**It's hard to believe that January is almost over! The students have had a very productive week. Science inquiry experiments on water and starting the BUSY READER CLUB have been the talk of the classroom. I do believe that one male teacher is starting a hair styling trend that appears to interest some of my students!!!! The weather continues to be unpredictable so please keep snow pants and boots as part of the dress for the next week.
**Information on our BUSY READER CLUB is in your child's homework folder along with their book. Read over the information. any questions---email me.
**Our Book Buddies will be coming on Friday, January 30th to complete their favorite things movie trailers with their little buddies. Fun! Fun!
**Please confirm your Parent Conference date and time. I will be contacting those of you who need to reschedule this week. Parent/Teacher Conferences are Monday, February 9th, Tuesday, February 10th and Wednesday, February 11th. On Thursday and Friday (February 12th and 13th) school will be session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, bus and Magical Minds pick up will be at 11:00 am.
**Keep working on your 100th Day-100 Item Project! It is due on February 4th. We have some eager students who have already brought them in! They will be up in our hallways to view.
**Our 100th Day of School is fast approaching! We now have 6 volunteers! Thanks to B. Howell, L. Wojcik, L. Makonnen, C. Cummings, K. Meier and C. Goldbeck for volunteering. We still need 2-3 more volunteers for easy facilitation. Think about it! Our 100th Day Celebration will be held on Thursday, February 5th from 12:30-2:55 pm. We will also have an early Valentine's Day Party too. Don't forget to send a Valentine for each student on February 5th. There are 19 students. Students may also bring a treat to share. It can be a treasure (non food) or small nut free item that will go into a treat bag for home.
**Hearing Screening for Kindergarten students will be held on Friday, February 6th in the morning.
**A Cultural Event will take place in our classroom on Tuesday, January 27th fro 10:25-11:10 am. Japanese Exchange students attending Oak Park High will visit our classroom and give a presentation on Japan.
**Route to Reading Rotation 5 will begin on Tuesday, January 27th. You will receive notification of the skill your child will be working on at that time.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is COMING! The Irving School Fun Fair is Saturday, February 21st from 11-3 pm throughout the school. There will be games, prizes, silent auction, dancing for desserts and much more. Look for information soon from our Room Parents on making a contribution to our class WINTER theme basket. It will be a great day! Come play a game with me and bid on some silent auction events sponsored by ME!
**We are excited to have Atessa's dad, Chris come to speak to our class on all things "BONEY," on Monday, February 2nd at 9:30 am. Skeletons, x-rays and the like will be part of the fun. Reminder--if you would like to come and speak to our class on a particular subject, tradition, career, anything......email me to set up a time. The students really enjoy having their mom or day come to class and share!
**FUTURE AUTHOR VISIT--Author Aaron Reynold's of "Creepy Carrots" fame will come speak to the students on Thursday, March 5th.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP--to Dominican University to see the production on "CLICK, CLACK, MOO!" We will go on Thursday, March 6th from 10-12 pm. More info soon.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey did an activity with the students on the art of conversation and how we talk to each other. Do we really listen to each other??!!
**In Mr. Packer Problem solving this week, Mr. Packer finished a story on "The MOST in the World" which the students will use as a springboard for a project next week.
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES (the ones you can climb in) as well as other cool things for our space station design and construction in APRIL during our Space Theme. I cannot store anything now. You can start sending it in after spring break.
This week:
It was all about WATER climbing---WHAT!!?? Check out the science section. They are having so much fun sketching and recording thoughts and insights into their science notebooks. The students had a great time with Josie's Grandpa helping out on Station Day. Station Day activities included creating "climbing water" snowflakes, snow shovel math (reviewing teen numbers,) color by code ending sound activity, count, record, graph winter clothing and an end of the subitize challenge.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed background knowledge by discussing animals they know as pets and animals they might know about from other sources like zoo, t.v. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Momma Cat has Three Kittens." They made predictions about story content. The students discussed the actions preformed the kittens. Students took turns retelling the story in their own words. We took a look at sentence structure--subject/action---describing words. We did a group Story Elements Butterfly. The students are doing a great job of volunteering to write the answers about characters, setting, main events and main idea. Those students that had pets, shared information about actions their pets performed and compared them to the kittens in the story. Our sight words for this week are is and in. We added them to our current list. Our target sounds is short Oo and long Oo. They continued their study of action words (verbs) by creating a list of action words that a kitten might do. Our Robust vocabulary included ACTION, GENTLE, COMPARE, CONTENT, POUNCE. The students discussed what an OPINION was. They elbow chatted their opinion about which pet they like most--cats or dogs and WHY they liked one or the other. The students worked on asking and answering questions using the folk tale, "Mama Mouse and El Gato." they also created a group Venn diagram model to record similarities and differences between mice and cats. They worked on verbally retelling key events in the folk tale using the format--fist--next--then--last. The students continue to work on segmenting and blending 3,4, and 5 phoneme words using the app Oz Phonics projected on screen. They also working on strengthening auditory skills and verbal responses by deleting, adding and substituting sounds to create new words using the words in the Haggerty Blue Book. Workstations this week included writing an opinion statement and explain why on a suggested topic, Lexia Core 5 work, small group animal sort--wild--pets--farm, leveled readers with check for fluency, story elements, asking and answering questions, sound sort, read it and add to it activity, short o find the word to match the picture and I Can...They Can compose and illustrate--human actions and animal actions. We are continuing our author/text study of Mo Willems stories and will use his stories format to work on opinion writing, text clues and speech bubbles to denote the speaker.
Math: The students continue to practice rote counting to 100 and beyond and grouping objects by tens to equal 100. The students reviewed the terms addends and sum. The students had great fun with the app Sam Phibian seeing how quickly they could gather the necessary numbers amounts to "feed" Sam. Great visual motor and counting practice! They continue to work on the concepts GREATER THAN/LESS THAN. Math workstations included using ten frames to illustrate teen numbers, sorting by common attributes, number bonds to 10, listening to a thinking story and deciding if you add or take away, recognizing even and odd numbers and recognizing geometric solids.
Writing: Students begun work on formal lowercase letter formation. The letters c, o, v and s were worked on using their mini boards and chalk. They applied what they learned in their orange practice books. We began a process called sentence lifting, where I take a sentence from someone's journal and project it so the all students can examine it. How does the sentence look? Can you read it? How does it sound? Does it make sense? Does it have spaces between each word? Does it have an ending mark? Does it begin with an uppercase letter? Are the letters where they should be? So much to think about!! The students give their critique in a positive way and make suggestions. We are learning so much from each other!
Science: The students reviewed what they have discovered about water so far. This week in Experiment 3, the students experimented with paper towels, paper, sponges, wax paper and kleenex in wiping up water. They discussed at their tables which was best to remove the water. Lots of conversation and OPINIONS about which one did the best job. Most tables agreed that sponges and paper towels did the best job at "sucking up" (their words) the water. But how and why?? As the students used their magnifying glasses to take a closer look, some noticed holes or spaces in the sponge and paper towel. MMMMMmm..... The students then suspended a piece of paper towel onto a dowel rod in a cup. I poured some red water into the cup. What happened?? "It looks like the water is climbing up the paper towel." Discovery.....The water climbs into the holes or spaces....a sponge has large holes. You can also see the holes/spaces in the paper towel. The conversation shifted to other things that water climbs up fast into. The paper didn't really suck up the water. The kleenex got all mushy. We put a piece of celery into the water at the end of the day. Students made their predictions. The next day......students took their magnifying glasses. What did they observe? Some of the leaves of the celery looked red. The top of the celery had red inside. Jeremy spoke about the root system. Are their spaces inside the celery? All these connections!!! Very cool!! The students recorded their findings in science journal and made sketches and wrote about their thoughts and reflections. Next week--sink/float and what is a bubble?
Technology: In reading small group, the apps Lexia Core 5, iTalk, Rocket Speller and Magic Reading 3 were used to enhance segmenting and blending, word practice, fluency, and sound foundation. In math small groups, the apps Sam Phibian, Number Find, Butterfly Math were used to enhance visual motor, counting quantities, place value, addition and subtraction and number order.
Literature: "Have You Filled Your Bucket Today," "The Reasons for Seasons," "Curious George's Snowy Day," "My Friend is Sad," and other Elephant and Piggy stories by Mo Willems.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Monday, January 19, 2015
UPDATES for 1/12-1/15 2015
**The students are back into the swing of everything! We did have some outside time and it was great to get out into the fresh and chilly air. We have a bit of a snow pants dilemma. Both Tiago and Ethan went home with snow pants that are not theirs. I am asking that you check your child's snow pants to make sure you do not have them. Ethan's and Tiago's are marked with initial or name. Thanks much! While it is a bit warmer......please continue to send boots and snow pants. It will continue to be messy and wet.
**Mid Year assessments are on going and will be completed at the end of this week.
**Notification of date and time for your Parent/Teacher Conference is is in your child's homework folder. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, February 9th, Tuesday, February 19th and Wednesday, February 11th. Please confirm your date and time. Let me know if I need to adjust your date or time. Pleas note: On Thursday, February 12th and Friday, February 13th school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, bus and Magical Minds pick up will be at 11:00 am.
**Your child also brought home their 100th Day-100 Item Project. Read the directions on the heart. If you have any questions, please email me. Our 100th Day along with an early Valentine's Day Celebration will be held on Thursday, February 5th from 12:30-2:55 pm. On this special afternoon, parents will facilitate learning stations surrounding the number 100, assist in delivery of Valentine cards and treat bags. Fun! Fun! We now have Ms. Cummings, Ms. Makonnen, Ms. Meier, Ms. Howell and Ms. Wojcik volunteering to help. I could use 3-4 more volunteers so please consider helping! It is really fun!!!!
**Hearing Screening for Kindergarten students will be held on Friday, February 6th.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is COMING! The Irving School Fun Fair is Saturday, February, 21st from 11-3pm. throughout the school. There will be games, prizes, silent auction, dancing for desserts and much more. Each classroom is donating a special theme basket. Look for information from our room parents. It is a great day! Come play a game with me!
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP: to Dominican University to see the production of "Click, Clack, Moo." We will go on Friday, March 6th from 10-12 pm. More info soon.
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES (the ones you can climb in) as well as other cool things for our space station design and construction in APRIL during our Space Theme. I cannot store anything now. I will have you start bringing stuff in after spring break.
This week: It was all about doing something nice for others, Martin Luther King and water. Students turned our "Complimen-Tree" into a mitten tree after reading the inspirational story by Candace Christiansen. The students used what they learned about symmetry from Mr. Packer to design their pair of mittens. The text was also used for working on story main events and retelling a story in sequencial order which are part of our common core standards. We read several stories about Martin Luther King and used our map skills to trace the path of the March on Washington. In the awesome story, "Martin's Big Words," (which we also saw on video) the students were so thankful of the Dr. King's accomplishments and the use of non violence to promote change. There were some very reflective moments in our discussions where students could not believe that there was a time when they would not have been able to go to school together. We love our classmates! We used the projected text to examine words and illustrations. The students began inquiries into the properties of water. Who knew a droplet of water could be so interesting! More in the science section.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading Series. The students reviewed the use of nouns and verbs in sentences. They listened to the Big Book text, "From Strawberry to Strawberry Salad." The student traced the origin of the fruit from plant to the table in a fruit salad. Students discussed what a recipe was and used the format--what you NEED (nouns) and what you DO (verbs) in following a recipe. The students listened to the poems, "Crunch, Crunch, Thanks a Bunch," and "Crusty Corn Bread." We made a group list of the differences and similarities between regular text and poems. The students continue work in the Haggerty Blue Book. They are using their oral skills in isolating initial, medial and final sounds, blending and segmenting 3, 4 and 5 phoneme words, adding, deleting and substituting sounds to create new words and identifying the word that doesn't have the same sound as the others in a sequence of 4 words. Workstations this week included leveled reader story elements discussion and fluency check, writing a question sentence using the word "Can," word search with short o words, writing about your favorite meal and where is came from, small group recipe writing and illustration using the format--what we need....what we do and recording sounds to create short u words using the app Word Wizard. The students used the text "The Snowy Day" to begin recording story elements and events in written form and using illustrations as a choice.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 100 and beyond and grouping objects by tens to equal 100. Whole group lessons focused on the terms GREATER THAN and LESS THAN. Small group workstations included playing the game "Nuts and Bolts," (greater than/less than) with 1 and 2 digit numbers, completing number bonds to 10 and reviewing the word SUM, playing Make 5 BINGO and working with a partner to group by 10's and count 100 items and working working with a partner with the app Number Rack and Subitize Tree.
Writing: The students have completed all formal uppercase letter forms and will begin lowercase letter formation next week. The students used their mini boards and chalk to review all forms and then applied their knowledge in their orange practice books. The students completed a writing project on the topic of SNOW. They continue work on beginning with a capital letter, spacing of words in a sentence, placement of words on a given line, naming and telling and now beginning to expand their sentence using words that describe (adjectives.) Many of the students are composing 1-4 sentences independently!
Science: The students began discussion/dictation on what they knew about water. They were introduced to the word property and what it means. A property is a type of behavior. Each student was given an experiment book as well as a science reflection journal to record the experiments and their own thoughts, questions, comments and sketches. In Experiment 1, the students explored water using a variety of tools-spoon, straws, stick and cup. In using these tools, they described how water feels, smells, looks and sounds. In Experiment 2, the discovered that water droplets have their own shape and can "stick" to one another like magnets. Using a pipette, they practice sucking up into it and releasing the water back into their cup. It was fun to watch the students carefully trying to capture one droplet of water and squeeze it on to their wax paper. The students delighted in pushing one water droplet into another----what happens----it forms a bigger droplet! We talked about the scientific word-cohesion- to describe the sticking together process. Students wrote in their science journals and made sketches of their experiment. Next week--climbing water!
Technology: We are in the process of updating our apps! I will send out a complete list when completed. In reading, student small groups and individuals used the apps Word Wizard for practice in recording beginning, middle and ending sounds to form words, Rocketspeller, Montessori Crossword and Magic Reading 3 to reinforce segmenting, blending and creating words and iTalk used by leveled groups to record and play back reading for fluency. In math, student small groups and individuals used the app Subitize Tree, Number Rack and Number Find and Monster Squeeze to reinforce subitizing skills, problem solving, number bonding and greater than and less than skills.
Literature: "The Snowy Day," "A Drop of Water," "Snow Day for Mouse," "Investigating Water," "Shoveling Snow," "Water's Journey," "Snowman Magic," "I am Snow," "Water," "Martin's Big Words," "A Picture Book of Martin Luther King," "Martin Luther King Jr. Day," "Weather Words," "Deep Snow," "Martin's Dream."
**Mid Year assessments are on going and will be completed at the end of this week.
**Notification of date and time for your Parent/Teacher Conference is is in your child's homework folder. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, February 9th, Tuesday, February 19th and Wednesday, February 11th. Please confirm your date and time. Let me know if I need to adjust your date or time. Pleas note: On Thursday, February 12th and Friday, February 13th school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, bus and Magical Minds pick up will be at 11:00 am.
**Your child also brought home their 100th Day-100 Item Project. Read the directions on the heart. If you have any questions, please email me. Our 100th Day along with an early Valentine's Day Celebration will be held on Thursday, February 5th from 12:30-2:55 pm. On this special afternoon, parents will facilitate learning stations surrounding the number 100, assist in delivery of Valentine cards and treat bags. Fun! Fun! We now have Ms. Cummings, Ms. Makonnen, Ms. Meier, Ms. Howell and Ms. Wojcik volunteering to help. I could use 3-4 more volunteers so please consider helping! It is really fun!!!!
**Hearing Screening for Kindergarten students will be held on Friday, February 6th.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is COMING! The Irving School Fun Fair is Saturday, February, 21st from 11-3pm. throughout the school. There will be games, prizes, silent auction, dancing for desserts and much more. Each classroom is donating a special theme basket. Look for information from our room parents. It is a great day! Come play a game with me!
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP: to Dominican University to see the production of "Click, Clack, Moo." We will go on Friday, March 6th from 10-12 pm. More info soon.
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES (the ones you can climb in) as well as other cool things for our space station design and construction in APRIL during our Space Theme. I cannot store anything now. I will have you start bringing stuff in after spring break.
This week: It was all about doing something nice for others, Martin Luther King and water. Students turned our "Complimen-Tree" into a mitten tree after reading the inspirational story by Candace Christiansen. The students used what they learned about symmetry from Mr. Packer to design their pair of mittens. The text was also used for working on story main events and retelling a story in sequencial order which are part of our common core standards. We read several stories about Martin Luther King and used our map skills to trace the path of the March on Washington. In the awesome story, "Martin's Big Words," (which we also saw on video) the students were so thankful of the Dr. King's accomplishments and the use of non violence to promote change. There were some very reflective moments in our discussions where students could not believe that there was a time when they would not have been able to go to school together. We love our classmates! We used the projected text to examine words and illustrations. The students began inquiries into the properties of water. Who knew a droplet of water could be so interesting! More in the science section.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading Series. The students reviewed the use of nouns and verbs in sentences. They listened to the Big Book text, "From Strawberry to Strawberry Salad." The student traced the origin of the fruit from plant to the table in a fruit salad. Students discussed what a recipe was and used the format--what you NEED (nouns) and what you DO (verbs) in following a recipe. The students listened to the poems, "Crunch, Crunch, Thanks a Bunch," and "Crusty Corn Bread." We made a group list of the differences and similarities between regular text and poems. The students continue work in the Haggerty Blue Book. They are using their oral skills in isolating initial, medial and final sounds, blending and segmenting 3, 4 and 5 phoneme words, adding, deleting and substituting sounds to create new words and identifying the word that doesn't have the same sound as the others in a sequence of 4 words. Workstations this week included leveled reader story elements discussion and fluency check, writing a question sentence using the word "Can," word search with short o words, writing about your favorite meal and where is came from, small group recipe writing and illustration using the format--what we need....what we do and recording sounds to create short u words using the app Word Wizard. The students used the text "The Snowy Day" to begin recording story elements and events in written form and using illustrations as a choice.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 100 and beyond and grouping objects by tens to equal 100. Whole group lessons focused on the terms GREATER THAN and LESS THAN. Small group workstations included playing the game "Nuts and Bolts," (greater than/less than) with 1 and 2 digit numbers, completing number bonds to 10 and reviewing the word SUM, playing Make 5 BINGO and working with a partner to group by 10's and count 100 items and working working with a partner with the app Number Rack and Subitize Tree.
Writing: The students have completed all formal uppercase letter forms and will begin lowercase letter formation next week. The students used their mini boards and chalk to review all forms and then applied their knowledge in their orange practice books. The students completed a writing project on the topic of SNOW. They continue work on beginning with a capital letter, spacing of words in a sentence, placement of words on a given line, naming and telling and now beginning to expand their sentence using words that describe (adjectives.) Many of the students are composing 1-4 sentences independently!
Science: The students began discussion/dictation on what they knew about water. They were introduced to the word property and what it means. A property is a type of behavior. Each student was given an experiment book as well as a science reflection journal to record the experiments and their own thoughts, questions, comments and sketches. In Experiment 1, the students explored water using a variety of tools-spoon, straws, stick and cup. In using these tools, they described how water feels, smells, looks and sounds. In Experiment 2, the discovered that water droplets have their own shape and can "stick" to one another like magnets. Using a pipette, they practice sucking up into it and releasing the water back into their cup. It was fun to watch the students carefully trying to capture one droplet of water and squeeze it on to their wax paper. The students delighted in pushing one water droplet into another----what happens----it forms a bigger droplet! We talked about the scientific word-cohesion- to describe the sticking together process. Students wrote in their science journals and made sketches of their experiment. Next week--climbing water!
Technology: We are in the process of updating our apps! I will send out a complete list when completed. In reading, student small groups and individuals used the apps Word Wizard for practice in recording beginning, middle and ending sounds to form words, Rocketspeller, Montessori Crossword and Magic Reading 3 to reinforce segmenting, blending and creating words and iTalk used by leveled groups to record and play back reading for fluency. In math, student small groups and individuals used the app Subitize Tree, Number Rack and Number Find and Monster Squeeze to reinforce subitizing skills, problem solving, number bonding and greater than and less than skills.
Literature: "The Snowy Day," "A Drop of Water," "Snow Day for Mouse," "Investigating Water," "Shoveling Snow," "Water's Journey," "Snowman Magic," "I am Snow," "Water," "Martin's Big Words," "A Picture Book of Martin Luther King," "Martin Luther King Jr. Day," "Weather Words," "Deep Snow," "Martin's Dream."
Sunday, January 11, 2015
UPDATES for 1/-1/9 2015
**Happy New Year and welcome back! Our frigid forecast lead to the closing of our school for 2 days. The students were excited to be back, however. We were inside for lunch recess and enjoyed viewing episodes of "Wild Kratts." Great sharing of Travel Journals to New York, Pittsburgh, California, Belleville and Sheboygan. Even though the temperatures will rise next week--please continue to send snow pants and boots. We may go outside for lunch recess and it will be quite messy and wet. I have 4 pair of extra snow pants in case to lend out. It is really the best way to stay dry. Also---don't forget to send gym shoes. Our gym days are Mondays and Wednesdays.
**Eagle Extras begin on Monday. Participating students will be picked up from our classroom at dismissal.
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 began Tuesday, January 6th. You should have received notification of the skill your child will be working on.
**I will begin Mid Year Assessments next week including DIBELS, Darrell Morris Sound Foundation and mid year assessments in reading, math and writing and some Common Core Formative assessments. I will share all of this with you at Mid Year Conferences.
**You will receive notification on Thursday (1/15) about Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences. They will be held on Monday, February 9th, Tuesday, February l0th and Wednesday, February 11th. Please note that Thursday, February 12th and Friday, February 13th school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah and bus pick up will also be at 11:00 am.
**Our 100th Day of School Celebration is THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5th from 12:30 until dismissal. I have K. Meier, L. Makonnen and C. Cummings signed up to help so far. We need LOTS of volunteers to help with learning station activities that will focus on the number 100 and counting by 10's to 100. Email me if you can help. It is REALLY FUN! The students will also work on a special 100 item project. This will be sent home with instructions on THURSDAY, January 15th.
**Reading Grandma Mary came to class on Friday to begin her 8th year of listening to young readers. Each student will get to spend some time reading with her every Friday morning from 9:30-11:45 am. We are thrilled to have her!
**No Friendship Club this week. Ms. Bell Bey was absent.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer read the student a story about the number 10 and worked on number patterns.
** No School on Friday, January 16th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**No School on Monday, January 19th in observance of M. L. King's Birthday.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP to Dominican University to see the production of "Click, Clack, Moo!" on Friday, March 6th from 10:00 -12:00 pm.
**Start saving those GIANT BOXES (the ones 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 things in after spring break.
This week: It was all about frigid temperatures, snow and sharing their winter break stories. Winter is here! Frostbite was a big topic. The students were interested in weather patterns and looked on Weather Underground. They discovered that we were not the only ones experiencing cold weather. It was 16 degrees in Jacksonville, Florida!!! The students began work on a snowman writing project. They also began their inquiry into what they knew about WATER. Our experiments begin next week. We are lucky to have a Snowshoe Hare visiting our Nature Table this month. We will find out more about him and how he adapts to his environment during the winter. Station Day activities included windsock snowmen, snowflake shape and color by code, counting on with snowmen to solve addition problems and working on the first part of their snowman writing project.
Reading/Language Arts: The students used the short week as a review for all skills related to reading. They will finish Unit 4 Food next week. They reviewed their current sight vocabulary and played, "Hands Up, Hands Down. They worked with partners to create sentences using their sight words, pictures and punctuation marks and recorded their sentences on paper. Whole group lesson focused on MAIN EVENTS in a story using the text, "The Mitten Tree." Students also worked on PROBLEM and SOLUTION in a story using the text, "Yoko." We did some work with nouns and verbs in writing a recipe---What you need--(noun) and what you do--(verb). Students worked on leveled readers naming main events, practicing reading to a partner for fluency and asking and answering questions about a text they read. Students worked on making words, finding CVC words and searching for missing vowel sounds using our latest cool app--Oz Phonics 2. Very fun! They continue to use their elkonin boxes to record the order in which they hear sounds in a 3, 4 and 5 letter words. Thee students selected their own groups and games that focused on letter/sound correspondence, creating and sound blending CVC, CCVC and CVCC words, finding and writing words inside of other words, word family work and spelling their sight words.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 100 and beyond and counting on from a random number. They began work in their new calendar books. The new skills included writing 3 numbers that come before a target number, ways to say a targeted number thru number bonds, strategies for recognizing even and odd numbers, patterns continuation, using ten frames to illustrate a given number and adding using dominoes and dice. Instant recognition is becoming more apparent when using ten frames, dice and dominoes.
Writing: The students continue to work on "Magic C" starting Center Capitals--this week concentrating on the letters S, A, G, I, T, J. They applied what they learned in their orange practice books. The students are also working on proofing their own writing before they come to journal conference with me. Students are working on 1-4 sentences in their journals. They are really looking at where they place their lowercase letters on a given line.
Science: The students began their inquiry and discussion on WATER and their Next Generation Science connection on waters relationship to weather. Stay tuned!!
Technology: The app Oz Phonics was introduced to enhance sound blending, sound foundation and CVC words as a whole group. Next week, I will be introducing another cool app called Learn to Read. It has some really cool activities--build a word, word scramble, find the word, sentence wheel and sentence builder. Add them to your child's tablet or iPad. They are low cost. In math, the students worked on the apps Number Find and Easy Match. They also chose partners and had a Subitize Tree challenge!.
Literature: "The Mitten Tree," "Yoko," "Water," "There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow," "The Snowy Day," "It's Winter," "Thomas' Snowsuit."
**Eagle Extras begin on Monday. Participating students will be picked up from our classroom at dismissal.
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 began Tuesday, January 6th. You should have received notification of the skill your child will be working on.
**I will begin Mid Year Assessments next week including DIBELS, Darrell Morris Sound Foundation and mid year assessments in reading, math and writing and some Common Core Formative assessments. I will share all of this with you at Mid Year Conferences.
**You will receive notification on Thursday (1/15) about Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences. They will be held on Monday, February 9th, Tuesday, February l0th and Wednesday, February 11th. Please note that Thursday, February 12th and Friday, February 13th school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah and bus pick up will also be at 11:00 am.
**Our 100th Day of School Celebration is THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5th from 12:30 until dismissal. I have K. Meier, L. Makonnen and C. Cummings signed up to help so far. We need LOTS of volunteers to help with learning station activities that will focus on the number 100 and counting by 10's to 100. Email me if you can help. It is REALLY FUN! The students will also work on a special 100 item project. This will be sent home with instructions on THURSDAY, January 15th.
**Reading Grandma Mary came to class on Friday to begin her 8th year of listening to young readers. Each student will get to spend some time reading with her every Friday morning from 9:30-11:45 am. We are thrilled to have her!
**No Friendship Club this week. Ms. Bell Bey was absent.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer read the student a story about the number 10 and worked on number patterns.
** No School on Friday, January 16th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**No School on Monday, January 19th in observance of M. L. King's Birthday.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP to Dominican University to see the production of "Click, Clack, Moo!" on Friday, March 6th from 10:00 -12:00 pm.
**Start saving those GIANT BOXES (the ones 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 things in after spring break.
This week: It was all about frigid temperatures, snow and sharing their winter break stories. Winter is here! Frostbite was a big topic. The students were interested in weather patterns and looked on Weather Underground. They discovered that we were not the only ones experiencing cold weather. It was 16 degrees in Jacksonville, Florida!!! The students began work on a snowman writing project. They also began their inquiry into what they knew about WATER. Our experiments begin next week. We are lucky to have a Snowshoe Hare visiting our Nature Table this month. We will find out more about him and how he adapts to his environment during the winter. Station Day activities included windsock snowmen, snowflake shape and color by code, counting on with snowmen to solve addition problems and working on the first part of their snowman writing project.
Reading/Language Arts: The students used the short week as a review for all skills related to reading. They will finish Unit 4 Food next week. They reviewed their current sight vocabulary and played, "Hands Up, Hands Down. They worked with partners to create sentences using their sight words, pictures and punctuation marks and recorded their sentences on paper. Whole group lesson focused on MAIN EVENTS in a story using the text, "The Mitten Tree." Students also worked on PROBLEM and SOLUTION in a story using the text, "Yoko." We did some work with nouns and verbs in writing a recipe---What you need--(noun) and what you do--(verb). Students worked on leveled readers naming main events, practicing reading to a partner for fluency and asking and answering questions about a text they read. Students worked on making words, finding CVC words and searching for missing vowel sounds using our latest cool app--Oz Phonics 2. Very fun! They continue to use their elkonin boxes to record the order in which they hear sounds in a 3, 4 and 5 letter words. Thee students selected their own groups and games that focused on letter/sound correspondence, creating and sound blending CVC, CCVC and CVCC words, finding and writing words inside of other words, word family work and spelling their sight words.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 100 and beyond and counting on from a random number. They began work in their new calendar books. The new skills included writing 3 numbers that come before a target number, ways to say a targeted number thru number bonds, strategies for recognizing even and odd numbers, patterns continuation, using ten frames to illustrate a given number and adding using dominoes and dice. Instant recognition is becoming more apparent when using ten frames, dice and dominoes.
Writing: The students continue to work on "Magic C" starting Center Capitals--this week concentrating on the letters S, A, G, I, T, J. They applied what they learned in their orange practice books. The students are also working on proofing their own writing before they come to journal conference with me. Students are working on 1-4 sentences in their journals. They are really looking at where they place their lowercase letters on a given line.
Science: The students began their inquiry and discussion on WATER and their Next Generation Science connection on waters relationship to weather. Stay tuned!!
Technology: The app Oz Phonics was introduced to enhance sound blending, sound foundation and CVC words as a whole group. Next week, I will be introducing another cool app called Learn to Read. It has some really cool activities--build a word, word scramble, find the word, sentence wheel and sentence builder. Add them to your child's tablet or iPad. They are low cost. In math, the students worked on the apps Number Find and Easy Match. They also chose partners and had a Subitize Tree challenge!.
Literature: "The Mitten Tree," "Yoko," "Water," "There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow," "The Snowy Day," "It's Winter," "Thomas' Snowsuit."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)