**Our 50th day in school was fun. Bobby socks, ponytails, fancy skirts and dresses, blue jeans, slick back hair and tees----cool man! The students compared and contrasted the 1950's and the present via a Venn diagram. They enjoyed pudding floats and danced to the music of the 50's. Hey, these kids have some moves!!! They worked on math and literacy learning stations surrounding the number 50. The countdown continues. Only 50 more days to go until our 100th day celebration!
**Our BROOKFIELD ZOO FIELD TRIP is Friday, November 15th. Please send in all money and permission slips ASAP! Please read the yellow sheet that was sent home. Dress for the weather--bag lunch with name on it. Students and teachers ride the school bus. All volunteers will carpool. Thanks to T. Smyth, B. Ahring, Ms. Cummings (Reid's Grandma) B. Barnett, L. Pierre, S. Jun, H. Lim, and E. Rodriguez for volunteering their time to come on the trip. We will be leaving at 9:00 am and returning to school at 2:00 pm. Our trip includes a classroom experience and tour of the Bear Grotto, picnic lunch and time on your own to see other exhibits.
**Come to the "JAMMIE JAM" sponsored by Student Council. It will be held on Friday, November 22nd from 6:30-8:00 pm. in the gym. The admission of $5.00 will go toward purchasing pajamas for children with prolonged hospital stays. Don't forget to fill out the confirmation sheet and send it back to school. I'll be there--might have to get a new pair of jammies for the occasion. Come join in the fun and dance the night away for a good cause.
**The Geography Challenge has sure been fun! Congratulations to our own Jayden and Ethan for having their answers picked this week. Students have already begun taking the next challenge. Thanks, Gina for the map of the Great Lakes--hint, hint!!!
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 will conclude on Thursday. At that time, you will receive information on your child's skill mastery.
**Beginning this week and continuing for the next 5 weeks, our class will take part in Ms. Chinn's Writer's Workshop that will provide tips and strategies for our budding kindergarten writers. Language Arts Specialist, Ms. Chinn, will guide the students through a series of lessons to boost their thinking and writing potential.
**No Friendship Club this week. Ms. Bell Bey had a meeting.
**In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer continued his interactive activities on the concepts greater than and less than.
**No School Wednesday, Thursday, Friday--November 27th-29th--Thanksgiving observance. Let me know if your child needs a travel journal.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!! We will need several volunteers for our annual gingerbread cookie baking on Friday, December 6th from 12:30-2:55 pm. No experience necessary. Create, decorate, bake and share. Email if interested. This activity is part of our cross curricular unit on Celebrations and Traditions. I will provide the dough---regular and gluten free and sprinkles!
**SAVE the DATE! Our WINTER CONCERT featuring Kindergarten and First Grade is Friday, December 20th. Due to the size of our auditorium, our concert will be held twice---first performance is at 8:15 am---the second repeat performance is at 9:45 am. The students are already practicing!!!!
This week:
It was all about our beginning BEAR inquiry. The students listed what they knew about bears. The students gathered information from books and the internet about characteristics that all bears share. The students were excited to learn that humans share something in common with bears--they are both mammals. The students found out that the black bear is the most common bear in North America. They read about where they are found, their habitats, characteristics and food. Our nature table has a black bear skull and jaw bone, black bear fur and claw and some other interesting artifacts courtesy of the Field Museum. The students also noticed some differences between black bears and brown bears (smaller paws and claws.) Stay tuned--more brown bear and polar bear inquiries next week. The students will also work on a talking book project--their version of Eric Carle and Bill Martin Jrs--"Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" Station day activities included sponge painted brown bears, build a bear with pattern blocks, black bear growth sequence and sight word activity.
Reading/Social Studies: The students have completed Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. This weeks lessons centered around friends who solve problems together. The students listened to the story, "Simon and Molly plus Hester." They asked and answered questions and responded to the literature by making connections in their own lives. The students talked about the problem and the solution in the story. The students reviewed all their sight vocabulary thus far. They practiced writing them and using selected words in oral and written sentences. The students reviewed target sounds Pp and Ss and used their sound boxes to mark where they heard the target sound--at the beginning or at the end of the word. The students took turns retelling our story using the retelling cards. In phonemic awareness activities, the students categorized and blended 3 phonemes (individual sounds) to create words. The students read the pre decodable story, "I Like, We Like." They made predictions about story content and practiced reading to a partner. We used our oral vocabulary cards to develop our Robust Vocabulary in the tale from Haiti called, "The Turtle and the Sheep." Our Robust Vocabulary included PROBLEM, SOLVE, GRATEFUL, THOUGHTFUL and INCLUDE. The students thought about what the author's message could be in this tale. Was there a lesson in this story? Some very insightful thoughts from 5 and 6 year olds! In our read aloud folk tale, "The Little Red Hen," the students listened to fluent reading and reoccurring phrases. They worked to sequence event in the story.. Workstations this week included creating sentences 2 friends might say to each other and putting it in a speech bubble or balloon, expressing your feelings, by drawing a picture of yourself happy and sad and writing about what makes you happy or sad, leveled reading and discussion of stories, using the app iWrite to practice writing sight words.
Math: It was all about the number 50! Students worked on a variety of learning station using numbers 1-50. Learning stations included tracing/writing the numbers 1-50, ten frame activities, greater than and less than using random numbers, Top It using numbers 1-50, Monster Squeeze using numbers 1-50 and Race to 50 Game. The students are also working in their Daily Calendar books that contain activities on counting on, sequencing numbers, number combinations, ways to say a number and working with number families.
Writing: Students are working on their Starting Corner Capital letters H, K, L, W and V. They used their wooden pieces to assist in their learning along with their mini chalkboards and sponges. The students have finished the writing and illustrating portion of their fact book on pumpkins and are now in the process of orally recording their sentences. The students are beginning to use more lowercase letters in their writing and are beginning to be more consistent in placement of upper and lowercase letters on lined paper. Students continue to use their inventive spelling and their sight vocabulary to create sentences.
Technology: In reading, students continue to use the apps mentioned last week in small groups and individually. Students have begun recording their sentence from our pumpkin fact book using Story Kit. In math, students continue to use the apps mentioned last week in small groups and individually. Students also used google to look up information on BEARS.
Literature: "Going on a Bear Hunt," "Amazing Bears," "Bears," "Day in the Life of Baby Bear," "Bears in the Forest," "Please Don't Wake the Bear," "Sleep Big Bear, Sleep."
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