work in their math process journals.
Science: The students talked about the experiments they have done so far. They noted also that the water bottles that once held ice and then water were now low in water. Students used the word evaporation. The students know water as a liquid and a solid. Another property of water is as a gas. We discussed freezing (32 degrees) and boiling (212 degrees) points and created steam. The students observed the "smoke" or steam coming out of the glass container of boiling water. We marked the water line with a marker. The students also took note of a piece of plastic wrap I put over the glass container of boiling water. Question: What did you observe? Students reported seeing water drops forming on the inside of the plastic wrap and on the side of the glass. Condensation!! The students also viewed evaporation in action when they "painted" with water and paint brush on the blackboard. After a few minutes--where did the water go??? The students reflected both in written and drawing form about their thoughts on the experiments. They will continue to keep watch on the glass container and the water line. Let's see if there are any changes when they come back on Monday!!
Technology: The students main app this week in math was TanZen Lite. While the students were working on their puzzle, the app also played Chinese music that was very soothing to a mind at work. Students continue to use the apps Math Bug, Number Find, Top It-Addition and Underwater Memory in their math studies. In reading, the apps Montessori Crossword, Sight Words, Reading Magic 3 were used in student small groups and with partners. The students continue to work with the app Story Kit to record read alouds and discussions.
Literature: "Grandfather Tang's Story," "Ruby's Wish," "Chinese New Year," "Curious George-A Winter's Nap," "The 100th Day," "Rosa Parks," "One Hundred Shoes," "One Hundred Hungry Ants," "Snow," "Bringing in the New Year," "Water's Journey," "A Drop of Water-Chapter 4-Steam," "Evaporation/Condensation."
Friday, February 1, 2013
UPDATES for 1/22-1/25 and 1/28-2/1 2013
**Greetings! I will catch you up on all that has happened in the past 2 weeks. Thanks so much for your patience! It has been an incredibly busy 2 weeks for me and my energetic class! Thanks for your participation at Parent/Teacher Conferences. It was great to chat with all of you and share your child's progress. It is hard to believe that it is February.
**Our 100th Day Celebration was fabulous! The students were engaged in a number of activities surrounding the number 100. The students really enjoyed all the activities. Our day was double the fun with the celebration of Will's birthday. A HUGE thank you to all our parent volunteers! What a spectacular turnout! Check your child's backpack for homework fun over the weekend. Remember, you can always click on the "click here for assignments" link below my name.
**The FUN FAIR is coming!! The FUN FAIR is coming!! Play a game with me on Saturday, February, 23rd from 11-3 pm at Irving School. There will be games, prizes, dancing for desserts, a silent auction and food. It's a great way to spend the day! Don't forget to contribute to our class gift basket. Our theme is INDOOR FUN! Donations and items can be dropped off in our classroom. Thanks to our great room parents for organizing it.
**We will be having a Valentine's Day Party. I will send you the details soon.
**Route to Reading Rotation 5 is in full swing. You should have received notification of your child's skill level. Email me if you did not.
**Young Scientist Conference is Saturday, February 23rd at Mann School.
**Family Reading Night Celebrating Dr. Seuss will be held on Thursday, February 28th from 6:30-7:30 pm in various classrooms around the school. See sign up sheet on line.
**No School February 18th in observance of President's Day.
**Continue saving those giant boxes and other cool stuff for our April space station project.
The past 2 weeks:
Where do I begin......It was about so many things.......Water, Sink and Float, Bubbles, Ice, 100, counting by 10's, prep for 100's Day and Punxsutawney Phil. Will he see his shadow??? The students created a sign in chart and it is pretty evenly split. Listen to the news on Saturday to find out the result. We used Weatherground on our computer to check weather around the states. The students commented that while it may be cloudy in Pennsylvania, it may be sunny here in Oak Park. Let's wait and see! We tracked the rain storm and learned about the colors that denote super heavy rain. The students observed frozen bubbles and a bubble machine that would not spin (frozen!) Station day activities included word wheel and sentence writing, word search and word writing activity, color the code snowflake and the Snowman adding game.
Reading/Social Studies: The students worked to complete Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. The students talked and read about animal habitats. They accessed prior knowledge about animal homes they knew of. The students listened to the story, "The Mole and the Baby Bird." They looked at the cover picture and made predictions about story content. The students recognized the characters and the plot of the story. They made connections in their own lives of having and wanting a pet and the care involved. The students reviewed the sight words is and play. We played sight word bingo and students partnered up to create sentences using their sight words and pictures. The students "walked" all the words that have been presented thus far. The students reviewed the target sounds Ff and Oo. We also reviewed all the target sounds presented. Our Robust Vocabulary included HABITAT, RESPONSIBILITY, BENEATH, RAISE, ENTER. The story was re read and the students were asked to think about the story elements. The students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment the sounds in 3-4 and 5 phoneme words. The students read the decodable story, "Tap, Tap, Tap! They used a graphic organizer in the form of a butterfly to discuss setting (where), time (when), characters (who) and plot (what happened). Students came up to the board to record the various parts in writing. I read a selection on the oral vocabulary cards called "Hidden Homes." The students discussed what kind of animals might live in habitats we might not see? Are some of their homes beneath the ground? The students also listened to the expository text, "At Home in the Rain Forest." They made predictions about story content and responded with their thoughts. We had a lively discussion on Wild vs.Domestic animals and how some animals could be both depending upon their situation. The students also listened to the Mexican folktale, "The Turtle and the Coyote." We located Mexico on the map. The students responded to the story and discussed what the big idea was. They worked on sound spelling CVC words. They worked to complete their activity books. Workstation activities included reading about animal homes--drawing a picture of an animal home they read about and writing a sentence about the habitat and sharing their picture and sentence with a partner, reading a leveled reader story as a group--finger pointing each word and then discussing story elements, rhyme it--where you work with a partner to make rhyming pairs of words and then write a pair of sentences that rhyme, word picture web--using the sentence We play and cutting out pictures that describe the sentence and Reader's Checklist where students read to each other--teacher records their reading and the group listens to the play back to critique.
Math: The students worked with partners to count out ten groups of ten items of their choice for 100 items total. We took photographs of their projects and they are posted in the classroom. The students continue to work on counting to 100. They worked on their 100 number grid writing. In our number journals, the students are really beginning to get the idea of my daily number story and are becoming more independent in
listening for vocabulary that will tell if you add or take away, how to illustrate their problem and how to write a number sentence (solution) using a plus/minus and equal sign. The students continue to explore weights and measurement with scales, building 3 dimensional structures and using ramps and inclines to construct a path for a marble.
Writing: The students continue to work on "Magic C" lowercase letters c,o,a,d,s. They practiced using their mini boards,chalk and sponges. They also practiced in their orange books. They continue to work on journal prompts and independent reflections. We have recently begun talking about expanding sentence length and the use of adjectives in their sentences.
Science: The students made some great discoveries the past 2 weeks. In their Sink or Float experiment, the students first made their guess and then took turns dropping the particular items in the water. They then recorded what actually happened. I used some big words--displacement (pushing away) and density (measure of mass.) Some tables had different pencils--eraser or no eraser...Why did one sink and one float? Why did the cork keep floating even after students pushed it down? Why did the washer go straight to the bottom? Lots of discussion. Their science reflection journals had lots of sketches and thoughts. In Sink or Float part two, the students, under the direction on Ms. Dennis, were given a piece of aluminum foil and were told to make a boat. The question posed to them was--"How many marbles will it take to sink your boat?" The students made their boats and recorded their guess of how many marbles it would take. The boats were all shapes and sizes. One student even tried to make seats in theirs! Each student took their turn and placed their boat in the water and began to put marbles in it. It was fascinating to watch the strategies---putting them all in the front of the boat---spreading them all out---putting them all in the middle--or no strategy at all!!! Each student recorded their result and compared it with their guess. Some students came close--one student was exact--some were very far apart in their guess and actual. Sophie had the record of 39 marbles before her boat sunk! It was great fun. This past week, the students explored BUBBLES. What makes a bubble? The students learned that a bubble is a thin layer of liquid (soapy water) that surrounds a gas (air) The outside layer is like a skin. The students examined various bubble wands. Some were circular, heart shaped, triangular and oval. The question posed to them was "Will the bubbles come the same shape as the wand/" The students braved the frigid temperatures and with bubble wands and soapy water ventured outside. The bubbles created were very slow to pop and some "froze" on the wand! The students observed the watery outer layer. It was pretty cool! The students commented that all the bubbles created were round no matter what the shape of the wand was. For what I thought would be a real treat, I turned on my bubble machine----guess what----the machine could not turn---a frothy mess came out of the machine--no bubbles. The students were laughing. It was too cold for my bubble machine. I guess we will save it for warmer weather. Back in the warmth of our classroom, the students sketched and wrote about their adventure. The students are also watching bottles of water and their slow disappearing water. (evaporation) We also discussed evaporation in relation to how a bubble pops. The liquid surrounding the gas begins to evaporate and......pop!
Technology: In reading, student small groups were aided by the apps Story Kit, Rocket Speller, Sight Word Record and Montessori Crossword-segmenting and blending. In math the apps Number Find, 100's Board, Math Bug and Underwater Memory Match have been useful tools for small groups and independent study. In science Weatherunderground and Google Earth have enhanced our studies.
Literature: "A Drop of Water-Bubbles," "100 Days of School," "I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words," "Counting Your Way to the 100th Day"-poetry, "Have You Filled Your Bucket Today?" "Go to Sleep, Groundhog," "Gretchen Groundhog Saves the Day," "The 100th Day of School," "The Biggest Snowball Fight," "Winter Days in the Big Woods," "Curious George, the Snowy Day," "The Special Snowflake," "One Snowy Day," "Weather," "100 Shoes," "Why Does It Float?" "Sink or Float-All About Water," "Some Things Float."
**Our 100th Day Celebration was fabulous! The students were engaged in a number of activities surrounding the number 100. The students really enjoyed all the activities. Our day was double the fun with the celebration of Will's birthday. A HUGE thank you to all our parent volunteers! What a spectacular turnout! Check your child's backpack for homework fun over the weekend. Remember, you can always click on the "click here for assignments" link below my name.
**The FUN FAIR is coming!! The FUN FAIR is coming!! Play a game with me on Saturday, February, 23rd from 11-3 pm at Irving School. There will be games, prizes, dancing for desserts, a silent auction and food. It's a great way to spend the day! Don't forget to contribute to our class gift basket. Our theme is INDOOR FUN! Donations and items can be dropped off in our classroom. Thanks to our great room parents for organizing it.
**We will be having a Valentine's Day Party. I will send you the details soon.
**Route to Reading Rotation 5 is in full swing. You should have received notification of your child's skill level. Email me if you did not.
**Young Scientist Conference is Saturday, February 23rd at Mann School.
**Family Reading Night Celebrating Dr. Seuss will be held on Thursday, February 28th from 6:30-7:30 pm in various classrooms around the school. See sign up sheet on line.
**No School February 18th in observance of President's Day.
**Continue saving those giant boxes and other cool stuff for our April space station project.
The past 2 weeks:
Where do I begin......It was about so many things.......Water, Sink and Float, Bubbles, Ice, 100, counting by 10's, prep for 100's Day and Punxsutawney Phil. Will he see his shadow??? The students created a sign in chart and it is pretty evenly split. Listen to the news on Saturday to find out the result. We used Weatherground on our computer to check weather around the states. The students commented that while it may be cloudy in Pennsylvania, it may be sunny here in Oak Park. Let's wait and see! We tracked the rain storm and learned about the colors that denote super heavy rain. The students observed frozen bubbles and a bubble machine that would not spin (frozen!) Station day activities included word wheel and sentence writing, word search and word writing activity, color the code snowflake and the Snowman adding game.
Reading/Social Studies: The students worked to complete Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. The students talked and read about animal habitats. They accessed prior knowledge about animal homes they knew of. The students listened to the story, "The Mole and the Baby Bird." They looked at the cover picture and made predictions about story content. The students recognized the characters and the plot of the story. They made connections in their own lives of having and wanting a pet and the care involved. The students reviewed the sight words is and play. We played sight word bingo and students partnered up to create sentences using their sight words and pictures. The students "walked" all the words that have been presented thus far. The students reviewed the target sounds Ff and Oo. We also reviewed all the target sounds presented. Our Robust Vocabulary included HABITAT, RESPONSIBILITY, BENEATH, RAISE, ENTER. The story was re read and the students were asked to think about the story elements. The students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment the sounds in 3-4 and 5 phoneme words. The students read the decodable story, "Tap, Tap, Tap! They used a graphic organizer in the form of a butterfly to discuss setting (where), time (when), characters (who) and plot (what happened). Students came up to the board to record the various parts in writing. I read a selection on the oral vocabulary cards called "Hidden Homes." The students discussed what kind of animals might live in habitats we might not see? Are some of their homes beneath the ground? The students also listened to the expository text, "At Home in the Rain Forest." They made predictions about story content and responded with their thoughts. We had a lively discussion on Wild vs.Domestic animals and how some animals could be both depending upon their situation. The students also listened to the Mexican folktale, "The Turtle and the Coyote." We located Mexico on the map. The students responded to the story and discussed what the big idea was. They worked on sound spelling CVC words. They worked to complete their activity books. Workstation activities included reading about animal homes--drawing a picture of an animal home they read about and writing a sentence about the habitat and sharing their picture and sentence with a partner, reading a leveled reader story as a group--finger pointing each word and then discussing story elements, rhyme it--where you work with a partner to make rhyming pairs of words and then write a pair of sentences that rhyme, word picture web--using the sentence We play and cutting out pictures that describe the sentence and Reader's Checklist where students read to each other--teacher records their reading and the group listens to the play back to critique.
Math: The students worked with partners to count out ten groups of ten items of their choice for 100 items total. We took photographs of their projects and they are posted in the classroom. The students continue to work on counting to 100. They worked on their 100 number grid writing. In our number journals, the students are really beginning to get the idea of my daily number story and are becoming more independent in
listening for vocabulary that will tell if you add or take away, how to illustrate their problem and how to write a number sentence (solution) using a plus/minus and equal sign. The students continue to explore weights and measurement with scales, building 3 dimensional structures and using ramps and inclines to construct a path for a marble.
Writing: The students continue to work on "Magic C" lowercase letters c,o,a,d,s. They practiced using their mini boards,chalk and sponges. They also practiced in their orange books. They continue to work on journal prompts and independent reflections. We have recently begun talking about expanding sentence length and the use of adjectives in their sentences.
Science: The students made some great discoveries the past 2 weeks. In their Sink or Float experiment, the students first made their guess and then took turns dropping the particular items in the water. They then recorded what actually happened. I used some big words--displacement (pushing away) and density (measure of mass.) Some tables had different pencils--eraser or no eraser...Why did one sink and one float? Why did the cork keep floating even after students pushed it down? Why did the washer go straight to the bottom? Lots of discussion. Their science reflection journals had lots of sketches and thoughts. In Sink or Float part two, the students, under the direction on Ms. Dennis, were given a piece of aluminum foil and were told to make a boat. The question posed to them was--"How many marbles will it take to sink your boat?" The students made their boats and recorded their guess of how many marbles it would take. The boats were all shapes and sizes. One student even tried to make seats in theirs! Each student took their turn and placed their boat in the water and began to put marbles in it. It was fascinating to watch the strategies---putting them all in the front of the boat---spreading them all out---putting them all in the middle--or no strategy at all!!! Each student recorded their result and compared it with their guess. Some students came close--one student was exact--some were very far apart in their guess and actual. Sophie had the record of 39 marbles before her boat sunk! It was great fun. This past week, the students explored BUBBLES. What makes a bubble? The students learned that a bubble is a thin layer of liquid (soapy water) that surrounds a gas (air) The outside layer is like a skin. The students examined various bubble wands. Some were circular, heart shaped, triangular and oval. The question posed to them was "Will the bubbles come the same shape as the wand/" The students braved the frigid temperatures and with bubble wands and soapy water ventured outside. The bubbles created were very slow to pop and some "froze" on the wand! The students observed the watery outer layer. It was pretty cool! The students commented that all the bubbles created were round no matter what the shape of the wand was. For what I thought would be a real treat, I turned on my bubble machine----guess what----the machine could not turn---a frothy mess came out of the machine--no bubbles. The students were laughing. It was too cold for my bubble machine. I guess we will save it for warmer weather. Back in the warmth of our classroom, the students sketched and wrote about their adventure. The students are also watching bottles of water and their slow disappearing water. (evaporation) We also discussed evaporation in relation to how a bubble pops. The liquid surrounding the gas begins to evaporate and......pop!
Technology: In reading, student small groups were aided by the apps Story Kit, Rocket Speller, Sight Word Record and Montessori Crossword-segmenting and blending. In math the apps Number Find, 100's Board, Math Bug and Underwater Memory Match have been useful tools for small groups and independent study. In science Weatherunderground and Google Earth have enhanced our studies.
Literature: "A Drop of Water-Bubbles," "100 Days of School," "I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words," "Counting Your Way to the 100th Day"-poetry, "Have You Filled Your Bucket Today?" "Go to Sleep, Groundhog," "Gretchen Groundhog Saves the Day," "The 100th Day of School," "The Biggest Snowball Fight," "Winter Days in the Big Woods," "Curious George, the Snowy Day," "The Special Snowflake," "One Snowy Day," "Weather," "100 Shoes," "Why Does It Float?" "Sink or Float-All About Water," "Some Things Float."
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