**Thanks so much for your attendance at Parent/Teacher Conferences. It was great to chat with you and share your child's progress. The students are sure working very hard!
**WOW! Our Fun Run was awesome! We had a beautiful morning for our run. The Irving Eagle helped fire up our kinders! Thanks to those of you who came out to support us and to those of you who pledged your support. Our class raised $520.00!!!!
**Set up for LEXIA CORE 5 is in your child's homework folder. The students need practice typing in their username (case sensitive) and password. We will be using LEXIA on our iPads and up in the computer lab for keyboard and mouse experience. Home practice is recommended 2-3 times a week for 20 minutes. Email me with any questions. They are enjoying it!
**School photos or information on ordering school photos are also in your child's homework folder. Our class picture will be sent at a later date. A copy of the School Directory is also there.
**Come join ME, Ms. Noonan, Ms. Durham and Mr. Sak for an evening of "Slightly Spooky Family Stories" on Wednesday, October 28th from 6:30-7:30 pm in the Irving Auditorium. Come browse the Book Fair too and enjoy a sweet treat!
**The Irving Book Fair will be held Monday, October 26th-29th in the Irving Auditorium. Our class will visit the Book Fair on Monday to browse. The Book Fair will be open after school and in the evening.
**Halloween is almost here!! Please join us for fun and festivities on Friday, October 30th in the afternoon. The schedule is as follows: Our morning will be a regular morning of learning. If your child chooses to, they may bring their costume/make up/props in a bag to school. At 12:45 pm--students will change into their costumes. At 1:30 pm--the students will participate in an all school PARADE around the school grounds. Classroom celebrations will take place from 2:15-2:55 pm. In keeping with our non violent atmosphere, please do not send toy guns, swords, hooks, light sabers, poles, knives, brooms, ropes or handcuffs. There are no other restrictions on costumes. Students may bring a treat or trinket for the class if they wish. These items will go into a treat bag that will be sent home. Please--NO NUTS/NUT PRODUCTS or DAIRY. Parents and sibs are invited to attend both events.
**Fundraiser Alert!! Sign up for TRIVIA NIGHT This grown up night of fun and entertainment will be held on Thursday November 5th from 7-10 pm at The Wire in Berwyn.
** In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her lesson on being a Social Detective. She shared with the students the tools for being a Social Detective--Eyes--Ears--Brain. She presented several situations where the students used their tools to figure out the most appropriate behavior. Ms. Bell Bey also read examples from the book--"You Are a Social Detective," by Michelle Winner and Pamela Crooke. Lots of great discussion!!!
**In Mr. Degman Math/Tech this week, Mr. Degman began a project with small groups of students on the iPad using selected icons, recording their voices counting the icons and writing the number. We will post the project when all students have completed it. Super cute!
**Our kindergarten team has decided to move our Library trip to the spring. Too much going on in our curriculum right now.
**Future trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2pm. Look for information permission slips soon.
This week: It was all about the culmination of apple mania!! The students did a taste test of 6 different types of apples and they graphed their favorite one. In our class the preferred apple is Golden Delicious with Red Delicious coming in a close second. The students discussed the sequence of events surrounding the making of applesauce. The key words--recipe and ingredients. What do you need to do first? next? then? last? They observed and assisted in using the apple peeling machine. The skin came off like a ribbon!! Students also assisted in cutting the apple flesh into small pieces using our special plastic knives. Super great helpers! The students discussed the cooking process and talked about the function of a crock pot and slow cooking. Lots of language and conversation. Everything was put into the crock pot along with some apple cider for sweetness and the cooking began. The students observed the different cooking stages and saw the apples get mushy. The smell of cooking apples permeated our classroom. As a final step, I used the immersion blender to make it all very smooth. The students enjoyed the slightly warmed applesauce at the end of the day. In apple science, the students offered their prediction on whether the 3 apples would sink or float. They illustrated their predictions. We did the experiment and the students check their prediction against the result. Lots of guesses on why an apple would sink or float. Ask you child what their prediction was. How did they do? We began prep for our next mini unit on bats, spiders, skeletons and nocturnal animals.
Reading/Language Arts: The students took a break from our Treasures Reading series this week to continue work on the text, "Peter's Chair." Along with summative work on characters, setting and main events, the students worked on matching text to pictures and working on finding key details in the story. A key detail is something important that happens in the story that effects the character or characters. It can be something the character said or did. The final item the students worked on was sequencing events in the story. What happened first? next? then? last? The students are working verbally and with picture cards. Next week, we will try some writing. They are having lots of fun acting out scenes, working in small groups and elbow chatting with partners. A culmination to this formative/summative text study will be small group diorama making about 1 event in the story. More info on that next week. The students continued work on their sight words--walking them--writing them--and using them in sentence building. Workstations this week included partner reading of leveled readers with elbow chatting about story elements, word work, beginning sound blending activities, color by code sight words and color words and sequencing story event pictures.
Math: The students continue work on counting rote counting to 50 and counting quantities to 25. They are working on their calendar books and getting quite creative with patterning and number formation steadily improves. The students also worked on ways to make 5 using the reckenrek. We continue the introduction of geometric solids introducing cubes and cones. How are these shapes different from squares and triangles??? The students worked on a counting project with Mr. Degman in small groups. Math workstations this week included playing Apple Roll, Count and Color, counting apples and recording the number, sequencing number cards from least to greatest and back, using cones and cubes in basic building and reinforcing positional concepts.
Writing: The students continue to work on writing and illustrating in their writing journals. This weeks focus was on sentence structure. We are working on a sentence being a group of words that NAMES and TELLS. You have a subject and an action. Next week we will begin the set of uppercase letters called the Starting Corner Capitals.
Technology: The students are now working on the Lexia Core 5. It is a great skill building program centering on phonemic awareness and phonics skills. Students are able to work at their own rate and move up levels. The hardest part of the program is logging in. Each student has a username that contains 2 uppercase and 2 lowercase letters along with some numbers. The password is the same for everyone. We are using both iPad and computer/mouse. Practice entering the username. On the iPad, it is touching the arrow to make it black for uppercase and touching the number icon to access numbers. On a computer, it is touching the caps lock to make the dot turn green for uppercase and then touching it again to release it. The students did well and were also able to log out too! Information for set up are in your child's homework folder. Mr. Degman is using the app Educreations for his project with students on counting/recoding and writing. I will post them when the project is completed, The students are having fun and learning!! In whole group reading work, the apps Magnetic ABC HD for reinforcing and practice of sight words and Reading Magic 1 for blending and segmenting short vowel words. In math whole group this week the apps Subitize Tree was used for visual/number pattern and counting and Geoboard was used reinforce shape recognition and drawing.
Literature: "Ten Apples Up On Top," "The Bad Apple," "Skeleton Meets Mummy," "The Skeleton Cat," "The Apple Pie Tree," "It's Halloween," "Words are Not for Hurting," "Bigger than Alexander," "Leaves, Leaves, Leaves."
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Sunday, October 18, 2015
UPDATES for 10/13-10/16 2015
**REMINDER--Parent/Teacher Conferences are Monday, October 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 21st. MONDAY---7:15 am Polan....5:00 Constantinescu...6:00 Lowell...6:30 Wulff and 7:00 Guzman. TUESDAY--7:15 am Bell...3:00 Massett....3:30 Meier...5:30 Harper....6:00 Daniel....6:30 Metz....7:00 Harris....7:30 Hagedorn. WEDNESDAY--2:00 Allgood...3:30 Awad....5:00 Jackson....6:30 Nelson. On Tuesday, October 27th at 7:15 am Pillacela. I am looking forward to sharing your child's progress with you.
**REMINDER--School is in session in the MORNING ONLY on Thursday, October 22nd and Friday, October 23rd. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, District School Bus and Clubhouse will pick up at 11:00 am.
**GO Ms. Gullo's Class!! Don't forget to sign up and send your pledge money in!!! The FUN RUN is Wednesday, October 21st. Kindergarten will be running at beginning at 8:15 am on the turf. Come cheer us on!! Make a poster if you like!!
**WOW! The Egg Drop and Academic Fair was awesome! Ella, Zadie, Hattie, Aidan, Jackson and Quinn designed cool vehicles. Check out their picture. Ella and Audrey did a super job with their projects and speaking about their projects to those that stopped by. A HUGE SHOUT OUT to all of our participants!!!
**Route to Reading skills specific groups has begun. If you did not receive notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher teaching it, please let me know.
**A few more photos to go and we will do our SEASONAL BABIES project. Don't forget to bring in your baby picture.
**Ah Yes! The topic of Halloween is being discussed. The schedule is as follows--Friday, October 30th will be a regular morning of learning. If your child chooses to, they may bring their costumes/make up/props to school in a bag. At 12:45 pm --students will change into their costumes. At 1:30 pm-Students will participate in an all school Parade around the outside of school. Classroom celebrations will take place from 2:15-2:55 pm. In keeping with our non violent classroom atmosphere, please do not send toy guns, swords, hooks, light sabers, poles, knives, brooms, ropes or handcuffs. There are no other restrictions on costumes. Students will be allowed to bring a candy treat if they wish. It will go into a treat bag that will be sent home. Please----NO NUTS/ NUT PRODUCTS or DAIRY. I will be chatting with room parents who will have a healthy snack on hand. We will also do a craft related to our study of nocturnal animals. Parents and sibs are invited to attend both events. I will also need some parent help with costume changing.
**The Irving Book Fair will be the week of October 26th-29th in the auditorium. We will be visiting the book fair as a class. Your child may be chatting with you about a special book they saw. The book fair will be open in the evening.
**Slightly Spooky Family Storytime will be held in the the auditorium during the book fair on Wednesday October 28th from 6:30-7:30 pm. I will be reading a cool Halloween story and so will my friends Ms. Noonan, Mr Sak and Ms. Durham. It may be slightly spooky but very fun!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey chatted with the students about what is means to be a Social Detective and doing what is expected in our daily lives. She shared a story and posters and discussed what expectations are in terms of good behavior.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer read a story called "Ten Black Dots," and encouraged students to think "outside of the box" and use their imagination on a project that involved making a black dot part of a bigger picture. Some really cool ideas!!! Great thinking going on!!!
**Field Trip to Maze Branch Library. Our tentative date is Thursday, November 5th. It will be a walking field trip. I will send out more info next week. There will be an opportunity for your child to get a library card if they do not have one.
**Future Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm.
This week:
It was all about APPLE MANIA!! The students participated in an inquiry to determine what they know about apples. They had a ball using the magnifiers and the microscope to observe the blossom (flower) seeds, flesh, core and skin. They learned what a blossom was--the beginning of the apple. Some apples were cut on their sides to reveal the star!! We read information books (nonfiction) books on the subject and used the internet search to find out names the apples have. The students explored some of the many types of apples and observed their similarities and differences. The students learned how to create a diagram and label apple parts. Part two of apple mania next week. Station day activities included apple print trees, mixed media apples, build, count and record using unifix cubes and color by code autumn leaves.
Reading/English Language Arts: The students completed Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The students began their next Blueprint workmat using the text, "Peter's Chair." We will be doing 2 Blueprint Workmats this time. The students will continue working on story elements--characters, setting, main events in the story and why they are important. We will also be working on what key details in a story are. We talked about a key detail as being something important that happens in the story that effects the characters. In our first reading of the text, students listened to the story of Peter, a boy who experiences a change in his family and himself on a few different levels. We worked on story structure--the way in which things in the story happen. Stories can have a beginning, middle and end. The students made predictions about story content before I began to read using the title and cover picture. After the first reading, the students elbow chatted with a partner about story elements. I did a group outline where with the help of the students, we discussed what the beginning, middle and ending of the story was. The students thought about something the characters said or how they acted. The students took turns acting out certain parts of the story they thought were important. This text study will take about 2 weeks with a culminating project. Fun! The students continue to work on beginning and ending sounds in words as well as short and long vowel sounds and beginning sound blending. Workstations this week included leveled readers and discussion about story elements, read alouds and partner reading, rainbow writing sight words, writing and illustrating before (when you were a baby) and after (now that you are 5/6) how did you look? What could you do? creating words using the word family ad and am, word work focusing on ending sounds and sound games.
Math: The students are continuing to work on counting quantities to 20 and writing their numbers to 20 as well as rote counting to 40. They reviewed their number rhymes for numbers 6-9. They worked on activities that involve subitizing or looking for number patterns and visualization to come up with the answer. Students reviewed all basic and pattern block shapes and begun looking at geometric solids--cone and cube. How are they different from a triangle or square?? We began chatting about what numbers we can use to make another number. If we want to make 5 and we already have 3....how many more do we need? Math workstations this week included writing numbers to 9, building, counting and recording and comparing a number, working with concepts greater than/less than, and playing "Hungry for Apples."
Writing: The students completed formation work on the Frog Jump Capitals. F, E, D, P, B, R, N, M have been introduced. They applied what they had learned in their orange practice books. Students wrote and illustrated in their journals about apples using the words from their sight word list. The focus of this weeks writing workshop was on posture, reinforcing tripod grasp, one hand holding their pencil and other holding their paper and sitting up so their back is touching the back of the chair.
Technology: No new apps introduced this week. Students began working on Lexia Core 5 on their iPads. You will receive information at parent conference on how to set up the program on your home iPad and computer or tablet. Students have their own username (which is case sensitive and requires some practice) and password. They are very excited to be working on it!
Literature: "How Do Apples Grow?" "Johnny Appleseed," "The Wonders of Apples," "Amazing Apples," "The Big Apple Mystery," "Apples, Apples, Apples," "Apples A-Z,"
**REMINDER--School is in session in the MORNING ONLY on Thursday, October 22nd and Friday, October 23rd. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, District School Bus and Clubhouse will pick up at 11:00 am.
**GO Ms. Gullo's Class!! Don't forget to sign up and send your pledge money in!!! The FUN RUN is Wednesday, October 21st. Kindergarten will be running at beginning at 8:15 am on the turf. Come cheer us on!! Make a poster if you like!!
**WOW! The Egg Drop and Academic Fair was awesome! Ella, Zadie, Hattie, Aidan, Jackson and Quinn designed cool vehicles. Check out their picture. Ella and Audrey did a super job with their projects and speaking about their projects to those that stopped by. A HUGE SHOUT OUT to all of our participants!!!
**Route to Reading skills specific groups has begun. If you did not receive notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher teaching it, please let me know.
**A few more photos to go and we will do our SEASONAL BABIES project. Don't forget to bring in your baby picture.
**Ah Yes! The topic of Halloween is being discussed. The schedule is as follows--Friday, October 30th will be a regular morning of learning. If your child chooses to, they may bring their costumes/make up/props to school in a bag. At 12:45 pm --students will change into their costumes. At 1:30 pm-Students will participate in an all school Parade around the outside of school. Classroom celebrations will take place from 2:15-2:55 pm. In keeping with our non violent classroom atmosphere, please do not send toy guns, swords, hooks, light sabers, poles, knives, brooms, ropes or handcuffs. There are no other restrictions on costumes. Students will be allowed to bring a candy treat if they wish. It will go into a treat bag that will be sent home. Please----NO NUTS/ NUT PRODUCTS or DAIRY. I will be chatting with room parents who will have a healthy snack on hand. We will also do a craft related to our study of nocturnal animals. Parents and sibs are invited to attend both events. I will also need some parent help with costume changing.
**The Irving Book Fair will be the week of October 26th-29th in the auditorium. We will be visiting the book fair as a class. Your child may be chatting with you about a special book they saw. The book fair will be open in the evening.
**Slightly Spooky Family Storytime will be held in the the auditorium during the book fair on Wednesday October 28th from 6:30-7:30 pm. I will be reading a cool Halloween story and so will my friends Ms. Noonan, Mr Sak and Ms. Durham. It may be slightly spooky but very fun!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey chatted with the students about what is means to be a Social Detective and doing what is expected in our daily lives. She shared a story and posters and discussed what expectations are in terms of good behavior.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer read a story called "Ten Black Dots," and encouraged students to think "outside of the box" and use their imagination on a project that involved making a black dot part of a bigger picture. Some really cool ideas!!! Great thinking going on!!!
**Field Trip to Maze Branch Library. Our tentative date is Thursday, November 5th. It will be a walking field trip. I will send out more info next week. There will be an opportunity for your child to get a library card if they do not have one.
**Future Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm.
This week:
It was all about APPLE MANIA!! The students participated in an inquiry to determine what they know about apples. They had a ball using the magnifiers and the microscope to observe the blossom (flower) seeds, flesh, core and skin. They learned what a blossom was--the beginning of the apple. Some apples were cut on their sides to reveal the star!! We read information books (nonfiction) books on the subject and used the internet search to find out names the apples have. The students explored some of the many types of apples and observed their similarities and differences. The students learned how to create a diagram and label apple parts. Part two of apple mania next week. Station day activities included apple print trees, mixed media apples, build, count and record using unifix cubes and color by code autumn leaves.
Reading/English Language Arts: The students completed Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The students began their next Blueprint workmat using the text, "Peter's Chair." We will be doing 2 Blueprint Workmats this time. The students will continue working on story elements--characters, setting, main events in the story and why they are important. We will also be working on what key details in a story are. We talked about a key detail as being something important that happens in the story that effects the characters. In our first reading of the text, students listened to the story of Peter, a boy who experiences a change in his family and himself on a few different levels. We worked on story structure--the way in which things in the story happen. Stories can have a beginning, middle and end. The students made predictions about story content before I began to read using the title and cover picture. After the first reading, the students elbow chatted with a partner about story elements. I did a group outline where with the help of the students, we discussed what the beginning, middle and ending of the story was. The students thought about something the characters said or how they acted. The students took turns acting out certain parts of the story they thought were important. This text study will take about 2 weeks with a culminating project. Fun! The students continue to work on beginning and ending sounds in words as well as short and long vowel sounds and beginning sound blending. Workstations this week included leveled readers and discussion about story elements, read alouds and partner reading, rainbow writing sight words, writing and illustrating before (when you were a baby) and after (now that you are 5/6) how did you look? What could you do? creating words using the word family ad and am, word work focusing on ending sounds and sound games.
Math: The students are continuing to work on counting quantities to 20 and writing their numbers to 20 as well as rote counting to 40. They reviewed their number rhymes for numbers 6-9. They worked on activities that involve subitizing or looking for number patterns and visualization to come up with the answer. Students reviewed all basic and pattern block shapes and begun looking at geometric solids--cone and cube. How are they different from a triangle or square?? We began chatting about what numbers we can use to make another number. If we want to make 5 and we already have 3....how many more do we need? Math workstations this week included writing numbers to 9, building, counting and recording and comparing a number, working with concepts greater than/less than, and playing "Hungry for Apples."
Writing: The students completed formation work on the Frog Jump Capitals. F, E, D, P, B, R, N, M have been introduced. They applied what they had learned in their orange practice books. Students wrote and illustrated in their journals about apples using the words from their sight word list. The focus of this weeks writing workshop was on posture, reinforcing tripod grasp, one hand holding their pencil and other holding their paper and sitting up so their back is touching the back of the chair.
Technology: No new apps introduced this week. Students began working on Lexia Core 5 on their iPads. You will receive information at parent conference on how to set up the program on your home iPad and computer or tablet. Students have their own username (which is case sensitive and requires some practice) and password. They are very excited to be working on it!
Literature: "How Do Apples Grow?" "Johnny Appleseed," "The Wonders of Apples," "Amazing Apples," "The Big Apple Mystery," "Apples, Apples, Apples," "Apples A-Z,"
Saturday, October 10, 2015
UPDATES for 10/5-10/8 2015
**Our Walk to School Day was a success! Over half of our class walked to school in the morning. The rest of the class walked with Mr. Hancock at lunchtime. Each student colored their gym shoe and received a hand stamp. Mr Hancock will put up all the shoes on the gym walls. Cool!
**Thanks for sending in your Parent Conference confirmed responses. Keep them coming! I will reschedule parents who need a new day and time this week. I will email you. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, October 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 21st. Please note: On Thursday, October 22nd and Friday, October 23rd school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There will be district bus service, Hephzibah and Clubhouse pick up at 11:00 am. There is NO afternoon session.
**CALLING ALL CURIOUS KIDS!!! There is still time to design a vehicle for the Egg Drop or create a project for the Academic Fair. Both events are Wednesday, October 14th. We have 2 students doing projects that I know of and 5 students who have designed vehicles. Don't forget you need to sign up online for one or both events on the Irving website. Come on....the more the merrier!!! Come join us on Wednesday afternoon beginning at 1:00 pm on the turf for the Egg Drop Contest. Come to view and hear the students speak about their projects on Wednesday night beginning at 6:30 pm in the gym. It will be one FUN day!
**The students began prep for Lexia Core 5 in the lab this week. They will be getting their usernames and passwords next week and will begin work in the lab 2X week for 30 minutes. I will also send information home with them on adding Lexia Core 5 to your home computer or tablet for practice at home.
**Our Pacer's Walking/Running Club is in full swing. The students are enjoying the fresh air and the activity. Each student has earned 2 foot charms to put on their necklaces. We will keep our necklaces in a special envelope here at school.
**The first rotation of Route to Reading skills specific groups will begin on Tuesday. October 13th. You will receive notification of the phonemic awareness skill your child will be working on and the teacher who is teaching it. Route to Reading will meet Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 9:05-9:45. Each rotation is 3 weeks with assessment of the skill in the third week. Students must score 90% on the skill to move to another skill. Students have the opportunity to remain at the skill, move to the next skill or skip skills. I will speak about this in more detail at parent conferences.
**WOW! Thanks to the great response for Friday Station Day helpers. The Sign Up Genius did the trick. If you are interested and there are no more spots.....email me a Friday and we can have 2 parents helping out. I would love it and your child would too. I believe Sign Up Genius will send out a reminder to you. Thanks again K. Meier for suggesting this.
**Let's Run!!!! Information about the Annual Irving Fun Run in is your child's homework folder. This is a BIG fundraiser for our PTO. Sign up online to pledge your support. The Fun Run will be held on Wednesday, October 21st beginning at 8:30 am. Our Kindergarten classes will run first at 8:15 am. Come out and support us on Wednesday morning!! Cheer, make signs, take a picture of us with the Irving Eagle!! Let's get moving!!
**While we are on the subject of fundraisers.......sign up for TRIVIA NIGHT another huge fundraiser. It's super great for grown ups. It will be held on Thursday, November 5th from 7-10 pm at the Wire in Berwyn.
**Our Student Council Reps, Quinn and Jackson went to their first meeting. They met with other students representing grades K-5. They discussed their mission and began chatting about different projects and events that would benefit Irving School and our community. They came back to class and reported on some of the ideas. Stay tuned!
**No School Monday, October 12th in observance of Columbus Day.
**Walking Field Trip to Maze Library is in the works for the first week in November. Details and permission slip soon. I will need 1-2 volunteers.
**Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm. I will need 4-5 volunteers.
**Yes......Halloween is coming (the afternoon of October 30th) There is chatter amongst the children!!! We have not talked about it as a class yet. Too early. Our approach will be to study nocturnal animals, the skeleton as it relates to humans and animals and a mini unit on spiders. Informational and noncreepy!! I will be chatting with our room parents as soon as I know what the PTO has planned for that day. Our afternoon usually begins with a all school parade, some all school event and then our class party. We will follow our regular schedule in the morning. More info on costumes and treats to come. All families are welcome to attend!
This week:
Yes! We do have a striped skunk visiting our class for a few weeks courtesy of the Field Museum. The students were all a buzz about this nocturnal animal......Is it dead? How did it get in that exhibit case? We discussed how the museum can let us borrow an animal that is stuffed so we can learn about it and see it up close. Yes...It was once alive! The students observed its fur, face and claws. Skunks are common to Oak Park and they are nocturnal. Skunks, like humans are mammals. We also talked about what makes a mammal. We humans are observing what happens in the fall. What are skunks doing in the fall? Stay tuned. The students began an initial inquiry about what they knew about apples. Next week is all about apple science!
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed how families can change. Family members move away or move in. Children grow older. Family sizes can increase. The students elbowed chatted with a partner about an activity they did when they were a baby and an activity they can now do as a 5/6 year old. We made a list of activities we did when we were babies.....cry, be carried, crawl, drink a bottle and a list of activities that we can now do.....ride a bike, dress ourselves, walk.....This preparation will assist the students next week when they begin their summative text activity using the trade book, "Peter's Chair." We continue to work on story structure and will begin to look more closely at the details that support the story. The students continue work on retelling a story and that most stories have a beginning, middle and ending part. We use the text, "Picnic at Apple Park" from last week. The students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story in order. They worked on thinking about the big or main idea of the story. What is this story about? How do you know? Can you find evidence for your thinking in the story? Can the pictures help you? The students reviewed the sight words taught thus far. They "walked their words." Robust Vocabulary for this week included CHANGE, RELATIVES, EAGER, OCCASION, CELEBRATE. In our phonemic awareness activities this week, the students continue to work on rhyme patterns, 2-4 syllables words and beginning sound blending of 2 sound words. During our read aloud time, the students read "Can We." Students caught on to the story structure.....a question and an answer. Tracking skills are becoming more consistent. Pointing to each word and picture and keeping your place while other are reading are important in our whole group read aloud. Target sounds reviewed were Mm and Ss and short A. Students did a formative text Blueprint Workmat about characters, setting and main event on the nonfiction story, "How Do You Get To School?" Our Haggerty BlueBook exercises continue to reinforce rhyming, initial and final sounds, syllables, blending sounds, counting words in a sentence and adding and substituting word parts. Workstations this week included leveled read aloud, elbow chatting about characters, setting and main events, walking your words, drawing your family and writing about an activity you like to do with them (sentence starter....We like to.....) sentence building with sight words and pictures, sentence writing, What can happen next?--adding to the story you read, the syllable game and roll, cover and bump-initial sounds and Monster Mash--initial sound activity.
Math: This week, the students began work on their number rhymes for 6-9. They continue to work on counting quantities to 15 and writing their numbers. In their calendar books, the students are becoming more comfortable telling and writing which number will come next, recording the date, writing the number of the day, working on A/B, AA/B and ABC patterns and completing their ten frames. The students are finding the temperature on the weatherunderground app and recording it and what kind of weather we are having each day. They are working to understand place value--number of groups of tens and ones. The students worked on reckenrek activities "Slide and Say" and "Show Me." They learned and played the game "Heads or Tails Tally" with a partner. Our math workstations included pattern block shape find, "Heads or Tails Tally," "Swat the Number," Writing numbers 0-20 and how high can you count?
Writing: The students continue to work on Frog Jump capitals. This week, letters N and M were introduced. Students experimented with using the wooden pieces to form the letters. They used their mini boards and tripod grasp with their tiny chalk. In Writer's Workshop, the students illustrated and wrote about an animal and one fact about it, something they like to do with their family and something they can see outside. The students are working on beginning with a capital letter, spacing between words and having an ending mark. At this point, it is still very early in letter formation and all letter types (all upper or some lowercase) are acceptable. Students continue to use their letter/sound cards to assist in their writing. Labeling of pictures is occurring along with inventive or phonetic spelling. Students are talking more chances and feeling more confident about trying to write on their own. During Journal conference time, I am working individually with students on sentence structure.
Technology: In reading whole group, the app My ABC was used to reinforce letter recognition, sound/symbol and upper and lowercase math and Word Wizard to reinforce blending sounds to creating words. The app Oz Phonics was used to enhance knowledge od beginning and ending sounds. In Math whole group, the apps Easy Match, Number Rack (reckenrek app) and Geoboard were used to enhance study of number patterns, shapes and visual thinking. Next week, iPad assignment may be part of a student workstation in reading and math.
Literature: "How Do You Go To School?" "Me and My Family Tree," "In 1492," "Where in the Wild," "Why Do Leaves Change Color?" "Picnic at Apple Park," "Night Animals."
**Thanks for sending in your Parent Conference confirmed responses. Keep them coming! I will reschedule parents who need a new day and time this week. I will email you. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, October 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 21st. Please note: On Thursday, October 22nd and Friday, October 23rd school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There will be district bus service, Hephzibah and Clubhouse pick up at 11:00 am. There is NO afternoon session.
**CALLING ALL CURIOUS KIDS!!! There is still time to design a vehicle for the Egg Drop or create a project for the Academic Fair. Both events are Wednesday, October 14th. We have 2 students doing projects that I know of and 5 students who have designed vehicles. Don't forget you need to sign up online for one or both events on the Irving website. Come on....the more the merrier!!! Come join us on Wednesday afternoon beginning at 1:00 pm on the turf for the Egg Drop Contest. Come to view and hear the students speak about their projects on Wednesday night beginning at 6:30 pm in the gym. It will be one FUN day!
**The students began prep for Lexia Core 5 in the lab this week. They will be getting their usernames and passwords next week and will begin work in the lab 2X week for 30 minutes. I will also send information home with them on adding Lexia Core 5 to your home computer or tablet for practice at home.
**Our Pacer's Walking/Running Club is in full swing. The students are enjoying the fresh air and the activity. Each student has earned 2 foot charms to put on their necklaces. We will keep our necklaces in a special envelope here at school.
**The first rotation of Route to Reading skills specific groups will begin on Tuesday. October 13th. You will receive notification of the phonemic awareness skill your child will be working on and the teacher who is teaching it. Route to Reading will meet Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 9:05-9:45. Each rotation is 3 weeks with assessment of the skill in the third week. Students must score 90% on the skill to move to another skill. Students have the opportunity to remain at the skill, move to the next skill or skip skills. I will speak about this in more detail at parent conferences.
**WOW! Thanks to the great response for Friday Station Day helpers. The Sign Up Genius did the trick. If you are interested and there are no more spots.....email me a Friday and we can have 2 parents helping out. I would love it and your child would too. I believe Sign Up Genius will send out a reminder to you. Thanks again K. Meier for suggesting this.
**Let's Run!!!! Information about the Annual Irving Fun Run in is your child's homework folder. This is a BIG fundraiser for our PTO. Sign up online to pledge your support. The Fun Run will be held on Wednesday, October 21st beginning at 8:30 am. Our Kindergarten classes will run first at 8:15 am. Come out and support us on Wednesday morning!! Cheer, make signs, take a picture of us with the Irving Eagle!! Let's get moving!!
**While we are on the subject of fundraisers.......sign up for TRIVIA NIGHT another huge fundraiser. It's super great for grown ups. It will be held on Thursday, November 5th from 7-10 pm at the Wire in Berwyn.
**Our Student Council Reps, Quinn and Jackson went to their first meeting. They met with other students representing grades K-5. They discussed their mission and began chatting about different projects and events that would benefit Irving School and our community. They came back to class and reported on some of the ideas. Stay tuned!
**No School Monday, October 12th in observance of Columbus Day.
**Walking Field Trip to Maze Library is in the works for the first week in November. Details and permission slip soon. I will need 1-2 volunteers.
**Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm. I will need 4-5 volunteers.
**Yes......Halloween is coming (the afternoon of October 30th) There is chatter amongst the children!!! We have not talked about it as a class yet. Too early. Our approach will be to study nocturnal animals, the skeleton as it relates to humans and animals and a mini unit on spiders. Informational and noncreepy!! I will be chatting with our room parents as soon as I know what the PTO has planned for that day. Our afternoon usually begins with a all school parade, some all school event and then our class party. We will follow our regular schedule in the morning. More info on costumes and treats to come. All families are welcome to attend!
This week:
Yes! We do have a striped skunk visiting our class for a few weeks courtesy of the Field Museum. The students were all a buzz about this nocturnal animal......Is it dead? How did it get in that exhibit case? We discussed how the museum can let us borrow an animal that is stuffed so we can learn about it and see it up close. Yes...It was once alive! The students observed its fur, face and claws. Skunks are common to Oak Park and they are nocturnal. Skunks, like humans are mammals. We also talked about what makes a mammal. We humans are observing what happens in the fall. What are skunks doing in the fall? Stay tuned. The students began an initial inquiry about what they knew about apples. Next week is all about apple science!
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed how families can change. Family members move away or move in. Children grow older. Family sizes can increase. The students elbowed chatted with a partner about an activity they did when they were a baby and an activity they can now do as a 5/6 year old. We made a list of activities we did when we were babies.....cry, be carried, crawl, drink a bottle and a list of activities that we can now do.....ride a bike, dress ourselves, walk.....This preparation will assist the students next week when they begin their summative text activity using the trade book, "Peter's Chair." We continue to work on story structure and will begin to look more closely at the details that support the story. The students continue work on retelling a story and that most stories have a beginning, middle and ending part. We use the text, "Picnic at Apple Park" from last week. The students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story in order. They worked on thinking about the big or main idea of the story. What is this story about? How do you know? Can you find evidence for your thinking in the story? Can the pictures help you? The students reviewed the sight words taught thus far. They "walked their words." Robust Vocabulary for this week included CHANGE, RELATIVES, EAGER, OCCASION, CELEBRATE. In our phonemic awareness activities this week, the students continue to work on rhyme patterns, 2-4 syllables words and beginning sound blending of 2 sound words. During our read aloud time, the students read "Can We." Students caught on to the story structure.....a question and an answer. Tracking skills are becoming more consistent. Pointing to each word and picture and keeping your place while other are reading are important in our whole group read aloud. Target sounds reviewed were Mm and Ss and short A. Students did a formative text Blueprint Workmat about characters, setting and main event on the nonfiction story, "How Do You Get To School?" Our Haggerty BlueBook exercises continue to reinforce rhyming, initial and final sounds, syllables, blending sounds, counting words in a sentence and adding and substituting word parts. Workstations this week included leveled read aloud, elbow chatting about characters, setting and main events, walking your words, drawing your family and writing about an activity you like to do with them (sentence starter....We like to.....) sentence building with sight words and pictures, sentence writing, What can happen next?--adding to the story you read, the syllable game and roll, cover and bump-initial sounds and Monster Mash--initial sound activity.
Math: This week, the students began work on their number rhymes for 6-9. They continue to work on counting quantities to 15 and writing their numbers. In their calendar books, the students are becoming more comfortable telling and writing which number will come next, recording the date, writing the number of the day, working on A/B, AA/B and ABC patterns and completing their ten frames. The students are finding the temperature on the weatherunderground app and recording it and what kind of weather we are having each day. They are working to understand place value--number of groups of tens and ones. The students worked on reckenrek activities "Slide and Say" and "Show Me." They learned and played the game "Heads or Tails Tally" with a partner. Our math workstations included pattern block shape find, "Heads or Tails Tally," "Swat the Number," Writing numbers 0-20 and how high can you count?
Writing: The students continue to work on Frog Jump capitals. This week, letters N and M were introduced. Students experimented with using the wooden pieces to form the letters. They used their mini boards and tripod grasp with their tiny chalk. In Writer's Workshop, the students illustrated and wrote about an animal and one fact about it, something they like to do with their family and something they can see outside. The students are working on beginning with a capital letter, spacing between words and having an ending mark. At this point, it is still very early in letter formation and all letter types (all upper or some lowercase) are acceptable. Students continue to use their letter/sound cards to assist in their writing. Labeling of pictures is occurring along with inventive or phonetic spelling. Students are talking more chances and feeling more confident about trying to write on their own. During Journal conference time, I am working individually with students on sentence structure.
Technology: In reading whole group, the app My ABC was used to reinforce letter recognition, sound/symbol and upper and lowercase math and Word Wizard to reinforce blending sounds to creating words. The app Oz Phonics was used to enhance knowledge od beginning and ending sounds. In Math whole group, the apps Easy Match, Number Rack (reckenrek app) and Geoboard were used to enhance study of number patterns, shapes and visual thinking. Next week, iPad assignment may be part of a student workstation in reading and math.
Literature: "How Do You Go To School?" "Me and My Family Tree," "In 1492," "Where in the Wild," "Why Do Leaves Change Color?" "Picnic at Apple Park," "Night Animals."
Saturday, October 3, 2015
UPDATES for 9/28-10/2 2015
**We were all smiles for our Class Picture Day! The individual photos were pretty cute too! A big thanks to K. Meier for helping us look our best.
**Family Math Night was a huge success! Thanks to those of you that attended. The attendees followed the Yellow Brick Road to fun activities and were treated to an Emerald City Sundae in the lunchroom. Some students and parents even dressed the part!
**Our school wide PACERS Running/Walking Club began on Thursday. Every Thursday at lunchtime until Thanksgiving break, students will be able to run or walk around the block of the school. For every mile students run or walk, they will receive a foot charm to attach to a necklace. Our class has decorated a special envelope to keep their necklace in. At the end of the year, it should look pretty cool with lots of foot charms.
**We had our first parent facilitated Station Day on Friday. Ella's mom was our first volunteer. My room parents have offered to create a Sign Up Genius so that parents can see actual dates for the entire year and sign up on line. Great idea! Look for that soon. Some of you have sent back the form.....please go ahead and sign up on line when it becomes available. Thanks!!!!!
**Notices for Parent/Teacher Conferences are in your child's homework folder. Many of you had signed up during Open House. Please send back your confirmation. If you didn't not sign up, I sent you a day and time. Please confirm or send me some suggestions for a new and day and time. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, October, 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 21st. Please note: On Thursday, October 22nd and Friday, October 23rd, school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There will be district bus service, Hephzibah and Clubhouse pick up at 11:00 am. There is NO afternoon session.
**Wednesday, October 7th is Walk to School Day. All students who walk to school will receive a hand stamp and gym shoe to color. The colored shoe will be displayed in the gym. If you cannot walk to school on Wednesday......no worries.....You can walk with Mr. Hancock at lunchtime and get your hand stamp and shoe to color.
**CONGRATULATIONS to QUINN and JACKSON who are our Student Council Reps. They will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, October 6th and report back to us. We can't wait to hear about projects they are thinking up. Thanks to all of the students who were interested. We will choose new reps in December for the new trimester.
**Our Route to Reading skills groups have been pushed back to begin on Monday, October 13th so that all teachers can complete the necessary testing for skills placement groups.
**This week, our students participated in a Math baseline screening called AIMSWEB. This screening will assist us in planning our daily lessons and allow for differentiation of instruction. I will share the results of this screening with you at conference time.
**Lots of student conversation around the Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest that will be held on Wednesday, October 14th. Ms. Creehan visited our class this week to share project format and talk to the students about ideas they might have for a project. She also discussed with the students the idea of a vehicle that can hold a raw egg securely so that when it is dropped out of a 3rd floor window.....it will not break. Some students have already created theirs!!!!! WOW!!!! Online registration is necessary. I had sent the information in your child's homework folder last week. You can also access it on the Irving School website. Think about assisting your child in a project or vehicle. It's so fun!!!!! Email me with any questions you may have. Ms. Noonan and myself can be a resource for you too.
**The sign up for for TRIVIA NIGHT---sponsored by PTO is in your child's homework folder. It is super great fun for grown ups! Check it out! It is Thursday, November 5th from 7-10 pm at the Wire in Berwyn.
**Information on PTO's BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the YEAR will be posted soon. The FUN RUN FUNDRAISER will be held on Wednesday, October 21st. Our primary students will run around the turf beginning at 8:30 am. Come cheer us on!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued the discussion, role playing and puppetry surrounding the zones of regulation The students are getting lots of ideas about how to regulate their own behavior. I am seeing evidence of this in class. Yeah!!!!!
** In Mr. Packer's first Problem Solving session, he spoke to the students about teaching them how to be a good thinker and problem solver. He did a really cute activity using the students names and a word of something they like beginning with the beginning sound that is the same as the first letter sound in their name.
**In Mr. Degman Math/Tech, Mr. Degman worked with groups of students on an app called Educreations. The students worked on different shape configurations. Cool!
**Planning a walking field trip to the Maze Branch Library sometime at October or early November. As soon as I have the details, I will pass them on to you. 2 volunteers needed
**Future Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm. 4-5 volunteers needed.
This week:
We are now in the season of fall/autumn. The students are beginning to notice some changes taking place outside and in their home. Some students are noticing leaves falling from the trees and whole trees beginning to change color. In the morning, more students are coming to school with jackets and sweatshirts. They are noticing less bugs outside. Our nature table and microscope areas are beginning to fill up with items from outdoors. Next week, we will begin to chat more about changes both for humans and animals as we dive into fall. Shhhhhh.....We will have surprise "visitor" in our class on Monday. Station Day activities included writing and illustrating about a fall activity, pattern block build and count, number writing and quantity review 0-5 and initial sound roll, cover and bump with partners.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue working on Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The phonemic awareness portion keyed in on target sounds short a and Mm. The students brainstormed a word list for words that name animals. Next week, they will brainstorm a word list for words that name items or things. The students continue to work on listening comprehension and identifying story elements--characters, setting, main events and why the events are important tot the story. In our Big Book story, "Picnic at Apple Park," the students also looked for language patterns as I read. (question-answer) The students responded and retold events in the story sequence. They had an "elbow chat" to discuss with a partner WHO was in the story, WHERE the story happens and WHAT was happening. We discussed how story structure can provide evidence for our predictions. Our summative text this week was "How Rocket Learned to Read." The students worked on the same Blueprint Workmat format. They acted out certain parts and took turns being the characters. They elbow chatted with a partner about the elements of the story. During our second reading of the story, students were already volunteering to help me write or draw a picture on the projected workmat. They are remembering key vocabulary and special words that enhance the story. They are becoming more familiar with the format now. I encouraged the students to try some of their own writing. Their summative Blueprints showed more details in their pictures and more students taking that chance to write about an event, characters and setting. Cool! Robust Vocabulary for this week included COOPERATIVE, EXCITING, CAPTIVATED, STARTLED, GATHER, EXHAUSTED. The students practiced their tracking skills in our group read aloud, "The Baseball." Part of this exercise is to see if students can track the words while another student is reading aloud. Students continue work in our Haggerty Book on phonemic awareness exercises---initial sound and final sound recognition, working with short and long vowel sounds. syllables, adding and deleting sounds to create words and substituting word parts to create new words. Our workstations are in full swing. The table managers are getting the hang of positive management skills and the groups are working more cooperatively to complete assignments. It is lovely to hear the sounds of beginning and sometimes very eager readers!!!!! Workstations this week included upper and lowercase match, counting syllables activity, creating sentence using sight words and pictures, sound/picture match up, finishing up paper dolls of your family members and leveled readers-read aloud and partner comprehension check.
Math: What is a reckenrek??? Check out the photo on the side of the blog. Looks a little like an abacus but a little different.....10 rows.....5 white beads....5 red beads in each row.....mmmm. The reckenrek is a calculating frame that acts as a visual model for developing strategic reasoning in math. Students are beginning to see or visualize patterns and strategies for solving math problems. There may be more than one way to solve a problem. Right now the students are at the beginning stages. We started by looking at the 5 white and 5 red beads....10 altogether. If you already know that there are 5 white and I add 1 more???? Do you have to count it or can you see it???? The students worked on an activity call count and slide. I slid beads from one side to another. They had to figure out what number was being illustrated. I may have some serious math heads here!!!! Loads of fun. Next week, we will be using app with reckenrek activities. The students continue to work on recognizing pattern block shapes. We did the pattern block shape "Hokey Pokey." Hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus and skinny rhombus--we discussed how many sides and corners each shape has. What do a trapezoid, square, rectangle and rhombus have in common???? The students counted pennies by hearing to them fall into a jar. Our "listening jar" was tons of fun! Our math workstations this week included "swat the number," count and record, beginning work with tally marks, sequencing number cards, number rhymes for 6 and 7 and working on positional concepts.
Writing: The students continue work on their Frog Jump capitals. This week letters P, B and R were introduced. The students applied what they learned in their orange practice books. Proper writing posture continues to be reinforced--sitting up straight so that our back touches the back of the chair--feet under the table---one hand holding our pencil or marker (tripod grasp) and the other hand holding down our paper. In our Writer's Workshop this week, the students worked on labeling parts of their pictures with a word that describes their drawing. They continue to add more details and color to their drawings. More students are attempting to write down a word and use their sounds and sound cards as an assist. Sentence writers are beginning to use a capital letter at the beginning more consistently.
Technology: In reading whole group, the app Montessori Crosswords was used to enhance knowledge of putting sounds together to form a word. We have been concentrating on short a words with a simple consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. Magnetic Letters HD was used to reinforce sight words and sentence building. In math, the apps Subitize Tree and Geoboard were used whole group to work on visual recognition of number and shape recognition. Student small groups used the app Educreations with Mr. Degman work on shapes and shape concepts. As we begin to chart our weather patterns, the app Storm and Weatherunderground was used this week to track temperature, wind speed and the amount of sun or clouds. The students enjoyed watching clouds moving across the screen!
Literature: "How Rocket Learned to Read," "Where In The Wild," "Chipmunck at Hollow Tree Lane," "I am a Leaf,""Leaves Fall Down,""The Way I Feel,""Mean Jean the Recess Queen," "Smile If You Are Human," "I Can, We Can," "The Clever Turtle," "It's Autumn."
**Family Math Night was a huge success! Thanks to those of you that attended. The attendees followed the Yellow Brick Road to fun activities and were treated to an Emerald City Sundae in the lunchroom. Some students and parents even dressed the part!
**Our school wide PACERS Running/Walking Club began on Thursday. Every Thursday at lunchtime until Thanksgiving break, students will be able to run or walk around the block of the school. For every mile students run or walk, they will receive a foot charm to attach to a necklace. Our class has decorated a special envelope to keep their necklace in. At the end of the year, it should look pretty cool with lots of foot charms.
**We had our first parent facilitated Station Day on Friday. Ella's mom was our first volunteer. My room parents have offered to create a Sign Up Genius so that parents can see actual dates for the entire year and sign up on line. Great idea! Look for that soon. Some of you have sent back the form.....please go ahead and sign up on line when it becomes available. Thanks!!!!!
**Notices for Parent/Teacher Conferences are in your child's homework folder. Many of you had signed up during Open House. Please send back your confirmation. If you didn't not sign up, I sent you a day and time. Please confirm or send me some suggestions for a new and day and time. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, October, 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 21st. Please note: On Thursday, October 22nd and Friday, October 23rd, school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There will be district bus service, Hephzibah and Clubhouse pick up at 11:00 am. There is NO afternoon session.
**Wednesday, October 7th is Walk to School Day. All students who walk to school will receive a hand stamp and gym shoe to color. The colored shoe will be displayed in the gym. If you cannot walk to school on Wednesday......no worries.....You can walk with Mr. Hancock at lunchtime and get your hand stamp and shoe to color.
**CONGRATULATIONS to QUINN and JACKSON who are our Student Council Reps. They will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, October 6th and report back to us. We can't wait to hear about projects they are thinking up. Thanks to all of the students who were interested. We will choose new reps in December for the new trimester.
**Our Route to Reading skills groups have been pushed back to begin on Monday, October 13th so that all teachers can complete the necessary testing for skills placement groups.
**This week, our students participated in a Math baseline screening called AIMSWEB. This screening will assist us in planning our daily lessons and allow for differentiation of instruction. I will share the results of this screening with you at conference time.
**Lots of student conversation around the Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest that will be held on Wednesday, October 14th. Ms. Creehan visited our class this week to share project format and talk to the students about ideas they might have for a project. She also discussed with the students the idea of a vehicle that can hold a raw egg securely so that when it is dropped out of a 3rd floor window.....it will not break. Some students have already created theirs!!!!! WOW!!!! Online registration is necessary. I had sent the information in your child's homework folder last week. You can also access it on the Irving School website. Think about assisting your child in a project or vehicle. It's so fun!!!!! Email me with any questions you may have. Ms. Noonan and myself can be a resource for you too.
**The sign up for for TRIVIA NIGHT---sponsored by PTO is in your child's homework folder. It is super great fun for grown ups! Check it out! It is Thursday, November 5th from 7-10 pm at the Wire in Berwyn.
**Information on PTO's BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the YEAR will be posted soon. The FUN RUN FUNDRAISER will be held on Wednesday, October 21st. Our primary students will run around the turf beginning at 8:30 am. Come cheer us on!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued the discussion, role playing and puppetry surrounding the zones of regulation The students are getting lots of ideas about how to regulate their own behavior. I am seeing evidence of this in class. Yeah!!!!!
** In Mr. Packer's first Problem Solving session, he spoke to the students about teaching them how to be a good thinker and problem solver. He did a really cute activity using the students names and a word of something they like beginning with the beginning sound that is the same as the first letter sound in their name.
**In Mr. Degman Math/Tech, Mr. Degman worked with groups of students on an app called Educreations. The students worked on different shape configurations. Cool!
**Planning a walking field trip to the Maze Branch Library sometime at October or early November. As soon as I have the details, I will pass them on to you. 2 volunteers needed
**Future Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm. 4-5 volunteers needed.
This week:
We are now in the season of fall/autumn. The students are beginning to notice some changes taking place outside and in their home. Some students are noticing leaves falling from the trees and whole trees beginning to change color. In the morning, more students are coming to school with jackets and sweatshirts. They are noticing less bugs outside. Our nature table and microscope areas are beginning to fill up with items from outdoors. Next week, we will begin to chat more about changes both for humans and animals as we dive into fall. Shhhhhh.....We will have surprise "visitor" in our class on Monday. Station Day activities included writing and illustrating about a fall activity, pattern block build and count, number writing and quantity review 0-5 and initial sound roll, cover and bump with partners.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue working on Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The phonemic awareness portion keyed in on target sounds short a and Mm. The students brainstormed a word list for words that name animals. Next week, they will brainstorm a word list for words that name items or things. The students continue to work on listening comprehension and identifying story elements--characters, setting, main events and why the events are important tot the story. In our Big Book story, "Picnic at Apple Park," the students also looked for language patterns as I read. (question-answer) The students responded and retold events in the story sequence. They had an "elbow chat" to discuss with a partner WHO was in the story, WHERE the story happens and WHAT was happening. We discussed how story structure can provide evidence for our predictions. Our summative text this week was "How Rocket Learned to Read." The students worked on the same Blueprint Workmat format. They acted out certain parts and took turns being the characters. They elbow chatted with a partner about the elements of the story. During our second reading of the story, students were already volunteering to help me write or draw a picture on the projected workmat. They are remembering key vocabulary and special words that enhance the story. They are becoming more familiar with the format now. I encouraged the students to try some of their own writing. Their summative Blueprints showed more details in their pictures and more students taking that chance to write about an event, characters and setting. Cool! Robust Vocabulary for this week included COOPERATIVE, EXCITING, CAPTIVATED, STARTLED, GATHER, EXHAUSTED. The students practiced their tracking skills in our group read aloud, "The Baseball." Part of this exercise is to see if students can track the words while another student is reading aloud. Students continue work in our Haggerty Book on phonemic awareness exercises---initial sound and final sound recognition, working with short and long vowel sounds. syllables, adding and deleting sounds to create words and substituting word parts to create new words. Our workstations are in full swing. The table managers are getting the hang of positive management skills and the groups are working more cooperatively to complete assignments. It is lovely to hear the sounds of beginning and sometimes very eager readers!!!!! Workstations this week included upper and lowercase match, counting syllables activity, creating sentence using sight words and pictures, sound/picture match up, finishing up paper dolls of your family members and leveled readers-read aloud and partner comprehension check.
Math: What is a reckenrek??? Check out the photo on the side of the blog. Looks a little like an abacus but a little different.....10 rows.....5 white beads....5 red beads in each row.....mmmm. The reckenrek is a calculating frame that acts as a visual model for developing strategic reasoning in math. Students are beginning to see or visualize patterns and strategies for solving math problems. There may be more than one way to solve a problem. Right now the students are at the beginning stages. We started by looking at the 5 white and 5 red beads....10 altogether. If you already know that there are 5 white and I add 1 more???? Do you have to count it or can you see it???? The students worked on an activity call count and slide. I slid beads from one side to another. They had to figure out what number was being illustrated. I may have some serious math heads here!!!! Loads of fun. Next week, we will be using app with reckenrek activities. The students continue to work on recognizing pattern block shapes. We did the pattern block shape "Hokey Pokey." Hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus and skinny rhombus--we discussed how many sides and corners each shape has. What do a trapezoid, square, rectangle and rhombus have in common???? The students counted pennies by hearing to them fall into a jar. Our "listening jar" was tons of fun! Our math workstations this week included "swat the number," count and record, beginning work with tally marks, sequencing number cards, number rhymes for 6 and 7 and working on positional concepts.
Writing: The students continue work on their Frog Jump capitals. This week letters P, B and R were introduced. The students applied what they learned in their orange practice books. Proper writing posture continues to be reinforced--sitting up straight so that our back touches the back of the chair--feet under the table---one hand holding our pencil or marker (tripod grasp) and the other hand holding down our paper. In our Writer's Workshop this week, the students worked on labeling parts of their pictures with a word that describes their drawing. They continue to add more details and color to their drawings. More students are attempting to write down a word and use their sounds and sound cards as an assist. Sentence writers are beginning to use a capital letter at the beginning more consistently.
Technology: In reading whole group, the app Montessori Crosswords was used to enhance knowledge of putting sounds together to form a word. We have been concentrating on short a words with a simple consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. Magnetic Letters HD was used to reinforce sight words and sentence building. In math, the apps Subitize Tree and Geoboard were used whole group to work on visual recognition of number and shape recognition. Student small groups used the app Educreations with Mr. Degman work on shapes and shape concepts. As we begin to chart our weather patterns, the app Storm and Weatherunderground was used this week to track temperature, wind speed and the amount of sun or clouds. The students enjoyed watching clouds moving across the screen!
Literature: "How Rocket Learned to Read," "Where In The Wild," "Chipmunck at Hollow Tree Lane," "I am a Leaf,""Leaves Fall Down,""The Way I Feel,""Mean Jean the Recess Queen," "Smile If You Are Human," "I Can, We Can," "The Clever Turtle," "It's Autumn."
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