Sunday, January 22, 2017

UPDATES for 1/17-1/20 2017

**It's been another busy week in our Kindergarten.  Our artist in residence, Mr. Franklin continued working with the students, this time on a landscape design project.  Dental professional, Ms. Novotny, presented a program on good dental hygiene.  Children's author, Rachel Ruiz read from her recent book, "When Penny Met POTUS" and took questions from the students about "how to" make a book.  The students are also getting ready for the Opera for the Young's presentation of "Elixir of Love."  Ms. Hiolski is working with the students on the audience participation part.
**As the weather turns chilly next week.......please have your child dressed for the weather.
**The rest of the World Language and Eagle Extra classes begin next week.  I have been receiving the roster on the day the class begins.  Many of you have already responded to me if your child is participating in classes.  Feel free to email me if your child is in a class.  Thanks!
**Mid Year assessments are continuing next week.  I will be sharing all information with you at parent/teacher conferences.
**Notification letter for Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences is in your child's homework folder.  Please return bottom confirmation portion ASAP.  Conferences are scheduled for Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Thursday, February 15th.  Please note that on Thursday and Friday, February 16th and 17th, school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY.  Dismissal will be at 11:00 am.  Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will also pick up at 11:00 am.
**Opera for the Young's presentation of "The Elixir of Love," is Wednesday,January 25th at 12:45 pm in the gym.  It is an all school event.
**Reading Grandma was a bit under the weather this week.  She will be with us next Tuesday.
**Our 100th Day of School Celebration is Monday, February 6th from 9-11 am.  I currently have 3 volunteers but could use 5 more!  It is very fun!  Lots of activities surrounding the number 100! Email me if you can help.
**100 Item Heart Project will be sent home on Monday, January 23rd.  Explanation and suggestion sheet will be attached.  The project is due Friday, February 3rd.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, January 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING!  The FUN FAIR is COMING! It's Saturday, February 25th from 11-3pm all over the school.  Games, food, prizes, cake walk, silent auction.  Fun! Fun! Fun!  Come and play a game with me!
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued her lessons on self regulation by reviewing the super hero, Superflex and introducing Rock Brain who tries to undermined Superflex.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer began a project surrounding positional concepts that relate to our Common Core Standards.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin posed the question....."What is landscape?"  He showed the students how to use different types of lines in creating mountains/hills, river and trees and provided markers and cray pas oil crayons for students to use to experiment drawing a landscape.  Check out our gallery on the right!
This week:
The students have a furry friend visiting our classroom courtesy of the Field Museum.  The Snowshoe Hare will be in our classroom to help us begin our next unit in our Treasures Reading series Animals.  Our Nature Table is full of all things Winter!  The students are checking out snowflake patterns and crystals.  Ms. Novotny from the Children's Clinic provided an excellent presentation on how to brush your teeth and how good food helps build strong teeth.  Station day activities this included pattern block build and count, exploring scale balance and capacity, writing project with sentence starter...."In the winter...." and make 10 with snowman addition to 10.
Reading/Language Arts:     The students worked to complete Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series.  They worked in small groups to review nouns and verbs by writing a recipe for a food that showed what they needed (nouns) and what they do (verbs) to complete the recipe.  They reviewed all sight words learned thus far as well as digraphs and short vowel words.  The students used their elkonin boxes to blend and segment 2 and 3 part consonant blend words.  They also worked on sound substitution to create new words.  The students began a Blueprint to study sequencing of main events in a story.  The text, "The Snowy Day" was used.  During the first reading, the students listened to the story and visualized the adventures of Peter and thought about the order of the events using the words first, next, then last.  After the second reading, the students retold the story using pictures and their own words.   Several students had the opportunity to act out the main event of their choice using props and dialogue.  In our "we do" Blueprint, the students illustrated and wrote down their ideas on the projected screen Blueprint.  The students will do a "you do" Blueprint independently next week. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency and event sequencing, reading for meaning, creating a recipe.....a "how to" steps, story elements butterfly small group work, word substitution and work on blends and digraphs, vowel teams and writing about your favorite food and why you like it.
Math:     The students continued work in Module 3 comparing sets using the terms more, less and fewer and identifying and creating a set that has the same number of objects and identifying the set that has one more.   They continued work on nonstandard measure with cube sticks and measuring weight and capacity.  Students also are continuing work on finding hidden partners (number bonds) using numbers 0-10 and reading information in a story problem to determine if you add or subtract. Workstations this week included writing 2 digit numbers, exploring teen numbers and the idea of ten plus more and working with hidden partners to10.
Writing:     The students continue work on lowercase letter formation.  The letters t, a, d were introduced.  The students practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books.  In Writer's Workshop, the students are writing their "how to" books.  They are learning the process of numbering the pages or steps in their process, sequencing events in their "how to" book, illustrating and labeling each page and working with their partner to support each other. We wrote a group how to story about how to build a snowman.  The class helped me write the text and read it back, illustrate and label and use all the tools they learned in their previous units--spaces between words, beginning with a capital letter, be able to read back what you wrote and using their writing tools in their writing folder. (sight words, checklist, vowel support)  It is getting exciting!
Science:      The students began their first investigation in Unit 2 Materials and Motion.  We began with the focus questions--Where does wood come from?  What is made of wood?  We discussed what a natural resource is and how the properties  of materials determine their use.  The students looked for examples of wood in our classroom and school.  From our previous unit, they learned that trees are the source of wood and that trees are a natural resource.  Next week, the students will be testing wood products including sinking and floating, changing the shape and comparing and contrasting wood products.
Technology:     In reading small groups, the apps Rocket Speller and Spelling Bug were used to sequence sounds in a word,  Montessori Crosswords was used to reinforce cvc and ccvc, cvcc word sound blending.  The app Magic Reading 2 was used to reinforce short vowels, vowel teams and consonant blends in words.  In math whole group, the apps Subitize Tree and Animal Math were used to enhance visual number and number patterns and addition facts to 10.
Literature:     "The Snowy Day," "I am Snow," "A Perfect Day," "Let's Make a Cake."

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