**A letter about PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCES will be in your child's folder on Monday. Some of you have already signed up and will get a confirmation letter. If you haven't signed up I have given you a day and time. If you cannot make that time, please write in some options and we will make it work. Conferences are scheduled for Monday, October 7th, Tuesday, October 8th and Wednesday, October 9th. I am available before school, after school and in the evening. Reminder--On Thursday, October 10th and Friday, October 11th--dismissal for all students is 11:00 am. There is NO afternoon session and NO lunch. District Bus service, River Forest Community Center and Hephzibah pick up are at 11:00 am.
**NO SCHOOL October 14th in observance of Columbus Day.
**Irving PACERS Running/ Walking club began last Friday. Our class will begin THIS coming Friday. Students can use their lunch recess to run/walk around the school grounds 3 times (1 mile) and receive a special chain with a little foot on it. PACERS will meet on September 27th, October 4th, 18th, 25th and November 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd for this year and will resume in the spring. Each week, the students will have the opportunity to earn another foot. Our whole class will be participating!! Most students run and walk. Students are most welcome to walk with me. The students will decorate an envelope to keep their growing foot necklace in and keep it in class. Let's say YES to exercise!!!
**D.E.A.R. Program--Born to Read at Irving School. At the end of September, the whole class school will participate in uninterrupted reading D.E.A.R. (drop everything and read) for 8 minutes. Each month, the number of minutes will increase by 8. The goal to increase the amount of reading so that by the end of May, each students can read uninterrupted for 64 minutes. Be on the look out for the monthly exercises. Look for a flyer in your child's folder.
**Picture Day is Tuesday, October 1st. I will try and book an early morning time slot for our class. Thanks to J. Merritt for volunteering to help. Should take about 20 minutes.
**International Walk to School Day is Wednesday, October 9th. Stay tuned for more info.
**Irving School has a GREEN TEAM!! Each class has 2 reps that meet every other Tuesday lunch recess with Green Team Leaders, Ms. Parkinson and Mr. Packer. They plan projects, discuss how to create a "greener" environment for our school and will relay information to our class. We need 2 reps for our class. I will be having a discussion with them on Monday to see if anyone is interested. Discuss it at home. Email me if your child's is interested. It is a commitment for the entire school year and we will talk about what that means.
**Irving School Book Fair is October 7-10.
**Irving School Trivia Night info will be in your child's folder.
**Please sign and send back the permission slip for ARTSONIA on line student art work museum.
**All DIBELS and PHONIC SCREENER assessment are now completed. I will be sharing all the information with you at conference time. Route to Reading will begin soon. At that time you will receive information on the skill your child will be working on as well as the teacher. The rotations are 3 weeks long.
**Don't forget to fill out the HELPFUL PARENTS SIGN UP sheet. If you are interested in helping out for STATION DAY on FRIDAY afternoons--check it off! I will be compiling a rotating list of volunteers. If you have a specific Friday in mind--jot it down on the sheet. There are usually 2-3 parents each Friday. Grandmas and Grandpas are most welcome. Our start date is Friday, October 4th.
This week:
It was all about letters and numbers. The students found letters around our classroom and school. They also located numbers in our classroom and school. What is the difference between a number and letter? The students began a conversation about consonants (letters that have 1 or 2 sounds) and vowels (letters that have many different sounds.) The students found the consonants and vowels in their name. They compared their name to a friends name. We are counting everything in sight--markers, crayons, chairs, books, feet, fingers, noses.......Station Day activities included creating patterns with teddy bears, exploring pattern block shapes, working on ten frame number books and reading their paper stories to a partner.
Reading/Social Studies: The students have completed the intro to our Treasurer Reading series called Smart Start and spent this week reviewing letter recognition A-Z, beginning consonant sounds, matching upper and lowercase letters and sequencing letters A-Z. The students brainstormed lists of words that named animals and words that names actions. We are beginning work on nouns and verbs and how to use them when we speak and write. They are working on using complete sentences subject/action when speaking. During our read aloud time, students read the story, "I Can." We continue to work on our Common Core skills-- locating the title, finding the characters and setting and chatting about the events that occur in the story. The students are now locating the page number, where the sentence begins (left side) and what ends a sentence (period, question mark, exclamation mark.) They continue to examine the contents of each page. What do you see in the big picture? Let's finger point and read each word and little picture (rebus reading.) Do you recall your sight words? Before we turn the page--what do you think might happen? (predicting) How many words are in the sentence? Can you find an action word? Can you ask and answer a question about the story? Wow! Lots going on! Students are sharing their story reading with a partner. The partner is observing finger pointing and voice quality. (Can I hear what my partner is reading?) Workstations this week included "Rhyme Time Toss," "Sound Toy Bag," letter cards for sequencing, Can you write the sound down activity and iPad activities ABC Touch, Alphatots, Dolch Words, Write Words, ABC lite and ABC matching and Fun Rhyming. Students are working on the Haggerty Blue Book exercises. They are becoming focused as a group on letter recognition, rhyming distinction, syllable counting, segmenting and substituting sounds and adding and deleting sounds. We will begin Unit 1 Families next week.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 20 and one to one correspondence to 10. They are becoming more familiar with using the ten frames and bead ropes. The students began work on their ten frame counting books. They did some review work with creating patterns using teddy bears. The students also explored pattern blocks and created designs and learned the names of each block. We all learned to play "Spin a Number" with our pencil and paper clip spinners. We are counting back from 10 and counting forward beginning at a random number from 0-20. Students worked with partners to sequence number 0-5, 0-10 and 0-20. They also used the unifix cubes to build number towers.
Writing: The students continue to work on their FROG JUMP CAPITALS--F, E, and D. They used their wooden pieces to create the letters. The students worked in their orange books really thinking about the quality of their letter formation. They continue to use activities from the hand/finger activity box to strengthen their tripod grasp. Along with the Treasurers writing prompts, the students worked on a special writing prompt where they drew about a dream or a wish they had. I encouraged them to label parts of their drawings or write some words about them. Students were also encouraged to draw as many details as they could in their drawings. When students were finished, each student shared their drawing and writing with the class. The class could add suggestions. It was great fun sharing and hearing what other had to say about their work.
Technology: The students used a variety of iPads apps in their small group and individual work. All students used Doodle Buddy to explore and create a picture and added their name to it. They became familiar with how to look for stamp pictures, create text and use the paint and chalk. Next week we will do a project in math using Doodle Buddy. The apps used in reading have already been mentioned. The students worked in small groups, with partners or individually on the apps Intro to Math and Numbers. We all tracked the rain and storms using Weatherunderground.
Literature: "How Kids Grow," "A Hippopotamus Ate the Teacher," "Mouse Loves School," "David Goes to School," "They Day the Teacher Went Bananas," "The Colors of Us," "Clifford's Best School Day," "Shades of Black," "Skippy John Jones Class Action."
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