Sunday, January 29, 2017

UPDATES for 1/23-1/27 2017

**The Opera for the Young was awesome!  The students really enjoyed their production of "Elixir of Love."  The students got the opportunity to chat with some of the actors after the show and ask questions about the performance, staging and singing.  Cool!
**Eagle Extras and World Language Classes are in full swing now.  The students appear to really enjoy them.
**Keep sending your confirmation for Parent/Teacher Conferences.  They are Monday, February, 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th.  Please note--Thursday and Friday, February 16th and 17th school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY.  Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will pick up at 11:00 am.
**The DENTAL CLINIC will  be open at Irving School next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for free dental cleanings.  Please send back the sign up information if you are interested.  
**Reading Grandma Mary joined us on Tuesday.  She was so impressed with student's reading and comprehension.  She will be with us every Tuesday afternoon until the end of the year!  We love her!
**In reference to Route to Reading---The skill groupings will not continue but IN CLASS work will!  I will continue to present skills and test in both Kindergarten and First Grade Continuums.  Ms. Chinn will continue to assist with testing.  With all the new curriculum and less personnel to help out, the skill groupings became difficult to manage.  Never the less--I will continue what I believe to be   valuable work in phonemic and phonic skills acquisition.
**The 100 Item Heart Projects were sent home on Tuesday.  Please read the info accompanying the project.  It is due Thursday, February 2nd.  Don't forget to send a picture of 100 day old and a 100 year old person for our comparison board.  Our 100th Day Celebration is Monday, February 6th from 9-11 am.  We could still use more volunteers!!  No experience necessary! Email me if interested.
**We will have a Valentine Sharing Party on February 14th.  I will be sending information about this next Friday and chatting with our Room Parents.
**JAPANESE EXCHANGE STUDENTS will be visiting Irving School and will be coming to chat and do activities with our students on Tuesday, January 31st at 2:15 pm.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING!  The FUN FAIR is COMING!  Our Room Parents will be deciding on a theme for our class basket and you will be asked to contribute items.  Each class will have basket that will be auctioned off with other items.  The Fun Fair is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm all over Irving School.  Come play a game with me!!  Sign up for my special auction items!!  There will be a Bouncy House, Dancing for Desserts, Raffles, Games, Prizes, Silent Auction and much more!!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued lessons of self regulating your own behavior using the Superflex and Rock Brain.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer continued work on a project surrounding positional concepts that relate to our Common Core Standards.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin work with the students on the concept of SUMMETRY.  I will be creating a showcase gallery of their symmetry butterflies.
This week:
The students are having a great time exploring types of wood investigating sinking and floating and creating a raft out of the different woods using paper clips as the passengers!  More in the science section!  Mr. Franklin did a folded paper project and spoke about creating symmetry.   The students folded paper turned into lovely symmetrical butterflies!
Reading/Language Arts:     The students completed Unit 4 Food and began Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series.  They accessed background knowledge by discussing where animals might live.  House, zoo, outside, forest, jungle, trees, caves were just some of their thoughtful answers.  We took a look at our Showshoe Hare from the Field Museum to check out where this animal lives.  We discussed the word-habitat.  A habitat is a home.  The students listened to the Big Book story, "Mama Cat and Her Three Kittens."  They made predictions about story content.  The students elbow chatted about about the actions the kittens were performing.  We reviewed the verb-a word that shows action. The students took turns retelling the story in their own words.  We took a look at sentence structure--subject/action.  We did a group story elements Butterfly which included characters, setting, time of day, plot/what is happening.  The students are doing a good job of volunteering to write.  Our new sight words for the week are is and in .  Our target sounds are short o and long o.    Our robust Vocabulary included ACTION, GENTILE, COMPARE, POUNCE,  The students continued work on sequencing events in the story using the words--first, next, then and last.  The students continue work on segmenting and blending 3-4-5 sound words using their elkonin boxes and the app OZ Phonics projected on the screen.   They also continue to strengthen auditory skills and verbal responses using the Haggerty Blue Book exercises to add, delete and substitute sounds in words.  We are also continuing to work on exercises to see how fast students can sound out and read a nonsense word. Workstations this week included leveled readers with concentration on sequencing events, finding the main topic and reading fluency, 2 and 3 part blend activities, working with word family on and in words, sort and say real and nonsense words, work with vowel teams,  digraph match and search, sort, spell and write short vowel words.
Math:     The students completed Module 3 and will take their assessment next week.  The students reviewed one to one matching, one more and one less, looking at 2 rows of objects and completing the sentence--___is more than___ and ___is less than ___.  The students also began work using a number line to add and work with horizontal and vertical addition  problems to 6.  Workstations this week included writing numbers to 100, using a ten frame or ten tower to work on teens numbers, finding the hidden partners for sums to 10 and listening to a story problem to see if you add or subtract.
Writing:     The students continue practice work on lowercase letters.  In Writer's Workshop, students continue to work on their "how to" books.  They also worked on the idea that writers become readers, asking, "Can I follow this?"  Writer's worked with their partners having their partners read their story so far.  Can they follow it?  Is there something you can add?  Are your steps in order?  The teaching point becomes--writer's reread to check to see if their writing makes sense.  The students are really working hard especially on the writing goal that they have chosen.
Science:     The investigated types of wood.  They looked at cedar, pine, basswood, particleboard and plywood.  They worked on the focus questions--How can you sink wood?  How many passengers can a wood raft hold?  Each table was supplied with the types of wood pieces, paper clips and rubber bands.  The students worked with their tablemates to construct rafts and practiced dropping them in the water.  Lots of conversation around the concepts of above, below, compare, sink, float, test. Which piece of wood took more paperclips to sink?  Each table made a bar graph of their findings. Next week-How can you change the shape of wood?
Technology:    The students continue to use the same apps as last week.  Their work with the Lexia Core 5 program has been a real plus in reinforcing skills.
Literature:    "Martin's Big Words," "The Snowy Day," "Animals in Winter," "the Mitten Tree," "The Snowman."


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