**Spring is in the air!!! The students began their study of seeds and plants. The very "green" Ms. Henry, gave an informative talk with "hands on" experiences on worm composting. Students from YELLOW BEAR TABLE are responsible for bringing in "food" to "feed" our "wormy" compost. Little bits of paper, bananas/peel, fruits, veggies, egg shells, (nothing cooked or orange peels) are acceptable.
The students continue to explore other galaxies and the universe with dramatic play in their space stations.
**Permission slip for our Field Trip to Oak Park Conservatory is in your child's homework folder. We will be WALKING to the conservatory on Tuesday, May 14th leaving at 9:00 am and returning right before lunchtime. There is no cost. Come and join us if you like!
**The students are busy working on their TRAVELING POETS poetry selection. Those poems went home last Monday. Please help your child learn his/her poem. The students will "travel" to recite their poems in another class on Thursday, May 9th and again on May 17th.
**Route to Reading Rotation 7 has concluded. This is our last route to reading of the year. You should have received notification of your child's final skill level. Email me if you have not.
**Final assessments for the end of the year report card will begin next week. DIBELS, Everyday Math, Darrell Morris Sound Assessment, Treasures Unit Assessment and assessments from our new Common Core Standards will be given. Report Cards/Summer packets go home with students on Friday, May 31st--the last day of school.
**We did not have our Million Minutes Reading Assembly this week. It will be rescheduled.
**Irving Pacers was cancelled due to rain. We will try again next week.
**ART FEST is Thursday, May 17th from 6:30-8:00 pm. throughout our school. A piece of art from every child in the school will be on display along with music from the chorus, plays, Spanish games and the POETRY SLAM!!!!! Come on--join the fun!!! You can say a poem from a book, write a poem, sing a poem, rap--solo, with a partner or a group. Fill out the form that went home last Friday and send it back. Mr. Williams will be out on the playground during the lunch hour with "Mr. Microphone" so students can practice.
**We will be planting outside in our class garden bed on Monday, May 13th at 8:30 am. Our class has chosen to plant and nurture cucumbers, carrots, basil and nasturtiums.
**Check out the activities planned for NATIONAL SPORTS and FITNESS WEEK under the direction of our own Mr. Hancock. The schedule is in your child's homework folder.
**Family Math Night is Tuesday, May 21st from 6:30-8:00 pm. This years theme is MONEY MADNESS. The green sign up sheet is in your child's homework folder.
**RUN WITH ME! Come on out on Saturday, May 11th at 8:00 am to Lindberg Park to participate in District 97's Fun Run. Students and families from all 10 Oak Park schools will be there. Don't miss it. The Kindergarten students will run once around the park. See me or Mr. Hancock for the sign up form.
**All School Olympic Day is Friday morning, May 24th from 8:30-10:30 am. Come on out and see our Kindergarten Olympians!!!
**Future Field Trip--PIZZA and PLAY End of the Year Family Picnic--Tuesday, May 28th from 9:30-12:30 pm at Rehm Park. We will needs lots of help with this one. Information and permission slip will go out on Friday. Stay tuned.
**The students had their last Friendship Club session today. Ms. Bell Bey read the students a story and passed out participation certificates. She urged all students to keep being a "social detective."
**A special "thank you " to Asher and his family for giving us a brand new BUBBLE MACHINE!! We will try it out on Monday. It sure looks cool!
This week:
It was all about seeds and planting! The students began their last unit in science--From Seed to Plant. The students brainstormed what they knew about seeds. Much of the discussion centered around seeds and what they produce. Some students recognized that we even eat some seeds and that not all seeds look alike. The students conducted some experiments (see science heading) and then learned about the particular seeds that they could choose to nurture into a plant. Each student chose a particular flower seed. Our choices were--Sunflower, Nasturtium, Morning Glory and Marigold. Each seed has their own distinct shape, growing pattern and leaf structure. The students planted their seed. Each student is responsible for checking to see if their plant needs water. All students agreed that plants need water, sun and air to grow. We are keeping a class chart to see when growth begins and which type of seed sprouts first. We are at Day 4--Did Henry discover something????----the weekend might be magical!!!! Stay tuned! Station Day activities included ladybug math, seed sequence, plant part diagram, origami tulips.
Reading/Social Studies: I am combining vocabulary, skills and literature of the Treasures Reading series Units 9 Amazing Creatures and 10 We Know A Lot. The students are also going to study poetry and experience the feeling, types and vocabulary associated with it. This format will also give us some time to work on Common Core Standard lessons that will continue to prepare students for the rigors of First Grade.
Students worked on target sight words--she, he, look, has. Target sounds Gg, Ww, Xx, Vv along with all short vowel sounds are being reviewed. Student small groups created sentences using all the kindergarten words taught thus far and incorporating some of the First Grade sight words. Students worked in small groups with leveled readers discussing story elements, cause and effect, making connections and drawing conclusions and making inferences. Student small groups worked on recognizing nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns. Many students have become curious about the use of articles and adverbs. The true quest of reading for meaning has begun to become more apparent for our kindergarten readers. The process of asking and answering questions about a text, identifying the meaning of an unknown word using contextual clues and looking for details in the story is also becoming clearer to students. Robust Vocabulary for this week included AMAZING, DEEP, INVITE, OCEAN, REASON. The students are also using a variety of games and iPad apps as reinforcement. Students continue to review phoneme blending, adding, deleting and substituting phonemes as well as consonant blends, digraphs, silent e, vowel teams and even controlled r! The students listened and responded to a variety of poems and learned that poetry can be about how you feel about something or what you know about certain things. It can be silly or very serious. Poetry can also be very emotional!
Math: Instead of orally telling a story, I am writing the story problem on the board and the students continue to illustrate the process, write the number sentence and explain their answer in their math process journal. They are reviewing counting to 120 by ones, counting by 2's. 5's and 10's, recognizing and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers. The students continue to use the "function machine" to play "What's My Rule?" They are using a game format to review coins and their values, tell time by the hour and count up or down from a random number.
Writing: Students continue to work on refining all upper and lowercase letters. Students have begun to bring home their completed orange practice books. I continue to stress spacing between words on a line and placement of letters. Reading back what they have written is key as well as making sure their sentences name and tell and that they have some ending mark at the end. Students are using their writer's checklist before they come to conference with me. Students are writing 4 sentences about a given topic. We are finishing up our final copy on our Shadow paragraphs. They are so cool! Next week--we will begin our final writing project on our "wormy" friends.
Science: The students began with the inquiry question--What is a seed? With magnifiers in hand, the students closely examined a variety of small objects--some were seeds-some were not. Each table conducted sorting activities and tried to decide which were in fact seeds and which were not. In the next experiment, each student selected a seed for planting and nurturing. They were struck by the shape differences in the Nasturtium, Marigold, Morning Glory and Sunflower seeds. Students accessed information on the internet on growth patterns (horizontal vs. vertical,) stems and root structures (tiny, thin, wide, large,) and leaf shapes (wagon wheel, long and pointed, small.) We made a class growth chart to track which type of seed will sprout first. In our next experiment, the students examined a pinto bean and pea seed. They were soaked overnight in water. Each student was given a set of the two seeds--one that was soaked and one that was not. Students observed that the soaked seeds were bigger. Yes--the water climbed into the spaces in the seed!!!! With some assistance, the students split the seed in half to look at the inside. They noticed the outer covering (coat) and in the inside corner was the tiny baby plant (embryo.) The rest of the inside is called the seed food where the seed gets its nourishment. The students worked in their journals recording their findings. Next week----hydroponics!! Stay tuned!
Technology: No new apps this week. Looking for information on the internet on seeds and plants.
Literature: "Oh Say Can You Seed," "The Boy Who Didn't Believe in Spring," "Diary of a Worm," "Wonderful Worms," "Seeds," "How Do Seeds Grow?" "I'm a Seed," Poetry---"Hip Hop Speaks to Children," "The Poetry of Langston Hughes," "A Pizza As Big As The Sun," "Poetry Speaks to Children."
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