**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."
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