Sunday, February 5, 2017

UPDATES for 1/30-2/3 2017

**The students are getting themselves and the classroom ready for our 100th Day Celebration.  Check out our 100 Item Heart Projects on the right side of post.  They are pretty cool!  The projects will remain up in the hallway thru until the end of the month.   Our Celebration is Monday, February 6th from 9-11 am.  Lots of activities surrounding the number 100 and counting by 10's to 100.  
**Alec's mom, Michelle has created a Sign Up Genius for you to contribute to our "GAME NIGHT" class basket for the Fun Fair.  Please note--You can send in money and games to me at Irving and I can deliver it to Michelle.  Let's make our basket the COOLEST!
**I just need a few more confirmed responses for Parent/Teacher Conferences and we will be all set. Parent/Teacher Conferences 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 only in the morning.  Dismissal is at 11:00 am.  Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will pick up at 11:00 am.  There are NO Eagle Extra classes those days.  
**Thanks to all of you who participated the Irving Dental Clinic.  The students enjoyed showing off their sparkling white teeth!!
**Happy Chinese New Year!  It's the Year of the Rooster.  The students had some fun reading about the origin of the lunar new year and all the animal signs.  They loved finding out what animal sign they were born under.
**Yes!  The Groundhog saw his shadow.  Six more weeks of winter.  So far....not too bad!  The students were evenly divided in their predictions.
**We had lots of fun with the Japanese students who cam to visit our class!  The students had questions about how they got to school, what school was like and what their writing looks like.  The hosting students from OPRF read a story by a famous Japanese children's author and played a game with our students using Japanese words.  Three of the hosting students from OPRF were former Irving students who were in my kindergarten.  AWESOME!!  They are all college bound!!  So proud!!
**Our Valentine Caring and Sharing Party is Tuesday, February 14th.  Information on this is in your child's homework folder.  Just a reminder--if you are sending a treat....it must be NUT FREE. Thanks!
**The FUN FAIR is COMING!  The FUN FAIR is Coming!  It is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm all around the school.  There will be games, prizes, food, dancing for desserts, raffles, a silent auction and much more!  Who will get the PIE in the FACE?  The students will be voting by placing coins into the jar for their favorite teacher.  What special performances do the teachers have up their sleeve???  Silent Auction items--BID!  BID! I will be taking 5 lucky winners to lunch at the JUNCTION DINNER and will be reading a special bedtime story to 2 lucky winners in their home.  Join in the fun!!!!
**Future Field Trip--Field Museum--Tuesday, March 7th from 9-2 pm.  5 volunteers needed.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey had a discussion with the students about things, people, places that mean the most to them in our daily lives.  In the month of sharing and caring, the students had many things to chat about.  Each child created a tee shirt ornament writing about what they care about.  They hung them on our Tree and our complement tree has become the "I Care" tree!
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week,  Mr. Packer helped us prepare for 100's Day by reading a special story and working with the students on creating 100 by grouping by 2's, 5's, 1's, 10's, 25's and 50's.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the lesson focused on how to calm down strong feelings you may have in certain situations.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin worked with the students combining 2D and 3D shapes to create a movable cat or dog.
This week:
It was about the students getting ready for the 100th Day.  They did a partner project counting 100 items in the classroom, reading about the number 100 and grouping 100 in different ways.  Our 100 Item Hearts look amazing!  The students experimented with changing the shape of wood.  More in the science section.  Station day activities included build and count 3D animals with cubes, color by code addition problems 0-5, search  and write short vowel words, count to make 10 and writing numbers to 100.
Reading/Language Arts:      The students continued work on Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series.  This week focused on using informational or expository texts.  They listened to a story about the work of doctors who take care of animals called, "Let's go To The Vet."  They made predictions about story content by looking at the title.  They worked on content vocabulary--veterinarian, diagram.  After the story was read, the students discussed what was the main idea of the story?  What kinds of animals to vets take care?  What are some things a vet does?  Our next Blueprint will focus on the students ability to describe the connections between the pieces of information and tell the main topic and details from a non fiction text.  We will be using the text, "Animals in Winter" for this.  We had our first reading and discussion.  Continuing along those lines, the student listened to the Big Book story, "Animals Babies ABC."  They built background knowledge about how animal grow and change.  Target words--play, me, my.  Target sounds--Ff and short i.    The students elbow chatted about story content and the animal they knew.  Robust vocabulary included BELONG, FRAGILE, INFORMATION, PARENT, SEVERAL.  Workstations this week included leveled readers with concentration on main topic and supporting details, fluency, sight word round up, word work with consonant blends (2 part and 3 part), long vowel/short vowel sort, work with vowel teams and sentence writing using the sentence starters- I can...They can and word work with sound substitution.
Math:     Students began to work in their Math Story Problem Books which are now part of their morning math exercises.  The page is projected onto the board. We read the story problem together.  For now, we are working with addition stories.  The students work to show the numbers being added on their ten frames, illustrate their work with a drawing and then write a number sentence or equation for their work.  This week, we spent time working on counting to, reading and writing numbers to 100.   The students worked with partners to count a group of objects from our classroom grouping by tens and labeling the groups.  Check them out when you come visit the room!  Next week, we will begin Module 4 in our Eureka Math series,  The focus will be on hidden partners--now called number bonding to  understand how to take apart (decompose) and put together (compose) numbers to 10. We are adding and subtracting!
Writing:      The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation.  Underground letter g as well as i and u were introduced.  The students practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books.  In Writer's Workshop this week,  the students continue the "how to" format to teach something they know about in their writing.  They looked at an Information Writing Checklist Poster.  The teaching point --remember everything you already know about writing informational books.  The Checklist poster is now part of their writing tools.  The students worked with their partners using the new checklist to tell their partners what they were going to work on.
Let's check--Do I have a topic?  Did I put different things I know about the topic on my pages? Did I have a last part? Did I write some details? Did I draw or diagram each page?
Science:     The next science question in our study of the natural resource--wood is How can you change the shape of wood?  Vocabulary included--change, sand, sandpaper, sawdust, wood dust, shape.  The students looked at a piece of sandpaper and we discussed what is was.  Some students knew how to use it, others commented on how it felt when touched.  The students then each took a piece of wood and a piece of sandpaper.  They rubbed the wood with the sandpaper.  As they worked--lots of conversation--What is the best technique for sanding?  How does the wood feel after you sand.  Does the wood shape change? Where does the wood dust come from?  How does the wood dust feel?  The students chatted and recorded their findings with pictures and writing in their science notebook.
Technology:     The students saw BrainPop videos on natural resources, wood, teeth and sink and float and took the quizzes.  The student continue to use Lexia Core 5 to build skills in phonemic awareness and phonics.
Literature:     "Animals in Winter," "Let's Go To the Vet," "Martin's Big Words," "One Hundred Shoes," "How to Make a Cherry Pie," "Groundhog Day," "The Groundhog's Special Secret," "Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day," "Chinese New Year," 'Portrait of African American History."



No comments:

Post a Comment