**I am thankful for your patience! The students have had a very busy 2 weeks and are looking forward to their Thanksgiving break with family and friends.
**The students celebrated the 50th day of school with blue jeans, slick back hair, sunglasses, poodle skirts and ponytails. The students enjoyed our sock hop and dancing to the music of the 50's. The students also worked on math and literacy stations involving the number 50. The countdown continues! Only 50 more to go until our 100th day celebration.
**The Mexican Dance assembly was pretty cool and of course the school wide election between Bad Kitty and Scaredy Squirrel. Bad Kitty was the winner at Irving. The district winner was Scaredy Squirrel. The students also expressed their thoughts on the real presidential election.
**The Annual Turkey Trot took place on a beautiful Thursday afternoon. The students made special signs and cheered on brothers and sisters, friends and book buddies.
**Our Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo is Tuesday, November 22nd from 9-2 pm. ALL STUDENTS NEED TO BRING A BAG LUNCH and DRESS FOR THE WEATHER. It will be chilly and perhaps a rainy one. We have S. Raphael, D. Regan, J. Flannery, E. LaFranco, L. Dantzler, T. Dixon and K. James volunteering to help. Students and teachers will be riding the bus. Parent volunteers will be carpooling. Our trip includes a tour of the Great Bear Wilderness, a classroom experience, time spent exploring other exhibits and lunch.
**Family Math Night was mind boggling as students used their clues to solve the "guess who" mystery person. They were treated to some special treats and prizes. Thanks to all who came out.
**Kindergarten won the Student Council sponsored PENNY CHALLENGE!! All proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders. A special shout out to all those who brought in money.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 has concluded. You should have received notification on your child's skill mastery. Please email me if you did not. Route to Reading Rotation 3 will begin on Monday, November 28th.
**Meet children's author and illustrator, Matthew Cordell on Thursday, December 1st. He will be speaking to the our kindergarten and first grade students at 12:45 pm in the Irving Library.
**NO SCHOOL---11/23-11/27 Thanksgiving Holiday.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!! As part of our Traditions and Celebrations theme for the month of December, I am looking for volunteers to help with Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Cookie Making and Baking on Friday, December 9th beginning at 1:15 until dismissal. No experience necessary. Email me if interested. I will provide the dough, sprinkles and aprons.....you provide the baking sheets, rolling pins, man/woman power and the love! It is a no egg/no dairy and nut free recipe.
**SAVE THE DATE!! Our WINTER CONCERT featuring Kindergarten and First Grade is Wednesday, December 21st. Due to the size of our auditorium, it will be performed twice--once at 8:15 and again at 9:30 am. I will be chatting with room parents about refreshments and get together between the concerts.
**Our Second Step lesson this week was a recap of skills and topics of the first trimester.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, Mr Packer worked with the student on looking for clues and sequencing events in a story.
**No Friendship Club this week.
The past two weeks:
The students took time to chat about the meaning of Veteran's Day and to salute those who are in service for our country. The students were interested in the different branches of the military. They made connections in their own lives about people they knew in the military. I shared a personal connection about my niece and nephew who are in the Air Force and shared their stories.
Then it was all about our cross curricular theme--BEARS/ADAPTATIONS. The students completed an inquiry about what they knew about bears. We then gathered information from book sources and the internet about common characteristics all bears share. The students were excited to learn that humans share something in common with bears--we are both mammals. We then took a look at black, brown/grizzly and polar bears. The students read about their habitats, diets and other other characteristics. We made a group Venn Diagram comparing brown bear and black bears and also comparing brown bears and polar bears. Which one does not hibernate?? Students learned the terms omnivore (eating plants and meat) carnivore (meat eating) and herbivore (plant eating.) Our nature table has many bear artifacts including black bear fur, black bear jaw bone and skull and a claw and paw print on loan from the Field Museum. Cool! We viewed BrainPop videos on bears and hibernation. The students continue to prepare for their zoo field trip.
Students went to our class garden bed to harvest sweet potatoes and white potatoes. The also found tomatoes, some edamame, radishes and other seed pods. Lots of fun getting dirty and digging deep. The students observed some cool root systems. Check out the photo! Each child that wanted some took a sweet potato and some white potatoes. Wash well and cook! Let me know how they taste! Our garden bed is now asleep for the winter. In the spring, the students will decide what to plant.
Station day activities included creating a bear cave, pattern block bear building and counting quantities, leaf rubbings and sponge painted brown bears and a partner Subitize Challenge.
Reading/Language Arts: The past two weeks, the students worked to complete Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They used the text, "Simon and Molly Plus Hester" to work on key details in a story and what the character says that is important. The also explored the idea of a problem and a solution in a story. Who are the characters? How are they alike? Different? What do you think the author's message is? This text was used for a Blueprint Workmat summative assessment on key details and why they are important to the story. The students reviewed all of their sight words in a group game of "Hands Up, Hands Down." They wrote their words and partnered up to use them in oral sentences. Students reviewed target sounds Pp, Ss, Tt, Aa, Ee and Mm. We are working on our sound blending skills using our elkonin boxes. As I say a word.....the students segment or break down the word by each individual sound and pull down a cube for each sound. We are using real words and nonsense words. The nonsense words are crucial in the students ability to automatically sound out a word. The students continue to strengthen their short and long vowel recognition. We chatted about two consonant letters that are together in a word and you hear both sounds (consonant blend) and two consonant letters in a word but you hear one sound (consonant digraph.) We also began practice using 4 sound words using our elkonin boxes where you have to break the blend to segment each sound. Wow! The students read the predecodable story, "We Like Sam." They made predictions about story content. They listened to the story, "The Little Red Hen."
noting how I read the story (fluency) and once again thought about the problem and the solution in the story and sequencing events. Workstations for the past two weeks included leveled readers focusing on fluency, story elements, sound blending, word search for short a and short e words, sentence writing using sight words, read it and add to it, story elements butterfly, word families, at, it, et, readers response-rate the story and tell why, sequencing frame, word work with sight words we and is and shared reading with partners.
Math: The students continue to work to complete Module 1 Numbers to 10 in our Eureka Math series. The students worked on numbers 9 and 10 in vertical and horizontal configurations and matching number to quantity. They also continue to refine written number forms 0-10 and write numbers 0-20. Students worked on the concepts one less and one more using numbers 0-10 and finding the missing number in the number sequence. Students are listening to oral story problems to determine if you add or take away. They are working on writing an adding number sentence. Workstations for the past two weeks included playing the game "Race to 50," finding the hidden partners, writing numbers 0-50, creating an oral story problem using bear counters, counting down and counting on from a given number, playing the one more, one less game and using their number cards to sequence numbers.
Writing: The past two weeks, the students completed work on their Starting Corner Capitals U, V, W, H, K, L, X, Y, Z. They practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. In Writer's Workshop the past two weeks, the teaching points were using the power of vowels to write the middles of words and the use of a vowel chart added to the folders as a new tool for assistance. Using vowels helps make writing more readable. I chose some students writing to project for further discussion and suggestions. Using a students writing can be a powerful tool for all students! We also discussed using our word window and their yellow word help card to also assist in their composing. Working with their writing partner is so helpful. Students can bounce off true story ideas, help in sounding out a word or provide suggestions for adding more writing or illustrations. It is totally cool to see the writing partners at work! The students are discovering that their stories are becoming more readable and more detailed.
Science: Students began Investigation 2-Leaves. We took a Leaf Walk around our school. The students observed and picked up leaf specimens to add to the leaves they collected around their homes. In small groups, they looked at the shapes of leaves in their sort and match them to geometric shapes. They worked with the leaf silhouettes matching size, edges and shape. The students worked in their science journals and also tried their hand at leaf rubbings.
Technology: In reading whole and small groups the apps Montessori Crosswords, Magic Reading 2 and Vowels were used to reinforced cvc, ccvc, ccvc and short vowel words.
Differentiated small groups used the same apps for silent e, vowel teams and consonant blend work. In math whole and small groups the apps Subitize Tree, Easy Match and Top it were used to reinforce
number patterns, addition, one less, one more, visual counting, quantity counting and number recognition. BrainPop Jr. videos on Bears, Fall, Seasons and Hibernation were used to enhance science and theme concepts.
Literature: "Amazing Bears," "Bears," "Black Bear Cubs," "A Day In The Life of a Black Bear Cub," "Time To Sleep," "Grizzly Bears," "Bears in the Forest," "Bears of the World," "Polar Bears," "Follow the Polar Bears," "Amazing Polar Bears."
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Sunday, November 6, 2016
UPDATES for 10/31-11/4 2016
**We had a lovely fall afternoon for our Halloween Parade around the school grounds. Super heroes, princesses, vampires and other cool creatures were some of the fun costumes worn by the students. A BIG THANKS to our room parents and all who helped us celebrate the afternoon.
**Our 50th Day of School is MONDAY, November 7th. Come dressed in your 50's attire! It can be as simple as a white tee shirt and blue jeans, ponytails for the girls, slick back hair for the boys, sunglasses, leather jackets. If you should have a poodle skirt--WOW! We will have a "sock hop" of favorite tunes and math workstations with activities relating to the number 50.
**The Mexican Dance Assembly is scheduled for Monday, November 7th at 10:00 in the gym.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 will conclude on Wednesday. Look for information on your child's skill mastery in their homework folder.
**Trivia Night (adult only) Fundraiser is Thursday, November 10th at 7:00 pm at The Wire.
**Information on our next FIELD TRIP to Brookfield Zoo--Tuesday, November 22nd is in your child's homework folder. Please sign and return permission slip with money. Thanks! I would love to have 4 more volunteers for the trip. Right now I just have one. Email me if interested.
**Picture Retake Day is Wednesday, November 9th beginning at 8:30 am. Please email me to let me know if anyone is having picture retaken. Thanks!
**Join in the Student Council sponsored PENNY CHALLENGE to help "Doctor's Without Borders." Bring in any loose change (pennies, silver money or paper) the weeks of November 7th-18th. Each classroom will be keeping track and collecting points for money brought in. It's for a great cause. Help contribute!!
**NO SCHOOL on Tuesday, November 8th Election Day! On Monday, the students be voting in a mock election for book characters--Bad Kitty and Scaredy Squirrel. Who will win????? Mr. Packer will also hold a school wide election for the 4 candidates running in the real election. All students have filled out their voter registration cards.
**Come on out for FAMILY MATH NIGHT on Thursday, November 17th from 6:00-7:30 pm. This years theme is a "Guess Who" using math clues and detective fun! Information on the event was in last weeks homework folder. Families need to sign up. Email me if you need a flyer.
** Author Matthew Cordell will visit Irving School on Thursday, December 1st at 12:45 in the Library. Ms. Noonan will be sending a form to purchase a book this week.
**FUTURE EVENTS--December 9th afternoon--23rd Annual Gingerbread Baking in Room 110 as part of our Celebrations and Traditions theme. We need lots of helpers. No experience needed. I will provide the cookie dough, cookie cutters, sprinkles, aprons. YOU provide the baking sheets, rolling pins, spatulas and love! Email me if interested. Also--KDG-1 WINTER CONCERT is December 21st being performed twice--once at 8:15 am and again at 9:30 am. More info forthcoming.
**NO SCHOOL-11/23-11/27--Thanksgiving Holiday.
**In our Second Step lesson this week the students discussed the idea of having empathy--the ability to feel or understand what someone else is feeling. The students looked for body clues, point of view, how can I help! and what is a kind thing to say?
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bey Bey continued working with the students on ways to be a good social detective and doing the expected.
**In Mr. Packer 's Thinking Skills this week, the students worked on sequencing events in the story, "The Little Red Hen."
This week:
It was all about what an election is, who can vote in it, what are you voting for, what a ballot is and what makes a good leader. Lots of thoughtful conversations and discussion. We used the text, "Duck for President," to kick off the week. The students worked on story elements including characters, setting, key events and main idea. Who was a better leader--Duck or Farmer Brown--why? What were your supporting details? The students also took a look at what life was like in the 1950's. WHAT--no cell phones, colored tv's, microwaves, computers/tablets??!! What's a record player??How did we ever survive!! The students did a group Venn Diagram of comparing the 1950's and now. Station day activities included following directions to make "Duck," working on our class nature scrapbook, group thoughts on what makes a good leader and finishing up our Time of Year/Seasonal Babies bulletin board. (It's super cute!)
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They built background knowledge about how friends around the word share different activities and who can be a friend. They listened to the Big Book story, "Friends Around the World." They made connections looking and listening to the activities and places in the world where friends lived. We looked up these countries on the world map. Students reviewed sounds M, S, A, P. The students also began work using their elkonin boxes to sequence sounds (beginning, middle, end) in order to sound blend them into a word. Robust Vocabulary included WORLD, GAMES, PLEASANT, ASSIST, HONEST. The students worked on identifying the main topic of our Big Book story. They elbow chatted about what they knew and told their partners 3 details from the story. Students reviewed all sight vocabulary presented thus far. The students also reviewed the function of a speech bubble to show who is speaking in a selected text. In the Haggerty Blue Book exercises, students continue to work on isolating beginning and ending sounds, segmenting and blending CVC words and substituting the beginning sound in a word to create a new word. Workstations this week included leveled readers story elements/comprehension/main idea and fluency, sound blend and rainbow writing cvc words, walking your words, at and an family word work, working with short a, writing about what 2 friends might say to each other using speech bubbles and sentence building subject/action.
Math: The students practiced counting to 50 and writing each decade. In our Eureka Math lessons, the students worked on numbers 7, 8, 9 in vertical and horizontal configurations and matching objects to the quantity. Using these numbers, they continue to work on the concept of one more, counting down, finding a missing number in a sequence and writing the number to show how many. We took a look at hidden partners for 7, 8, 9. Math workstations included counting quantities and recording the number, finding the missing hidden partner, writing numbers to 50.
Writing: The students worked on Starting Corner capital letters U, V, W. They practiced formation on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. In Writer's Workshop this week, students went through their writing folder and selected a piece to put a cover on. They also shared their writing piece with a partner. In the next set of workshop lessons, the student were each assigned a writing partner. With their writing partners, the students can chat about true story ideas, read their writing to the partner and seek feed back from their partner on their writing. I reviewed teaching points about making their writing easier to read--spaces between words, using their knowledge of sound blending to stretch out and record all the sounds they hear in a word, to use their question words-who, where, what, why, when and how, sequencing the events in their story (beginning, middle, end) and using an ending mark. The students also review how beginning writers, like beginning readers, use pictures to help them make meaning and generate language.
Science: The students wrapped up Investigation 1-Observing Trees. They created a scrapbook of the nature they collected around our adopted White Oak Tree. Back in class, the organized the what they collected and worked in small groups on each page. The categories they selected where samples of bark, food, leaves, trigs/branches and rocks. It was great to see them working collaboratively in their small groups. We will keep the book in our classroom. The students have explored trees in their immediate area. We read an article about environments where trees can grow. The students looked at different land form cards. Can trees grow on mountains? around rivers? deserts? valleys? oceans? We also read and discussed an article about what plants need to grow. The students made a list in their science notebooks. Their list included water, light, roots, soil/dirt, food, space. The most important being water and light. In Investigation 2, the students began to take a closer look at leaves. Stay tuned for more!
Technology: In reading whole group and some small groups, the apps Magic Reading 2 and Montessori Crosswords were used to reinforce sound blending in cvc and ccvc words, consonant blend and digraphs and Oz Phonics for sentence word order and beginning and ending sound recognition. In math whole group, the apps Easy Match for dice and domino patterns, subitizing and adding and Brainy Bugs for counting, cardinality and mazes.
Literature: "Duck for President," "I Can Be President Too!" "If I Were the President," "So You Want to be President," "The White House," "Grace for President."
**Our 50th Day of School is MONDAY, November 7th. Come dressed in your 50's attire! It can be as simple as a white tee shirt and blue jeans, ponytails for the girls, slick back hair for the boys, sunglasses, leather jackets. If you should have a poodle skirt--WOW! We will have a "sock hop" of favorite tunes and math workstations with activities relating to the number 50.
**The Mexican Dance Assembly is scheduled for Monday, November 7th at 10:00 in the gym.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 will conclude on Wednesday. Look for information on your child's skill mastery in their homework folder.
**Trivia Night (adult only) Fundraiser is Thursday, November 10th at 7:00 pm at The Wire.
**Information on our next FIELD TRIP to Brookfield Zoo--Tuesday, November 22nd is in your child's homework folder. Please sign and return permission slip with money. Thanks! I would love to have 4 more volunteers for the trip. Right now I just have one. Email me if interested.
**Picture Retake Day is Wednesday, November 9th beginning at 8:30 am. Please email me to let me know if anyone is having picture retaken. Thanks!
**Join in the Student Council sponsored PENNY CHALLENGE to help "Doctor's Without Borders." Bring in any loose change (pennies, silver money or paper) the weeks of November 7th-18th. Each classroom will be keeping track and collecting points for money brought in. It's for a great cause. Help contribute!!
**NO SCHOOL on Tuesday, November 8th Election Day! On Monday, the students be voting in a mock election for book characters--Bad Kitty and Scaredy Squirrel. Who will win????? Mr. Packer will also hold a school wide election for the 4 candidates running in the real election. All students have filled out their voter registration cards.
**Come on out for FAMILY MATH NIGHT on Thursday, November 17th from 6:00-7:30 pm. This years theme is a "Guess Who" using math clues and detective fun! Information on the event was in last weeks homework folder. Families need to sign up. Email me if you need a flyer.
** Author Matthew Cordell will visit Irving School on Thursday, December 1st at 12:45 in the Library. Ms. Noonan will be sending a form to purchase a book this week.
**FUTURE EVENTS--December 9th afternoon--23rd Annual Gingerbread Baking in Room 110 as part of our Celebrations and Traditions theme. We need lots of helpers. No experience needed. I will provide the cookie dough, cookie cutters, sprinkles, aprons. YOU provide the baking sheets, rolling pins, spatulas and love! Email me if interested. Also--KDG-1 WINTER CONCERT is December 21st being performed twice--once at 8:15 am and again at 9:30 am. More info forthcoming.
**NO SCHOOL-11/23-11/27--Thanksgiving Holiday.
**In our Second Step lesson this week the students discussed the idea of having empathy--the ability to feel or understand what someone else is feeling. The students looked for body clues, point of view, how can I help! and what is a kind thing to say?
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bey Bey continued working with the students on ways to be a good social detective and doing the expected.
**In Mr. Packer 's Thinking Skills this week, the students worked on sequencing events in the story, "The Little Red Hen."
This week:
It was all about what an election is, who can vote in it, what are you voting for, what a ballot is and what makes a good leader. Lots of thoughtful conversations and discussion. We used the text, "Duck for President," to kick off the week. The students worked on story elements including characters, setting, key events and main idea. Who was a better leader--Duck or Farmer Brown--why? What were your supporting details? The students also took a look at what life was like in the 1950's. WHAT--no cell phones, colored tv's, microwaves, computers/tablets??!! What's a record player??How did we ever survive!! The students did a group Venn Diagram of comparing the 1950's and now. Station day activities included following directions to make "Duck," working on our class nature scrapbook, group thoughts on what makes a good leader and finishing up our Time of Year/Seasonal Babies bulletin board. (It's super cute!)
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They built background knowledge about how friends around the word share different activities and who can be a friend. They listened to the Big Book story, "Friends Around the World." They made connections looking and listening to the activities and places in the world where friends lived. We looked up these countries on the world map. Students reviewed sounds M, S, A, P. The students also began work using their elkonin boxes to sequence sounds (beginning, middle, end) in order to sound blend them into a word. Robust Vocabulary included WORLD, GAMES, PLEASANT, ASSIST, HONEST. The students worked on identifying the main topic of our Big Book story. They elbow chatted about what they knew and told their partners 3 details from the story. Students reviewed all sight vocabulary presented thus far. The students also reviewed the function of a speech bubble to show who is speaking in a selected text. In the Haggerty Blue Book exercises, students continue to work on isolating beginning and ending sounds, segmenting and blending CVC words and substituting the beginning sound in a word to create a new word. Workstations this week included leveled readers story elements/comprehension/main idea and fluency, sound blend and rainbow writing cvc words, walking your words, at and an family word work, working with short a, writing about what 2 friends might say to each other using speech bubbles and sentence building subject/action.
Math: The students practiced counting to 50 and writing each decade. In our Eureka Math lessons, the students worked on numbers 7, 8, 9 in vertical and horizontal configurations and matching objects to the quantity. Using these numbers, they continue to work on the concept of one more, counting down, finding a missing number in a sequence and writing the number to show how many. We took a look at hidden partners for 7, 8, 9. Math workstations included counting quantities and recording the number, finding the missing hidden partner, writing numbers to 50.
Writing: The students worked on Starting Corner capital letters U, V, W. They practiced formation on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. In Writer's Workshop this week, students went through their writing folder and selected a piece to put a cover on. They also shared their writing piece with a partner. In the next set of workshop lessons, the student were each assigned a writing partner. With their writing partners, the students can chat about true story ideas, read their writing to the partner and seek feed back from their partner on their writing. I reviewed teaching points about making their writing easier to read--spaces between words, using their knowledge of sound blending to stretch out and record all the sounds they hear in a word, to use their question words-who, where, what, why, when and how, sequencing the events in their story (beginning, middle, end) and using an ending mark. The students also review how beginning writers, like beginning readers, use pictures to help them make meaning and generate language.
Science: The students wrapped up Investigation 1-Observing Trees. They created a scrapbook of the nature they collected around our adopted White Oak Tree. Back in class, the organized the what they collected and worked in small groups on each page. The categories they selected where samples of bark, food, leaves, trigs/branches and rocks. It was great to see them working collaboratively in their small groups. We will keep the book in our classroom. The students have explored trees in their immediate area. We read an article about environments where trees can grow. The students looked at different land form cards. Can trees grow on mountains? around rivers? deserts? valleys? oceans? We also read and discussed an article about what plants need to grow. The students made a list in their science notebooks. Their list included water, light, roots, soil/dirt, food, space. The most important being water and light. In Investigation 2, the students began to take a closer look at leaves. Stay tuned for more!
Technology: In reading whole group and some small groups, the apps Magic Reading 2 and Montessori Crosswords were used to reinforce sound blending in cvc and ccvc words, consonant blend and digraphs and Oz Phonics for sentence word order and beginning and ending sound recognition. In math whole group, the apps Easy Match for dice and domino patterns, subitizing and adding and Brainy Bugs for counting, cardinality and mazes.
Literature: "Duck for President," "I Can Be President Too!" "If I Were the President," "So You Want to be President," "The White House," "Grace for President."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)