**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,"
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