**Our week was filled with compliment cards, friendship chains, book buddy projects and song. Our Winter Concert was fabulous! Thanks to Ms. Hiolski and Ms. Freisen for their guidance. Our after the concerts get togethers were full of great treats and crafts. Thanks to our helpers, Ms. Meier and Ms. Pacelli for their organization. The students were delighted to see parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters at the concert.
**Our End of the Year Book Buddy get together was awesome! The students shared treats and worked on a getting to know you movie trailer using iMovie. As the students finish the project, they are emailing the trailers to me and I will hopefully email them to you in the new year. Senorita Zaragoza spoke 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. Evan and his mom presented on the feast of Hanukkah. Evan shared his special menorah and Ms. Frank read a special story. Each student received a Dreidel game. Jeremy and his mom also shared Jeremy's special Noah's Ark menorah. A special thanks to Ms. Frank and Ms. Meier for their time! I presented the origin of Kwanzaa which began in 1966. Students viewed their special candle holder called a kinara. I shared some traditional stories--"The Night Before Christmas", "The Nutcracker" and "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
**Mid Year DIBELS screening will take place the first 2 weeks of January. Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin on Tuesday, January 6th.
**Vision Screening for Kindergarten students will be held Friday, January 9th in the morning.
**No School--Friday, January 16th-Teacher's Institute Day.
**Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, February 9th, Tuesday, February 10th and Wednesday, February 11th. You will receive notification of your specific day and time when we return from break.
**Reading Grandma Mary will be returning for her 8th year of hearing budding readers. She will begin coming every Friday morning beginning on Friday, January 9th.
**Classes resume on Monday, January 5th.
**Start saving those GIANT BOXES (the kind you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our space station design and construction in APRIL during our SPACE THEME. I cannot store anything now. I will have you start bringing in things after spring break.
LOOKING AHEAD IN 2015-----We will begin our next cross curricular theme WINTER. We will continue to introduce Next Generation Science strands within our district science model. We will begin our first formal Science Unit--Investigating Water. In the area of 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. I will be sending out more information about this in the new year. In the area of writing, the students will finish uppercase letter formation and will begin formal training in forming lowercase letters. Students will continue to work on 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 by ones and tens and beyond, writing numbers, demonstrating knowledge of numbers that are greater then and less than, naming pattern block and geometric solid shapes, representing addition and subtraction with objects and mental images, solving story problems using drawings and number work, number bonding to 10 and more work on teen numbers. In the area of science, the students will weave district science and next generation science in the exploration of water and weather patterns. Socially, the students will continue to work on becoming more responsible and independent learners and thinkers and continue to develop positive relationships with their peers and teachers. In the area of technology, the students will continue to use the iPad and internet resources to enhance all areas of their curriculum. WOW! We will be very busy!!
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The discussion this week centered around types of food you would have for dinner and if you 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 Big Book 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. Students reviewed their sight word, have and walked their words with a partner. They also reviewed target sounds Cc and Nn. They continue to work on using verbs in their daily speech and in their writing. Robust Vocabulary this week included APPETITE, FEAST, FLAVOR, SPECIAL. The students decided what small group activities they would do for their workstations this week. They formed small groups and worked on a story elements project using the pre decodable story, "I Have," worked on a word building Gingerbread Game, Used Montessori Crossword projected on the screen to take turns segmenting and sound blending 3 and 4 phoneme words and worked on a small group story about their gingerbread scenes they created with foam stickers.
Math: Students worked on a variety of of counting and problem solving activities--creating snowflakes-counting the folds to make and where to cut, playing the Dreidel Game adding and subtracting game pieces depending upon the the spin of the dreidel and making Rudolph using problem solving to figure out where each piece goes.
Writing: The students began work on Magic "C" uppercase letters C, O, Q, and G. They worked on creating a gingerbread person and wrote 1-4 sentences about them using words that describe. They continue to work on reading their writing and are beginning to make their own corrections. The students worked on Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset thinking while listening to the story of "Rudolph Shines Again." They worked on writing compliment cards choosing one of their classmates that has demonstrated a Growth Mindset--I Can Learn From My Mistakes--I Keep Trying Until I Can--When Other Kids Do Well, I Am Inspired. All students were written about. They are up on our Compliment Tree board. I was very inspired!
Technology: Both small group and whole group used the apps Montessori Crossword and Rocketspeller and Number Find. Book Buddies helped them explore iMovie.
Literature: "Rudolph," "Rudolph Shines Again," "Las Posadas," "The Night Before Christmas," "The Nutcracker," "The Twelve Days of Christmas," "A Kwanzaa Counting Book," "K is for Kwanzaa."
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Sunday, December 14, 2014
UPDATES for 12/8-12/12 2014
**The flu, fever and coughs visited out classroom this week. By Friday, we had 7 students out! We kept to our schedule as much as we could. The students were busy practicing songs for the Winter Concert and sharing their winter traditions and learning about the traditions and celebrations of others around the world. Our 19th Annual Gingerbread Cookie Baking was a small affair, but quite spectacular!! The smell of gingerbread filled the school! The students created cookies that were works of art. Lots of details and lots of sprinkles!!! The students worked together to create and share some of the cookies with each other. Tis the season!! A HUGE THANKS to our great volunteers--Lily's Grandma, Ms. Peterson and Trinity and Mr. Hellman and Ms. Dennis. With plenty of dough and sprinkles let over, I have made some dough/sprinkles and baking directions bags for those students who were absent. Let me know if you need to borrow cookie cutters--I have plenty of those too!
**The Trimester 1 Report Card is in your child's home work folder. If you have any questions or would like to meet to discuss the standards grading system---please email me1
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/Grade1 Winter Concert on Wednesday, December 17th 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. The concerts will begin promptly! Go early and get a good seat, especially if you are attending the 8:15 concert. Please come back to the room after each performance for a refreshment reception and crafts. It will be a great time to get together with other families to share conversation and community.
**The students were treated to a performance by the World's Smallest Circus (2 people!) on Tuesday. There was plate juggling, acrobatics, silly skits and spinning tops. Very fun! Check out our own Jaylen spinning plates----who knew!!!
**Please let me know if your child is traveling over the winter break. I will prepare a travel journal for them to take on their travels.
**Our class has a SECRET SNOWFLAKE!!!! We are making some surprises for them. Shhhhh!
**The Irving Craft Fair and Cookie Crumble grows more spectacular every year!!! There were so many things to look at and lots of great buys. What fun!!
**School is closed December 20th-January 4th. Classes resume on Monday, January 5, 2015!!
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin later in January. This will give us time at the beginning of January to do midyear DIBELS Assessments.
**This week in Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey conducted voting session where the students got to "vote " for what they wanted to do next Friday. It was MOVIE by a small margin. Ms.Bell Bey and I will be looking over appropriate choices.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued to work with the students on subitizing activities using dots in standard and scattered arrays.
This week:
It continues to be about gingerbread, celebrations and traditions. The students 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, houses and cakes. The students listened to a number of gingerbread stories. They examined characters, setting and main events in the stories. They verbally compared and contrasted the characters and the plot. How did end? (eaten...not eaten.) Who were the characters? (boy, man, baby, girls/boys, fox, wolf, coyote.) What happened in the story? They had loads of fun elbow chatting with each other about their observations. The students read about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah with all its traditions and symbols. They learned how to play the dreidel game. The students also read about Advent and the story of Christmas with all its traditions and symbols. Students are beginning to catch on to the unifying theme of the use of lights in these winter celebrations--candles, strands of lights on trees, the light of the North Star. Station Day activities for this week included creating a candle with glitter and jewels, color by code menorah, working on our number formation books with forms for 6-9 and creating a "geome-tree" using rectangle and triangles to form an evergreen tree.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The unit began with a question about where food comes from. The students accessed prior knowledge about 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, types of apples and what you can make with apples. Other students talked about the time they went went a farmer's market and bought apples and apple cider. Our target words are to and have. We have added these to our growing number of sight words. Our target letter and sound is Nn. The students reviewed the use of nouns and action words or verbs. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included FARMER, MARKET, INGREDIENTS, COMBINE, NUTRITIOUS. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 3 and 4 sound words. The students continue their work on recognizing consonant blends and digraphs. The students read their pre decodable story, "Can Nan?" They made predictions about story content. Students answered questions about the events in the story and then practiced reading the story to a partner for fluency development. The students listened to the vocabulary story, "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. Some students had never made pizza but said they ordered it from a pizza place. The students learned that the dough comes from wheat grown on a farm, the sauce from tomatoes grown many places and cheese made from cow's milk. Workstations this week included using leveled readers to chat about story elements, creating word pies using CVC patterns, elbow chatting about the main idea of their selected story and about how foods grow, writing a sentence about what you like to do (action word), draw and label a food you like and write a sentence about it, read it and add to it-write about what could happen next, playing Roll, Write and Read and Feeling Foods--reach your hand in the bag....pull out a food....chat about it.....write about it and walking your words.
Math: The students continue to rote count to 85. They also continue to work on number formation rhymes for 6-9. The students are creating a number formation book for practice. We did a group lesson on counting on from a random number between 0-50 and higher between 50-100! We also played a group game about finding the 3 numbers BEFORE and 3 numbers AFTER a given number. In student workshop this week, students counted gingerbread men and recorded the number, learned to play the "Roll a Gingerbread Man," reviewed teen numbers with ten frames, wrote numbers 0-50, discussed and recorded the numbers that completed their number bond 0-5, reinforced recognition of pattern block shapes and worked with partners on the app Starfall Gingerbread--following and continuing a pattern.
Writing: The students finished up formal instruction on Starting Corner Capitals and began work on Magic "C" Capitals. They applied what they learned in their orange practice books. The students began work on a writing project about a gingerbread person. They are creating their own gingerbread person and are going to describe in writing their creation. The students came up with a list of describing words to use. Stay tuned!!
Technology: In the area of reading, student small groups and individual students used the apps, Montessori Crossword, Spelling Bug and Rocket Speller to listen and record letter sounds to create words (3-4-5 phonemes/sounds) recorded reading with iTalk for fluency, The app Sound Sort continues to assist individual students with sound/symbol connections. In the area of math, whole group instruction continued with the apps Subitize Tree and Number Rack. Students small groups used the apps Number Find and Easy Match for counting and cardinality as well as finding number using base ten strategies. The students partnered up to play Monster Squeeze using numbers 1-30.
Literature: "Hanukkah Counting Book," Diane Goode's "American Christmas Poems," "Counting Lions," "A Picture Book of Hanukkah," "Zero is the Leaves on a Tree," "Bake, Mice, Bake," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Bear," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Baby," "The Gingerbread Cowboy," "The Gingerbread Kid," "The Gingerbread Boy," "The Gingerbread Pirates," "Gingerbread Friends," "Bad Kitty Christmas, " "This is the Star," "Room for a Little One," "Winter Celebration Around the World."
**The Trimester 1 Report Card is in your child's home work folder. If you have any questions or would like to meet to discuss the standards grading system---please email me1
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/Grade1 Winter Concert on Wednesday, December 17th 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. The concerts will begin promptly! Go early and get a good seat, especially if you are attending the 8:15 concert. Please come back to the room after each performance for a refreshment reception and crafts. It will be a great time to get together with other families to share conversation and community.
**The students were treated to a performance by the World's Smallest Circus (2 people!) on Tuesday. There was plate juggling, acrobatics, silly skits and spinning tops. Very fun! Check out our own Jaylen spinning plates----who knew!!!
**Please let me know if your child is traveling over the winter break. I will prepare a travel journal for them to take on their travels.
**Our class has a SECRET SNOWFLAKE!!!! We are making some surprises for them. Shhhhh!
**The Irving Craft Fair and Cookie Crumble grows more spectacular every year!!! There were so many things to look at and lots of great buys. What fun!!
**School is closed December 20th-January 4th. Classes resume on Monday, January 5, 2015!!
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin later in January. This will give us time at the beginning of January to do midyear DIBELS Assessments.
**This week in Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey conducted voting session where the students got to "vote " for what they wanted to do next Friday. It was MOVIE by a small margin. Ms.Bell Bey and I will be looking over appropriate choices.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued to work with the students on subitizing activities using dots in standard and scattered arrays.
This week:
It continues to be about gingerbread, celebrations and traditions. The students 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, houses and cakes. The students listened to a number of gingerbread stories. They examined characters, setting and main events in the stories. They verbally compared and contrasted the characters and the plot. How did end? (eaten...not eaten.) Who were the characters? (boy, man, baby, girls/boys, fox, wolf, coyote.) What happened in the story? They had loads of fun elbow chatting with each other about their observations. The students read about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah with all its traditions and symbols. They learned how to play the dreidel game. The students also read about Advent and the story of Christmas with all its traditions and symbols. Students are beginning to catch on to the unifying theme of the use of lights in these winter celebrations--candles, strands of lights on trees, the light of the North Star. Station Day activities for this week included creating a candle with glitter and jewels, color by code menorah, working on our number formation books with forms for 6-9 and creating a "geome-tree" using rectangle and triangles to form an evergreen tree.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The unit began with a question about where food comes from. The students accessed prior knowledge about 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, types of apples and what you can make with apples. Other students talked about the time they went went a farmer's market and bought apples and apple cider. Our target words are to and have. We have added these to our growing number of sight words. Our target letter and sound is Nn. The students reviewed the use of nouns and action words or verbs. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included FARMER, MARKET, INGREDIENTS, COMBINE, NUTRITIOUS. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 3 and 4 sound words. The students continue their work on recognizing consonant blends and digraphs. The students read their pre decodable story, "Can Nan?" They made predictions about story content. Students answered questions about the events in the story and then practiced reading the story to a partner for fluency development. The students listened to the vocabulary story, "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. Some students had never made pizza but said they ordered it from a pizza place. The students learned that the dough comes from wheat grown on a farm, the sauce from tomatoes grown many places and cheese made from cow's milk. Workstations this week included using leveled readers to chat about story elements, creating word pies using CVC patterns, elbow chatting about the main idea of their selected story and about how foods grow, writing a sentence about what you like to do (action word), draw and label a food you like and write a sentence about it, read it and add to it-write about what could happen next, playing Roll, Write and Read and Feeling Foods--reach your hand in the bag....pull out a food....chat about it.....write about it and walking your words.
Math: The students continue to rote count to 85. They also continue to work on number formation rhymes for 6-9. The students are creating a number formation book for practice. We did a group lesson on counting on from a random number between 0-50 and higher between 50-100! We also played a group game about finding the 3 numbers BEFORE and 3 numbers AFTER a given number. In student workshop this week, students counted gingerbread men and recorded the number, learned to play the "Roll a Gingerbread Man," reviewed teen numbers with ten frames, wrote numbers 0-50, discussed and recorded the numbers that completed their number bond 0-5, reinforced recognition of pattern block shapes and worked with partners on the app Starfall Gingerbread--following and continuing a pattern.
Writing: The students finished up formal instruction on Starting Corner Capitals and began work on Magic "C" Capitals. They applied what they learned in their orange practice books. The students began work on a writing project about a gingerbread person. They are creating their own gingerbread person and are going to describe in writing their creation. The students came up with a list of describing words to use. Stay tuned!!
Technology: In the area of reading, student small groups and individual students used the apps, Montessori Crossword, Spelling Bug and Rocket Speller to listen and record letter sounds to create words (3-4-5 phonemes/sounds) recorded reading with iTalk for fluency, The app Sound Sort continues to assist individual students with sound/symbol connections. In the area of math, whole group instruction continued with the apps Subitize Tree and Number Rack. Students small groups used the apps Number Find and Easy Match for counting and cardinality as well as finding number using base ten strategies. The students partnered up to play Monster Squeeze using numbers 1-30.
Literature: "Hanukkah Counting Book," Diane Goode's "American Christmas Poems," "Counting Lions," "A Picture Book of Hanukkah," "Zero is the Leaves on a Tree," "Bake, Mice, Bake," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Bear," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Baby," "The Gingerbread Cowboy," "The Gingerbread Kid," "The Gingerbread Boy," "The Gingerbread Pirates," "Gingerbread Friends," "Bad Kitty Christmas, " "This is the Star," "Room for a Little One," "Winter Celebration Around the World."
Sunday, December 7, 2014
UPDATES for 11/24-11/25 and 12/1-12/5 2014
**WOW!! Busy. Busy. I will back track a little to 11/24. The students heard last minute details about their trip to Brookfield Zoo. We read information on other types of Bears. The students chatted about their question for their research project. The students worked on their writing pieces for Polar and Black/Brown Bears. What do we know now? They chose the stories for read aloud and decided what other activities to do in their workstations. In the afternoon, the students had a great time investigating the animal track stamps courtesy of the Field Museum. Each child chose an specific animal track and stamped their paper. They then wrote about where their animal tracks were going. Totally cute!! They are up in our classroom. Come and check them out!
**11/25--FIELD TRIP to BROOKFIELD ZOO!! It was super chilly but we dressed warmly and had an absolutely fabulous time. A HUGE THANKS to Ms. Frank, Ms. Cummings, Ms. Matta and Ms. Connelly for braving the elements to help out. Hamill Play Zoo had face painting, dramatic play at the vet's office, craft, a cool chicken and bunny to pet and plants to water. Students saw bison, penguins, snakes to name a few. We had an indoor lunch and traveled to our Bear Class. Our docent, Jim was the best! The students got to examine black bear and polar bear fur and see how many students it took end to end to equal the size of a grizzly bear. They learned many more interesting facts about bears. We toured the Bear Grotto and saw a sleeping brown bear up close and personal as well as a polar bear fluffing up his bed of straw. It felt so good to get back on the warm bus. Back at school, the students reflected in their journal about their experience and then topped it off with Art Class with our beloved Ms. Tague.
**The Frosty Fun Friday Jam was a hoot!! Lots of students rocking out to the tunes spun by by our own DJ Mick. There were some very cool moves by our own Jaylen and the newest addition to our classroom---Ashton. Room 110 had some great representation. Hope everyone had a blast. I did!
**We are ready for Room 110's Annual GINGERBREAD BAKING!! It's an 18 year tradition! It's Thursday, December 11th form 12:30-2:55 pm. A BIG SHOUT OUT to our volunteers Ms. Frank, Ms. Meier, Ms. Peterson, Ms. Ferrigno, Mr. Hellman, Tate's Grandma and Lily's Grandma. It is a bit messy and dusty so DO NOT come dressed in your best. Students with long hair--please wear a pony tail or up. We will be caring and sharing our cookies with our tablemates. We will get some of our own and get some of theirs too.
**Report Cards go home on Friday, December 12th. Please read the information included to better understand the grading system. Lexia reports will also be included as well as any goal updates by specialists your child may be seeing in the area of speech and language or Tier 3 intervention for reading readiness. The main idea to remember for our report card system is that it is a growth model of progress toward an end of the year goal. If you should have any questions after reviewing it, please email me.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 had concluded. Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin on Tuesday, January 6, 2015!!
**Our WINTER CONCERT is fast approaching. Please join us for Kindergarten/Grade 1 Concert on Wednesday, December 17th. The students will perform twice--once at 8:15 and again at 9:45 am in the Irving Auditorium. We will have a reception in our classroom after both concerts. Come join us for some refreshments.
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Craft Fair is Saturday, December 13th from 9:00-1:00 pm. Stock up on those holiday treasures. Our own Green Team will be selling some nature art.
**Take a look at the cool programs offered by after school Eagle Extras. The brochure is in your child's homework folder.
**We have begun our cross curricular unit on Celebrations and Traditions. If you have a particular holiday or winter tradition you would like to share with the class--email me and we can set it up. Kindergarten students LOVE to have their parents come to the classroom!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey had an awesome and heartfelt sharing and discussion about staying safe at school, at home and in our community and what you can do if you do not feel safe. Being a Social Detective was part of the spotlight. The students remembered that if you do the EXPECTED (pay attention, treat others with respect) others will think nice thoughts about you. If you do the UNEXPECTED (bully, bother, hit) others may not want to be around you.
**In Mr. Packer Problem solving this week, Mr. Packer worked with the students on subitizing skills, symmetry and number recognition using dots. Very cool!!!
**School is closed for Winter Break--December 20th-January 4th. Classes resume on Monday, January 5th.
This week:
It was all about traditions and celebrations. The students talked about what a tradition was--activities that are done routinely at about the same time every year and can be passed down thru generations. I spoke about my family tradition of making ravioli 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. Station day activities included using pattern blocks to build using teen numbers, ten frame activities with teen numbers, writing a caption for their Bear Art Projects made in Ms. Tague's class and taking the subitize challenge with a partner.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed 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 was organized (a beginning, a middle and an end) 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 3 and 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 Consonant Digraphs. Do you know the difference? They are learning to. Robust vocabulary for this week included ADVENTURE, WHEE:LS, 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 storyteller's message. Workstations this week included recording of level reader reading using iTalk and evaluating how they sounded, creating sentences using words Go and See, read it and add to it activity, sounds match, air, land and water vehicles graph and compare and asking and answering questions about a trip you might like to take.
Math: The students continued work on counting to 75, sequencing what comes before and after a random number, working on teen numbers 11-19 and the idea that a teen number is 1 group of ten (1 complete ten frame) and so many ones (how many on the new ten frame.) The students worked on a shape review project with shapes-circle, oval, trapezoid, hexagon, square, rectangle and triangle counting the side and corners (vertices) using the app Doodle Buddy. The students are working in their new calendar books on recording numbers, sequencing numbers, counting on from a random number, using tally marks to show how many and the idea of number bonds--ways to say a number--ie: 4 and 4 is a way to say 8. Are they other ways to say 8? 3 and 5 6 and 2 etc.
Writing: The students have completed their Starting Corner Capital and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. They continue to work on sentence structure, spacing of words in a sentence, where to put lowercase letters, punctuation and beginning a sentence with a capital letter. The students are working at adding more details to their sentence.
Technology: Students participated in whole group work using the app Montessori Crossword on the projector to strengthen blending and segmenting skills and the app Sound Sort to strengthen automaticity of sound to symbol. Student small groups used iTalk to record and listen to their reading for fluency and clarity. Students are continuing to record their story sentence for our talking book on Sonic Pics. In math, students worked with a partner on the app Subitize Tree to challenge each other to strengthen subitizing/counting skills. Doodle Buddy was used by individual students to create their shape and record their name for the sides and corners project.
Literature: "Duck on a Bike," Poems--"My Bike," "Riding the Subway Train," "Celebrations Around the World," "Which Animals Travel in the Fall?" "Animal Homes," "If You Had Animal Hair," "Adding with Animals," "Animals in Winter."
**11/25--FIELD TRIP to BROOKFIELD ZOO!! It was super chilly but we dressed warmly and had an absolutely fabulous time. A HUGE THANKS to Ms. Frank, Ms. Cummings, Ms. Matta and Ms. Connelly for braving the elements to help out. Hamill Play Zoo had face painting, dramatic play at the vet's office, craft, a cool chicken and bunny to pet and plants to water. Students saw bison, penguins, snakes to name a few. We had an indoor lunch and traveled to our Bear Class. Our docent, Jim was the best! The students got to examine black bear and polar bear fur and see how many students it took end to end to equal the size of a grizzly bear. They learned many more interesting facts about bears. We toured the Bear Grotto and saw a sleeping brown bear up close and personal as well as a polar bear fluffing up his bed of straw. It felt so good to get back on the warm bus. Back at school, the students reflected in their journal about their experience and then topped it off with Art Class with our beloved Ms. Tague.
**The Frosty Fun Friday Jam was a hoot!! Lots of students rocking out to the tunes spun by by our own DJ Mick. There were some very cool moves by our own Jaylen and the newest addition to our classroom---Ashton. Room 110 had some great representation. Hope everyone had a blast. I did!
**We are ready for Room 110's Annual GINGERBREAD BAKING!! It's an 18 year tradition! It's Thursday, December 11th form 12:30-2:55 pm. A BIG SHOUT OUT to our volunteers Ms. Frank, Ms. Meier, Ms. Peterson, Ms. Ferrigno, Mr. Hellman, Tate's Grandma and Lily's Grandma. It is a bit messy and dusty so DO NOT come dressed in your best. Students with long hair--please wear a pony tail or up. We will be caring and sharing our cookies with our tablemates. We will get some of our own and get some of theirs too.
**Report Cards go home on Friday, December 12th. Please read the information included to better understand the grading system. Lexia reports will also be included as well as any goal updates by specialists your child may be seeing in the area of speech and language or Tier 3 intervention for reading readiness. The main idea to remember for our report card system is that it is a growth model of progress toward an end of the year goal. If you should have any questions after reviewing it, please email me.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 had concluded. Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin on Tuesday, January 6, 2015!!
**Our WINTER CONCERT is fast approaching. Please join us for Kindergarten/Grade 1 Concert on Wednesday, December 17th. The students will perform twice--once at 8:15 and again at 9:45 am in the Irving Auditorium. We will have a reception in our classroom after both concerts. Come join us for some refreshments.
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Craft Fair is Saturday, December 13th from 9:00-1:00 pm. Stock up on those holiday treasures. Our own Green Team will be selling some nature art.
**Take a look at the cool programs offered by after school Eagle Extras. The brochure is in your child's homework folder.
**We have begun our cross curricular unit on Celebrations and Traditions. If you have a particular holiday or winter tradition you would like to share with the class--email me and we can set it up. Kindergarten students LOVE to have their parents come to the classroom!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey had an awesome and heartfelt sharing and discussion about staying safe at school, at home and in our community and what you can do if you do not feel safe. Being a Social Detective was part of the spotlight. The students remembered that if you do the EXPECTED (pay attention, treat others with respect) others will think nice thoughts about you. If you do the UNEXPECTED (bully, bother, hit) others may not want to be around you.
**In Mr. Packer Problem solving this week, Mr. Packer worked with the students on subitizing skills, symmetry and number recognition using dots. Very cool!!!
**School is closed for Winter Break--December 20th-January 4th. Classes resume on Monday, January 5th.
This week:
It was all about traditions and celebrations. The students talked about what a tradition was--activities that are done routinely at about the same time every year and can be passed down thru generations. I spoke about my family tradition of making ravioli 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. Station day activities included using pattern blocks to build using teen numbers, ten frame activities with teen numbers, writing a caption for their Bear Art Projects made in Ms. Tague's class and taking the subitize challenge with a partner.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed 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 was organized (a beginning, a middle and an end) 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 3 and 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 Consonant Digraphs. Do you know the difference? They are learning to. Robust vocabulary for this week included ADVENTURE, WHEE:LS, 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 storyteller's message. Workstations this week included recording of level reader reading using iTalk and evaluating how they sounded, creating sentences using words Go and See, read it and add to it activity, sounds match, air, land and water vehicles graph and compare and asking and answering questions about a trip you might like to take.
Math: The students continued work on counting to 75, sequencing what comes before and after a random number, working on teen numbers 11-19 and the idea that a teen number is 1 group of ten (1 complete ten frame) and so many ones (how many on the new ten frame.) The students worked on a shape review project with shapes-circle, oval, trapezoid, hexagon, square, rectangle and triangle counting the side and corners (vertices) using the app Doodle Buddy. The students are working in their new calendar books on recording numbers, sequencing numbers, counting on from a random number, using tally marks to show how many and the idea of number bonds--ways to say a number--ie: 4 and 4 is a way to say 8. Are they other ways to say 8? 3 and 5 6 and 2 etc.
Writing: The students have completed their Starting Corner Capital and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. They continue to work on sentence structure, spacing of words in a sentence, where to put lowercase letters, punctuation and beginning a sentence with a capital letter. The students are working at adding more details to their sentence.
Technology: Students participated in whole group work using the app Montessori Crossword on the projector to strengthen blending and segmenting skills and the app Sound Sort to strengthen automaticity of sound to symbol. Student small groups used iTalk to record and listen to their reading for fluency and clarity. Students are continuing to record their story sentence for our talking book on Sonic Pics. In math, students worked with a partner on the app Subitize Tree to challenge each other to strengthen subitizing/counting skills. Doodle Buddy was used by individual students to create their shape and record their name for the sides and corners project.
Literature: "Duck on a Bike," Poems--"My Bike," "Riding the Subway Train," "Celebrations Around the World," "Which Animals Travel in the Fall?" "Animal Homes," "If You Had Animal Hair," "Adding with Animals," "Animals in Winter."
Sunday, November 23, 2014
UPDATES for 11/17-11/21 2014
**We were super busy this week! There were final assessments and summatives to mark the end of our first trimester of learning. Our cross curricular theme-Bears is winding down. We chatted about our upcoming field trip. We also formulated our question for our research projects. It was also a week of reflection for the students and myself. We all thought about what we were thankful for. The students and I are thankful for a number of things, the most important being family. I am particularly thankful for my student's dedication to their learning. Our class is thankful for our volunteer, Ms. D., who works tirelessly with individual students and small groups. Our class is thankful for each other and the great and meaningful interactions we have together. I am also thankful for the great support and help from my kindergarten families. You truly make a difference. Please enjoy your family time together as I will.
**No School-November 26th-28th--Thanksgiving Holiday.
**Our Brookfield Zoo FIELD TRIP is TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25th. Please read the note that went home in your child's homework folder. BAG LUNCH and DRESS for the WEATHER. It looks like a pretty chilly forecast. We may shorten the duration of our stay at the zoo and find an inside space to eat lunch. We will have fun!!!!
**"Hibernation Day" was awesome!! We were cozy in our jammies with our blankeys and stuffed animals. We read about how different animals hibernate. The students helped me create a Venn diagram that compared Brown/Black Bears with Polar Bears. We also read about other kinds of bears. The students enjoyed a great picnic with their kindergarten friends in the kindergarten hallway. They enjoyed making butter from cream in our liquids to solids impromptu science lesson and created "Bear Paw" snacks that looked and tasted yummy with the butter.
**The "Turkey Trot" was fun! We made signs to cheer our Book Buddies on. The weather was frosty, but the students were dressed warmly and had extra blankets as they watched the race and cheered.
**Check your child's homework folder for their RESEARCH ASSESSMENT. Each student came up with a question they want to find out more about. They worked on special research vocabulary. Suggestions and guidelines are also enclosed. The project is due Thursday, December 11th.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 will conclude December 4th.
**The 5th Grade is sponsoring "Frosty Fun Friday Dance" on Friday, December 5th. More info is coming soon!
**Kindergarten-Grade 1 WINTER CONCERT is DECEMBER 17th in the Irving Auditorium. It will be performed twice--First Time at 8:15 am and repeated again at 9:45 am. There will be some kind of reception for family and friends. I will be speaking with room parents. Stay tuned for more details.
**REPORT CARDS go home on Friday, December 12th.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!!!! Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Cookie Baking and Sharing is Thursday, December 11th beginning at 1:00 pm until dismissal. So far, I have no one volunteering to help, but I am hopeful!! It is really very fun! No experience needed. You bring the cookie sheets, rolling pins and man/woman power.....I will bring the dough, sprinkles and aprons. I need at least 3-4 volunteers.
**Come to the Irving Annual Handmade Craft Fair on Saturday, December 13th from 9-1pm in the mini gym and hallways. Stock up on those handmade holiday gifts.
**We will begin our next cross curricular theme--Celebrations and Traditions after Thanksgiving. Please think about coming to speak about your family celebration or tradition at holiday time. Students love to help in the planning and presentation. We recently had Tate and his Dad, Joel speak and share about their tradition of nature hikes and bird watching. Totally cool!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her unit on friendship using the art of conversation and how to really listen to someone and respond.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, the students finished up a project using visual imagery and perception to create a picture using Alphabet letters and dots.
**School is closed December 22nd -January 2nd for Winter Break.
This week: It was all about research basics for little ones!! Ms. Noonan worked with the students on the question--What is research? The students worked on thinking about a question about something they wanted to find out more about and then discussed how you might find a source to help you answer the question. The major topic is: BEARS. The students worked in class on special research vocabulary and examples. I can't wait to see the results. The students also continued work on their talking book project. They practiced reading their story page and then recorded it onto the iPad. We have had some absences but hope to have the story posted for you soon. It is pretty cute!! We are almost at the end of our Bear Unit. It has provided lots of activities and opportunities for growth in math, reading, writing and science. Our station day activities this week included think, create, count and record pattern block activity, building pattern block turkeys, color by code (number/color word) turkey, liquid to solid cream to butter and counting to form the toes on our bear paw snack.
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to work in Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students built background knowledge on their travels near and far. They listened to the Big Book story, "On the Go." They observed how people travel from one place to another and the vehicles they used. We looked up each country on our world map. The students asked and answered questions about the types of vehicles used in other countries. In their comprehension study, the students compared and categorized the types of travel and vehicles. The sight words go and see were reviewed. The students worked on their target sounds Tt and short i. They continued to review the use of action words in texts. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included TRAVEL, JOURNEY, PREPARE, RELAX, FAMILIAR. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 3 phoneme words. They read their pre decodable story, "Go, Go, Go." They reviewed what a comma was and how it is used. They made predictions about story content and elbow chatted about characters, setting and main events. During an interactive writing exercise, the students made pop up signs using the word "Go" to help cheer on their Book Buddies in the Turkey Trot. The students listened to two poems about transportation--"The Bike," and "Riding the Subway." They noticed the rhyming pattern in both and tracked the words as I read them. They made connections in their own lives about riding their bikes and traveling on a subway. The students also worked on a common core assessment comparing two characters from two different stories. This week the students worked to complete the workstation rotation from last week.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 75 and beyond. The students are really getting the hang of ten frame use and counting by tens. They worked with partners on counting and cardinality activities representing a group of objects with a written number. Students also continued to work with pattern block shapes building, counting and recording number. The students combined counting and recognizing color words during color by code exercises. Workstations this week included sorting and classifying by common attributes, writing numbers from 0-20, working with teen numbers using tally marks and ten frames (how many complete ten frames....how on the new ten frame) and counting on from a given number.
Writing: The students are working on formation of Starting Corner Capital letters H, K, L, U, V. They used their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. The students wrote1-3 sentences about what they knew about Brown/Black and Polar Bears. from their study of bears. The students are working hard to begin with a capital letter, name and tell and space between words in a sentence and have an ending mark. Some students are beginning to add more details to their sentences. I love when I hear them reading back their own writing as they begin work on self editing. This week, one of the occupational therapist, Ms. Ilis came to observe student grasp and control of their pencil and markers, writing posture and proper tripod grasp. She gave support and reinforcement to individual students.
Technology: In reading, student small groups and individuals used the apps Dolch Words, ABC Magic 5 and Magnetic ABC's HD to practice sight words and short i words. Students continued to use iTalk to record reading fluency. In math whole and small groups, students used the apps Subitize Tree, Monster Squeeze, Easy Match and Number Find to assist in strengthening the concepts more/less/equal to, visual counting, number representation, 1 and 2 digit number recognition. Students continue to use Sonic Pics to record their sentences for our talking book. Students are beginning another project on shapes using Doodle Buddy.
Literature: "Desert Homes," "Hibernation Station," "Hibernation," "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You See?" "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" "Squirrels," "Tree Homes," "Underground Homes," "Who Lives Here?" "Eyes on Nature: Bears," "Follow the Polar Bears," "Polar Bears and Penguins," "Little Polar Bear," "Polar Bears."
**No School-November 26th-28th--Thanksgiving Holiday.
**Our Brookfield Zoo FIELD TRIP is TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25th. Please read the note that went home in your child's homework folder. BAG LUNCH and DRESS for the WEATHER. It looks like a pretty chilly forecast. We may shorten the duration of our stay at the zoo and find an inside space to eat lunch. We will have fun!!!!
**"Hibernation Day" was awesome!! We were cozy in our jammies with our blankeys and stuffed animals. We read about how different animals hibernate. The students helped me create a Venn diagram that compared Brown/Black Bears with Polar Bears. We also read about other kinds of bears. The students enjoyed a great picnic with their kindergarten friends in the kindergarten hallway. They enjoyed making butter from cream in our liquids to solids impromptu science lesson and created "Bear Paw" snacks that looked and tasted yummy with the butter.
**The "Turkey Trot" was fun! We made signs to cheer our Book Buddies on. The weather was frosty, but the students were dressed warmly and had extra blankets as they watched the race and cheered.
**Check your child's homework folder for their RESEARCH ASSESSMENT. Each student came up with a question they want to find out more about. They worked on special research vocabulary. Suggestions and guidelines are also enclosed. The project is due Thursday, December 11th.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 will conclude December 4th.
**The 5th Grade is sponsoring "Frosty Fun Friday Dance" on Friday, December 5th. More info is coming soon!
**Kindergarten-Grade 1 WINTER CONCERT is DECEMBER 17th in the Irving Auditorium. It will be performed twice--First Time at 8:15 am and repeated again at 9:45 am. There will be some kind of reception for family and friends. I will be speaking with room parents. Stay tuned for more details.
**REPORT CARDS go home on Friday, December 12th.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!!!! Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Cookie Baking and Sharing is Thursday, December 11th beginning at 1:00 pm until dismissal. So far, I have no one volunteering to help, but I am hopeful!! It is really very fun! No experience needed. You bring the cookie sheets, rolling pins and man/woman power.....I will bring the dough, sprinkles and aprons. I need at least 3-4 volunteers.
**Come to the Irving Annual Handmade Craft Fair on Saturday, December 13th from 9-1pm in the mini gym and hallways. Stock up on those handmade holiday gifts.
**We will begin our next cross curricular theme--Celebrations and Traditions after Thanksgiving. Please think about coming to speak about your family celebration or tradition at holiday time. Students love to help in the planning and presentation. We recently had Tate and his Dad, Joel speak and share about their tradition of nature hikes and bird watching. Totally cool!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her unit on friendship using the art of conversation and how to really listen to someone and respond.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, the students finished up a project using visual imagery and perception to create a picture using Alphabet letters and dots.
**School is closed December 22nd -January 2nd for Winter Break.
This week: It was all about research basics for little ones!! Ms. Noonan worked with the students on the question--What is research? The students worked on thinking about a question about something they wanted to find out more about and then discussed how you might find a source to help you answer the question. The major topic is: BEARS. The students worked in class on special research vocabulary and examples. I can't wait to see the results. The students also continued work on their talking book project. They practiced reading their story page and then recorded it onto the iPad. We have had some absences but hope to have the story posted for you soon. It is pretty cute!! We are almost at the end of our Bear Unit. It has provided lots of activities and opportunities for growth in math, reading, writing and science. Our station day activities this week included think, create, count and record pattern block activity, building pattern block turkeys, color by code (number/color word) turkey, liquid to solid cream to butter and counting to form the toes on our bear paw snack.
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to work in Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students built background knowledge on their travels near and far. They listened to the Big Book story, "On the Go." They observed how people travel from one place to another and the vehicles they used. We looked up each country on our world map. The students asked and answered questions about the types of vehicles used in other countries. In their comprehension study, the students compared and categorized the types of travel and vehicles. The sight words go and see were reviewed. The students worked on their target sounds Tt and short i. They continued to review the use of action words in texts. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included TRAVEL, JOURNEY, PREPARE, RELAX, FAMILIAR. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 3 phoneme words. They read their pre decodable story, "Go, Go, Go." They reviewed what a comma was and how it is used. They made predictions about story content and elbow chatted about characters, setting and main events. During an interactive writing exercise, the students made pop up signs using the word "Go" to help cheer on their Book Buddies in the Turkey Trot. The students listened to two poems about transportation--"The Bike," and "Riding the Subway." They noticed the rhyming pattern in both and tracked the words as I read them. They made connections in their own lives about riding their bikes and traveling on a subway. The students also worked on a common core assessment comparing two characters from two different stories. This week the students worked to complete the workstation rotation from last week.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 75 and beyond. The students are really getting the hang of ten frame use and counting by tens. They worked with partners on counting and cardinality activities representing a group of objects with a written number. Students also continued to work with pattern block shapes building, counting and recording number. The students combined counting and recognizing color words during color by code exercises. Workstations this week included sorting and classifying by common attributes, writing numbers from 0-20, working with teen numbers using tally marks and ten frames (how many complete ten frames....how on the new ten frame) and counting on from a given number.
Writing: The students are working on formation of Starting Corner Capital letters H, K, L, U, V. They used their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. The students wrote1-3 sentences about what they knew about Brown/Black and Polar Bears. from their study of bears. The students are working hard to begin with a capital letter, name and tell and space between words in a sentence and have an ending mark. Some students are beginning to add more details to their sentences. I love when I hear them reading back their own writing as they begin work on self editing. This week, one of the occupational therapist, Ms. Ilis came to observe student grasp and control of their pencil and markers, writing posture and proper tripod grasp. She gave support and reinforcement to individual students.
Technology: In reading, student small groups and individuals used the apps Dolch Words, ABC Magic 5 and Magnetic ABC's HD to practice sight words and short i words. Students continued to use iTalk to record reading fluency. In math whole and small groups, students used the apps Subitize Tree, Monster Squeeze, Easy Match and Number Find to assist in strengthening the concepts more/less/equal to, visual counting, number representation, 1 and 2 digit number recognition. Students continue to use Sonic Pics to record their sentences for our talking book. Students are beginning another project on shapes using Doodle Buddy.
Literature: "Desert Homes," "Hibernation Station," "Hibernation," "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You See?" "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" "Squirrels," "Tree Homes," "Underground Homes," "Who Lives Here?" "Eyes on Nature: Bears," "Follow the Polar Bears," "Polar Bears and Penguins," "Little Polar Bear," "Polar Bears."
Sunday, November 16, 2014
UPDATES for 11/3-11/7 and 11/11-11/14 2014
**I am watching the snow fall as I update all of you on the past two weeks of fun and learning. Due to the exceptionally chilly weather, PACERS was cancelled and will resume in the spring. Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather. We will be going outside for lunch recess and want to make sure everyone stays warm. Hats/hoods are a must! If your child is wearing boots, make sure to send gym shoes for gym days. Thanks!
**Our 50th day in school sure was fun! Bobby socks, ponytails and fancy skirts, blue jeans, slick back and tees. So cool! The students compared and contrasted the 1950's and the present via a Venn diagram. They enjoyed dancing to music of the 1950's. These kids sure can move!!! Students worked on math and literacy stations surrounding the number 50. The countdown continues. Only 50 more days until our 100th day celebration!
**It was BIRDWATCHING 101!! While I attended a seminar on Lexia Core 5, Tate and his dad, Joel, did a presentation on nature walks and birdwatching which is something special they do as a family. The students were excited to tell me about where to watch birds, the equipment needed and to show me the bird case that showcased birds in our area. My sub, Ms. Grogan took pictures. Thanks to Tate and his dad, Joel for a great presentation. If you would like to present to the class on a special tradition or celebration your family has...just sign up on the Sign Up Genius. December is our Celebrations and Traditions month. Think about it!!!!
**Our Kindergarten Classes will have a special "HIBERNATION DAY" on Friday, November 21st. Students can wear their pajamas, bring a teddy bear or favorite stuffed animal or blankey. We will eat our lunch teddy bear "picnic" style in the kdg hallway and make a "beary" special bear snack during station day. I will send out a hard copy reminder.
**Our BROOKFIELD ZOO TRIP is Tuesday, November 25th. All money and permission slips need to be in ASAP! ALL STUDENTS must bring a BAG LUNCH with name on it and DRESS FOR THE WEATHER!! Students and teachers ride the bus. All volunteers will carpool. Thanks to S. Connelly, C. Goldbeck, S. Matta, D. Frank and C. Cummings for volunteering their time to come on the trip. If there is anyone else interested in coming, let me know. I will send a separate info sheet to volunteers with particulars. We will be leaving Irving at 9:30 and will return by 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.
**It's the TURKEY TROT race for a Turkey on Thursday, November 20th at 2:00 pm. Grades 3-5 will participate. We will make signs and cheer them on. Who will win a turkey??!!
**The 5th Grade is sponsoring "Frosty Fun Friday Dance" on Friday, December 5th from 6-8 pm in the gym. More info is coming this week. Stay tuned.
**Come to the Irving Annual Handmade Craft Fair on Saturday, December 13th from 9-1pm in the mini gym and hallways. Stock up on those handmade holiday gifts.
**Trimester 1 ends on Friday, November 21st. Report cards go home on Friday, December 12th.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 began this week. You should have received notification of the skill your child will be working on.
**Speaking of Traditions and Celebrations--CALLING ALL COOKS! We need several volunteers for Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Cookie baking on Friday, December 11th beginning at 1:00 pm until dismissal. No experience necessary. Roll out, create, decorate, bake and share. Email me if interested. I will provide the dough, sprinkles and aprons......you provide the baking sheets, rolling pins and man/woman power. It's really fun!!!!!
**SAVE the DATE! Our Winter Concert featuring Kindergarten and First Grade is Wednesday, December 17th. Due to the size of our auditorium, it will be held twice--first performance is at 8:15 am. and the second performance is at 9:45 am. It's going to be great!!
**In Friendship Club, the past weeks have continued to focus on Friendship.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, the students have been working on a thinking project using the text, "Clifford's ABC's." The students needed to think about incorporating a letter into a picture they created. They are quite interesting!!!
**No School--Wednesday, November 26th, Thursday, November 27th and Friday, November 28th in observance of Thanksgiving.
The past 2 weeks: It was all about BEARS! The students listed what they knew about bears. They 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 noticed that black bears have smaller paws and claws than brown bears. They continued their fact finding to learn more about brown/grizzly bears. They noted similar habitats and food. They learned the term--omnivores--eating both plants and animals. BrainPop Jr. provided the students with some cool movies about hibernation and bears in action with their young and catching fish. What powerful claws!!! Next week--polar and other bears. The students began working on an author/illustrator study of Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle. They make a great team! The students are using their own writing, illustrating and speaking to produce a group version of the "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" story. Each are contributing a page. Stay tuned!!! Station day activities for the past 2 weeks include sequencing the growth of a bear, pattern block bear build, count, record, number sequence activities 0-20, sponge painted bears/action sentence, building an animal habitat-bear cave--mixed media, yes/no bears--answering questions without speaking and shape review color by code--human habitat.
Reading/Language Arts: Week 1--The students have completed Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. The students listened for a second reading to the trade book, "Simon and Molly plus Hester." They asked and answered questions and responded to the literature by making connections in their own lives. They discussed the problem the characters had in the story and what the solution was. The students reviewed all their sight vocabulary thus far and played "Hands Up, Hands Down." They practiced writing their words and using them in oral sentences. The students reviewed target sounds Pp, Mm, Tt, Ss and used their sound (elkonin) boxes to mark where they heard the target sound--at the beginning or at the end of the word. They reviewed what a noun was and looked for them in their story. In phonemic awareness, the students continued to categorize and blend 3 phonemes (individual sounds) to create words. The students read the pre decodable story, "We Like Sam." They made predictions about story content, elbow chatted with a partner about characters and setting and recalled an event from the story. The students listened to the thinking tale, "The Little Red Hen." The students listened to fluent reading and reoccurring phrases and once again thought about the problem and solution of the story. They worked to sequence the events in the story. Workstations included leveled reading/discussion of story elements, word building using the ed family, word search short e words, beginning and ending sound sort, creating speech bubbles around what 2 friends might say to one another, walk your words ...write your words, creating CVC words.
Week 2--The students began work on Unit 3 Transportation in the Treasures Reading series. The students discussed what is meant by transportation--a way to move people and things from one place to another. They brainstormed ways they get around and discussed forms of transportation that move fast and slow. They listened to the Big Book story, "A Bus for Us." After listening to the story, the students asked and answered questions about key details in the story. The students worked on words that show ACTION. The students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story to their group. The students made connections in their own lives about various vehicles showcased in the story. The sight words go and see were introduced. Our target sounds for the week were Tt and Short i. Robust Vocabulary this week included TRANSPORTATION, VEHICLE, RAPIDLY, GLIDE, CONTINUE. The students worked with partners on their fluency reading aloud their pre decodable story, "I See Sam." Students are beginning to be more observant of how they read aloud. Is is choppy or smooth? Do they speak clearly? Can others hear them? Do they stop at the period? I began recording students reading using the app iTalk. I would play the tape back and as a group we would comment on the student reader. Workstations this week included leveled readers story discussion and fluency check, "How do you go to school?--graph and compare, write about a vehicle, spinning words--turn the wheel-make a real word/sort and write by beginning sound, story connection--after reading the story-What would you want the character Tig to see in Oak Park--write and illustrate and read it and add to it.
Math: The students worked on rote counting to 50, finding the missing number and choosing the number that comes before and after a given number. They continue to work on teen numbers in their ten frames. Learning stations included tracing/writing numbers to 50, playing the game "Race to 50," Top It using numbers 1-50, greater and less then using random numbers, reviewing positional concepts, counting quantities to 30 and continuing the subitize challenge using the app Subitize Tree.
Writing: The student have finished learning their Frog Jump Capitals and are continuing to practice their letters. We will begin work on Starting Corner Capitals next week. The students have started writing and illustrating in their new Yellow Journals. We are moving to lined paper with places to put uppercase and lowercase letters. Their new journal also contains all the upper and lowercase letters and all their sight words for reference. Students are beginning to use more lowercase letters and are really starting think about where on the line the letters go. They are using inventive (phonetic ) spelling and working towards more consistency in using a capital letter at the beginning of their sentence, spacing between words and having an ending mark. They are also working on reading their writing before they come to conference with me. All students are working on their talking book project. It should be ready for you to hear and see before Thanksgiving!
Technology: In the area of reading, student small groups used the apps iTalk to work on fluency, Magnetic ABC'S HD to create sentences using sight words, i Write Words to practice letter formation and Montessori Crossword to enhance phonemic awareness skills. In the area of math, student small groups used the apps, Top It for greater/less/ compare, Monster Squeeze for sequencing. Whole group enjoyed the apps, FireFinger for sight word practice, Subitize Tree for internalizing/visualizing number, Number Rack for problem solving and Butterfly Math for counting/adding and subtracting numbers. BrainPop Jr. and Watch/Know/Learn were great visuals to gather facts about bears. The app Sonic Pics is being used to create the student talking book.
Literature: "Amazing Bears," "Bears," "Black Bear Cub," "Day in the Life of Baby Bear," "Bears in the Forest," "Every Autumn Comes the Bear," "Maybe a Bear Ate It," "Sleep Big Bear, Sleep," "Time to Sleep," "Brave Bear," "Animal Homes," "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" "Chipmunk at Hollow Tree Lane," Osos Negros."
**Our 50th day in school sure was fun! Bobby socks, ponytails and fancy skirts, blue jeans, slick back and tees. So cool! The students compared and contrasted the 1950's and the present via a Venn diagram. They enjoyed dancing to music of the 1950's. These kids sure can move!!! Students worked on math and literacy stations surrounding the number 50. The countdown continues. Only 50 more days until our 100th day celebration!
**It was BIRDWATCHING 101!! While I attended a seminar on Lexia Core 5, Tate and his dad, Joel, did a presentation on nature walks and birdwatching which is something special they do as a family. The students were excited to tell me about where to watch birds, the equipment needed and to show me the bird case that showcased birds in our area. My sub, Ms. Grogan took pictures. Thanks to Tate and his dad, Joel for a great presentation. If you would like to present to the class on a special tradition or celebration your family has...just sign up on the Sign Up Genius. December is our Celebrations and Traditions month. Think about it!!!!
**Our Kindergarten Classes will have a special "HIBERNATION DAY" on Friday, November 21st. Students can wear their pajamas, bring a teddy bear or favorite stuffed animal or blankey. We will eat our lunch teddy bear "picnic" style in the kdg hallway and make a "beary" special bear snack during station day. I will send out a hard copy reminder.
**Our BROOKFIELD ZOO TRIP is Tuesday, November 25th. All money and permission slips need to be in ASAP! ALL STUDENTS must bring a BAG LUNCH with name on it and DRESS FOR THE WEATHER!! Students and teachers ride the bus. All volunteers will carpool. Thanks to S. Connelly, C. Goldbeck, S. Matta, D. Frank and C. Cummings for volunteering their time to come on the trip. If there is anyone else interested in coming, let me know. I will send a separate info sheet to volunteers with particulars. We will be leaving Irving at 9:30 and will return by 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.
**It's the TURKEY TROT race for a Turkey on Thursday, November 20th at 2:00 pm. Grades 3-5 will participate. We will make signs and cheer them on. Who will win a turkey??!!
**The 5th Grade is sponsoring "Frosty Fun Friday Dance" on Friday, December 5th from 6-8 pm in the gym. More info is coming this week. Stay tuned.
**Come to the Irving Annual Handmade Craft Fair on Saturday, December 13th from 9-1pm in the mini gym and hallways. Stock up on those handmade holiday gifts.
**Trimester 1 ends on Friday, November 21st. Report cards go home on Friday, December 12th.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 began this week. You should have received notification of the skill your child will be working on.
**Speaking of Traditions and Celebrations--CALLING ALL COOKS! We need several volunteers for Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Cookie baking on Friday, December 11th beginning at 1:00 pm until dismissal. No experience necessary. Roll out, create, decorate, bake and share. Email me if interested. I will provide the dough, sprinkles and aprons......you provide the baking sheets, rolling pins and man/woman power. It's really fun!!!!!
**SAVE the DATE! Our Winter Concert featuring Kindergarten and First Grade is Wednesday, December 17th. Due to the size of our auditorium, it will be held twice--first performance is at 8:15 am. and the second performance is at 9:45 am. It's going to be great!!
**In Friendship Club, the past weeks have continued to focus on Friendship.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, the students have been working on a thinking project using the text, "Clifford's ABC's." The students needed to think about incorporating a letter into a picture they created. They are quite interesting!!!
**No School--Wednesday, November 26th, Thursday, November 27th and Friday, November 28th in observance of Thanksgiving.
The past 2 weeks: It was all about BEARS! The students listed what they knew about bears. They 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 noticed that black bears have smaller paws and claws than brown bears. They continued their fact finding to learn more about brown/grizzly bears. They noted similar habitats and food. They learned the term--omnivores--eating both plants and animals. BrainPop Jr. provided the students with some cool movies about hibernation and bears in action with their young and catching fish. What powerful claws!!! Next week--polar and other bears. The students began working on an author/illustrator study of Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle. They make a great team! The students are using their own writing, illustrating and speaking to produce a group version of the "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" story. Each are contributing a page. Stay tuned!!! Station day activities for the past 2 weeks include sequencing the growth of a bear, pattern block bear build, count, record, number sequence activities 0-20, sponge painted bears/action sentence, building an animal habitat-bear cave--mixed media, yes/no bears--answering questions without speaking and shape review color by code--human habitat.
Reading/Language Arts: Week 1--The students have completed Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. The students listened for a second reading to the trade book, "Simon and Molly plus Hester." They asked and answered questions and responded to the literature by making connections in their own lives. They discussed the problem the characters had in the story and what the solution was. The students reviewed all their sight vocabulary thus far and played "Hands Up, Hands Down." They practiced writing their words and using them in oral sentences. The students reviewed target sounds Pp, Mm, Tt, Ss and used their sound (elkonin) boxes to mark where they heard the target sound--at the beginning or at the end of the word. They reviewed what a noun was and looked for them in their story. In phonemic awareness, the students continued to categorize and blend 3 phonemes (individual sounds) to create words. The students read the pre decodable story, "We Like Sam." They made predictions about story content, elbow chatted with a partner about characters and setting and recalled an event from the story. The students listened to the thinking tale, "The Little Red Hen." The students listened to fluent reading and reoccurring phrases and once again thought about the problem and solution of the story. They worked to sequence the events in the story. Workstations included leveled reading/discussion of story elements, word building using the ed family, word search short e words, beginning and ending sound sort, creating speech bubbles around what 2 friends might say to one another, walk your words ...write your words, creating CVC words.
Week 2--The students began work on Unit 3 Transportation in the Treasures Reading series. The students discussed what is meant by transportation--a way to move people and things from one place to another. They brainstormed ways they get around and discussed forms of transportation that move fast and slow. They listened to the Big Book story, "A Bus for Us." After listening to the story, the students asked and answered questions about key details in the story. The students worked on words that show ACTION. The students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story to their group. The students made connections in their own lives about various vehicles showcased in the story. The sight words go and see were introduced. Our target sounds for the week were Tt and Short i. Robust Vocabulary this week included TRANSPORTATION, VEHICLE, RAPIDLY, GLIDE, CONTINUE. The students worked with partners on their fluency reading aloud their pre decodable story, "I See Sam." Students are beginning to be more observant of how they read aloud. Is is choppy or smooth? Do they speak clearly? Can others hear them? Do they stop at the period? I began recording students reading using the app iTalk. I would play the tape back and as a group we would comment on the student reader. Workstations this week included leveled readers story discussion and fluency check, "How do you go to school?--graph and compare, write about a vehicle, spinning words--turn the wheel-make a real word/sort and write by beginning sound, story connection--after reading the story-What would you want the character Tig to see in Oak Park--write and illustrate and read it and add to it.
Math: The students worked on rote counting to 50, finding the missing number and choosing the number that comes before and after a given number. They continue to work on teen numbers in their ten frames. Learning stations included tracing/writing numbers to 50, playing the game "Race to 50," Top It using numbers 1-50, greater and less then using random numbers, reviewing positional concepts, counting quantities to 30 and continuing the subitize challenge using the app Subitize Tree.
Writing: The student have finished learning their Frog Jump Capitals and are continuing to practice their letters. We will begin work on Starting Corner Capitals next week. The students have started writing and illustrating in their new Yellow Journals. We are moving to lined paper with places to put uppercase and lowercase letters. Their new journal also contains all the upper and lowercase letters and all their sight words for reference. Students are beginning to use more lowercase letters and are really starting think about where on the line the letters go. They are using inventive (phonetic ) spelling and working towards more consistency in using a capital letter at the beginning of their sentence, spacing between words and having an ending mark. They are also working on reading their writing before they come to conference with me. All students are working on their talking book project. It should be ready for you to hear and see before Thanksgiving!
Technology: In the area of reading, student small groups used the apps iTalk to work on fluency, Magnetic ABC'S HD to create sentences using sight words, i Write Words to practice letter formation and Montessori Crossword to enhance phonemic awareness skills. In the area of math, student small groups used the apps, Top It for greater/less/ compare, Monster Squeeze for sequencing. Whole group enjoyed the apps, FireFinger for sight word practice, Subitize Tree for internalizing/visualizing number, Number Rack for problem solving and Butterfly Math for counting/adding and subtracting numbers. BrainPop Jr. and Watch/Know/Learn were great visuals to gather facts about bears. The app Sonic Pics is being used to create the student talking book.
Literature: "Amazing Bears," "Bears," "Black Bear Cub," "Day in the Life of Baby Bear," "Bears in the Forest," "Every Autumn Comes the Bear," "Maybe a Bear Ate It," "Sleep Big Bear, Sleep," "Time to Sleep," "Brave Bear," "Animal Homes," "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" "Chipmunk at Hollow Tree Lane," Osos Negros."
Sunday, November 2, 2014
UPDATES for 10/27-10/31 2014
**Our 50th Day of School is WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5th! We will be half way to 100! The students will be comparing and contrasting the dress, technology and food of the 1950's to the present. This Wednesday, we will mark the day by dressing up like the 50's, having a sock hop and working on math learning stations surrounding the number 50. The students can dress up like up the 50's on Wednesday. It can be as simple as a white tee shirt and jeans, letter sweaters/jackets, slicked back hair, ponytails and poodle skirts if you should have one.
**PICTURE RETAKE Day is MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3rd. in the morning.
**Halloween was cold and blustery but did not prevent us from having lots of fun! The students were transformed into super heros, knights, princesses, owls, mermaids and more. Was that a skeleton or a teacher?? We feasted on fruits and veggie snacks. Our day was also deemed "Walker Day" in honor of our fellow classmate Walker who is moving to Michigan. We will really miss him. Thanks to all of you who came to join us or provided goodies for us. A special shout out to our room moms!
**Slightly Spooky Story Night was a huge success and lots of fun. Mr. Sak, Ms. Noonan, Ms. Durham and myself had a great time reading silly, slightly spooky and out of this world stories. Thanks to all who came out to hear us. A SPECIAL THANK YOU for those who bought books for our classroom! THANK YOU!!!!!
**Author Eileen Christelow read from her most recent book and shared with the students how she gets her ideas for her stories and how she drew the monkey for her "Five Little Monkeys" story. It was a great experience for the students.
**Our own Nurse Jamie did an hand washing demonstration and experiment with the students. She discussed the importance of washing your hands super well to get off all the germs. She suggested singing or humming the Happy Birthday Song 2 times making sure to scrub top, bottom and between fingers. Students experimented with using a "special" liquid on their hands and shaking hands with a friend. The friends put their hands under a black light and.......ooooooh germs showed up like a powder. The students washed their hands...singing their song and put their hands back under the light. How well did they wash their hands?? Did the powder show?? Pretty cool and surprising!
**Student Council reps, Ethan and Lily have worked on the Stand Up for Cancer project. The photos are posted and the students will vote via money in the jar of their favorite pose next week. All funds raised will go toward the Stand Up for Cancer project.
**Green Team reps Evan and Atessa worked on a video at their Green Team meeting on recycling used water color markers and saving the earth.
**On Monday, we will begin our next cross curricular theme-BEARS. We will become bear experts. Our field trip will have special classroom experience. We will turn our nature table into a bear artifacts table courtesy of the Field Museum. We will be linking our study of bears to the common core standards.
**Each student received an Irving School Student Directory. It is in your child's homework folder.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey began a unit on Friendship. What does it take to be a good friend?
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer read the story "Ten Black Dots" by Donald Crews and then had the students use one black dot and design a picture around it. Way cool!!!
**NO SCHOOL--Monday, November 10th in observance of Veteran's Day.
**NO SCHOOL-Wednesday, November 26th, Thursday, November 27th and Friday, November 28th in observance of Thanksgiving.
**Permission slips for our field trip to BROOKFIELD ZOO will be sent out this week. Come join us on Tuesday, November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!!! We will need several volunteers for our annual Gingerbread Cookie Baking on Thursday, December 11th all afternoon. No experience necessary. Roll out, create, decorate, bake and share. Email me if interested. I will provide the dough, sprinkles and aprons.....you provide the baking sheets, rolling pins and man power.
**SAVE THE DATE! Our WINTER CONCERT featuring Kindergarten and First Grade is Wednesday, December 17th. 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 bats! We took the fright out of these amazing creatures. The students listened to informational texts as well as fiction texts on bats. BrainPop Jr. had a great bat fact video and quiz. They viewed bat skeletons in diagram form and learned about bat habitats, bat physiology and bat diets. Ask your child what a mammal is. The students learned that humans and bats have something in common--we are both mammals. Students sought information about bat types, bat characteristics (super long fingers and a thumb) and baby bats (they are pink and called pups.) The students also read about and viewed a human skeleton. Who has more bones--a baby or a 5-6 year old? Students delighted in feeling for their bones and checking out different texts about bone structure.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work to complete Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. This weeks lessons centered around friends who solve problems together.
The students listened to the trade book story, "Simon and Molly Plus Hester." They asked and answered questions about the text and responded to the literature by making connections in their own lives. The students discussed the story elements of problem and solution. They continued to work on reviewing their sight vocabulary. They practiced writing them and using selected words in oral and written sentences. The students reviewed the 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 a selected word. The students took turns retelling the trade book story using the retelling cards. In phonemic awareness activities, the students categorized and blended 3 phoneme (individual sounds) to create words. The students read their pre decodable story, "I Like, We Like." They made predictions about story content and practiced reading to a partner. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included PROBLEM, SOLVE, GRATEFUL, THOUGHTFUL, INCLUDE. The students thought about what the author's message could be in the Haitian read aloud tale, "The Turtle and the Sheep." What was the lesson in the story? Workstations this week were a continuation of last weeks work with a couple of new items. Students drew a picture of themselves happy and sad and then write about when they felt that way, leveled reader fluency practice and discussion about story element/comprehension, rainbow word family writing and activities--Pumpkin Nonsense words, Bat Race-reading at family words, making CVC words with leaves and Rock, Paper, Scissors--sound match.
Math: The students worked on rote counting to 50 in preparation for our celebration next Wednesday. How many ten frames do you need to make 50. How many sets of tally marks? Our group leaf collection helped the students develop categorizing skills. Each student took the leaves out of their bags and added them to the growing collection. They agreed to group and label the leaves by color. Check out our photo! The students continue to work on recognizing pattern block shapes and using the shapes to create a design depending upon the number of blocks. (ie-Can you create a design with 7 shapes.?..9 shapes?) it was a game week in their math workstations--Spin and Color the pumpkins (matching numbers 1-12,) Roll, Color and Count apples (counting and comparing numbers-greater than/less than,) Skeleton Game (counting/following directions,) Plus One game--adding one to a number. Whole group enjoyed the subitize challenge using the app Subitize Tree and working on problem solving using the app Number Rack.
Writing: Students have completed work on their Frog Jump Capitals. They applied what they learned about formation in their orange practice book. In Writer's Workshop, the students continue to work on writing a naming and telling sentence, using more word details, labeling pictures, using spaces between words and beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period. Next week, we will be working on a writing summative writing piece for common core.
Technology: New apps for whole group instruction included Subitize Tree and Number Rack for math. The students delighted in setting their sight words on "fire" using the app Fire Finger to reinforce sight word recognition and writing. The app iTalk was used to record readers and played back so they could hear their reading.
Literature: "Bones," "Bats-Strange and Wonderful," "Skeleton for Dinner," "Fantastic Bats," "Popcorn," "Skeletons," "Amazing Bats," "Little Red Bat," "Bats Big Game," "Your Skeleton," "Skeleton Cat," "Wacky Animal Facts," "Black Out," "Skeleton Meets Mummy," "If Kids Ruled the World."
**PICTURE RETAKE Day is MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3rd. in the morning.
**Halloween was cold and blustery but did not prevent us from having lots of fun! The students were transformed into super heros, knights, princesses, owls, mermaids and more. Was that a skeleton or a teacher?? We feasted on fruits and veggie snacks. Our day was also deemed "Walker Day" in honor of our fellow classmate Walker who is moving to Michigan. We will really miss him. Thanks to all of you who came to join us or provided goodies for us. A special shout out to our room moms!
**Slightly Spooky Story Night was a huge success and lots of fun. Mr. Sak, Ms. Noonan, Ms. Durham and myself had a great time reading silly, slightly spooky and out of this world stories. Thanks to all who came out to hear us. A SPECIAL THANK YOU for those who bought books for our classroom! THANK YOU!!!!!
**Author Eileen Christelow read from her most recent book and shared with the students how she gets her ideas for her stories and how she drew the monkey for her "Five Little Monkeys" story. It was a great experience for the students.
**Our own Nurse Jamie did an hand washing demonstration and experiment with the students. She discussed the importance of washing your hands super well to get off all the germs. She suggested singing or humming the Happy Birthday Song 2 times making sure to scrub top, bottom and between fingers. Students experimented with using a "special" liquid on their hands and shaking hands with a friend. The friends put their hands under a black light and.......ooooooh germs showed up like a powder. The students washed their hands...singing their song and put their hands back under the light. How well did they wash their hands?? Did the powder show?? Pretty cool and surprising!
**Student Council reps, Ethan and Lily have worked on the Stand Up for Cancer project. The photos are posted and the students will vote via money in the jar of their favorite pose next week. All funds raised will go toward the Stand Up for Cancer project.
**Green Team reps Evan and Atessa worked on a video at their Green Team meeting on recycling used water color markers and saving the earth.
**On Monday, we will begin our next cross curricular theme-BEARS. We will become bear experts. Our field trip will have special classroom experience. We will turn our nature table into a bear artifacts table courtesy of the Field Museum. We will be linking our study of bears to the common core standards.
**Each student received an Irving School Student Directory. It is in your child's homework folder.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey began a unit on Friendship. What does it take to be a good friend?
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer read the story "Ten Black Dots" by Donald Crews and then had the students use one black dot and design a picture around it. Way cool!!!
**NO SCHOOL--Monday, November 10th in observance of Veteran's Day.
**NO SCHOOL-Wednesday, November 26th, Thursday, November 27th and Friday, November 28th in observance of Thanksgiving.
**Permission slips for our field trip to BROOKFIELD ZOO will be sent out this week. Come join us on Tuesday, November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!!! We will need several volunteers for our annual Gingerbread Cookie Baking on Thursday, December 11th all afternoon. No experience necessary. Roll out, create, decorate, bake and share. Email me if interested. I will provide the dough, sprinkles and aprons.....you provide the baking sheets, rolling pins and man power.
**SAVE THE DATE! Our WINTER CONCERT featuring Kindergarten and First Grade is Wednesday, December 17th. 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 bats! We took the fright out of these amazing creatures. The students listened to informational texts as well as fiction texts on bats. BrainPop Jr. had a great bat fact video and quiz. They viewed bat skeletons in diagram form and learned about bat habitats, bat physiology and bat diets. Ask your child what a mammal is. The students learned that humans and bats have something in common--we are both mammals. Students sought information about bat types, bat characteristics (super long fingers and a thumb) and baby bats (they are pink and called pups.) The students also read about and viewed a human skeleton. Who has more bones--a baby or a 5-6 year old? Students delighted in feeling for their bones and checking out different texts about bone structure.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work to complete Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. This weeks lessons centered around friends who solve problems together.
The students listened to the trade book story, "Simon and Molly Plus Hester." They asked and answered questions about the text and responded to the literature by making connections in their own lives. The students discussed the story elements of problem and solution. They continued to work on reviewing their sight vocabulary. They practiced writing them and using selected words in oral and written sentences. The students reviewed the 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 a selected word. The students took turns retelling the trade book story using the retelling cards. In phonemic awareness activities, the students categorized and blended 3 phoneme (individual sounds) to create words. The students read their pre decodable story, "I Like, We Like." They made predictions about story content and practiced reading to a partner. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included PROBLEM, SOLVE, GRATEFUL, THOUGHTFUL, INCLUDE. The students thought about what the author's message could be in the Haitian read aloud tale, "The Turtle and the Sheep." What was the lesson in the story? Workstations this week were a continuation of last weeks work with a couple of new items. Students drew a picture of themselves happy and sad and then write about when they felt that way, leveled reader fluency practice and discussion about story element/comprehension, rainbow word family writing and activities--Pumpkin Nonsense words, Bat Race-reading at family words, making CVC words with leaves and Rock, Paper, Scissors--sound match.
Math: The students worked on rote counting to 50 in preparation for our celebration next Wednesday. How many ten frames do you need to make 50. How many sets of tally marks? Our group leaf collection helped the students develop categorizing skills. Each student took the leaves out of their bags and added them to the growing collection. They agreed to group and label the leaves by color. Check out our photo! The students continue to work on recognizing pattern block shapes and using the shapes to create a design depending upon the number of blocks. (ie-Can you create a design with 7 shapes.?..9 shapes?) it was a game week in their math workstations--Spin and Color the pumpkins (matching numbers 1-12,) Roll, Color and Count apples (counting and comparing numbers-greater than/less than,) Skeleton Game (counting/following directions,) Plus One game--adding one to a number. Whole group enjoyed the subitize challenge using the app Subitize Tree and working on problem solving using the app Number Rack.
Writing: Students have completed work on their Frog Jump Capitals. They applied what they learned about formation in their orange practice book. In Writer's Workshop, the students continue to work on writing a naming and telling sentence, using more word details, labeling pictures, using spaces between words and beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period. Next week, we will be working on a writing summative writing piece for common core.
Technology: New apps for whole group instruction included Subitize Tree and Number Rack for math. The students delighted in setting their sight words on "fire" using the app Fire Finger to reinforce sight word recognition and writing. The app iTalk was used to record readers and played back so they could hear their reading.
Literature: "Bones," "Bats-Strange and Wonderful," "Skeleton for Dinner," "Fantastic Bats," "Popcorn," "Skeletons," "Amazing Bats," "Little Red Bat," "Bats Big Game," "Your Skeleton," "Skeleton Cat," "Wacky Animal Facts," "Black Out," "Skeleton Meets Mummy," "If Kids Ruled the World."
Sunday, October 26, 2014
UPDATES for 10/20-10/23 2014
**Thanks so much for your attendance at Parent/Teacher conferences. I so enjoyed chatting with all of you and sharing your child's progress. Our students are sure working hard!
**We had a great morning for our FUN RUN!! The students got their picture taken with the Irving Eagle and had a great run. Thanks for your participation and pledges!!
**The Irving School Book Fair begins Monday, October 27 thru Thursday, October 30th. See the flyer for times. Our class will be visiting the fair on Monday morning. Students will bring home a wishlist with a few of their favorite selections.
**Author Eileen Christelow of "Five Little Monkeys " fame will visit Irving on Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm. Can't wait to hear her speak about her ideas for stories.
**Come on out on Wednesday, October 29th from 6:30-7:30 pm for "Sightly Spooky Family Storytime" Please join Ms. Noonan and guest readers ME, Mr. Sak and Ms. Durham for stories to get you in the Halloween mood. Come browse the Book Fair and enjoy a sweet treat!
**We will have a Bus Evacuation Drill on Tuesday, October 28th.
**The culmination of our week will be the All School Irving Halloween Parade and Celebration. There is an on line sign up from our room parents for healthy treats and help with costume changing. On Friday, October 31st, we will have regular morning activities. Students may bring a costume/make up etc. in a bag. After lunch, the students will change into their costumes. The parade begins at 1:30 pm. with our celebration, craft and refreshments immediately following. All parents and sibs are invited to attend. Students may bring a candy or non candy treat if they wish. These treats will go into a treat bag and be sent home. Please remember--we have a PEANUT FREE classroom.
**Picture Retake Day is Monday, November 3rd in the morning. Stay tuned for more info.
**Our 50th Day of School is Wednesday, November 5th! We will be half way to 100!! We will spend some time learning about the decade of the 50's. On Wednesday, November 5th, the students can dress up like the 50's. It can be as simple as a white tee shirt and jeans, slick back hair for boys and pony tails for girls. If you should have a poodle skirt--WOW! Our Math workstations on Wednesday will center on activities and games that feature the number 50. We will top that off with a Sock Hop Dance complete with 50's music! What a great movement break!
**The Children's Clinic of Oak Park will be providing FREE dental care to Irving students on November 5th, 6th and 7th. The consent form is in your child's homework folder. Last week, a representative from the Children's Clinic spoke to the class on teeth brushing and flossing.
**The last "Poppin on the Patio" will be held on Wednesday, October 29th after school. Buy some popcorn and help the 5th grade raise money for outdoor education.
**Student Council Reps, Ethan and Lily spoke to our class about the "Stand Up for Cancer" project. Students will vote for their favorite picture of a teacher standing up for cancer during the week of November 3rd-7th. Students can also submit a picture of themselves standing up for cancer. These will be hung up around the school. All money collected will go to the Stand Up for Cancer Foundation.
**Last call for a fun grown up night to raise money for Irving School. Trivia Night is coming up in November!!
**No Friendship Club this week.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, Mr. Packer began a new unit on Data and Probability.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP to Brookfield Zoo, Tuesday, November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm.
**SAVE the DATE: Kindergarten Winter Concert--Wednesday, December 17th. Because of the amount of students participating the concert will be held 2 times---once at 8:15 am and then again at 9:45 am. Stay tuned for more info.
This week:
It was all about pumpkins and spiders. And yes.....the biggest squash around! Lily brought a "cucuzza" Italian squash to show the students. It is one long squash!!! Note the picture on the side of the blog. What does it taste like when it is cooked??? Hopefully Lily will share that with us. The students learned that spiders are not so spooky. They are really very helpful to our earth. They learned the difference between spiders and insects and viewed some spider specimens. The students learned the term--arachnid. Spiders live almost everywhere and hatch from eggs. Baby spiders are called spiderlings. Spiders can be very colorful. Students listened to nonfiction and fiction stories about spiders. We accessed information via the internet on spiders of interest like tarantulas and black widows. Many spiders eat pesty bugs and insects that bother both humans and plants. The students looked inside a pumpkin. They examined the seeds, flesh, pulp and skin. The students viewed the growing sequence and wrote about it in their journals. We were lucky enough to have two station day activities days. The activities included marble painted spider webs, color by code leaf scene, pumpkin 10 frame count, cut, glue, pumpkin plant sequencing activity, pumpkin roll and number color and preparation for our leaf sort reading the story "Leaf Man" and creating a leaf man using mixed media.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They built background knowledge about how friends around the world share activities.
The students listened to the Big Book story, "Friends Around Us." They made connections looking and listening to the activities and places in the world where friends lived. We located the countries on the map so the students could get an idea of where the friends lived. The word a was added to our sight word list. They reviewed the isolated sounds of M, S, A, P. Our Robust Vocabulary words included WORLD, GAMES, PLEASANT, ASSIST, HONEST. The students worked on asking and answering questions about the Big Book story. They also used the retelling cards to review the order of events in the story. Our guest puppets assisted the students in the practice of blending letter sounds to create 3 letter words and students used their elkonin boxes to segment 3 letter words. We read our pre decodable story "I Am a Doctor." The students tracking skills are continuing to develop. Workstations this week included leveled readers--story elements/comprehension, reader's response, draw a picture and write about how you can be a good friend, use the sentence starter--We like......
rainbow words from the word families--am, at, ad.
Math: The students continue to work on counting quantities and one to one correspondence. They are doing a great job of completing their Calendar Books daily. They are working on the concepts before and after, plus one, greater than/less than, and number families. The students did a variety of activities using their ten frames. They counted spiders, pumpkins, seeds and bats. Their number globe projects and shape review jack-o-lanterns are posted in the hall.
Writing: The students worked to complete their writing project on what they like to do in the fall. They are beginning to think about how letters are placed on a given line. Where do upper case letters go....lowercase letters.....tall lowercase? What about lowercase letters that go below the line? Lots to begin to think about. The students worked on a variety of topics including spiders, friends, pumpkins. Students continue to label pictures and work on sentence structure.
Technology: The students continue to use the iPad to reinforce what they are learning. In reading, student small groups used the apps Dolch Words, Reading Magic 1, Word Wizard to work on segmenting, sound/symbol, sight words. In math, student small groups worked on the apps Monster Squeeze, Number Find, Geoboard and student whole group work used Number Rack. Brain Pop Jr. and Facthound were used to research facts on spiders and pumpkins.
Literature: "Leaf Man," "Super Spiders," "Eensy Weensy Spider," "3 Hungry Spiders and 1 Fly," "16 Runaway Pumpkins," "Pick a Perfect Pumpkin," "Splat the Cat--Scaredy Cat," "Spiderlings," "Click, Clack, Boo," "Pumpkin's Circle," "From Seed to Pumpkin," "Fall Leaves Change Color," "Animals in Fall."
**We had a great morning for our FUN RUN!! The students got their picture taken with the Irving Eagle and had a great run. Thanks for your participation and pledges!!
**The Irving School Book Fair begins Monday, October 27 thru Thursday, October 30th. See the flyer for times. Our class will be visiting the fair on Monday morning. Students will bring home a wishlist with a few of their favorite selections.
**Author Eileen Christelow of "Five Little Monkeys " fame will visit Irving on Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm. Can't wait to hear her speak about her ideas for stories.
**Come on out on Wednesday, October 29th from 6:30-7:30 pm for "Sightly Spooky Family Storytime" Please join Ms. Noonan and guest readers ME, Mr. Sak and Ms. Durham for stories to get you in the Halloween mood. Come browse the Book Fair and enjoy a sweet treat!
**We will have a Bus Evacuation Drill on Tuesday, October 28th.
**The culmination of our week will be the All School Irving Halloween Parade and Celebration. There is an on line sign up from our room parents for healthy treats and help with costume changing. On Friday, October 31st, we will have regular morning activities. Students may bring a costume/make up etc. in a bag. After lunch, the students will change into their costumes. The parade begins at 1:30 pm. with our celebration, craft and refreshments immediately following. All parents and sibs are invited to attend. Students may bring a candy or non candy treat if they wish. These treats will go into a treat bag and be sent home. Please remember--we have a PEANUT FREE classroom.
**Picture Retake Day is Monday, November 3rd in the morning. Stay tuned for more info.
**Our 50th Day of School is Wednesday, November 5th! We will be half way to 100!! We will spend some time learning about the decade of the 50's. On Wednesday, November 5th, the students can dress up like the 50's. It can be as simple as a white tee shirt and jeans, slick back hair for boys and pony tails for girls. If you should have a poodle skirt--WOW! Our Math workstations on Wednesday will center on activities and games that feature the number 50. We will top that off with a Sock Hop Dance complete with 50's music! What a great movement break!
**The Children's Clinic of Oak Park will be providing FREE dental care to Irving students on November 5th, 6th and 7th. The consent form is in your child's homework folder. Last week, a representative from the Children's Clinic spoke to the class on teeth brushing and flossing.
**The last "Poppin on the Patio" will be held on Wednesday, October 29th after school. Buy some popcorn and help the 5th grade raise money for outdoor education.
**Student Council Reps, Ethan and Lily spoke to our class about the "Stand Up for Cancer" project. Students will vote for their favorite picture of a teacher standing up for cancer during the week of November 3rd-7th. Students can also submit a picture of themselves standing up for cancer. These will be hung up around the school. All money collected will go to the Stand Up for Cancer Foundation.
**Last call for a fun grown up night to raise money for Irving School. Trivia Night is coming up in November!!
**No Friendship Club this week.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, Mr. Packer began a new unit on Data and Probability.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP to Brookfield Zoo, Tuesday, November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm.
**SAVE the DATE: Kindergarten Winter Concert--Wednesday, December 17th. Because of the amount of students participating the concert will be held 2 times---once at 8:15 am and then again at 9:45 am. Stay tuned for more info.
This week:
It was all about pumpkins and spiders. And yes.....the biggest squash around! Lily brought a "cucuzza" Italian squash to show the students. It is one long squash!!! Note the picture on the side of the blog. What does it taste like when it is cooked??? Hopefully Lily will share that with us. The students learned that spiders are not so spooky. They are really very helpful to our earth. They learned the difference between spiders and insects and viewed some spider specimens. The students learned the term--arachnid. Spiders live almost everywhere and hatch from eggs. Baby spiders are called spiderlings. Spiders can be very colorful. Students listened to nonfiction and fiction stories about spiders. We accessed information via the internet on spiders of interest like tarantulas and black widows. Many spiders eat pesty bugs and insects that bother both humans and plants. The students looked inside a pumpkin. They examined the seeds, flesh, pulp and skin. The students viewed the growing sequence and wrote about it in their journals. We were lucky enough to have two station day activities days. The activities included marble painted spider webs, color by code leaf scene, pumpkin 10 frame count, cut, glue, pumpkin plant sequencing activity, pumpkin roll and number color and preparation for our leaf sort reading the story "Leaf Man" and creating a leaf man using mixed media.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They built background knowledge about how friends around the world share activities.
The students listened to the Big Book story, "Friends Around Us." They made connections looking and listening to the activities and places in the world where friends lived. We located the countries on the map so the students could get an idea of where the friends lived. The word a was added to our sight word list. They reviewed the isolated sounds of M, S, A, P. Our Robust Vocabulary words included WORLD, GAMES, PLEASANT, ASSIST, HONEST. The students worked on asking and answering questions about the Big Book story. They also used the retelling cards to review the order of events in the story. Our guest puppets assisted the students in the practice of blending letter sounds to create 3 letter words and students used their elkonin boxes to segment 3 letter words. We read our pre decodable story "I Am a Doctor." The students tracking skills are continuing to develop. Workstations this week included leveled readers--story elements/comprehension, reader's response, draw a picture and write about how you can be a good friend, use the sentence starter--We like......
rainbow words from the word families--am, at, ad.
Math: The students continue to work on counting quantities and one to one correspondence. They are doing a great job of completing their Calendar Books daily. They are working on the concepts before and after, plus one, greater than/less than, and number families. The students did a variety of activities using their ten frames. They counted spiders, pumpkins, seeds and bats. Their number globe projects and shape review jack-o-lanterns are posted in the hall.
Writing: The students worked to complete their writing project on what they like to do in the fall. They are beginning to think about how letters are placed on a given line. Where do upper case letters go....lowercase letters.....tall lowercase? What about lowercase letters that go below the line? Lots to begin to think about. The students worked on a variety of topics including spiders, friends, pumpkins. Students continue to label pictures and work on sentence structure.
Technology: The students continue to use the iPad to reinforce what they are learning. In reading, student small groups used the apps Dolch Words, Reading Magic 1, Word Wizard to work on segmenting, sound/symbol, sight words. In math, student small groups worked on the apps Monster Squeeze, Number Find, Geoboard and student whole group work used Number Rack. Brain Pop Jr. and Facthound were used to research facts on spiders and pumpkins.
Literature: "Leaf Man," "Super Spiders," "Eensy Weensy Spider," "3 Hungry Spiders and 1 Fly," "16 Runaway Pumpkins," "Pick a Perfect Pumpkin," "Splat the Cat--Scaredy Cat," "Spiderlings," "Click, Clack, Boo," "Pumpkin's Circle," "From Seed to Pumpkin," "Fall Leaves Change Color," "Animals in Fall."
Sunday, October 19, 2014
UPDATES for 10/14-10/17 2014
**Reminder--Parent/Teacher Conferences are Monday, October 20th--I have 7:15 am--Novak, 3:00 pm--Makonnen, 3:30 pm--Hellman, 5:00 pm--Wojcik, 6:30 pm--Nunes, 7:00 pm--Ferrigno and 7:30 pm--Pacelli/Blecha. Tuesday, October 21st--7:15 am--Pendleton, 6:00 pm--Connelly, 6:30 pm--Cervantes, 7:00 pm--Peterson, 7:30 pm--Frank. Wednesday, October 22nd--3:00 pm--McGhee/McDonald, 4:00 pm--Howell, 6:00 pm--Rodriguez, 7:00 pm--Meier. Looking forward to sharing your child's progress with you!
**Reminder--School is in session in the MORNING ONLY on Thursday, October 23rd and Friday, October 24th. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, District School Bus and Magical Minds will pick up at 11:00 am.
**Go Ms. Gullo's Class!! The FUN RUN is Wednesday, October 22nd. More info was sent in your child's homework folder. There is still time to sign up to pledge. Come cheer us on!! We run at 8:15 am. You can even make a poster!!
**Family Math Night was the best!! We rocked around the clock and had a tasty root beer float. Thanks to all those that participated!!!
**The Seasonal Babies Project is awesome! Stop by and see our adorable baby pictures.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 will begin on Tuesday, October 21st. At that time, you will receive notification of the skill your child will be working on and the teacher teaching that skill.
**There will be another "Poppin on the Patio" this Wednesday, October 22nd right after school. Stop by and support the 5th grade outdoor ed project.
**Information for accessing BrainPop Jr. is in your child's folder. It is another cool tool to try to enhance learning. It might come in handy when we do our research project later on in the year. Experiment and have fun with it if you like.
**Ah Yes! The topic of Halloween is now being discussed. The schedule is as follows--Friday, October 31st will be a regular morning of learning. Students may bring their costumes/make up/props to school in a bag. At 1:00 pm, the students will change into their costumes. At 1:30 pm--Students will participate in an all school Parade around the outside of the school. Classroom celebrations will take place from 2:15-2:55 pm. In keeping with our nonviolent classroom atmosphere, please do not send toy guns, swords, hooks, light sabers, poles, knives, brooms or handcuffs. There are no other restrictions on costumes other than that. Students may bring a candy treat for the class if you wish. Candy or non candy will be placed in the treat bags the students are making and be sent home. I will be chatting with my room parents who will have a healthy snack on hand. We will also make a craft related to our study of nocturnal animals. Parents and sibs are invited to attend both events. I will also need some parents to help with costume changing.
**Ms. Bell Bey was absent for Friendship Club.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, Mr. Packer finished a book on future thinking!
**Future Field Trip--Brookfield Zoo--Tuesday, November 25th--9:00-1:30 pm I will need about 4 parents to help out on the trip. More info soon.
This week:
It was all about the culmination of apple mania! The students discussed the sequence of events surrounding the making of applesauce. The key words--recipe and ingredients. They observed and assisted in using the apple peeling machine. The peeling came out like ribbon! Some students ate them at snack time. We discussed the cooking process and talked about the function of a crock pot. Lots of language and conversation. The students took turns using their plastic knives to cut up the flesh and put it in the pot. We added some apple cider and cranked up the crock pot. The smell of cooking apples permeated our classroom! The students thoroughly enjoyed their applesauce treat! This week was our first parent helper station day. Sign up if you can. It's really fun!!! This weeks station day activities included turning pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns/shape count/record, apple print trees, hidden picture-color by code, apple star prints, sink or float--apple science.
Reading/Language Arts: The students took a break this week from our Treasures Reading series to work on some formative assessments relating to jobs of an author and illustrator, story elements- character, setting and specific event, recognizing fiction and nonfiction, examining a book and looking at text features. The students reviewed their sight words thus far and practiced writing them down and using them in sentences. Each day, the students decided what activities they wanted to do in their workstations. Games using beginning and ending sounds were popular. Sentence building activities and syllable counting activities were also chosen. Sound blending using the app Reading Magic 1 was also chosen. It was cool to see each group of students work together to choose what they wanted to do. Students also used time for a group read aloud of their predecodable story, "I Am." They reviewed what a noun was and found nouns in their story. Students used the leveled readers from last week and chose one to read and discuss with a partner. Fun times!
Math: The students continued to work on rote counting to 40. They worked on counting quantities to 20, one to one correspondence and recognizing numbers 0-20. They are continuing to work in their calendar books on number sequencing, what comes before and after, tally marks, ten frame exercises, patterning and adding a number plus one. They enjoyed playing Apple Roll, Count and Color and comparing their results with other groups. The students continued to work on exercises using the reckenrek. The students also had a chance to decide what activities they wanted to do for their math workstations. They chose Top It, illustrating number with pictures, Heads or Tails game, sequencing their number cards from smallest to largest, using basic shapes in building and counting and reinforcing positional concepts. In the midst of the everyday workstations, small groups of students worked with me on a project called Number Globes on their iPads.
Writing: The students continue to work on their Frog Jump Capitals. So far F, E, D, B, P, R have been introduced. Students applied what they had practiced in their orange books. Students wrote and illustrated in their journals about apples using the words from their sight word list. The focus this week was on writing posture, reinforcing tripod grasp, one hand holding the paper and sitting up so their back touched the back of their chair. Students are beginning to pay more attention to where they are putting their letters. More students are experimenting with using lowercase letters. The students are currently working on a writing project about fall.
Technology: No new apps were introduced this week. Students small groups continue to work on a counting and cardinality project using the app Doodle Buddy. Stay tuned!
Literature: "Click Clack Boo," "How Do Apples Grow?" "Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie," "Ten Apples Up on Top," "Johnny Appleseed," "The Wonders of Apples,"
**Reminder--School is in session in the MORNING ONLY on Thursday, October 23rd and Friday, October 24th. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, District School Bus and Magical Minds will pick up at 11:00 am.
**Go Ms. Gullo's Class!! The FUN RUN is Wednesday, October 22nd. More info was sent in your child's homework folder. There is still time to sign up to pledge. Come cheer us on!! We run at 8:15 am. You can even make a poster!!
**Family Math Night was the best!! We rocked around the clock and had a tasty root beer float. Thanks to all those that participated!!!
**The Seasonal Babies Project is awesome! Stop by and see our adorable baby pictures.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 will begin on Tuesday, October 21st. At that time, you will receive notification of the skill your child will be working on and the teacher teaching that skill.
**There will be another "Poppin on the Patio" this Wednesday, October 22nd right after school. Stop by and support the 5th grade outdoor ed project.
**Information for accessing BrainPop Jr. is in your child's folder. It is another cool tool to try to enhance learning. It might come in handy when we do our research project later on in the year. Experiment and have fun with it if you like.
**Ah Yes! The topic of Halloween is now being discussed. The schedule is as follows--Friday, October 31st will be a regular morning of learning. Students may bring their costumes/make up/props to school in a bag. At 1:00 pm, the students will change into their costumes. At 1:30 pm--Students will participate in an all school Parade around the outside of the school. Classroom celebrations will take place from 2:15-2:55 pm. In keeping with our nonviolent classroom atmosphere, please do not send toy guns, swords, hooks, light sabers, poles, knives, brooms or handcuffs. There are no other restrictions on costumes other than that. Students may bring a candy treat for the class if you wish. Candy or non candy will be placed in the treat bags the students are making and be sent home. I will be chatting with my room parents who will have a healthy snack on hand. We will also make a craft related to our study of nocturnal animals. Parents and sibs are invited to attend both events. I will also need some parents to help with costume changing.
**Ms. Bell Bey was absent for Friendship Club.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, Mr. Packer finished a book on future thinking!
**Future Field Trip--Brookfield Zoo--Tuesday, November 25th--9:00-1:30 pm I will need about 4 parents to help out on the trip. More info soon.
This week:
It was all about the culmination of apple mania! The students discussed the sequence of events surrounding the making of applesauce. The key words--recipe and ingredients. They observed and assisted in using the apple peeling machine. The peeling came out like ribbon! Some students ate them at snack time. We discussed the cooking process and talked about the function of a crock pot. Lots of language and conversation. The students took turns using their plastic knives to cut up the flesh and put it in the pot. We added some apple cider and cranked up the crock pot. The smell of cooking apples permeated our classroom! The students thoroughly enjoyed their applesauce treat! This week was our first parent helper station day. Sign up if you can. It's really fun!!! This weeks station day activities included turning pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns/shape count/record, apple print trees, hidden picture-color by code, apple star prints, sink or float--apple science.
Reading/Language Arts: The students took a break this week from our Treasures Reading series to work on some formative assessments relating to jobs of an author and illustrator, story elements- character, setting and specific event, recognizing fiction and nonfiction, examining a book and looking at text features. The students reviewed their sight words thus far and practiced writing them down and using them in sentences. Each day, the students decided what activities they wanted to do in their workstations. Games using beginning and ending sounds were popular. Sentence building activities and syllable counting activities were also chosen. Sound blending using the app Reading Magic 1 was also chosen. It was cool to see each group of students work together to choose what they wanted to do. Students also used time for a group read aloud of their predecodable story, "I Am." They reviewed what a noun was and found nouns in their story. Students used the leveled readers from last week and chose one to read and discuss with a partner. Fun times!
Math: The students continued to work on rote counting to 40. They worked on counting quantities to 20, one to one correspondence and recognizing numbers 0-20. They are continuing to work in their calendar books on number sequencing, what comes before and after, tally marks, ten frame exercises, patterning and adding a number plus one. They enjoyed playing Apple Roll, Count and Color and comparing their results with other groups. The students continued to work on exercises using the reckenrek. The students also had a chance to decide what activities they wanted to do for their math workstations. They chose Top It, illustrating number with pictures, Heads or Tails game, sequencing their number cards from smallest to largest, using basic shapes in building and counting and reinforcing positional concepts. In the midst of the everyday workstations, small groups of students worked with me on a project called Number Globes on their iPads.
Writing: The students continue to work on their Frog Jump Capitals. So far F, E, D, B, P, R have been introduced. Students applied what they had practiced in their orange books. Students wrote and illustrated in their journals about apples using the words from their sight word list. The focus this week was on writing posture, reinforcing tripod grasp, one hand holding the paper and sitting up so their back touched the back of their chair. Students are beginning to pay more attention to where they are putting their letters. More students are experimenting with using lowercase letters. The students are currently working on a writing project about fall.
Technology: No new apps were introduced this week. Students small groups continue to work on a counting and cardinality project using the app Doodle Buddy. Stay tuned!
Literature: "Click Clack Boo," "How Do Apples Grow?" "Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie," "Ten Apples Up on Top," "Johnny Appleseed," "The Wonders of Apples,"
Thursday, October 9, 2014
UPDATES for 10/6-10/9 2014
**No School--October 10th-Teacher's Institute--No School--October 13th-Columbus Day.
**We had a lovely afternoon for our field trip to Maze Library! Children's Librarian Ms. Jessica Bartz treated the students to a great interactive reading session which included songs, movement and dance activities. She also took us on a tour of the library pointing out where to find DVD's, audio books, nonfiction, fiction, picture books and readers. Students who completed the library card application got their cards. Thanks to K. Meier and B. Howell for volunteering to walk with us!
**Wednesday, October 8th was Walk to School Day. We had a lots of students who waked to school that day. If students didn't get a chance to walk, I walked around the playground with them. Students colored their gym shoe and got their stamp.
**Don't forget to send in your child's baby picture for our Seasonal Babies Project. We will do the project on Wednesday, October 15th.
**Please keep turning in your confirmation letters for Parent/Teacher Conferences. Please email me to reschedule if you need a different day and time. Parent/Teacher conferences are Monday, October 20th, Tuesday, October 21st and Wednesday, October 22nd. Don't forget.....Thursday and Friday, October 23rd and 24th, school is in session in the morning only. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds and the District School Bus will pick at 11:00 am.
**The first rotation of Route to Reading will conclude on Thursday, October 16th. At that time, you will receive notification of your child's skill status. Route to Reading Rotation 2 will begin on Tuesday, October 21st.
**See information for "Poppin on the Patio"--5th Grade Fund Raiser for Outdoor Education in your child's homework folder. It will be 3 consecutive Wednesdays beginning on October 15th. Let's help out our Book Buddies!
**Art Teacher, Ms. Tague sent home information on accessing ARTSONIA. Your child's username and password were included. Great way to see what your child is producing in the Art Studio.
**The 3rd Grade Girl Scout Troop is collecting toiletries for the needy. You can bring in shampoo, soap, shaving cream, toothpaste, diapers wipes etc. Students can bring items in and we will put them in the collection basket.
**You can still sign up for Family Math Night--"Rocking Round the Clock." Email me for info. It is Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm. You and your child will solve the math problems.....I will make the root beer floats in the lunchroom soda shop!
**There is still time to sign up for TRIVIA NIGHT--sponsored by PTO. Information and sign up can be done thru the PTO website. Great grown up fun!
**Go Ms. Gullo's Class---FUN RUN FUN RUN!!!! We need more students to sign up for the PTO's BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the year!!! Check the PTO website for sign up info. You can do it!!!! Kindergarten will "run" at 8:15 am. on Wednesday, October 22nd. Come cheer us on. You can even make a sign!
**Our Green Team Reps-Evan and Atessa made rags from their old shirts. Each class got a set of rags. We will use them with our dry erase boards. Great way to reuse items!
**Our Student Council Reps-Ethan and Lily reported that student council will be working on a project in conjunction with "Stand Up for Cancer." More info is coming on how they will involve the school.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP--BROOKFIELD ZOO on Tuesday, November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm. More info will be forthcoming. I need at least 4 parent volunteers.
This week:
It was all about APPLE MANIA! The students participated in an inquiry to determine what they knew about apples. They had fun using the magnifiers and the microscope to observe the blossom (flower) seeds, flesh, core, skin. They learned what a blossom was. Some apples were cut on their sides to reveal the star! We read informational (nonfiction) books on the subject and used the internet search to find out names that apples have. The students explored some of the many types of apples and observed their similarities and differences. The students learned how to create a diagram and label apple parts. We even had a bit of a taste test! Yes!!! We do have a striped skunk family visiting our classroom courtesy of the Field Museum. We will be studying nocturnal animals, bats, spiders and skeletons in an informative and noncreepy way before Halloween.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They built background knowledge about what a friend is and what types of activities you can do with a friend. They listened to the song, "The More We Get Together." Many students remembered this song from their time in preschool. The students listened to the Big Book story, "What Do You Like?" They responded and made connections about activities they do with friends. The students found the title page and discussed the main characters and the setting of the story. They learned about how to compare and find differences and commonalities by using a Venn Diagram. They compared the girl and the boy in the story--what they both liked and the types of things each one liked separately. The sight word like was introduced. The students reviewed their previous words and played "Hands Up, Hands Down." The target sound in isolation was Ss. They used chants and rhymes to reinforce the sound and created a word web of Ss words. The students reviewed what a noun was and sighted several examples in the Big Book story. Robust Vocabulary for this week included FAVORITE, FRIENDS, PARTNER, HOBBY, COMPLETE. The students read their read aloud story, "I Like." Students worked on tracking and beginning fluency. They learned what a speech bubble was. Students discussed the characters and setting and chose an event in the story to share with a partner. Workstation activities included letter/picture sort using letters M, S, A, P, sound blending (3 phonemes) activity using Reading Magic 1--tap the box record the sound/letter on your paper-tap the picture box--did you make the word? word puzzles--use the letters--connect them to make a word. How many words can you make? create a mural with your group on how friends play, a variety of games reinforcing beginning letter sounds and upper/lowercase match. The students are bring in puppets/stuffed animals to help with our Haggerty Blue Book exercises!
Math: The students continue working on rote counting and counting quantities to 20. This week, the students began using their calendar books. At present, I am projecting the page on the screen so they can learn the format. We work with a different target number each day. They are recording the date, month, day and year, circling the day of the week, filling in what number comes before and after the target number, showing the target number in a ten frame, using tally marks, adding one more to the target number, writing in how many days we have been in school. The students worked on a variety of apple themed math games in small group, individually or with a partner. They counted, grouped and classified, matched numbers. added numbers, sequenced numbers. Students continue to work on recognizing pattern block shape names and learned geometric solids--cube and cone. We continue work on visualizing number using the reckenrek. Math is fun!!!!
Writing: The students are continuing work on our Frog Jump Capitals. Letters P and B were introduced this week. In Writer's Workshop, the students are working on beginning sentence structure and spacing of words in a sentence. They are using inventive spelling---writing the letters for the sounds they hear in words and working to consistently begin their writing with an uppercase letter and use an ending mark.
Technology: The students continue to use the iPad for assignments in small group workstations for reading and math. This week, the app Reading Magic 1 was introduced and used by individuals in small group for sound blending 3 phoneme words. The same apps as last week in both reading and math continue to reinforce skills taught in the classroom. We began work on a project using Doodle Buddy in math.
Literature: "Amazing Apples," "Where in the Wild," "How Rocket Learned to Read," "The Big Apple Mystery," "How Do Apples Grow?" "Apples," "Apples, Apples, Apples," Song--"Apple Tree," "Johnny Appleseed," "Christopher Columbus,"
**We had a lovely afternoon for our field trip to Maze Library! Children's Librarian Ms. Jessica Bartz treated the students to a great interactive reading session which included songs, movement and dance activities. She also took us on a tour of the library pointing out where to find DVD's, audio books, nonfiction, fiction, picture books and readers. Students who completed the library card application got their cards. Thanks to K. Meier and B. Howell for volunteering to walk with us!
**Wednesday, October 8th was Walk to School Day. We had a lots of students who waked to school that day. If students didn't get a chance to walk, I walked around the playground with them. Students colored their gym shoe and got their stamp.
**Don't forget to send in your child's baby picture for our Seasonal Babies Project. We will do the project on Wednesday, October 15th.
**Please keep turning in your confirmation letters for Parent/Teacher Conferences. Please email me to reschedule if you need a different day and time. Parent/Teacher conferences are Monday, October 20th, Tuesday, October 21st and Wednesday, October 22nd. Don't forget.....Thursday and Friday, October 23rd and 24th, school is in session in the morning only. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds and the District School Bus will pick at 11:00 am.
**The first rotation of Route to Reading will conclude on Thursday, October 16th. At that time, you will receive notification of your child's skill status. Route to Reading Rotation 2 will begin on Tuesday, October 21st.
**See information for "Poppin on the Patio"--5th Grade Fund Raiser for Outdoor Education in your child's homework folder. It will be 3 consecutive Wednesdays beginning on October 15th. Let's help out our Book Buddies!
**Art Teacher, Ms. Tague sent home information on accessing ARTSONIA. Your child's username and password were included. Great way to see what your child is producing in the Art Studio.
**The 3rd Grade Girl Scout Troop is collecting toiletries for the needy. You can bring in shampoo, soap, shaving cream, toothpaste, diapers wipes etc. Students can bring items in and we will put them in the collection basket.
**You can still sign up for Family Math Night--"Rocking Round the Clock." Email me for info. It is Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm. You and your child will solve the math problems.....I will make the root beer floats in the lunchroom soda shop!
**There is still time to sign up for TRIVIA NIGHT--sponsored by PTO. Information and sign up can be done thru the PTO website. Great grown up fun!
**Go Ms. Gullo's Class---FUN RUN FUN RUN!!!! We need more students to sign up for the PTO's BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the year!!! Check the PTO website for sign up info. You can do it!!!! Kindergarten will "run" at 8:15 am. on Wednesday, October 22nd. Come cheer us on. You can even make a sign!
**Our Green Team Reps-Evan and Atessa made rags from their old shirts. Each class got a set of rags. We will use them with our dry erase boards. Great way to reuse items!
**Our Student Council Reps-Ethan and Lily reported that student council will be working on a project in conjunction with "Stand Up for Cancer." More info is coming on how they will involve the school.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP--BROOKFIELD ZOO on Tuesday, November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm. More info will be forthcoming. I need at least 4 parent volunteers.
This week:
It was all about APPLE MANIA! The students participated in an inquiry to determine what they knew about apples. They had fun using the magnifiers and the microscope to observe the blossom (flower) seeds, flesh, core, skin. They learned what a blossom was. Some apples were cut on their sides to reveal the star! We read informational (nonfiction) books on the subject and used the internet search to find out names that apples have. The students explored some of the many types of apples and observed their similarities and differences. The students learned how to create a diagram and label apple parts. We even had a bit of a taste test! Yes!!! We do have a striped skunk family visiting our classroom courtesy of the Field Museum. We will be studying nocturnal animals, bats, spiders and skeletons in an informative and noncreepy way before Halloween.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They built background knowledge about what a friend is and what types of activities you can do with a friend. They listened to the song, "The More We Get Together." Many students remembered this song from their time in preschool. The students listened to the Big Book story, "What Do You Like?" They responded and made connections about activities they do with friends. The students found the title page and discussed the main characters and the setting of the story. They learned about how to compare and find differences and commonalities by using a Venn Diagram. They compared the girl and the boy in the story--what they both liked and the types of things each one liked separately. The sight word like was introduced. The students reviewed their previous words and played "Hands Up, Hands Down." The target sound in isolation was Ss. They used chants and rhymes to reinforce the sound and created a word web of Ss words. The students reviewed what a noun was and sighted several examples in the Big Book story. Robust Vocabulary for this week included FAVORITE, FRIENDS, PARTNER, HOBBY, COMPLETE. The students read their read aloud story, "I Like." Students worked on tracking and beginning fluency. They learned what a speech bubble was. Students discussed the characters and setting and chose an event in the story to share with a partner. Workstation activities included letter/picture sort using letters M, S, A, P, sound blending (3 phonemes) activity using Reading Magic 1--tap the box record the sound/letter on your paper-tap the picture box--did you make the word? word puzzles--use the letters--connect them to make a word. How many words can you make? create a mural with your group on how friends play, a variety of games reinforcing beginning letter sounds and upper/lowercase match. The students are bring in puppets/stuffed animals to help with our Haggerty Blue Book exercises!
Math: The students continue working on rote counting and counting quantities to 20. This week, the students began using their calendar books. At present, I am projecting the page on the screen so they can learn the format. We work with a different target number each day. They are recording the date, month, day and year, circling the day of the week, filling in what number comes before and after the target number, showing the target number in a ten frame, using tally marks, adding one more to the target number, writing in how many days we have been in school. The students worked on a variety of apple themed math games in small group, individually or with a partner. They counted, grouped and classified, matched numbers. added numbers, sequenced numbers. Students continue to work on recognizing pattern block shape names and learned geometric solids--cube and cone. We continue work on visualizing number using the reckenrek. Math is fun!!!!
Writing: The students are continuing work on our Frog Jump Capitals. Letters P and B were introduced this week. In Writer's Workshop, the students are working on beginning sentence structure and spacing of words in a sentence. They are using inventive spelling---writing the letters for the sounds they hear in words and working to consistently begin their writing with an uppercase letter and use an ending mark.
Technology: The students continue to use the iPad for assignments in small group workstations for reading and math. This week, the app Reading Magic 1 was introduced and used by individuals in small group for sound blending 3 phoneme words. The same apps as last week in both reading and math continue to reinforce skills taught in the classroom. We began work on a project using Doodle Buddy in math.
Literature: "Amazing Apples," "Where in the Wild," "How Rocket Learned to Read," "The Big Apple Mystery," "How Do Apples Grow?" "Apples," "Apples, Apples, Apples," Song--"Apple Tree," "Johnny Appleseed," "Christopher Columbus,"
Sunday, October 5, 2014
UPDATES for 9/30-10/3 2014
**BIG REMINDER--Our walking field trip to MAZE BRANCH LIBRARY is MONDAY, OCTOBER 6th. We will eat lunch in our classroom and be on our way at 12:40 pm. K.Meier, B. Howell and T. Treadway have volunteered to walk with us. We will be back at school by 1:50 pm.
**Wednesday, October is WALK TO SCHOOL DAY. All students who walk to school will receive a hand stamp and gym shoe that they will color. Mr. Hancock will display all colored gym shoes in the gym. If you cannot walk to school on Wednesday......no worries.....At lunch, we can walk around the playground to get our stamp and shoe.
**Don't forget to send back your confirmation for Parent/Teacher Conferences. Conferences are Monday, October 20th, Tuesday, October 21st and Wednesday, October 22nd. Don't forget that on Thursday and Friday (October 23rd and 24th) school is in session in the morning only. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. District School Bus, Hephzibah and Magical Minds will also pick up at that time.
**SEASONAL BABIES PROJECT. Please send in a baby picture of your child for our Seasonal Babies Project. It can be any size. We will do the project on October 14th.
**The students were all smiles for their class and individual pictures last Tuesday. The weather did not cooperate for us so our class picture was taken inside in the auditorium. Thanks to K.Meier (Jeremy's mom) for her help!
**Route to Reading is off to a great start! You should have received notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher who is teaching it.. Please email me if you did not receive it.
**The students have earned many EAGLE SLIPS! In celebration, the students in grades K-2 will have music playing during their outside lunch recess on Monday. Job well done!!!!
**Our GREEN TEAM reps--Atessa and Evan are working on their first project of the year. They are bringing an old shirt to their next meeting on Tuesday, October 7th and making rags.'
**Our STUDENT COUNCIL reps--Ethan and Lily will attend their first Student Council Meeting on Tuesday, October 7th during their lunch recess. They will report back to us.
**Sign up for FAMILY MATH NIGHT. Let's Rock Around the Clock!! It's Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm You and your child solve the math problems......I will make the root beer floats in the lunchroom soda shop!!!
**There is still time to sigh up for TRIVIA NIGHT--sponsored by PTO. Great grown up fun!!!
**Don't forget to sign up your child for the FUN RUN FUNDRAISER--PTO'S BIGGEST FUNDRAISER OF THE YEAR. The event is Wednesday, October 22nd. Kindergarten will "run" from 8:15-8:30 am around the turf. Help raise money for our school!!!
**Scholastic Book Order for October is due October 14th. You can also order on line by clicking the book on the left side of my blog.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued discussion and activities on the Zones of Regulation. You will find a copy in your child's homework folder. Next week, she will start a unit on friendship.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week--Mr. Packer began reading the book, "Tomorrow's Alphabet." It is a really cool book about ABC's and what items become in the future. This book is the catalyst for an upcoming project.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, October 10th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, October 13th in observance of Columbus Day.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP--BROOKFIELD ZOO on November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm More info is forthcoming. I will need at least 4 volunteers.
This week:
The students are working hard on their daily curriculum. They continue to respond to our Eagle Essential Guidelines and our class 1..2..3. They are now very much a part of shaping their own behavior! We are all learning a lot from each other. The students continue to work on fostering positive peer relationships both in and out of the classroom. We had our second meeting with our Book Buddies on Friday. The "little" kids selected a book and "big" Book Buddy read it to them and then they discussed the story elements --Characters, Setting and Story Events--Fiction/Nonfiction. Afterwards they illustrated their favorite part of the story. We have amazing 5th grade Book Buddies!!! They work so well with our precious kindergarten students! We will begin our next cross curricular theme: Apples, Pumpkins and Autumn next week.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 1 Families in the Treasures Reading Series. The students discussed how families can change. Family members move away or move in. Children get older. I read the trade book, "Peter's Chair." It's the story about a boy who has a change in his family on a few different levels. We worked on story structure--a way in which things in the story happen. Stories have a beginning, middle and an end. The students made predictions about story content using the title and cover picture. After the second reading, the students matched pictures to a text that I read to them. They worked on retelling the story to a partner. They also work on reviewing sight word vocabulary and "walking" and writing their words. Robust Vocabulary for this week included CHANGE, RELATIVES, EAGER, OCCASION, CELEBRATE. Students reviewed rhyming patterns and sound blending 2 sound words. During our read aloud time, the students read "Can We?" Students caught on to the story structure...question....answer. Tracking skills are becoming more consistent. Workstations this week included completing sentence starters...I am.....I can.....with illustrations, picture sort by initial sound, before and after writing and illustration about how you have changed, rhyming word families AD and AT--nonsense or real words using the app Word Wizard, leveled readers/comprehension/story elements, shared reading with partners. Students continue to enjoy playing "Working on Syllables" and Rock. Paper, Scissors--upper/lowercase match. We were fortunate this week to be guided thru our Haggerty Blue Book exercises by Mr. Squirrel the puppet on loan to us from Evan!
Math: The students continue to work on counting quantities 0-15, recognizing numbers 0-15 and writing numbers. They used their number cards in a variety of games including the partner game Top It, where each partner draws a number and the partner with the greater number get the cards, Got It--number recognition where you roll the dice and color in the number on your recording sheet, Heads or Tails where you flip a penny and use tally marks to keep your score and number puzzles-matching number to quantity. The student worked on recognizing pattern block shapes and basic flat shapes. On our ten frames, students worked on "Slide and Say" and "Show Me" number. The students are beginning to recognize number more consistently using the reckenrek.
Writing: The students worked on activities from our hand and finger strengthening box. Holding an eraser with the ring and pinkie fingers of their writing hand, they practiced using their tri pod grasp to pick up objects, turn gears, search for pennies and beads, stamp in clay. Students continued to work on Frog Jump letters F, E, D, P. They practiced on their mini boards and also used Wet, Dry, Try method. They applied what they learned in their Orange Practice Books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students worked on a writing project using the story, "The Day the Crayons Quit." They worked on forming their own opinion of what was their favorite color. The students are creating a class book with writing and illustrations about their favorite color. When it is completed, we will share it with you!
Technology: Students are using the iPad as a tool to enhance and reinforce skills taught. In student small groups used the apps Word Wizard to work on rhyming word families, ABC Magic to reinforce sound/symbol, I Write Words for letter formation, My ABC for letter matching, letter/sound relationship, upper/lowercase match and Sound Sort for sound/object match. In math small groups students used the apps Easy Match, Intro to Math and Geoboard to reinforce counting, number recognition, shape recognition and design.
Literature: "I See Patterns," "We Share Everything," "The Quiet Book," "The Cactus Hotel," "It's Okay to Make Mistakes," "The Playground Problem," "Pete the Cat Too Cool for School," "Me and My Family Tree," "The Day the Crayons Quit," "Peter's Chair," "If Your Were a Capital Letter," "The Rabbit and the Coyote."
**Wednesday, October is WALK TO SCHOOL DAY. All students who walk to school will receive a hand stamp and gym shoe that they will color. Mr. Hancock will display all colored gym shoes in the gym. If you cannot walk to school on Wednesday......no worries.....At lunch, we can walk around the playground to get our stamp and shoe.
**Don't forget to send back your confirmation for Parent/Teacher Conferences. Conferences are Monday, October 20th, Tuesday, October 21st and Wednesday, October 22nd. Don't forget that on Thursday and Friday (October 23rd and 24th) school is in session in the morning only. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. District School Bus, Hephzibah and Magical Minds will also pick up at that time.
**SEASONAL BABIES PROJECT. Please send in a baby picture of your child for our Seasonal Babies Project. It can be any size. We will do the project on October 14th.
**The students were all smiles for their class and individual pictures last Tuesday. The weather did not cooperate for us so our class picture was taken inside in the auditorium. Thanks to K.Meier (Jeremy's mom) for her help!
**Route to Reading is off to a great start! You should have received notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher who is teaching it.. Please email me if you did not receive it.
**The students have earned many EAGLE SLIPS! In celebration, the students in grades K-2 will have music playing during their outside lunch recess on Monday. Job well done!!!!
**Our GREEN TEAM reps--Atessa and Evan are working on their first project of the year. They are bringing an old shirt to their next meeting on Tuesday, October 7th and making rags.'
**Our STUDENT COUNCIL reps--Ethan and Lily will attend their first Student Council Meeting on Tuesday, October 7th during their lunch recess. They will report back to us.
**Sign up for FAMILY MATH NIGHT. Let's Rock Around the Clock!! It's Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm You and your child solve the math problems......I will make the root beer floats in the lunchroom soda shop!!!
**There is still time to sigh up for TRIVIA NIGHT--sponsored by PTO. Great grown up fun!!!
**Don't forget to sign up your child for the FUN RUN FUNDRAISER--PTO'S BIGGEST FUNDRAISER OF THE YEAR. The event is Wednesday, October 22nd. Kindergarten will "run" from 8:15-8:30 am around the turf. Help raise money for our school!!!
**Scholastic Book Order for October is due October 14th. You can also order on line by clicking the book on the left side of my blog.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued discussion and activities on the Zones of Regulation. You will find a copy in your child's homework folder. Next week, she will start a unit on friendship.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week--Mr. Packer began reading the book, "Tomorrow's Alphabet." It is a really cool book about ABC's and what items become in the future. This book is the catalyst for an upcoming project.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, October 10th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, October 13th in observance of Columbus Day.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP--BROOKFIELD ZOO on November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm More info is forthcoming. I will need at least 4 volunteers.
This week:
The students are working hard on their daily curriculum. They continue to respond to our Eagle Essential Guidelines and our class 1..2..3. They are now very much a part of shaping their own behavior! We are all learning a lot from each other. The students continue to work on fostering positive peer relationships both in and out of the classroom. We had our second meeting with our Book Buddies on Friday. The "little" kids selected a book and "big" Book Buddy read it to them and then they discussed the story elements --Characters, Setting and Story Events--Fiction/Nonfiction. Afterwards they illustrated their favorite part of the story. We have amazing 5th grade Book Buddies!!! They work so well with our precious kindergarten students! We will begin our next cross curricular theme: Apples, Pumpkins and Autumn next week.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 1 Families in the Treasures Reading Series. The students discussed how families can change. Family members move away or move in. Children get older. I read the trade book, "Peter's Chair." It's the story about a boy who has a change in his family on a few different levels. We worked on story structure--a way in which things in the story happen. Stories have a beginning, middle and an end. The students made predictions about story content using the title and cover picture. After the second reading, the students matched pictures to a text that I read to them. They worked on retelling the story to a partner. They also work on reviewing sight word vocabulary and "walking" and writing their words. Robust Vocabulary for this week included CHANGE, RELATIVES, EAGER, OCCASION, CELEBRATE. Students reviewed rhyming patterns and sound blending 2 sound words. During our read aloud time, the students read "Can We?" Students caught on to the story structure...question....answer. Tracking skills are becoming more consistent. Workstations this week included completing sentence starters...I am.....I can.....with illustrations, picture sort by initial sound, before and after writing and illustration about how you have changed, rhyming word families AD and AT--nonsense or real words using the app Word Wizard, leveled readers/comprehension/story elements, shared reading with partners. Students continue to enjoy playing "Working on Syllables" and Rock. Paper, Scissors--upper/lowercase match. We were fortunate this week to be guided thru our Haggerty Blue Book exercises by Mr. Squirrel the puppet on loan to us from Evan!
Math: The students continue to work on counting quantities 0-15, recognizing numbers 0-15 and writing numbers. They used their number cards in a variety of games including the partner game Top It, where each partner draws a number and the partner with the greater number get the cards, Got It--number recognition where you roll the dice and color in the number on your recording sheet, Heads or Tails where you flip a penny and use tally marks to keep your score and number puzzles-matching number to quantity. The student worked on recognizing pattern block shapes and basic flat shapes. On our ten frames, students worked on "Slide and Say" and "Show Me" number. The students are beginning to recognize number more consistently using the reckenrek.
Writing: The students worked on activities from our hand and finger strengthening box. Holding an eraser with the ring and pinkie fingers of their writing hand, they practiced using their tri pod grasp to pick up objects, turn gears, search for pennies and beads, stamp in clay. Students continued to work on Frog Jump letters F, E, D, P. They practiced on their mini boards and also used Wet, Dry, Try method. They applied what they learned in their Orange Practice Books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students worked on a writing project using the story, "The Day the Crayons Quit." They worked on forming their own opinion of what was their favorite color. The students are creating a class book with writing and illustrations about their favorite color. When it is completed, we will share it with you!
Technology: Students are using the iPad as a tool to enhance and reinforce skills taught. In student small groups used the apps Word Wizard to work on rhyming word families, ABC Magic to reinforce sound/symbol, I Write Words for letter formation, My ABC for letter matching, letter/sound relationship, upper/lowercase match and Sound Sort for sound/object match. In math small groups students used the apps Easy Match, Intro to Math and Geoboard to reinforce counting, number recognition, shape recognition and design.
Literature: "I See Patterns," "We Share Everything," "The Quiet Book," "The Cactus Hotel," "It's Okay to Make Mistakes," "The Playground Problem," "Pete the Cat Too Cool for School," "Me and My Family Tree," "The Day the Crayons Quit," "Peter's Chair," "If Your Were a Capital Letter," "The Rabbit and the Coyote."
Sunday, September 28, 2014
UPDATES for 9/22-9/26 2014
**Please check your child's homework folder for permission slip and library card application for our Field Trip to Maze Branch Library. I need to turn all card applications to the library for processing on Thursday, October 2nd. I will need 2 volunteers to walk with us.
**National Education Association President, Lily Garcia and Illinois Education Association President, Cinda Klickna visited Irving as part of their visits to selected schools across the country. They were treated to breakfast and got to tour the school and visit some classrooms and our playground. We were so proud that Irving and Julian Middle Schools represented Oak Park!!
**School Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 30th. Please check your child's homework folder for the order form. You can also fill out the form and pay on line. Our picture taking time is 10:20 am. Kate Meier has signed up to make sure we look our best!
**Route to Reading Skills groups will begin on Tuesday, September 30th. Students were screened and placed at a particular skill level. That skill will be taught for 3 weeks and then assessed. 90% mastery is needed for the student to go on to the next skill. Students can remain in a skill, move to the next skill or skip skills depending upon mastery. Skills are also taught as part of their regular class. All Kindergarten teachers as well as Ms. Chinn, Language Arts Specialist and Reading Tutors Ms. Simon, Ms. Diehl, Ms. Cruz and Ms. Cairns will each have a small grouping of students. Route to Reading will meet 3 times a week for 30 minutes. You will receive notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher working with your child.
**The math baseline assessment, EASY CBM was given on Thursday. This assessment gives me a better idea of skills that students have come in with to assist in planning. I will share these with you at conference time.
**The sign up form for TRIVIA NIGHT--sponsored by PTO is in your child's homework folder. It's great fun for grown ups! Check it out!
**Don't forget to sign up your child for the FUN RUN FUNDRAISER--PTO'S BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the YEAR!! Sign up on line. The event is WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd. Kindergarten will "run" from 8:15-8:30 am around the turf. Help raise money for our school!!
**Family Math Night!!! " Let's Rock Around the Clock!! " It's Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm. Look for the green sign up/info sheet in your child's homework folder. You and your child solve the math problems......I will serve the root beer floats in the lunchroom soda shop!
**Congratulations to our GREEN TEAM REPS--Evan and Atessa!! They attended their first meeting under the direction of Ms. Parkinson and Mr. Packer on Tuesday. They will be creating projects that involve the whole school and reporting back to our class. They are working to make our school a "greener" place to be!! This is a whole year commitment!
**STUDENT COUNCIL REPS for this trimester have been chosen! Congratulations to Ethan and Lily!! They will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, October 7th during their lunch recess time.
**Look for a letter in next Friday's homework folder that will remind you about your conference day and time. Please Note---School is in session MORNING ONLY on Thursday, October 23rd and Friday, October 24th. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. District School Bus, Hephzibah and Magical Minds will also pick up at this time.
**Author visit by Eileen Christelow in Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued discussion and role play on the Zones of Regulation. She brought out her puppets, Puppy and Snail to help reinforce making good and safe choices in the classroom and with our friends.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, the students finished their project on positional concepts and sang their concept song.
This week:
We are now in the season of fall or autumn. The students are beginning to notice subtle changes that signal the season. Some students are observing leaves on the ground. In the mornings, they are needing sweat shirts or light jackets. A few trees have leaves that are changing color. They are noticing less bugs around. Our Station Day activities for this week included sort and glue signs of Fall, cover and count with unifix cubes, stamp your words, decorate your PACER necklace envelope and read one the Treasures leveled readers to a friend.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continued working on Units 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The phonics portion keyed in on target sounds short a and Mm. They worked on isolating the beginning sound by saying the picture name. The students completed their brainstormed lists of people, places and things and learned that they are called nouns. They continued work on listening comprehension and identifying story elements--characters, setting and events happening the story. In our Big Book story, "Picnic in Apple Park," the students also looked for language patterns as I read. (question--answer) The students responded and retold events in the story sequence. They had an "elbow chat" to discuss with a partner WHO was in the story, WHERE did the story happen and WHAT was happening. We discussed how the story structure can provide evidence for our predictions. In our FICTION Big Book story, one character was a skunk. In our NONFICTION story, "Night Animals," students worked on asking and answering questions from a given text. They made comparisons about each text--skunks in the park vs. facts about skunks as nocturnal animals. We charted our responses. Students worked on the concepts same and different. The students began the process of phoneme (sound) blending.....putting together sounds to create words. We used the AM and AT word families to create new words by adding a consonant to the beginning. Robust Vocabulary included ACTIVITY, COOPERATE, EXCITING, EXHAUSTED, GATHER. Students reviewed their sight vocabulary paying particular attention our target words we and the. The students read the story "I See the Apple." They also practiced their tracking skills in our group read aloud, "The Baseball." Workstations this week included ABC upper and lowercase match, counting syllable activity, read it--add to it/draw and write a new page to the story, leveled readers comprehension/discussion focusing on story elements, "Walk Your Words"--write your words, interview a friend--draw a picture of what their family likes to do, create sentences using your sight words and pictures and punctuation, Mm picture sort, sound/picture match up.
Math: Students continue to count by ones to various numbers. They are locating the number that comes before a random number and after by looking at our giant number board, thinking in their head or looking at our growing caterpillar. Students continue to work on counting activities using the reckenrek. This week we did the pattern block hokey pokey. Students worked with positional concepts as well as pattern blocks--hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus and skinny rhombus. We discussed how many sides each shape had and how many corners. Do you know the differences between the square, rectangle and trapezoid???? The students counted pennies by "hearing" them fall into the jar. Our "listening" jar was full of fun! "Slide and Say" and "Show Me" activities using a ten frame continue to reinforce number recognition and counting quantity. Math workstations this week included matching one to one, sequencing number cards, counting quantities, playing "Swat the Number," and reviewing positional concepts. and learning to record tally marks (counting by 5's.)
Writing: Students continue to work on written formation of uppercase letters. This week, Frog Jump letter D was introduced along with a sensory practice called---Wet, Dry, Try. Students use tiny wet sponges and chalk pieces that just fit their tri pod grasp. When working on letter formation on their mini chalk boards they first...Wet.....make the letter on their board with the wet sponge...then....Dry.....fan it quick with their kleenex ...it will leave a print....then Try......trace over the print let by the wet sponge. Students sang their song about starting letters at the top. This week, the students applied what they learned in their orange practice books. We learned correct posture for working on writing and coloring......sitting up straight so that our back touches the back of the chair, feet under the table....one hand has our pencil or marker....the other hand is holding down the paper or book page. Students worked on their journal entries selecting a piece they already worked on and adding more to it....whether it was more writing or more picture details. Students are beginning to grasp the concept of beginning with an uppercase letter if they are writing a sentence and using an ending mark.
Technology: I continue to slowly introduce appropriate apps that will support our reading, language, phonemic awareness and math. This week, the apps Sound Sort and Alpha Tots as well as I Write Letters were introduced to small groups. The number recognition app, Numbers was also introduced. Students are becoming more comfortable using the mouse in the lab when we are at Lexia Core 5. All students have been auto placed and are working on a variety of activities including naming pictures, rhyming, beginning sounds and recognizing upper and lowercase letters. Once or twice a week home practice can really help build the phonemic awareness foundation.
Literature: "Night Animals," "Coyote and the Rabbit,""The ABC's of Yoga," "The Day the Crayons Quit," "Pete the Cat-Rocking in My School Shoes," "Clifford's Family," "The Color of Us," "Patterns All Around," "The Bundle of Sticks,"(fable) "Why Do We Write."
**National Education Association President, Lily Garcia and Illinois Education Association President, Cinda Klickna visited Irving as part of their visits to selected schools across the country. They were treated to breakfast and got to tour the school and visit some classrooms and our playground. We were so proud that Irving and Julian Middle Schools represented Oak Park!!
**School Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 30th. Please check your child's homework folder for the order form. You can also fill out the form and pay on line. Our picture taking time is 10:20 am. Kate Meier has signed up to make sure we look our best!
**Route to Reading Skills groups will begin on Tuesday, September 30th. Students were screened and placed at a particular skill level. That skill will be taught for 3 weeks and then assessed. 90% mastery is needed for the student to go on to the next skill. Students can remain in a skill, move to the next skill or skip skills depending upon mastery. Skills are also taught as part of their regular class. All Kindergarten teachers as well as Ms. Chinn, Language Arts Specialist and Reading Tutors Ms. Simon, Ms. Diehl, Ms. Cruz and Ms. Cairns will each have a small grouping of students. Route to Reading will meet 3 times a week for 30 minutes. You will receive notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher working with your child.
**The math baseline assessment, EASY CBM was given on Thursday. This assessment gives me a better idea of skills that students have come in with to assist in planning. I will share these with you at conference time.
**The sign up form for TRIVIA NIGHT--sponsored by PTO is in your child's homework folder. It's great fun for grown ups! Check it out!
**Don't forget to sign up your child for the FUN RUN FUNDRAISER--PTO'S BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the YEAR!! Sign up on line. The event is WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd. Kindergarten will "run" from 8:15-8:30 am around the turf. Help raise money for our school!!
**Family Math Night!!! " Let's Rock Around the Clock!! " It's Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm. Look for the green sign up/info sheet in your child's homework folder. You and your child solve the math problems......I will serve the root beer floats in the lunchroom soda shop!
**Congratulations to our GREEN TEAM REPS--Evan and Atessa!! They attended their first meeting under the direction of Ms. Parkinson and Mr. Packer on Tuesday. They will be creating projects that involve the whole school and reporting back to our class. They are working to make our school a "greener" place to be!! This is a whole year commitment!
**STUDENT COUNCIL REPS for this trimester have been chosen! Congratulations to Ethan and Lily!! They will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, October 7th during their lunch recess time.
**Look for a letter in next Friday's homework folder that will remind you about your conference day and time. Please Note---School is in session MORNING ONLY on Thursday, October 23rd and Friday, October 24th. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. District School Bus, Hephzibah and Magical Minds will also pick up at this time.
**Author visit by Eileen Christelow in Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued discussion and role play on the Zones of Regulation. She brought out her puppets, Puppy and Snail to help reinforce making good and safe choices in the classroom and with our friends.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, the students finished their project on positional concepts and sang their concept song.
This week:
We are now in the season of fall or autumn. The students are beginning to notice subtle changes that signal the season. Some students are observing leaves on the ground. In the mornings, they are needing sweat shirts or light jackets. A few trees have leaves that are changing color. They are noticing less bugs around. Our Station Day activities for this week included sort and glue signs of Fall, cover and count with unifix cubes, stamp your words, decorate your PACER necklace envelope and read one the Treasures leveled readers to a friend.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continued working on Units 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The phonics portion keyed in on target sounds short a and Mm. They worked on isolating the beginning sound by saying the picture name. The students completed their brainstormed lists of people, places and things and learned that they are called nouns. They continued work on listening comprehension and identifying story elements--characters, setting and events happening the story. In our Big Book story, "Picnic in Apple Park," the students also looked for language patterns as I read. (question--answer) The students responded and retold events in the story sequence. They had an "elbow chat" to discuss with a partner WHO was in the story, WHERE did the story happen and WHAT was happening. We discussed how the story structure can provide evidence for our predictions. In our FICTION Big Book story, one character was a skunk. In our NONFICTION story, "Night Animals," students worked on asking and answering questions from a given text. They made comparisons about each text--skunks in the park vs. facts about skunks as nocturnal animals. We charted our responses. Students worked on the concepts same and different. The students began the process of phoneme (sound) blending.....putting together sounds to create words. We used the AM and AT word families to create new words by adding a consonant to the beginning. Robust Vocabulary included ACTIVITY, COOPERATE, EXCITING, EXHAUSTED, GATHER. Students reviewed their sight vocabulary paying particular attention our target words we and the. The students read the story "I See the Apple." They also practiced their tracking skills in our group read aloud, "The Baseball." Workstations this week included ABC upper and lowercase match, counting syllable activity, read it--add to it/draw and write a new page to the story, leveled readers comprehension/discussion focusing on story elements, "Walk Your Words"--write your words, interview a friend--draw a picture of what their family likes to do, create sentences using your sight words and pictures and punctuation, Mm picture sort, sound/picture match up.
Math: Students continue to count by ones to various numbers. They are locating the number that comes before a random number and after by looking at our giant number board, thinking in their head or looking at our growing caterpillar. Students continue to work on counting activities using the reckenrek. This week we did the pattern block hokey pokey. Students worked with positional concepts as well as pattern blocks--hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus and skinny rhombus. We discussed how many sides each shape had and how many corners. Do you know the differences between the square, rectangle and trapezoid???? The students counted pennies by "hearing" them fall into the jar. Our "listening" jar was full of fun! "Slide and Say" and "Show Me" activities using a ten frame continue to reinforce number recognition and counting quantity. Math workstations this week included matching one to one, sequencing number cards, counting quantities, playing "Swat the Number," and reviewing positional concepts. and learning to record tally marks (counting by 5's.)
Writing: Students continue to work on written formation of uppercase letters. This week, Frog Jump letter D was introduced along with a sensory practice called---Wet, Dry, Try. Students use tiny wet sponges and chalk pieces that just fit their tri pod grasp. When working on letter formation on their mini chalk boards they first...Wet.....make the letter on their board with the wet sponge...then....Dry.....fan it quick with their kleenex ...it will leave a print....then Try......trace over the print let by the wet sponge. Students sang their song about starting letters at the top. This week, the students applied what they learned in their orange practice books. We learned correct posture for working on writing and coloring......sitting up straight so that our back touches the back of the chair, feet under the table....one hand has our pencil or marker....the other hand is holding down the paper or book page. Students worked on their journal entries selecting a piece they already worked on and adding more to it....whether it was more writing or more picture details. Students are beginning to grasp the concept of beginning with an uppercase letter if they are writing a sentence and using an ending mark.
Technology: I continue to slowly introduce appropriate apps that will support our reading, language, phonemic awareness and math. This week, the apps Sound Sort and Alpha Tots as well as I Write Letters were introduced to small groups. The number recognition app, Numbers was also introduced. Students are becoming more comfortable using the mouse in the lab when we are at Lexia Core 5. All students have been auto placed and are working on a variety of activities including naming pictures, rhyming, beginning sounds and recognizing upper and lowercase letters. Once or twice a week home practice can really help build the phonemic awareness foundation.
Literature: "Night Animals," "Coyote and the Rabbit,""The ABC's of Yoga," "The Day the Crayons Quit," "Pete the Cat-Rocking in My School Shoes," "Clifford's Family," "The Color of Us," "Patterns All Around," "The Bundle of Sticks,"(fable) "Why Do We Write."
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