Saturday, September 26, 2015

UPDATES for 9/21-9/25 2015

**Thanks so much for your attendance at Open House/Curriculum Night.  I know that there was a lot of material presented and I probably could have talked another 30 minutes!  Please read through your curriculum handouts.  If you have any questions or would like to meet to go over anything, please email me.  I know the students had a great time.  They were a bit sleepy eyed the next morning but full of conversation about who they saw and the teachers they introduced you to.  Thanks again.
**Many of you signed up for Parent/Teacher Conferences.  I will be sending a hard copy of your day and time.  If you did not sign up......I will give you a date and time and we can work from there. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, October 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 22nd.  At that time, I will be sharing assessments. student progress in all academic areas, participation and social/emotional growth reflections.   I will also share with you what our standards based report card looks like.  Please note:  On Thursday and Friday, October 22nd and 23rd, school in session in the MORNING ONLY.   Dismissal will be at 11:00 am.  There will be district bus service, Hephzibah and Kids Club pick up at 11:00 am.  There is NO afternoon session.
**Eagle Extra Classes have begun.  The students really seem to be enjoying themselves.
**School Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 29th.  Please check your child's homework folder for the order form.  You can also order on line.  Our picture taking time is 8:30 am.  K. Meier will assist us.  Thanks!
**Family Math Night is Thursday, October 1st from 6:00-7:30 pm.  There is still time to join us for "There's No Place Like Math Night."  I will be on the yellow brick road serving some Oz treats after you complete your adventure.  Email me for information.'
**Irving Pacers Running/Walking will begin on Thursday, October 1st during our lunch hour.  Instead of going on the playground, the students will walk/run around the school to earn cute little foot charms to add to a necklace.  I will be walking and students are welcome to walk with me or RUN!!!!  Pacers will continue thru November and start up again in the spring.
**I am continuing to assess student phonemic awareness skills.  Everything will be completed by Friday.  Route to Reading skill specific groups will begin on Monday, October 5th.  Students are in the process of being screened to see which skill level they fall into.  The skill will be taught for 3 weeks and then assessed.  90% mastery is needed for a students to move to another skill.  Students can remain at a skill, move to the next skill or even test out/skip skills.  All kindergarten teachers as well as Ms. Chinn, our Language Arts specialist and reading tutors Ms. Simon, Ms. Cruz, Ms. Deihl and Ms. Cairns will each a have a small group of students.  You will receive notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher teaching it.   Route to Reading will meet 3 times a week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday from 9:05-9:45 am.
**Information on those interested in being a Student Council Rep in in your child's homework folder.  I will be choosing 2 reps on Friday.
**Do you have a topic that you are really interested in??  Do you have a question you want answered on a certain topic??  Can you construct a vehicle that will keep an egg from breaking when dropped from a 3rd floor window??  Think about it!!!!  Be part of the Irving School's Academic Fair and Egg Drop contest on Wednesday, October 14th.  Information on signing up on line is in your child's homework folder.  Ms. Creehan will be coming in next week to show the students examples of projects and vehicles.  I would love to see our class represented!  The Egg Drop will take place on the playground beginning at 12:45 pm.  The Academic Fair will be open to the public beginning at 6:30 pm. and students can chat about their projects.   Email me with any questions.  
**Information on Green Team reps will be in next weeks homework folder.  
**Calling all Girls!!!  Sign up to become a DAISY SCOUT.  The meetings are every 3rd Thursday of the month from 3-4:15 pm.  Contact Troop Leader N. Daniel, (Quinn's mom) at nicole.h.daniel@gmail.com.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued to work on the Zones of Regulation and how we can work to get ourselves out of those blue, yellow or red zone.  She share some cool apps (see technology section) for calming and contemplating.   Great lesson!
**Mr. Packer Problem Solving and Mr. Degman Math Technology will begin next week.
**SAVE THE DATE:  Irving's Annual Trivia Night Fundraiser is Thursday, November 5th from 7-10 pm. at the Wire in Berwyn.  More info will follow!
**Kindergarten is in the process of planning a walking field trip to the Maze Library the week of October 13th-16th.  More in on this next week.  I will need 2 volunteers.
**Future field trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm.  I will need 4-5 volunteers.
This week:
It was all about getting ready for Open House.  The students worked hard on projects to display in the hallway.  They thought about their future in their illustrations and writing about about what they wanted to be when they grew up.  They worked on retelling a story both verbally and with a whole effort, recording letters and words.  The students shared information about who was in their family.  They drew pictures of family members.  Discussions on expectations, behavior, Eagle Slips and following directions remain important topics.
Reading/Language Arts:    We have begun Unit 1 FAMILIES in our Treasures Reading series.  Students shared background knowledge about types of families they know about.  They discussed human families and animal families.  We all shared experiences about our families and how many family members we have.  The students listened to the Big Book story, "Whose Baby Is It?" They reviewed parts of the book--front and back cover, spine, title page.  They also located where to find the page number.   Students noted the question and answer pattern of the book.  The sight word we and the were introduced.  We used our word "feet" to play "Walk Your Words."  Our target sound in isolation is Mm.  We used our sound cards and toys to tell if the sound was heard and the beginning or the end of a target word.  The students worked on additional vocabulary when listening to the thinking fable, "The Lioness and the Ostrich."  This vocabulary will be referred to a ROBUST VOCABULARY.  Our words this week were PROTECT, RESEMBLE, TOGETHER, ANIMAL.  We defined the words and gave sentence examples.  The students used the retelling cards to retell the Big Book story with a partner.  The story words, joey, pup and cub were discussed.  We read aloud our predecodable story, "We Can."  The students continue to work on using their famous pointing finger to track each word and picture when they read.  In our round robin reading, all students got a chance to read aloud to the group and also read to a partner.  In our formative text study this week, we read the story, "Duck on a Bike."  We continue to work on story elements--Characters, Setting, Main Event and why the main event is important.  I set up the format of our Blueprint Workmat. (I do)  As we go thru our second reading, the students helped me with pictures and writing as the Blueprint is projected on the screen. (we do)  Students acted out parts of the story and elbow chatted about the character, setting and main events.  Students did their own Blueprint Workmat of the story. (you do)  It is pretty cool to see their thinking reflected in their drawing and a little more attempts at writing this time.  We will begin our summative text, "How Rocket Learns to Read" next week.  The students continue to create group word webs for action words and words that people and animals.  In the Haggerty Blue Book, our puppet friends, Mr. Happy and Mr. G assist in oral exercises on rhyming words, initial and final sounds in words, adding, deleting and substituting sounds to create new words and counting how words are in a sentence.  We are just beginning to chat about word parts or syllables.  This week, we began our literacy workstations.  While I work with small group leveled readers each day, the students also work in rotating small groups.  They also have a story read to themselves and then to a partner containing their sight words and then activities emphasizing our unit and phonemic awareness.  This week our workstations included comparing family sizes project, stamp your words, upper and lowercase match game. "Oh No" initial sound game, "walk your words"-write your words and games Little Read Ridinghood and Froggy, Froggy  Where's Your Home (initial sound and letter match.)  Each week, the groups are assigned a "table manager."  Their jobs are to set out the materials needed, controlling noise level and give gentle reminders to keep group on task.  We spent time last week roll playing varies scenes to a workstation.  Our table managers did an excellent job!
Math:     The students continue their study of simple shapes.  They counted the sides and corners of their shapes and made comparisons--how the square and rectangle alike?  Students are working with pattern block shapes hexagon, trapezoid, oval and rhombus as well as basic shapes.  The students worked on a variety of counting activities using their ten frames.  We played "Show Me" where I write a number and the students have to create it on their ten frame.  Students worked with a variety of objects-pennies, bears, blocks and cubes matching one to one.  Students worked with partners and number cards to match numbers and sequence numbers 0-5, 0-10, 0-15 and 0-20.  We continue to work on positional concepts above, below, behind, beside, between and next to.  Math workstations this week included creating a number globe using the app Doodle Buddy, playing "spin and cover" number/ten frame match, counting corners and sides of shapes, number practice using their number rhymes 0-5.
Writing:     The students began work on their Frog Jump Capitals.  They are using their mini boards, tiny pieces of chalk (great for tripod grasp) and rags for erasing.  The students are also working with wooden curved, straight and slanting pieces to assist in imprinting not only formation but directionality of the letters.  Letters F, E, D were introduced.  The students learned a song about where to begin all letters......Where do you start your letters......AT THE TOP!!!  Appearing at the top left corner is Mr. Smiley,  He is there to remind students to begin their writing on the left.  Next week, the students will apply what they have learned in their orange practice books.  Students continue to work on their journal entries in Writer's Workshop.  This week, we talked about how to label parts of our drawings with a word or two. 
Technology:     The students were thrilled to do their first project in math using the app Doodle Buddy.  They used their globe template, chose their number, and selected the icon they wanted to use to show their number.  They worked on steps to email their project to my computer so I could print it out and display it.  Cool!  The apps Subitize Tree, Easy Match and Sam Phibian were projected to work on visualizing number and number patterns, matching number to quantity and quickly locating the quantity needed to match the number.  In reading, the app Montessori Crosswords was introduced and projected for group use.  It is a great sound foundation app to assist students in ordering of sounds to create a word and has many different levels.  In Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey used the apps Calm Counter and Breath, Think, Do in her lesson on ways to self regulate.
Literature:     "Animal Babies," "Hop On Pop," "I Will Try," "Pete the Cat Wheels on the Bus," "A Kiss Goodbye," "Family Fun," "Author's Back to School Surprise," "Duck on a Bike."

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