**We are off to a great start! I am so glad all of you are part of our Irving School Family! I was so happy to meet all of you and your extended family and caregivers. We are going to have a great year!
**We were a bit hot and sweaty, but we survived the heat and humidity this week. The students were real troopers! Although the temperature and humidity will come down next week, you can continue to send a water bottle with your child.
**Thanks to all of you who have signed up to help at lunch. Things are going very well. The students are learning about the lunch routine and recycling milk cartons and paper trays. Please continue to reinforce--HOME LUNCH or SCHOOL LUNCH---MILK---WHAT KIND? If your child is ordering milk with their HOME LUNCH.......would you Email me? Many students were asking for milk with their home lunch. I would like to get an accurate account so you are not charged in error.
**Your child's HOMEWORK FOLDER is in their backpacks. It has their homework and many information items for parents to read. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SIGN THE iLEARN iPAD MINI PROGRAM AGREEMENT. You child needs this form signed in order to use our student iPADS. Thanks! Please CHECK the HOMEWORK FOLDERS EVERY FRIDAY. If there is work to send back, that will be due on the following Thursday. Games and stories can remain at home. Read the info under "click here for assignments" for other learning suggestions.
**Please remember to wear or send gym shoes and socks everyday. They are especially needed on gym days.
**Information on being an Irving Volunteer, Eagle Extra On Line Registration, the Irving Events Calendar, Menu and the Back to School Party and Movie Night at Barrie Park is in your child's Homework Folder.
**I am still in the process of scheduling Mr. Packer Problem Solving class and Mr. Degman Math/Technology class. Friendship Club, our character education class, under the direction of Ms. Bell Bey will begin next Friday.
**As soon as I set up student passwords, students will begin working on Lexia Core 5 in our computer lab. This program is a great companion piece to our Language Arts and Literacy Program. Students are able to work at their own pace on skills ranging from Kindergarten to Grade 3. I will also set up SPELLING CITY, BRAINPOP JR. and DREAMBOX MATH. You can access FREE activities on STARFALL and MATHNOOK from the left side of this blog under "check out these great resources." Feel free to explore.
**ROOM PARENTS WANTED!!!! I have Kate Meier and Julie Wulff signed up. We could 1 or 2 more. Email me if interested. You can plan, facilitate and organize activities in our classroom.
**OPEN HOUSE/CURRICULUM NIGHT is Thursday, September 24th from 6:30-8:30 pm. More information is forthcoming.
**Picture Day is Tuesday, September 29th. Both individual and class pictures will be taken that day. We try to set up an early morning time for our students.
**Family Math is Thursday, October 1st from 6:00-7:30 pm. The theme this year is "There's No Place Like Math Night." I'll be there! It's great fun! Sign up is in your child's homework folder.
**I have included the recipe we use for clay. Clay is a great way to get the fingers and hands moving. We have been developing our tripod grasp by "feeding" the dogs his bones and picking up small pebbles with kid tweezers. Kid chopsticks with the connector is also great for practice--all very tactile and sensory oriented.
**In the future---if your child is traveling where they are staying overnight---let me know and I will send a "Travel Journal." We are going to be tracking places where we have been and sharing our travel stories. It can be to grandma's, another town, state or country. Great geography!!!
**Future Field Trip---Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 24th from 9:00-2:00 pm. More info to come. We will need about 5 volunteers.
**NO SCHOOL--Monday, September 7th in observance of Labor Day.
This week:
It was all about routines, expectations and meeting new friends and teachers. Yes......I talked a lot!! The students met with most of their special area teachers-- Ms. Hiolski-Music, Senorita Zaragoza-Spanish, Ms. Noonan-Library, Mr. Hancock-Gym and Mr. Patterson-Art. The students are getting to know each other and fostering new friendships. The students have learned how to earn EAGLE SLIPS as part of our school wide behavior incentive. Our DAILY Mantra is--Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe EVERYWHERE and HAVE FUN!! Many students earned EAGLE SLIPS this week. Each Friday, Mr. Hodge picks 10 winners to receive a little token. We had a winner picked from our room!!! Congratulations to Aidan!!! Great start!
Reading/Language Arts: In our first week of school, the students began a 3 week prep in our Treasures Reading series call Smart Start. Our Common Core State Standards have under gone some tweaking and we will be focusing on teaching the standards thru selected texts. I will be speaking more about this at Open House/Curriculum Night. The students are using their language skills to respond to a daily warm up question. We are working on raising our hand to volunteer information. Students worked on their listening comprehension skills and making predictions and connections by listening and responding to the Big Book Story "Animals in the Park-ABC Book." The students also began work on recognizing rhyming sequences. Rhyming words have the same ending parts. Students began to generate words and rhyming patterns. They began to learn the rhyming chant---"bat, cat, they end with at." Students are working on upper and lowercase letter recognition. They learned how to play, "Hands Up, Hands Down." It is one of their homework assignments! Students also work on "tracking" words in a sentence from left to right and counting how words are in a given sentence. In our formative text, "Chrysanthemum," the students worked on finding the title, the front and back cover and the spine of the book. We discussed what an author does and what an illustrator does. The students are working on foundational skills using the Haggerty Blue Book. Whole group instruction centered around upper and lowercase letter recognition, counting words in a sentence, isolating the beginning and ending letter sounds. Workstation (small group) activities centered around sequencing ABC's, playing Hands Up, Hands Down, Go Fish for Letters and finding the rhyme.
Math: The students were introduced to the daily calendar activities, What is a ten frame? The students began placing a black dot on the ten frame for each day we are in school. When we get to 100----PARTY!!! Our Math Problem of the Day was about a different positional word each day. We are counting and counting and counting!!! We are beginning number formation and worked on numbers 1-5. The students worked in small group workstations on "egg carton math" (placing the correct number of beans in each place in the carton, spin a number--using a pencil and paper clip as a spinner and moving their marker along the board, stamping their names and counting the number of letters in their name and writing numbers 1-5. The students also explored pattern blocks, geo boards, simple plane shapes, making numbers with clay and problem solving activities using "Gears" and "Magnatiles."
Social Studies/Cross Curricular: Our theme is All About Me and My Family. This week the students shared information about their daily lives and likes and dislikes. They chatted about their family, where they live and what is important to them. They drew their self portrait and related a little fact about themselves. They chatted about their feelings and reflected about a place they could go to in their home to "chill" or "cool out" if they are angry or upset. We read the story, "Jared's Cool Out Space and began to chat about a space we could use in our classroom for a place to "chill out" if we are having a hard time with our feelings.
Writing: In our Writer's Workshop, we read the story, "It's All About You--Writing Your Own Journal." The students chatted about what a school journal is and what they can put in it. We can draw, sketch, write words or sentences or even a story. I modeled a format. They will make an entry most days. Most students were able to tell me about their pictures, Some student chose to write their own words.
Technology: We have been working together on some foundational skills apps that have been projected onto the screen for student interaction. In reading, the students enjoyed the apps Sound Sort (letter sound association,) Magnetic Letters ABC (letter recognition/spelling) and Fire Finger (letter recognition--setting their letter on fire!) In math, the student enjoyed Brainy Bugs (counting and cardinality) and Subitize Tree (visual recognition of number by finding the pattern.) Most of these apps are free or inexpensive. Feel free to load them onto your child's iPad or tablet.
Literature: "You Are Beautiful As You Are," "You're Finally Here," "Splat the Cat," "Pete the Cat Too School for School," "Ms. Bindergarten Get's Ready For Kindergarten,""Cool Dog, School Dog," "Pirates Go To School," "Time for School, Mouse," "Kindergarten Rocks," "Chrysanthemum."
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