**Our Habitats are amazing! The students put their finishing touches on their habitats and are now using them for a quiet reading spot and for dramatic play. We continue to edit our iMovie and hopefully it will be ready for release in the next couple of weeks.
**The Irving Book Fair was a smash! Lots of browsers and buyers! Thanks to all who stopped by for "Campfire Stories." It was lots of fun.
**KEEP PRACTICING YOUR POEM for the Traveling Poets Project!! The students will begin traveling on May 10th and May 17th.
**We have finished all the lessons for Module 4 in math. I am sending home the workbook. Please feel free to work on the remaining problem sets with your child.
**We had some words of wisdom from our Principals of the Day-Principal Egan and Principal Foreman! They came by our classroom to tell us we were doing a good job!
**FITNESS WEEK begins MONDAY. Monday-Ball and Jump Rope Day. Tuesday-Healthy Heart Day-wear red and bring a healthy snack. Wednesday--ACES-everyone will exercise simultaneously. Thursday--Sports Hat Day Friday--School Spirit Day-wear Irving colors.
**Let's COUNTDOWN to the end of the year......the ABC way!! The students will decide weekly what we will do. I will be emailing you a copy and also sending a hard copy. It begins TUESDAY, MAY 2nd!!!
**COME RUN WITH ME! Come out for District 97's Fun Run on Saturday, May 6th. K-2 students will run at 8:00 am at Lindberg Park. Information is in your child's homework folder.
**The Ethnic Festival/World Language Day is also Saturday, May 6th at Julian Middle School. The parade begins at Julian at 9:30 am.
**The Irving Sleepover is Friday, May 5th. Info and sign up are on the Irving website.
**Information and sign up for Irving's Annual Art Fest/Poetry Slam is in your child's homework folder. It is Thursday, May 18th from 6-8 pm all over the school. Sign up to say a poem, rap, sing, work with your family, a friend, siblings--open mike under the direction of our own Mr. Williams. There will also be "Poetry Breaks," Art displayed, Chorus performance, a play by Mr. Packer's students, Spanish games and much more. Come on out!!!! Let's have some "little slammers" perform!!
**New Kindergarten Student Orientation is Wednesday, May 3rd from 2:30-4:00 pm in all the kindergarten rooms.
**FUTURE Walking Field trips--May 25th-Maze Library, May 31st-Pizza and Play End of the Year Family Picnic and June 6th-Oak Park Conservatory. Information on all trips will come out soon.
**In our Second Step Lesson this week, the lesson focused on fair ways to play---sharing, trading and taking turns.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey introduced the "thinkable" called Rex Flexinator. He works with Superflex against Rock Brain, Glassman and Space Invader.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer worked with the students on how to be a good detective and looking for clues to solve the mystery of the cards. Cool!
This week:
It was all about trying out our habitats and also trying out other teams habitats. The students collaborated in writing a set of rules for their habitat and giving their habitat a name. Then the fun began! Students used them for "chillin," reading and for just playing around! Yes! We have worm eggs and some baby worms! The students were thrilled and excited to view them. The students also planted the seed they are going to observe grow. Station day activities included raindrop addition, teen number tally, planting marigold, nasturtium, morning glory or sunflower seeds and observing our worm egg and baby worm.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. They took a look at different types of seeds observing texture, shape, size. The students also completed a Blueprint on text detail and main topic using the text, "The Sunflower House. " They reviewed all sight words taught thus far. We also used this week to review all consonant sounds, short and long vowel sounds, blends and digraphs, syllables and adding and deleting sounds to make new words. We are nearing the end of our Haggery Blue Book exercises. The students also worked on "word work" exercises---listening to nonsense words to spell, changing vowel sounds in words to create a new word and reviewing what nouns, verbs and adjectives do for a sentence. Workstations this week included leveled readers discussion about word choice and meaning, comparing texts and characters actions, fluency checks, elbow chats about main topic, drawing your idea of a garden and writing about what you would grow, writing and diagraming a favorite insect and writing about what you know about them, pronoun worksheet, unscrambling a sentence, what punctuation do you need? activity, word work with short and long vowels and writing about a seed and what it can grow into.
Math: The students began work in Module 5 of the Eureka Math series. You can check out the Tips for Parents sheet in your child's homework folder. The students worked on grouping by 10 ones and then some more to create teen numbers. We will begin work on "hide zero" the idea being that in numbers larger than 10, the 10 is still there and always part of the number. We can start with the number for 10 and cover or hide the zero to make a new number---10 and 3 ones. (hide the zero for 13) Workstations this week included writing numbers to 120, number bond cards to 10, solving story problems using drawings, equations and number bonds and counting on from a random number and decomposing teen numbers.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. Next week, they will be completing their orange practice books. We will continue to review upper and lowercase letter formation. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continued to work on persuasive letter writing, This week the students wrote to a friend at Irving School about a problem in the school and how they could fix it. They needed to be convincing, give reasons why it is a problem, include important information, give a fix it idea and be polite. The students chose friends or siblings to write to. We also began to chat about problems we may have at home and how we might solve them. The student brainstormed ideas and chose a person in their family to write to. They are in the middle of that process. They will be mailing the person of their choice this letter next week. Stay tuned!
Science: The students are finishing up their worm study. They continue to observe and feed our red composting worms. We have been finding worms egg sacks and even a few baby worms. It has been quite thrilling! The students recorded thoughts, facts and findings as well as drawing/diagrams of the worms in their science notebook. Next week, we will begin preparing for our next live animal study--fish! The student are also continuing to observe seeds types and what seeds need in order to grow. The students have planted a special flower seed and will nurture it as it grows into a plant. We will be observing the inside of a seed next week and prepare our classroom for guppies and goldfish!
Technology: The students are continuing to explore iMovie.
Literature: "The Sunflower House," "The Action of Subtraction," "How Does a Garden Grow?" "The Mission of Addition," "If You Were a Minus Sign," Grammar Tales--"Chicken in the City" (nouns) "A Verb for Herb" (verbs) "Silent Letters Loud and Clear." "What is a Seed?" "Compost Stew," "Heroes of the Vegetable Patch."
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Sunday, April 23, 2017
UPDATES for 4/17-4/21 2017
**What a fabulous week! The students were totally immersed in their habitat projects.
What a great salute to Earth Week. Lots of thought and great ideas along with a BIG dose of compromise when into the design, construction, painting and detailing of each habitat. Their projects also reflected "green ideas." The students will be adding some details to the inside and will begin using the habitats this week. I have been filming the whole process and will begin editing the video with the students and will put it on the blog in early May.
**Proofs for Sibling Pictures were given to the oldest child in the family. You may purchase them online or send the money with your child. Orders are due May 3rd.
**This is the FINAL WEEK of the Student Council sponsored Food/Coin Drive.
**The Irving Book Fair begins Monday, April 24th until April 27th. Come on out with your family and browse/buy. There are lots of great titles.
**Come to the Book Fair on Wednesday, April 26th for Family Reading Night. Come hear "camp fire stories" read by Ms. Noonan, Ms. Durham, Dr. Bell Bey and ME!
**The OPPL BOOK BIKE will be on the blacktop after school on Wednesday, April 26th at 2:00 pm. You can check out books and other resources right from the playground! They can also look up your card. Cool!
**Students have chosen their poem for the TRAVELING POETS PROJECT! Each pair of students is learning a poem that they have picked out. Part of their homework is to memorize their poem. On May 10th and May 17th, groups of my students will "travel" to other classrooms to recite their poem for a poetry break! A copy of the poem is in your child's homework folder. I also have a copy in the classroom so partners can practice.
**Come RUN WITH ME! Come out for District 97's Annual Fun Run on Saturday, May 6th. K-2 students will run at 8:00 am at Lindberg Park. Information is in your child's homework folder.
**The Ethnic Festival/World Language Day is also Saturday, May 6th at Julian Middle School. The parade begins at Julian at 9:30 am.
**The Irving Sleepover is Friday, May 5th. Info and sign up are on the Irving website.
**Look for info on Irving's Annual ART FEST/POETRY SLAM to be held on Thursday, May 18th from 6-8 pm soon. I would love to have some little slammers recite a poem, rap, write their own poem, sing perform with family, partner, friends. It is super fun! There will an art piece displayed from every student at Irving, performance by the Irving Chorus, Spanish games, a play performance, random poetry breaks and the poetry slam.
**Our Second Step lesson this week continues to focus on steps for problem solving.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey reviewed tools for learning, being a social detective, the zones of regulation, being SUPERFLEX and not ROCK BRAIN, GLASSMAN or SPACE INVADER. She also introduced the Thinkable that helps SUPERFLEX called COOL Q. CUMBER. He invites us to stay calm--helps us to have small reactions and is the opposite of GLASSMAN.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer worked with the students on graphing data on a bar graph using data based on stories that he read to the students.
This week:
Much of our week was spent in project mode. It was really a culmination of the each students ability to collaborate, share and compromise and work toward a common goal. The Eagle Essentials were a major part too. I was very proud of the class! They were able to were able to work out differences of opinion, varying ideas and keep the communication positive. Our station day time was spent on detailing the habitats. After reading texts and seeing a video on making the Earth a better place, the students discussed how to incorporate "green ideas " into their projects.
Reading/Language Arts: The students are working to complete Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series and became a preparation for a mini science unit on next week on planting seeds and beginning to plant seed in our indoor class garden. The students accessed prior knowledge about what plants need to grow. They completed an initial inquiry about what a seed was. The students used the rest of the week in small groups and with partners working on leveled readers receiving feedback on fluency from their group, responding in writing to questions about story elements and using their Writer's Checklist to see how they did, using context clues to determine the meaning of an unknown word and working to compare and contrast the experiences of characters in common texts. We began a Blueprint workmat on comparing the texts "Wonderful Worms" and "Earl the Earthworm Digs For His Life."
Math: The students have completed Module 4 in the Eureka Math series and will begin Module 5 next week. You will get an update on the skills we will be covering. The students enjoyed some "gamey" activities to review all the skills presented thus far. Activities included "Don't Spill the Beans," (building sums to 10) "Blast Off," (number comparison) "Addition and Subtraction Pails," (adding and decomposing numbers to 10) "What's My Shape?" (2D and 3D shape recognition) Partners took the "Subitize Challenge" on their iPads and also worked on the app "Number Bonds."
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. They reviewed all letters learned thus far. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continued work on persuasive writing. The students discussed ways they can be convincing and write about a world problem. During Earth Week, the students read or listened to many texts and stories about problems our earth faces. We also used the mentor texts, "The Day the Crayons Quit" and "The Lorax. They decided to write a letter to Mr. Hodge stating a problem and writing about how they would solve it and what could happen if it was not solved. They kept their Writer's Checklist handy to proof their writing. The students had great fun sharing their letters with each other before "sending" them to Mr. Hodge. Watch out! Next week the students will write to a family member about a home problem and offer a solution and we will mail it!
Science: The students continue to study worms. This week they continued their investigation of redworms----feeding them, observing their behavior----looking for baby worms and worm eggs. The students also took a look at nightcrawler worms. How are redworms and nightcrawlers the same? How are they different? The students worked in their science notebooks on a Venn Diagram recording what they observed. Smaller/Bigger. Skinny/Fat. Shorter/Longer. Warm places/Cool places. Similar body types. (clitellum, segments, front, back, bristles)
Technology: The students are continuing to explore iMovie. No new apps this week.
Literature: "Pig the Pug," "Press Start," "Don't Be a Litterbug," "The Lorax," "What is Happening to the Rain forest?" "What is Global Warming?" "Let's Be Water Wise," "Let's Recycle,"
What a great salute to Earth Week. Lots of thought and great ideas along with a BIG dose of compromise when into the design, construction, painting and detailing of each habitat. Their projects also reflected "green ideas." The students will be adding some details to the inside and will begin using the habitats this week. I have been filming the whole process and will begin editing the video with the students and will put it on the blog in early May.
**Proofs for Sibling Pictures were given to the oldest child in the family. You may purchase them online or send the money with your child. Orders are due May 3rd.
**This is the FINAL WEEK of the Student Council sponsored Food/Coin Drive.
**The Irving Book Fair begins Monday, April 24th until April 27th. Come on out with your family and browse/buy. There are lots of great titles.
**Come to the Book Fair on Wednesday, April 26th for Family Reading Night. Come hear "camp fire stories" read by Ms. Noonan, Ms. Durham, Dr. Bell Bey and ME!
**The OPPL BOOK BIKE will be on the blacktop after school on Wednesday, April 26th at 2:00 pm. You can check out books and other resources right from the playground! They can also look up your card. Cool!
**Students have chosen their poem for the TRAVELING POETS PROJECT! Each pair of students is learning a poem that they have picked out. Part of their homework is to memorize their poem. On May 10th and May 17th, groups of my students will "travel" to other classrooms to recite their poem for a poetry break! A copy of the poem is in your child's homework folder. I also have a copy in the classroom so partners can practice.
**Come RUN WITH ME! Come out for District 97's Annual Fun Run on Saturday, May 6th. K-2 students will run at 8:00 am at Lindberg Park. Information is in your child's homework folder.
**The Ethnic Festival/World Language Day is also Saturday, May 6th at Julian Middle School. The parade begins at Julian at 9:30 am.
**The Irving Sleepover is Friday, May 5th. Info and sign up are on the Irving website.
**Look for info on Irving's Annual ART FEST/POETRY SLAM to be held on Thursday, May 18th from 6-8 pm soon. I would love to have some little slammers recite a poem, rap, write their own poem, sing perform with family, partner, friends. It is super fun! There will an art piece displayed from every student at Irving, performance by the Irving Chorus, Spanish games, a play performance, random poetry breaks and the poetry slam.
**Our Second Step lesson this week continues to focus on steps for problem solving.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey reviewed tools for learning, being a social detective, the zones of regulation, being SUPERFLEX and not ROCK BRAIN, GLASSMAN or SPACE INVADER. She also introduced the Thinkable that helps SUPERFLEX called COOL Q. CUMBER. He invites us to stay calm--helps us to have small reactions and is the opposite of GLASSMAN.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer worked with the students on graphing data on a bar graph using data based on stories that he read to the students.
This week:
Much of our week was spent in project mode. It was really a culmination of the each students ability to collaborate, share and compromise and work toward a common goal. The Eagle Essentials were a major part too. I was very proud of the class! They were able to were able to work out differences of opinion, varying ideas and keep the communication positive. Our station day time was spent on detailing the habitats. After reading texts and seeing a video on making the Earth a better place, the students discussed how to incorporate "green ideas " into their projects.
Reading/Language Arts: The students are working to complete Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series and became a preparation for a mini science unit on next week on planting seeds and beginning to plant seed in our indoor class garden. The students accessed prior knowledge about what plants need to grow. They completed an initial inquiry about what a seed was. The students used the rest of the week in small groups and with partners working on leveled readers receiving feedback on fluency from their group, responding in writing to questions about story elements and using their Writer's Checklist to see how they did, using context clues to determine the meaning of an unknown word and working to compare and contrast the experiences of characters in common texts. We began a Blueprint workmat on comparing the texts "Wonderful Worms" and "Earl the Earthworm Digs For His Life."
Math: The students have completed Module 4 in the Eureka Math series and will begin Module 5 next week. You will get an update on the skills we will be covering. The students enjoyed some "gamey" activities to review all the skills presented thus far. Activities included "Don't Spill the Beans," (building sums to 10) "Blast Off," (number comparison) "Addition and Subtraction Pails," (adding and decomposing numbers to 10) "What's My Shape?" (2D and 3D shape recognition) Partners took the "Subitize Challenge" on their iPads and also worked on the app "Number Bonds."
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. They reviewed all letters learned thus far. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continued work on persuasive writing. The students discussed ways they can be convincing and write about a world problem. During Earth Week, the students read or listened to many texts and stories about problems our earth faces. We also used the mentor texts, "The Day the Crayons Quit" and "The Lorax. They decided to write a letter to Mr. Hodge stating a problem and writing about how they would solve it and what could happen if it was not solved. They kept their Writer's Checklist handy to proof their writing. The students had great fun sharing their letters with each other before "sending" them to Mr. Hodge. Watch out! Next week the students will write to a family member about a home problem and offer a solution and we will mail it!
Science: The students continue to study worms. This week they continued their investigation of redworms----feeding them, observing their behavior----looking for baby worms and worm eggs. The students also took a look at nightcrawler worms. How are redworms and nightcrawlers the same? How are they different? The students worked in their science notebooks on a Venn Diagram recording what they observed. Smaller/Bigger. Skinny/Fat. Shorter/Longer. Warm places/Cool places. Similar body types. (clitellum, segments, front, back, bristles)
Technology: The students are continuing to explore iMovie. No new apps this week.
Literature: "Pig the Pug," "Press Start," "Don't Be a Litterbug," "The Lorax," "What is Happening to the Rain forest?" "What is Global Warming?" "Let's Be Water Wise," "Let's Recycle,"
Sunday, April 16, 2017
UPDATES for 4/10-4/13 2017
**REMINDER: SIBLING PICTURES will be taken on TUESDAY, APRIL 18th in the morning. This year is different from previous years. It is siblings only (not everyone.) The sibling(s) must attend Irving School. Please email me or sign up on the Irving website if your child is participating.
**On MONDAY, the students will begin their engineering project. The design challenge for the student groups is to design, construct, paint and detail a structure/habitat that will be used for reading and dramatic play in the classroom. We will form 3 student groups, select a project manager and chat about ground rules in order to complete the project. We have begun some conversations about the art of compromise. The students will be using all recyclable materials. The student groups will discuss and sketch prototype drawings to document what they think their structure might look like. We will be using iMovie to document from start to finish. The students are super excited! Please do not send your child in their finest clothing. We will be using tempera paint and will be wearing extra long paint shirts......but......it can still get messy! The paint is washable. The projects will take about a week. We will construct 3 structures. Please mote that we may deviate from our normal subject areas and workstation time.
**A BIG SHOUT OUT to our Spelling Bee participants JACKSON and LILY and our ever ready alternate, LILAH! They were awesome! They received a really cool ribbon. I was so proud of their perseverance. Our class made a special poster to cheer them on.
**Our Student Council Reps, Declan and Naomi D. want you to continue to send in food and money for the Student Council sponsored FOOD DRIVE. The drive will continue this week.
**CLASSROOM COIN CHALLENGE! Bring in your loose change to class the week of April 24th-28th. All money collected will benefit the Irving Library. This event coincides with the Irving Book Fair that same week. We will be visiting the fair as a class but encourage families to attend to browse or buy. Come join guest readers myself, Ms. Noonan, Ms. Durham and Ms. Grogan for our Family Reading Night on Wednesday, April 26th from 6:30-7:30 pm featuring "camping" stories.
**Stay tuned for information next week on the TRAVELING POETS PROJECT under the direction on Ms. Noonan. Each student will be selecting a poem to learn.
**The GARDEN CLUB is back! Please join us on Friday, April 21st after school to wake up the worms, clear the beds and plant peas and greens.
**Come RUN WITH ME! Come out for District 97's Annual Fun Run on Saturday, May 6th beginning at 8:00 am with the K-2 run. The event is at Lindberg Park.
**The Ethnic Festival/World Language Day is also Saturday, May 6th at Julian Middle School. The parade begins at 9:30 from Julian.
** In our Second Step lesson this week our lesson focused on how to problem solve.
**No Friendship Club this week.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer began prep for a new project on data collecting, organizing and analyzing.
This week:
It was all about worm facts and fiction and examining and labeling worms parts, continued work on number bonds and decomposing sets (subtraction) and prep for our engineering project. Also, the students began using about 8 minutes of their time when they come in the morning to listen to or read to someone their BUSY READER story or borrowing a story to read. The students continue to work on their reading fluency and reading to someone really helps! The students are enjoying our WORD PLAY exercises that began last Friday. It is a great visual for imprinting sound order by using physical movement. This is now part of their homework each week.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. They talked about seeds and the plants that grow from them. They accessed prior knowledge from our fall unit on apples. The students revisited our apple seed tray. They also discussed what they knew about types of seeds--blowing dandelion seeds, helping their family plant seeds in their backyard and naming seeds they knew. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Seed Secrets." The story was about the ways in which seeds travel. The students observed the illustrations and tracked the print as I read. They were able to verbally ask and answer questions about the text. The students examined an unknown word--sprout. How do you know what it means? Where can you look in the text to get the meaning? Can the illustrations help you? Can other words in the sentence help you find the meaning? Target words for this week were here and was. The students worked with partners to build sentences with their sight words and pictures. We reviewed noun, verbs and adjective use. The students also revisited short u, consonant blends and digraphs in words. We also took a look at long vowel/silent e words and vowels teams. They began work on a new Blueprint focusing on comparing two texts on the same topic. We used a Venn Diagram format to compare two of our science texts--"Wonderful Worms" and "Earl the Earthworm Digs for his Life." Questions discussed--How are these texts alike? (similarities) How are the text different? Robust vocabulary for this week included GRADUALLY, SEEDS, OBSERVE. The students read the decodable story, "The Bud Is Up." They made predictions about story content and discussed what the word bud might mean. They reread the story to a partner for fluency building. Workstations this week included leveled readers, fluency checks, discussion of characters in texts and comparing the actions of the characters looking for similarities and differences, main idea elbow chats, word building, defining an unknown word from their text, short and long u word work, playing the vowel game "Bug Jar," writing and drawing about your favorite vegetable, how to story about how to grow a seed, playing the sight word game, "Popcorn," retelling a story verbally and then creating retelling cards in their own words and sound substitution work with vowels.
Math: The students are working to complete Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. The lessons focus was on representing pictorial decomposition and composition (subtracting and adding) stories to 10 with 5 group drawings and equations and stating the sum at the beginning of the equation. Workstations this week included writing numbers to 120, telling time by the hour digitally and analogue, solving simple story problems by illustrating and writing the equation, decomposing teen numbers as a group of 10 and what is left over and counting on from a given number in sequence.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters q and x 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 took a look at persuasive writing in the form of writing a letter to someone. What is a problem you see? How can you fix it? Who can you tell about it? What are your feelings? Can you illustrate it and add labels? The students continue to work on their "When you are done, you have just begun" checklist which includes rereading writing, conferring with a partner, adding more--reasons, drawings, labels, speech bubbles etc. and fixing up parts that are not easy to read.
Science: The students continue to work on their investigation about worms. This week, the students worked in their science notebooks creating a diagram of a worm--drawing and labeling important parts. They defined vocabulary-segment, clitellum, front, back, compost, soil. The students continue to observe the redworms in their habitat. Students are bringing in "food" to feed the worms. We asked google some questions---How many eggs in the egg sack? When are worms grownups? Next week: Comparing redworms and nightcrawlers! Cool!
Technology: The students are learning about making an iMovie in preparation for documenting their projects. In reading, small group work focused on the app Montessori Crosswords for skill building on ccvc,cvcc, short u, silent e and ck words. In math, small groups and individuals used the apps Butterfly Math, Number Bonds to 10 and Animal Math for skill building in addition and subtraction and missing addends.
Literature: "Earl the Earthworm Dig for His Life," "Domino Addition," "The Cheerios Counting Book," "Animals Two By Two-Worms," "Over in the Garden," "Nouns," "Verbs," "Adjectives." "The Garden Detective," "Underground," "The Day the Crayons Quit," "The Great Fuzz Frenzy," "King Hugo's Huge Ego," "Bunches of Bunnies," "The Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick."
**On MONDAY, the students will begin their engineering project. The design challenge for the student groups is to design, construct, paint and detail a structure/habitat that will be used for reading and dramatic play in the classroom. We will form 3 student groups, select a project manager and chat about ground rules in order to complete the project. We have begun some conversations about the art of compromise. The students will be using all recyclable materials. The student groups will discuss and sketch prototype drawings to document what they think their structure might look like. We will be using iMovie to document from start to finish. The students are super excited! Please do not send your child in their finest clothing. We will be using tempera paint and will be wearing extra long paint shirts......but......it can still get messy! The paint is washable. The projects will take about a week. We will construct 3 structures. Please mote that we may deviate from our normal subject areas and workstation time.
**A BIG SHOUT OUT to our Spelling Bee participants JACKSON and LILY and our ever ready alternate, LILAH! They were awesome! They received a really cool ribbon. I was so proud of their perseverance. Our class made a special poster to cheer them on.
**Our Student Council Reps, Declan and Naomi D. want you to continue to send in food and money for the Student Council sponsored FOOD DRIVE. The drive will continue this week.
**CLASSROOM COIN CHALLENGE! Bring in your loose change to class the week of April 24th-28th. All money collected will benefit the Irving Library. This event coincides with the Irving Book Fair that same week. We will be visiting the fair as a class but encourage families to attend to browse or buy. Come join guest readers myself, Ms. Noonan, Ms. Durham and Ms. Grogan for our Family Reading Night on Wednesday, April 26th from 6:30-7:30 pm featuring "camping" stories.
**Stay tuned for information next week on the TRAVELING POETS PROJECT under the direction on Ms. Noonan. Each student will be selecting a poem to learn.
**The GARDEN CLUB is back! Please join us on Friday, April 21st after school to wake up the worms, clear the beds and plant peas and greens.
**Come RUN WITH ME! Come out for District 97's Annual Fun Run on Saturday, May 6th beginning at 8:00 am with the K-2 run. The event is at Lindberg Park.
**The Ethnic Festival/World Language Day is also Saturday, May 6th at Julian Middle School. The parade begins at 9:30 from Julian.
** In our Second Step lesson this week our lesson focused on how to problem solve.
**No Friendship Club this week.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer began prep for a new project on data collecting, organizing and analyzing.
This week:
It was all about worm facts and fiction and examining and labeling worms parts, continued work on number bonds and decomposing sets (subtraction) and prep for our engineering project. Also, the students began using about 8 minutes of their time when they come in the morning to listen to or read to someone their BUSY READER story or borrowing a story to read. The students continue to work on their reading fluency and reading to someone really helps! The students are enjoying our WORD PLAY exercises that began last Friday. It is a great visual for imprinting sound order by using physical movement. This is now part of their homework each week.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. They talked about seeds and the plants that grow from them. They accessed prior knowledge from our fall unit on apples. The students revisited our apple seed tray. They also discussed what they knew about types of seeds--blowing dandelion seeds, helping their family plant seeds in their backyard and naming seeds they knew. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Seed Secrets." The story was about the ways in which seeds travel. The students observed the illustrations and tracked the print as I read. They were able to verbally ask and answer questions about the text. The students examined an unknown word--sprout. How do you know what it means? Where can you look in the text to get the meaning? Can the illustrations help you? Can other words in the sentence help you find the meaning? Target words for this week were here and was. The students worked with partners to build sentences with their sight words and pictures. We reviewed noun, verbs and adjective use. The students also revisited short u, consonant blends and digraphs in words. We also took a look at long vowel/silent e words and vowels teams. They began work on a new Blueprint focusing on comparing two texts on the same topic. We used a Venn Diagram format to compare two of our science texts--"Wonderful Worms" and "Earl the Earthworm Digs for his Life." Questions discussed--How are these texts alike? (similarities) How are the text different? Robust vocabulary for this week included GRADUALLY, SEEDS, OBSERVE. The students read the decodable story, "The Bud Is Up." They made predictions about story content and discussed what the word bud might mean. They reread the story to a partner for fluency building. Workstations this week included leveled readers, fluency checks, discussion of characters in texts and comparing the actions of the characters looking for similarities and differences, main idea elbow chats, word building, defining an unknown word from their text, short and long u word work, playing the vowel game "Bug Jar," writing and drawing about your favorite vegetable, how to story about how to grow a seed, playing the sight word game, "Popcorn," retelling a story verbally and then creating retelling cards in their own words and sound substitution work with vowels.
Math: The students are working to complete Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. The lessons focus was on representing pictorial decomposition and composition (subtracting and adding) stories to 10 with 5 group drawings and equations and stating the sum at the beginning of the equation. Workstations this week included writing numbers to 120, telling time by the hour digitally and analogue, solving simple story problems by illustrating and writing the equation, decomposing teen numbers as a group of 10 and what is left over and counting on from a given number in sequence.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters q and x 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 took a look at persuasive writing in the form of writing a letter to someone. What is a problem you see? How can you fix it? Who can you tell about it? What are your feelings? Can you illustrate it and add labels? The students continue to work on their "When you are done, you have just begun" checklist which includes rereading writing, conferring with a partner, adding more--reasons, drawings, labels, speech bubbles etc. and fixing up parts that are not easy to read.
Science: The students continue to work on their investigation about worms. This week, the students worked in their science notebooks creating a diagram of a worm--drawing and labeling important parts. They defined vocabulary-segment, clitellum, front, back, compost, soil. The students continue to observe the redworms in their habitat. Students are bringing in "food" to feed the worms. We asked google some questions---How many eggs in the egg sack? When are worms grownups? Next week: Comparing redworms and nightcrawlers! Cool!
Technology: The students are learning about making an iMovie in preparation for documenting their projects. In reading, small group work focused on the app Montessori Crosswords for skill building on ccvc,cvcc, short u, silent e and ck words. In math, small groups and individuals used the apps Butterfly Math, Number Bonds to 10 and Animal Math for skill building in addition and subtraction and missing addends.
Literature: "Earl the Earthworm Dig for His Life," "Domino Addition," "The Cheerios Counting Book," "Animals Two By Two-Worms," "Over in the Garden," "Nouns," "Verbs," "Adjectives." "The Garden Detective," "Underground," "The Day the Crayons Quit," "The Great Fuzz Frenzy," "King Hugo's Huge Ego," "Bunches of Bunnies," "The Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick."
Monday, April 10, 2017
UPDATES for 4/3-4/7 2017
**The students returned from their spring break with lots of stories about their travels and time spent with family. Whether they remained in the area or traveled to another town or state, they had much to tell! We spent some time locating all the states and cities visited on our state map.
**Keep sending in those GIANT BOXES and other boxes and cool stuff for our engineering project. The students will be designing, constructing and detailing a cozy habitat for reading and dramatic play in our classroom. I would like to have everything in by Friday. We could still use boxes the kids can climb into. We will work on the project the week of April 17th -21st. We will need some hot glue volunteers during our detailing stage. Stay tuned!
**Our SPELLING BEE REPS, JACKSON and LILY and our alternate, LILAH are really excited to participate in the Irving K-2 Spelling Bee on Wednesday, April 12th during our lunch hour beginning at 11:15 am. We will be cheering them on. Feel free to come and join us in the Irving auditorium.
**Thanks for sending in your report card envelopes. If you haven't done so....please do. Thanks! Our last report card will go home in June.
**Our Student Council reps, Declan and Naomi D. spoke to the students about the Food Drive that Student Council is sponsoring. Please read the yellow info sheet in your child's homework folder for food ideas. They are also accepting money too!
**EAGLE EXTRA classes begin on Monday, April 10th. I will be getting a list of participants with days and times. The students will be picked up from the classroom by an adult supervisor.
**Representatives from the Special Olympics Young Athletes spoke to the students on their theme for this year which is "Respect is my super power." Students spoke about ways to encourage respect for all. Some great conversations between the students on ways to be helpful.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, April 18th in the morning.
**Irving Book Fair is the week of April 24th-28th. Please join us on Wednesday, April 26th from 6:30-7:30 pm for Family Reading Night featuring "camping" stories read by myself, Ms. Durham, Ms. Noonan and Ms. Grogan.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, April 14th.
**Kindergarten New Student Open House is Wednesday, May3rd from 2:30-4:30 pm in the kindergarten rooms.
**No Second Step lesson this week.
**No Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week.
** In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey's lesson focused on a new unthinkable called "Worry Wall." Worry Wall makes people feel nervous or worry in social situations. The students had a heart to heart conversation about things that worry them. Dr. Bell Bey read the story, "Wemberly Worried."
This week:
It was all about signs of spring, sharing stories about spring break and beginning our new science unit. The students were super excited to begin a unit on worms in our Animals Two by Two unit. There was also lots of discussion about our upcoming engineering project. Stay tuned. Station day activities included creating a worm (cut and paste,) making a clock clown, creating a number sentence after reading a story problem and putting the words of a sentence in the correct order
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. They began building background knowledge about how a tree grows. It was great to observe how much the students remembered from their science unit on trees. The students chatted about Oak Park and the types of trees in the area. We used our Tree Finder book to find information on Oak, Maple and Gingko trees. Trees are plants that take a long time to grow! Students listened to the Big Book story, " Oak Trees." They noted that the story was nonfiction containing information. The students responded that they had seen acorns, some students collected them. They discussed how an acorn seed sprouts and grows. Sight words for this week are said and little. Our target sounds are short u and ck. We took a look at quotation marks to tell us who is talking in the story. Students retold the big book story and sequenced the events in their own words. Students reviewed the question words who, what, where, when, why and how. They took turns verbally asking a question about the story and having their partner answer the question. They practiced reading the story, "The Little Acorn" aloud to a partner to practice fluency building and getting feedback from their partner. Robust Vocabulary this week included GROW, CONCEITED, EQUAL, CHARMING. We have begun work on core standards of word choice, describing a characters experience and comparing characters from two different texts. Students continue to work on word work--cvc, ccvc and cvcc spellings and short and long vowels. Workstations this week included leveled reader fluency checks, discussion on characters in the texts and comparing the actions of the characters looking for similarities and differences, writing an information piece on what you know about trees, word family spin and color, activities on ck words, sentence building and writing, writing an opinion piece on why we need trees, short and long vowel work and works with digraphs and blends and playing "Web of Words."
Math: The students continue to work on Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. The focus of the lessons this week was decomposing the number 10 using fingers, sets, cubes and number bonds. Students also worked on solving story problems involving numbers 9 and 10 and finding the missing addend in a number bond. Workstations this week included writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, telling time by the hour both analogue and digitally, solving simple story problems and describing teen numbers as a group of 10 and what is left over.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters h, n and f 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 student continue to work on opinion writing. The teaching point for students--writers state how they feel and say why. They write at least two reasons to support what they thought. They use the words because in their sentences. They also continue to illustrate and label and begin to think about adding an ending sentence. The students wrote on a variety of topics and shared their writing with their partner and the entire class. Next week--how to write a letter to someone.
Science: The students began their next science unit Animals Two by Two. This unit investigates the living animals--worms and fish. The students began prepping for the unit by looking for information in books and on the internet on worms. They helped create our worm habitat that now houses red wiggler compost worms. What are worms? What are the parts of a red worm? What do red worms need in order to live. The students observed a clear plastic structure with holes in the lid. They observed dirt with some bits of oatmeal and newspaper. Projected on the screen---I took some of the dirt out and put it on a tray. Many oohs and aahs as the students began to see movement in the dirt. We put the tray under the magnifier. Red worms began to inch along! The students observed their color, size and the spiral lines or segments in their body structure. Many commented on the front and back looking kind of the same. Stay tuned for more next week!!!!
Technology: The students viewed a few videos on compost worms. In our phonics work, students used the apps Montessori Crosswords to study ck ending words and short u words and Consonant Blend Sort to work on beginning and ending blends. In our math work this week, the students used the apps Animal Math and Butterfly Math to work on missing addends, addition and subtraction problems to 10 and the app Let's Do Math to work on number bonds to 10.
Literature: "Sorting Thru Spring," "Diary of a Worm," "Worms," "Clocks and Calendars," "What's in the Garden?" "The Ant Bully," "Yucky Worms." "Wonderful Worms."
**Keep sending in those GIANT BOXES and other boxes and cool stuff for our engineering project. The students will be designing, constructing and detailing a cozy habitat for reading and dramatic play in our classroom. I would like to have everything in by Friday. We could still use boxes the kids can climb into. We will work on the project the week of April 17th -21st. We will need some hot glue volunteers during our detailing stage. Stay tuned!
**Our SPELLING BEE REPS, JACKSON and LILY and our alternate, LILAH are really excited to participate in the Irving K-2 Spelling Bee on Wednesday, April 12th during our lunch hour beginning at 11:15 am. We will be cheering them on. Feel free to come and join us in the Irving auditorium.
**Thanks for sending in your report card envelopes. If you haven't done so....please do. Thanks! Our last report card will go home in June.
**Our Student Council reps, Declan and Naomi D. spoke to the students about the Food Drive that Student Council is sponsoring. Please read the yellow info sheet in your child's homework folder for food ideas. They are also accepting money too!
**EAGLE EXTRA classes begin on Monday, April 10th. I will be getting a list of participants with days and times. The students will be picked up from the classroom by an adult supervisor.
**Representatives from the Special Olympics Young Athletes spoke to the students on their theme for this year which is "Respect is my super power." Students spoke about ways to encourage respect for all. Some great conversations between the students on ways to be helpful.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, April 18th in the morning.
**Irving Book Fair is the week of April 24th-28th. Please join us on Wednesday, April 26th from 6:30-7:30 pm for Family Reading Night featuring "camping" stories read by myself, Ms. Durham, Ms. Noonan and Ms. Grogan.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, April 14th.
**Kindergarten New Student Open House is Wednesday, May3rd from 2:30-4:30 pm in the kindergarten rooms.
**No Second Step lesson this week.
**No Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week.
** In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey's lesson focused on a new unthinkable called "Worry Wall." Worry Wall makes people feel nervous or worry in social situations. The students had a heart to heart conversation about things that worry them. Dr. Bell Bey read the story, "Wemberly Worried."
This week:
It was all about signs of spring, sharing stories about spring break and beginning our new science unit. The students were super excited to begin a unit on worms in our Animals Two by Two unit. There was also lots of discussion about our upcoming engineering project. Stay tuned. Station day activities included creating a worm (cut and paste,) making a clock clown, creating a number sentence after reading a story problem and putting the words of a sentence in the correct order
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. They began building background knowledge about how a tree grows. It was great to observe how much the students remembered from their science unit on trees. The students chatted about Oak Park and the types of trees in the area. We used our Tree Finder book to find information on Oak, Maple and Gingko trees. Trees are plants that take a long time to grow! Students listened to the Big Book story, " Oak Trees." They noted that the story was nonfiction containing information. The students responded that they had seen acorns, some students collected them. They discussed how an acorn seed sprouts and grows. Sight words for this week are said and little. Our target sounds are short u and ck. We took a look at quotation marks to tell us who is talking in the story. Students retold the big book story and sequenced the events in their own words. Students reviewed the question words who, what, where, when, why and how. They took turns verbally asking a question about the story and having their partner answer the question. They practiced reading the story, "The Little Acorn" aloud to a partner to practice fluency building and getting feedback from their partner. Robust Vocabulary this week included GROW, CONCEITED, EQUAL, CHARMING. We have begun work on core standards of word choice, describing a characters experience and comparing characters from two different texts. Students continue to work on word work--cvc, ccvc and cvcc spellings and short and long vowels. Workstations this week included leveled reader fluency checks, discussion on characters in the texts and comparing the actions of the characters looking for similarities and differences, writing an information piece on what you know about trees, word family spin and color, activities on ck words, sentence building and writing, writing an opinion piece on why we need trees, short and long vowel work and works with digraphs and blends and playing "Web of Words."
Math: The students continue to work on Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. The focus of the lessons this week was decomposing the number 10 using fingers, sets, cubes and number bonds. Students also worked on solving story problems involving numbers 9 and 10 and finding the missing addend in a number bond. Workstations this week included writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, telling time by the hour both analogue and digitally, solving simple story problems and describing teen numbers as a group of 10 and what is left over.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters h, n and f 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 student continue to work on opinion writing. The teaching point for students--writers state how they feel and say why. They write at least two reasons to support what they thought. They use the words because in their sentences. They also continue to illustrate and label and begin to think about adding an ending sentence. The students wrote on a variety of topics and shared their writing with their partner and the entire class. Next week--how to write a letter to someone.
Science: The students began their next science unit Animals Two by Two. This unit investigates the living animals--worms and fish. The students began prepping for the unit by looking for information in books and on the internet on worms. They helped create our worm habitat that now houses red wiggler compost worms. What are worms? What are the parts of a red worm? What do red worms need in order to live. The students observed a clear plastic structure with holes in the lid. They observed dirt with some bits of oatmeal and newspaper. Projected on the screen---I took some of the dirt out and put it on a tray. Many oohs and aahs as the students began to see movement in the dirt. We put the tray under the magnifier. Red worms began to inch along! The students observed their color, size and the spiral lines or segments in their body structure. Many commented on the front and back looking kind of the same. Stay tuned for more next week!!!!
Technology: The students viewed a few videos on compost worms. In our phonics work, students used the apps Montessori Crosswords to study ck ending words and short u words and Consonant Blend Sort to work on beginning and ending blends. In our math work this week, the students used the apps Animal Math and Butterfly Math to work on missing addends, addition and subtraction problems to 10 and the app Let's Do Math to work on number bonds to 10.
Literature: "Sorting Thru Spring," "Diary of a Worm," "Worms," "Clocks and Calendars," "What's in the Garden?" "The Ant Bully," "Yucky Worms." "Wonderful Worms."
Sunday, April 2, 2017
UPDATES for 3/20-3/24 2017
**Your child's report card in their backpack. Please sign and return the envelope. Also included is the Route to Reading skill that they mastered and the new skill your child will be working on beginning April 5th. There have been lots of changes in student achievement in the past few months. The flood gates of learning are opening wide! Many students have mastered skills to complete the kindergarten continuum and students have "jumped " skills to move on to the Grade 1 continuum. Students continue to build their reading fluency in the classroom and at home with their Busy Readers.
**The students are also getting excited and looking forward to planning, designing, constructing and detailing a special structure in April. YES! Start bringing in those GIANT boxes, other boxes and any other cool stuff for construction when we return to school on April 3rd. Our engineering project is scheduled for the week of April 17-21. Please send everything by April 14th.
**Congratulations to our SPELLING BEE participants--Jackson and Lily! Our alternate is Lilah. They will represent our class in the Irving Annual K-2 Spelling Bee on Wednesday, April 12th beginning at 11:15 am in the Irving Auditorium.
**School Spirit Week was the bomb! Pajamas, twins, decade dressing representing the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's along with lots of purple and Irving colors really made our week special.
**Student Council reps, Naomi D. and Declan reported that Student Council will be planning a Food Drive next month. Stay tuned!
**The students enjoyed the presentation by Justin and Liam called Smart Parts. They sang and included the students in participation songs about building upon all the smart parts using their brain,
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, April 18th in the morning. Look for more info soon.
**The Spring Irving Book Fair will be the week of April 24th-28th. Come on out for a special story hour during the book fair on Wednesday, April 26th from 6:30-7:30 pm. Ms. Grogan, Ms. Noonan, Ms Durham and myself will read some our favorite "camping" stories.
**NO SCHOOL--TUESDAY, APRIL 4th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**Our Second Step Lesson this week reviewed appropriate behavior on the playground, hallways and lunchroom.
**In Friendship Club, Dr. Bell Bey reviewed lesson on personal space, Superflex, Rock Brain and Glassman and introduced the character of Space Invader who gets into others personal space and can make them feel uncomfortable.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills, Mr. Packer finished up his lesson on small group work with positional concepts.
This week:
We had some lovely weather and the students went out and visited our White Oak tree and observed any changes they saw since winter ended. The tree became our writing focus as the students wrote about their observations. The students enjoyed a fun Spirit Week. Lots of great participation. They were excited about spending time with their Book Buddies reading a story and writing about it. Big News! Alice's giant potato has sprouted roots!
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. This week, the students built background knowledge around the idea of the seasons or certain times of the year and different ways and activities people do at those times. The students listened to the Big Book story, "In the Yard." They made predictions about story content. After listening to the story, the students discussed what the main topic was. They made connections in the story about activities they do in their backyards or front yards at different times of the year. They also noted certain details in the story. Workstations this week included leveled readers with fluency building and comprehension check/discussion, filling out a story elements butterfly, walking all the words known thus far, short vowel sort, creating ccvc and cvcc words, sentence completion, working with word families, consonant blend and digraph review, playing the games, "Chomp" (substituting sounds) "Humpty Dumpty" (short vowels) "Word Construction," (word families.)
Math: The students continue to work on Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. The focus continues to be decomposing (subtracting) from the numbers 8 and 9 using drawings/illustrations, crossing out part, completing the number bond part. Students have been working on story problems in these lessons. Workstations included writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, finding the number before and after a random number, telling time by the hour, reading and solving simple addition and subtraction story problems illustrating and writing the equation and doing simple graphing.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation, spacing between words in a sentence and placement of letters on a given line. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students worked on opinion writing--that is stating what you think and backing it up with reasons why you think it. The students wrote about whether they liked big dogs or small dogs, what their favorite season is, what their favorite crayon color is and what their favorite science investigations was. The students also focused on using their spelling strategies when writing. Writer's don't say---how do you spell...? They can--check the word window......use their word chart.....look in the room.....stretch their sounds and record them....listen for words within a word.....don't forget the vowel.
Science: The students did their final investigation for our Materials and Motion Unit. They built and observed a balloon rocket system to find out how far the air in the balloon will propel the system along the flight line. They investigated how changing the strength of the push (number of pumps of air in the balloon) changes the speed of the balloon rocket and how far it travels. The students also observed what happens to the system when it collides with an object on the flight path. What fun! Each table of students built a balloon rocket and took turns pumping air in the balloon and setting it off. They had to work cooperatively to put everything together. They discovered that a small push (less air) made the balloon spin around and not move very far. The greater the push (more air) made the balloon move faster. The students reflected their findings in their science journals.
Technology: No new apps were introduced this week.
Literature: "The Reasons for Seasons," "Bark, George," "Superdog," "Click, Clack, Moo," "Thunder Storms," "Lightning," "Snow," "Blizzards," "It's Spring."
**The students are also getting excited and looking forward to planning, designing, constructing and detailing a special structure in April. YES! Start bringing in those GIANT boxes, other boxes and any other cool stuff for construction when we return to school on April 3rd. Our engineering project is scheduled for the week of April 17-21. Please send everything by April 14th.
**Congratulations to our SPELLING BEE participants--Jackson and Lily! Our alternate is Lilah. They will represent our class in the Irving Annual K-2 Spelling Bee on Wednesday, April 12th beginning at 11:15 am in the Irving Auditorium.
**School Spirit Week was the bomb! Pajamas, twins, decade dressing representing the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's along with lots of purple and Irving colors really made our week special.
**Student Council reps, Naomi D. and Declan reported that Student Council will be planning a Food Drive next month. Stay tuned!
**The students enjoyed the presentation by Justin and Liam called Smart Parts. They sang and included the students in participation songs about building upon all the smart parts using their brain,
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, April 18th in the morning. Look for more info soon.
**The Spring Irving Book Fair will be the week of April 24th-28th. Come on out for a special story hour during the book fair on Wednesday, April 26th from 6:30-7:30 pm. Ms. Grogan, Ms. Noonan, Ms Durham and myself will read some our favorite "camping" stories.
**NO SCHOOL--TUESDAY, APRIL 4th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**Our Second Step Lesson this week reviewed appropriate behavior on the playground, hallways and lunchroom.
**In Friendship Club, Dr. Bell Bey reviewed lesson on personal space, Superflex, Rock Brain and Glassman and introduced the character of Space Invader who gets into others personal space and can make them feel uncomfortable.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills, Mr. Packer finished up his lesson on small group work with positional concepts.
This week:
We had some lovely weather and the students went out and visited our White Oak tree and observed any changes they saw since winter ended. The tree became our writing focus as the students wrote about their observations. The students enjoyed a fun Spirit Week. Lots of great participation. They were excited about spending time with their Book Buddies reading a story and writing about it. Big News! Alice's giant potato has sprouted roots!
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. This week, the students built background knowledge around the idea of the seasons or certain times of the year and different ways and activities people do at those times. The students listened to the Big Book story, "In the Yard." They made predictions about story content. After listening to the story, the students discussed what the main topic was. They made connections in the story about activities they do in their backyards or front yards at different times of the year. They also noted certain details in the story. Workstations this week included leveled readers with fluency building and comprehension check/discussion, filling out a story elements butterfly, walking all the words known thus far, short vowel sort, creating ccvc and cvcc words, sentence completion, working with word families, consonant blend and digraph review, playing the games, "Chomp" (substituting sounds) "Humpty Dumpty" (short vowels) "Word Construction," (word families.)
Math: The students continue to work on Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. The focus continues to be decomposing (subtracting) from the numbers 8 and 9 using drawings/illustrations, crossing out part, completing the number bond part. Students have been working on story problems in these lessons. Workstations included writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, finding the number before and after a random number, telling time by the hour, reading and solving simple addition and subtraction story problems illustrating and writing the equation and doing simple graphing.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation, spacing between words in a sentence and placement of letters on a given line. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students worked on opinion writing--that is stating what you think and backing it up with reasons why you think it. The students wrote about whether they liked big dogs or small dogs, what their favorite season is, what their favorite crayon color is and what their favorite science investigations was. The students also focused on using their spelling strategies when writing. Writer's don't say---how do you spell...? They can--check the word window......use their word chart.....look in the room.....stretch their sounds and record them....listen for words within a word.....don't forget the vowel.
Science: The students did their final investigation for our Materials and Motion Unit. They built and observed a balloon rocket system to find out how far the air in the balloon will propel the system along the flight line. They investigated how changing the strength of the push (number of pumps of air in the balloon) changes the speed of the balloon rocket and how far it travels. The students also observed what happens to the system when it collides with an object on the flight path. What fun! Each table of students built a balloon rocket and took turns pumping air in the balloon and setting it off. They had to work cooperatively to put everything together. They discovered that a small push (less air) made the balloon spin around and not move very far. The greater the push (more air) made the balloon move faster. The students reflected their findings in their science journals.
Technology: No new apps were introduced this week.
Literature: "The Reasons for Seasons," "Bark, George," "Superdog," "Click, Clack, Moo," "Thunder Storms," "Lightning," "Snow," "Blizzards," "It's Spring."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)