Sunday, October 30, 2016

UPDATES for 10/24-10/28 2016

**We had a super fabulous field trip to the Morton Arboretum!  Our docent, Ms. Judy was very knowledgeable about all the trees on our hike.  Lots of hands on activities for our kinders during our hike.  The weather was cloudy and crisp, but the students did very well.  Our bus became very quiet on the way home!!  Some tired travelers!!  A HUGE SHOUT OUT  to our volunteers--S. Raphael, B. Ahring, RD Danley and E. LaFranco for their help and guidance.  
**Slightly Spooky Family Story time was lots of fun.  Ms. Noonan, Dr. Bell Bey, Ms. Grogan and myself has a great time reading stories to the crowd.  Thanks to all who came to hear us.  I also want to say a special thanks for those of you who purchased books for our classroom.
**Our Halloween Celebration and Parade is Monday, October 31st.  We will have a regular morning of learning and go to our Gym Class from 12:15-12:45.  Students who would like to wear a costume, please bring them in a bag to school in the morning.  At 12:45 pm, students will change into their costume.  Our Room Moms have sent a sign up sheet for help with costumes, food and activities when we return from the parade.  We will have a special story before the parade. Student will line for the parade and it will begin at 1:30 pm.  The students will parade outside the school and onto the playground.  After the parade, we will have refreshments and an craft activity surrounding our study o bats.  Families are welcome to attend parade, help with costume changing and assisting during the activity.  Please respect our nonviolent classroom setting.  Any treats and trinkets sent will be put into treat bags to be sent home.  Please--NO NUTS/NUT PRODUCTS or DAIRY.  Thanks!
**Next week we will begin a study of the election process reading fiction and non fiction books. In the Irving Library, Ms Noonan will be having a mock election using the book characters, BAD KITTY and SCAREDY SQUIRREL as the candidates.  "They" are currently campaigning until the election and the students are participating in activities.  In our classroom, we will taking a look at what makes a good president using fiction and non fiction texts, discussions, writing prompts and students views.  Mr. Packer will be holding voting for the real current candidates  and take a school wide vote.  Students will receive their "voter registration cards" on Monday.  
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 has begun.  Please email me if you have not received notice on the skill your child is working on.
**Picture retakes will be done on Thursday, November 3rd.
**Our PTO sponsored Mexican Dance Assembly is scheduled for Monday, November 7th at 10:00 am in the gym.
**Our 50th Day of school is also Monday, November 7th.  We will be half way to our 100th day! The students will spend some time learning about the decade of the 50's.  We will mark our day by dressing like the 50's, having a sock hop and working on math stations surrounding the number 50. On Monday, November the students can dress like the 50's.  It can be as simple as a white tee shirt and blue jeans--slick back hair for the boys and ponytails for the girls.  If you should have a poodle skirt around--WOW!
**Fundraiser Trivia Night (adults only) is Thursday, November 10th at 7:00 pm at the Wire.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the students began to think about and discuss the feelings of surprise, showing interest, afraid/scared.
**No Friendship club this week.
**In Mr. PAcker's Thinking Skills this week, students shared their projects using dots and ABC letters as part of their picture.  They will begin a new project next week on counting.
**No School--November 8th-Election Day
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP--Brookfield Zoo--Tuesday, November 22nd from 9:00-1:30 pm.  I have S. Raphael and M. Ahring as chaperones.  I would like 3 more adults.  Email me if interested.
This week:
It was all about bats, spiders and skeletons!  We took the fright our of these creatures.  The students listened to informational texts as well as fictional stories.  We have a brown bat and bat skeleton on loan from the Field Museum.  Our nature table was set up to include a human leg bone, bat and spider diagrams, skeleton and skeleton parts of a lizard and mouse.  The students learned about bat and spider habitats, types of bats and spiders and why they are so helpful to our earth.  They also learned the difference between an insect and arachnid.  We felt for some parts of our human skeleton.  All humans have them!!   The students delighted in feeling where certain bones were on their bodies and reading stories about the function of our bone structure.  Station day activities included marble painted spider webs, turning pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, count and match the dots on a bat and color by code batty shapes.
Reading/Language Arts:     The students began work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series.  They built background knowledge about what a friend is and what types of activities you can do with a friend.  The students listened to the Big Book story, "What Do You Like?"  They responded and make connections about the activities they do with friends.  The students found the title page and discussed the main characters and setting of the story.  They learned how to compare and find differences and commonalities by using a Venn Diagram.  They compared the boy and girl in the story--What they both liked and the types of things each liked separately.  The students reviewed all their sight words and worked on the sound of Ss at the beginning and end of a word.  Robust Vocabulary for the week included FAVORITE, HOBBY, COMPLETE, PARTNER, FRIEND.  The students read their read aloud book, "I Like," and worked on tracking and fluency.  They reviewed what a speech bubble is.  In our final  study of the text, "Peter's Chair," the students completed a Blueprint workmat using a quote from the story to illustrate and explain what the character was thinking and why it was important to the story.   Workstations for this week included letter/picture/sound sort for letters M, S, A, P, using letter puzzles to create short a words, using the app Magnetic Letters ABC to compose 2 sentences using your sight words, beginning and ending sound create a word page, sentence starter "I like" completion and illustration, letter substitution to create a new word, leveled reader discussion of main idea and characters in the story, shared reading with a partner.
Math:     The students continue to practicing their counting to 50 as our 50th day approaches.  In our Eureka math lessons, the students began working with the number 6 in vertical and horizontal configurations and matching objects to the number 6.  They continue to work on the concept of one more, finding the missing number in the sequence and writing the number to show how many.  We took a look at the hidden partners for the number 6.  Our math workstations included counting to 50, writing numbers to 30, count/sort record, finding the hidden partner for numbers, 4, 5, 6 and taking a look at the number 7.
Writing:    In Writer's Workshop the students continued to work on their "books."  We reviewed that every story has a beginning, middle and end to it.  Can you read your book to a partner?  Being able to read what you write is important.  The students also worked on writing a TRUE Story,  They thought about something that happened or something they did.  They did practiced telling their story to a partner just like a storyteller.  When writing and illustrating their story the students were encouraged to use pictures and words to tell and use their question words--who--where--what. Labeling parts and using speech bubbles can also enhance their story.  It was cool to be the observer as they told their story to a partner.  We will be working on the book/true story format next week adding a title to a chosen book for publishing.
Science:     We are working on creating our scrapbook with all that we have collected.  The students will work next week to organize how they want the book to look.  On our field trip to the Arboretum this week, the students did a great job remembering the parts and function of a tree.  Ms. Judy was impressed!  The students sorted parts of a tree using materials around them on their hike.  Ms. Judy spoke about why leaves change color, how a tree gets its food and the job of the leaves.  We will be working on our next investigation-Leaves- next week.  If you have not sent in your leaf collection--please do so for our activities next week.
Technology:       No new apps this week.
Literature:     "Amazing Bats" "Bats," "Bats Strange and Wonderful," "Your Skeleton," "Your Amazing Bones," "Spiders," "Spiders and Spiderlings," "Bats Big Game," "The Runaway Pumpkin."

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