**The week was filled with compliment cards, friendship chains and song. Our Winter Concert was fabulous! Thanks to Ms. Hiolski and Ms. Freisen for their guidance. Our after the concerts get togethers were chock full of great treats and crafts. A huge thanks to our room parents--L. Wojcik, J. Flannery, E. Rodriguez-Collier and B. Barnett for all their organization and set up. The students were very delighted to see parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters at the concert.
**Our BOOK BUDDY get together was awesome! I read 2 stories about Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and used it as a spring board to discussion about taking pride in your accomplishments, believing in yourself and taking pride in others. Sometimes, it just takes one person or one event to help us see our own worth. After our stories and discussion, our book buddies help us make a Rudolph out of construction paper. We had treats and raised our juice cups to salute our achievements of 2013 and welcome in 2014! A big thanks to Ms. Balicki's room parent, Ms. Koch for her help.
**Senorita Zaragoza talked to the students about the festival of Las Posadas. She shared a story and music about the procession in the streets re-enacting Mary and Joseph's search for an inn and the stable that became their room. I presented the origin of Kwanzaa which began in 1966. Students pointed out the use of the special candle holder called a kinara. Lots of discussion centered around stars and babies. I shared some traditional stories--"The Night Before Christmas," "The Nutcracker," and "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
**Please take a look a the information about BRAIN POP that is in your child's folder.t I am in the process of learning about it myself. The funding for it was provided by PTO. Feel free to experiment with it. I will have more info on its use in kindergarten after break.
**A special shout out to Ms. D. our Tuesday helper!
**Reading Grandma Mary will return for her 7th year of hearing budding readers. She will begin coming in January. We can't wait to see her!
**Mid Year DIBELS testing will take place the first 2 weeks of January and Route to Reading Rotation 4 will resume January 7th.
**Vision Screening for students will take place on Tuesday, January 14th.
**Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held Monday, January 27th, Tuesday, January 28th and Wednesday, January 29th. You will receive notification of your specific day and time when we return from break.
**Classes resume on Monday, January 6th.
**Start saving those GIANT BOXES (the kind you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our space station construction in APRIL during our SPACE THEME. I cannot store anything now. I will have you start bringing things in after spring break.
LOOKING AHEAD in 2014---We will begin our next cross curricular theme--WINTER and finish up Unit 4 FOOD in our Treasures Reading series. We will also begin out first Science Unit--Investigating the Properties of Water. In reading, the students will continue to focus on sound foundation, sound blending and segmenting/adding/deleting phonemes in 4-5- and even 6 phoneme words. We will also work on oral and written comprehension, asking and answering questions about a text, comparing texts, reading fluency, vocabulary building, identifying story elements and identifying the authors message. Our Busy Reader Club will begin. In the area of writing, the students will finish uppercase letter formation and will begin lowercase formation. They will continue sentence structure, inventive spelling, grammar and punctuation and expanding sentence length to include adjectives. In the area of math, the students will continue to work on rote counting to 100 and beyond by 1's and 10's, write their numbers, demonstrate knowledge of numbers that are greater than and less than, name pattern block and geometric solid shapes, represent addition with objects, fingers and mental images and drawing, solve addition story problems using drawings and work on teen numbers and ways to say a number from 1-5 using 2 numbers added together. Socially, the students will work on becoming more responsible and independent learners and thinkers and continue to develop positive relationships with their peers and teachers. Technologically, The students will continue to use the iPad and internet resources to enhance all areas of their curriculum. WOW! We will be really busy!
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to work on Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The discussion this week this week centered around types of food you would have for dinner and if you have ever helped make dinner. The students accessed prior knowledge about meals they have helped prepare and special meals coming up for the holidays that they will be a part of. The students listened to the story, "The Special Sweet Potato Pie." They separated fact from fiction--sweet potatoes are real but--they do not get bigger as they roll down the hill and you CAN make a sweet potato pie. They used the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words. They orally asked and answered questions about the story. They reviewed the sight word--have and "walked their words" with a partner. We also reviewed all sight words learned thus far by playing "Hands Up, Hands Down." The students reviewed target sounds Cc and Nn. they continue to work on using verbs in their daily speech and in their journals. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included APPETITE, FEAST, PREFER, FLAVOR, SPECIAL. The students used the story sequence cards to summarize events and make inferences about what would happen in the Sweet Potato story. They continue to use their elkonin boxes to segment 3-4 phoneme words. We are adding more blends and digraphs to our sound blending. The students read the decodable story, "We Can." They shared their story with a partner during read aloud time.
Math: The students reviewed number formation rhymes for numbers 0-5 and practice writing them in their Number Books. The students continue to work on rote counting to 100 and beyond, counting quantities, oral number stories and ways to say a number. We also continue to work on the concepts of greater than and less than, sequencing numbers that come before or after a random number and number bonding or ways to say a number---ways to say 5--2 and 3......4 and 1.....5 and 0 etc. The students used their following direction skills as well as sequencing order in cutting out and putting together Rudolph. They also continued to work on their Gingerbread Pattern project using the Starfall Gingerbread app.
Writing: In Ms. Chinn's Writer's Workshop this week, the students took a look at WORD CHOICE when creating their stories. Students looked at expanding their sentences and adding more detail to their work. The students worked on a Gingerbread Writing project. They created their gingerbread person and used the word bank to write 2-3 descriptive sentences about their person. Sentence structure and spacing were stressed. They also worked on their placement of letters of a given line.
Technology: In reading the apps Montessori Crossword and Magic Reading 3 were used in students small groups to strengthen segmenting and blending skills. They also used the apps Spelling Bug, Rocket Speller and Dolch Words with a partner. In math, the apps Starfall Gingerbread, Monster Squeeze, Number Find, Domino Match and Sam Phibian were used with individuals and small groups. Students are also working with the app iTalk to record their reading and work on developing fluency.
Literature: "Rudolph," "Rudolph Shines Again," "A Kwanzaa Counting Book," "Kwanzaa," "Las Posadas," "Too Many Tamales," "The Gingerbread Bear," "K is for Kwanzaa," "This is the Star," "A Child is Born," "The Night Before Christmas," "The Nutcracker," "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
Monday, December 23, 2013
Monday, December 16, 2013
UPDATES for 12/9-12/13 2013
**The students spent a busy week practicing their songs for the Winter Concert and learning about the traditions and celebrations of others. It is really beginning to feel like winter. We were unable to go out to recess at lunchtime due to the cold conditions. For our last week at school before break, I am asking students to bring snow pants and wear boots everyday next week. There are suppose to be rising temperatures next week which will make for a very soggy and slushy playground. Our playground and field do not get plowed and so for the students to remain as dry as possible snow pants and boots are the best. I do have 3 extra pair of snow pants for students to borrow. Also, don't forget to send shoes each day.
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/Grade One Winter Concert on Friday, December 20th in the Irving Auditorium. The concert will be held 2 times--First performance is at 8:15 am----the second performance is at 9:45 am. I would go early to get a good seat especially if you are attending the 8:15 concert. Please come back into the room after each performance for a refreshment reception and crafts to share . It will be great time to get together with other families to share conversation and community. Our wonderful room parents have been working on the arrangements for our reception. Our afternoon will be spent with station day activities with our 5th grade Book Buddies.
**Let me know is your child is traveling for the winter break. I will prepare a travel journal for them.
**School is closed--December 21st-January 5th. School reopens on Monday, January 6, 2014!
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 will conclude next week. You will receive notification on your child's skill development. Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin in late January. This will give us time at the beginning of January to do midyear DIBELS assessments.
**In Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey continued her lesson on asking and answering questions in a cool guessing game.
**In Mr. Packer's Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer continued his lesson on dots and letters--visual imagery and perception.
This week:
It continues to be about gingerbread, celebrations and traditions. The students listened to a number of gingerbread stories. They examined characters, setting and main events in the stories. They compared and contrasted the characters and plot. How did it end? (eaten..not eaten) Who were the characters? (boy, baby, girl, man, cowboy, fox, wolf, coyote) What happened in the story? They had loads of fun. The students read about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah with all its tradition and symbols. They learned to play the dreidel game. The students also read about Advent and the story of Christmas with all of its traditions and symbols. Students are beginning to understanding the unifying theme of the use of lights in celebrations--candles, strands of lights on trees, the light of the North Star. Station day activities included creating a candle with glitter and jewels, color by code a menorah, working in our number formation book with number forms 0-5 and making a "geome-tree" using rectangle and triangles to form a Christmas tree.
Reading/Social Studies: The students began Unit 4 Food in their Treasures Reading series. The unit began with a question about where our food comes from. The students accessed prior knowledge stores, farms, markets and orchards as places where food is found. Some students offered that they had gardens in their back yards in the summer. The students listened to the big book story, "Apple Farmer Annie." They listened and discussed where Annie lived and her daily activities as an apple farmer. Students made connections on their fall theme about apples and types of apples and what you can make with apples. Other students talked about the time they went to a farmer's market and bought apples and apple cider. Our target words are to and have. We have added these words to our growing list of sight words. Our target letter and sound is Nn. The students also reviewed the use of action words or verbs. They used the retelling cards to retell the Annie story in their own words. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included FARMER, MARKET, INGREDIENTS, COMBINE, NUTRITIOUS. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 3 and 4 letter words. The students continued their work on consonant blends and digraphs. The students read their pre decodable story, "Can Nan?" They made predictions about story content. Students answered questions about the story and then practiced reading the story to a partner for fluency development. The students listened to the selection, "Pizza Please." They had lots of fun activating their own prior knowledge about making their own homemade pizza, comparing and contrasting the ways and ingredients families use to make pizza and that some students had never made their own but ordered it from a pizza place. The students listened to the informational text, "From Strawberry Field to Strawberry Salad." They reviewed what a diagram was and how to follow a recipe. Workstations this week included creating a pretend meal in house corner, taking a photo of it and then writing about your favorite meal and where it came from, using the sentence starter, "I like.... and writing about a food you like, reader's response--reading and discussing the story with your group and writing about what you liked or did not like about the story, leveled reading working on story elements and comprehension and short vowel word sort and continued recording of reading aloud using iTalk for fluency checks.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 75. This week they worked on number formation rhymes using numbers 0-5. The students are creating a number formation book for practice and counting using their ten frames. Students worked in math centers writing numbers to 50, counting quantities and recording their answer, discussing and recording the numbers that complete their number bond (ways to say a number--10 can be 5 plus 5, 2 plus 8 etc,) reinforcing recognition of pattern block shapes, playing "Make 5 Bingo. The students continue to work on the app Starfall Gingerbread--following and continuing a pattern.
Writing: The students are working on the Starting Center Capitals A, T, J, I. They applied what they had learned in their orange book. Ms. Chinn continues to work with the students in Writer's Workshop. This weeks lesson focused on the "organization" of writing. Ms. Chinn used the example of a train--it has an engine (beginning) box cars (middle) and a caboose (ending). She also used the words FIRST....NEXT......LAST as words to use when organizing sentences. Students worked on a piece of writing and then a few students volunteered to share their writing with the group again with the "stars" and "wishes" peer critiquing. The students are prepping for a writing project on a gingerbread person. Part one of this project was to create the gingerbread person of their choice given a template. Next week the students will write about their creation.
Technology: In the area of reading, small group and individual students used the apps, Montessori Crossword, Spelling Bug and Rocket Speller to listen to and record letter sounds to create words (3-4-5 phonemes.) Another group of students used the app iTalk to record their reading for fluency and clarity. The app Sound Sort continues to assist individual students with sound/symbol connections. In the area of math, small group and individual students used the apps Number Find, Math Bug and Domino Match to reinforce the concepts of counting quantities, adding quantities and finding a number using base ten strategies. Students partnered up to use the app Monster Squeeze using numbers from 1-30. All students continue to work on their patterning project using the app Starfall Gingerbread.
Literature: "The Gingerbread Doll," "The Gingerbread Girl," ""Gingerbread Jimmy," "The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School," "The Gingerbread Baby," "Gingerbread Fred," "Hanukkah," "Counting the Days to Hanukkah," "The Story of Hanukkah," "The Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell," "Celebrate the Holiday," ""The Story of Christmas."
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/Grade One Winter Concert on Friday, December 20th in the Irving Auditorium. The concert will be held 2 times--First performance is at 8:15 am----the second performance is at 9:45 am. I would go early to get a good seat especially if you are attending the 8:15 concert. Please come back into the room after each performance for a refreshment reception and crafts to share . It will be great time to get together with other families to share conversation and community. Our wonderful room parents have been working on the arrangements for our reception. Our afternoon will be spent with station day activities with our 5th grade Book Buddies.
**Let me know is your child is traveling for the winter break. I will prepare a travel journal for them.
**School is closed--December 21st-January 5th. School reopens on Monday, January 6, 2014!
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 will conclude next week. You will receive notification on your child's skill development. Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin in late January. This will give us time at the beginning of January to do midyear DIBELS assessments.
**In Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey continued her lesson on asking and answering questions in a cool guessing game.
**In Mr. Packer's Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer continued his lesson on dots and letters--visual imagery and perception.
This week:
It continues to be about gingerbread, celebrations and traditions. The students listened to a number of gingerbread stories. They examined characters, setting and main events in the stories. They compared and contrasted the characters and plot. How did it end? (eaten..not eaten) Who were the characters? (boy, baby, girl, man, cowboy, fox, wolf, coyote) What happened in the story? They had loads of fun. The students read about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah with all its tradition and symbols. They learned to play the dreidel game. The students also read about Advent and the story of Christmas with all of its traditions and symbols. Students are beginning to understanding the unifying theme of the use of lights in celebrations--candles, strands of lights on trees, the light of the North Star. Station day activities included creating a candle with glitter and jewels, color by code a menorah, working in our number formation book with number forms 0-5 and making a "geome-tree" using rectangle and triangles to form a Christmas tree.
Reading/Social Studies: The students began Unit 4 Food in their Treasures Reading series. The unit began with a question about where our food comes from. The students accessed prior knowledge stores, farms, markets and orchards as places where food is found. Some students offered that they had gardens in their back yards in the summer. The students listened to the big book story, "Apple Farmer Annie." They listened and discussed where Annie lived and her daily activities as an apple farmer. Students made connections on their fall theme about apples and types of apples and what you can make with apples. Other students talked about the time they went to a farmer's market and bought apples and apple cider. Our target words are to and have. We have added these words to our growing list of sight words. Our target letter and sound is Nn. The students also reviewed the use of action words or verbs. They used the retelling cards to retell the Annie story in their own words. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included FARMER, MARKET, INGREDIENTS, COMBINE, NUTRITIOUS. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 3 and 4 letter words. The students continued their work on consonant blends and digraphs. The students read their pre decodable story, "Can Nan?" They made predictions about story content. Students answered questions about the story and then practiced reading the story to a partner for fluency development. The students listened to the selection, "Pizza Please." They had lots of fun activating their own prior knowledge about making their own homemade pizza, comparing and contrasting the ways and ingredients families use to make pizza and that some students had never made their own but ordered it from a pizza place. The students listened to the informational text, "From Strawberry Field to Strawberry Salad." They reviewed what a diagram was and how to follow a recipe. Workstations this week included creating a pretend meal in house corner, taking a photo of it and then writing about your favorite meal and where it came from, using the sentence starter, "I like.... and writing about a food you like, reader's response--reading and discussing the story with your group and writing about what you liked or did not like about the story, leveled reading working on story elements and comprehension and short vowel word sort and continued recording of reading aloud using iTalk for fluency checks.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 75. This week they worked on number formation rhymes using numbers 0-5. The students are creating a number formation book for practice and counting using their ten frames. Students worked in math centers writing numbers to 50, counting quantities and recording their answer, discussing and recording the numbers that complete their number bond (ways to say a number--10 can be 5 plus 5, 2 plus 8 etc,) reinforcing recognition of pattern block shapes, playing "Make 5 Bingo. The students continue to work on the app Starfall Gingerbread--following and continuing a pattern.
Writing: The students are working on the Starting Center Capitals A, T, J, I. They applied what they had learned in their orange book. Ms. Chinn continues to work with the students in Writer's Workshop. This weeks lesson focused on the "organization" of writing. Ms. Chinn used the example of a train--it has an engine (beginning) box cars (middle) and a caboose (ending). She also used the words FIRST....NEXT......LAST as words to use when organizing sentences. Students worked on a piece of writing and then a few students volunteered to share their writing with the group again with the "stars" and "wishes" peer critiquing. The students are prepping for a writing project on a gingerbread person. Part one of this project was to create the gingerbread person of their choice given a template. Next week the students will write about their creation.
Technology: In the area of reading, small group and individual students used the apps, Montessori Crossword, Spelling Bug and Rocket Speller to listen to and record letter sounds to create words (3-4-5 phonemes.) Another group of students used the app iTalk to record their reading for fluency and clarity. The app Sound Sort continues to assist individual students with sound/symbol connections. In the area of math, small group and individual students used the apps Number Find, Math Bug and Domino Match to reinforce the concepts of counting quantities, adding quantities and finding a number using base ten strategies. Students partnered up to use the app Monster Squeeze using numbers from 1-30. All students continue to work on their patterning project using the app Starfall Gingerbread.
Literature: "The Gingerbread Doll," "The Gingerbread Girl," ""Gingerbread Jimmy," "The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School," "The Gingerbread Baby," "Gingerbread Fred," "Hanukkah," "Counting the Days to Hanukkah," "The Story of Hanukkah," "The Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell," "Celebrate the Holiday," ""The Story of Christmas."
Monday, December 9, 2013
UPDATES for 12/2/-12/9 2013
The temperature is dropping and the snow is falling! The students had a spectacular week culminating in our 18th Annual Gingerbread cookie baking! What a success for students and parent volunteers! The smell of gingerbread filled the school. The cookies themselves were really works of art. The students worked together, created and shared some of their cookies with each other. Tis the season! A HUGE THANKS to our great parent volunteers--Ms. Wojcik, Mr. Smyth, Ms. Barnett, Mr. Bernacchi, Ms. Quinones and our beloved Ms. Jack for their help. Hope you enjoyed the cookies too.
**Report cards will go home on Monday, December 9th. Please read the information included to better understand the grading system. Lexia reports are also included as well as any goal updates by specialists your child may be seeing in the area of the speech and language or Tier 3 Intervention for Reading Readiness. If you have any questions please contact me. The common core standards and grading system is a big change for all of us (me included!) It continues to be a work in progress. The main idea to remember is that this is growth model of progress toward an end of the year goal.
**If you didn't get a chance to hear our class version of the Brown Bear story--check it out at the end of this blog post. Totally cute!
**Our WINTER CONCERT is fast approaching. Please join us for the Kindergarten/Grade 1 concert on Friday, December 20th. The students will perform twice--8:15 am and again at 9:45 am in the Irving Auditorium. We will have a family reception after both concerts in our classroom. Come see your child perform and join us for some treats and community!
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and craft Fair is Saturday, December 14th from 9-12 pm in the lunchroom and hallways. There are really great things to buy for every age. I went last year and bought cool stocking stuffers.....and COOKIES!!!!
**The Geography Challenge #3 is on for a few more days.
**School is closed--December 21st-January 5th-WiNTER BREAK! School reopens on Monday, January 6th.
**We have begun our cross curricular unit on Celebrations and Traditions. Our first guest speaker was Julia's mom. Ms. Heisler spoke about her native country of Ukraine. We located it on our world map. She read a story in Russian which Julia helped translate into English! Cool! Julia came dressed in a beautiful skirt and shirt with cool blue needle work. Ms. Heisler spoke about particular holiday traditions and the students made Ukrainian flags and paper dolls dressed like Julia and boys dressed dressed in native clothing found in one of the story books. Thanks so much, Ms. Heisler and Julia! If have a particular holiday or winter tradition you would like to share with the class---email me and we can set up a time for you to come in. Kindergarten students LOVE to have their parents come to the classroom!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey worked with the students on asking and answering questions using an activity where students try to guess an animal that Ms. Bell Bey is thinking about by asking questions as clues.
**In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer continued his activity on dots and letters--visual imagery and perception.
This week:
It was all about celebrations, traditions and gingerbread. The students talked about what a tradition was--activities that are done routinely at the same time every year and are passed down thru generations. I spoke about my family traditions at holiday time and my school tradition of making gingerbread with my students at this time of year. The students made connections in their own lives and related activities that they do every year at this time. We did a little research on how the activity of gingerbread making began and why it is so popular this time of year. Ginger was a valuable spice a long time ago traced back to the Greeks and Romans. A cake like treat was made of ginger. As time went on, Europeans began using flour, ginger and other spices to create cookies, cakes and houses. The students began listening to some stories about various gingerbread characters. We will continue our story listening and compare and contrast the characters and plots in the coming weeks.
Reading/Social Studies: The students are working to complete Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students built background knowledge about the different ways wheels are used to move people and things around. They worked on their listening comprehension while listening to David Shannon's story, "Duck on a Bike," read both in English and in Spanish. Students identified the characters and the plot (what is happening in the story.) They took a closer look at the way the story is organized (a beginning, a middle and an ending), and responded to the story by discussing the connections that can be made from the story to their daily lives. (I can ride a bike.) (I see kids riding bikes in my neighborhood.) The students reviewed target sounds Tt and Short i and used their elkonin boxes and cubes to segment and blend 4 letter words. Lots of discussion on nouns and action words. The students worked with partners to create noun/verb sentences using picture cards. The students were introduced to Consonant Blends and Digraphs. Do you know the difference? Ask your child! Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included ADVENTURE, WHEELS, ATTACH, HAUL, MASSIVE. The students read their pre decodable story "I See a Truck Go" and made predictions about story content. The students listened to the thinking story, "Timimoto" and discussed the storytellers message. Workstation activities this week included recording their reading using the app iTalk and playing it back to hear themselves (beginning fluency checks,) leveled reading comprehension, creating sentences using the target words Go and See, read it and add to it activity, sound match, air, land and water vehicles graph/comparison, asking and answering questions about a trip you might like to take.
Math: The students continued work on rote counting to 75. The students continue to work in their calendar books on recording numbers, sequencing numbers, counting on from a random number and recording ways to say a number (number combinations.) The students are also using tally marks to show how many. They are using pattern blocks to count quantities and also using them for patterning. This week, the students learned how to play "Roll a Gingerbread Man." They will play at home for homework.
Writing: The students completed work on forming their "Magic C" capitals--C, O, Q, G, S. They applied what they learned in their orange practice book. Ms. Chinn is continuing to work with the student in Writer's Workshop. This weeks focus was on an exercise called "Stars" and "Wishes." Each student shared a piece of writing/illustrating from their folder. The class critiqued the sample. What did they like? What was your favorite detail? They also made suggestions to enhance the piece. I wanted to hear more about...... What about a picture of...... The students were gracious and offered up many compliments and suggestions. Students helping each other become better writers!
Technology: In the area of reading small group and individual work the students used the apps Magnetic Letters to complete writing assignments relating to their leveled reading, Sound Sort for initial sound/picture practice and Montessori Crossword for blending and segmenting sounds. One group of students used the app iTalk to record their reading for fluency and clarity. It is very fun to hear what you sound like! In math, small group and individual work centered around the apps Number Find, Monster Squeeze, Math Bug and the introduction of Starfall Gingerbread for patterning, identifying and describing shapes.
Literature: "Ginger Bear," "The Gingerbread Man," ""Duck on a Bike," "Gingerbread Man," Poetry--"My Bike, ""Riding the Subway Train," "Celebrations Around the World," "Hibernation," "Animals in Winter," "The Story of Hannukah," "The Gingerbread Boy."
**Report cards will go home on Monday, December 9th. Please read the information included to better understand the grading system. Lexia reports are also included as well as any goal updates by specialists your child may be seeing in the area of the speech and language or Tier 3 Intervention for Reading Readiness. If you have any questions please contact me. The common core standards and grading system is a big change for all of us (me included!) It continues to be a work in progress. The main idea to remember is that this is growth model of progress toward an end of the year goal.
**If you didn't get a chance to hear our class version of the Brown Bear story--check it out at the end of this blog post. Totally cute!
**Our WINTER CONCERT is fast approaching. Please join us for the Kindergarten/Grade 1 concert on Friday, December 20th. The students will perform twice--8:15 am and again at 9:45 am in the Irving Auditorium. We will have a family reception after both concerts in our classroom. Come see your child perform and join us for some treats and community!
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and craft Fair is Saturday, December 14th from 9-12 pm in the lunchroom and hallways. There are really great things to buy for every age. I went last year and bought cool stocking stuffers.....and COOKIES!!!!
**The Geography Challenge #3 is on for a few more days.
**School is closed--December 21st-January 5th-WiNTER BREAK! School reopens on Monday, January 6th.
**We have begun our cross curricular unit on Celebrations and Traditions. Our first guest speaker was Julia's mom. Ms. Heisler spoke about her native country of Ukraine. We located it on our world map. She read a story in Russian which Julia helped translate into English! Cool! Julia came dressed in a beautiful skirt and shirt with cool blue needle work. Ms. Heisler spoke about particular holiday traditions and the students made Ukrainian flags and paper dolls dressed like Julia and boys dressed dressed in native clothing found in one of the story books. Thanks so much, Ms. Heisler and Julia! If have a particular holiday or winter tradition you would like to share with the class---email me and we can set up a time for you to come in. Kindergarten students LOVE to have their parents come to the classroom!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey worked with the students on asking and answering questions using an activity where students try to guess an animal that Ms. Bell Bey is thinking about by asking questions as clues.
**In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer continued his activity on dots and letters--visual imagery and perception.
This week:
It was all about celebrations, traditions and gingerbread. The students talked about what a tradition was--activities that are done routinely at the same time every year and are passed down thru generations. I spoke about my family traditions at holiday time and my school tradition of making gingerbread with my students at this time of year. The students made connections in their own lives and related activities that they do every year at this time. We did a little research on how the activity of gingerbread making began and why it is so popular this time of year. Ginger was a valuable spice a long time ago traced back to the Greeks and Romans. A cake like treat was made of ginger. As time went on, Europeans began using flour, ginger and other spices to create cookies, cakes and houses. The students began listening to some stories about various gingerbread characters. We will continue our story listening and compare and contrast the characters and plots in the coming weeks.
Reading/Social Studies: The students are working to complete Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students built background knowledge about the different ways wheels are used to move people and things around. They worked on their listening comprehension while listening to David Shannon's story, "Duck on a Bike," read both in English and in Spanish. Students identified the characters and the plot (what is happening in the story.) They took a closer look at the way the story is organized (a beginning, a middle and an ending), and responded to the story by discussing the connections that can be made from the story to their daily lives. (I can ride a bike.) (I see kids riding bikes in my neighborhood.) The students reviewed target sounds Tt and Short i and used their elkonin boxes and cubes to segment and blend 4 letter words. Lots of discussion on nouns and action words. The students worked with partners to create noun/verb sentences using picture cards. The students were introduced to Consonant Blends and Digraphs. Do you know the difference? Ask your child! Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included ADVENTURE, WHEELS, ATTACH, HAUL, MASSIVE. The students read their pre decodable story "I See a Truck Go" and made predictions about story content. The students listened to the thinking story, "Timimoto" and discussed the storytellers message. Workstation activities this week included recording their reading using the app iTalk and playing it back to hear themselves (beginning fluency checks,) leveled reading comprehension, creating sentences using the target words Go and See, read it and add to it activity, sound match, air, land and water vehicles graph/comparison, asking and answering questions about a trip you might like to take.
Math: The students continued work on rote counting to 75. The students continue to work in their calendar books on recording numbers, sequencing numbers, counting on from a random number and recording ways to say a number (number combinations.) The students are also using tally marks to show how many. They are using pattern blocks to count quantities and also using them for patterning. This week, the students learned how to play "Roll a Gingerbread Man." They will play at home for homework.
Writing: The students completed work on forming their "Magic C" capitals--C, O, Q, G, S. They applied what they learned in their orange practice book. Ms. Chinn is continuing to work with the student in Writer's Workshop. This weeks focus was on an exercise called "Stars" and "Wishes." Each student shared a piece of writing/illustrating from their folder. The class critiqued the sample. What did they like? What was your favorite detail? They also made suggestions to enhance the piece. I wanted to hear more about...... What about a picture of...... The students were gracious and offered up many compliments and suggestions. Students helping each other become better writers!
Technology: In the area of reading small group and individual work the students used the apps Magnetic Letters to complete writing assignments relating to their leveled reading, Sound Sort for initial sound/picture practice and Montessori Crossword for blending and segmenting sounds. One group of students used the app iTalk to record their reading for fluency and clarity. It is very fun to hear what you sound like! In math, small group and individual work centered around the apps Number Find, Monster Squeeze, Math Bug and the introduction of Starfall Gingerbread for patterning, identifying and describing shapes.
Literature: "Ginger Bear," "The Gingerbread Man," ""Duck on a Bike," "Gingerbread Man," Poetry--"My Bike, ""Riding the Subway Train," "Celebrations Around the World," "Hibernation," "Animals in Winter," "The Story of Hannukah," "The Gingerbread Boy."
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