Saturday, March 2, 2013

UPDATES for 2/25-3/1 2013

**It was a wild and wacky week full of experiments, team building and teeth!!  The students enjoyed the measurable snowfall and celebrated by working together to build a really cool snowman.  Kanohi chose the spot out on the blacktop and Isabella brought the details (hat, scarf, nose, buttons.)  Students AND teachers worked to create a masterpiece!!  Check out our group photo with our snowy friend.  The students also enjoyed taking him apart piece by icy piece!  What fun and exercise!
**It was all about our teeth!!  The students spent an informative 40 minutes with Dr. Natalie Layne (Amare's mom ) and her assistant, Jessica.  Dr. Layne read the class a book on why we brush our teeth.  She chose a group of students to be human teeth and one student to "brush" them with a giant tooth brush.  She also took a piece of rope and a student got to "floss" the human teeth!  The students and teachers were mesmerized by Dr. Layne's experiment on tooth decay.  The students learned that too much sugar can cause tooth decay and that acid can damage your teeth by making a hole in the enamel (cavity.)   Dr. Layne took some foam cups (teeth) and Amare poured chocolate syrup (sugar) on the teeth and Amare then put some nail polish remover (the acid) on the teeth and ........Wow, where did the teeth go????!!!  They were eaten away by the acid much like our real teeth would be.  Dr Layne gave each student their own teeth cleaning kit.  It was a great presentation.  The students wrote thank you notes to express their appreciation.
**The FUN FAIR was spectacular!  There were great games, prizes and fun.  Many students danced for a dessert or two!  Our FUN DAY class basket was awesome.  There were lots of great silent auction items.  At the closing of the Fun Fair was "Irving's Got Talent"  show.  Wow--some talented teachers!  The PIE TERMINATORS were the winners of the Pie in the Face contest!  Lots of whipped cream flying around!!
**Thanks to all who attended Dr. Seuss Family Reading Night.  I was only able to help set up, but there were many fun stories and activities for all to enjoy.
**NO SCHOOL MONDAY, MARCH 4th in observance of Casimir Pulaski Day.
**Our Book Buddies helped us celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss on Friday.  The students chose a Dr. Seuss book to read with their book buddy.  They completed a variety of activities--word searches, mazes. coloring, written reflections and played Dr. Seuss Trivia.  What was Dr. Seuss' real name?  Did art or story come first for Dr. Seuss?  Of course the celebration would not be complete without popcorn and veggie straws our favorite snacks!
**Keep sending the permission slips and money for our Field Trip to ADLER PLANETARIUM.  I would like to have all money and slips in before spring break. Thanks!
**SUPER TUBER ACTIVITY--Please send a potato (any kind, not cooked) with your child on Friday, March 15th.  We will learn its history, examine, perform some graphing exercises, measure, look for its "eyes," take a look a different varieties and learn about its connection to Ireland.  We will do this from 9:30-10:30 am.  I will need 4 volunteers to help out.  Email me if you are interested.
**TASTE of IRVING is Friday, March 8th from 6:30-8:30 pm.  Come share the love of food and community with our Irving family.
**REPORT CARDS out on Friday, March 15th.  Trimester 2 has concluded.  Trimester 3 has begun!!!
**Route to Reading Rotation 5 will conclude on March 6th.  At that time you receive notification of skill acquisition.
**OPERA for the YOUNG presentation is Thursday, March 21st at 9:30 am.  This will be the very first performance of  "Cinderella."
**Spring Break begins March 23rd-31st.  Classes resume on Monday, April 1st.
**All school PBIS Bingo Game on Friday, March 8th-2:00 pm.  We will have an shorter station day.
**Future Events--I have begun talking to the students about some cool opportunities that they can participate in----more information will follow soon----Wednesday, April 10th-ACADEMIC FAIR and EGG DROP CONTEST--Do you have something that you are really interested in?  Can you make a project out of it?  Can you construct a vehicle that will keep and egg from breaking when dropped out of a third floor window?  Think about it..........  also ........All School Spelling Bee--Wednesday, April 17th.
**Spring  Pictures will be taken on Monday, March 18th.  More info to follow. 
**We are getting closer to collection of giant boxes and cool things for our space station projects.  Keep saving them!  You can bring them in after spring break.
This week:
It was all about the weather!  We began tracking weather via the site, Weatherunderground each day as it relates to our Treasures Unit 7.  We do have a previous fascination with weather in Room 110Students are observing "fronts" moving in and the direction that weather patterns move.  The students love watching the color changes on the animated radar.  They are becoming experts at locating areas of rain, snow, wind speeds and ice.  We now know where to locate the moon phases as we begin our study of the moon.  The students have also become interested in the chance or percentage of a storm occurring.  The students looked at types of storms including tornadoes, thunder/lightening and snow in our area.  Perhaps we have some budding meteorologists in our midst!  In observance of Casimir Pulaski's birthday, the students googled information about his childhood in Poland to his eventual travel to the United States to assist George Washington during the Revolutionary War.
Reading/Social Studies:    The students began Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. We began pondering the simple question, "What is the weather like today?"  They accessed prior knowledge about what they understood about weather, not only in their own area but also in other parts of the United States.  The students listened to the expository text, "The Rainy Day."  They thought about what the main idea could be.  They made connections about rain in their own daily lives.  The sight words this and do were introduced.  The target sound for this week is short Ee.  The students used pictures as well as words to to create a Short Ee web.  The students continue to work on recognizing adjectives in their daily sentence work and using them in their writing.  Together the students created a word web of words that describe a rainy day.  Working with adjectives, they came up with word lists to describe themselves, pets, home and the weather.  We reread the story a second time and the students created a picture in their mind (visualized) of what it would look like after the rain.  The students then reviewed the water cycle (go science!) and facts about rain.  They examined 2 parts of a book--the glossary and the index and what they are used for.  The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 4-5 phoneme words.  The students read aloud from their decodable story, ":Ed Can, Ted Can."  They answered comprehension questions about the story and practiced reading aloud with a partner for fluency.  Our Robust Vocabulary this week included, BLUSTERY, DRIZZLE, CHILLY, CLOUD and WEATHER.  The students listened to the Choctow tale, "How Thunder and Lightening Came To Be."  They also had a chance to hear and reflect on 4 poems about weather.  The students also listened to another Native American tale from the Pueblo Nation called "The Frog and the Locust."  We discussed rain dances and sung in order to bring rain to a very dry area.  We located on the map where the Pueblo Native Americans lived and looked at a surface map to see how the land looked.  What did the frog so to get rain? (sang)  Why didn't his plan work? (It wasn't loud enough)  What happened at the end of the story? (The frog and the locust worked together to sing a loud song.)  What do you think the story tellers message was?  See if your child can recall.  The students did some comparing of information across weather related texts.  Our workstations this week included leveled reader discussion, read aloud and story element recording, working with word families, adding and deleting phonemes in words,comparing and contrasting 2 seasons via sentences and illustrations and writing and illustrating a weather event.
Math:    The students continued to work on coin recognition and values.  They worked on money exchange and played "Penny Grab."  Students reviewed their tricky teen numbers playing the game, "Purr-fectly Perfect teen Numbers."  How fast can you read them?  The students worked on a variety of addition and subtraction games.  Students worked with partners on the ipad with the math activities introduced thus far.  The students also practiced writing 2 and now 3 digit numbers on their dry erase boards.  The students continue to work on counting on from a random number and skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's.
Writing:    The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation.  We have reviewed letters a, c, e, g, i, j, k, l, o, p, s, t, u, v and w.  Students have been encouraged to use adjectives to describe their nouns in sentences they write in their journal.  Students continue to refine their sentence structure and reread their sentences (proofing) before coming to journal conference.  Next week, we will use our snowman creating adventure in a writing project.
Science:    The students had a great time observing the tooth decay experiment done by Dr. Layne.  They wanted more!!!  The class gathered more information on teeth.  We came across another experiment on tooth decay using a raw egg and vineager.  The students knew that too much sugar/acid causes teeth to decay.  The egg was our tooth and the vineager was the acid.  The students thought about what might happen if we placed the egg in a cup of vineager.  What do you think?  The students felt the shell around the egg.  Students commented that it was cold and hard.  We placed it in the vineager.  Students made predictions about what might happen.  It might explode!  It might turn black!  It will crack!  As we put the egg in the vineager, the students noticed many bubbles forming around the egg.  We left it over night until the next afternoon.  As the students looked at it. they observed that it appeared bigger.  The shell was a little yellow  There were still bubbles around it.  Putting on a glove, I picked it out of the vineager and put it on a tray.  One by one the students, donning a plastic bag, touched the egg.  Revelation---It felt like a rubber ball, squishy and soft!!!  Cool!  Students began to discuss what happened.  Much like our teeth, too much acid broke down the shell of the egg, like sugar would make a hole in our enamel.  The students got the connection!!  The next day, they wanted to see what would happen when I cut open the egg.  Would it be hard inside or soft?  Could we see the yolk or white?  As I cut a piece off---the egg burst and out came the the intact yolk and gooey white.  It was the highlight of the afternoon!!  Try it at home!  Next week:  What is a shadow?  What is the universe?
Technology:   The students continue to use all the apps currently introduced in small group, partner and individual sessions during their reading, math, writing, science and choice times.
Literature:   "Great Black Heroes--Notable Inventors," "Why Do We Brush Our Teeth?" "Lola Loves Books," "Open Wide," "The Secret Olivia Told Me," "The Missing Tooth Mystery," "Little Rabbits Loose Tooth," "Honey, I Love You," "How's the Weather?" and 22 Dr. Seuss Books with our Book Buddies!!
   

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