**Thanks for your patience! I will combine two weeks of activities. We are all on the mend! It has been a month of sickness but hopefully SPRING will prevail and more warmer weather will help!
**There have been lots of the changes in student achievement this month. The flood gates of learning are opening wide!! In Route to Reading, many students are mastering skills to complete the Kindergarten continuum and many students have also "jumped" skills to move closer to completion. Lots of great morning story sharing between students with Busy Readers! Students are looking forward to starting their new subtraction story problem journal in April and be challenged even more by Mr. Packer's "thinking" skills projects. And yes........the students are very excited that we are getting closer to planning/creating/constructing our space stations. The week of 4/18-4/22 is set aside for this. YES......start sending GIANT boxes and cool stuff after spring break.
**Pi Day was cool! The students did some cute activities surrounding the number 3.14159. We saw a really cool video of music created by corresponding notes on a piano, xylophone, drums and flute. Pi even has its own website! We topped it off with some apple PIE for PI Day made with love by Michelle at the Happy Apple Pie Shop! The students LOVED the pie. It even had the Pi sign on the top. The students wrote and illustrated thank you notes to Michelle.
**Bagpiper Patrick Lynch was amazing! The students really enjoyed his presentation and lively, loud music. The whole school came out to hear him on a very windy but sunny day.
**Super Tuber was very fun! The students learned a little history about the potato and its connection to Ireland. They observed and measured their tubers and counted the "eyes." They looked at some different varieties even viewed and compared the skin of a purple and red potato under the microscope. I showed the class how to grow a potato from a potato and we chose Ella's (white potato) and Omar's (sweet potato) to grow on our windowsill. Stay tuned!
**Congratulations to our SPELLING BEE participants--Lauren and Zadie. They will represent our class in the Annual K-2 Spelling Bee on Wednesday, April 13th at lunchtime. Also give a shout out to Juliet who is our alternate.
**School Sprit Week was the bomb!! Pajamas, crazy hair, backwards wildness and Irving colors were the ticket of the week. Thanks Student Council for organizing it!
**Our field trip to the Field Museum was AWESOME!!! Yes..... it was the rainiest, but inside was hopping! Students worked with their parent volunteers and discussed the exhibits they wanted most to see. Sue, Ancient Egypt, Mummies, Animals, lots of Bones and Fossils were the top choices. Pictures are beginning to come in. Our writing project will be fantastic. A HUGE THANKS to E. Hagedorn, N. Bell, M. Davis, H. Alvarez and J. Wulff for volunteering!
**SPRING BREAK HOMEWORK HOLIDAY WEEK!! But.......you can still work on Lexia, Raz Kids, Xtra Math or your favorite app. Lots of students are traveling. I can't wait to read their Travel Journals. Even if you are just hanging out-----write about it!!
**Report cards are in your child's homework folder. Please sign and return the envelope.
**No Friendship Club this week or last week.
**No Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week or last week.
**Mr. Degman will resume his Math/Tech after spring break.
The past two weeks:
It was all about weather, shadows, bagpipers and fun potato facts. Science abounds in our classroom! Our study of weather includes math, reading and writing all woven together. Great fun! Very motivating. The students observed daily wind speeds, weather instruments and how meteorologists use data to make predictions about what kind of weather we will have in our area. Yes....they do not get it right all the time!! We are growing 2 types of potatoes. Stay tuned! The students loved Pi Day and bagpiper, Patrick Lynch. Station day activities included magical math facts activity, constructing 2D and 3D structures and learning to play Spring Memory Match up. The students prepared for their trip to the Field Museum. They looked for reading material and videos on Ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, mummies, extinct and endangered animals and mammals. Pictures taken during our trip will be part of a writing/research project.
Reading/Language Arts: The students worked to complete Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. The students built background knowledge about how weather effects people and animals. Students came to the board to write what they experience in snowy, hot, rainy and cold weather. They also spoke about how animals react to those weather conditions. The students reviewed all sight vocabulary presented thus far. The students reviewed target sounds Bb, Ll and short Ee and words that describe. (adjectives) The students continued to work on segmenting, sound blending 4 and 5 sound words on their white boards along with addition, deletion and substitution activities. The students listened to the oral language selection "Animal in Winter." They recalled many of their facts from our Changing Seasons theme. Robust Vocabulary for this week included CLEAR, COZY, EXPERIENCE, HIBERNATE, RETREAT. Workstations for the first week included leveled readers, comprehension and fluency checks, vocabulary building, writing and illustrating What can you do in the rain? completing a story elements butterfly on a specific text, writing a question about your story and answering it, working with blends and digraphs and using iTalk to record and listen to your own reading. For week two, the students students mixed it up by using leveled Fountas and Pinnell texts. They worked collaboratively with their group to come up with an assignment to go with their text. I loved their interactions and suggestions! Workstations included elbow chats about story elements and doing a group story elements butterfly, chatting about problem/solution and writing about it individually, chatting about specific vocabulary and creating a word web of meanings, chatting about characters and comparing how they acted in the text. What an excellent job!
Math: The student continued their exploration of of 2D and 3D shapes. They have been using a variety of materials including straws, pipe cleaners, k-nects, magnetos and mini magnetos. Discussion centered around the terms flat, solid, sides, vertex-vertices or corners and faces of the shapes. Can that shape you constructed roll or can you only stack it? What is a rectangular prism? The students participated in a particular activity where they matched certain pictures according to their shape. The students are starting a "Structure Museum." Workstations for the past two weeks included building 2D and 3D structures, analyzing and comparing 2D and 3D shapes, reading and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, number bonds to 10 and working with the number line to solve an addition or subtraction problem.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. Letters r, n, m, h, b and f were covered in the past two weeks. They applied what they learned in their orange practice books. Their "fix it up" checklist has become a great guide as they work to refine their writing.
Science: The students began our next Science unit beginning with the inquiry--What makes a shadow? The students took turns creating shadows using an overhead projector. Do we need certain elements before we can have a shadow? All students agreed we needed some kind of light source. Some students commented that a body or some kind of object blocked the light source. Other students said we needed a place to see the shadow. The recipe for creating a shadow became--a light source, something to block the light and a surface in which to see the shadow. A shadow is blocked light. Some students noted that shadows can be lighter or darker...they can be seen in front of or in back of......they also observed a water shadow and the rainbow that formed. Cool! Stay tuned!
Technology: The students are getting ready for our Keyboarding Without Tears program. We will begin this after spring break. They will also be able to use it for home practice. In science, we looked at a cool app on extreme weather. Awesome live footage of rainbows, hurricanes, blizzards, thunderstorms and lightening etc. Students sought out information for their field trip via BrainPop Jr. and the Field Museum site. All the apps we have been using for reading and math continue.
Literature: "Chasing Shadows," "Guess Who's Shadow?" "Super Storms," "Clouds," "Walkabout Weather," "How Thunder and Lightening Came to Be," "Clouds, Rain and Clouds Again," "The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow," "The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever," "It's St. Patricks Day," "Morning, Noon and Night," 'Dinosaurs and Other Reptiles," "Fly Guy Presents Dinosaurs,""Danny and the Dinosaur," "If Dinosaurs Came Back," "What Dinosaurs Ate,""National Geographic Kids-Dinosaurs,""Raptors," "Mummies," "Ancient Egypt."
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Sunday, March 13, 2016
UPDATES for 3/7-3/11 2016
**Warmer weather and rain! Spring is near!!! We are ending the last 10 minutes of our day outside and the students are really enjoying it. They love being on the playground equipment when a small number of other students are on the playground.
**Author Jonah Winter was delightful! The author of biographies for children spoke to students about where he gets his ideas from. He read passages from a biography about the members of his family during the Depression and also read from his newest book--a biography about Hillary Clinton. He told the students he was very interested in the life of the woman who was running for president in a field of all men. He had great illustrations and photos in his books.
**Please keep sending in money and permission slip for our field trip to the Field Museum. We will travel by bus on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:l30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students need to bring a BAG LUNCH with name it. Thanks to our volunteers! We have N. Bell, E. Hagedorn, M. Daniel, J. Wulff, H. Alvarez and M. Davis joining us. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Volunteers will help us out with some picture taking. This can be done on your phone and forwarded to my email.
Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will need probably 2 drivers. Be thinking about this, volunteers. I will give you directions and cash for parking.
**It's PACK WEEK (3/14-3/18) Let's pack more colorful fruits and veggies into our diets! Pack a fruit or veggie based on the color of the day. See the flyer in your child's homework folder. Monday-pack purple/blue, Wednesday-pack red, Thursday-pack yellow/orange and Friday-pack green.) You can pack it in a snack or a lunch. The school lunches will also include items.
**Pi Day is March 14th! We will be doing a little something from our on line resources and Quinn will be sharing a treat with the class! (apple PIe)
**SPRING PICTURES will be taken on Monday, March 14th in the morning. This year you must prepay if you want the photo taken. You can do this on line or with the envelope that was in your child's homework folder. Please indicate if you want a photo with Irving sibling.
**Please bring a POTATO (not cooked) on Thursday, March 17th. We will have SUPER TUBER DAY from 10:30-11:30 am. It will be our salute to St. Patrick's Day. It can be any kind.
We will learn a little history about the potato and Ireland, do some potato science--examine and count the "eyes," measure its length, sketch it, and take a look at some different varieties. We will even try to grow potatoes from the tuber! I have E. Meier and G. Lowell to help out. Another pair of hands would be helpful. Email me if you are interested.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper, Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and then play some tunes for all on the blacktop at dismissal. Come on out to hear him!
**Kindergarten classrooms will be piloting Keyboarding Without Tears after spring break. Teachers will receive training at our Institute Day on Tuesday. Please the read the flyer in your child's homework folder.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her Character Education lessons stating "Character grows as you grow." She talked about citizenship, self respect and self control meaning keeping our words and actions under control.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued the "thinking in shapes" theme but now the shapes were already on 2 squares and the students had to listen to the directive and make the drawing. "Find the drawings that would make a king." Very cool visual discrimination strengthener. Can you see the shapes needed on the square?
**Trimester Two has ended. Report cards go home on Thursday, March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL-Tuesday, March 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking)--Maze Branch Library--April 28th
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday--May 3rd.
**Future Event--Annual Irving Spelling Bee in April--Date and time TBA. K-2 will be participating.
**We are getting really close!! Giant boxes and cool stuff for our space station projects.
This week:
The students continue to gather information about the weather. They have observed clouds types and have examined weather maps and radar on line. Lots of questions--What keeps the earth warm? How can people stay cool in hot weather? What makes storms on earth? How can people prepare for storms? We read about blizzards, hot weather, storms, thunder and lightening, hurricanes and tornadoes and took a look at the seasons and weather. How does water affect weather patterns? What is a front? Totally fascinating!! Students looked up information on their iPads and watch rainbows being formed, thunder storms and blizzards and even a tornado. Students looked up weather words and weather instruments.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work in Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. This week, the students built background knowledge around the idea of the seasons or certain times of the year and different activities and ways people and animals relate to them. The students listened to the Big Book story, "In the Yard." They made predictions about story content by reading the title and looking at the book cover illustrations. After listening to the story, the students discussed what the main idea was. They made connections in the story about activities they do in their back yards at different times of the year. They noted certain details in the story. All sight words introduced thus far were reviewed. Target sounds Bb and Ll were reviewed. They did an activity where they told me if they heard the target sound at the beginning, middle or end of the word. Other word work centered around adding, deleting or substituting sounds to form new words on their dry erase boards. Students worked on actions of a character and sequencing those actions in the story using the text, "Sheila the Brave." Students worked on story vocabulary, sequencing order of events in the story and the story elements of character, setting and key details. In preparation for our summative blueprint, the students elbowed chatted about the character's actions and acted out different scenes depicting Sheila's actions in the story. The students were thrilled that Mr. Hodge sat in and observed their "we do" session. While students came up to write and draw about the actions of Sheila on the projection board, the other students did their own illustration on their white boards. Audrey had a great idea---when the students finished their drawings--let's put them in order across the front of the classroom. Cool!!! The first ten minutes of class each morning is now devoted to students sharing a page or sharing a story using their Busy Reader. They can share with a partner or share with a small group. They are certainly becoming more confident readers!! Workstations this week included leveled readers comprehension and fluency check, vocabulary development, writing and illustrating-what is your favorite season and what can you do? review short e, i, o, a, u word work, word family cut and paste ock and op, create retelling cards, write and illustrate-what you like to play, working with beginning and ending sounds activity, short E word search and writing sentences using the words this and do.
Math: The students continue the exploration of the study of geometric solids and 3D shapes. They learned that 3D shapes are solid like cones, cubes, cylinders and 2D shapes are flat like squares, triangles and circles. Students created 2D shapes by using straws and pipe cleaners and went on to think about and experiment with creating a 3D shape. It was interesting for me to observe the different ways the students approached the task. Students continue to work on number bonding to 10, counting on from a random number, exploring vertical and horizontal addition and subtraction problem writing, revisiting the terms--addend, sum. equal, plus, minus, greater than/less than. Math workstations this week included writing number sequences, magic number facts, exploring and experimenting with 2D and 3D shape building and reading and illustrating addition and subtraction story problems.
Writing: Wow! We are writing 4 sentences in our topic journals! Lots of writing going on here! Inventive spelling (phonetic spelling) remains a big acceptable part of their own word building. Students can now refer to their own "Fix It Up Checklist" when composing and writing in their journals and in their daily writing work. (Thanks Ms. Grogan!) A copy for home use is in your child's homework folder. In lowercase letter formation, the letters y, j, and p were worked on using their mini boards. They applied what they had learned in their orange practice books. The students completed a writing piece on writing about a personal experience that experience being things they do/have/seen in the spring. Check them out in our hallway!
Science: The students continue to be curious and study about all things weather. The students observed the water tornado bottle to check out its funnel shape and looked at thermometers that measure temperature. What kinds of clouds cause precipitation? How do we measure it? How do we measure humidity? Lots of weather instruments. Next week--what is a shadow?
Technology: In reading, student small groups and with partners the apps Montessori Crosswords, Magic Reading 2 and iTalk were used to enhance sound blending skills, review use of consonant blends and digraphs and emphasize word families. The app Oz Phonics was used with whole group to work on sequencing of words in a sentence. Students listened to their own reading via iTalk and critiqued themselves using the Reader's Checklist. In math whole and small group, the apps Top-It Addition, Butterfly Math, Math, Animal Math, Number Line and Number Find were used enhance addition and subtraction to 10, place value, missing addend, number bond and number order. Weatherunderground, Storm and BranPop Jr. were source material on weather and science.
Literature: "Sheila the Brave," "Rain," "Bringing Science Alive-Unit 3-Weather," "Weather," "Thunder Storms," "Lightening," "Snow," "Blizzards," "Hurricanes," "Weather Instruments," "Weather Words," "Weather Watching," "Danger-Earthquakes," ""Volcanoes."
**Author Jonah Winter was delightful! The author of biographies for children spoke to students about where he gets his ideas from. He read passages from a biography about the members of his family during the Depression and also read from his newest book--a biography about Hillary Clinton. He told the students he was very interested in the life of the woman who was running for president in a field of all men. He had great illustrations and photos in his books.
**Please keep sending in money and permission slip for our field trip to the Field Museum. We will travel by bus on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:l30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students need to bring a BAG LUNCH with name it. Thanks to our volunteers! We have N. Bell, E. Hagedorn, M. Daniel, J. Wulff, H. Alvarez and M. Davis joining us. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Volunteers will help us out with some picture taking. This can be done on your phone and forwarded to my email.
Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will need probably 2 drivers. Be thinking about this, volunteers. I will give you directions and cash for parking.
**It's PACK WEEK (3/14-3/18) Let's pack more colorful fruits and veggies into our diets! Pack a fruit or veggie based on the color of the day. See the flyer in your child's homework folder. Monday-pack purple/blue, Wednesday-pack red, Thursday-pack yellow/orange and Friday-pack green.) You can pack it in a snack or a lunch. The school lunches will also include items.
**Pi Day is March 14th! We will be doing a little something from our on line resources and Quinn will be sharing a treat with the class! (apple PIe)
**SPRING PICTURES will be taken on Monday, March 14th in the morning. This year you must prepay if you want the photo taken. You can do this on line or with the envelope that was in your child's homework folder. Please indicate if you want a photo with Irving sibling.
**Please bring a POTATO (not cooked) on Thursday, March 17th. We will have SUPER TUBER DAY from 10:30-11:30 am. It will be our salute to St. Patrick's Day. It can be any kind.
We will learn a little history about the potato and Ireland, do some potato science--examine and count the "eyes," measure its length, sketch it, and take a look at some different varieties. We will even try to grow potatoes from the tuber! I have E. Meier and G. Lowell to help out. Another pair of hands would be helpful. Email me if you are interested.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper, Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and then play some tunes for all on the blacktop at dismissal. Come on out to hear him!
**Kindergarten classrooms will be piloting Keyboarding Without Tears after spring break. Teachers will receive training at our Institute Day on Tuesday. Please the read the flyer in your child's homework folder.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her Character Education lessons stating "Character grows as you grow." She talked about citizenship, self respect and self control meaning keeping our words and actions under control.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued the "thinking in shapes" theme but now the shapes were already on 2 squares and the students had to listen to the directive and make the drawing. "Find the drawings that would make a king." Very cool visual discrimination strengthener. Can you see the shapes needed on the square?
**Trimester Two has ended. Report cards go home on Thursday, March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL-Tuesday, March 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking)--Maze Branch Library--April 28th
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday--May 3rd.
**Future Event--Annual Irving Spelling Bee in April--Date and time TBA. K-2 will be participating.
**We are getting really close!! Giant boxes and cool stuff for our space station projects.
This week:
The students continue to gather information about the weather. They have observed clouds types and have examined weather maps and radar on line. Lots of questions--What keeps the earth warm? How can people stay cool in hot weather? What makes storms on earth? How can people prepare for storms? We read about blizzards, hot weather, storms, thunder and lightening, hurricanes and tornadoes and took a look at the seasons and weather. How does water affect weather patterns? What is a front? Totally fascinating!! Students looked up information on their iPads and watch rainbows being formed, thunder storms and blizzards and even a tornado. Students looked up weather words and weather instruments.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work in Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. This week, the students built background knowledge around the idea of the seasons or certain times of the year and different activities and ways people and animals relate to them. The students listened to the Big Book story, "In the Yard." They made predictions about story content by reading the title and looking at the book cover illustrations. After listening to the story, the students discussed what the main idea was. They made connections in the story about activities they do in their back yards at different times of the year. They noted certain details in the story. All sight words introduced thus far were reviewed. Target sounds Bb and Ll were reviewed. They did an activity where they told me if they heard the target sound at the beginning, middle or end of the word. Other word work centered around adding, deleting or substituting sounds to form new words on their dry erase boards. Students worked on actions of a character and sequencing those actions in the story using the text, "Sheila the Brave." Students worked on story vocabulary, sequencing order of events in the story and the story elements of character, setting and key details. In preparation for our summative blueprint, the students elbowed chatted about the character's actions and acted out different scenes depicting Sheila's actions in the story. The students were thrilled that Mr. Hodge sat in and observed their "we do" session. While students came up to write and draw about the actions of Sheila on the projection board, the other students did their own illustration on their white boards. Audrey had a great idea---when the students finished their drawings--let's put them in order across the front of the classroom. Cool!!! The first ten minutes of class each morning is now devoted to students sharing a page or sharing a story using their Busy Reader. They can share with a partner or share with a small group. They are certainly becoming more confident readers!! Workstations this week included leveled readers comprehension and fluency check, vocabulary development, writing and illustrating-what is your favorite season and what can you do? review short e, i, o, a, u word work, word family cut and paste ock and op, create retelling cards, write and illustrate-what you like to play, working with beginning and ending sounds activity, short E word search and writing sentences using the words this and do.
Math: The students continue the exploration of the study of geometric solids and 3D shapes. They learned that 3D shapes are solid like cones, cubes, cylinders and 2D shapes are flat like squares, triangles and circles. Students created 2D shapes by using straws and pipe cleaners and went on to think about and experiment with creating a 3D shape. It was interesting for me to observe the different ways the students approached the task. Students continue to work on number bonding to 10, counting on from a random number, exploring vertical and horizontal addition and subtraction problem writing, revisiting the terms--addend, sum. equal, plus, minus, greater than/less than. Math workstations this week included writing number sequences, magic number facts, exploring and experimenting with 2D and 3D shape building and reading and illustrating addition and subtraction story problems.
Writing: Wow! We are writing 4 sentences in our topic journals! Lots of writing going on here! Inventive spelling (phonetic spelling) remains a big acceptable part of their own word building. Students can now refer to their own "Fix It Up Checklist" when composing and writing in their journals and in their daily writing work. (Thanks Ms. Grogan!) A copy for home use is in your child's homework folder. In lowercase letter formation, the letters y, j, and p were worked on using their mini boards. They applied what they had learned in their orange practice books. The students completed a writing piece on writing about a personal experience that experience being things they do/have/seen in the spring. Check them out in our hallway!
Science: The students continue to be curious and study about all things weather. The students observed the water tornado bottle to check out its funnel shape and looked at thermometers that measure temperature. What kinds of clouds cause precipitation? How do we measure it? How do we measure humidity? Lots of weather instruments. Next week--what is a shadow?
Technology: In reading, student small groups and with partners the apps Montessori Crosswords, Magic Reading 2 and iTalk were used to enhance sound blending skills, review use of consonant blends and digraphs and emphasize word families. The app Oz Phonics was used with whole group to work on sequencing of words in a sentence. Students listened to their own reading via iTalk and critiqued themselves using the Reader's Checklist. In math whole and small group, the apps Top-It Addition, Butterfly Math, Math, Animal Math, Number Line and Number Find were used enhance addition and subtraction to 10, place value, missing addend, number bond and number order. Weatherunderground, Storm and BranPop Jr. were source material on weather and science.
Literature: "Sheila the Brave," "Rain," "Bringing Science Alive-Unit 3-Weather," "Weather," "Thunder Storms," "Lightening," "Snow," "Blizzards," "Hurricanes," "Weather Instruments," "Weather Words," "Weather Watching," "Danger-Earthquakes," ""Volcanoes."
Sunday, March 6, 2016
UPDATES for 2/29-3/4 2016
**Dare I say it.......No more snow pants.....but please continue to send boots to keep feet dry and free of mud. Thanks!
**Opera for the Young's production of "The Magic Flute" was awesome! The students really got into the group singing parts and enjoyed the story, costumes and the 4th and 5th grade participation on stage. Students were interested in how the singers prepared for their roles, who made the costumes and how the set was made. The story was funny and had a lot of action.
**Author Jonah Winter will visit Irving on Friday, March 11th from 1-1:45 pm in the auditorium.
He will be sharing the magic of biography writing with students. If you are interested in purchasing books by this author, there was a green sheet in your child's folder last week. You can return it with your selection and money to me.
**Please keep sending in money and permission slip for our Field Trip to the Field Museum. We will travel by bus on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students will need a BAG LUNCH with their name on it. Thanks to those of you who volunteered. I will be getting info out to you soon. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will provide money for parking.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Monday, March 14th. Please read the information on purchasing pictures that is in your child's homework folder. This year you need to pay on line or submit money into the envelope first. Only students who have already submitted their order will have their pictures taken.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and play some tunes for everyone to enjoy on the blacktop at dismissal.
**In keeping with the theme, we will have SUPER TUBER DAY on Thursday, March 17th from 10:30-11:30 am. Students need to bring a POTATO (not cooked.) It can be any kind. We will learn a little history about the potato and Ireland, examine its surface, count the "eyes", measure its length and take a look at different varieties. I have E. Meier and G. Lowell signed up to help Another volunteer would be great! Email me if you are interested.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey began a unit on good citizenship and what it means to be a good citizen.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued working with the students on "thinking in shapes."
**No Mr. Degman Math/Tech this week. The big kids are getting ready for PARCC testing.
**March 11th--end of Trimester 2. Report Cards go home on March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL--Tuesday, March 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking) Maze Branch Library--April 28th.
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday, May 3rd.
**Future Event--Annual Spelling Bee in April. Date and time TBA.
**We are getting closer!!!! Keep saving those boxes and cool things for our space station projects.
This week:
It was all about the weather and Dr. Seuss. The students are tracking weather patterns all over the United States. With many students traveling for spring break, it is very cool to track and compare weather where they will be going. The students have been observing "fronts" moving in and the direction that weather patterns can take and how our oceans can affect weather. They love watching the color changes on the animated radar. They are also interested in the chance or percentage of precipitation and what form it will be in depending upon the temperature. They will be tracing the daily weather as part of their Weather Project. We celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss and our BrainPop video gave some incite into his life and how he got his ideas for his stories. We discussed rhyming and nonsense word patterns and how they enhance the story. We read many Dr. Suess stories. Station day this week celebrated all things Dr. Suess including making Thing 1 and Thing 2 out of handprints, writing about what you would do if they came to your house, Dr. Suess subtraction, creating your own rhyming words, Dr. Suess word search and drawing your own Dr. Seuss characters.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. We began by pondering, "What's the weather like today?" Students accessed prior knowledge about what they understood about weather, not only in their own area but all across the United States. The students listened to the Big Book story, "The Rainy Day." They thought about what the main idea would be. They made connections about rain in their daily lives. Sight words this, do and what were introduced. The target sound for the week is Short e. Students used pictures as well as words to create a Short e web. They continue to work on recognizing nouns and verbs in their daily sentence work. In the second reading of our Big Book story, the students visualized what it might look like after it rains. They reviewed the water cycles contribution to weather making (go science!) and some facts about rain. The students examined 2 more parts of a book--the glossary and the index and what they are used for. The students used their elkonin boxes to blend segment and blend 5 sound words. Students read their paper stories to a partner and elbow chatted about the the sequence of events that happened in the story. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included BLUSTERY, DRIZZLE, CHILLY, CLOUDY, WEATHER. The students also listened to 4 poems about weather and did some comparing across weather related texts. Students used their white boards and dry erase markers to work on a group substitution activity. Students also completed summative "you do" assessment Blue Prints on writing an opinion about their favorite Mo Willems story and writing about the beginning, middle and ending sequence using the text, "Edwina, the Dinosaur that Didn't Know She Was Extinct." Workstations for this week included leveled readers, comprehension check and fluency building, writing and drawing about a favorite weather activity, word work with beginning and ending sounds, problem/solution writing for a story, color by code word families, creating a word web for your favorite season, using words and pictures creating 3 sentences and writing them and playing CVC "Pot of Gold" and "Three Little Pigs Vowel Game."
Math: The students began work in their March calendar books. Among the daily activities contained in the book are number patterns, tally marks, ten frames, writing in the 3 numbers that come before a random number, addition and subtraction sentences, time by the hour on an analog clock, number bonds, daily temperature recording and conditions, graphing weather conditions and number hunt. The students continue to work in their Addition Story Problem Journals--reading the story problem, illustrating part and whole on ten frames, illustrating thru pictures and writing the number sentence/equation. Students reviewed all geometric solid shapes and are now beginning the introduction into 3D shapes, terminology and how they differ from 2D shapes. Math workstations this week included Dr. Seuss math activities in addition and subtraction, addition on a number line activities, exploration of 2D shapes and building exploration of 3D shapes and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers.
Writing: The students continue to work on their writing stamina and sentence structure in their journals and in workstation assignments. Focus continues to be on lowercase letter formation, spacing between words and placement of words on a given line. More students are really reading what they have written and making their own corrections.
Science: The students began some prep for the first part of our Science Unit-Shadows. They will also be doing some weather related experiments.
Technology: In reading, student small groups and individuals used the apps Magic Reading 2 building words with short e, silent e and beginning blends and digraphs, Rocket Speller for sound spelling and iTalk for fluency check. In math, students small groups and individuals used the apps Brainy Bugs for number sequencing and visual integration, Animal Math for addition and subtraction to 10, greater, less than and equal to, even and odd and place value. BrainPop videos assisted in providing facts about Dr. Seuss and to trace the water cycle.
Literature: "The Cat in the Hat, " "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," "Fox in Socks," "Hop on Pop," "Oh the Things You Can Think," "Green Eggs and Ham," "Snow," "I do Not Want to Get Up Today," "The Things I am Scared Of," "Weather," "Weather Words," "Roberto Clemente" by Jonah Winter, "The Cloud Book," "Little Cloud," "Rain."
**Opera for the Young's production of "The Magic Flute" was awesome! The students really got into the group singing parts and enjoyed the story, costumes and the 4th and 5th grade participation on stage. Students were interested in how the singers prepared for their roles, who made the costumes and how the set was made. The story was funny and had a lot of action.
**Author Jonah Winter will visit Irving on Friday, March 11th from 1-1:45 pm in the auditorium.
He will be sharing the magic of biography writing with students. If you are interested in purchasing books by this author, there was a green sheet in your child's folder last week. You can return it with your selection and money to me.
**Please keep sending in money and permission slip for our Field Trip to the Field Museum. We will travel by bus on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students will need a BAG LUNCH with their name on it. Thanks to those of you who volunteered. I will be getting info out to you soon. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will provide money for parking.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Monday, March 14th. Please read the information on purchasing pictures that is in your child's homework folder. This year you need to pay on line or submit money into the envelope first. Only students who have already submitted their order will have their pictures taken.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and play some tunes for everyone to enjoy on the blacktop at dismissal.
**In keeping with the theme, we will have SUPER TUBER DAY on Thursday, March 17th from 10:30-11:30 am. Students need to bring a POTATO (not cooked.) It can be any kind. We will learn a little history about the potato and Ireland, examine its surface, count the "eyes", measure its length and take a look at different varieties. I have E. Meier and G. Lowell signed up to help Another volunteer would be great! Email me if you are interested.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey began a unit on good citizenship and what it means to be a good citizen.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued working with the students on "thinking in shapes."
**No Mr. Degman Math/Tech this week. The big kids are getting ready for PARCC testing.
**March 11th--end of Trimester 2. Report Cards go home on March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL--Tuesday, March 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking) Maze Branch Library--April 28th.
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday, May 3rd.
**Future Event--Annual Spelling Bee in April. Date and time TBA.
**We are getting closer!!!! Keep saving those boxes and cool things for our space station projects.
This week:
It was all about the weather and Dr. Seuss. The students are tracking weather patterns all over the United States. With many students traveling for spring break, it is very cool to track and compare weather where they will be going. The students have been observing "fronts" moving in and the direction that weather patterns can take and how our oceans can affect weather. They love watching the color changes on the animated radar. They are also interested in the chance or percentage of precipitation and what form it will be in depending upon the temperature. They will be tracing the daily weather as part of their Weather Project. We celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss and our BrainPop video gave some incite into his life and how he got his ideas for his stories. We discussed rhyming and nonsense word patterns and how they enhance the story. We read many Dr. Suess stories. Station day this week celebrated all things Dr. Suess including making Thing 1 and Thing 2 out of handprints, writing about what you would do if they came to your house, Dr. Suess subtraction, creating your own rhyming words, Dr. Suess word search and drawing your own Dr. Seuss characters.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. We began by pondering, "What's the weather like today?" Students accessed prior knowledge about what they understood about weather, not only in their own area but all across the United States. The students listened to the Big Book story, "The Rainy Day." They thought about what the main idea would be. They made connections about rain in their daily lives. Sight words this, do and what were introduced. The target sound for the week is Short e. Students used pictures as well as words to create a Short e web. They continue to work on recognizing nouns and verbs in their daily sentence work. In the second reading of our Big Book story, the students visualized what it might look like after it rains. They reviewed the water cycles contribution to weather making (go science!) and some facts about rain. The students examined 2 more parts of a book--the glossary and the index and what they are used for. The students used their elkonin boxes to blend segment and blend 5 sound words. Students read their paper stories to a partner and elbow chatted about the the sequence of events that happened in the story. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included BLUSTERY, DRIZZLE, CHILLY, CLOUDY, WEATHER. The students also listened to 4 poems about weather and did some comparing across weather related texts. Students used their white boards and dry erase markers to work on a group substitution activity. Students also completed summative "you do" assessment Blue Prints on writing an opinion about their favorite Mo Willems story and writing about the beginning, middle and ending sequence using the text, "Edwina, the Dinosaur that Didn't Know She Was Extinct." Workstations for this week included leveled readers, comprehension check and fluency building, writing and drawing about a favorite weather activity, word work with beginning and ending sounds, problem/solution writing for a story, color by code word families, creating a word web for your favorite season, using words and pictures creating 3 sentences and writing them and playing CVC "Pot of Gold" and "Three Little Pigs Vowel Game."
Math: The students began work in their March calendar books. Among the daily activities contained in the book are number patterns, tally marks, ten frames, writing in the 3 numbers that come before a random number, addition and subtraction sentences, time by the hour on an analog clock, number bonds, daily temperature recording and conditions, graphing weather conditions and number hunt. The students continue to work in their Addition Story Problem Journals--reading the story problem, illustrating part and whole on ten frames, illustrating thru pictures and writing the number sentence/equation. Students reviewed all geometric solid shapes and are now beginning the introduction into 3D shapes, terminology and how they differ from 2D shapes. Math workstations this week included Dr. Seuss math activities in addition and subtraction, addition on a number line activities, exploration of 2D shapes and building exploration of 3D shapes and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers.
Writing: The students continue to work on their writing stamina and sentence structure in their journals and in workstation assignments. Focus continues to be on lowercase letter formation, spacing between words and placement of words on a given line. More students are really reading what they have written and making their own corrections.
Science: The students began some prep for the first part of our Science Unit-Shadows. They will also be doing some weather related experiments.
Technology: In reading, student small groups and individuals used the apps Magic Reading 2 building words with short e, silent e and beginning blends and digraphs, Rocket Speller for sound spelling and iTalk for fluency check. In math, students small groups and individuals used the apps Brainy Bugs for number sequencing and visual integration, Animal Math for addition and subtraction to 10, greater, less than and equal to, even and odd and place value. BrainPop videos assisted in providing facts about Dr. Seuss and to trace the water cycle.
Literature: "The Cat in the Hat, " "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," "Fox in Socks," "Hop on Pop," "Oh the Things You Can Think," "Green Eggs and Ham," "Snow," "I do Not Want to Get Up Today," "The Things I am Scared Of," "Weather," "Weather Words," "Roberto Clemente" by Jonah Winter, "The Cloud Book," "Little Cloud," "Rain."
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