**We are one week closer to becoming First Graders! Everyone is feeling the change in the air--students as well as teachers. The students are beginning to help put away some classroom items. Our ABC Countdown continues this next week with T-T Ball Day, U-Unicorn Day, V-Vegetable Day and W-Watermelon Day.
**Highlights from last week--King's Decree--Kings will be line leaders, more literacy bag time, iPad time and extra recess. Queen's Decree--more Scribles pops, GoNoodle, more iPad time and more time in space stations.
**OLYMPIC DAY was the bomb! The students showed great teamwork and sportsmanship during all the activities. A big Shout Out to NAYANA, who beat Mr. Degman in the 50 Yard Dash! She was FAST!!
**The students were all eyes for Ms. Henry's presentation on worm composting. The little creatures are in our room now until the end of school. Students got a first hand look at the famous red wiggler composting worm. Students observed the front and back parts and inching movement and the muscle parts of their bodies. We took some time to look up additional info on worms and read some cool books. Thanks so much, Ms. Henry!
**Chicken Coup Walking Field Trip to the Gurgas /Chien backyard is Tuesday, May31st. We will walk at 11:30 am. Please note that the owners will be handling the chickens. We will observing them and their house and find out info on the eggs that they produce. H. Alvarez will be walking with us.
**Our PIZZA and PLAY End of the Year Picnic is WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1ST at Rehm Park. Please send in money and permission slip. Thanks! Please read the info in your child's homework folder about the dropping off of items by Ms. Grogan's door. Come out and join us from 9:30-noon.
**Our Walking Field Trip to the Oak Park Conservatory is Tuesday, June 7th. We will begin walking at 9:40 am. We have a classroom experience beginning at 10:00 am and then a tour of all the plant rooms. If time permits, we will sketch in the desert room. N. Daniel, M. Nelson, K. Bell and Mr. Metz will walk with us and assist.
**Ms. Noonan will handing out record keeping forms for the Oak Park Library's Summer Reading Program this week. Come on out and participate
**ALL LIBRARY BOOKS DUE on FRIDAY, JUNE 3rd per Ms. Noonan.
**ALL BUSY READERS DUE on WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1st per Ms. Gullo.
**Please keep sending your child's backpack. Next week--Trimester 3 portfolios, all writing journals and calendar books and math journals go home.
**Last Pacers Running/Walking Club for the year is Thursday! Their necklaces will be in their summer packet folders.
**Mr. Packer will finish up the last thinking skills project with the students on Friday.
**The last day of school is WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8th. We will have a regular morning session. In the afternoon, beginning at 1:00 pm, please join us for autograph signing, light refreshments, report cards and summer packets......and maybe something special on the black top!
This week:
It was all about worms and plants! The very "green" Ms. Henry gave an informative talk on worms and worm composting. She brought us some starter compost with lots of red wiggler worms. She showed the students the different stages of the worms life cycle including worm eggs and egg shells, baby, teenage and adult worms. The students used the magnifier to see up close. The students continue to monitor our class box garden. Lots to see! Our bean plant is huge!!! We will plant everything on Monday, June 6th.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue their review of the skills taught this school year. This week, the student groups chose their own reading material from an approved list and came up with their own activities they wanted to do to connect their reading and writing. They also chose an iPad activity that best enhanced what they were studying in their workstation. I really loved hearing group, partner and individual reading as I made my way from small group to small group. The great discussions and elbow chats the students were having with one another were great! There was also time set up for literacy bag independent reading. The students reviewed all Kindergarten sight words and lots of First Grade words! They worked together with partners to create sentences using words and pictures. Another focus was on punctuation marks used at the end of their sentences. Workstations this week included leveled reader group discussions and collaboration on story elements, completing a group story elements butterfly, discussing and writing about fantasy vs. reality in a particular text, working on blends and digraphs, discussion about the author's purpose in writing a particular story, creating CVC words, activities and strategies to find out what a word means and iPad work.
Math: The students continue to work on on solving (using numbers 0-9) subtraction problems using the story problem format. Illustrating their thinking is super important. The students are showing their work using drawings, tally marks and number lines. They are also working on finding the number that belongs when they already know the answer. (7-__=2) Students are working "First Grade" style completing mini math journals each morning like they saw the First Graders do. Cool!
Writing: Students continue to work on writing to our Grandma volunteers. Next week, they will write to a person they think has made a difference in their lives this year. We will also do our final paragraph on the topic of worms. The students continue to work on beginning with a capital letter, spacing between words in a sentence, punctuation, placement of letters on a given line, naming and telling in a sentence, adding details and reading it over. We have begun discussing our end of the year movie and the students are working on writing their script. Students have been part of district pilot of the Keyboarding Without Tears Program on the iPad and computer. They will have home access before school ends so they can continue working this summer.
Science: The students worked on a project on the life cycle of a plant. Some students worked individually and some with partners. They decided the format--posters, acting out, singing, using the iPad for drawing or shooting a video. Great work and student effort! I will be sending the videos your way for those that did them. We were lucky to have "Traveling Seeds Experience Box" courtesy of the Oak Park Conservatory. The students experimented with how seeds travel. Moving by wind, sticking to animals and people, popping or exploding or floating in the lakes, rivers and seas, the students got to experience it. Our seed bags are going crazy with growth! The students are wrapping up their science unit on seeds and plants. We will plant in our garden bed on Monday, June 6th.
Technology: The students are doing an iMovie on the best part of kindergarten. They continue to discuss their own script and what to do for an introduction. We will begin filming next week.
Literature: "Earl the Earthworm Digs for His Life," "Wonderful Worms," "Yucky Worms," "Counting in the Garden," "Oh Say Can You Seed," "I Can't Said the Ant," "It's An Ant's Life," "From Seed to Plant," "Here in the Garden."
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