**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,"
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