UPDATES for 4/15-4/19 2013

**The students have spent a busy week working together on their space stations.  They reviewed the prototype drawings they made.  They worked with their product manager to select appropriate boxes and began the process of construction.  There was lots of conversations/discussions about the where, how and why to put a box one place or another.  I observed lots of team collaboration, some compromise and lots of creativity!  Some conversation starters I overheard---"Do we want to make it taller (less people inside) or longer?" (it will fit more people inside.)  "Do we want a hatch or a door?"  "How about a peephole?"  "Do we want square windows or circle windows?"   Ms. Dennis and I cut and taped where indicated.  The students picked their paint colors. 24 students painting at the same time--oh my!!!!  They handled it so well.  Some paint on hands and arms, but very little paint on the floor or clothes.  98% of the paint went right where it should!  The space stations are looking pretty cool!
**A HUGE SHOUT OUT to Angus, Will and alternate, Sierra for their participation in the K-2 Spelling Bee!  Two 2nd graders and a 1st grader took top honors but we were so proud of our classmates determination and sportsmanship.  Angus and Will received a special ribbon for their participation.  Sierra helped set up the lunch area in the auditorium and would whisper, "Ms. Gullo, I know how to spell that one," more than a few times.  She was so supportive!!
**The Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest was awesome.  Our class had 9 students with projects and 5 students (with a couple of sibling teams) for Egg Drop.  I am so proud of their efforts.  At the Academic Fair, we listened to our fellow classmates talk about why the Titanic sank, how birds build nests, how you sew, cats, cats and more cats, how a pyramid was built in ancient Egypt, what the life of a pioneer girl was like, what porcupine quills are made of and how you use your super senses.  We saw lots of interesting vehicles for an egg---boxes, lots of cups, parachutes, paper towel rolls, a nerf football, a Yoda doll, tubes etc. 
**Our Eagle Wing Lunch (weather permitting) is Thursday, April 25th at Barrie Park from 10:45-12:05 pm.  Please don't forget to send in your child's permission slip.  I cannot take anyone without it.  We could use 1-2 parents to walk with us.  Email me if interested.
**Speaking of Earth Day---Student Council has planned some activities to celebrate Earth Week.  Monday--Reduce Energy Day: turn off lights and television.   Tuesday--Zero Waste Lunch:  encouraging students to bring lunches that can be composted or recycled.  Wednesday--Walk to School Day:  to reduce greenhouse emissions.
**The Irving Book Fair will be Monday, April 22-25 in t.he auditorium  A flyer of some of the titles available is in your child's backpack.  We will visit the Book Fair as a class on Tuesday afternoon.
**Upcoming Event---Traveling Poets under the direction on Ms. Noonan, will begin traveling on May 3rd and May 10th.  Look for information on how this all works soon.  It is really something!!!
** In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer read a story called, "Zoom."  The story was a study of pictures within pictures---nothing is ever as it seems.  The students looked at the pictures and used their "detective skills" to tell what they thought it was.  Very cool book!  Lots of amazed students!
** In Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey continued her presentation on being a social detective.  The adults role played various situations and asked the students to respond.  Friendship can sometimes be a tricky thing!
**NO SCHOOL on Thursday, April 26th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**RUN with ME!  Join the FUN RUN on Saturday, May 11th at 8:00 am. at Lindberg Park celebrating National Fitness Week.  Sign up sheet was in the Tuesday Packet.  Let me know if you need sheet.  We run rain or shine.
**The Irving Pacers is starting up again on Fridays at lunch beginning the first Friday in May.
This week:
  It was truly all about our space stations!  Thanks to all who contributed boxes and other cool things.   The students really did use their prior and new knowledge of space and space station design.  Our room was filled with boxes.  Each group received one giant box or 3 medium boxes to begin with.  They then decided as a group what other boxes they needed.  Cutting out various places on the boxes was my job as well as putting "gorilla tape" to good use to secure all parts.  The students went inside and tried them out and proceeded to discuss paint colors.  The students began painting on Wednesday.  Due to our unexpected rain day on Thursday, they will finish up the painting on Friday morning.  Detailing will begin on Monday.  If you have a glue gun and want to come and help after 1:30 pm--please do.  Station day activities this week included creating star gazers (let's hope for some sun!) completing our moonscapes, rainy day story sequencing--cut/glue/write about it, and rocket conversations--what can you say in your speech bubble?
Reading/Social Studies:   The students have nearly completed Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series.  We will tie up any loose ends at the beginning of next week.  This week the students read and talked about what grows in a garden.  Students thought aloud and accessed prior knowledge about gardens in their backyard and other gardens they know about.  The students listened to the trade book, "Sunflower House."  The students paid special attention to the beginning, middle and ending.  They responded to the literature by making connections in their own lives about the process of growing a sunflower and seeing how big it can get.  All students reviewed  the target words here, little, said and was.  We played  "Hands Up and Hands Down" for a fun review.  The students continue to review our target sounds Uu and Kk and also the use of ck.  The students also reviewed the use of adjectives and created a list of words that would describe a sunflower in their journals.  We reread the story and students contemplated aloud clues that helped them to draw conclusions about the story.   The students worked in small groups using the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words.  Robust Vocabulary included ARRANGE, TEND, BASIC, SENSES, GARDEN.  We continue to work in the Haggerty Blue Book on blending, segmenting, addition, deletion and substitution exercises.  This week, we also worked on common core standards that pertain to the ability of the student to ask and be able to answer questions about key details in a text.  I read aloud the story, The Paper Crane."  The students listened and responded using oral story cards to retell and recall details in the story.  We created a story board of story element questions--who? what? where? when? why?  The students worked in small groups coming up with questions about the story.  We revisited the story the next day and students reviewed all the information.  On the third day, the students completed a writing prompt where they could write down a question and answer that question in writing.  They did this for all five question words.  It was awesome to see the progress made from the beginning of the year until now.  Our workstations this week included--write about seeds and plants/illustrate, leveled readers/discussion/oral comprehension/fluency check and asking questions, story retelling--completing a story sequence frame with a leveled reader, create a garden map-label and write about it and building sentences using quotation marks.
Math:   The students continue to work on story problems in their process journals.  Their illustrations of the problem are becoming easier to figure out.  They are also beginning to understand the relationship between numbers in a number family and ways to say a number which include addition and subtraction.  They continue work on reading and writing 3 digit numbers and working with place value, counting from 0-120, counting on from random number and counting back from a random number.
Writing:   The students continue to work on their Shadow paragraph drafts.  Our final copies should be finished next week.  The students continue to work on refining upper and lowercase letters and placement of words on a given line.
Science:   All science time was given to space station creation this week.  We have a few more experiments to complete on the moon and that will be done next week.
Technology:   No new apps have been used this week.  Students continue to made good use of reading, math, vocabulary and science apps to enhance their studies.
Literature:   "The Paper Crane," "The Moon Book," "Zoom," "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More," "Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest," "Mars Needs Moms," "Una lazo del la luna," "1000 Facts About Space," "If You Decide To Go To The Moon," "Magic School Bus--Walks on the Moon."

UPDATES for 4/8-4/12 2013

**Academic Fair /Egg Drop Contest is this Tuesday, April 16th.  Please drop off your Academic Fair projects in the GYM in the morning.  Our class will visit the Fair from 10:00-10:30 am.  The projects will be on display throughout the day.  Students with projects will return in the evening from 6:30-8:00 pm.  Students should bring their Egg Drop Vehicles in the morning.  The contest will begin at 12:30 out on the black top.  Students will drop their vehicle from the 3rd floor window of the school.  Please join us if you can.  It should be very exciting!!
**The K-2 Spelling Bee is Wednesday, April 17th beginning at 11:00 am.  Go Angus, Will and alternate, Sierra!!!! We can spell what we know!  We will have a great time and eat our lunch in the auditorium.  There will be ribbons for all the participants.
**Our SPACE STATION projects begin Monday!!  The students are now in their work groups.  They had a chance to exchange ideas and sketch a prototype drawing of their space station.   Thanks for all the boxes and cool stuff!   I have asked the students not to wear fancy clothes next week.   They will wear paint shirts but it could get a little messy!  Here's to collaboration, teamwork, compromise and creativity!  Stay tuned!
**Student Council sponsored Career Day was very informative.  Zaria's mom, Dr. Larnell talked about her job as a professor teaching government.  Ellie's mom, Ms. Struckmeyer spoke to the students about her job as a pattern designer.  The students really enjoyed it!
**Our field trip to the ADLER PLANETARIUM was awesome!  Even though the weather was cold and foggy, we were cozy and warm exploring the different areas of the of the planetarium including the moon wall, the solar system area, the Apollo Mission room and most of all--The Planet Explorers Interactive Room.   Many students tried on space gear, helped blast off into space, drove a lunar rover, saw a space toilet and space food and slept in a space bed!  Many thanks to our volunteers--C. Nunes, A. Struckmeyer, L. Pointer, D. Chien  and N. Johne for their help.
**Our Irving Green Team will have a group art piece at Oak Park's First Annual RE-CREATE ECO ART EXHIBIT going on now thru April 20th.  You can view and vote for your favorite project at Visit Oak Park--1010 Lake St.  Go Amare and Ivy!!!!!
**Please sign and return the Eagle Wing Field Trip slip in your child's homework folder.  Our class earned a field trip to Barrie Park for lunch because they worked as a team to show they knew and understood our Eagle Essentials.  Great Behavior!!!!!  Our trip will be Thursday,  April 25th from 10:45-12:05 pm.  I will need 1-2 volunteers to walk with the class.  Email if you can.
**Route to Reading Rotation 7 has concluded.  You should have received notification indicating your child's skill mastery.  Our final Route to Reading Rotation 8 will begin on Tuesday, April 16th.  At that time, you will receive notification new skill and teacher.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued working with the students on being a "social detective."  How do we react in different social situations??
**In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment, Mr. Packer completed a project with the students on their version of the EST word story.
This week: 
It was all about a few things this week.  The students are getting excited about the Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest.  There was lots of discussion about their projects and vehicles.  I am loving it!!  Everything about space continues to be HUGE.   Our field trip has fueled more passion about our upcoming space station projects.  The students will be using social, analytical, scientific and behavioral skills that they have embraced throughout the year.  It is Teamwork with a capital T my friends!  They are ready for the challenge.  Our station day activities included topographical moonscapes--part 1, pattern block rockets, addition names rockets-vowel + consonants, 3 dimensional structures with marshmallows and toothpicks. 
Reading/Social Studies:    The students continue to work on Unit 8 Plants in our Treasurers Reading series.  They talked about and read about seeds and plants.  They accessed prior knowledge from the earlier fall unit we did on apples.  The students revisited our apple seed tray.  They made connections in their own lives of blowing dandelion seeds everywhere or helping their parents in backyard gardens planting different types of seeds.  The students listened to the Big Book story, "Seed Secrets."  The story contained ways that seeds travel.   The students observed the pictures and tracked the print as I read the story.  Our target words for the week are here and was.   The students used these and all their other words along with pictures to create sentences with a partner.   Our target sound continues to be Short u.  We continues to revisit adjectives and how to use them to enhance the way we speak and write.  The students took turns recalling events in the story and made a list of how seeds travel.  In our additional vocabulary development, the students worked on position words. 
The students worked on their white boards with substituting sounds to create new words.  They read the decodable story,  "A Bud Is Up."  They made predictions about story content.  The students made a note of the sequential order in planting a seed.  They reread the story to a partner to practice their fluency.  Our robust Vocabulary this week included NECESSARY, GRADUALLY, SEEDS, OBSERVE.  The students are also working on a special story called, "The Paper Crane."  They will use this story next week to recall story elements and work on question words.  Our workstations included using leveled readers with fluency and comprehension checks, answering and asking who, what, where, when why and how questions about the text, choosing a job with plants picture and using Magnetic Letters app to write 3 sentences about the job and using the Writer's Checklist for feedback and CVC spell down/write down activity.
Math:   The students continue to work in their math process journals.  Addition and subtraction processes to 10 are becoming more apparent to them.   We reviewed time by the hour on an analog clock.  The students practiced reading and writing 2-3 digit numbers.   They began work on an activity called,  "What's My Rule?" using pairs of numbers that are related to each other according to a specific rule.  They infer what the rule is by examining pairs of numbers that are related according to the rule and then demonstrate their reasoning by generating additional pairs of numbers that follow the same rule.  The students also experimented with creating 3 dimensional structures using marshmallows and toothpicks.  We will set up a Structure Museum!
Writing:   The students continue to work on refining their writing.  They reflected in their journals about their field trip experience.  Many students are writing 4 sentences!  The students continue to work on beginning paragraphs skills using their shadow pictures.  They are currently working on a 5 sentence draft.
Science:   The students pondered the question--What is the moon?  They compared elements of the daytime and nighttime sky.   They discovered  that unlike the sun, the moon can be seen in both in the day and at night.   The students discussed the terms sunrise and sunset.  They examined the moon's surface looking at pictures.  In a experiment, the students recreated the surface of the moon using flour, cocoa powder as the surface and dropped marbles to create craters,  "seas" (flat dark places) and mountains.  Very cool!  The students took a look at the different shapes the moon appears to make in the sky at night in the course of a month.  It appears that the  "phases" repeat themselves like a pattern every month.   The students continue to study about space vehicles, space travel and travel to the moon.  Next week--let's try some space food and make some star gazers!
Technology:   The students continue to use all the apps introduced thus far.
Literature:   "The Moon Book," "Eyewitness--The Moon," "What is the Moon Like?" "Finding the Moon," "Riddles About the Universe," "Meggie Moon," "Billy Bean's Dream," "I Want to be an Astronaut," "Moon Buggy," "Space Vehicles," "First to the Moon."

UPDATES for 4/1-4/5 2013

**The students returned well rested and eager to begin the week.  We were lucky to have abundant sunshine to continue with our shadows experiments.  The weather is slowly warming up!  The students are using their daily stretching and yoga poses to get into shape for Friday PACERS which will resume soon.
**Our Spelling Bee Representatives Angus, Will and alternate Sierra have received their spelling list from Mr. Packer.  Relax....No worries! "Think about what you know" and "have fun"  has been the mantra.  We will be cheering them on, on Wednesday, April 17th in the auditorium during the lunch hour.  Come join us if you can.  It will be exciting !
**Please read the BLUE paper in your child's folder concerning information for our field trip to ADLER PLANETARIUM.  It is this THURSDAY,  APRIL 11th from 9-1:30 pm.  All students are to be in school by 8:00 am.  Students and teachers will ride the bus.  All parent volunteers will carpool.  Thanks to all who volunteered to help.  I could only choose 5 parent volunteers.  Don't worry...we still have a few more trips to go on.  The volunteers for this trip are: A. Struckmeyer, M. Gurgas, L. Pointer, C. Nunes, K. Good. along with Ms. Dennis and myself.  Parent Volunteers will get a separate email from me.  All students--BAG LUNCH, DRESS for the WEATHER, GYM SHOES and SOCKS!  We will be seeing an IMAX movie at 10:00 am. called, "One World, One Sky."  From there the groups will see the exhibits, Our Solar System, Shoot for the Moon and Planet Explorers.  Planet Explorers is an interactive exhibit that allows only 2 classrooms at a time for 30 minutes.  Our selected time is 10:30 am. We are going to have a great time!
**Parent Career Day is Wednesday, April 10th sponsored by Student Council.  Go Keyshaun and Ellie!!
**Sign up for the Academic Fair and Egg Drop continues!! I am so excited to hear of the cool projects being worked on by students as we speak!  Just a reminder--you need to sign up for the projects on line.  Just click on the "click here for assignments" underneath my name and you will see it on the homework page.  The Academic Fair and Egg Drop contest in Tuesday, April 16th.
**Please keep sending in GIANT BOXES and other cool things for our Space Station Projects.  We are sill in need of boxes the kids can climb in.  Be on the look out for them.  We have one more week of collection.  The week of April 15th-19th, the students will design, create, construct, detail and present!  We may need some hot glue volunteers during the detailing process. Stay tuned!
**Green Team reps, Amare and Ivy are working with the rest of the Green Team on a special activity week to recognize Earth Day which is April 22nd.  Stay tuned for more info.  
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey read a story about being a "social detective."  The students are working on how to conduct themselves in all kinds of social situations.
**In Mr. Packer Math Enrichment this week, Mr. Packer read a story containing EST words and the students then created their own page with writing and illustrations.
This week:
It was all about the planets, stars, asteroids, meteors and constellations.  The students learned a song about the order of the planets and some interesting facts about each one.  We accessed information on our iPads about weather, NASA's space station daily report and information on constellations and space vocabulary.  The students are very interested in how constellations were formed and named.  We read several books on Greek and Roman mythology and found out some of the stories and names behind the constellations.  The students were fascinated by the interesting stories.  The students created and named their own constellations.  They will be displayed in the hall.   Our station day activities included creating constellations, build and count 3 dimensional animals with unifix cubes, solar system book, rainy day story sequencing project.
Reading/ Social Studies:    The students began Unit 8 Plants this week in our Treasures Reading series.  They began by building background knowledge around how a tree grows.  The students talked about Oak Park and how many trees they see daily.  Our class took a walk outside with our Tree Finder Book to see if there were any oak trees in the area and what other types of trees were in our school neighborhood.  They located maple, oak, ginko, and ash trees.  The students understood that a tree is a plant that takes many years to grow.  They also understood that a tree comes from a seed.  The students listened to the big book story, "Oak Trees."  They noted that the book was non fiction, informational or expository.  The students responded to the literature expressing that they had seen acorns (the seed) and some students even collected them.  Once again they understood that it takes many years for a tree to grow and that some oak trees are 100 years old.  Our sight words for the week are little and said.  The students reviewed these words along with all of our other sight vocabulary.  Students noted that the word said does not sound how it looks.  Our target sounds for this week are short u and ck.  We reread the big book and students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words.  The students used their elkonin boxes to blend and segment 4-5-6 phoneme words.  The students read the decodable book, "Sad Hen."   They made predictions about story content and orally answered comprehension questions about the story.  The students took turns reading to a partner and filling out the Reader's Checklist.  They used the story elements guide to ask Who, What, Where, When and Why questions about the story.   Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included PLANT, GROW, CONCEITED, EQUAL, CHARMING.  Our oral vocabulary story, "The Conceited Apple Branch," gave us all a healthy new respect for the dandelion.  Ask your child to tell you about the story!  The students listened to the poem, "Acorns."   They discussed what the author's message was and noted the rhyming pattern.  Student small groups used their word and picture cards to create sentences using their new sight words said and little.  Like speech bubbles, said tells us who is talking.    The students practiced their fluency by reading the paper story, "A Little Acorn."  They also observed the use of "quotation marks," which also tells that someone is speaking.  Students practiced working with the sound of ck.   Workstations this week included leveled reader discussion and completion of the story elements chart, using the app Magic Reading 3 focusing on blending sounds to form short u and ck words,  writing 3 sentences about the topic--trees and using the Writer's Checklist, creating a poster about trees and reading/recording fluency checks.
Math:   The students worked on writing numbers 0-110.  They continue to work on place value.  This week the game, "It Takes Two" was introduced focusing on reading and writing 2 digit numbers.  Next week, we will add the third digit!  The students practiced counting by 2's, 5', and 10's to 100.  Students worked on playing the "Disappearing Train" game which helped in the subtraction process.  The students worked on building 3 dimensional animal shapes looking at a model.  They used unifix cubes.  It was interesting to note how students perceived the shapes and the directionality of the unifix cubes to complete the form.  Fascinating!!!  We will work more on 3 dimensional structures next week.  We continue to work in our math journals on illustrating story problems and writing the number sentence.
Writing:   The students continue to work on refining their upper and lowercase letter formations.  They are beginning to refer to their Writer's Checklist when working on sentences.   We continued our discussion on what a paragraph is.  This week, the students began a writing project where they will write a small paragraph about their shadow picture.  The students spent time examining their photos and generating ideas about what they could write about.  As a group, we wrote down the ideas and settled on a few basic questions that each student could answer.  The students used that format to begin their writing.  They are learning to how to organize their ideas.  Their first writing will be in a draft form that they can proofread to make changes or corrections if needed.  The students are currently working on their drafts.
Science:   The students continue to study shadows.  In Experiments 4 and 5, the students observed how a shadow changes places due to the movement of the sun.  That is--the suns position in the sky changes due to the rotation of the earth.  Vivian was our shadow maker throughout the day.    At  9:00 am, we gathered outside to trace the shadow Vivian made as she stood.  We marked the place and observed the shadow.  The students went back into the room to rough sketch where the shadow was and how it looked.  We did the same at 12:00 and 2:45 pm.with Vivian standing in the exact same place.  The students sketched the position and shape of the noon and 2:45 pm shadows in their science journal.  They reflected their thoughts on the drawing and questions they were thinking about.  Many students noticed that Vivian's shadow was long and skinny and right in front of her in the morning, short and wide and more to the left at noon and medium long and way more to the side at 2:45 pm.  The concept here is that the earth is moving, not the sun.  In Experiment 6, each table of students constructed a sundial using paper, clay and a dowel rod.  We located drawings and actual pictures of sundials from the internet.  Students learned that sundials were ancient forms of clocks.  It is one of the oldest measuring instruments measuring the time of day by casting a shadow on a surface.  Each table took their sundial out at 9:00 am, noon and 2:45 pm.  The students observed the sundial as if it were a clock and thought about the numbers.  In the classroom, the students drew a sketch and made an arrow where the shadow was cast and noted what time that might be.  They then sketched a picture of what they do at that time of day.  The students wrote about what they observed in their science journal.  On Friday, Kanohi brought a plastic cat with an arm that reacted to solar power.   More direct light...more wave!!!  The students observed the cat wave (medium) powered by lights.  We took the cat outside and much faster waving due to the bright sunlight.  Pretty cool!   We continue in science next week with the study of the moon.
Technology:    In reading and math this week, no new apps have been introduced.  Student small groups continue to use all previously mentioned apps that enhance and reinforce blending, segmenting, vocabulary development, spelling, reading, phonics and reading fluency recordings, addition and subtraction, number sequence, problem solving, critical thinking, number writing, place value, number order, concepts of more or less and coin recognition.  In science, the students explored the app NASA to view pictures of space and spacecraft and get daily news from the Space Station.  The students are very interested in looking at weather around the world and are using the app AcuWeather for this.  The app Google Earth is also being used by students to locate where they live.
Literature:   "Mercury," "Venus," "Earth," "Asteroids, Meteors and Comets," "Jupiter," "Saturn," "Uranus," "Neptune," "Pluto, the Dwarf Planet," "Solar System," "My Big Busy Space Book," "Moon Dogs," "I Like Stars," "Zoo in the Sky," "Sun Dials," "1000 Facts About Space," "Stories of the Stars," "Starry, Starry, Night," "Children's Atlas of the World."

UPDATES for 3/18-3/22 2013

**Congratulations to our Spelling Bee Reps--Angus and Will!!  Sierra will serve as our alternate.  These students will participate in the Irving School Annual Spelling Bee for K-2 on Wednesday, April 17th at lunchtime.  Twelve of our classmates took part in the bee.  It was a great show of interest, effort and courage.  All of the students are to be commended for their great sportsmanship and support of others. 
**Spring Break begins 3/23-3/31.  Class resumes on Monday, April 1st.  All students traveling near and far have their travel journals.  Other students requested journals for home use.  I can't wait to read about their adventures!
**Thanks for your response in getting all permission slips and money in for our field trip to Adler Planetarium.  I will send confirmation to the volunteers.  Currently, I have way more volunteers than I can take this time.  On this trip, we are only allowed a certain number.   I will have to make some choices.  Don't worry--we still have more trips planned for the May.  Thanks so much for your enthusiastic response.
**The Opera for the Young was a SMASH!!!  Our students were a superb audience and the singers and performers in the production of  "CINDERELLA" were spectacular!  Check out our photo with Cinderella!
**There was lots of crazy hair and interesting facial hair observed during Spirit Week!  Thanks Keyshaun and Ellie and the rest of the Student Council gang for a really fun experience!  Don't forget if you are interested in speaking about your career to small groups of students--fill out the online sheet located on the Irving School Website.  Parent Career Day is April 10th.
**Everyone smiled brightly for their individual picture on Spring Picture Day.  A test pic will be sent home sometime in April with instructions for purchase.
**Sign up for the ACADEMIC FAIR and EGG DROP continues!!!  I have a link to the online sign up form.  Just click on the "click here for assignments" underneath my name and you will see it on the homework page.  The class is getting really excited about potential projects!!!
**You can now begin bringing in your GIANT BOXES, medium and small boxes, paper towel and toilet paper tubes/wrapping paper tubes, cup tops, empty containers and any other COOL things you have been saving for our Space Station projects.  YES--bring them in!  Our space station prep, design, construction and detailing will be the week of April 15th-19th.  We may need some hot glue volunteers during the detailing process.  Stay tuned!
**We will have a new schoolyard/playground!!  The school board voted unanimously on the project on Tuesday night.  We will have a new turf soccer field, playground with totally cool equipment and a new parking lot.  Demolition/construction will begin when school is out for the summer.  This is a culmination of 8 years of planning, fund raising and raising awareness of safety about our current playground.   It is a project that is very dear to my heart and I am so thrilled to see it come to fruition!
**Please have a safe and restful spring break!  It is a homework holiday but....you can still read your Busy Reader, work on your project idea/vehicle idea for the Academic Fair/Egg Drop Contest, write and illustrate in your Travel Journal, log onto LEXIA or READING EGGS, play some of your homework games and Word Play, log onto Spelling City to review your word lists, get outside and exercise, try some yoga poses, observe nature and spend some quality time with family and friends.
This week:
It was all about the cold weather and students wondering how it could be spring!  We still have our snow hills!!  Students continued to wear their snow pants, boots and winter gear but did enjoy playing outside in the sunshine.  Lots of COLD shadows observed!  Our tubers are beginning to sprout.  The students examined a piece of white potato and purple potato under the microscope.  They made note of the similarities and differences in each specimen.  Our Station Day activities included building pattern block 2-3 dimensional animals and counting the number of blocks used, making our frames for our side silhouettes and revisiting symmetry with our "egg symmetry" project. 
Reading/Social Studies:    We took a break from our normal Treasures Reading series.  We will begin Unit 8 Plants after spring break.  The students reviewed all their sight words thus far.  They played word scramble, "fixed" wacky sentences, and created sentences containing nouns, verbs and adjectives.  Game alert--Game alert!!  The students played a variety of games in small groups to reinforce learned skills.  "Puppy Phonics," (consonant blends) "Fall Fun Phonics," (blending sounds) "Build a Word," "Deep Sea Dive," (ending sounds) "Sight Word Match," "Pony Phonics," (vowel hunt) "Word Family Mats," "Spot-a-Word," "Very Silly Sentences," (reading and grammar) "Cosmic Critters," (consonant blends/digraphs) "Python Path," (word endings) were some of their favorites!  Small student groups worked on 2 stories by the author Arnold Lobel.  One group of students worked on the book, "Frog and Toad All Year Long."  Their objective was to identify the author's purpose, study synonyms and work on retelling and story elements.  Awesome reading aloud and discussion.  Great participation!   The other group worked on the story, "Mouse Tales."  I read the story aloud and students concentrated on listening for key details, orally sequencing events in the story and working on story elements.  All student groups then used a combination of drawing, dictating and writing to narrate a single event or link events in order and react to what happened.  Very cool!!  It was a great way to spend the week.  Using decoding skills, discussing a story and thinking about details and question words was awesome.  We continued on with our Haggerty blue book exercises concentrating on isolating vowels, blending, segmenting, adding and deleting phonemes in words.
Math:    The students continued work on time and money.  The also worked in their math process journals.  Figuring out what process to use in a story problem is becoming clearer.  The students are really listening for key words to help them with illustrating the process and writing the number sentence.  Students continue to examine the relationship between 3 numbers--ie-3,4,7.  The subject of even and odd numbers came up.  The students learned what to look for when seeing if a number if even or odd.  Students worked in small groups writing numbers 100-150, playing the "Plus or Minus Game," "Disappearing Train Game," and apps Math Bug Lite and Finding Sums.
Writing:   We began talking about what a paragraph is.  In its simplest form, a paragraph is a collection of sentences that deals with one topic.  The students are going to write a paragraph about shadows when they return from break.  We also discussed how their paragraphs could be realistic or fantasy.  Formation of lowercase letters letters b,h,f was also reviewed.  I am encouraging the students to write their first and last name on their assignments.
Science:   The students continued their study of shadows, the sun and space.  The students created their shadows as well as observed the shadows of their classmates during our sunny weather at lunch recess.  they observed that a bigger shadow will "hide" a smaller one.  They reflected in their science journal their ideas on which way a shadow will fall in relation to the light source.  Hopefully when we get back from spring break, the students can continue their shadow exploration outside with shadows changing places and shadow clocks experiments.  They will also use their shadows as a springboard for paragraph writing.  Check out the student display on topic writing using what they know about the sun.  Their sun collages are really cool!  This week, we began to learn about the inner planets of our solar system.  The students used internet as well as book sources.  They are learning a song about the order of the planets.  These 4 land planets are all very different in their surface, temperature and whether life can be sustained on it.  The students questioned why Venus is actually the hottest planet but is farther away from the sun.  It's those poison gasses that surround it and hold the heat in.  Ask your child what he/she remembers from our discussions and presentation of information.  Also check out our Silhouette Project on display in the hallway.  Can you guess the shadow that goes with the side portrait?????
Technology:   The students continue to use the iPad for small group and individual use.  Vocabulary development apps have been the focus this week in reading.   The apps Spelling Bug, Tic, Tac, Toe, Rocket Speller, AlphaWriter, Sight Words 100 were used this week.  In math, the students continue their work with addition and subtraction processes with the apps, Mathland, Butterfly Math, Find Sums, Top It-Addition and Kids Math.  In Science, the students are finding AccuWeather, NASA and Solar System to be very helpful with their questions.  Labyrinth continues to challenge students with developing problem solving strategies.
Literature:   "Mouse Tales," "Frog and Toad All Year Long," "Mercury," "Venus", "Earth." "Mars," "Hot and Bright," "My Shadow," "Nothing Sticks Like a Shadow," "Little Rockets Special Star," "Bear Shadow," "Chasing Shadows," "Cinderella," "Disney's Cinderella."

UPDATES for 3/11-3/15 2013

**Please review your child's report card that came home on Friday.  If you have any questions about the report card or the article on Common Core, please email me.  This class has really worked hard!
**The class had an awesome time when Nurse Smith (Will's mom) came to speak to our class on GERMS!  Who knew these teeny, tiny, microscopic living things could cause so much trouble in the human body.  The students got to see pictures of different types of germs and also where they came from.  They got to put the pictures on the presentation board as Nurse Smith talked about the types of germs and what they can do.  Nurse Smith had a frank discussion about what we each can do to keep the germ factor down.  Washing hands was among the most important !!  Each student got a special hospital gown, goggles and gloves.  They became GERM FIGHTERS!!  They also had so much fun!!  Thanks, Nurse Smith and her assistant, Will!!!
**It was a super, SUPER TUBER DAY!   Each student brought in their potato.  Sierra and Kanohi's potatoes had already seen some bulging "eye" action.  More in the "this week" section.
**Route to Reading Rotation 6 will begin Tuesday, March 19th.  You will be receiving notification on your child's current skill level.
**Check the Irving Website for digital sign up for the ACADEMIC FAIR and EGG DROP which will be held on Tuesday, April 16th.  I will also send home a paper copy on Monday.  This is great way for your child to develop a project on something that interests them and see who those budding engineers are! I am also a resource if you need some reinforcement.  Just give a shout out!  The students have been talking it up.  I can't wait to see what the projects will be!!!
**Student Council has decreed--It is SPIRIT WEEK!!!  Monday--Smile at Everyone Day!  Tuesday--Wacky Hair Day!  Wednesday--Facial Hair Day!  Thursday--Sports Day!  Friday--School Colors Day!!   What a week!  Thanks Keyshaun and Ellie!!  Those Student Council kids are sure busy!  They have also are looking for parents to present for their annual Career Day which will be held on April 10th.  If you are interested in talking about your job to small groups please fill out the form that was in the Tuesday Packet.  I will be sending another paper copy home on Monday.
**Spring Picture Day is Monday, March 18th.  We will have our individual picture taken at 10:00 am.  Please fill out the form that was in the Tuesday Packet if you are having a picture taken with a sibling.
**Thanks for your support of PACK Week.  Lots of great food choices and conversation about healthy eating.  Keep up the great work!  Take the TASTY DOG Challenge today for dinner.  A percentage of each bill will go to Irving School!!
**Opera for the Young's presentation of  "Cinderella" is  Thursday, March 21st at 9:30 am. in the gym.  The students have been learning a group singing part which is really fun.  This is an all school event.  Parents and siblings are welcome!
**We will have our "Classroom Bee" this week to see who will represent our class in the K-2 Spelling Bee.  It will be on Wednesday, March 20th in the afternoon.  There are students who have expressed an interest in participating and some who are thinking about participating.  No worries!!  I will choose the top 2 spellers and 1 alternate to join the K-2 Spelling Bee that will be held Wednesday, April 17th at lunch time.
**I still have number of students who have not turned in their permission slip and money for our field trip to Adler Planetarium.  Don't forget to do so this week.  Thanks!
**Spring Break begins March 23rd until March 31st.  School resumes on Monday, April 1st.  I am making quite a few TRAVEL JOURNALS!  Let me know if your child needs one.
This week:
It was all about potatoes and shadows!  First-the potato.  Each student brought in a potato of their choice.  They learned that a tuber is the short thick part of the underground stem of the potato plant.  You can grow a potato from a potato!  The students learned the history of the potato.  The plant was first found in South America in the Andes Mountains.  We located South America and the Andes Mountains on the map.  Students then traced the route of the potato to England and then to Ireland where the Irish soil made it the perfect plant to grow.  During the 1800's, the potato became the main food of the Irish people.  The students found the "eyes" of the potato.  They learned that the potato has calcium and Vitamin C as well as starch and lots of water.  The students examined some types of potatoes--purple, russet, yukon, red and the classic idaho potato.  They used their own potato for the Super Tuber Activity.  They drew or traced it, counted the eyes, measured its length using unifix cubes and recorded how many "bears" it weighed.  The longest potato was 7 cubes, the heaviest was 47 bears. We created a graph about how we liked them eaten.  French Fried won out!  The students enjoyed some stories about Irish folklore--four leaf clovers or shamrocks, pots of gold, rainbows, tiny leprechauns and learned about musical instruments-penny whistle and bagpipes.  We chose 2 potatoes to grow.  I showed the students how to set up the potato for growing.  They can share that with you.  It's hydroponics 101!  Stay tuned to see what happens.  I will save the shadows for the science section.  Station Day activities included writing about the sun, creating their frames for their silhouette pictures, making a model of how we get day and night and working on counting frames by 2's and 5's.
Reading/Social Studies:    The students completed Unit 7 Weather this week.  They read about and discussed how weather affects people and animals.  The students related their own personal experiences in different types of weather.  The discussion shifted to animals and how they are also affected by the weather.  Each day, one of the student was responsible for checking the weather on the iPAD.  The students worked on their listening comprehension by listening to the story, "The Bear Snores On."  The students revisited the word, "genre" and noted that this story was fantasy and could not really happen.  After reading the story, the students took turns using the retelling cards to tell the story in their own words.  They noted repetition of certain words, style and pictures.  The students reviewed the sight words this, do, what, and.  The students enjoyed using the words in a sentence scramble and playing "Hands Up, Hands Down."  The students read the decodable story, "Pat and Tip."  they used the title and cover to make predictions about story content.  Robust Vocabulary for this week included CLEAR, COZY, EXPERIENCE, HIBERNATE, RETREAT.  The students used the oral vocabulary cards to talk about Animals in Winter and read the expository/informational text, "Let It Snow."  The students used their elkonin boxes to put a block in the square where they heard the target sound.  They continued to "Jump Segment" 5-6 phoneme words.  They are also working on recognizing consonant blends at the beginning and ending of words, as well as consonant digraphs.  Students partnered up to read, "This is What I Can Do."  They worked together to fill out a story elements map.  Workstations this week included working on leveled readers and completing story maps containing, character, setting, plot, problem/solution, creating a seasonal jobs chart,  using Magic Reading 2 to work on segmenting and blending skills, creating a question sentence and answering the sentence, critiquing reading for fluency with a partner using the Reader's Checklist.
Math:  The students continue their study of coin and coin values,  We reviewed the penny, nickel, dime and quarter.  Ms. Dennis brought in her state quarter collection and state park quarter collection.  The students used their magnifiers to see what was on the back of each state's quarter.  The students also reviewed all plane shapes, pattern block shapes and geometric solids.  We continue to work in our math process journals illustrating a story problem and writing its number sentence.  The students are beginning to see a relationship between certain numbers.  (ie: 5+2=7, 2+5=7, 7-2=5, 7-5=2)
Writing:   The students continue to use the prompts from our Treasures Reading series in their sentence writing.  They continue to work on lowercase letter formation.  This week the emphasis was on lowercase letters y, p, r, n, m.
Science:   The students reviewed the 3 things necessary to make a shadow--a source of light, an object to block the light, a surface to see the shadow.  The students previously had made their face silhouettes and made their frame for them.  The students reflected in their science journals the shadow recipe and a sketch of the design.  In experiment 3, the students took turns creating shadows using a variety of different objects--book, small box, plastic wrap, waxed paper, water in a clear cup.  They each created a graph answering yes or no to seeing a shadow produced.  The students discovered they can produce light shadows and dark shadows or no shadow at all.  They also found out that it depends how much light allowed to pass through the object.  I provided them with some very scientific words!! Shadows can be opaque--they do not allow light to pass through, so they produce a dark shadow or translucent--some light does pass through but produces a light shadow.  The students enjoyed trying out other objects in their choice time.  They reflected their thoughts in their science journal.  Hopefully next week, we will have a sunny day when we can be outside and strike a shadow pose!  We will use this pose as the source of our paragraph project.
Technology:   In reading small groups, students used the Magic Reading 2 to focus in on segmenting and blending phonemes and recording their words.  The app Rocket Speller and Sight Words were used to enhance spelling and for the students to hear their words.  In math this week, students used the app Number Find for work on number patterns, 2 digit numbers and sequencing.  The app Doodle Buddy was used by students small groups to illustrate addition and subtraction processes after listening to story problems.  The apps Math Bug, Mathland, Butterfly Math and Labyrinth rounded out the week.
Literature:   "Day and Night," "I Have a Friend," "I Love My Shadow," "Super Storms," "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom," "First Discovery--The Universe," "The Solar System," "The Sun," "Sun and Moon," "St. Patrick's Day," "The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow," "My Big Busy Space Book," "Discovering the Universe."

 

UPDATES for 3/5-3/8 2013

**Please send a potato of your choice to school on Friday, March 15th for our Super Tuber Activity.
Yes--a potato!  Do not cook it!!  We will learn its history, examine it closely, perform some graphing exercises, measure it, look for its "eyes," take a look at different varieties and learn more about its connection to Ireland.  We will also choose one to grow!  I could use 2-3 volunteers to help with this activity.  We will do it on Friday morning at 9:30 am.  The activity will last about 45-50 minutes.  Email me if you can help.
**In our bingo mania on Friday, the student clown clocks and decodable paper story didn't make it into your child's homework folder.  Those items will be there on Monday.
**Keep sending in permission slips and money for our field trip to ADLER PLANETARIUM.  I would like all money in before spring break to secure our spot.  The trip is Thursday, April 11th from 9-1:30 pm.  Students and teachers will be riding the bus.  Volunteers will carpool.  Directions will be provided.
**Report Cards will go home on Friday, March 15th.  The report card envelope will also contain some information on Common Core Standard activities we have been doing in the classroom and more information on the new standards that will take effect in 2015-2016.
**This coming week is PACK WEEK!  Wear and pack the color of the day in your lunch or snack!  Think fruits and vegetables!!  We are encouraging students to "Eat the Rainbow."  The school lunch program will also be participating.  MONDAY--pack and wear GREEN.  TUESDAY--pack and wear WHITE.  WEDNESDAY--pack and wear YELLOW/ORANGE.  THURSDAY--pack and wear PURPLE.  FRIDAY--pack and wear RED!
**Will's mom, Nurse Smith, is coming Friday, March 15th at 1:00 pm to do a program on GERMS!  Cool!
**Opera for the Young presentation is Thursday, March 21st in the gym at 9:30 am.  This year's presentation is "CINDERELLA."  It is pretty cool.  The students are learning a group part during their music time.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Monday, March 18th.  More info will follow.
**Our PBIS All School BINGO game was so much fun!  We played along side our Book Buddies which doubled the fun!  Looking for the letters and 1 or 2 digit numbers was great for our hand eye, visual spatial and visual motor coordination.   We even had 2 of our own kindergarten winners--Sophie and Amare!  Our next Book Buddy get together will be in April.
**Everyone looked that they were enjoying themselves at the Taste of Irving on Friday.  I heard the food was great!  I made it to see the band which sounded awesome!!  Did I see some very smooth Room 110 dancers and parents???  Go Isabella , Angus and Vivian!
**Future Events---The Academic Fair/Egg Drop Contest has been moved to Tuesday, April 16th.  The K-2 Spelling Bee is Wednesday, April 17th.  More info will follow soon.  Great opportunity to participate!
**School is closed for spring break--March 23-31.  Classes resume on Monday, April 1st.
**Mr. Packer continues to work with small student groups on follow directions and being a detective and looking for clues and details.
**It is almost time to bring all the GIANT boxes and COOL stuff you have been saving for our space station projects.  You can start bringing it in after spring break!!!
This week:
It was all about Shadows and the beginning of our Space cross curricular theme.  We will save the shadows part for science down below.  We are slowly transforming our classroom into a space workshop.  The students are exploring the different items on our Space Table and are encouraged to bring in items of their own.  Students have begun bringing in books with great information. The students began with an inquiry discussion about what they know about space.  What is in it?  How did we the Earth and other planets?  What is a universe?  Wow--lots of thinking going on!  Station Day activities this week included Mr. Clown Clock, tracing our face silhouette and creating a mixed media sun.
Reading/Social Studies:    The students continued to work on Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series.  This week, the students built background knowledge around the idea of seasons or certain times of the year and different activities and ways people and animals relate to them.  The students listened to the Big Book story, "In the Yard."  They made predictions about story content by reading the title and looking at the book cover picture.  The students identified the setting and also the BIG idea or MAIN idea of the story.  They made connections in the story about their own activities they do in their back yards with their families.  The sight words and and what were reviewed.  We looked for them in our rhyme and chime and circled them.  The students continued to work with target sounds Bb and Ll.  The students did an activity where they listened for the targeted sound and told if it was at the beginning or ending of the word.  The students worked on reviewing what an adjective does to a word. (it further describes it)  They took turns using an adjective to further describe some picture cards. (big bike, juicy watermelon)  The students also reviewed the function of verbs. (show action)  They came up with a list of verbs to describe what we can do in each season.  The students took turns retelling the story.  We took a break from our elkonin boxes this week and "jumped" segmented 5-6-7 phoneme words.  Lots of movement!  The student continue work in the Haggerty Blue Book--this week's focus was on adding, deleting and substituting sounds to create words.
  This week, the students worked on a specific Commom Core Standard and produced an assessment sample.  Our school district is exploring ways to assess these standards and each grade level has discussed a particular way.  Our Kindergarten team is using Dr. Seuss books to assess Standard W.7--Participate in shared research and writing projects.  Our assessment prompt was--explore a number of books by a favorite author and express an opinion about them.  The students selected 5 books.  I read each one aloud.  The class created a story board where they collectively told the story elements of each story.  The key story elements were reviewed--Title, Setting, Characters, Plot, Details, Main Idea. I recorded their information of each story on the story boards.  We defined the word-opinion.  (What is your favorite story?  Why is it your favorite?)  This activity was done over a 4 day period with their assessment on Friday.  These assessments will be shared at our district level kindergarten meeting in April.  There will be 3 standards and assessments total this year.  All students expressed much orally.  It was interesting to read their written comments.
Workstations this week included small group literature discussions and read alouds with leveled readers focusing on story elements and question words, using the Reader's Checklist for fluency, word sort with short e word families and cvc sort with short e, activities with consonant blends and digraphs, comparing and contrasting your house in summer and in winter using illustration and writing, use of partner and small group board games and iPad activities with focus on vocabulary development, phonemic awareness and phonics skills and working with finding details in a given story.
Math:   The students revisited the color and shapes in their pattern blocks.  They also reviewed recognition of geometric solid shapes.  They created puzzles at various levels.  The students continued the study of coins and their values.   They worked on various activities with coins including Penny Grab, Coin Exchange and Mushroom Money to strengthen recognition skills.  We continue to work on time by the hour with analog and digital clocks.  The idea of counting by increments of 5 on an analog clock is beginning to make more sense.  The students continue to work hard in their math process journals.  They are listening for key words in the story problem in order to illustrate their work and write the number sentence. 
Writing:   The students continue to work on refining their uppercase letters and reviewing the lowercase letters we have learned so far.  More students are beginning to use adjectives in their sentences.  All students continue to refine sentence structure.  Did I begin with a capital letter?  Did I name and tell?  Did I capitalize a proper name?  Do I have an ending mark?  Did I space between words in a sentence?  Did I place my letters properly on a given line?  Lots to remember!!
Science:   The students began their science unit, "Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon."  We used the projector to create various shadows of people and objects.  I posted the question--How are these shadows made?  Do we need certain elements before we can have a shadow occur?  I recorded the ideas the students had on the subject.  All students agreed that we needed some kind of light source.  One student commented that a body or some kind of object blocked the light.  Some students noticed that we needed some kind on area in order to see the shadow.   The recipe for a shadow became light source, object to block the light and surface in order to see the shadow.  Wow--A shadow is really blocked light!  Some students noticed that some shadows were were totally black, while others were gray or a light color.  Why is that?  Can light pass through an object?  Stay tuned for more!!! 
Technology:   The students continue to use all the apps in reading and math that have been mentioned so far in small, individual and whole group settings.  Stay tuned for some new apps related to science next week.
Literature:   Dr. Seuss Books--"Cat in the Hat," "Cat in the Hat Comes Back," "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish," "Ten Apples Up on Top," "Fox in Socks,""Telling Time," "The Universe," "Children's Atlas of the Universe," "The Sun," "Shadows."

UPDATES for 2/25-3/1 2013

**It was a wild and wacky week full of experiments, team building and teeth!!  The students enjoyed the measurable snowfall and celebrated by working together to build a really cool snowman.  Kanohi chose the spot out on the blacktop and Isabella brought the details (hat, scarf, nose, buttons.)  Students AND teachers worked to create a masterpiece!!  Check out our group photo with our snowy friend.  The students also enjoyed taking him apart piece by icy piece!  What fun and exercise!
**It was all about our teeth!!  The students spent an informative 40 minutes with Dr. Natalie Layne (Amare's mom ) and her assistant, Jessica.  Dr. Layne read the class a book on why we brush our teeth.  She chose a group of students to be human teeth and one student to "brush" them with a giant tooth brush.  She also took a piece of rope and a student got to "floss" the human teeth!  The students and teachers were mesmerized by Dr. Layne's experiment on tooth decay.  The students learned that too much sugar can cause tooth decay and that acid can damage your teeth by making a hole in the enamel (cavity.)   Dr. Layne took some foam cups (teeth) and Amare poured chocolate syrup (sugar) on the teeth and Amare then put some nail polish remover (the acid) on the teeth and ........Wow, where did the teeth go????!!!  They were eaten away by the acid much like our real teeth would be.  Dr Layne gave each student their own teeth cleaning kit.  It was a great presentation.  The students wrote thank you notes to express their appreciation.
**The FUN FAIR was spectacular!  There were great games, prizes and fun.  Many students danced for a dessert or two!  Our FUN DAY class basket was awesome.  There were lots of great silent auction items.  At the closing of the Fun Fair was "Irving's Got Talent"  show.  Wow--some talented teachers!  The PIE TERMINATORS were the winners of the Pie in the Face contest!  Lots of whipped cream flying around!!
**Thanks to all who attended Dr. Seuss Family Reading Night.  I was only able to help set up, but there were many fun stories and activities for all to enjoy.
**NO SCHOOL MONDAY, MARCH 4th in observance of Casimir Pulaski Day.
**Our Book Buddies helped us celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss on Friday.  The students chose a Dr. Seuss book to read with their book buddy.  They completed a variety of activities--word searches, mazes. coloring, written reflections and played Dr. Seuss Trivia.  What was Dr. Seuss' real name?  Did art or story come first for Dr. Seuss?  Of course the celebration would not be complete without popcorn and veggie straws our favorite snacks!
**Keep sending the permission slips and money for our Field Trip to ADLER PLANETARIUM.  I would like to have all money and slips in before spring break. Thanks!
**SUPER TUBER ACTIVITY--Please send a potato (any kind, not cooked) with your child on Friday, March 15th.  We will learn its history, examine, perform some graphing exercises, measure, look for its "eyes," take a look a different varieties and learn about its connection to Ireland.  We will do this from 9:30-10:30 am.  I will need 4 volunteers to help out.  Email me if you are interested.
**TASTE of IRVING is Friday, March 8th from 6:30-8:30 pm.  Come share the love of food and community with our Irving family.
**REPORT CARDS out on Friday, March 15th.  Trimester 2 has concluded.  Trimester 3 has begun!!!
**Route to Reading Rotation 5 will conclude on March 6th.  At that time you receive notification of skill acquisition.
**OPERA for the YOUNG presentation is Thursday, March 21st at 9:30 am.  This will be the very first performance of  "Cinderella."
**Spring Break begins March 23rd-31st.  Classes resume on Monday, April 1st.
**All school PBIS Bingo Game on Friday, March 8th-2:00 pm.  We will have an shorter station day.
**Future Events--I have begun talking to the students about some cool opportunities that they can participate in----more information will follow soon----Wednesday, April 10th-ACADEMIC FAIR and EGG DROP CONTEST--Do you have something that you are really interested in?  Can you make a project out of it?  Can you construct a vehicle that will keep and egg from breaking when dropped out of a third floor window?  Think about it..........  also ........All School Spelling Bee--Wednesday, April 17th.
**Spring  Pictures will be taken on Monday, March 18th.  More info to follow. 
**We are getting closer to collection of giant boxes and cool things for our space station projects.  Keep saving them!  You can bring them in after spring break.
This week:
It was all about the weather!  We began tracking weather via the site, Weatherunderground each day as it relates to our Treasures Unit 7.  We do have a previous fascination with weather in Room 110!  Students are observing "fronts" moving in and the direction that weather patterns move.  The students love watching the color changes on the animated radar.  They are becoming experts at locating areas of rain, snow, wind speeds and ice.  We now know where to locate the moon phases as we begin our study of the moon.  The students have also become interested in the chance or percentage of a storm occurring.  The students looked at types of storms including tornadoes, thunder/lightening and snow in our area.  Perhaps we have some budding meteorologists in our midst!  In observance of Casimir Pulaski's birthday, the students googled information about his childhood in Poland to his eventual travel to the United States to assist George Washington during the Revolutionary War.
Reading/Social Studies:    The students began Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. We began pondering the simple question, "What is the weather like today?"  They accessed prior knowledge about what they understood about weather, not only in their own area but also in other parts of the United States.  The students listened to the expository text, "The Rainy Day."  They thought about what the main idea could be.  They made connections about rain in their own daily lives.  The sight words this and do were introduced.  The target sound for this week is short Ee.  The students used pictures as well as words to to create a Short Ee web.  The students continue to work on recognizing adjectives in their daily sentence work and using them in their writing.  Together the students created a word web of words that describe a rainy day.  Working with adjectives, they came up with word lists to describe themselves, pets, home and the weather.  We reread the story a second time and the students created a picture in their mind (visualized) of what it would look like after the rain.  The students then reviewed the water cycle (go science!) and facts about rain.  They examined 2 parts of a book--the glossary and the index and what they are used for.  The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 4-5 phoneme words.  The students read aloud from their decodable story, ":Ed Can, Ted Can."  They answered comprehension questions about the story and practiced reading aloud with a partner for fluency.  Our Robust Vocabulary this week included, BLUSTERY, DRIZZLE, CHILLY, CLOUD and WEATHER.  The students listened to the Choctow tale, "How Thunder and Lightening Came To Be."  They also had a chance to hear and reflect on 4 poems about weather.  The students also listened to another Native American tale from the Pueblo Nation called "The Frog and the Locust."  We discussed rain dances and sung in order to bring rain to a very dry area.  We located on the map where the Pueblo Native Americans lived and looked at a surface map to see how the land looked.  What did the frog so to get rain? (sang)  Why didn't his plan work? (It wasn't loud enough)  What happened at the end of the story? (The frog and the locust worked together to sing a loud song.)  What do you think the story tellers message was?  See if your child can recall.  The students did some comparing of information across weather related texts.  Our workstations this week included leveled reader discussion, read aloud and story element recording, working with word families, adding and deleting phonemes in words,comparing and contrasting 2 seasons via sentences and illustrations and writing and illustrating a weather event.
Math:    The students continued to work on coin recognition and values.  They worked on money exchange and played "Penny Grab."  Students reviewed their tricky teen numbers playing the game, "Purr-fectly Perfect teen Numbers."  How fast can you read them?  The students worked on a variety of addition and subtraction games.  Students worked with partners on the ipad with the math activities introduced thus far.  The students also practiced writing 2 and now 3 digit numbers on their dry erase boards.  The students continue to work on counting on from a random number and skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's.
Writing:    The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation.  We have reviewed letters a, c, e, g, i, j, k, l, o, p, s, t, u, v and w.  Students have been encouraged to use adjectives to describe their nouns in sentences they write in their journal.  Students continue to refine their sentence structure and reread their sentences (proofing) before coming to journal conference.  Next week, we will use our snowman creating adventure in a writing project.
Science:    The students had a great time observing the tooth decay experiment done by Dr. Layne.  They wanted more!!!  The class gathered more information on teeth.  We came across another experiment on tooth decay using a raw egg and vineager.  The students knew that too much sugar/acid causes teeth to decay.  The egg was our tooth and the vineager was the acid.  The students thought about what might happen if we placed the egg in a cup of vineager.  What do you think?  The students felt the shell around the egg.  Students commented that it was cold and hard.  We placed it in the vineager.  Students made predictions about what might happen.  It might explode!  It might turn black!  It will crack!  As we put the egg in the vineager, the students noticed many bubbles forming around the egg.  We left it over night until the next afternoon.  As the students looked at it. they observed that it appeared bigger.  The shell was a little yellow  There were still bubbles around it.  Putting on a glove, I picked it out of the vineager and put it on a tray.  One by one the students, donning a plastic bag, touched the egg.  Revelation---It felt like a rubber ball, squishy and soft!!!  Cool!  Students began to discuss what happened.  Much like our teeth, too much acid broke down the shell of the egg, like sugar would make a hole in our enamel.  The students got the connection!!  The next day, they wanted to see what would happen when I cut open the egg.  Would it be hard inside or soft?  Could we see the yolk or white?  As I cut a piece off---the egg burst and out came the the intact yolk and gooey white.  It was the highlight of the afternoon!!  Try it at home!  Next week:  What is a shadow?  What is the universe?
Technology:   The students continue to use all the apps currently introduced in small group, partner and individual sessions during their reading, math, writing, science and choice times.
Literature:   "Great Black Heroes--Notable Inventors," "Why Do We Brush Our Teeth?" "Lola Loves Books," "Open Wide," "The Secret Olivia Told Me," "The Missing Tooth Mystery," "Little Rabbits Loose Tooth," "Honey, I Love You," "How's the Weather?" and 22 Dr. Seuss Books with our Book Buddies!!