**We had a very exciting week!! A firefighter and an Olympic champion came to visit us this week! There were kings, nurses and doctors in our classroom and some very creative masks made by the students. The students have begun to look at their work portfolios. The first of these have gone home this week. Look for more to come home. They have accomplished so much!!
**Our "Kings" and subjects had a visit from Fire Fighter La Fleur from the Oak Park Fire Department. He came to speak to the class about fire safety. He brought his special firefighter uniform and equipment. I was lucky enough to be his model as he explained each piece of clothing and equipment. Each student received a cool fire hat.
**It was a perfect day for our All School Olympic Day. The students had a great time. Lots of skill demonstrations and good sportsmanship. We all got a very special treat when Olympic Speed Skater and Oak Park native Emery Lehman gave the opening speech. He talk to the students about his experience in Sochi, Russia and answered questions about his training and motivation. Awesome!!!
**I was unable to attend Family Math "Monopoly" Night but heard it was a smash!! Hope everyone enjoyed themselves.
**A representative from the Oak Park Library spoke at an all school assembly about the Summer Reading Challenge that will begin right after school is out and continue over the summer. It is called "Fizz Boom Read." I have encouraged all my students to sign up at the Maze Branch Library to participate.
**PIZZA and PLAY End of the Year Family Picnic is Wednesday, May 28th. Come join us for pizza, community and fun at Rehm Park. The class will walk there beginning at 9:20 am and will walk back to school at 12:15 pm. Please dress your child for the weather. Keep your fingers crossed for a dry day!
**Student Council will be selling their All School Cook Book beginning Wednesday thru Friday. The cost is $3.00 for one or 2 for $5.00. All the proceeds will go to the Oak Park Food Pantry. Our classroom reps, Ally and Colin made signs to advertise the sale.
** Don't forget to send in the field trip slips for Gurgas/Chien Residence Chicken Coop visit on June 3rd and Chef Ashley's studio, Constructive Chaos on Monday, June 9th.
**The BUSY READER CLUB will conclude on Monday, June 2nd. The last day to check out a book is Friday, May 30th.
**ALL LIBRARY BOOKS are now DUE back to Ms. Noonan.
**All final assessments are complete. If you would like me to share with you a review of your child's assessments prior to the report card, please email me. I have set aside the week of June 2nd-6th for this.
**Please note a change-- New time for our last day Family Hour!! Our new time is 1:00-2:15 pm on Tuesday, June 10th. Please join us for refreshments, autograph signing, summer packets, report cards and a closing story. Mr. Hodge has something up his sleeve!!!!! He has asked that all students to join him on the playground at 2:20 pm. MMMMM.....What do you think he is up to??????
**Ms. Bell Bey shared a video with students to conclude her sessions.
**No Mr. Packer Math this week due to Olympic Day.
This week:
It was all about sprouting seed sponges and bags and worms. Plants continue to grow and germinate in our classroom. Sprouting seeds on sponges and in plastic bags??? What??!! Check out the science section for more. The students continue to "feed" the worm compost. We took some of the worms out for study. They were pretty squirmy! The students the segments, pointy head and saddle (middle.) Their bristles or hairs were too tiny to see. Many students took a look at the Herman the Worm website. The students made a list of facts that they recalled about worms. They are using this information to begin their worm paragraph drafts. We are looking at clearing our outside garden plot next week. Station day activities this week included working with 2D and 3D shapes, pattern block rabbit and parts of a flower activity.
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to review all skills taught this year. They reviewed all letter sounds, short and long vowels, consonant blends and digraphs. They used their dry erase boards to practice segmenting and blending 3-4-5 and even 6 phoneme words. The students worked on substitution and sound addition activities. The students reviewed all their kindergarten sight words and the first half of the First Grade list. Student small groups chose their own literature and activities to go with them. Most groups chose a story elements format. They read to each other and discussed the text. They completed the activities and each group checked in with me so I could also hear readers. Students spent the remainder of each workstation reading independently or playing a reading game. Their top favorites this week were, "Very Silly Sentences," "Spot a Word,""Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives Cookie Jar" and the app "Tic Tac Toe." There were many opportunities for partner reading. It was great for the students to choose what they wanted to read. Lots of stellar discussions about story content.
Math: The students are reading their own story problem in their math journal and illustrating it, showing the parts in ten frames and showing the answer ten frames and writing the number sentence. I have been calling on students to come up and share with the class their math journal work. Students check their work and make the necessary corrections themselves. The students continue to practice number bonding using numbers 1-10, counting on from a random number 1-99, writing numbers 1-100 and creating their own story problems and illustrating them.
Writing: The students continue to put into practice all the elements of writing good sentences. They continue to write about adults in the school who have made an impact on their school life. They have written to Reading Grandma, Ms. D., Ms. Jack, Ms. Miller and Nurse Jamie.
Science: The students continue to monitor their seed sponges and seed bags. In each case, they observed shoots and roots sprouting without the benefit of water. The students all thought that no matter how the seeds were put on or in, the sprouted seed would always have shoots that grow up and roots that grow downward. The students wrote about their findings in their science journals and illustrated what they observed. The students made a sketch of our indoor class garden and wrote about it in their science journal. The students are using their space stations for a reading place with their flash lights. Next week will be the last week to play in our creations. They will be recycled soon. Next week--a plant in a closed box with only a small window cut out. What will happen to the plant??? Stay tuned!
Technology: The students continue to work on their end of the year movie. Stay tuned!!
Literature: "Growing a Garden," "Flat Stanley Goes Camping," "Apples Grow on Trees," "Tomatoes Grow on Vines," "Lettuce Grows on the Ground," "Over in the Garden," "What Lives in the Garden," "Roots," "Hip Hop Speaks to Children," "Noisy Poems for a Busy Day."
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Monday, May 19, 2014
UPDATES for 5/12-5/16 2014
**The month of May is really flying by! The students are busy acting like the first graders they will soon become. They are doing more independent assignments and making more choices on the types of assignments they want to do. Our indoor classroom garden in growing nicely. We have watermelon, corn, pumpkin and tomato seeds germinating. The students are observing the stem types and leaf structures.
**Please check your child's homework folder for our last 3.....yes! 3 permission slips for up coming field trips. Pizza and Play End of the Year Family Picnic-Wednesday, May 28th, Gurgas /Chien Residence to visit the chickens-Tuesday, June 3rd and bus trip to Chef Ahsley's studio at Constructive Chaos on Monday, June 9th. There is a $2.00 charge for Pizza and Play. If you could send in all the slips ASAP....that would be great! I will be chatting with our room parents about the end of the picnic at Rehm Park. Be on the look out for info from them. Lot's of parent help needed. The other trips are open to volunteers. There is no limit.
**Our ABC Countdown continues!! We had cool and groovy hats, ice ream and space ice cream (cold vs. crunchy) and a spectacular day to honor our buddy Jalen! Next week promises to be quite regal with Monday being "King Day." (boys rule!)
**We dodged the rain and our field trip to the Oak Park Conservatory was awesome! Our docents, Ms. Evette and Ms. Jean were super knowledgeable! Each room the students visited contained plants, animals and even fish with colorful histories and interesting facts. Back a school, the students listed their favorites of the trip--Venus Fly Trap, Ponderosa Lemon, Cacao Tree, Cactus, George the parrot and the Banana plant. We have a Ponderosa Lemon in our possession. L for Lemonade!!!!!
**Art Fest/Poetry Slam was the bomb!! A big shout out to our "lil slammers" Ben, Emily, Reid and Gina for their participation. The art work was beautiful, the poetry breaks and recitations were cool and the chorus, games and plays were great.
**The students had lots of fun on Tuesday traveling to say their poems to a variety of grade levels. We, in turn, loved listening to the students who came into our classroom to provide a "poetry break."
The Traveling Poets Project will continue next Tuesday. Keep practicing your poem!! Kudos to Ms. Noonan for her organization!
**The students took part in a school wide Tornado/Severe Weather Drill. The students discussed not being by windows and in the lowest part of a building. We also talked about having a plan for where you would go when you are in your house.
**I am continuing to work on final assessments. I will be completing them this week.
**Family Math Night is Thursday, May 22nd from 6:30-8:00 pm. The theme is "Monopoly Math." A permission slip is in your child's homework folder.
**All School Olympic Day is Friday, May 23rd. We will be performing Olympic feats from 8:30 -10:30 am. Come on out and see Team Gullo participate in events such as Basketball Hotshot, Egg and Spoon Relay, Long Jump, Partner Skiing and more! Please send your child in comfortable clothing. GYM SHOES and SOCKS ARE A MUST!
**No School on Monday, May 26th--Memorial Day.
** Last Day of School events--Please join us for our Family Hour on Tuesday, June 10th from 2:00-2:55 pm. We will sign autographs in our autograph books, have some refreshments, get our report cards and summer packets and read a closing story. All are welcome!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey went over the results of what to do for the last Friendship Club. A special video feature won out. Ms. Bell Bey led a wonderful discussion/sharing of the what students were thinking about going to first grade. There is some general nervousness, some uncertainty about not having all of Ms. Gullo's class in the same first grade room, some worries about homework and expectations--all very natural, but also great excitement about moving forward, and pride in what they have learned, meeting new first graders and all the new things they will learn in first grade. We will be visiting first grade the last week of May and meeting the teachers and seeing the classrooms. Students may bring any questions they have about first grade to the classes and a first grader will answer them. Stay tuned for the exact day.
**In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer began a unit on 2D and 3D shapes using Geo Shapes. Question: What do you know about 2D shapes? (flat, have sides, closed) The students experimented with creating a design with 2D shapes and seeing if they could put them together to form a 3D shape. Very cool! Stay tuned for more!
This week:
Change is in the air! The students are sensing the end of kindergarten, the school year, the thought of new teachers, new classroom, new friendships. Turning into a First Grader is Big!! They have come so far!!! We are having more choice time activities so the students can interact, share and chat.
The students continue to observe their "wormy" compost bin. This week, "Yellow Bear Table" is in charge of bringing in some "food" for our wormy friends.
Station Day activities this week included Pattern Block flowers, ways to make 10 animal equations, number flowers--naming, tally, number bond, illustrating a number from 5-10 and continuing our Lego Challenge. Lots of very unique structures built by partners and small groups! We were excited to have Ben's Nana in the house to assist with our Station Day activities!!
Reading/Social Studies: Students continue to work on skills and literature from Treasures Units 9 and 10. Sight words for this week were this and me. We reviewed target sounds Jj, Yy and Zz. Students worked in pairs creating sentences using their sight words and pictures. Each pair of students shared the sentences they made. The students continue to work on using nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns. Each day, the students worked on substitution exercises from the Haggerty Blue Book to strengthen sound recognition and automatic recording of phonemes to form words. They are getting much quicker at creating words during our Word Play exercises done every Friday morning! Robust Vocabulary for this week included AMAZING, OCEAN, REASON, DEEP, INVITE. Workstations for this week included choosing 5 of their sight words and writing sentences using them, diagramming a fish and writing 4 facts about fish, writing a fishy caption, sorting fish pictures and writing about how you sorted them, leveled reader fluency check and discussion of story elements and looking for and finding evidence in their particular story of the main topic and key details that support it.
Math: Students continued to work on reviewing the writing of number forms, writing 2 and 3 digit numbers and telling how many ten frames are needed to make a number. They also review what makes a "teen" number. The students worked on math vocabulary--more than, less than and equal to and used games and other activities to help reinforce those concepts. Student worked with a partner to analyze and compare 2D and 3D shapes in different sizes and orientations and described their similarities and differences. They are having lots of fun using Mr. Packer's Geo Shapes. Students also continue to work on addition and subtraction facts and story problems--reading the the story, figuring out the operation, illustrating it and writing their number sentence.
Writing: Students began their writing reflections on the wonderful volunteers in our classroom. They also began working on their draft about worms for their final writing project.
Science: The students continue to observe the growth of plants in our indoor class garden. Our potato plants are also ready to be transplanted into our outside garden plot. We hope to do that soon. In Experiment 4, we removed a baby plant sunflower, nasturtium, morning glory and marigold from our garden to take a closer look at their root systems. The students noted the similarities and differences in the stems, leaves and roots. Thicker shoots, skinny shoots, straight shoots, curvy shoots, lots of roots, stringy roots, tons of tiny roots were their observations. The students also looked at the leaf structure of each plant and sketched the leaves in their science journal. They noted leaves that looked like wagon wheels (nasturtiums, ) ovals (sunflowers,) dragonfly wings (marigolds,) and butterfly wings (morning glory.) In Experiment 5 the question was asked--What if the seed has no soil? Could it still sprout/germinate? The students sprinkled various seeds onto a sponge and watered it. Each table has a seed sponge, They will water and observe it daily for the next few weeks. What will happen? The students made some predictions. Stay tuned! We also put some seeds into a plastic bag with a wet paper towel and taped them to the window. Stay tuned!!!
Technology: Students are beginning to work on our end of the year movie. There was lots of discussion of what should be included. The students decided on the format and what to include. Stay tuned!!!
Literature: "The Tiny Seed," "Eating the Alphabet," "Spring Changes," "Hi Fly Guy," "Noisy Poems for a Busy Day," "Kids Poems," "Bug Patrol," "I'm a Seed," "A Fruit is a Suitcase for Seeds."
**Please check your child's homework folder for our last 3.....yes! 3 permission slips for up coming field trips. Pizza and Play End of the Year Family Picnic-Wednesday, May 28th, Gurgas /Chien Residence to visit the chickens-Tuesday, June 3rd and bus trip to Chef Ahsley's studio at Constructive Chaos on Monday, June 9th. There is a $2.00 charge for Pizza and Play. If you could send in all the slips ASAP....that would be great! I will be chatting with our room parents about the end of the picnic at Rehm Park. Be on the look out for info from them. Lot's of parent help needed. The other trips are open to volunteers. There is no limit.
**Our ABC Countdown continues!! We had cool and groovy hats, ice ream and space ice cream (cold vs. crunchy) and a spectacular day to honor our buddy Jalen! Next week promises to be quite regal with Monday being "King Day." (boys rule!)
**We dodged the rain and our field trip to the Oak Park Conservatory was awesome! Our docents, Ms. Evette and Ms. Jean were super knowledgeable! Each room the students visited contained plants, animals and even fish with colorful histories and interesting facts. Back a school, the students listed their favorites of the trip--Venus Fly Trap, Ponderosa Lemon, Cacao Tree, Cactus, George the parrot and the Banana plant. We have a Ponderosa Lemon in our possession. L for Lemonade!!!!!
**Art Fest/Poetry Slam was the bomb!! A big shout out to our "lil slammers" Ben, Emily, Reid and Gina for their participation. The art work was beautiful, the poetry breaks and recitations were cool and the chorus, games and plays were great.
**The students had lots of fun on Tuesday traveling to say their poems to a variety of grade levels. We, in turn, loved listening to the students who came into our classroom to provide a "poetry break."
The Traveling Poets Project will continue next Tuesday. Keep practicing your poem!! Kudos to Ms. Noonan for her organization!
**The students took part in a school wide Tornado/Severe Weather Drill. The students discussed not being by windows and in the lowest part of a building. We also talked about having a plan for where you would go when you are in your house.
**I am continuing to work on final assessments. I will be completing them this week.
**Family Math Night is Thursday, May 22nd from 6:30-8:00 pm. The theme is "Monopoly Math." A permission slip is in your child's homework folder.
**All School Olympic Day is Friday, May 23rd. We will be performing Olympic feats from 8:30 -10:30 am. Come on out and see Team Gullo participate in events such as Basketball Hotshot, Egg and Spoon Relay, Long Jump, Partner Skiing and more! Please send your child in comfortable clothing. GYM SHOES and SOCKS ARE A MUST!
**No School on Monday, May 26th--Memorial Day.
** Last Day of School events--Please join us for our Family Hour on Tuesday, June 10th from 2:00-2:55 pm. We will sign autographs in our autograph books, have some refreshments, get our report cards and summer packets and read a closing story. All are welcome!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey went over the results of what to do for the last Friendship Club. A special video feature won out. Ms. Bell Bey led a wonderful discussion/sharing of the what students were thinking about going to first grade. There is some general nervousness, some uncertainty about not having all of Ms. Gullo's class in the same first grade room, some worries about homework and expectations--all very natural, but also great excitement about moving forward, and pride in what they have learned, meeting new first graders and all the new things they will learn in first grade. We will be visiting first grade the last week of May and meeting the teachers and seeing the classrooms. Students may bring any questions they have about first grade to the classes and a first grader will answer them. Stay tuned for the exact day.
**In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer began a unit on 2D and 3D shapes using Geo Shapes. Question: What do you know about 2D shapes? (flat, have sides, closed) The students experimented with creating a design with 2D shapes and seeing if they could put them together to form a 3D shape. Very cool! Stay tuned for more!
This week:
Change is in the air! The students are sensing the end of kindergarten, the school year, the thought of new teachers, new classroom, new friendships. Turning into a First Grader is Big!! They have come so far!!! We are having more choice time activities so the students can interact, share and chat.
The students continue to observe their "wormy" compost bin. This week, "Yellow Bear Table" is in charge of bringing in some "food" for our wormy friends.
Station Day activities this week included Pattern Block flowers, ways to make 10 animal equations, number flowers--naming, tally, number bond, illustrating a number from 5-10 and continuing our Lego Challenge. Lots of very unique structures built by partners and small groups! We were excited to have Ben's Nana in the house to assist with our Station Day activities!!
Reading/Social Studies: Students continue to work on skills and literature from Treasures Units 9 and 10. Sight words for this week were this and me. We reviewed target sounds Jj, Yy and Zz. Students worked in pairs creating sentences using their sight words and pictures. Each pair of students shared the sentences they made. The students continue to work on using nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns. Each day, the students worked on substitution exercises from the Haggerty Blue Book to strengthen sound recognition and automatic recording of phonemes to form words. They are getting much quicker at creating words during our Word Play exercises done every Friday morning! Robust Vocabulary for this week included AMAZING, OCEAN, REASON, DEEP, INVITE. Workstations for this week included choosing 5 of their sight words and writing sentences using them, diagramming a fish and writing 4 facts about fish, writing a fishy caption, sorting fish pictures and writing about how you sorted them, leveled reader fluency check and discussion of story elements and looking for and finding evidence in their particular story of the main topic and key details that support it.
Math: Students continued to work on reviewing the writing of number forms, writing 2 and 3 digit numbers and telling how many ten frames are needed to make a number. They also review what makes a "teen" number. The students worked on math vocabulary--more than, less than and equal to and used games and other activities to help reinforce those concepts. Student worked with a partner to analyze and compare 2D and 3D shapes in different sizes and orientations and described their similarities and differences. They are having lots of fun using Mr. Packer's Geo Shapes. Students also continue to work on addition and subtraction facts and story problems--reading the the story, figuring out the operation, illustrating it and writing their number sentence.
Writing: Students began their writing reflections on the wonderful volunteers in our classroom. They also began working on their draft about worms for their final writing project.
Science: The students continue to observe the growth of plants in our indoor class garden. Our potato plants are also ready to be transplanted into our outside garden plot. We hope to do that soon. In Experiment 4, we removed a baby plant sunflower, nasturtium, morning glory and marigold from our garden to take a closer look at their root systems. The students noted the similarities and differences in the stems, leaves and roots. Thicker shoots, skinny shoots, straight shoots, curvy shoots, lots of roots, stringy roots, tons of tiny roots were their observations. The students also looked at the leaf structure of each plant and sketched the leaves in their science journal. They noted leaves that looked like wagon wheels (nasturtiums, ) ovals (sunflowers,) dragonfly wings (marigolds,) and butterfly wings (morning glory.) In Experiment 5 the question was asked--What if the seed has no soil? Could it still sprout/germinate? The students sprinkled various seeds onto a sponge and watered it. Each table has a seed sponge, They will water and observe it daily for the next few weeks. What will happen? The students made some predictions. Stay tuned! We also put some seeds into a plastic bag with a wet paper towel and taped them to the window. Stay tuned!!!
Technology: Students are beginning to work on our end of the year movie. There was lots of discussion of what should be included. The students decided on the format and what to include. Stay tuned!!!
Literature: "The Tiny Seed," "Eating the Alphabet," "Spring Changes," "Hi Fly Guy," "Noisy Poems for a Busy Day," "Kids Poems," "Bug Patrol," "I'm a Seed," "A Fruit is a Suitcase for Seeds."
Sunday, May 11, 2014
UPDATES for 5/5-5/9 2014
**It has been a very busy week! The students were busy tracking the germination time of their seeds. Most sprouting time was within 4 days. (sunflower, morning glory, marigold) Emily's seeds (nasturtium) took 9 days to germinate. The student's are becoming plant nurturers! All week they tracked the growth of their baby plants. The baby plants are now at home with your child. Happy Mother's Day! They will continue to take care of their plant at home. See the tips in your child's homework folder.
**The beginning of our ABC Countdown was a smash. Check out our own Astronauts--Colin and Ben. The Dance party was awesome! Check out the kid conga line! We will continue our Countdown this week beginning with F for Friendship Day and continuing Friday with J "Jump for Jalen" Day. Check your calendar of events! The students are planning each week...sooooo you will know when I know!
**Our Field Trip to the Oak Park Conservatory is Tuesday, May 13th. Cross your fingers for no rain when we are walking. I have B. Barnett and J. Smyth as our volunteers. Feel free to join us if you like. Our feet will be leaving school around 9:00 am and returning by 11:30 am. I still am missing permission slips from 4 students. Please send them ASAP! Thanks!
**The TRAVELING POETS Project begins on Tuesday. Does your child know his/her poem? They have been doing well during school practice. They will travel this Tuesday and next Tuesday to other classrooms providing a "Poetry Break."
**ART FEST/POETRY SLAM is this Thursday, May 15th. The Fest begins at 6:30 pm. The Poetry Slam begins at 6:45 pm in the Auditorium. Our class has 3 Kdg Slammers participating! There is still time if you want slam, just fill out the form enclosed in your child's homework folder. Remember--you can recite solo, with a partner, parent, group, say your traveling poets poem, write your own, rap it, sing it. It will be great time. The Fest features art from every child in the school, the chorus performing and Mexican dances and songs from Senoritas Zaragoza and Munoz.
**Swap, Shop and Read was a success. Thanks to those who attended. There were many good books to be had by all. The milk and cookies were good too!
**Route to Reading has concluded for the year. I am still in the process of testing the students in my rotation. If you have not received your child's final mastery notification, you will this week.
**The FUN RUN was absolutely FUN! A HUGE shout out to ETHAN and JALEN who ran with me. They were fast!
**Family Math "Monopoly Math" Night is Thursday, May 22nd from 6:30-8:00 pm. Sign up information was sent home in the Tuesday Packet.
**All School Olympic Day is Friday, May 23rd. We will perform our Olympic feats from 8:30 to 11:00 am. Stop by and see us!
**Permission slips and information on our remaining 3 field trips will be out this week.
**Final Assessments for the end of the year report card will begin next week. DIBELS, Common Core Math, San Diego Quick, Writing and English Language Arts will be given. Report Cards/Summer Packets will go home on Tuesday, June 10th--the last day of school.
**Last Day of School events--Please join us for our Family Hour on Tuesday, June 10th from 2:00-2:55 pm. We will sign autographs, have refreshments, get our report cards/summer packets and read a closing story. All are welcome!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey is winding down her time with our class. The students got to vote like a "real" registered voter on what they wanted to do for the last class.
**In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer continued his lesson on creating a pictures using shapes.
This week:
It was all about our sprouting seeds and baby plants. The students came back to a great discovery last Monday. Most of their seeds had germinated. (sunflower, marigold, morning glory) The nasturtium seeds took about 9 days. Students carefully checked their plant each day and observed the shoots growing, turning into a stem and leaves forming. We also planted seeds in our in class garden. We have a wide variety including seeds brought in by the students. (orange, green pepper, some sort of pod seed, grape and strawberry) They will observe on Monday to see if any germinating has taken place. We have started to chat about our outside garden bed. The students took a look at it. It is mainly weeds right now, but we will clear it shortly. The students are loving observing our "wormy" compost. The magnifying window lets them view the worms at work. Cool! "Red Bear" Table is in charge of bringing in "food" to feed our compost on Wednesday. Station Day activities included Creepy Crawly addition stories/illustrating and writing the number sentence, sequencing seed to plant activity, parts of a flower diagram and Lego Challenge activities from Philippe's book.
Reading/Social Studies: The students are continuing to work on skills and literature from Units 9 and 10 of the Treasures Reading series. Sight words this week are look and has. Target sounds this week are Jj and Yy. Students spent time with partners using their word cards, picture cards and punctuation cards to create sentences. Students continue to work on recognizing and using nouns, verbs and adjectives and pronouns. Each day this week, students worked on group substitution activities to strengthen sound recognition and automatic recoding of phonemes to create words. The students read their decodable and leveled readers independently and worked on story elements, sequencing events and then came together into small groups to discuss key details and vocabulary. Workstations this week included leveled readers reading for meaning and fluency, word building, responding in writing to what you have read and retelling key details, asking and answering question about unknown words in a text, being able to recognize different types of texts and finding details in informational reading and clarifying the meaning of multiple meaning words.
Math: The students continue to work on reading a story problem, illustrate the process and writing the number sentence in their math journal. They continue to work on recognizing the relationship between numbers in a number bond. The use of concrete objects continues to be helpful to some students fingers, blocks, drawings, tally marks and number lines are part of that process. The students continue to review counting by 1's, 5's and 10's, counting on from a random number, rote counting from 1-130, writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, telling how many ten frames are needed to make a number (place value) and recognizing, and using pattern blocks and geometric solids and telling if a number is more or less than another.
Writing: The students began prep work on their final writing project, a primary paragraph on the topic: Worms. They created a list of what they know about worms. They asked and answered questions about worm facts. From this information, they will write their paragraph. Next week, the students will also reflect in writing about the wonderful volunteers and teachers that have worked in our classroom. They will reflect on Reading Grandma Mary, Mrs. D and Ms. Jack, who will be retiring at the end of this school year. The students will share their thoughts with these wonderful people.
Science: The students continued their study of seeds. This week they observed the inside of a seed. We soaked pinto beans and pea seeds overnight in water. Each student was given a set of each seed--one that was soaked and one that was not. Students observed that the soaked seeds were bigger! Yes--the water climbed into the spaces of the seed!! With some assistance, the students split the soaked seed in half. They observed the outer covering (coat) and in the inside corner was the tiny baby plant. (embryo) The rest of the inside is the see food where the seed gets its nourishment. The students made a diagram in their science journals labeling the parts of a seed. The students made sketches of their particular baby plant and noted the leaf structure and shape in their sketch. Next week--hydroponics--sprouting seed with no soil. Stay tuned.
Technology: The students continue to experiment with apps introduced last week and added the apps Tic Tac Toe and Life Cycles.
Literature: "Earl the Earthworm Digs for His Life," "Compost Stew," ""Hey Little Ant," "The Curious Garden," "I Am A Seed," "The Tiny Seed," "Plants," "Ants Day Off," "Tools for a Garden,"
**The beginning of our ABC Countdown was a smash. Check out our own Astronauts--Colin and Ben. The Dance party was awesome! Check out the kid conga line! We will continue our Countdown this week beginning with F for Friendship Day and continuing Friday with J "Jump for Jalen" Day. Check your calendar of events! The students are planning each week...sooooo you will know when I know!
**Our Field Trip to the Oak Park Conservatory is Tuesday, May 13th. Cross your fingers for no rain when we are walking. I have B. Barnett and J. Smyth as our volunteers. Feel free to join us if you like. Our feet will be leaving school around 9:00 am and returning by 11:30 am. I still am missing permission slips from 4 students. Please send them ASAP! Thanks!
**The TRAVELING POETS Project begins on Tuesday. Does your child know his/her poem? They have been doing well during school practice. They will travel this Tuesday and next Tuesday to other classrooms providing a "Poetry Break."
**ART FEST/POETRY SLAM is this Thursday, May 15th. The Fest begins at 6:30 pm. The Poetry Slam begins at 6:45 pm in the Auditorium. Our class has 3 Kdg Slammers participating! There is still time if you want slam, just fill out the form enclosed in your child's homework folder. Remember--you can recite solo, with a partner, parent, group, say your traveling poets poem, write your own, rap it, sing it. It will be great time. The Fest features art from every child in the school, the chorus performing and Mexican dances and songs from Senoritas Zaragoza and Munoz.
**Swap, Shop and Read was a success. Thanks to those who attended. There were many good books to be had by all. The milk and cookies were good too!
**Route to Reading has concluded for the year. I am still in the process of testing the students in my rotation. If you have not received your child's final mastery notification, you will this week.
**The FUN RUN was absolutely FUN! A HUGE shout out to ETHAN and JALEN who ran with me. They were fast!
**Family Math "Monopoly Math" Night is Thursday, May 22nd from 6:30-8:00 pm. Sign up information was sent home in the Tuesday Packet.
**All School Olympic Day is Friday, May 23rd. We will perform our Olympic feats from 8:30 to 11:00 am. Stop by and see us!
**Permission slips and information on our remaining 3 field trips will be out this week.
**Final Assessments for the end of the year report card will begin next week. DIBELS, Common Core Math, San Diego Quick, Writing and English Language Arts will be given. Report Cards/Summer Packets will go home on Tuesday, June 10th--the last day of school.
**Last Day of School events--Please join us for our Family Hour on Tuesday, June 10th from 2:00-2:55 pm. We will sign autographs, have refreshments, get our report cards/summer packets and read a closing story. All are welcome!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey is winding down her time with our class. The students got to vote like a "real" registered voter on what they wanted to do for the last class.
**In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer continued his lesson on creating a pictures using shapes.
This week:
It was all about our sprouting seeds and baby plants. The students came back to a great discovery last Monday. Most of their seeds had germinated. (sunflower, marigold, morning glory) The nasturtium seeds took about 9 days. Students carefully checked their plant each day and observed the shoots growing, turning into a stem and leaves forming. We also planted seeds in our in class garden. We have a wide variety including seeds brought in by the students. (orange, green pepper, some sort of pod seed, grape and strawberry) They will observe on Monday to see if any germinating has taken place. We have started to chat about our outside garden bed. The students took a look at it. It is mainly weeds right now, but we will clear it shortly. The students are loving observing our "wormy" compost. The magnifying window lets them view the worms at work. Cool! "Red Bear" Table is in charge of bringing in "food" to feed our compost on Wednesday. Station Day activities included Creepy Crawly addition stories/illustrating and writing the number sentence, sequencing seed to plant activity, parts of a flower diagram and Lego Challenge activities from Philippe's book.
Reading/Social Studies: The students are continuing to work on skills and literature from Units 9 and 10 of the Treasures Reading series. Sight words this week are look and has. Target sounds this week are Jj and Yy. Students spent time with partners using their word cards, picture cards and punctuation cards to create sentences. Students continue to work on recognizing and using nouns, verbs and adjectives and pronouns. Each day this week, students worked on group substitution activities to strengthen sound recognition and automatic recoding of phonemes to create words. The students read their decodable and leveled readers independently and worked on story elements, sequencing events and then came together into small groups to discuss key details and vocabulary. Workstations this week included leveled readers reading for meaning and fluency, word building, responding in writing to what you have read and retelling key details, asking and answering question about unknown words in a text, being able to recognize different types of texts and finding details in informational reading and clarifying the meaning of multiple meaning words.
Math: The students continue to work on reading a story problem, illustrate the process and writing the number sentence in their math journal. They continue to work on recognizing the relationship between numbers in a number bond. The use of concrete objects continues to be helpful to some students fingers, blocks, drawings, tally marks and number lines are part of that process. The students continue to review counting by 1's, 5's and 10's, counting on from a random number, rote counting from 1-130, writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, telling how many ten frames are needed to make a number (place value) and recognizing, and using pattern blocks and geometric solids and telling if a number is more or less than another.
Writing: The students began prep work on their final writing project, a primary paragraph on the topic: Worms. They created a list of what they know about worms. They asked and answered questions about worm facts. From this information, they will write their paragraph. Next week, the students will also reflect in writing about the wonderful volunteers and teachers that have worked in our classroom. They will reflect on Reading Grandma Mary, Mrs. D and Ms. Jack, who will be retiring at the end of this school year. The students will share their thoughts with these wonderful people.
Science: The students continued their study of seeds. This week they observed the inside of a seed. We soaked pinto beans and pea seeds overnight in water. Each student was given a set of each seed--one that was soaked and one that was not. Students observed that the soaked seeds were bigger! Yes--the water climbed into the spaces of the seed!! With some assistance, the students split the soaked seed in half. They observed the outer covering (coat) and in the inside corner was the tiny baby plant. (embryo) The rest of the inside is the see food where the seed gets its nourishment. The students made a diagram in their science journals labeling the parts of a seed. The students made sketches of their particular baby plant and noted the leaf structure and shape in their sketch. Next week--hydroponics--sprouting seed with no soil. Stay tuned.
Technology: The students continue to experiment with apps introduced last week and added the apps Tic Tac Toe and Life Cycles.
Literature: "Earl the Earthworm Digs for His Life," "Compost Stew," ""Hey Little Ant," "The Curious Garden," "I Am A Seed," "The Tiny Seed," "Plants," "Ants Day Off," "Tools for a Garden,"
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
UPDATES for 4/28-5/2 2014
**It's May! The students began work on their final science unit on seeds and plants. We will be creating an indoor class garden so students can bring in seeds from home or ones they may find while walking to school. Our potato plants are also growing tall! We are slowly turning our classroom into a seed and plant wonderland. Our "wormy" friends will help make compost for our outdoor garden space. We will begin talking about plant selection this week.
**Our ABC COUNTDOWN to the end of the school year will begin on Monday, May 5th. Check out the student planned week. First off is A--Act Like and Astronaut Day. B--Bubble Day. C--Favorite COLOR Day. D--Disco Dance Day. E--Wear RED, WHITE, BLACK for Irving EAGLE Day.
**This week is also NATIONAL SPORTS AND FITNESS WEEK! Check the sheet for each days activity.
**I hope some of you went to the Ethnic Festival Parade to cheer Gina on! I was out of town and unable to go. It was a beautiful day for a parade!
**The Opera for the Young presentation of the "Barber of Seville" was fabulous! Lots of great sets and costumes and awesome singing. Ezekiel's brother was one of the student performers!
**There is still time to help Student Council with their recipe book by sending in a favorite recipe. Reps Ally and Colin are counting on you!
**"Swap, Shop and Read" is this Thursday, May 8th from 6:30-8:00 pm. Hope to see you there.
**Thanks to all of you who participated in the Tasty Dog Challenge!!
**Permission slips for our Field Trip to the Oak Park Conservatory was in your child's homework folder. Please send it back ASAP. It is Tuesday, May 13th. Please let me know if you would like to volunteer to walk with the class.
**Route to Reading Rotation 7 will conclude on Wednesday. This is our final Route to Reading for the year. You will receive notification of your child's skill mastery.
**POETRY ALERT! POETRY ALERT! Please continue to work with your child on their poem for the Traveling Poets Project. Our class will begin "traveling" on May 13th and again on May19th during our Library time.
**Irving Art Fest and Poetry Slam is Thursday, May 15th from 6:30-8:00 pm all over the school. A piece of art from every child in the school will be on display along with music from the chorus, Spanish games and dances and the Poetry Slam. Come on...join in the fun! Your child can say a poem from a book, write their own poem, rap, sing---solo, group, with a partner or parent or sib. Fill out the form located in your child's homework folder. Mr. Williams will be out on the playground with the "Mr. Microphone" so kids can practice.
**Family Math "Monopoly Math" Night is Thursday, May 22nd 6:30-8:00 pm. Information will be in the Tuesday packet.
**RUN with ME on Saturday, May 10th at 8:00 am at Lindberg Park. Mr. Hancock and Mr. Wyza will also be there. Don't forget to fill out the form enclosed in your child's back pack.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued work on being a "social detective." She showed a video with different social scenes and the students discussed how to do the expected.
**In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer continued work on using shapes to make a certain object.
**Future Field Trip--Pizza and Play End of the Year Picnic at Rehm Park on Wednesday, May 28th from 9:30-12:20 pm. We need lots of help with this.
**Future Field Trip--Chicken Coop at the Gurgas Residence on Tuesday, June 3rd from 10:30-11:30.
**Future Field Trip--Chef Ashley's Studio at Constructive Chaos in River Forest on Monday, June 9th from 12:30-2:30 pm.
This week:
It was all about worms and seeds! The very "green" Ms. Henry gave an informative talk and hands on experience on worm composting. She brought us some starter compost with lots of red wiggler worms. She showed the students the different stages of worm life in the compost including worm eggs and egg shells, baby and adult worms. The students got to see some worms up close and personal under the magnifier. Ben was selected to bring in the first food to feed the compost. The students read nonfiction stories to get information about worms and listened to fiction stories about worm adventures. The students brainstormed what they knew about seeds. They had some prior knowledge from their recent Treasures unit. Much of our discussion centered on seeds and what they produced. More about that in the science section. Station Day activities included ladybug math--facts to 10, origami tulip art, seed sequence and pattern block flowers.
Reading/Social Studies: I am combining vocabulary, skills and literature of our Treasures Reading series Units 9 Amazing Creatures and 10 We Know A Lot. We are also going to do a poetry unit and experience the feelings, types and vocabulary associated with it. This format will also give us time to complete work on the Common Core Standard lessons that will continue to prepare students for the rigors of First Grade. The target sight words for this week are she and he. Target sounds are Gg, Ww. Student small groups created sentences using all the kindergarten words taught thus far and incorporating some of the First Grade sight words. Students continue to focus on long and short vowel sounds. Students worked in small group with leveled readers discussing story elements, cause and effect, making connections, drawing conclusion and making inferences. Student small groups worked on recognizing nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns. Many students have become curious about use of articles and adverbs. The true quest of reading for meaning has become more apparent to our kindergarten readers. The process of asking and answering questions about a text, identifying the meaning of unknown words using context clues and looking for details in the story are becoming clearer to our young readers. Robust Vocabulary this week included AMAZING, DEEP, INVITE, OCEAN and REASON. The students are using of iPad apps and games as reinforcement. Students continue to review phoneme blending, adding, deleting and substituting phonemes as well as consonant blend and digraphs, silent e, and even vowel teams and controlled r. Workstations this week included leveled readers with story retelling, writing about bugs using describing words, favorite picture and what information is gained from a picture, word building, composing and writing sentences about plant and bug workers using the app Magnetic ABC's and unscrambling words with silent e.
Math: Students are working in their new math journal where they read the story problem, identify the operation, illustrate the problem, use ten frames to work out the answer and then write down the number sentence. Students are continuing to write 2 and 3 digit number forms, review pattern blocks and geometric solids and show how you can create new shapes out of using other shapes. I introduced some new apps on the iPad to help enhance their learning. Students continue to work on counting to 100 and beyond, count by 2's and 5's and use ten frames to show a number.
Writing: Students continue to work on refining upper and lowercase letters. We are almost finished with our orange practice books. I continue to stress spacing between words in a sentence, placement of letters on a given line and where tall lowercase letters go. Reading back what they have written is key as well as making sure their sentences name and tell and have an ending mark. Students are using their Writer's Checklist before they come to journal conference with me. Next week, we will begin our final writing project on our "wormy" friends!
Science: The students began with an inquiry question--What is a seed? In our first experiment, the students took their magnifiers and closely examined a variety of objects--some were seeds and some were not. Each table conducted sorting activities and tried to decide which were seeds and which were not. They looked at shape, color, size and texture. Each able presented their findings. Students were fascinated by seeds that appeared as sticks, or ovals and ones that were hard and bumpy. We took a look at several types of real seeds. In our next experiment, each student selected a seed for planting and nurturing. They observed the shapes of the Nasturtium, Marigold, Morning Glory and Sunflower seeds. All had very different shapes, sizes and color. Students accessed information on the internet on growth patterns--horizontal vs. vertical, stems and root structures--tiny, thin, wide large, and leaf shapes--wagon wheel, long and pointy, small. Key vocabulary words--germination, sprouting, root, shoot were explained. Each student planted their seed and will now be responsible for checking and watering when needed. Students knew from previous knowledge that plants need sunlight, water and soil to grow. All seed cups were placed in a sunny window----stay tuned!!!!
Technology: In reading this week, student individuals and small groups used the apps Magnetic ABC's, Dolch Words, Write a Word, Montessori Crossword and Short Vowels to reinforce skills. In the area of math, student individuals and small groups experimented with the apps Easy Math, Ten Frame Fill, Subitize Tree, Top It Addition, Butterfly Math, Geoboard, Find the Sums, Number Rack, Zentromino and Zoolandia to work on skills in addition/subtraction, shapes, number sequence, number bonding to 10. In science the apps Lifecycle, Plant, Solar System and BrainPop were used to get information on the science subjects studied.
Literature: "Yucky Worms," "Diary of a Worm," "Wonderful Worms," "How Do Seeds Grow?" "Seed Story," "Beetles," "Insects," "Beautiful Bugs."
**Our ABC COUNTDOWN to the end of the school year will begin on Monday, May 5th. Check out the student planned week. First off is A--Act Like and Astronaut Day. B--Bubble Day. C--Favorite COLOR Day. D--Disco Dance Day. E--Wear RED, WHITE, BLACK for Irving EAGLE Day.
**This week is also NATIONAL SPORTS AND FITNESS WEEK! Check the sheet for each days activity.
**I hope some of you went to the Ethnic Festival Parade to cheer Gina on! I was out of town and unable to go. It was a beautiful day for a parade!
**The Opera for the Young presentation of the "Barber of Seville" was fabulous! Lots of great sets and costumes and awesome singing. Ezekiel's brother was one of the student performers!
**There is still time to help Student Council with their recipe book by sending in a favorite recipe. Reps Ally and Colin are counting on you!
**"Swap, Shop and Read" is this Thursday, May 8th from 6:30-8:00 pm. Hope to see you there.
**Thanks to all of you who participated in the Tasty Dog Challenge!!
**Permission slips for our Field Trip to the Oak Park Conservatory was in your child's homework folder. Please send it back ASAP. It is Tuesday, May 13th. Please let me know if you would like to volunteer to walk with the class.
**Route to Reading Rotation 7 will conclude on Wednesday. This is our final Route to Reading for the year. You will receive notification of your child's skill mastery.
**POETRY ALERT! POETRY ALERT! Please continue to work with your child on their poem for the Traveling Poets Project. Our class will begin "traveling" on May 13th and again on May19th during our Library time.
**Irving Art Fest and Poetry Slam is Thursday, May 15th from 6:30-8:00 pm all over the school. A piece of art from every child in the school will be on display along with music from the chorus, Spanish games and dances and the Poetry Slam. Come on...join in the fun! Your child can say a poem from a book, write their own poem, rap, sing---solo, group, with a partner or parent or sib. Fill out the form located in your child's homework folder. Mr. Williams will be out on the playground with the "Mr. Microphone" so kids can practice.
**Family Math "Monopoly Math" Night is Thursday, May 22nd 6:30-8:00 pm. Information will be in the Tuesday packet.
**RUN with ME on Saturday, May 10th at 8:00 am at Lindberg Park. Mr. Hancock and Mr. Wyza will also be there. Don't forget to fill out the form enclosed in your child's back pack.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued work on being a "social detective." She showed a video with different social scenes and the students discussed how to do the expected.
**In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer continued work on using shapes to make a certain object.
**Future Field Trip--Pizza and Play End of the Year Picnic at Rehm Park on Wednesday, May 28th from 9:30-12:20 pm. We need lots of help with this.
**Future Field Trip--Chicken Coop at the Gurgas Residence on Tuesday, June 3rd from 10:30-11:30.
**Future Field Trip--Chef Ashley's Studio at Constructive Chaos in River Forest on Monday, June 9th from 12:30-2:30 pm.
This week:
It was all about worms and seeds! The very "green" Ms. Henry gave an informative talk and hands on experience on worm composting. She brought us some starter compost with lots of red wiggler worms. She showed the students the different stages of worm life in the compost including worm eggs and egg shells, baby and adult worms. The students got to see some worms up close and personal under the magnifier. Ben was selected to bring in the first food to feed the compost. The students read nonfiction stories to get information about worms and listened to fiction stories about worm adventures. The students brainstormed what they knew about seeds. They had some prior knowledge from their recent Treasures unit. Much of our discussion centered on seeds and what they produced. More about that in the science section. Station Day activities included ladybug math--facts to 10, origami tulip art, seed sequence and pattern block flowers.
Reading/Social Studies: I am combining vocabulary, skills and literature of our Treasures Reading series Units 9 Amazing Creatures and 10 We Know A Lot. We are also going to do a poetry unit and experience the feelings, types and vocabulary associated with it. This format will also give us time to complete work on the Common Core Standard lessons that will continue to prepare students for the rigors of First Grade. The target sight words for this week are she and he. Target sounds are Gg, Ww. Student small groups created sentences using all the kindergarten words taught thus far and incorporating some of the First Grade sight words. Students continue to focus on long and short vowel sounds. Students worked in small group with leveled readers discussing story elements, cause and effect, making connections, drawing conclusion and making inferences. Student small groups worked on recognizing nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns. Many students have become curious about use of articles and adverbs. The true quest of reading for meaning has become more apparent to our kindergarten readers. The process of asking and answering questions about a text, identifying the meaning of unknown words using context clues and looking for details in the story are becoming clearer to our young readers. Robust Vocabulary this week included AMAZING, DEEP, INVITE, OCEAN and REASON. The students are using of iPad apps and games as reinforcement. Students continue to review phoneme blending, adding, deleting and substituting phonemes as well as consonant blend and digraphs, silent e, and even vowel teams and controlled r. Workstations this week included leveled readers with story retelling, writing about bugs using describing words, favorite picture and what information is gained from a picture, word building, composing and writing sentences about plant and bug workers using the app Magnetic ABC's and unscrambling words with silent e.
Math: Students are working in their new math journal where they read the story problem, identify the operation, illustrate the problem, use ten frames to work out the answer and then write down the number sentence. Students are continuing to write 2 and 3 digit number forms, review pattern blocks and geometric solids and show how you can create new shapes out of using other shapes. I introduced some new apps on the iPad to help enhance their learning. Students continue to work on counting to 100 and beyond, count by 2's and 5's and use ten frames to show a number.
Writing: Students continue to work on refining upper and lowercase letters. We are almost finished with our orange practice books. I continue to stress spacing between words in a sentence, placement of letters on a given line and where tall lowercase letters go. Reading back what they have written is key as well as making sure their sentences name and tell and have an ending mark. Students are using their Writer's Checklist before they come to journal conference with me. Next week, we will begin our final writing project on our "wormy" friends!
Science: The students began with an inquiry question--What is a seed? In our first experiment, the students took their magnifiers and closely examined a variety of objects--some were seeds and some were not. Each table conducted sorting activities and tried to decide which were seeds and which were not. They looked at shape, color, size and texture. Each able presented their findings. Students were fascinated by seeds that appeared as sticks, or ovals and ones that were hard and bumpy. We took a look at several types of real seeds. In our next experiment, each student selected a seed for planting and nurturing. They observed the shapes of the Nasturtium, Marigold, Morning Glory and Sunflower seeds. All had very different shapes, sizes and color. Students accessed information on the internet on growth patterns--horizontal vs. vertical, stems and root structures--tiny, thin, wide large, and leaf shapes--wagon wheel, long and pointy, small. Key vocabulary words--germination, sprouting, root, shoot were explained. Each student planted their seed and will now be responsible for checking and watering when needed. Students knew from previous knowledge that plants need sunlight, water and soil to grow. All seed cups were placed in a sunny window----stay tuned!!!!
Technology: In reading this week, student individuals and small groups used the apps Magnetic ABC's, Dolch Words, Write a Word, Montessori Crossword and Short Vowels to reinforce skills. In the area of math, student individuals and small groups experimented with the apps Easy Math, Ten Frame Fill, Subitize Tree, Top It Addition, Butterfly Math, Geoboard, Find the Sums, Number Rack, Zentromino and Zoolandia to work on skills in addition/subtraction, shapes, number sequence, number bonding to 10. In science the apps Lifecycle, Plant, Solar System and BrainPop were used to get information on the science subjects studied.
Literature: "Yucky Worms," "Diary of a Worm," "Wonderful Worms," "How Do Seeds Grow?" "Seed Story," "Beetles," "Insects," "Beautiful Bugs."
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