**The month of May is really flying by! Our Space Station 2016 iMovie is ready. Just scroll down to the end of this post!! It is very cute and really captures the students ability to collaborate and work together toward a common goal. I do apologize for the typo that I spotted after I published. They are having a great time using their space stations for a quiet reading space.
**My class is a little behind the game but......we will begin our very own ABC COUNTDOWN on Monday, May 16th. We will do 2 letters a day for a while. The students have decided what we will do. The full calendar of ideas is in your child's homework folder. Fun! Fun! Fun!
**Public Service Announcement---With the weather warming up, many of my students will want to wear sandals. Sandals will be okay in the classroom, but I would like all students to wear gym shoes and socks as we venture out on the playground more. Closed toe shoes would be okay too. Let's protect our feet!
**The Traveling Poets Project is going well! Our class got to travel to the office, 1st grade, 3rd grade, the music room and another kindergarten room to recite their poems. Next week is the last week of Traveling Poets. We have enjoyed students from 4th grade, 5th grade and 2nd grade traveling to our room.
**The Irving Art Slam and Poetry Fest was spectacular!! A huge SHOUT OUT to our "Little Slammers" Audrey and Quinn and Audrey's babysitter, Yola for their participation. The art work was beautiful and chorus was lovely. Many people were interested in Senorita's Spanish games too and the poetry breaks were great. Come and visit the hallways to view them all.
**Look for permission slip and information on PIZZA and PLAY End of the Year Picnic next week. We are going to do a Sign Up Genius for items needed for the picnic. That will also be sent out next week. Pizza and Play is June 1st from 9:30-noon at Rehm Park. We need lots of help!
**A presentation on the SUMMER READING at MAZE LIBRARY will take place on Wednesday, May 18th at 8:45 am. It is a super fun program for our soon to be First Graders!
**Pacer's Running/Walking club will continue a few more weeks. The students are receiving lots of feet for their necklaces!
**Olympic Day is scheduled for Friday, May 27th beginning at 8:30 am. A schedule of events will be in your child's homework folder next week.
** Look for portfolios and writing journals from Trimesters 1 and 2 to come home next week.
**The final rotation of Route to Reading will be next week. You will receive notification of your child's skill mastery.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her review of all of this years topics in a game show format. Her final session with students is May 26th.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking and Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer worked with small groups of students in placing dots according to the direction given.
**Future field trips--Pizza and Play-Wednesday, June 1st at Rehm Park from 9:30-noon.....Walking trip to the Oak Park Conservatory on Tuesday, June 7th at 10:00 am.......Walking trip to Gurgas/Chen Chicken Coup--TBA and in room guest speaker, Ms. Henry to speak about worm composting--TBA.
**June 8th (full day)--Last day of school (tear drop!) Family Half Hour, summer packets, autograph books and final report cards will be sent home.
This week:
Change is in the air! The students are sensing that the end of the kindergarten is near. They are thinking about new teachers, new classrooms, new friendships and new expectations. They are also thinking about students who might be moving away.or going to other schools in Oak Park. Turning into a First Grader is BIG! We will be visiting First Grade next week. I encourage you to chat with your child about moving on. Parent or child can write a question down that they would like the First Graders to answer. There is definitely excitement in the air and perhaps.....a little anxiety. We will be working through it in our classroom too! Station Day activities this week included ways to say a number flower, seed sequence and creating an addition story problem, illustrating it and writing the equation.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on skills and literature from Treasures 9 Amazing Creatures and 10 We know A Lot. Students took a look at the world of bugs. What is an insect? Can you name the similarities and differences between an insect and a spider? Sight words for this week were has and look. Target sounds for this week were Jj and Yy. Students spent time with partners using their word cards, pictures and punctuation creating sentences. Students continue to work on using and recognizing nouns, verbs, pronouns and adjectives. Each day this week, the students worked on group substitution activities to strengthen sound recognition and automatic recording of sounds to create words. They also worked on formative and summative blueprints
on word choice and how the illustrations are important in the text. Robust Vocabulary for this week included ENORMOUS, GULP, FANTASY, INCREDIBLE, REALITY. Workstations this week included leveled reader self read, partner read and elbow chat on story elements, comparing and contrasting stories and vocabulary and word choice, What bug do you like? and why do you like it? opinion writing, writing about how insects are alike and how they are different, discussing and writing 4 facts about insects, short e word work, word scramble, silent e word work, writing sentences using your sight words, choosing an illustration from the text and telling in writing what information the picture gives you and why it is important, creating a word web for the letter sound Ww and working with word families ut, et. un and en.
Math: The students keep working on reading simple story problems, illustrating the process, showing it on a number line and writing the equation. The students continue to review rote counting skills, basic shape and geometric solids, comparing and contrasting 2D and 3D shapes, teen numbers and addition and subtraction processes including number bonds and number families.
Writing: The students are working on writing pieces in both reading and science. They wrote thank you letters to Reading Grandma Mary. They are writing about a certain subject, stating and opinion, comparing and contrasting and writing about illustrations.
Science: The students continue their study of seeds. This week, they observed the inside of a seed. We soaked pinto beans and white beans in warm water overnight. The next day, the students observed that the seeds got bigger. They made a comparison. Yes!!......the water climbed up into the spaces of the seed. The students split their seeds in half with their fingers. They observed the outer covering (coat) and in the inside corner was the baby plant (embryo) The rest of the inside is the seed food where the see gets its nourishment. The students made a diagram in their journal, labeling parts and discussing and writing about pertinent vocabulary. The students also watched their own seed germinate and grow into a baby plant. They kept track of the growth by making drawings every few days. Students also looked at root systems and created a diagram of their plants root system. Leaf structure and stem structure rounded out their inquiries and observations. OUR PLANTS ARE READY TO GO HOME! This will happen on Monday, May 16th. I will also send home an information sheet. Next week--preparing our garden bed and soil vs no soil experiments.
Technology: The students saw the iMovie we made. The overall reaction was great. They were so proud. The did note that in some parts of the footage, they needed to speak up to be on the soundtrack. It was a great experience. They want to do another........stay tuned!!!!!
Literature: "The Tiny Seed," "The Bug Patrol," "3D Bugs," "Giant Book of Bugs," "Eating the Alphabet," "Leaves," "Roots," "Stems," "Plants," "My Tree Named Steve," "The Sunflower House."
No comments:
Post a Comment