**The Space Station projects are certainly OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! Come check them out before or after school. They will be in our classroom until the end of the school year. Our Space Day blast off was so much fun. The students wore their jet packs and helmets. They blasted off and spent their station day time exploring their space stations and engaging in dramatic play.
**Though it was cloudy and dreary, our walking field trip to the Maze Branch Library was loads of fun and very informative once we got inside. Maze librarian, Ms. Sarah got the students ready for listening by using some great movement techniques, read us a very engaging story about a tree house and showed us where all the different types of books are located along with videos, movies and special back packs of fun. The students got to look at some books of their choosing and some students even got their library cards. Ms. Sarah says, "Visit the library with your family and check out some books!" A special thanks to Nurse Jamie's daughter, Ava for helping us on our trip.
**Last call for permission slips and money for our field trip to the Adler Planetarium!! Our trip is Tuesday, May 3rd. We will depart at 9:20 and return by 1:30 pm. I need to turn in the money for our bus ride by Monday. We have M. Daniel, Amir's Granny, K. Harris, J. Metz and Mr. Pillacela helping us out on the trip. ALL STUDENTS NEED TO BRING A BAG LUNCH with name on it. NO glass bottles, lunch boxes or thermos bottles please. Please dress your child for the weather. We are keeping out fingers crossed for a picnic by the lake.
**KEEP PRACTICING YOUR POEM for the Traveling Poets Project. Ms. Noonan will hear the poems during our library time on Monday. The students will "travel" to different classrooms to recite their poems beginning on May 9th.
**It was all groovy at the Family Read In. Thanks to those who braved the elements to come out and hear Ms. Noonan, Mrs. Durham, Ms. Hartman and myself share cool stories.
**Lot's of rain outside but.....the the dancing went on inside at the Student Council sponsored "Dance-a-thon" to raise money for Special Olympics. Mr. DiPaolo was spinning popular tunes, the smoke machine was on and students were dancing the morning away. Ella, Lauren, Zadie and Audrey were in top form!
**The last rotation of Route to Reading will begin on Monday, May 2nd.
**The Irving Art Fest along with the Poetry Slam is Thursday, May 12th from 6-8 pm all over the school. A piece of art from every student in the school will be displayed along with Spanish games, food, traveling poets, a play, a performance by the chorus and of course......the POETRY SLAM! So far we have 3 "little slammers" representing our class but how about some more!!!!!! You can say a poem, rap, sing, write your own poem, work with a friend, sibling, group or family. Share your creativity! Don't forget to fill out the slip to be included in the program guide.
**NATIONAL SPORTS and FITNESS WEEK begins MONDAY!! Monday is Ball and Jump Rope Day.....Tuesday is Healthy Heart Day--wear red and bring a healthy snack.....Wednesday is ACES (all children exercising simultaneously)......Thursday is Sports Hat Day.....Friday is School Spirit Day--wear Irving wear or red/white/black. On Saturday--District 97 Fun Run at Lindberg Park beginning with the K-2 race at 8:00 am. Come--RUN WITH ME!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey began winding down the year by hosting a "game show" where the students came up to answer a clue about something she taught during the year.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking and Problem Solving this week, the students completed a page for the book making project entitled "The Most in the World."
**Future field trips--Pizza and Play End of the Year Family Picnic at Rehm Park on June1st-9:30-noon. Walking field trip to the Oak Park Conservatory on Tuesday, June 7th at 10:00 am.
**June 8th (full day)--Last day of school (tear drop!) Family Hour and final report cards sent home.
This week:
The students continued their final study of space travel, the moon and the planets. Our NASA app has given us great up to the minute info on new planets, the international space station, space travel and the moon. The students explored their completed space stations with their team. Next week the students will begin using the space stations to chill in, read stories in and continue dramatic play as they explore the other groups projects. Station Day was devoted to our blast off and exploration.
Reading/Language Arts: The students finished Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series and that unit became the introduction to our final science unit. The students accessed prior knowledge about what plants need to grow. They completed an initial inquiry on what a seed was. We will begin our seed experiments next week. The students used the rest of the week in small groupings and with partners working on leveled readers receiving feedback about fluency from their group and their partners, elbow chatting about characters, setting and main events, asking and answering questions about a given text both oral and in writing, using context clues to find out a meaning of an unknown word and working to compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in common texts. We continued to work with our Blueprint format comparing the texts "Mooncake" and "Where the Wild Things Are."
Math: The students enjoyed some "gamey" activities with small groups and partners to review all 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/3D shape recognition) Partners took the "Subitize Callenge" on their iPads and looked at number families with the app Butterfly Math. They will begin their May Calendar Books and Math Process Journals on Monday.
Writing: Lots of writing going on here!!! The students are writing during all subject areas. They took the time to write thank you notes to Ms. Sarah from Maze Library, reflect in their science journals, answer in writing questions about what they have read and continued work on their beginning paragraphs using their shadow poses. Their "fix it up" checklist has been so helpful. Inventive or phonetic spelling continues to be very appropriate.
Science: The students studied the moon. We discussed the different parts of the moon we see at night. (phases) We are really seeing different amounts of light being reflected on the moon since the moon has no light of its own. How much light we see depends on the position of the Earth,, sun and moon. The students explored the moons surface area and noted that it has lots of holes or craters. It also has flat areas called planes or seas. How did the holes get there?? The students did an experiment where they created a moon using flour and cocoa powder on top in a pie pan. They then dropped magnetized marbles onto their moon like asteroids crashing into the moon to create the craters. Cool! Using a giant magnet, the groups took turns removing the marbles with the magnets to reveal the holes or craters. They sketched their findings and reflected the process in their science journal. The students also began preparation for their final science unit "From Seed to Plant" with an initial inquiry of what they knew and what they wanted to find out.
Technology: No new apps this week. The students have watched footage of what is to become their "movie" of their Space Station work. We will begin the editing process next week using iMovie.
Literature: "The Moon," "Phases of the Moon," "If You Decide To Go To The Moon," "Watching the Moon," "Planet Kindergarten," "Moonshot," "What Is The Moon?" "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, Off to the Moon," "I Want to be an Astronaut," "There's No Place Like Space," "Space Vehicles," "The Planets," "Pop Up Facts About Space."
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Saturday, April 23, 2016
UPDATES for 4/18-4/22 2016
**It has been an exciting week in our classroom! The students have been hard at work on their space station projects. Each group has 6 team members. They elected a project manager. The students are using their social, behavioral, analytical, scientific, creative and beginning engineering skills that they have embraced throughout the school year. The students are using their prior knowledge and new ideas about space and space station design. We have looked at our NASA app to view photos and live shots of the International Space Station. Cool! With their team, they have discussed and sketched out drawings or "prototypes" of what they think their space station might look like. They chatted about "communication" and "compromise" and created a set of rules to guide them thru the process. The role of the project manager is to keep the workers on task, gently remind them of their rules and stress the "compromise" piece.
**Our walking field trip to the MAZE BRANCH LIBRARY is Thursday, April 28th. We will be walking beginning at 1:00 pm and return by 2:45 pm. Aidan's grandpa has volunteered to walk with us. I could use another volunteer. Please email if interested. Also.....I have quite a few students who have not handed in permission slips. Please send in slips ASAP! Thanks!
**Please keep sending in permission slips and money for our field trip to the ADLER PLANETARIUM. I need everything in by Friday!! Students need to dress for the weather and bring a BAG LUNCH. We are hoping to picnic by the lake. I have M. Daniel, Amir's Grandma, K. Harris volunteering so far. I could really use 1 more volunteer. Please email me if interested. We will leave school at 9:20 am and return by 1:30 pm. Students ride the bus. Volunteers will carpool. I will have money for parking.
**Keep working with your child to PRACTICE their POEM for the Traveling Poets Project. Our class begins "traveling" on May 9th!
**Irving Book Fair is April 25th-29th. We will be visiting the book fair as a class but encourage families to visit too!
**Come on out for the FAR-OUT FAMILY READ-IN on Wednesday, April 27th from 6:30-7:30 pm in the Irving Auditorium. Come hear our "very groovy" readers, Ms. Durham, Ms. Gullo, Ms. Noonan and Mr. Sak share a story. Come browse and buy!
**"Dress Like the 60's" on Wednesday, April 27th. Wear your tie-dye, bell bottoms, head bands bring your peace and love signs.
**"SPACE DAY" FRIDAY, APRIL 29th. Yes....once our space stations are completed, we will blast off into space. We will make jet packs and helmets....but......if you have your own space suit......wear it! The students will sample some space food and participate in some space learning centers.
**The Student Council sponsored DANCE-A-THON is Saturday, April 30th from 10-11:30 am. Come dance and support the Special Olympics! It is $2.00 to get in.
**The last rotation of Route to Reading will begin on Monday, May 2nd.
**Irving Art Fest 2016 is Thursday, May 12th from 6-8 pm all around the school. Art will be displayed from each student. Spanish games, a play, traveling poets and a special performance by the Irving Chorus are just some of the happenings. The POETRY SLAM is the same night under the direction of Mr. Williams. Sign up to say your poem, write a new poem, rap, sing, recite with friends or family, a partner. Share your creativity! We hope to have some "little slammers!" Don't forget to fill out the slip. It is in your child's homework folder.
**District 97's Annual FUN RUN is Saturday, May 7th at Lindberg Park. K-2 race begins at 8:00 am. Come RUN with me!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey presented a lesson on the Eagle Essential --Be Safe.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking and Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued preparation for an upcoming project by reading the story, "The Most in the World," by Lilly Barrett.
This week:
It was all about space station construction and working as a team. Part of our mornings and many of our afternoons were spent working. The students began detail work during the latter part of their station day. Thanks to Nic Bell, Audrey's dad who was on hot glue patrol!! The students also did some research via the internet and texts about Earth Day themes. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle is our mantra! Our entire project is created out of recycled materials!! Station day activities included making star gazers and creating and naming their own constellations.
Reading/Language Arts: The students have nearly completed Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. We will tie up any loose ends next week. This week, the students read and talked about what grows in a garden. They thought aloud and accessed prior knowledge about their backyard, school and community gardens. They listened to the trade book, "The Sunflower House." They paid special attention to the sequencing at the beginning, middle and ending parts of the story. The students worked in small groups to retell the story in their own words. Robust Vocabulary this week included ARRANGE, TEND, BASIC, SENSES, GARDEN. We continue to work on our formative assessments for comparing texts and word choice. Workstations this week included, leveled readers discussion about word choice and meaning, comparing texts and characters actions, fluency checks, elbow chatting about the main idea, drawing your idea of a garden and writing about what you would grow, writing about how plants get bugs and giving examples, using the app Magnetic Letters HD composing and writing 2-3 sentences about a person who might have a job related to plants, writing about what plants need to grow, word work with short vowels and long vowels with silent e and writing about a seed and what can grow from it.
Math: The students reviewed terms and parts of 2D and 3D shapes and continued to work on story problems and sums and differences using numbers 1-10. The students also worked on using a number line in solving addition and subtraction equations. Partners and small groups got a chance to work on games reinforcing geometry, addition and subtraction, counting to 100, subitizing and place value.
Writing: Students worked on a writing piece after listening to stories and chatting about what they could do to help save the Earth. The students continue to work on their Shadow paragraphs entitled, "My Shadow." They are currently working on their draft.
Science: The students continue their study of the stars How does a star form? What happens when it dies? What do we know about red stars and blue stars? The students were especially interested in constellations and how they got their names. Space station construction, painting and detailing dominated our science time this week. We continue to document everything on iMovie. Next week--the moon and planets and space travel.
Technology: In reading--the app Magnetic Letters HD was used to compose and record sentences. Montessori Crosswords was used to work on short u, ck, and silent e words. Oz Phonics was used to work on word order in a sentence. In math--the apps Geometry, Animal Math, Build and Play and Butterfly Math were used to enhance shape recognition, addition and subtraction facts, 3D building. In science the apps BrainPop Jr. and NASA assisted the students in their study of natural resources, recycling, the stars and constellations, the International Space Station and Earth Day.
Literature: "Don't Be A Litterbug," "What is Happening to the Rain Forest?" "What is Global Warming?" "Magic School Bus Gets Recycled," "Let's Be Water Wise," "Let's Recycle," "Stars," "Watching the Stars," "Seeing Stars," "Zoo in the Sky," "Stars," "The Starry Sky," "Once Upon a Starry Night," "Shooting Stars," "Comets."
**Our walking field trip to the MAZE BRANCH LIBRARY is Thursday, April 28th. We will be walking beginning at 1:00 pm and return by 2:45 pm. Aidan's grandpa has volunteered to walk with us. I could use another volunteer. Please email if interested. Also.....I have quite a few students who have not handed in permission slips. Please send in slips ASAP! Thanks!
**Please keep sending in permission slips and money for our field trip to the ADLER PLANETARIUM. I need everything in by Friday!! Students need to dress for the weather and bring a BAG LUNCH. We are hoping to picnic by the lake. I have M. Daniel, Amir's Grandma, K. Harris volunteering so far. I could really use 1 more volunteer. Please email me if interested. We will leave school at 9:20 am and return by 1:30 pm. Students ride the bus. Volunteers will carpool. I will have money for parking.
**Keep working with your child to PRACTICE their POEM for the Traveling Poets Project. Our class begins "traveling" on May 9th!
**Irving Book Fair is April 25th-29th. We will be visiting the book fair as a class but encourage families to visit too!
**Come on out for the FAR-OUT FAMILY READ-IN on Wednesday, April 27th from 6:30-7:30 pm in the Irving Auditorium. Come hear our "very groovy" readers, Ms. Durham, Ms. Gullo, Ms. Noonan and Mr. Sak share a story. Come browse and buy!
**"Dress Like the 60's" on Wednesday, April 27th. Wear your tie-dye, bell bottoms, head bands bring your peace and love signs.
**"SPACE DAY" FRIDAY, APRIL 29th. Yes....once our space stations are completed, we will blast off into space. We will make jet packs and helmets....but......if you have your own space suit......wear it! The students will sample some space food and participate in some space learning centers.
**The Student Council sponsored DANCE-A-THON is Saturday, April 30th from 10-11:30 am. Come dance and support the Special Olympics! It is $2.00 to get in.
**The last rotation of Route to Reading will begin on Monday, May 2nd.
**Irving Art Fest 2016 is Thursday, May 12th from 6-8 pm all around the school. Art will be displayed from each student. Spanish games, a play, traveling poets and a special performance by the Irving Chorus are just some of the happenings. The POETRY SLAM is the same night under the direction of Mr. Williams. Sign up to say your poem, write a new poem, rap, sing, recite with friends or family, a partner. Share your creativity! We hope to have some "little slammers!" Don't forget to fill out the slip. It is in your child's homework folder.
**District 97's Annual FUN RUN is Saturday, May 7th at Lindberg Park. K-2 race begins at 8:00 am. Come RUN with me!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey presented a lesson on the Eagle Essential --Be Safe.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking and Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued preparation for an upcoming project by reading the story, "The Most in the World," by Lilly Barrett.
This week:
It was all about space station construction and working as a team. Part of our mornings and many of our afternoons were spent working. The students began detail work during the latter part of their station day. Thanks to Nic Bell, Audrey's dad who was on hot glue patrol!! The students also did some research via the internet and texts about Earth Day themes. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle is our mantra! Our entire project is created out of recycled materials!! Station day activities included making star gazers and creating and naming their own constellations.
Reading/Language Arts: The students have nearly completed Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. We will tie up any loose ends next week. This week, the students read and talked about what grows in a garden. They thought aloud and accessed prior knowledge about their backyard, school and community gardens. They listened to the trade book, "The Sunflower House." They paid special attention to the sequencing at the beginning, middle and ending parts of the story. The students worked in small groups to retell the story in their own words. Robust Vocabulary this week included ARRANGE, TEND, BASIC, SENSES, GARDEN. We continue to work on our formative assessments for comparing texts and word choice. Workstations this week included, leveled readers discussion about word choice and meaning, comparing texts and characters actions, fluency checks, elbow chatting about the main idea, drawing your idea of a garden and writing about what you would grow, writing about how plants get bugs and giving examples, using the app Magnetic Letters HD composing and writing 2-3 sentences about a person who might have a job related to plants, writing about what plants need to grow, word work with short vowels and long vowels with silent e and writing about a seed and what can grow from it.
Math: The students reviewed terms and parts of 2D and 3D shapes and continued to work on story problems and sums and differences using numbers 1-10. The students also worked on using a number line in solving addition and subtraction equations. Partners and small groups got a chance to work on games reinforcing geometry, addition and subtraction, counting to 100, subitizing and place value.
Writing: Students worked on a writing piece after listening to stories and chatting about what they could do to help save the Earth. The students continue to work on their Shadow paragraphs entitled, "My Shadow." They are currently working on their draft.
Science: The students continue their study of the stars How does a star form? What happens when it dies? What do we know about red stars and blue stars? The students were especially interested in constellations and how they got their names. Space station construction, painting and detailing dominated our science time this week. We continue to document everything on iMovie. Next week--the moon and planets and space travel.
Technology: In reading--the app Magnetic Letters HD was used to compose and record sentences. Montessori Crosswords was used to work on short u, ck, and silent e words. Oz Phonics was used to work on word order in a sentence. In math--the apps Geometry, Animal Math, Build and Play and Butterfly Math were used to enhance shape recognition, addition and subtraction facts, 3D building. In science the apps BrainPop Jr. and NASA assisted the students in their study of natural resources, recycling, the stars and constellations, the International Space Station and Earth Day.
Literature: "Don't Be A Litterbug," "What is Happening to the Rain Forest?" "What is Global Warming?" "Magic School Bus Gets Recycled," "Let's Be Water Wise," "Let's Recycle," "Stars," "Watching the Stars," "Seeing Stars," "Zoo in the Sky," "Stars," "The Starry Sky," "Once Upon a Starry Night," "Shooting Stars," "Comets."
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
UPDATES for 4/11-4/15 2016
**We will begin our Space Station projects on Monday. We have formed our working groups, selected a project manager and chatted about our ground rules in order to complete the project. The students have had some conversations about the art of compromise. They will work with their group to sketch some prototype drawings of what they think their project might look like. We will be using iMovie to document from start to finish. We are all really 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. Please note that we may deviate from our normal subject areas and workstation time.
**A BIG SHOUT OUT to our Spelling Bee reps, Lauren and Zadie! They received a really cool ribbon. They did a great job! I was so proud of their perseverance! Our class made special posters to cheer them on.
**Route to Reading Rotation 6 will conclude on Wednesday, April 20th. At that time, you will receive information on your child's skill mastery.
**Please check your child's homework folder. There are 2 permission slips enclosed. We have a walking field trip to the Maze Branch Library on Thursday, April 28th from 1:30-2:45 pm. If your child would like a library card, please fill out the application and return it with the permission slip. We also have a field trip to the Adler Planetarium on Tuesday, May 3rd from 9:30-1:30 pm. We will be riding the school bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will pay for parking. All students will need to bring a BAG LUNCH.
**Join the Irving Garden Club and celebrate Earth Day on Friday, April 22nd after school. Meet in the garden and prepare the garden beds. Pull weeds, haul dirt and discover worms and create an herb garden.
**Classroom Coin Challenge! Bring your loose change to class April 18th-22nd. All money collected will help benefit the Irving Library. Ms. Noonan will have the class with the most coins help her pick out new books for the library.
**The Irving Book Fair is April 25th-April 28th. We will be visiting the Fair as a class, but encourage all families to come to browse and buy! The Book Fair will have a set of "groovy" guest readers at our "Read In" on Wednesday, April 27th. Come hear some of the latest new stories read by the "coolest" readers from 6:30-7:30 pm.
**Student Council reps, Lauren and Hattie invite you to the Irving Dance-a-thon to support the Special Olympics on Saturday, April 30th from 10-11:30 am in the Irving gym. It's $2.00. Request a song, give a shout out, have some food.
**All the students have picked out their poem for the TRAVELING POETS PROJECT, under the direction of Ms. Noonan. It is part of your child's homework to practice their poem. They will "travel" to other classrooms to recite their poem during the weeks of May 9th and May 16th.
**The 9th Annual Irving Art Fest and Poetry Slam will be held Thursday, May 12th beginning at 6:00 pm. Sign up to say your poem, write a new poem, rap, sing, recite with family, a partner, a group of friends. Share your creativity! Look at art from all students, play Spanish games, see a play performance and hear a special performance by the Irving Chorus along with the slam. Fun! Fun!
**Information and sign up for the Irving Sleepover is on line this year on the Irving Webpage or the Irving Facebook Page.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey conducted a lesson on smart guesses in social situations.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking and Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued his preparation on a project about numbers by reading more number stories.
This week:
The students continued work on shadows and the sun. Omar became our "object" as the students tracked shadows changing places throughout the day. The students began learning about what a paragraph is. They are beginning to think about what to write using their shadow poses as the topic. Station day activities this week included creating 2D rockets from pattern blocks, constructing a name rocket and creating an equation using the vowels and consonant in their name, creating a mixed media sun, constructing an analog clock complete with a fun poem to tell the time.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. They talked and read about seeds and the plants that grow from them. They accessed prior knowledge from our earlier fall unit on apples. The students revisited our apple seed tray. The students also discussed what they knew about types of seeds--blowing dandelion seeds everywhere, helping their family with planting seeds in their backyards and naming seeds. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Seed Secrets." The story talked about ways that seeds travel. The students observed the pictures and tracked the print as I read. They were able to verbally ask and answer questions about the story. The students also examined an unknown word-sprout. How do you know what it means? Where can you look to get help with the meaning? Can the illustrations help you? Can other words in the sentence help you find out the meaning? Our target words for this week were here and was. The students worked with partners to build sentences using all their sight words. They also revisited short u, consonant blends and digraphs in words. We also began some work on the use of silent e and vowel teams. Our new Blueprint focuses on comparing two texts on the same topic. We used the Venn Diagram format to compare two of our science texts,"Nothing Sticks Like a Shadow" and "I Have a Friend." Questions discussed--How are theses stories alike? (similarities) How are these stories different? Robust vocabulary this week included GRADUALLY, SEEDS, OBSERVE. The students read their decodable story, "The Bud Is Up." They made predictions about story content and discussed what the unknown word-bud might mean. They then reread their story to a partner for fluency building. Workstations this week included leveled reader, 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 story, writing and illustrating "What food would you like to grow in your garden?" short u and long u word work, playing the vowel game, "Bug Jar," writing and drawing about your favorite vegetable--describing it and telling why you like it, building CCVC and CVCC words, playing the sight word game "Popcorn," and retelling a story verbally and then creating retelling cards in writing and work sound substitution with vowels.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting beyond 100, counting by 2's, 5's, 10's and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers. They continue to work on 2D and 3D shape recognition and pertinent vocabulary related to geometric solids. They continue to explore and build lots of different types of structures using various types of materials. Our "Structure Museum" looks awesome. Check it out on our Lego table! Students are working in their math journal reading story problems and illustrating the process and writing an equation. They are reviewing composing and decomposing numbers from 11-19 by using objects, drawings or equations. The idea being that for example 11 is --one group of 10 and 1 one. Math workstations for this week included the activity--"How many sides?" How many vertices?" What's my number? activity, building structures using a variety of materials and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers.
Writing: The students worked on writing about a specific topic (The Sun.) We continued our discussion on how to write a paragraph. The students are working on their drafts for their shadow poses.
Science: The students continued their study of shadows, sun and stars. In our shadow changing places experiment, Omar became our object that blocked the sunlight. He stood in the same place at 8:30 am, 11:45 am and again at 2:40 pm. We traced his shadow each time. Students noted that Omar's shadow was long and skinny in the morning and by late afternoon it became short and wide. They recorded their findings in their science journal. Next week--stars and the moon!
Technology: Students are learning about iMovie in preparation for our space station project. Students also saw some cool videos on the sun, moon and stars on BrainPop Jr. We will be accessing our NASA app next week. In reading, small groups and individuals using the apps Oz Phonics, Montessori Crosswords for skill building on CCVC, CVCC, short u, silent e and ck words. The app Magnetic ABC was used to compose sentences relating to a text read. In Math small groups and individual, the apps Butterfly Math, Geoboard, Build a Pic and Animal Math were used for skill building in addition and subtraction, 3D building and base 10 number work.
Literature: "Sing to the Sun" (poetry) "What Makes Day and Night," "Sun, Moon and Stars,""The Sun," "The Sun is My Favorite Star," "Sun and Moon," "The Sun," "The Solar System," "The Milky Way," "Domino Addition," "The Cheerios Counting Book," "Monster Math," "Nothing Sticks like a Shadow," "I Have a Friend."
**A BIG SHOUT OUT to our Spelling Bee reps, Lauren and Zadie! They received a really cool ribbon. They did a great job! I was so proud of their perseverance! Our class made special posters to cheer them on.
**Route to Reading Rotation 6 will conclude on Wednesday, April 20th. At that time, you will receive information on your child's skill mastery.
**Please check your child's homework folder. There are 2 permission slips enclosed. We have a walking field trip to the Maze Branch Library on Thursday, April 28th from 1:30-2:45 pm. If your child would like a library card, please fill out the application and return it with the permission slip. We also have a field trip to the Adler Planetarium on Tuesday, May 3rd from 9:30-1:30 pm. We will be riding the school bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will pay for parking. All students will need to bring a BAG LUNCH.
**Join the Irving Garden Club and celebrate Earth Day on Friday, April 22nd after school. Meet in the garden and prepare the garden beds. Pull weeds, haul dirt and discover worms and create an herb garden.
**Classroom Coin Challenge! Bring your loose change to class April 18th-22nd. All money collected will help benefit the Irving Library. Ms. Noonan will have the class with the most coins help her pick out new books for the library.
**The Irving Book Fair is April 25th-April 28th. We will be visiting the Fair as a class, but encourage all families to come to browse and buy! The Book Fair will have a set of "groovy" guest readers at our "Read In" on Wednesday, April 27th. Come hear some of the latest new stories read by the "coolest" readers from 6:30-7:30 pm.
**Student Council reps, Lauren and Hattie invite you to the Irving Dance-a-thon to support the Special Olympics on Saturday, April 30th from 10-11:30 am in the Irving gym. It's $2.00. Request a song, give a shout out, have some food.
**All the students have picked out their poem for the TRAVELING POETS PROJECT, under the direction of Ms. Noonan. It is part of your child's homework to practice their poem. They will "travel" to other classrooms to recite their poem during the weeks of May 9th and May 16th.
**The 9th Annual Irving Art Fest and Poetry Slam will be held Thursday, May 12th beginning at 6:00 pm. Sign up to say your poem, write a new poem, rap, sing, recite with family, a partner, a group of friends. Share your creativity! Look at art from all students, play Spanish games, see a play performance and hear a special performance by the Irving Chorus along with the slam. Fun! Fun!
**Information and sign up for the Irving Sleepover is on line this year on the Irving Webpage or the Irving Facebook Page.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey conducted a lesson on smart guesses in social situations.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking and Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued his preparation on a project about numbers by reading more number stories.
This week:
The students continued work on shadows and the sun. Omar became our "object" as the students tracked shadows changing places throughout the day. The students began learning about what a paragraph is. They are beginning to think about what to write using their shadow poses as the topic. Station day activities this week included creating 2D rockets from pattern blocks, constructing a name rocket and creating an equation using the vowels and consonant in their name, creating a mixed media sun, constructing an analog clock complete with a fun poem to tell the time.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. They talked and read about seeds and the plants that grow from them. They accessed prior knowledge from our earlier fall unit on apples. The students revisited our apple seed tray. The students also discussed what they knew about types of seeds--blowing dandelion seeds everywhere, helping their family with planting seeds in their backyards and naming seeds. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Seed Secrets." The story talked about ways that seeds travel. The students observed the pictures and tracked the print as I read. They were able to verbally ask and answer questions about the story. The students also examined an unknown word-sprout. How do you know what it means? Where can you look to get help with the meaning? Can the illustrations help you? Can other words in the sentence help you find out the meaning? Our target words for this week were here and was. The students worked with partners to build sentences using all their sight words. They also revisited short u, consonant blends and digraphs in words. We also began some work on the use of silent e and vowel teams. Our new Blueprint focuses on comparing two texts on the same topic. We used the Venn Diagram format to compare two of our science texts,"Nothing Sticks Like a Shadow" and "I Have a Friend." Questions discussed--How are theses stories alike? (similarities) How are these stories different? Robust vocabulary this week included GRADUALLY, SEEDS, OBSERVE. The students read their decodable story, "The Bud Is Up." They made predictions about story content and discussed what the unknown word-bud might mean. They then reread their story to a partner for fluency building. Workstations this week included leveled reader, 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 story, writing and illustrating "What food would you like to grow in your garden?" short u and long u word work, playing the vowel game, "Bug Jar," writing and drawing about your favorite vegetable--describing it and telling why you like it, building CCVC and CVCC words, playing the sight word game "Popcorn," and retelling a story verbally and then creating retelling cards in writing and work sound substitution with vowels.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting beyond 100, counting by 2's, 5's, 10's and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers. They continue to work on 2D and 3D shape recognition and pertinent vocabulary related to geometric solids. They continue to explore and build lots of different types of structures using various types of materials. Our "Structure Museum" looks awesome. Check it out on our Lego table! Students are working in their math journal reading story problems and illustrating the process and writing an equation. They are reviewing composing and decomposing numbers from 11-19 by using objects, drawings or equations. The idea being that for example 11 is --one group of 10 and 1 one. Math workstations for this week included the activity--"How many sides?" How many vertices?" What's my number? activity, building structures using a variety of materials and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers.
Writing: The students worked on writing about a specific topic (The Sun.) We continued our discussion on how to write a paragraph. The students are working on their drafts for their shadow poses.
Science: The students continued their study of shadows, sun and stars. In our shadow changing places experiment, Omar became our object that blocked the sunlight. He stood in the same place at 8:30 am, 11:45 am and again at 2:40 pm. We traced his shadow each time. Students noted that Omar's shadow was long and skinny in the morning and by late afternoon it became short and wide. They recorded their findings in their science journal. Next week--stars and the moon!
Technology: Students are learning about iMovie in preparation for our space station project. Students also saw some cool videos on the sun, moon and stars on BrainPop Jr. We will be accessing our NASA app next week. In reading, small groups and individuals using the apps Oz Phonics, Montessori Crosswords for skill building on CCVC, CVCC, short u, silent e and ck words. The app Magnetic ABC was used to compose sentences relating to a text read. In Math small groups and individual, the apps Butterfly Math, Geoboard, Build a Pic and Animal Math were used for skill building in addition and subtraction, 3D building and base 10 number work.
Literature: "Sing to the Sun" (poetry) "What Makes Day and Night," "Sun, Moon and Stars,""The Sun," "The Sun is My Favorite Star," "Sun and Moon," "The Sun," "The Solar System," "The Milky Way," "Domino Addition," "The Cheerios Counting Book," "Monster Math," "Nothing Sticks like a Shadow," "I Have a Friend."
Sunday, April 10, 2016
UPDATES for 4/4-4/8 2016
**The students returned from their spring break with lots of stories about their travels and time with family. Whether they remained in the area or traveled to another state or country, they had much to tell. We had travel journals shared from the Chicago area, Florida, Wisconsin Dells, Indiana, Mexico, The Dominican Republic, The Upper Peninsula and New Mexico to name a few. The students loved locating places on our state and world maps.
**Keep sending in BOXES of all kinds including GIANT ONES and other cool things for our space station projects. Empty toilet paper tubes and paper towel tubes are needed too. We could still use a couple of GIANT BOXES that you can climb in. We hope to collect everything this week. The design, construction and detailing will take place the week of April 18th-22nd. We will need some hot glue volunteers during our detailing stage. Stay tuned!
**Our Spelling Bee reps, LAUREN and ZADIE and our alternate, JULIET are excited to participate in the K-2 Spelling Bee which will be held on Wednesday, April 13th beginning at 11:00 am. We will be cheering them on. Feel free to come and join us in the auditorium.
**The students have begun using a new app on their iPad called Keyboarding Without Tears. It is the companion to our Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. We will also be using the program on the computers in the lab. The lessons are very short--no more then 10 minutes. Pre-keyboarding skills--including hand position, posture and finger use, key identification (home row and bottom row) and number keys will be featured in the lessons. We had our first 2 lessons this past week. We will have another 2 this week and then I will send home the information for home practice.
**Don't forget to send back your Report Card Envelopes. Just the envelopes! We have one more report card in June.
**Our Student Council Reps, Hattie and Lauren were excited to tell the class about their latest fundraiser---All School DANCE-A-THON that will be held on Saturday, April 30th. More info is coming!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her lesson on what it means to be RESPECTFUL. Stories, acting and picture examples sparked much discussion and suggestion.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking and Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer posed the question, "What is the most important number in the world?" Some very interesting answers!!!!! He read a story called, "100 Angry Ants." Next week more stories in preparation for a projects about numbers.
This week:
It was all about our shadow poses! Each student posed with their shadow. We will use this photos for our beginning paragraph writing project next week. The students also discovered our potatoes were showing signs of sprouting!!! The students conducted another experiment on types of shadows and we began an inquiry about the sun. We also saw all the cool pictures taken by the volunteers on our field trip to the museum. Way cool!! The students chose one of the pics and wrote and illustrated about it. Station day activities included creating 3D structures using marshmallows and toothpicks, constructing 2D rockets, solving addition problems in rocket math and playing the addition and subtraction game "4 in a row."
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. They began building background knowledge about how a tree grows. The students talked about Oak Park and how many trees they see daily. We used our Tree Finder book to look at Oak and other types of trees in our area. Students recognized leaves of the Oak, Ginko and Maple trees. The students understood that the tree is a plant that begins with a seed and takes many years to grow. Students listened to the Big Book story, "Oak Trees." They noted the book was nonfiction or informational. The students responded that they had seen acorns and some students even collected them. Sight words for this week are little and said. Our target sounds are short u and ck. We took a look at the use of quotation marks to tell us who is talking in the story. Students retold the Big Book story in their own words to a partner thinking about the sequence or order. Students reviewed the question words who, what, where, when, why and how. They then took turns verbally asking a question about the story and having their partner answer the question. Students practiced reading aloud the story "A Little Acorn." They worked on fluency with support from their partner. Robust vocabulary this week included GROW, CONCEITED, EQUAL, CHARMING. We began work on common core standards of word choice, describing a characters experience and comparing 2 characters from two different texts. Workstation activities included leveled reader, fluency checks, discussion on characters in the texts and comparing the actions of the characters looking for similarities, writing an informational piece of what you know about trees, word family spin and color, activities on ck words, sentence building, working on word choice in a text, roll and read, writing an opinion piece on why we need trees, cvc, ccvc word work and short and long vowel review.
Math: The students continued work on counting beyond 100, by 5's and 2's. We continue to work on 3D shapes (solid and fat--they have depth) cone, cube, sphere, pyramid and rectangular prism. The students also continued to work on pertinent vocabulary associated with geometric solids-- edges, solid, faces, corners/vertices. Lots of exploration and creativity using a variety of materials. The students are now working in a new math journal. They are looking at the pictures to create addition sentences. The journal has a combination of word problems that can be solved using either addition or subtraction processes. Our April Calendar Book is a delight to all. There is an additional page of number hunt numbers (25-100) and a 2 digit what comes before.
Writing: The students continue to work on beginning with a capital letter, using spaces between words and using punctuation marks. Where do we place lowercase?? They had lots of writing opportunities this week. They are reading their writing to someone at their table. That friend may offer a suggestion to the writing. Peers helping each other! We began a discussion about what a paragraph is--multiple sentences about one topic that flows together and has an introduction, middle and ending. The students will begin work on their draft next week.
Science: The students continued their study of shadows. They reviewed what makes a shadow and created a shadow pose that they will use in beginning paragraph writing. They observed their classmates shadow pose. Some students observed that a bigger shadow will hide a smaller one.
Back in the classroom, we did an experiment where I created shadows using different objects. The students observed and then chatted with their table mates. Lots of chatter about "light" shadows and "very dark" shadows. The students learned that different types of shadows are made depending on how much light is passing thru the object. Light can pass thru some objects and not others. The students made predictions about what kind of shadow a certain object might produce. We worked on some vocabulary--opaque shadow--no light passing thru (book), translucent shadow--some light passing thru (wax paper), transparent shadow--no shadow at all--all the light passes thru (mirror). The students had a chance to use their own items and test them out on the overhead. They recorded their reflections in their science journals.
Technology: In reading, whole group centered apps included Oz Phonics and Read on Sight for skill building in sentence word order, vocabulary building, consonant blends and word scramble. In small group work, the apps Montessori Crossword and CVC Sorts 2 were used to reinforce short u and ck words. In math, whole group centered apps included Shapes, TapTap Blocks and Geoboard for work on 2D and 3D shapes. Individual work began on Keyboarding Without Tears, BrainPop Jr. had some great videos on space, solar system and the sun.
Literature: "What Makes Day and Night?" "How Night Came to Be," "The Big Book of Space," "Big Bang," "Shadows," "Nothing Sticks Like a Shadow," "I Love My Shadow," "I have a Friend."
**Keep sending in BOXES of all kinds including GIANT ONES and other cool things for our space station projects. Empty toilet paper tubes and paper towel tubes are needed too. We could still use a couple of GIANT BOXES that you can climb in. We hope to collect everything this week. The design, construction and detailing will take place the week of April 18th-22nd. We will need some hot glue volunteers during our detailing stage. Stay tuned!
**Our Spelling Bee reps, LAUREN and ZADIE and our alternate, JULIET are excited to participate in the K-2 Spelling Bee which will be held on Wednesday, April 13th beginning at 11:00 am. We will be cheering them on. Feel free to come and join us in the auditorium.
**The students have begun using a new app on their iPad called Keyboarding Without Tears. It is the companion to our Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. We will also be using the program on the computers in the lab. The lessons are very short--no more then 10 minutes. Pre-keyboarding skills--including hand position, posture and finger use, key identification (home row and bottom row) and number keys will be featured in the lessons. We had our first 2 lessons this past week. We will have another 2 this week and then I will send home the information for home practice.
**Don't forget to send back your Report Card Envelopes. Just the envelopes! We have one more report card in June.
**Our Student Council Reps, Hattie and Lauren were excited to tell the class about their latest fundraiser---All School DANCE-A-THON that will be held on Saturday, April 30th. More info is coming!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her lesson on what it means to be RESPECTFUL. Stories, acting and picture examples sparked much discussion and suggestion.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking and Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer posed the question, "What is the most important number in the world?" Some very interesting answers!!!!! He read a story called, "100 Angry Ants." Next week more stories in preparation for a projects about numbers.
This week:
It was all about our shadow poses! Each student posed with their shadow. We will use this photos for our beginning paragraph writing project next week. The students also discovered our potatoes were showing signs of sprouting!!! The students conducted another experiment on types of shadows and we began an inquiry about the sun. We also saw all the cool pictures taken by the volunteers on our field trip to the museum. Way cool!! The students chose one of the pics and wrote and illustrated about it. Station day activities included creating 3D structures using marshmallows and toothpicks, constructing 2D rockets, solving addition problems in rocket math and playing the addition and subtraction game "4 in a row."
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. They began building background knowledge about how a tree grows. The students talked about Oak Park and how many trees they see daily. We used our Tree Finder book to look at Oak and other types of trees in our area. Students recognized leaves of the Oak, Ginko and Maple trees. The students understood that the tree is a plant that begins with a seed and takes many years to grow. Students listened to the Big Book story, "Oak Trees." They noted the book was nonfiction or informational. The students responded that they had seen acorns and some students even collected them. Sight words for this week are little and said. Our target sounds are short u and ck. We took a look at the use of quotation marks to tell us who is talking in the story. Students retold the Big Book story in their own words to a partner thinking about the sequence or order. Students reviewed the question words who, what, where, when, why and how. They then took turns verbally asking a question about the story and having their partner answer the question. Students practiced reading aloud the story "A Little Acorn." They worked on fluency with support from their partner. Robust vocabulary this week included GROW, CONCEITED, EQUAL, CHARMING. We began work on common core standards of word choice, describing a characters experience and comparing 2 characters from two different texts. Workstation activities included leveled reader, fluency checks, discussion on characters in the texts and comparing the actions of the characters looking for similarities, writing an informational piece of what you know about trees, word family spin and color, activities on ck words, sentence building, working on word choice in a text, roll and read, writing an opinion piece on why we need trees, cvc, ccvc word work and short and long vowel review.
Math: The students continued work on counting beyond 100, by 5's and 2's. We continue to work on 3D shapes (solid and fat--they have depth) cone, cube, sphere, pyramid and rectangular prism. The students also continued to work on pertinent vocabulary associated with geometric solids-- edges, solid, faces, corners/vertices. Lots of exploration and creativity using a variety of materials. The students are now working in a new math journal. They are looking at the pictures to create addition sentences. The journal has a combination of word problems that can be solved using either addition or subtraction processes. Our April Calendar Book is a delight to all. There is an additional page of number hunt numbers (25-100) and a 2 digit what comes before.
Writing: The students continue to work on beginning with a capital letter, using spaces between words and using punctuation marks. Where do we place lowercase?? They had lots of writing opportunities this week. They are reading their writing to someone at their table. That friend may offer a suggestion to the writing. Peers helping each other! We began a discussion about what a paragraph is--multiple sentences about one topic that flows together and has an introduction, middle and ending. The students will begin work on their draft next week.
Science: The students continued their study of shadows. They reviewed what makes a shadow and created a shadow pose that they will use in beginning paragraph writing. They observed their classmates shadow pose. Some students observed that a bigger shadow will hide a smaller one.
Back in the classroom, we did an experiment where I created shadows using different objects. The students observed and then chatted with their table mates. Lots of chatter about "light" shadows and "very dark" shadows. The students learned that different types of shadows are made depending on how much light is passing thru the object. Light can pass thru some objects and not others. The students made predictions about what kind of shadow a certain object might produce. We worked on some vocabulary--opaque shadow--no light passing thru (book), translucent shadow--some light passing thru (wax paper), transparent shadow--no shadow at all--all the light passes thru (mirror). The students had a chance to use their own items and test them out on the overhead. They recorded their reflections in their science journals.
Technology: In reading, whole group centered apps included Oz Phonics and Read on Sight for skill building in sentence word order, vocabulary building, consonant blends and word scramble. In small group work, the apps Montessori Crossword and CVC Sorts 2 were used to reinforce short u and ck words. In math, whole group centered apps included Shapes, TapTap Blocks and Geoboard for work on 2D and 3D shapes. Individual work began on Keyboarding Without Tears, BrainPop Jr. had some great videos on space, solar system and the sun.
Literature: "What Makes Day and Night?" "How Night Came to Be," "The Big Book of Space," "Big Bang," "Shadows," "Nothing Sticks Like a Shadow," "I Love My Shadow," "I have a Friend."
Thursday, March 24, 2016
UPDATES for 3/14-3/18 and 3/21-2/23 2016
**Thanks for your patience! I will combine two weeks of activities. We are all on the mend! It has been a month of sickness but hopefully SPRING will prevail and more warmer weather will help!
**There have been lots of the changes in student achievement this month. The flood gates of learning are opening wide!! In Route to Reading, many students are mastering skills to complete the Kindergarten continuum and many students have also "jumped" skills to move closer to completion. Lots of great morning story sharing between students with Busy Readers! Students are looking forward to starting their new subtraction story problem journal in April and be challenged even more by Mr. Packer's "thinking" skills projects. And yes........the students are very excited that we are getting closer to planning/creating/constructing our space stations. The week of 4/18-4/22 is set aside for this. YES......start sending GIANT boxes and cool stuff after spring break.
**Pi Day was cool! The students did some cute activities surrounding the number 3.14159. We saw a really cool video of music created by corresponding notes on a piano, xylophone, drums and flute. Pi even has its own website! We topped it off with some apple PIE for PI Day made with love by Michelle at the Happy Apple Pie Shop! The students LOVED the pie. It even had the Pi sign on the top. The students wrote and illustrated thank you notes to Michelle.
**Bagpiper Patrick Lynch was amazing! The students really enjoyed his presentation and lively, loud music. The whole school came out to hear him on a very windy but sunny day.
**Super Tuber was very fun! The students learned a little history about the potato and its connection to Ireland. They observed and measured their tubers and counted the "eyes." They looked at some different varieties even viewed and compared the skin of a purple and red potato under the microscope. I showed the class how to grow a potato from a potato and we chose Ella's (white potato) and Omar's (sweet potato) to grow on our windowsill. Stay tuned!
**Congratulations to our SPELLING BEE participants--Lauren and Zadie. They will represent our class in the Annual K-2 Spelling Bee on Wednesday, April 13th at lunchtime. Also give a shout out to Juliet who is our alternate.
**School Sprit Week was the bomb!! Pajamas, crazy hair, backwards wildness and Irving colors were the ticket of the week. Thanks Student Council for organizing it!
**Our field trip to the Field Museum was AWESOME!!! Yes..... it was the rainiest, but inside was hopping! Students worked with their parent volunteers and discussed the exhibits they wanted most to see. Sue, Ancient Egypt, Mummies, Animals, lots of Bones and Fossils were the top choices. Pictures are beginning to come in. Our writing project will be fantastic. A HUGE THANKS to E. Hagedorn, N. Bell, M. Davis, H. Alvarez and J. Wulff for volunteering!
**SPRING BREAK HOMEWORK HOLIDAY WEEK!! But.......you can still work on Lexia, Raz Kids, Xtra Math or your favorite app. Lots of students are traveling. I can't wait to read their Travel Journals. Even if you are just hanging out-----write about it!!
**Report cards are in your child's homework folder. Please sign and return the envelope.
**No Friendship Club this week or last week.
**No Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week or last week.
**Mr. Degman will resume his Math/Tech after spring break.
The past two weeks:
It was all about weather, shadows, bagpipers and fun potato facts. Science abounds in our classroom! Our study of weather includes math, reading and writing all woven together. Great fun! Very motivating. The students observed daily wind speeds, weather instruments and how meteorologists use data to make predictions about what kind of weather we will have in our area. Yes....they do not get it right all the time!! We are growing 2 types of potatoes. Stay tuned! The students loved Pi Day and bagpiper, Patrick Lynch. Station day activities included magical math facts activity, constructing 2D and 3D structures and learning to play Spring Memory Match up. The students prepared for their trip to the Field Museum. They looked for reading material and videos on Ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, mummies, extinct and endangered animals and mammals. Pictures taken during our trip will be part of a writing/research project.
Reading/Language Arts: The students worked to complete Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. The students built background knowledge about how weather effects people and animals. Students came to the board to write what they experience in snowy, hot, rainy and cold weather. They also spoke about how animals react to those weather conditions. The students reviewed all sight vocabulary presented thus far. The students reviewed target sounds Bb, Ll and short Ee and words that describe. (adjectives) The students continued to work on segmenting, sound blending 4 and 5 sound words on their white boards along with addition, deletion and substitution activities. The students listened to the oral language selection "Animal in Winter." They recalled many of their facts from our Changing Seasons theme. Robust Vocabulary for this week included CLEAR, COZY, EXPERIENCE, HIBERNATE, RETREAT. Workstations for the first week included leveled readers, comprehension and fluency checks, vocabulary building, writing and illustrating What can you do in the rain? completing a story elements butterfly on a specific text, writing a question about your story and answering it, working with blends and digraphs and using iTalk to record and listen to your own reading. For week two, the students students mixed it up by using leveled Fountas and Pinnell texts. They worked collaboratively with their group to come up with an assignment to go with their text. I loved their interactions and suggestions! Workstations included elbow chats about story elements and doing a group story elements butterfly, chatting about problem/solution and writing about it individually, chatting about specific vocabulary and creating a word web of meanings, chatting about characters and comparing how they acted in the text. What an excellent job!
Math: The student continued their exploration of of 2D and 3D shapes. They have been using a variety of materials including straws, pipe cleaners, k-nects, magnetos and mini magnetos. Discussion centered around the terms flat, solid, sides, vertex-vertices or corners and faces of the shapes. Can that shape you constructed roll or can you only stack it? What is a rectangular prism? The students participated in a particular activity where they matched certain pictures according to their shape. The students are starting a "Structure Museum." Workstations for the past two weeks included building 2D and 3D structures, analyzing and comparing 2D and 3D shapes, reading and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, number bonds to 10 and working with the number line to solve an addition or subtraction problem.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. Letters r, n, m, h, b and f were covered in the past two weeks. They applied what they learned in their orange practice books. Their "fix it up" checklist has become a great guide as they work to refine their writing.
Science: The students began our next Science unit beginning with the inquiry--What makes a shadow? The students took turns creating shadows using an overhead projector. Do we need certain elements before we can have a shadow? All students agreed we needed some kind of light source. Some students commented that a body or some kind of object blocked the light source. Other students said we needed a place to see the shadow. The recipe for creating a shadow became--a light source, something to block the light and a surface in which to see the shadow. A shadow is blocked light. Some students noted that shadows can be lighter or darker...they can be seen in front of or in back of......they also observed a water shadow and the rainbow that formed. Cool! Stay tuned!
Technology: The students are getting ready for our Keyboarding Without Tears program. We will begin this after spring break. They will also be able to use it for home practice. In science, we looked at a cool app on extreme weather. Awesome live footage of rainbows, hurricanes, blizzards, thunderstorms and lightening etc. Students sought out information for their field trip via BrainPop Jr. and the Field Museum site. All the apps we have been using for reading and math continue.
Literature: "Chasing Shadows," "Guess Who's Shadow?" "Super Storms," "Clouds," "Walkabout Weather," "How Thunder and Lightening Came to Be," "Clouds, Rain and Clouds Again," "The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow," "The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever," "It's St. Patricks Day," "Morning, Noon and Night," 'Dinosaurs and Other Reptiles," "Fly Guy Presents Dinosaurs,""Danny and the Dinosaur," "If Dinosaurs Came Back," "What Dinosaurs Ate,""National Geographic Kids-Dinosaurs,""Raptors," "Mummies," "Ancient Egypt."
**There have been lots of the changes in student achievement this month. The flood gates of learning are opening wide!! In Route to Reading, many students are mastering skills to complete the Kindergarten continuum and many students have also "jumped" skills to move closer to completion. Lots of great morning story sharing between students with Busy Readers! Students are looking forward to starting their new subtraction story problem journal in April and be challenged even more by Mr. Packer's "thinking" skills projects. And yes........the students are very excited that we are getting closer to planning/creating/constructing our space stations. The week of 4/18-4/22 is set aside for this. YES......start sending GIANT boxes and cool stuff after spring break.
**Pi Day was cool! The students did some cute activities surrounding the number 3.14159. We saw a really cool video of music created by corresponding notes on a piano, xylophone, drums and flute. Pi even has its own website! We topped it off with some apple PIE for PI Day made with love by Michelle at the Happy Apple Pie Shop! The students LOVED the pie. It even had the Pi sign on the top. The students wrote and illustrated thank you notes to Michelle.
**Bagpiper Patrick Lynch was amazing! The students really enjoyed his presentation and lively, loud music. The whole school came out to hear him on a very windy but sunny day.
**Super Tuber was very fun! The students learned a little history about the potato and its connection to Ireland. They observed and measured their tubers and counted the "eyes." They looked at some different varieties even viewed and compared the skin of a purple and red potato under the microscope. I showed the class how to grow a potato from a potato and we chose Ella's (white potato) and Omar's (sweet potato) to grow on our windowsill. Stay tuned!
**Congratulations to our SPELLING BEE participants--Lauren and Zadie. They will represent our class in the Annual K-2 Spelling Bee on Wednesday, April 13th at lunchtime. Also give a shout out to Juliet who is our alternate.
**School Sprit Week was the bomb!! Pajamas, crazy hair, backwards wildness and Irving colors were the ticket of the week. Thanks Student Council for organizing it!
**Our field trip to the Field Museum was AWESOME!!! Yes..... it was the rainiest, but inside was hopping! Students worked with their parent volunteers and discussed the exhibits they wanted most to see. Sue, Ancient Egypt, Mummies, Animals, lots of Bones and Fossils were the top choices. Pictures are beginning to come in. Our writing project will be fantastic. A HUGE THANKS to E. Hagedorn, N. Bell, M. Davis, H. Alvarez and J. Wulff for volunteering!
**SPRING BREAK HOMEWORK HOLIDAY WEEK!! But.......you can still work on Lexia, Raz Kids, Xtra Math or your favorite app. Lots of students are traveling. I can't wait to read their Travel Journals. Even if you are just hanging out-----write about it!!
**Report cards are in your child's homework folder. Please sign and return the envelope.
**No Friendship Club this week or last week.
**No Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week or last week.
**Mr. Degman will resume his Math/Tech after spring break.
The past two weeks:
It was all about weather, shadows, bagpipers and fun potato facts. Science abounds in our classroom! Our study of weather includes math, reading and writing all woven together. Great fun! Very motivating. The students observed daily wind speeds, weather instruments and how meteorologists use data to make predictions about what kind of weather we will have in our area. Yes....they do not get it right all the time!! We are growing 2 types of potatoes. Stay tuned! The students loved Pi Day and bagpiper, Patrick Lynch. Station day activities included magical math facts activity, constructing 2D and 3D structures and learning to play Spring Memory Match up. The students prepared for their trip to the Field Museum. They looked for reading material and videos on Ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, mummies, extinct and endangered animals and mammals. Pictures taken during our trip will be part of a writing/research project.
Reading/Language Arts: The students worked to complete Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. The students built background knowledge about how weather effects people and animals. Students came to the board to write what they experience in snowy, hot, rainy and cold weather. They also spoke about how animals react to those weather conditions. The students reviewed all sight vocabulary presented thus far. The students reviewed target sounds Bb, Ll and short Ee and words that describe. (adjectives) The students continued to work on segmenting, sound blending 4 and 5 sound words on their white boards along with addition, deletion and substitution activities. The students listened to the oral language selection "Animal in Winter." They recalled many of their facts from our Changing Seasons theme. Robust Vocabulary for this week included CLEAR, COZY, EXPERIENCE, HIBERNATE, RETREAT. Workstations for the first week included leveled readers, comprehension and fluency checks, vocabulary building, writing and illustrating What can you do in the rain? completing a story elements butterfly on a specific text, writing a question about your story and answering it, working with blends and digraphs and using iTalk to record and listen to your own reading. For week two, the students students mixed it up by using leveled Fountas and Pinnell texts. They worked collaboratively with their group to come up with an assignment to go with their text. I loved their interactions and suggestions! Workstations included elbow chats about story elements and doing a group story elements butterfly, chatting about problem/solution and writing about it individually, chatting about specific vocabulary and creating a word web of meanings, chatting about characters and comparing how they acted in the text. What an excellent job!
Math: The student continued their exploration of of 2D and 3D shapes. They have been using a variety of materials including straws, pipe cleaners, k-nects, magnetos and mini magnetos. Discussion centered around the terms flat, solid, sides, vertex-vertices or corners and faces of the shapes. Can that shape you constructed roll or can you only stack it? What is a rectangular prism? The students participated in a particular activity where they matched certain pictures according to their shape. The students are starting a "Structure Museum." Workstations for the past two weeks included building 2D and 3D structures, analyzing and comparing 2D and 3D shapes, reading and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, number bonds to 10 and working with the number line to solve an addition or subtraction problem.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. Letters r, n, m, h, b and f were covered in the past two weeks. They applied what they learned in their orange practice books. Their "fix it up" checklist has become a great guide as they work to refine their writing.
Science: The students began our next Science unit beginning with the inquiry--What makes a shadow? The students took turns creating shadows using an overhead projector. Do we need certain elements before we can have a shadow? All students agreed we needed some kind of light source. Some students commented that a body or some kind of object blocked the light source. Other students said we needed a place to see the shadow. The recipe for creating a shadow became--a light source, something to block the light and a surface in which to see the shadow. A shadow is blocked light. Some students noted that shadows can be lighter or darker...they can be seen in front of or in back of......they also observed a water shadow and the rainbow that formed. Cool! Stay tuned!
Technology: The students are getting ready for our Keyboarding Without Tears program. We will begin this after spring break. They will also be able to use it for home practice. In science, we looked at a cool app on extreme weather. Awesome live footage of rainbows, hurricanes, blizzards, thunderstorms and lightening etc. Students sought out information for their field trip via BrainPop Jr. and the Field Museum site. All the apps we have been using for reading and math continue.
Literature: "Chasing Shadows," "Guess Who's Shadow?" "Super Storms," "Clouds," "Walkabout Weather," "How Thunder and Lightening Came to Be," "Clouds, Rain and Clouds Again," "The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow," "The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever," "It's St. Patricks Day," "Morning, Noon and Night," 'Dinosaurs and Other Reptiles," "Fly Guy Presents Dinosaurs,""Danny and the Dinosaur," "If Dinosaurs Came Back," "What Dinosaurs Ate,""National Geographic Kids-Dinosaurs,""Raptors," "Mummies," "Ancient Egypt."
Sunday, March 13, 2016
UPDATES for 3/7-3/11 2016
**Warmer weather and rain! Spring is near!!! We are ending the last 10 minutes of our day outside and the students are really enjoying it. They love being on the playground equipment when a small number of other students are on the playground.
**Author Jonah Winter was delightful! The author of biographies for children spoke to students about where he gets his ideas from. He read passages from a biography about the members of his family during the Depression and also read from his newest book--a biography about Hillary Clinton. He told the students he was very interested in the life of the woman who was running for president in a field of all men. He had great illustrations and photos in his books.
**Please keep sending in money and permission slip for our field trip to the Field Museum. We will travel by bus on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:l30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students need to bring a BAG LUNCH with name it. Thanks to our volunteers! We have N. Bell, E. Hagedorn, M. Daniel, J. Wulff, H. Alvarez and M. Davis joining us. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Volunteers will help us out with some picture taking. This can be done on your phone and forwarded to my email.
Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will need probably 2 drivers. Be thinking about this, volunteers. I will give you directions and cash for parking.
**It's PACK WEEK (3/14-3/18) Let's pack more colorful fruits and veggies into our diets! Pack a fruit or veggie based on the color of the day. See the flyer in your child's homework folder. Monday-pack purple/blue, Wednesday-pack red, Thursday-pack yellow/orange and Friday-pack green.) You can pack it in a snack or a lunch. The school lunches will also include items.
**Pi Day is March 14th! We will be doing a little something from our on line resources and Quinn will be sharing a treat with the class! (apple PIe)
**SPRING PICTURES will be taken on Monday, March 14th in the morning. This year you must prepay if you want the photo taken. You can do this on line or with the envelope that was in your child's homework folder. Please indicate if you want a photo with Irving sibling.
**Please bring a POTATO (not cooked) on Thursday, March 17th. We will have SUPER TUBER DAY from 10:30-11:30 am. It will be our salute to St. Patrick's Day. It can be any kind.
We will learn a little history about the potato and Ireland, do some potato science--examine and count the "eyes," measure its length, sketch it, and take a look at some different varieties. We will even try to grow potatoes from the tuber! I have E. Meier and G. Lowell to help out. Another pair of hands would be helpful. Email me if you are interested.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper, Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and then play some tunes for all on the blacktop at dismissal. Come on out to hear him!
**Kindergarten classrooms will be piloting Keyboarding Without Tears after spring break. Teachers will receive training at our Institute Day on Tuesday. Please the read the flyer in your child's homework folder.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her Character Education lessons stating "Character grows as you grow." She talked about citizenship, self respect and self control meaning keeping our words and actions under control.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued the "thinking in shapes" theme but now the shapes were already on 2 squares and the students had to listen to the directive and make the drawing. "Find the drawings that would make a king." Very cool visual discrimination strengthener. Can you see the shapes needed on the square?
**Trimester Two has ended. Report cards go home on Thursday, March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL-Tuesday, March 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking)--Maze Branch Library--April 28th
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday--May 3rd.
**Future Event--Annual Irving Spelling Bee in April--Date and time TBA. K-2 will be participating.
**We are getting really close!! Giant boxes and cool stuff for our space station projects.
This week:
The students continue to gather information about the weather. They have observed clouds types and have examined weather maps and radar on line. Lots of questions--What keeps the earth warm? How can people stay cool in hot weather? What makes storms on earth? How can people prepare for storms? We read about blizzards, hot weather, storms, thunder and lightening, hurricanes and tornadoes and took a look at the seasons and weather. How does water affect weather patterns? What is a front? Totally fascinating!! Students looked up information on their iPads and watch rainbows being formed, thunder storms and blizzards and even a tornado. Students looked up weather words and weather instruments.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work in 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 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 illustrations. After listening to the story, the students discussed what the main idea was. They made connections in the story about activities they do in their back yards at different times of the year. They noted certain details in the story. All sight words introduced thus far were reviewed. Target sounds Bb and Ll were reviewed. They did an activity where they told me if they heard the target sound at the beginning, middle or end of the word. Other word work centered around adding, deleting or substituting sounds to form new words on their dry erase boards. Students worked on actions of a character and sequencing those actions in the story using the text, "Sheila the Brave." Students worked on story vocabulary, sequencing order of events in the story and the story elements of character, setting and key details. In preparation for our summative blueprint, the students elbowed chatted about the character's actions and acted out different scenes depicting Sheila's actions in the story. The students were thrilled that Mr. Hodge sat in and observed their "we do" session. While students came up to write and draw about the actions of Sheila on the projection board, the other students did their own illustration on their white boards. Audrey had a great idea---when the students finished their drawings--let's put them in order across the front of the classroom. Cool!!! The first ten minutes of class each morning is now devoted to students sharing a page or sharing a story using their Busy Reader. They can share with a partner or share with a small group. They are certainly becoming more confident readers!! Workstations this week included leveled readers comprehension and fluency check, vocabulary development, writing and illustrating-what is your favorite season and what can you do? review short e, i, o, a, u word work, word family cut and paste ock and op, create retelling cards, write and illustrate-what you like to play, working with beginning and ending sounds activity, short E word search and writing sentences using the words this and do.
Math: The students continue the exploration of the study of geometric solids and 3D shapes. They learned that 3D shapes are solid like cones, cubes, cylinders and 2D shapes are flat like squares, triangles and circles. Students created 2D shapes by using straws and pipe cleaners and went on to think about and experiment with creating a 3D shape. It was interesting for me to observe the different ways the students approached the task. Students continue to work on number bonding to 10, counting on from a random number, exploring vertical and horizontal addition and subtraction problem writing, revisiting the terms--addend, sum. equal, plus, minus, greater than/less than. Math workstations this week included writing number sequences, magic number facts, exploring and experimenting with 2D and 3D shape building and reading and illustrating addition and subtraction story problems.
Writing: Wow! We are writing 4 sentences in our topic journals! Lots of writing going on here! Inventive spelling (phonetic spelling) remains a big acceptable part of their own word building. Students can now refer to their own "Fix It Up Checklist" when composing and writing in their journals and in their daily writing work. (Thanks Ms. Grogan!) A copy for home use is in your child's homework folder. In lowercase letter formation, the letters y, j, and p were worked on using their mini boards. They applied what they had learned in their orange practice books. The students completed a writing piece on writing about a personal experience that experience being things they do/have/seen in the spring. Check them out in our hallway!
Science: The students continue to be curious and study about all things weather. The students observed the water tornado bottle to check out its funnel shape and looked at thermometers that measure temperature. What kinds of clouds cause precipitation? How do we measure it? How do we measure humidity? Lots of weather instruments. Next week--what is a shadow?
Technology: In reading, student small groups and with partners the apps Montessori Crosswords, Magic Reading 2 and iTalk were used to enhance sound blending skills, review use of consonant blends and digraphs and emphasize word families. The app Oz Phonics was used with whole group to work on sequencing of words in a sentence. Students listened to their own reading via iTalk and critiqued themselves using the Reader's Checklist. In math whole and small group, the apps Top-It Addition, Butterfly Math, Math, Animal Math, Number Line and Number Find were used enhance addition and subtraction to 10, place value, missing addend, number bond and number order. Weatherunderground, Storm and BranPop Jr. were source material on weather and science.
Literature: "Sheila the Brave," "Rain," "Bringing Science Alive-Unit 3-Weather," "Weather," "Thunder Storms," "Lightening," "Snow," "Blizzards," "Hurricanes," "Weather Instruments," "Weather Words," "Weather Watching," "Danger-Earthquakes," ""Volcanoes."
**Author Jonah Winter was delightful! The author of biographies for children spoke to students about where he gets his ideas from. He read passages from a biography about the members of his family during the Depression and also read from his newest book--a biography about Hillary Clinton. He told the students he was very interested in the life of the woman who was running for president in a field of all men. He had great illustrations and photos in his books.
**Please keep sending in money and permission slip for our field trip to the Field Museum. We will travel by bus on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:l30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students need to bring a BAG LUNCH with name it. Thanks to our volunteers! We have N. Bell, E. Hagedorn, M. Daniel, J. Wulff, H. Alvarez and M. Davis joining us. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Volunteers will help us out with some picture taking. This can be done on your phone and forwarded to my email.
Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will need probably 2 drivers. Be thinking about this, volunteers. I will give you directions and cash for parking.
**It's PACK WEEK (3/14-3/18) Let's pack more colorful fruits and veggies into our diets! Pack a fruit or veggie based on the color of the day. See the flyer in your child's homework folder. Monday-pack purple/blue, Wednesday-pack red, Thursday-pack yellow/orange and Friday-pack green.) You can pack it in a snack or a lunch. The school lunches will also include items.
**Pi Day is March 14th! We will be doing a little something from our on line resources and Quinn will be sharing a treat with the class! (apple PIe)
**SPRING PICTURES will be taken on Monday, March 14th in the morning. This year you must prepay if you want the photo taken. You can do this on line or with the envelope that was in your child's homework folder. Please indicate if you want a photo with Irving sibling.
**Please bring a POTATO (not cooked) on Thursday, March 17th. We will have SUPER TUBER DAY from 10:30-11:30 am. It will be our salute to St. Patrick's Day. It can be any kind.
We will learn a little history about the potato and Ireland, do some potato science--examine and count the "eyes," measure its length, sketch it, and take a look at some different varieties. We will even try to grow potatoes from the tuber! I have E. Meier and G. Lowell to help out. Another pair of hands would be helpful. Email me if you are interested.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper, Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and then play some tunes for all on the blacktop at dismissal. Come on out to hear him!
**Kindergarten classrooms will be piloting Keyboarding Without Tears after spring break. Teachers will receive training at our Institute Day on Tuesday. Please the read the flyer in your child's homework folder.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her Character Education lessons stating "Character grows as you grow." She talked about citizenship, self respect and self control meaning keeping our words and actions under control.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued the "thinking in shapes" theme but now the shapes were already on 2 squares and the students had to listen to the directive and make the drawing. "Find the drawings that would make a king." Very cool visual discrimination strengthener. Can you see the shapes needed on the square?
**Trimester Two has ended. Report cards go home on Thursday, March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL-Tuesday, March 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking)--Maze Branch Library--April 28th
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday--May 3rd.
**Future Event--Annual Irving Spelling Bee in April--Date and time TBA. K-2 will be participating.
**We are getting really close!! Giant boxes and cool stuff for our space station projects.
This week:
The students continue to gather information about the weather. They have observed clouds types and have examined weather maps and radar on line. Lots of questions--What keeps the earth warm? How can people stay cool in hot weather? What makes storms on earth? How can people prepare for storms? We read about blizzards, hot weather, storms, thunder and lightening, hurricanes and tornadoes and took a look at the seasons and weather. How does water affect weather patterns? What is a front? Totally fascinating!! Students looked up information on their iPads and watch rainbows being formed, thunder storms and blizzards and even a tornado. Students looked up weather words and weather instruments.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work in 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 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 illustrations. After listening to the story, the students discussed what the main idea was. They made connections in the story about activities they do in their back yards at different times of the year. They noted certain details in the story. All sight words introduced thus far were reviewed. Target sounds Bb and Ll were reviewed. They did an activity where they told me if they heard the target sound at the beginning, middle or end of the word. Other word work centered around adding, deleting or substituting sounds to form new words on their dry erase boards. Students worked on actions of a character and sequencing those actions in the story using the text, "Sheila the Brave." Students worked on story vocabulary, sequencing order of events in the story and the story elements of character, setting and key details. In preparation for our summative blueprint, the students elbowed chatted about the character's actions and acted out different scenes depicting Sheila's actions in the story. The students were thrilled that Mr. Hodge sat in and observed their "we do" session. While students came up to write and draw about the actions of Sheila on the projection board, the other students did their own illustration on their white boards. Audrey had a great idea---when the students finished their drawings--let's put them in order across the front of the classroom. Cool!!! The first ten minutes of class each morning is now devoted to students sharing a page or sharing a story using their Busy Reader. They can share with a partner or share with a small group. They are certainly becoming more confident readers!! Workstations this week included leveled readers comprehension and fluency check, vocabulary development, writing and illustrating-what is your favorite season and what can you do? review short e, i, o, a, u word work, word family cut and paste ock and op, create retelling cards, write and illustrate-what you like to play, working with beginning and ending sounds activity, short E word search and writing sentences using the words this and do.
Math: The students continue the exploration of the study of geometric solids and 3D shapes. They learned that 3D shapes are solid like cones, cubes, cylinders and 2D shapes are flat like squares, triangles and circles. Students created 2D shapes by using straws and pipe cleaners and went on to think about and experiment with creating a 3D shape. It was interesting for me to observe the different ways the students approached the task. Students continue to work on number bonding to 10, counting on from a random number, exploring vertical and horizontal addition and subtraction problem writing, revisiting the terms--addend, sum. equal, plus, minus, greater than/less than. Math workstations this week included writing number sequences, magic number facts, exploring and experimenting with 2D and 3D shape building and reading and illustrating addition and subtraction story problems.
Writing: Wow! We are writing 4 sentences in our topic journals! Lots of writing going on here! Inventive spelling (phonetic spelling) remains a big acceptable part of their own word building. Students can now refer to their own "Fix It Up Checklist" when composing and writing in their journals and in their daily writing work. (Thanks Ms. Grogan!) A copy for home use is in your child's homework folder. In lowercase letter formation, the letters y, j, and p were worked on using their mini boards. They applied what they had learned in their orange practice books. The students completed a writing piece on writing about a personal experience that experience being things they do/have/seen in the spring. Check them out in our hallway!
Science: The students continue to be curious and study about all things weather. The students observed the water tornado bottle to check out its funnel shape and looked at thermometers that measure temperature. What kinds of clouds cause precipitation? How do we measure it? How do we measure humidity? Lots of weather instruments. Next week--what is a shadow?
Technology: In reading, student small groups and with partners the apps Montessori Crosswords, Magic Reading 2 and iTalk were used to enhance sound blending skills, review use of consonant blends and digraphs and emphasize word families. The app Oz Phonics was used with whole group to work on sequencing of words in a sentence. Students listened to their own reading via iTalk and critiqued themselves using the Reader's Checklist. In math whole and small group, the apps Top-It Addition, Butterfly Math, Math, Animal Math, Number Line and Number Find were used enhance addition and subtraction to 10, place value, missing addend, number bond and number order. Weatherunderground, Storm and BranPop Jr. were source material on weather and science.
Literature: "Sheila the Brave," "Rain," "Bringing Science Alive-Unit 3-Weather," "Weather," "Thunder Storms," "Lightening," "Snow," "Blizzards," "Hurricanes," "Weather Instruments," "Weather Words," "Weather Watching," "Danger-Earthquakes," ""Volcanoes."
Sunday, March 6, 2016
UPDATES for 2/29-3/4 2016
**Dare I say it.......No more snow pants.....but please continue to send boots to keep feet dry and free of mud. Thanks!
**Opera for the Young's production of "The Magic Flute" was awesome! The students really got into the group singing parts and enjoyed the story, costumes and the 4th and 5th grade participation on stage. Students were interested in how the singers prepared for their roles, who made the costumes and how the set was made. The story was funny and had a lot of action.
**Author Jonah Winter will visit Irving on Friday, March 11th from 1-1:45 pm in the auditorium.
He will be sharing the magic of biography writing with students. If you are interested in purchasing books by this author, there was a green sheet in your child's folder last week. You can return it with your selection and money to me.
**Please keep sending in money and permission slip for our Field Trip to the Field Museum. We will travel by bus on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students will need a BAG LUNCH with their name on it. Thanks to those of you who volunteered. I will be getting info out to you soon. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will provide money for parking.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Monday, March 14th. Please read the information on purchasing pictures that is in your child's homework folder. This year you need to pay on line or submit money into the envelope first. Only students who have already submitted their order will have their pictures taken.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and play some tunes for everyone to enjoy on the blacktop at dismissal.
**In keeping with the theme, we will have SUPER TUBER DAY on Thursday, March 17th from 10:30-11:30 am. Students need to bring a POTATO (not cooked.) It can be any kind. We will learn a little history about the potato and Ireland, examine its surface, count the "eyes", measure its length and take a look at different varieties. I have E. Meier and G. Lowell signed up to help Another volunteer would be great! Email me if you are interested.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey began a unit on good citizenship and what it means to be a good citizen.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued working with the students on "thinking in shapes."
**No Mr. Degman Math/Tech this week. The big kids are getting ready for PARCC testing.
**March 11th--end of Trimester 2. Report Cards go home on March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL--Tuesday, March 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking) Maze Branch Library--April 28th.
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday, May 3rd.
**Future Event--Annual Spelling Bee in April. Date and time TBA.
**We are getting closer!!!! Keep saving those boxes and cool things for our space station projects.
This week:
It was all about the weather and Dr. Seuss. The students are tracking weather patterns all over the United States. With many students traveling for spring break, it is very cool to track and compare weather where they will be going. The students have been observing "fronts" moving in and the direction that weather patterns can take and how our oceans can affect weather. They love watching the color changes on the animated radar. They are also interested in the chance or percentage of precipitation and what form it will be in depending upon the temperature. They will be tracing the daily weather as part of their Weather Project. We celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss and our BrainPop video gave some incite into his life and how he got his ideas for his stories. We discussed rhyming and nonsense word patterns and how they enhance the story. We read many Dr. Suess stories. Station day this week celebrated all things Dr. Suess including making Thing 1 and Thing 2 out of handprints, writing about what you would do if they came to your house, Dr. Suess subtraction, creating your own rhyming words, Dr. Suess word search and drawing your own Dr. Seuss characters.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. We began by pondering, "What's the weather like today?" Students accessed prior knowledge about what they understood about weather, not only in their own area but all across the United States. The students listened to the Big Book story, "The Rainy Day." They thought about what the main idea would be. They made connections about rain in their daily lives. Sight words this, do and what were introduced. The target sound for the week is Short e. Students used pictures as well as words to create a Short e web. They continue to work on recognizing nouns and verbs in their daily sentence work. In the second reading of our Big Book story, the students visualized what it might look like after it rains. They reviewed the water cycles contribution to weather making (go science!) and some facts about rain. The students examined 2 more parts of a book--the glossary and the index and what they are used for. The students used their elkonin boxes to blend segment and blend 5 sound words. Students read their paper stories to a partner and elbow chatted about the the sequence of events that happened in the story. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included BLUSTERY, DRIZZLE, CHILLY, CLOUDY, WEATHER. The students also listened to 4 poems about weather and did some comparing across weather related texts. Students used their white boards and dry erase markers to work on a group substitution activity. Students also completed summative "you do" assessment Blue Prints on writing an opinion about their favorite Mo Willems story and writing about the beginning, middle and ending sequence using the text, "Edwina, the Dinosaur that Didn't Know She Was Extinct." Workstations for this week included leveled readers, comprehension check and fluency building, writing and drawing about a favorite weather activity, word work with beginning and ending sounds, problem/solution writing for a story, color by code word families, creating a word web for your favorite season, using words and pictures creating 3 sentences and writing them and playing CVC "Pot of Gold" and "Three Little Pigs Vowel Game."
Math: The students began work in their March calendar books. Among the daily activities contained in the book are number patterns, tally marks, ten frames, writing in the 3 numbers that come before a random number, addition and subtraction sentences, time by the hour on an analog clock, number bonds, daily temperature recording and conditions, graphing weather conditions and number hunt. The students continue to work in their Addition Story Problem Journals--reading the story problem, illustrating part and whole on ten frames, illustrating thru pictures and writing the number sentence/equation. Students reviewed all geometric solid shapes and are now beginning the introduction into 3D shapes, terminology and how they differ from 2D shapes. Math workstations this week included Dr. Seuss math activities in addition and subtraction, addition on a number line activities, exploration of 2D shapes and building exploration of 3D shapes and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers.
Writing: The students continue to work on their writing stamina and sentence structure in their journals and in workstation assignments. Focus continues to be on lowercase letter formation, spacing between words and placement of words on a given line. More students are really reading what they have written and making their own corrections.
Science: The students began some prep for the first part of our Science Unit-Shadows. They will also be doing some weather related experiments.
Technology: In reading, student small groups and individuals used the apps Magic Reading 2 building words with short e, silent e and beginning blends and digraphs, Rocket Speller for sound spelling and iTalk for fluency check. In math, students small groups and individuals used the apps Brainy Bugs for number sequencing and visual integration, Animal Math for addition and subtraction to 10, greater, less than and equal to, even and odd and place value. BrainPop videos assisted in providing facts about Dr. Seuss and to trace the water cycle.
Literature: "The Cat in the Hat, " "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," "Fox in Socks," "Hop on Pop," "Oh the Things You Can Think," "Green Eggs and Ham," "Snow," "I do Not Want to Get Up Today," "The Things I am Scared Of," "Weather," "Weather Words," "Roberto Clemente" by Jonah Winter, "The Cloud Book," "Little Cloud," "Rain."
**Opera for the Young's production of "The Magic Flute" was awesome! The students really got into the group singing parts and enjoyed the story, costumes and the 4th and 5th grade participation on stage. Students were interested in how the singers prepared for their roles, who made the costumes and how the set was made. The story was funny and had a lot of action.
**Author Jonah Winter will visit Irving on Friday, March 11th from 1-1:45 pm in the auditorium.
He will be sharing the magic of biography writing with students. If you are interested in purchasing books by this author, there was a green sheet in your child's folder last week. You can return it with your selection and money to me.
**Please keep sending in money and permission slip for our Field Trip to the Field Museum. We will travel by bus on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students will need a BAG LUNCH with their name on it. Thanks to those of you who volunteered. I will be getting info out to you soon. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will provide money for parking.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Monday, March 14th. Please read the information on purchasing pictures that is in your child's homework folder. This year you need to pay on line or submit money into the envelope first. Only students who have already submitted their order will have their pictures taken.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and play some tunes for everyone to enjoy on the blacktop at dismissal.
**In keeping with the theme, we will have SUPER TUBER DAY on Thursday, March 17th from 10:30-11:30 am. Students need to bring a POTATO (not cooked.) It can be any kind. We will learn a little history about the potato and Ireland, examine its surface, count the "eyes", measure its length and take a look at different varieties. I have E. Meier and G. Lowell signed up to help Another volunteer would be great! Email me if you are interested.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey began a unit on good citizenship and what it means to be a good citizen.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued working with the students on "thinking in shapes."
**No Mr. Degman Math/Tech this week. The big kids are getting ready for PARCC testing.
**March 11th--end of Trimester 2. Report Cards go home on March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL--Tuesday, March 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking) Maze Branch Library--April 28th.
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday, May 3rd.
**Future Event--Annual Spelling Bee in April. Date and time TBA.
**We are getting closer!!!! Keep saving those boxes and cool things for our space station projects.
This week:
It was all about the weather and Dr. Seuss. The students are tracking weather patterns all over the United States. With many students traveling for spring break, it is very cool to track and compare weather where they will be going. The students have been observing "fronts" moving in and the direction that weather patterns can take and how our oceans can affect weather. They love watching the color changes on the animated radar. They are also interested in the chance or percentage of precipitation and what form it will be in depending upon the temperature. They will be tracing the daily weather as part of their Weather Project. We celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss and our BrainPop video gave some incite into his life and how he got his ideas for his stories. We discussed rhyming and nonsense word patterns and how they enhance the story. We read many Dr. Suess stories. Station day this week celebrated all things Dr. Suess including making Thing 1 and Thing 2 out of handprints, writing about what you would do if they came to your house, Dr. Suess subtraction, creating your own rhyming words, Dr. Suess word search and drawing your own Dr. Seuss characters.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. We began by pondering, "What's the weather like today?" Students accessed prior knowledge about what they understood about weather, not only in their own area but all across the United States. The students listened to the Big Book story, "The Rainy Day." They thought about what the main idea would be. They made connections about rain in their daily lives. Sight words this, do and what were introduced. The target sound for the week is Short e. Students used pictures as well as words to create a Short e web. They continue to work on recognizing nouns and verbs in their daily sentence work. In the second reading of our Big Book story, the students visualized what it might look like after it rains. They reviewed the water cycles contribution to weather making (go science!) and some facts about rain. The students examined 2 more parts of a book--the glossary and the index and what they are used for. The students used their elkonin boxes to blend segment and blend 5 sound words. Students read their paper stories to a partner and elbow chatted about the the sequence of events that happened in the story. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included BLUSTERY, DRIZZLE, CHILLY, CLOUDY, WEATHER. The students also listened to 4 poems about weather and did some comparing across weather related texts. Students used their white boards and dry erase markers to work on a group substitution activity. Students also completed summative "you do" assessment Blue Prints on writing an opinion about their favorite Mo Willems story and writing about the beginning, middle and ending sequence using the text, "Edwina, the Dinosaur that Didn't Know She Was Extinct." Workstations for this week included leveled readers, comprehension check and fluency building, writing and drawing about a favorite weather activity, word work with beginning and ending sounds, problem/solution writing for a story, color by code word families, creating a word web for your favorite season, using words and pictures creating 3 sentences and writing them and playing CVC "Pot of Gold" and "Three Little Pigs Vowel Game."
Math: The students began work in their March calendar books. Among the daily activities contained in the book are number patterns, tally marks, ten frames, writing in the 3 numbers that come before a random number, addition and subtraction sentences, time by the hour on an analog clock, number bonds, daily temperature recording and conditions, graphing weather conditions and number hunt. The students continue to work in their Addition Story Problem Journals--reading the story problem, illustrating part and whole on ten frames, illustrating thru pictures and writing the number sentence/equation. Students reviewed all geometric solid shapes and are now beginning the introduction into 3D shapes, terminology and how they differ from 2D shapes. Math workstations this week included Dr. Seuss math activities in addition and subtraction, addition on a number line activities, exploration of 2D shapes and building exploration of 3D shapes and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers.
Writing: The students continue to work on their writing stamina and sentence structure in their journals and in workstation assignments. Focus continues to be on lowercase letter formation, spacing between words and placement of words on a given line. More students are really reading what they have written and making their own corrections.
Science: The students began some prep for the first part of our Science Unit-Shadows. They will also be doing some weather related experiments.
Technology: In reading, student small groups and individuals used the apps Magic Reading 2 building words with short e, silent e and beginning blends and digraphs, Rocket Speller for sound spelling and iTalk for fluency check. In math, students small groups and individuals used the apps Brainy Bugs for number sequencing and visual integration, Animal Math for addition and subtraction to 10, greater, less than and equal to, even and odd and place value. BrainPop videos assisted in providing facts about Dr. Seuss and to trace the water cycle.
Literature: "The Cat in the Hat, " "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," "Fox in Socks," "Hop on Pop," "Oh the Things You Can Think," "Green Eggs and Ham," "Snow," "I do Not Want to Get Up Today," "The Things I am Scared Of," "Weather," "Weather Words," "Roberto Clemente" by Jonah Winter, "The Cloud Book," "Little Cloud," "Rain."
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