**Please review your child's report card that came home on Friday. If you have any questions about the report card or the article on Common Core, please email me. This class has really worked hard!
**The class had an awesome time when Nurse Smith (Will's mom) came to speak to our class on GERMS! Who knew these teeny, tiny, microscopic living things could cause so much trouble in the human body. The students got to see pictures of different types of germs and also where they came from. They got to put the pictures on the presentation board as Nurse Smith talked about the types of germs and what they can do. Nurse Smith had a frank discussion about what we each can do to keep the germ factor down. Washing hands was among the most important !! Each student got a special hospital gown, goggles and gloves. They became GERM FIGHTERS!! They also had so much fun!! Thanks, Nurse Smith and her assistant, Will!!!
**It was a super, SUPER TUBER DAY! Each student brought in their potato. Sierra and Kanohi's potatoes had already seen some bulging "eye" action. More in the "this week" section.
**Route to Reading Rotation 6 will begin Tuesday, March 19th. You will be receiving notification on your child's current skill level.
**Check the Irving Website for digital sign up for the ACADEMIC FAIR and EGG DROP which will be held on Tuesday, April 16th. I will also send home a paper copy on Monday. This is great way for your child to develop a project on something that interests them and see who those budding engineers are! I am also a resource if you need some reinforcement. Just give a shout out! The students have been talking it up. I can't wait to see what the projects will be!!!
**Student Council has decreed--It is SPIRIT WEEK!!! Monday--Smile at Everyone Day! Tuesday--Wacky Hair Day! Wednesday--Facial Hair Day! Thursday--Sports Day! Friday--School Colors Day!! What a week! Thanks Keyshaun and Ellie!! Those Student Council kids are sure busy! They have also are looking for parents to present for their annual Career Day which will be held on April 10th. If you are interested in talking about your job to small groups please fill out the form that was in the Tuesday Packet. I will be sending another paper copy home on Monday.
**Spring Picture Day is Monday, March 18th. We will have our individual picture taken at 10:00 am. Please fill out the form that was in the Tuesday Packet if you are having a picture taken with a sibling.
**Thanks for your support of PACK Week. Lots of great food choices and conversation about healthy eating. Keep up the great work! Take the TASTY DOG Challenge today for dinner. A percentage of each bill will go to Irving School!!
**Opera for the Young's presentation of "Cinderella" is Thursday, March 21st at 9:30 am. in the gym. The students have been learning a group singing part which is really fun. This is an all school event. Parents and siblings are welcome!
**We will have our "Classroom Bee" this week to see who will represent our class in the K-2 Spelling Bee. It will be on Wednesday, March 20th in the afternoon. There are students who have expressed an interest in participating and some who are thinking about participating. No worries!! I will choose the top 2 spellers and 1 alternate to join the K-2 Spelling Bee that will be held Wednesday, April 17th at lunch time.
**I still have number of students who have not turned in their permission slip and money for our field trip to Adler Planetarium. Don't forget to do so this week. Thanks!
**Spring Break begins March 23rd until March 31st. School resumes on Monday, April 1st. I am making quite a few TRAVEL JOURNALS! Let me know if your child needs one.
This week:
It was all about potatoes and shadows! First-the potato. Each student brought in a potato of their choice. They learned that a tuber is the short thick part of the underground stem of the potato plant. You can grow a potato from a potato! The students learned the history of the potato. The plant was first found in South America in the Andes Mountains. We located South America and the Andes Mountains on the map. Students then traced the route of the potato to England and then to Ireland where the Irish soil made it the perfect plant to grow. During the 1800's, the potato became the main food of the Irish people. The students found the "eyes" of the potato. They learned that the potato has calcium and Vitamin C as well as starch and lots of water. The students examined some types of potatoes--purple, russet, yukon, red and the classic idaho potato. They used their own potato for the Super Tuber Activity. They drew or traced it, counted the eyes, measured its length using unifix cubes and recorded how many "bears" it weighed. The longest potato was 7 cubes, the heaviest was 47 bears. We created a graph about how we liked them eaten. French Fried won out! The students enjoyed some stories about Irish folklore--four leaf clovers or shamrocks, pots of gold, rainbows, tiny leprechauns and learned about musical instruments-penny whistle and bagpipes. We chose 2 potatoes to grow. I showed the students how to set up the potato for growing. They can share that with you. It's hydroponics 101! Stay tuned to see what happens. I will save the shadows for the science section. Station Day activities included writing about the sun, creating their frames for their silhouette pictures, making a model of how we get day and night and working on counting frames by 2's and 5's.
Reading/Social Studies: The students completed Unit 7 Weather this week. They read about and discussed how weather affects people and animals. The students related their own personal experiences in different types of weather. The discussion shifted to animals and how they are also affected by the weather. Each day, one of the student was responsible for checking the weather on the iPAD. The students worked on their listening comprehension by listening to the story, "The Bear Snores On." The students revisited the word, "genre" and noted that this story was fantasy and could not really happen. After reading the story, the students took turns using the retelling cards to tell the story in their own words. They noted repetition of certain words, style and pictures. The students reviewed the sight words this, do, what, and. The students enjoyed using the words in a sentence scramble and playing "Hands Up, Hands Down." The students read the decodable story, "Pat and Tip." they used the title and cover to make predictions about story content. Robust Vocabulary for this week included CLEAR, COZY, EXPERIENCE, HIBERNATE, RETREAT. The students used the oral vocabulary cards to talk about Animals in Winter and read the expository/informational text, "Let It Snow." The students used their elkonin boxes to put a block in the square where they heard the target sound. They continued to "Jump Segment" 5-6 phoneme words. They are also working on recognizing consonant blends at the beginning and ending of words, as well as consonant digraphs. Students partnered up to read, "This is What I Can Do." They worked together to fill out a story elements map. Workstations this week included working on leveled readers and completing story maps containing, character, setting, plot, problem/solution, creating a seasonal jobs chart, using Magic Reading 2 to work on segmenting and blending skills, creating a question sentence and answering the sentence, critiquing reading for fluency with a partner using the Reader's Checklist.
Math: The students continue their study of coin and coin values, We reviewed the penny, nickel, dime and quarter. Ms. Dennis brought in her state quarter collection and state park quarter collection. The students used their magnifiers to see what was on the back of each state's quarter. The students also reviewed all plane shapes, pattern block shapes and geometric solids. We continue to work in our math process journals illustrating a story problem and writing its number sentence. The students are beginning to see a relationship between certain numbers. (ie: 5+2=7, 2+5=7, 7-2=5, 7-5=2)
Writing: The students continue to use the prompts from our Treasures Reading series in their sentence writing. They continue to work on lowercase letter formation. This week the emphasis was on lowercase letters y, p, r, n, m.
Science: The students reviewed the 3 things necessary to make a shadow--a source of light, an object to block the light, a surface to see the shadow. The students previously had made their face silhouettes and made their frame for them. The students reflected in their science journals the shadow recipe and a sketch of the design. In experiment 3, the students took turns creating shadows using a variety of different objects--book, small box, plastic wrap, waxed paper, water in a clear cup. They each created a graph answering yes or no to seeing a shadow produced. The students discovered they can produce light shadows and dark shadows or no shadow at all. They also found out that it depends how much light allowed to pass through the object. I provided them with some very scientific words!! Shadows can be opaque--they do not allow light to pass through, so they produce a dark shadow or translucent--some light does pass through but produces a light shadow. The students enjoyed trying out other objects in their choice time. They reflected their thoughts in their science journal. Hopefully next week, we will have a sunny day when we can be outside and strike a shadow pose! We will use this pose as the source of our paragraph project.
Technology: In reading small groups, students used the Magic Reading 2 to focus in on segmenting and blending phonemes and recording their words. The app Rocket Speller and Sight Words were used to enhance spelling and for the students to hear their words. In math this week, students used the app Number Find for work on number patterns, 2 digit numbers and sequencing. The app Doodle Buddy was used by students small groups to illustrate addition and subtraction processes after listening to story problems. The apps Math Bug, Mathland, Butterfly Math and Labyrinth rounded out the week.
Literature: "Day and Night," "I Have a Friend," "I Love My Shadow," "Super Storms," "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom," "First Discovery--The Universe," "The Solar System," "The Sun," "Sun and Moon," "St. Patrick's Day," "The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow," "My Big Busy Space Book," "Discovering the Universe."
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