**It's been busy around Ms. Gullo's Kindergarten! I will back track to 11/21. The students learned last minute details about their field trip to Brookfield Zoo. We read informational texts about other types of bears. We also began to chat about an upcoming research project.
**11/22-Our field trip to Brookfield Zoo was great! We had a crisp and chilly but spectacular day of fun and learning. A big thanks to S. Raphael, E. LaFranco, D. Regan, L. Dantzler, T. Dixon, S. Flannery and Alice's Grandpa for all their help as volunteers. The students enjoyed Hamill Play Zoo for face painting and projects. Students got to pet a hen and a hamster up close! Students and volunteers also enjoyed seeing the animals of their choice. We enjoyed our lunch outside and had an entertaining visit from a peacock and guinea hen......mmmm....looking for some nice lunch! At the Great Bear Wilderness, our volunteer, Ms. H. was very knowledgable. The students examined black bear fur/paw and polar bear fur/paw. They participated in activities measuring how many students it took to equal the height of a grizzly bear and polar bear. On our outside tour, the students observed polar bears and a grizzly bear in their natural habitat.
**We were thankful for many things! Thanks for our wonderful grandma helper, Ms. D. and thankful for our Irving School family and for each other. I continue to be thankful for the great support and help from our kindergarten families. You all truly make the difference!
**The students enjoyed a visit from children's illustrator and author, Matthew Cordell. He spoke about his life and his love of drawing which began at age 3. He read 2 of his stories and showed the students how he draws a character and details. Very cool!
**First trimester REPORT CARDS will go home on Friday, December 9th. This will be in the form of standards based grading that I shared with you at conference time. Lexia reports will also be included as well as any goal updates by specialists your child may be seeing in the area of speech and language or Tier 3 intervention for reading and math. Mr. Packer will also have ready your child's portfolio of projects/explanation that were done during his class time. The main idea to remember for our report card system in that it is a growth model of progress toward end of the year goals. If you have any questions after reviewing your child's report card, please email me.
**Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Baking is Friday, December 9th beginning at 1:15 until dismissal. Currently, I have just one volunteer (thanks, Ms. Raphael!) If anyone else is interested, please email me. I will revise our making and baking so that each child will make 2 cookies instead of cookies for their family. I will provide cookie dough and everything else. The cookie dough is nut free, dairy free and egg free.
**Our WINTER CONCERT is fast approaching! Please join us Wednesday, December 21st in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances. The first will begin at 8:15 am and it will be repeated again at 9:30 am. We will have a reception in our room after both concerts. All are invited! Come join us!
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Handmade Craft Fair is Saturday, December 10th from 9-1 pm in the lunchroom and hallways. It is a great place to stock up on affordable holiday treasures.
**Just a note--Route to Reading has been suspended for the rest of this month. The students will keep working on their current skill level in the classroom and I will assess and move students as they master their skill. Thanks to Ms. Chinn who will be assisting with assessments.
**On Monday, we will begin our next cross curricular theme--TRADITIONS and CELEBRATIONS. If you have a particular family tradition or celebration that you would like to share with the class--please email me to set up a time.
**If your child is traveling over the winter break, let me know. I will provide a travel journal.
**Our Second Step lesson this week continued to focus on different feelings students have.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued chatting with the students about fostering good behavior wherever they go, including what a social detective is and using your social brain.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, the student began a project using shapes in different ways.
**No School--Winter Break--December 24th-January 8th. School reopens on Monday. January 9th.
This week:
It was all about research basics for little ones! What is RESEARCH? The students began thinking about something they wanted to know more about. They thought about it in the form of a question. We talked about how they might find a SOURCE to help them answer their question. The topic for their research is--BEARS. Next week, Ms. Noonan will continue the discussion and work on special research vocabulary and examples during their library time. The students will come up with a question they want to know more about and I will provide guidance and support. They will bring home their research question and format next Friday. Parent support is encouraged! It is exciting! Stay tuned! Station day activities this week included build and count pattern block designs, Leaf Man project, bear life cycle activity, bear read and label parts.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began work on Unit 3-Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed what is meant by transportation--a way to move people and things from one place to another. They brainstormed ways to get around and discussed forms of transportation that go fast and slow We constructed a group transportation word web. They built background on their travels near and far. They listened to the Big Book story, "On the Go." The students observed how people travel from one place to another and the vehicles they used. We looked up each country on the the world map. The students asked and answered questions about the types of vehicles used in other countries. They also worked on words that show ACTION. (verbs) Our Big Book text became the basis for a summative Blueprint on naming key details and using text evidence. In their comprehension study, the students compared and categorized types of travel and vehicles. The sight words is and play were reviewed. The students worked on the target sound Short Ii. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included TRAVEL, RELAX, JOURNEY, PREPARE, FAMILIAR. They used their elkonin boxes to blend and segment 3 sound words. They also learned about commas and how they are used. The students read their pre decodable story, "Go, Go Go" and elbow chatted with their partner about characters, setting and events. The students listened to 2 poems about transportation, "The Bike," and "Riding the Subway." They noticed the rhyming pattern in both and tracked the words as I read them. Workstations for this week included leveled readers focusing on fluency, story elements including key details, graph and compare--How do you travel to school? sentence creating with sight words and pictures with partners, creating your own retelling cards, substituting activity to create new words, CVC word search, adding a letter to create a new word activity, shared reading with partners, writing about your favorite vehicle and continued work in the Haggerty Blue Book.
Math: The students began Module 2--The Study of Shapes in our Eureka Math series. The students revisited basic flat shapes and reviewed pattern block shapes. We discussed the idea of a FLAT shape with sides and corners (vertices) of each shape and the similarities and differences between the shapes. The students explored various materials to create shapes with--straws/pipe cleaners, Connects, mini Magnetos and regular Magnetos, string and blocks. These shapes are included in the group called 2 dimensional shapes. The students then explored the world of SOLID shapes. Cones, cubes, cylinders, spheres, rectangular prisms and pyramids. The students looked throughout the room to find evidence of these shapes. They compared them to flat shapes and discovered that they have depth and are not flat. The students also used the same materials to create solid shapes. Math workstations for this week included reckenrek activities surrounding simple counting fluency, skip counting, addition and subtraction processes, going on 2D shape hunt and recording what they see, writing numbers 1 and 2 digit, solving simple story problems and finding hidden partners (number bonds) using numbers to 10 and creating a number globe using the app Doodle Buddy to write their number and choose icon stickers to represent their number.
Writing: The student worked on "Magic C" capitals C, S, G, O. They practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice book. In Writer's Workshop this week, the student reviewed all the components of past lessons in order to make their writing readable and legible. On Friday, we celebrated the end of our current unit. The students sat in a comfortable place and emptied their writing folder. They re read their stories and chose their "best" written story. They created a cover for their story that included a title and cover illustration. They then shared it with their writing partner. Totally cool!
Science: This week we deviated from the regular investigation on leaf shapes and the students listened to the story, "Leaf Man," by Lois Elhert. While I read the story, the students observed the leaf shapes on each page and the animals and figures created. On Friday, during station day, the students used leaves from our study to create their own "Leaf Man" or "Leaf Animal."
Technology: In reading whole group this week students used the Montessori Crosswords to practice blending and segmenting 3-4 sound words with side work on consonant blends and digraphs and specific vowels i and e. In math small groups, students used the app Doodle Buddy to create a number globe showcasing a specific number and illustration. The students, with my assistance, worked on saving their work and emailing it to me.
Literature: "Leaf Man," "Tree Homes," "The Amazing Turkey Rescue," "Thanksgiving Mice," "Who Lives Here?" "How Do You Travel to School?"
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