**Thanks so much for your attendance at OPEN HOUSE/CURRICULUM NIGHT! I know there was a lot of material presented and I could have talked for another 30 minutes! Please read through your curriculum packet. If you have any questions or would like to meet me after school or early evening to go over anything, please email me. I know the students had a great time. They were a bit sleepy eyed the next day but full of conversation about who they saw and who they introduced. Most of you signed up for Parent/Teacher Conferences. The list is posted in the room. I will send you a formal confirmation and reminder letter. Parent/Teacher Conferences for my class will be held Monday, October 20th, Tuesday, October 21st and Wednesday, October 22nd. At that time, I will be sharing my assessments, student progress in all academic areas, participation and social/emotional growth reflections. I will also share with you the standards based report card.
**I was not able to attend Barriefest but heard the Pet Parade was the bomb!!
**Eagle Extras after school classes will begin on Monday, September 15th. The students signed up will be picked up from the classroom at dismissal.
**I have completed DIBELS testing and am almost finished with the Phonemic Awareness Screening. These screeners will be used to create groupings for our Route to Reading Skill specific groups. We hope to begin Route to Reading September 30th. You will receive notification of your child's skill group at that time.
**School Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 30th. More information will be forthcoming.
**We have LIBRARY every MONDAY. Don't forget to send the book back. Next week, the students will get to select 2 books to take out.
**The PTO's BIGGEST FUND RAISER of the YEAR is coming up on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd!! It's the annual FUN RUN!! Students seek pledges from family and friends. They in turn will "run" around the turf on October 22nd. Incentives and prizes galore!! KINDERGARTEN will RUN from 8:15-8:30 am. All are welcome to attend and cheer us on!!! Pledge packets will go home on Tuesday, September 16th. Help up raise money for our school!!!
**Author of "Five Little Monkeys" fame, Eileen Christelow will visit Irving School on Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm. She will talk about her work and how she gets her ideas. Ms. Noonan will send a an order form of Ms. Christelow's books prior to her visit. There will be a book signing.
**If your child will be "TRAVELING" over any weekend or taking a vacation, let me know.....I will send a Travel Journal with them. Our class will track our "travels" throughout the year on our state and world map. It can be anywhere Chicago, Florida, Lombard, Colorado, South Carolina, a water park, hotel, France......if you go there...we will track it!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey talked about the Zones of Regulation and what it means to be in the GREEN ZONE and the BLUE ZONE. I will send you information on this topic as we delve deeper into working with the students on shaping and regulating their own behavior.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, the students got to go up to Mr. Packer's room to view a video on the positional concepts--in, on, under, behind, next to, in front of and between. There were dancing fish and a cute catchy tune! The students then began work on a project that will give them a better understanding about the various positional concepts covered. Stay tuned for part 2 next week.
This week: It was all about getting ready for OPEN HOUSE. The students worked hard on projects to display in our hallway. They thought about their future in their illustrations and writing of what they wanted to be when they grew up. They work on retelling a story both verbally and with the help of their classmates recording letters and words. It was a total group effort! The students shared information on who was in their family with each other. They drew a picture of their family members.....even their pets. Totally adorable!! The discussions on expectations, behavior, Eagle slips and direction following remain important topics.
Reading/Language Arts: The students finished Week 3 of our prep for Treasures Reading series called Smart Start. They completed their Activity Book for the unit. It is in their homework folder. The students worked on reinforcing the recognition of letter names A-Z and sounds A-P. They again used mirrors to observe where each sound came from...open/closed mouth?...puff of air?....vibrations?.....where is your tongue? The students continue to work on sight word vocabulary. They had fun with an activity called, "Walk Your Words." Sight words introduced so far--red, blue, go, I, am, yes, no, can. I read the trade book, "Jazz Baby." Before the first read, the students made predictions about story content. They were able to point out the title, title page, spine and that the story was fiction. After the second reading, the students used the retelling cards to orally retell the story. Some students volunteered to write words under the picture cards. It was a group effort to help in the sounding out words and the recording of letters to create the sentences. The students continued to work on the common core standards of comparing texts and asking and answering questions about a story read. The students compared the fiction story, "Jazz Baby," to the informational (nonfiction) story, "Made From Clay." They noted the real from the make believe, photo vs. illustrations and what each story was about (main idea. ) They also continued work on recognizing the CHARACTERS and SETTING (where the story happens.) The positional words under, in, on and over were reviewed. During oral read aloud time, the students read their paper story, "I Can." They concentrated on finger pointing each word and picture and noting each sentence begins with a capital letter and has an ending mark (period, question mark, exclamation mark.) Students took turns reading aloud while the other students followed along with their finger. (tracking)
Workstations this week included "Froggy, Froggy Where's Your Home?" (upper/lowercase match), Sound Toy Bag Game (matching toy to its appropriate initial sound box,) "Walk Your Words," and Initial Sound Magnet Board.
The students continue to work on the Haggerty Blue Book exercises which include rhyming, letter naming, sound recognition, segmenting, substituting, adding and deleting sounds and counting syllables.
Math: The students worked on common core standards matching one to one on their number boards and building number. Students worked in groups-recognition 0-5 and 0-10. They also worked on sequencing numbers 0-15. The students continue to use our calendar ten frames to count the number of days they have been in school. They also played "Swat It," (similar to Hand Up, Hands Down) The students played Towers of Ten where they drew number cards to build their tower. Concepts GREATER THAN/LESS THAN were worked on. Students began exploration of pattern block shapes (hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus, square and triangle) They use the blocks to create really cool designs and then counted how many blocks it took to make their design. Workstations this week included egg carton math, sorting and classifying activities, matching number with quantity, counting and writing to 5 or 10, playing number bingo 0-20.
Writing: Now that the students have awareness that different types of lines form our letters, we have begun to explore our writing series, Handwriting Without Tears. The students used wooden pieces (straight lines, curved lines and slant lines) to construct their name on the floor. We talked about always starting at the top when producing a letter in writing. Next week, we will begin learning to form our FROG JUMP letters and working in our orange practice book. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students are enthusiastically working in their journals. They have been using their idea lightbulb when choosing a topic to write and draw about. Students are also labeling parts of their drawings and beginning to us their inventive or phonetic spelling when sounding out words. The students are beginning to grasp the concept of a sentence NAMING (subject) and TELLING (action.) As you saw when you came to Open House---lots of exciting stuff happening with regards to writing!
Technology: The students are continuing to work on iPad etiquette. How to turn on and off, using the pad of their finger, control the sound, adding the headset and where to find activities. Our data coach, Mr. Degman will be assisting in fostering greater independence in using the iPad. iPad use in our classroom is another tool the students can use to enhance and support what they are learning in the classroom. Stay tuned!
Literature: "When I Grow Up," "The Pout, Pout Fish," "1,2,3 Peas," "A Hippopotamus Ate the Teacher," "I Like Me," "The Colors of Us," "The Alphabet Mystery," "The Cat in the Hat," "Hop on Pop," Alphabatics," "I Will Try," "Smile If You Are Human," "Ten Black Dots," "Big and Little," "How Will I Get to School this Year?" "Made from Clay,"
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