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,"


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