**We had a productive and calm classroom this week as we headed into the last week of classes before break. The students reflected on the year 2015 and created a Compliment Card board where they posted written compliments about fellow classmates. The students worked on creating friendship chains and decorated the classroom and our Secret Snowflake classroom.
**Our Winter Concert was fabulous! Our get together afterwards gave the students a chance to showcase some of the work they had done as well as share some treats! Thanks to all who helped out. The students were delighted to see parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles brothers and sisters at their concert.
**Our End of the Year Book Buddy get together was awesome! The students shared treats and worked on a getting to know you movie trailer using iMovie. Some of the movies are still being sent to me and hopefully I will share them with you.
**Classes resume on Monday, January 4th.
**Reading Grandma Mary will be returning for her 9th year of hearing our budding readers! She will join our class one morning a week and will work one on one with each student on fluency and comprehension.
** Our other wonderful grandma, Mrs. D. will also be returning on Tuesdays to volunteer at literacy workstations.
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin on January 4th. You will receive notification of the skill your child will be working on.
**Mid Year DIBELS screening for phonemic awareness and Mid Year AIMSWEB screening for math will begin the week of January 11th.
**Vision Screening for Kindergarten students will be held Friday, January 8th in the morning.
**No School on Friday, January 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**No School on Monday, January 18th--observance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.
**Swap, Shop and Read Book Exchange will be held on January 21st from 6-7:30 pm. A flyer was in your child's homework folder.
**Hearing Screening for Kindergarten will be held on Friday, February 5th in the morning.
**Our 100th Day of School is Wednesday, February 10th. I need lots of parent help for the activities and festivities. Stay tuned!
**Mid Year Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, February 8th, Tuesday, February 9th and Wednesday, February 10th. Thursday and Friday (February 11th and 12th) dismissal is at 11:00 am. There is no afternoon session.
**The Fun Fair is Coming!!!! It's Saturday, February 20th from 11-3 pm. Stay tuned!
** Start saving those GIANT BOXES (the kind you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our space station design and construction in APRIL. I cannot store anything now. I will have you start bringing it in after spring break.
LOOKING AHEAD IN 2016-----Assuming we WILL HAVE cold weather and snow......Please send your child with appropriate dress. Boots and snow pants are a must for playing on the snow hills that will form as part of plowing the playground. I will have extra mittens and a few pair of snow pants in the room if you forget. We will begin our next cross curricular theme-WINTER. We will continue to introduce Next Generation Science strands within our district science model. We will begin our first formal science unit--Investigating Water. In the area of reading, the students will continue to focus on sound foundation, sound blending and segmenting/adding/deleting phonemes in 3,4,5, and even 6 phoneme words. We will also work on oral and written comprehension, sequencing events in a story, gathering supporting details in a text, stating an opinion with a supporting reasons, naming the main topic and using text features-like photos/illustrations to help understand the author's message. The students will work on their Blueprint Workmats in these areas. Our BUSY READER CLUB will begin. I will be sending out information about this the first week of school. In the area of writing, the students will begin formal training in forming lowercase letters. Students will continue to work on sentence structure, inventive spelling, grammar and punctuation and expanding sentence length to include adjectives. In the area of math, the students will continue to work on rote counting to 100 by 1's, 10's and beyond, writing numbers, demonstrating knowledge of numbers that are greater than or less than, representing addition and subtraction with objects and mental images, solving story problems using drawing and number work, number bonding to 10, working on teen numbers and fluent addition and subtraction to 5. Socially, the students will continue to work on becoming more responsible and independent learners and thinkers and continue to develop positive relationships with their peers and teachers. In the area of technology, the students will continue to use the iPad and internet resources to enhance all areas of the curriculum. WOW!! We will be very busy!
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The discussion this week centered on types of food you would have for dinner and if you ever helped make dinner. The students accessed prior knowledge about a meal they helped prepare. They shared information about special foods they may eat during the holidays. The students designed their own workstations this week. They included using the app Montessori Crosswords in the crossword puzzle form to segment and blend 3-4 sound words, writing about their favorite meal and why they liked it, using the foam gingerbread stickers as the characters, they draw the setting and create the events to form their own story, write and illustrate in their own words how they get ready for school each morning and walk their words.
Math: The students worked on a variety of counting and problem solving activities--creating snowflakes--counting the folds to make and where to cut, making Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer by listening to the directions, cutting and figuring where to place the pieces in order to make his face, playing the Dreidel Game and creating a tree using triangles and one rectangle. Some pretty cool thinking going on!
Writing: The students finished up work on uppercase letter formation. They worked on a writing project where they first created a gingerbread person of their choice and then wrote 2-4 sentences to describe them. They continue to work on reading their own writing and are beginning to make their own corrections. They are working on placement of letters on a given line--where do lowercase letters go....uppercase letters....tall lowercase....underground letters???? The students wrote to compliment a classmate on just about anything, Super cute and caring!!
Character Education: The students worked on Growth Mindset/Fixed Mindset thinking and problem and solution while listening to the Rudolph stories--learning from mistakes, keep trying, don't give up, when others do well, I am inspired. Lots of great discussions.
Technology: One new app--Number Find was introduced. This app helps students looked for number patterns in order to find a given number. A blank grid is given. A number is given. What is the quickest way to find that number? Where would you put it on the grid?
Literature: "Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer," "Rudolph Shines Again," "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell," "Jingle Bells, Homework Smells," "How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas?" "Merry Christmas, Hungry Bear," "K is for Kwanzaa," "A Hanukkah Counting Book," "Mooseltoe," "Gingerbread Bear," "Gingerbread Friends," "The Night Before Christmas."
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Sunday, December 13, 2015
UPDATES for 12/7-12/11 2015
**Gingerbread mania, practice for our Winter Concert, sharing our family traditions, so many budding readers and fun times with number bonding were just some of the many cool activities going on in Ms. Gullo's class this week.
**Our 20th Annual Gingerbread Baking, Making and Sharing was a smash!! We could not have done it without the help of our great volunteers--Ms. Meier, Ms. Metz, Ms. Polan, Ms. Constantinescu and Ms. Bell. The students were super charged with enthusiasm and creativity. Lots of time spent on the tiniest of details. Such works of art!! What a tasty treat! We bagged some of our own and shared some of ours with our table friends. Yum! Yum!
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/First Grade Winter Concert on Thursday, December 17th in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances. The first is at 8:15 am. The concert will be performed again at 9:45 am. Please be prompt so we can begin on time. Stop by our room after the concert for some refreshments and conversation.
**Trimester One Report Cards are in your child's homework folder. Please email me with any questions you may have.
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Craft Fair was great. Hope you had a chance to go. Our own First Grade teacher, Ms. Woodson was selling handmade bracelets. Cool!! There were many things to look at and lots of great buys.
**Research assignments are due Thursday, December 17th. The ones that have come in are amazing!!! They will be displayed in the hallway.
**Please let me know if you are traveling over the winter break. I will prepare a travel journal for your child to write and draw about their experiences.
**We will be getting together with our 5th Grade Book Buddies on Friday afternoon. The 5th graders have planned a project for our kinders! They will make a getting to know you movie trailer. Stay tuned!! We will also celebrate the beginning of 2016!!
**Our class has a SECRET SNOWFLAKE!! We are working on some cool surprises for them this week. Shhhhhhh.........It's a secret!
**This week in Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey conducted a voting session to see what the students wanted to do for our last Friday of the year. Outside recess won out!
** In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued to work on a project with the students involving positional concepts.
** In Mr. Degman, Math/Tech this week, the students worked on a project using the app Doodle Buddy creating a number globe with a certain amount of stickers that they then grouped into how many tens and ones. They are up in our hallway.
**School is closed for Winter Break--December 20th-January 3rd. Classes resume on Monday, January 4th.
This week:
It was all about gingerbread, celebrations and traditions. The students did a little research on how the activity of gingerbread making began and why it is so popular at this time of year. Ginger was valuable spice a long time ago traced back to the Greeks and Romans. A cake like treat was made of ginger. As time went on Europeans began using flour, ginger and other spices to create cookies, houses and cakes. The students listened to a number of gingerbread stories. They examined the characters, setting and main events in the stories. They verbally compared and contrasted the characters and the events. How did it end? (eaten...not eaten) Who were the characters? (boy, man, girl, baby, cowboy, wolf, fox, coyote) What happen in the story? They had loads of fun elbow chatting about and sharing their observations. We did a group Venn Diagram comparing the Gingerbread Man and Gingerbread Girl stories. The students discussed a tradition they had in their household. I shared one of my family traditions. The students read about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah with its traditions and symbols. Some of the students learned how to play the dreidel game. The students also read about Advent and story of Christmas with all its traditions and symbols. They are beginning to see the unifying theme of the use of lights in these celebrations. Candles, strands of lights, the light of the North Star. Next week we will chat about Kwanzaa, Ramadan and Diwali.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The unit began with a question about where food comes from. The students accessed prior knowledge about stores, farms, markets and orchards as places where food is found. Some students offered that they had gardens in their back yards in the summer. The students listened to the Big Book, "Apple Farmer Annie." They discussed where Annie lived and her daily activities as an apple farmer. Students made connections from their fall theme about apples, types of apples and what you can make with apples. Other students talked about a time when they went to a farmer's market and bought apples and apple cider. Our target words are to and have. We have added these to our growing number of sight words. Our target letter and sound is Nn. The students reviewed the use of nouns and actions words or verbs. They are also beginning to chat about 2 consonants at the beginning or end and even the middle of a word known as a consonant blend because you hear both sounds. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 4 sound words using consonant blends. Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included FARMER, MARKET, INGREDIENTS, COMBINE, NUTRITIOUS. Students read their pre decodable story, "Can Nan?" They made predictions about story content, read it to themselves and then elbow chatted about the characters, setting and main events with a partner. They reread their story to their partner to practice their fluency. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency reading and story elements, making new words (substituting sounds) main events quilt, real or nonsense categorization, write about your favorite meal, roll a word family activity and small group story elements butterfly, Reader's Checklist, Montessori Crosswords (short e and ccvc and cvcc words) create and record.
Math: The students worked on rote counting to 85. How fast can you go without making a mistake?? The students continue to work on beginning number bonding or ways to say a number. They began work on composing and decomposing teen numbers 11-19. They worked with Mr. Degman on a special project. This week, the students again chose the activities for their workstations. They measured items in the room using mini gingerbread men, counted how gingerbread men and then separated the group into a group of ten and how many left over, colored by code and review geometric solid shape names.
Writing: The students are working on a writing and drawing project about a gingerbread character. They designed and created their special gingerbread character. Using a word bank of selected words, the students are working on a writing piece to describe their gingerbread character. They are working to begin with a capital letter, space between words, form their letters and place them on a given line. They also are working on reading back what they have written. The students continue work on letter formation. They are working on "Magic C" letters and center starting letters. Uppercase letters G, S, A, I were introduced this week. The students applied what they learned in their orange practice books.
Technology: No new apps were introduced this week. The students are now working on the second part of the app Montessori Crosswords using the crossword puzzle and 4 sound words.
Literature: "The Book of Celebrations" (highlighting Advent and Christmas) "Countdown to Hanukkah," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Girl," "The Gingerbread Pirates," "The Gingerbread Baby," "Gingerbread Fred," "Gingerbread Man Loose in the School," "The Gingerbread Cowboy," "Ten Gingerbread Men," "The Gingerbread Boy."
**Our 20th Annual Gingerbread Baking, Making and Sharing was a smash!! We could not have done it without the help of our great volunteers--Ms. Meier, Ms. Metz, Ms. Polan, Ms. Constantinescu and Ms. Bell. The students were super charged with enthusiasm and creativity. Lots of time spent on the tiniest of details. Such works of art!! What a tasty treat! We bagged some of our own and shared some of ours with our table friends. Yum! Yum!
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/First Grade Winter Concert on Thursday, December 17th in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances. The first is at 8:15 am. The concert will be performed again at 9:45 am. Please be prompt so we can begin on time. Stop by our room after the concert for some refreshments and conversation.
**Trimester One Report Cards are in your child's homework folder. Please email me with any questions you may have.
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Craft Fair was great. Hope you had a chance to go. Our own First Grade teacher, Ms. Woodson was selling handmade bracelets. Cool!! There were many things to look at and lots of great buys.
**Research assignments are due Thursday, December 17th. The ones that have come in are amazing!!! They will be displayed in the hallway.
**Please let me know if you are traveling over the winter break. I will prepare a travel journal for your child to write and draw about their experiences.
**We will be getting together with our 5th Grade Book Buddies on Friday afternoon. The 5th graders have planned a project for our kinders! They will make a getting to know you movie trailer. Stay tuned!! We will also celebrate the beginning of 2016!!
**Our class has a SECRET SNOWFLAKE!! We are working on some cool surprises for them this week. Shhhhhhh.........It's a secret!
**This week in Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey conducted a voting session to see what the students wanted to do for our last Friday of the year. Outside recess won out!
** In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued to work on a project with the students involving positional concepts.
** In Mr. Degman, Math/Tech this week, the students worked on a project using the app Doodle Buddy creating a number globe with a certain amount of stickers that they then grouped into how many tens and ones. They are up in our hallway.
**School is closed for Winter Break--December 20th-January 3rd. Classes resume on Monday, January 4th.
This week:
It was all about gingerbread, celebrations and traditions. The students did a little research on how the activity of gingerbread making began and why it is so popular at this time of year. Ginger was valuable spice a long time ago traced back to the Greeks and Romans. A cake like treat was made of ginger. As time went on Europeans began using flour, ginger and other spices to create cookies, houses and cakes. The students listened to a number of gingerbread stories. They examined the characters, setting and main events in the stories. They verbally compared and contrasted the characters and the events. How did it end? (eaten...not eaten) Who were the characters? (boy, man, girl, baby, cowboy, wolf, fox, coyote) What happen in the story? They had loads of fun elbow chatting about and sharing their observations. We did a group Venn Diagram comparing the Gingerbread Man and Gingerbread Girl stories. The students discussed a tradition they had in their household. I shared one of my family traditions. The students read about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah with its traditions and symbols. Some of the students learned how to play the dreidel game. The students also read about Advent and story of Christmas with all its traditions and symbols. They are beginning to see the unifying theme of the use of lights in these celebrations. Candles, strands of lights, the light of the North Star. Next week we will chat about Kwanzaa, Ramadan and Diwali.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The unit began with a question about where food comes from. The students accessed prior knowledge about stores, farms, markets and orchards as places where food is found. Some students offered that they had gardens in their back yards in the summer. The students listened to the Big Book, "Apple Farmer Annie." They discussed where Annie lived and her daily activities as an apple farmer. Students made connections from their fall theme about apples, types of apples and what you can make with apples. Other students talked about a time when they went to a farmer's market and bought apples and apple cider. Our target words are to and have. We have added these to our growing number of sight words. Our target letter and sound is Nn. The students reviewed the use of nouns and actions words or verbs. They are also beginning to chat about 2 consonants at the beginning or end and even the middle of a word known as a consonant blend because you hear both sounds. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 4 sound words using consonant blends. Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included FARMER, MARKET, INGREDIENTS, COMBINE, NUTRITIOUS. Students read their pre decodable story, "Can Nan?" They made predictions about story content, read it to themselves and then elbow chatted about the characters, setting and main events with a partner. They reread their story to their partner to practice their fluency. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency reading and story elements, making new words (substituting sounds) main events quilt, real or nonsense categorization, write about your favorite meal, roll a word family activity and small group story elements butterfly, Reader's Checklist, Montessori Crosswords (short e and ccvc and cvcc words) create and record.
Math: The students worked on rote counting to 85. How fast can you go without making a mistake?? The students continue to work on beginning number bonding or ways to say a number. They began work on composing and decomposing teen numbers 11-19. They worked with Mr. Degman on a special project. This week, the students again chose the activities for their workstations. They measured items in the room using mini gingerbread men, counted how gingerbread men and then separated the group into a group of ten and how many left over, colored by code and review geometric solid shape names.
Writing: The students are working on a writing and drawing project about a gingerbread character. They designed and created their special gingerbread character. Using a word bank of selected words, the students are working on a writing piece to describe their gingerbread character. They are working to begin with a capital letter, space between words, form their letters and place them on a given line. They also are working on reading back what they have written. The students continue work on letter formation. They are working on "Magic C" letters and center starting letters. Uppercase letters G, S, A, I were introduced this week. The students applied what they learned in their orange practice books.
Technology: No new apps were introduced this week. The students are now working on the second part of the app Montessori Crosswords using the crossword puzzle and 4 sound words.
Literature: "The Book of Celebrations" (highlighting Advent and Christmas) "Countdown to Hanukkah," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Girl," "The Gingerbread Pirates," "The Gingerbread Baby," "Gingerbread Fred," "Gingerbread Man Loose in the School," "The Gingerbread Cowboy," "Ten Gingerbread Men," "The Gingerbread Boy."
Sunday, December 6, 2015
UPDATES for 11/23-24 and 11/30-12/4 2015
**It's been very busy around Ms. Gullo's Kindergarten! I will back track to 11/23. The students heard last minute details about their trip to Brookfield Zoo. We read informational texts about other types of bears. We also began to chat about our upcoming research projects. Students worked in their journals and their writing focused on the Bear of their choice.
**11/24--Our field Trip to Brookfield Zoo was great! We a had a spectacular day of fun and learning. A big thanks to Ms. Pillacela, Mr. Bell, Mr. Daniel, Mr Harris and Ms. Massett for all of their help as volunteers. The students enjoyed the Hamill Play Zoo for face painting and projects. Students got to see a corn snake up close! We had an indoor lunch and then on to the Great Bear Wilderness for our class. Our docents, Jim and Mary were the best! The students examined black bear fur, polar bear and grizzly bear paws and participated in activities in measuring how many students it took to equal the height of a polar bear and grizzly bear. The students also explored a pattern of a polar bear foot. How many students feet equal one polar bear foot??? We saw a hibernating grizzly bear and a snoozing polar bear. What a great day!
**We were thankful for many things! Thankful for our wonderful grandma helper, Ms. D., thankful for our great Irving school family and for each other. I was so thankful for the great support and help from my kindergarten families. You truly make a difference!
**Check your child's homework folder for their RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT. Each student came up with a question they want to find out more about. They worked on special vocabulary. On the left side of this blog are links to Encyclopedia Britannica and PowerkidsLife Science if you need additional resources. The project is due December 17th but you can hand it in sooner if you wish.
**Hibernation Day was awesome! We were cozy in our jammies with our special stuffed animals. We read about how different animals hibernate. The students made Bear Paw Snacks using biscuit dough, We also did a little science of the liquid to solid kind when the students made butter from whipping cream. There was a lot of shaking going on!! They can tell you about it. The students observed curds and whey being formed. Cool! It was perfect to spread on their golden brown Bear Paws. Yum! The students enjoyed a kindergarten Teddy Bear picnic with their peers in the kindergarten hallway. Our culminating activity in the afternoon was for the students to create a bear hibernation spot somewhere in the classroom with whatever was in the classroom. Lots of thinking going on and maybe some snoring too!
**I am still holding out hope that we can get a few more volunteers for Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Baking on Friday, December 11th from 1:15 until dismissal. We have Ms. Meier, Ms. Metz, Ms. Constantinescu and Ms. Polan so far. It is very fun and no experience is needed! Email me if you can help! The recipe is in your child's homework folder for review.
**Trimester 1 REPORT CARDS go home on Friday, December 11th. Please read the information included to better understand the grading system. Lexia reports will also be included as well as any goal updates by specialists your child may be seeing in the area of speech and language or Tier 3 intervention for reading readiness. The main idea to remember for our report card system is that it is a growth model of progress toward an end of the year goal. If you have any question after reviewing it, please email me.
**Our WINTER CONCERT is fast approaching!! Please join us on THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17th in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances. The first one is at 8:15 am and it will be repeated again at 9:45 am. We will have a reception in our room after both concerts. All are invited! Come join us!
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Handmade Craft Fair is Saturday, December 12th from 9-1 pm in the lunchroom and hallways. It is a great place to stock up on those holiday treasures.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 will conclude on December 9th. Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin in January.
**We have begun our cross curricular theme on Celebrations and Traditions. If you have a particular holiday tradition you would like to share with the class--email me and we can set it up. Kindergarten students love to have parents come to the classroom!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms Bell Bey continued chatting with the students about fostering great behavior everywhere they go. She worked individually with each child on the first part of a special project. Stay tuned.
**No Mr. Packer this week.
**In Mr. Degman Math/Tech, the students finished up their project on teen counting.
**School is closed for Winter Break--December20-January 3rd. If you are traveling over the break, let me know and I will send a travel journal.
This week:
It was all about research basics for little ones! Ms. Noonan worked with the students on the question--What is research? The students worked on thinking about a question about something they wanted to find out more about and then discussed how they might find a source to help them answer the question. The major topic is: Bears. The students worked in class on special research vocabulary and examples. I can't wait to see the results! The students continue to work on their talking book project. They practiced reading their story page and will record it on the iPad. Our station day activities this week included creating a sparkly candle, roll/add and color sums to 10, Hanukkah candles color by code, nonstandard measurement with unifix cubes and build a hibernation space in the classroom.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students built back ground knowledge about the different ways wheels are used to move people and things around. We revisited the text, "Duck on a Bike." Students identified the characters, setting and the events in the story. They took a closer look at the way the story was organized. (It had a beginning, middle and end) The students reviewed target sounds Tt and short i and used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 3 and 4 sound words. The students worked with partners to create noun/action word sentences using words and picture cards. Now that students are reading simple texts, they are working on how they read. Is it choppy or smooth?? The students were introduced to the Reader's Checklist so that they can begin to monitor their own reading fluency. A Checklist is enclosed in your child's homework folder. Robust Vocabulary for this week included ADVENTURE, WHEELS, ATTACH, HAUL, MASSIVE. The students read their predecodable story, "I See the Truck Go" to a partner. They elbow chatted about story content. They also critiqued each other's reading using the Reader's Checklist. Peers listening to each other! Workstations for this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency and main ideas, main events quilt, Reader's Checklist, story elements butterfly, CVC beginning and ending sheet, Magnetic Letters HD sentence building using sight words, writing-where would you take a trip to? What would you bring?
Math: The students began work on their December Calendar Book with some new activities. They recorded numbers, sequenced numbers, counting on from a random number, used tally marks to say how many, added dominoes and dice and the idea of number bonding--ways to say a certain number---ie-- 2 and 2 is a way to 4 and so is 4 and 0, 0 and 4, 3 and 1, 1 and 3. The students continue to work on rote counting to 85, nonstandard measurement using items to measure how long or how high something is and the idea of place value--how many groups of tens to make 33--how many left over. Students selected their own workstations this week. They included Subitize Challenge, measuring around the room. writing teen numbers, working with teen numbers and ten frames and counting bears.
Writing: The students are now working on Magic "C" capitals. The letters C, Q and O were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards with chalk and then applied their knowledge in their orange practice books. The students continue to work in their new journals thinking about sentence structure, beginning with a capital letter, spacing between words in a sentence, where to put upper and lowercase letters and reading over what they have written.
Technology: Students participated in whole group work using the app Oz Phonics to strengthen their ability to blend CVC words and used the app Sound Sort to strengthen automaticity of sound to letter symbol. Student small groups used the app iTalk to record and listen to their reading for fluency and clarity. Students continue to work on recording their talking book using the app Sonic Pics. Mr. Degman continued his project with the students using the app Chatterpix.
Literature: "Curious George-A Winter's Nap," "Hibernation Station," "Hibernation," "Time to Sleep," "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" "What is Hanukkah?" "The Book of Winter Celebrations," (highlighting St, Nicholas Day and Hanukkah) "Adding With Animals."
**11/24--Our field Trip to Brookfield Zoo was great! We a had a spectacular day of fun and learning. A big thanks to Ms. Pillacela, Mr. Bell, Mr. Daniel, Mr Harris and Ms. Massett for all of their help as volunteers. The students enjoyed the Hamill Play Zoo for face painting and projects. Students got to see a corn snake up close! We had an indoor lunch and then on to the Great Bear Wilderness for our class. Our docents, Jim and Mary were the best! The students examined black bear fur, polar bear and grizzly bear paws and participated in activities in measuring how many students it took to equal the height of a polar bear and grizzly bear. The students also explored a pattern of a polar bear foot. How many students feet equal one polar bear foot??? We saw a hibernating grizzly bear and a snoozing polar bear. What a great day!
**We were thankful for many things! Thankful for our wonderful grandma helper, Ms. D., thankful for our great Irving school family and for each other. I was so thankful for the great support and help from my kindergarten families. You truly make a difference!
**Check your child's homework folder for their RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT. Each student came up with a question they want to find out more about. They worked on special vocabulary. On the left side of this blog are links to Encyclopedia Britannica and PowerkidsLife Science if you need additional resources. The project is due December 17th but you can hand it in sooner if you wish.
**Hibernation Day was awesome! We were cozy in our jammies with our special stuffed animals. We read about how different animals hibernate. The students made Bear Paw Snacks using biscuit dough, We also did a little science of the liquid to solid kind when the students made butter from whipping cream. There was a lot of shaking going on!! They can tell you about it. The students observed curds and whey being formed. Cool! It was perfect to spread on their golden brown Bear Paws. Yum! The students enjoyed a kindergarten Teddy Bear picnic with their peers in the kindergarten hallway. Our culminating activity in the afternoon was for the students to create a bear hibernation spot somewhere in the classroom with whatever was in the classroom. Lots of thinking going on and maybe some snoring too!
**I am still holding out hope that we can get a few more volunteers for Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Baking on Friday, December 11th from 1:15 until dismissal. We have Ms. Meier, Ms. Metz, Ms. Constantinescu and Ms. Polan so far. It is very fun and no experience is needed! Email me if you can help! The recipe is in your child's homework folder for review.
**Trimester 1 REPORT CARDS go home on Friday, December 11th. Please read the information included to better understand the grading system. Lexia reports will also be included as well as any goal updates by specialists your child may be seeing in the area of speech and language or Tier 3 intervention for reading readiness. The main idea to remember for our report card system is that it is a growth model of progress toward an end of the year goal. If you have any question after reviewing it, please email me.
**Our WINTER CONCERT is fast approaching!! Please join us on THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17th in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances. The first one is at 8:15 am and it will be repeated again at 9:45 am. We will have a reception in our room after both concerts. All are invited! Come join us!
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Handmade Craft Fair is Saturday, December 12th from 9-1 pm in the lunchroom and hallways. It is a great place to stock up on those holiday treasures.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 will conclude on December 9th. Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin in January.
**We have begun our cross curricular theme on Celebrations and Traditions. If you have a particular holiday tradition you would like to share with the class--email me and we can set it up. Kindergarten students love to have parents come to the classroom!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms Bell Bey continued chatting with the students about fostering great behavior everywhere they go. She worked individually with each child on the first part of a special project. Stay tuned.
**No Mr. Packer this week.
**In Mr. Degman Math/Tech, the students finished up their project on teen counting.
**School is closed for Winter Break--December20-January 3rd. If you are traveling over the break, let me know and I will send a travel journal.
This week:
It was all about research basics for little ones! Ms. Noonan worked with the students on the question--What is research? The students worked on thinking about a question about something they wanted to find out more about and then discussed how they might find a source to help them answer the question. The major topic is: Bears. The students worked in class on special research vocabulary and examples. I can't wait to see the results! The students continue to work on their talking book project. They practiced reading their story page and will record it on the iPad. Our station day activities this week included creating a sparkly candle, roll/add and color sums to 10, Hanukkah candles color by code, nonstandard measurement with unifix cubes and build a hibernation space in the classroom.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students built back ground knowledge about the different ways wheels are used to move people and things around. We revisited the text, "Duck on a Bike." Students identified the characters, setting and the events in the story. They took a closer look at the way the story was organized. (It had a beginning, middle and end) The students reviewed target sounds Tt and short i and used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 3 and 4 sound words. The students worked with partners to create noun/action word sentences using words and picture cards. Now that students are reading simple texts, they are working on how they read. Is it choppy or smooth?? The students were introduced to the Reader's Checklist so that they can begin to monitor their own reading fluency. A Checklist is enclosed in your child's homework folder. Robust Vocabulary for this week included ADVENTURE, WHEELS, ATTACH, HAUL, MASSIVE. The students read their predecodable story, "I See the Truck Go" to a partner. They elbow chatted about story content. They also critiqued each other's reading using the Reader's Checklist. Peers listening to each other! Workstations for this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency and main ideas, main events quilt, Reader's Checklist, story elements butterfly, CVC beginning and ending sheet, Magnetic Letters HD sentence building using sight words, writing-where would you take a trip to? What would you bring?
Math: The students began work on their December Calendar Book with some new activities. They recorded numbers, sequenced numbers, counting on from a random number, used tally marks to say how many, added dominoes and dice and the idea of number bonding--ways to say a certain number---ie-- 2 and 2 is a way to 4 and so is 4 and 0, 0 and 4, 3 and 1, 1 and 3. The students continue to work on rote counting to 85, nonstandard measurement using items to measure how long or how high something is and the idea of place value--how many groups of tens to make 33--how many left over. Students selected their own workstations this week. They included Subitize Challenge, measuring around the room. writing teen numbers, working with teen numbers and ten frames and counting bears.
Writing: The students are now working on Magic "C" capitals. The letters C, Q and O were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards with chalk and then applied their knowledge in their orange practice books. The students continue to work in their new journals thinking about sentence structure, beginning with a capital letter, spacing between words in a sentence, where to put upper and lowercase letters and reading over what they have written.
Technology: Students participated in whole group work using the app Oz Phonics to strengthen their ability to blend CVC words and used the app Sound Sort to strengthen automaticity of sound to letter symbol. Student small groups used the app iTalk to record and listen to their reading for fluency and clarity. Students continue to work on recording their talking book using the app Sonic Pics. Mr. Degman continued his project with the students using the app Chatterpix.
Literature: "Curious George-A Winter's Nap," "Hibernation Station," "Hibernation," "Time to Sleep," "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" "What is Hanukkah?" "The Book of Winter Celebrations," (highlighting St, Nicholas Day and Hanukkah) "Adding With Animals."
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