**It has been an exciting week in our classroom! The students have been hard at work on their space station projects. Each group has 6 team members. They elected a project manager. The students are using their social, behavioral, analytical, scientific, creative and beginning engineering skills that they have embraced throughout the school year. The students are using their prior knowledge and new ideas about space and space station design. We have looked at our NASA app to view photos and live shots of the International Space Station. Cool! With their team, they have discussed and sketched out drawings or "prototypes" of what they think their space station might look like. They chatted about "communication" and "compromise" and created a set of rules to guide them thru the process. The role of the project manager is to keep the workers on task, gently remind them of their rules and stress the "compromise" piece.
**Our walking field trip to the MAZE BRANCH LIBRARY is Thursday, April 28th. We will be walking beginning at 1:00 pm and return by 2:45 pm. Aidan's grandpa has volunteered to walk with us. I could use another volunteer. Please email if interested. Also.....I have quite a few students who have not handed in permission slips. Please send in slips ASAP! Thanks!
**Please keep sending in permission slips and money for our field trip to the ADLER PLANETARIUM. I need everything in by Friday!! Students need to dress for the weather and bring a BAG LUNCH. We are hoping to picnic by the lake. I have M. Daniel, Amir's Grandma, K. Harris volunteering so far. I could really use 1 more volunteer. Please email me if interested. We will leave school at 9:20 am and return by 1:30 pm. Students ride the bus. Volunteers will carpool. I will have money for parking.
**Keep working with your child to PRACTICE their POEM for the Traveling Poets Project. Our class begins "traveling" on May 9th!
**Irving Book Fair is April 25th-29th. We will be visiting the book fair as a class but encourage families to visit too!
**Come on out for the FAR-OUT FAMILY READ-IN on Wednesday, April 27th from 6:30-7:30 pm in the Irving Auditorium. Come hear our "very groovy" readers, Ms. Durham, Ms. Gullo, Ms. Noonan and Mr. Sak share a story. Come browse and buy!
**"Dress Like the 60's" on Wednesday, April 27th. Wear your tie-dye, bell bottoms, head bands bring your peace and love signs.
**"SPACE DAY" FRIDAY, APRIL 29th. Yes....once our space stations are completed, we will blast off into space. We will make jet packs and helmets....but......if you have your own space suit......wear it! The students will sample some space food and participate in some space learning centers.
**The Student Council sponsored DANCE-A-THON is Saturday, April 30th from 10-11:30 am. Come dance and support the Special Olympics! It is $2.00 to get in.
**The last rotation of Route to Reading will begin on Monday, May 2nd.
**Irving Art Fest 2016 is Thursday, May 12th from 6-8 pm all around the school. Art will be displayed from each student. Spanish games, a play, traveling poets and a special performance by the Irving Chorus are just some of the happenings. The POETRY SLAM is the same night under the direction of Mr. Williams. Sign up to say your poem, write a new poem, rap, sing, recite with friends or family, a partner. Share your creativity! We hope to have some "little slammers!" Don't forget to fill out the slip. It is in your child's homework folder.
**District 97's Annual FUN RUN is Saturday, May 7th at Lindberg Park. K-2 race begins at 8:00 am. Come RUN with me!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey presented a lesson on the Eagle Essential --Be Safe.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking and Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued preparation for an upcoming project by reading the story, "The Most in the World," by Lilly Barrett.
This week:
It was all about space station construction and working as a team. Part of our mornings and many of our afternoons were spent working. The students began detail work during the latter part of their station day. Thanks to Nic Bell, Audrey's dad who was on hot glue patrol!! The students also did some research via the internet and texts about Earth Day themes. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle is our mantra! Our entire project is created out of recycled materials!! Station day activities included making star gazers and creating and naming their own constellations.
Reading/Language Arts: The students have nearly completed Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. We will tie up any loose ends next week. This week, the students read and talked about what grows in a garden. They thought aloud and accessed prior knowledge about their backyard, school and community gardens. They listened to the trade book, "The Sunflower House." They paid special attention to the sequencing at the beginning, middle and ending parts of the story. The students worked in small groups to retell the story in their own words. Robust Vocabulary this week included ARRANGE, TEND, BASIC, SENSES, GARDEN. We continue to work on our formative assessments for comparing texts and word choice. Workstations this week included, leveled readers discussion about word choice and meaning, comparing texts and characters actions, fluency checks, elbow chatting about the main idea, drawing your idea of a garden and writing about what you would grow, writing about how plants get bugs and giving examples, using the app Magnetic Letters HD composing and writing 2-3 sentences about a person who might have a job related to plants, writing about what plants need to grow, word work with short vowels and long vowels with silent e and writing about a seed and what can grow from it.
Math: The students reviewed terms and parts of 2D and 3D shapes and continued to work on story problems and sums and differences using numbers 1-10. The students also worked on using a number line in solving addition and subtraction equations. Partners and small groups got a chance to work on games reinforcing geometry, addition and subtraction, counting to 100, subitizing and place value.
Writing: Students worked on a writing piece after listening to stories and chatting about what they could do to help save the Earth. The students continue to work on their Shadow paragraphs entitled, "My Shadow." They are currently working on their draft.
Science: The students continue their study of the stars How does a star form? What happens when it dies? What do we know about red stars and blue stars? The students were especially interested in constellations and how they got their names. Space station construction, painting and detailing dominated our science time this week. We continue to document everything on iMovie. Next week--the moon and planets and space travel.
Technology: In reading--the app Magnetic Letters HD was used to compose and record sentences. Montessori Crosswords was used to work on short u, ck, and silent e words. Oz Phonics was used to work on word order in a sentence. In math--the apps Geometry, Animal Math, Build and Play and Butterfly Math were used to enhance shape recognition, addition and subtraction facts, 3D building. In science the apps BrainPop Jr. and NASA assisted the students in their study of natural resources, recycling, the stars and constellations, the International Space Station and Earth Day.
Literature: "Don't Be A Litterbug," "What is Happening to the Rain Forest?" "What is Global Warming?" "Magic School Bus Gets Recycled," "Let's Be Water Wise," "Let's Recycle," "Stars," "Watching the Stars," "Seeing Stars," "Zoo in the Sky," "Stars," "The Starry Sky," "Once Upon a Starry Night," "Shooting Stars," "Comets."
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