**It was great to chat with you and share your child's progress. Thanks much for your continued support. The students surely do shine!!
**Our Valentine Sharing and Caring Party was so special! The students made special Valentine card holders and had special treat bags. It was so much fun to see their treasures and read their Valentines!
**Please don't forget to send the dollar amount of your class basket donation to Ben's mom. (Michelle Ahring) I hear the basket is looking pretty great! Thanks for your donations!!
**The FUN FAIR IS SATURDAY!!! Come one, Come all to the Annual Irving Fun Fair, February 25th from 11-3 pm all over the school. Pre sale tickets will be sold on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at lunchtime and after school in front of the office. They will also be sold the day of the fair. Who will get the PIE IN THE FACE?? Students can bring in their coins to vote beginning Thursday and up until 1:00 pm on Saturday. There is an online silent auction as well as a special teacher donation auction the day of the fair. (BID! BID!--bedtime story at your home and lunch at Junction Diner with me!!!! ) Games, prizes, bouncy house, raffles, bingo, face painting, tattoos, food, dancing for desserts and much more. Come and play the spinning game with me in the gym!! All proceeds from the day will go to Irving School.
**Hearing Screening for Irving students is Friday, February 24th at 10:05 am.
**Declan and Naomi D., our new Student Council reps will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, February 28th.
**Our class continues to participate in the African American Read In. This week, we read and discussed the story, "Ron's Big Mission." It is the story of Astronaut Ron McNair and an event he experienced as a 9 year old going to his neighborhood library. Ask your child about it.
**Permission slip and information about our FIELD TRIP to the FIELD MUSEUM is in your child's backpack. It is Tuesday, March 7th from 9:30-1:30 pm. The cost is $6.00. Please send a BAG LUNCH with NAME on it. It must be NUT FREE. No glass bottles or lunch boxes. I will need 5 chaperones to help out. I have 1 volunteer so far. Email me if interested. The focus of our trip will be for the students to select something interesting to write about. The chaperone can take pictures and email them to me!
**I will begin testing Route to Reading skill levels next week.
**Future Event--Bag Piper- Patrick Lynch will visit the Kindergarten classes on Thursday, March 16th in the afternoon to share and speak about all things bag pipe. He will be giving a concert on the blacktop at dismissal. Let's welcome spring!!
**Future Event--"Super Tuber" Activity (all things potato) on Friday, March 17th during Station Day. I will need 3 volunteers from 1:30-2:00 pm. Email me if interested.
**Future Event--The PTO Cultural Enrichment Committee has scheduled a assembly on March 23rd at 9:15 am called, "Justin and Liam." It teaches character education through music and song writing. **Trimester 2 ends on March 10th. Report Cards go home on Friday, March 24th.
**Spring Break is 3/27-2/31.
**NO SCHOOL--Tuesday, April 4th-Teacher's Institute Day.
**Keep savings those GIANT BOXES and other COOL STUFF for our engineering project in April.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued lessons on self regulation and managing feelings.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer began a project with the students centering on positional concepts and colored dots. Listen to the script-----move the dots to correct place.
**Our Second Step lesson this week focused on a review of hall way behavior. The students of Ms. Gullo and Ms. Grogan's classes created a poster of what "kindness" looks like in the hallway.
**The students had their final meeting with guest artist, Jonathan Franklin. Their final project was about using negative space and shapes. We have had a great time with Mr. Franklin! Good News!! The Oak Park Education Foundation would like to exhibit our class Symmetry Butterflies at the Village Hall in April. I will be sending more info on this next month. So cool!!
This week:
It was all about our Valentine's Caring and Sharing, beginning our author study on Mo Willems and continuing our science investigation on paper. We took a look at the contributions of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington thru stories and videos and pondered what makes a great leader.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 6 Neighborhoods in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed prior knowledge about what a neighborhood is and what is included in a neighborhood. The students worked together to create a huge word web of places and things that describe a neighborhood. They listened to the Big Book story, "Russ and the Firehouse." They recognized the story as nonfiction. The students chatted about story elements--Who is Russ? Why is he in the firehouse? What does he do there? The students also retold the story in their own words sequencing events. Target words: what and that. Target sounds this week: Hh, short and long u.
Students worked with partners and practiced asking a WH question about the story and having their partner answer it. During group read aloud, the students read the decodable story, "Are Caps Hats?" The students made predictions about story content. Each student had an opportunity to read aloud. Some questions to pondered--Could the group hear you? Did you stop at the ending mark? Did you pause at the comma? Were you able to blend the sounds together to make a word you didn't know? Was your reading choppy or smooth? The students reading partner listened, discussed and critiqued using the Reader's Checklist. Peers evaluating peers! The students were excited to begin their author study on Mo Willems. His "Pigeon" and "Elephant and Piggy" stories are so cool! The students took a look at some information on how he got started writing and drawing. Speech bubbles--less words--facial and body expressions in drawings--bold letters--lots of feeling!!! We will be taking a look at some websites and interviews with Mo himself. Feel free to check out his website. "Do you think the Pigeon should drive the bus????? Our students said NO!!!! We discussed the WHY and your own thoughts to back it up. Workstations this week included leveled readers, asking and answering questions about a given text, opinion writing, short and long vowel sort, creating CVC words, adding and deleting sounds to create words, sentence completion and reading short sentences.
Math: The students continued work in Module 4 working on creating number bonds for a given illustration using numbers 1-10. They also worked on telling their partner a story about an illustration and seeing the number bond their partner came up with. The students worked on an app called Butterfly Math projected on the board. It was great practice in finding the sum and missing addend. Key concept words--plus, equal, addend, sum, horizontal addition and vertical addition. This week the students also worked on subtraction or taking away. We are using concrete counters and pictures in our learning. Workstations for this week included writing to 110, finding the missing addend, tally mark addition, roll and add, decomposing teen numbers as 10 and what is left over.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. This week, they reviewed what they know so far and practiced on their mini boards. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue to work on their "how to" books. The teaching point this week was to elaborate or add tips and warnings. They do this by thinking about how the learner could go wrong and then adding advice to keep that from happening. We took a look at some mentor texts and read things like--"Don't forget to....." "Be sure to......." The students and their writing partners chose one of their stories and acted it out to see if it needed any warnings or tips. It is really so inspiring to see these students work with partners and hear their suggestions.
Science: Our investigations this week centered on the resource--paper. The students brainstormed and we created a chart about what we know about paper. It comes from wood--many objects are made out of paper--some paper looks different from other paper--paper can be useful--sometimes paper can change--paper can be reused and recycled. The students looks for paper samples throughout our classroom. They used different kinds of paper and experimented with markers, pens and pencils on types of paper. What makes paper good for writing? They also investigated what happens when certain kinds of paper get wet? Some paper adsorbs water, some does not. Some types of paper change what water gets on it. Some types of paper break down. The student recorded their findings in their science notebooks. Next week---fabric!
Technology: In reading whole group students used the app Oz Phonics to work on CVC words, consonant blends, word order and missing sounds. We used BrainPop to seek out information on Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, the Presidency and the African American author, Eloise Greenfield. We used the internet to gain more information on author and illustrator Mo Willems.
Literature: "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," "Abe Lincoln's Hat," "The Story of George Washington," "If You Lived in the Time of Abraham Lincoln," "Will You Be My Valentine," "Night on Neighborhood Street," "Ron's Big Mission," "Harriet Tubman," "A Train Without Tracks," "Author's great Big Valentine."
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Monday, February 13, 2017
UPDATES for 2/6-2/10 2017
**Our 100th Day Celebration was a smash! 100 fruit loop necklaces, 100 stamps in a stamp book, writing 100 words, making 100 day crowns, creating and building using 100 cups, 100 legos, 100 craft sicks, 100 pattern blocks, graphing 100 items by tens and writing numbers from 1-100 were the activities. A BIG SHOUT OUT to our great volunteers D. Regan, C. Horwitz, B. Ahring, L. Dantzler and J. Flannery.
**Parent/Teacher Conferences begin on Monday, February 13th and continue Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Your family can attend if needed. I will be sharing all progress reports, work samples and assessments for midyear.
**Our Valentine Sharing and Caring Party is Tuesday, February 14th! Bring in your valentines and a treat (NUT FREE) if you wish. The students have made a special valentine card holder. All treats will be sent home.
**Don't forget to sign up to contribute to our class "Game Night" Basket. Michelle Ahring's mom has set up a Sign Up Genius. You can send your contribution game or money to school and I will deliver it to Michelle. Let's make our basket the COOLEST!
**The FUN FAIR is almost here! I believe the PTO will begin selling tickets this week. The FUN FAIR is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm. There will also be a "sensory" time to go to the Fair from 10-11 am. The time is reserved for students and family who desire a less crowded, low stress and low sound time. There will be games prizes, food, dancing for desserts, raffles, a silent auction and much more! Come play a game with me! Silent Auction items--BID! BID! I will be taking 4 lucky winners to lunch at Junction Diner and will be reading a special bedtime story to 2 lucky winners in their home. Join in the fun!
**Congratulations to DECLAN and NAOMI D. our new Student Council Reps for this trimester. Their first meeting will be Tuesday, February 21st.
**Hearing Screening is Friday, February 24th in the morning for all Irving students.
**Our class has been participating in Irving School's African American Read In under the direction of Ms. Noonan. Our story this week was "The Story of Ruby Bridges." The story was followed by a discussion and reflection by the students of story content.
**Future Field Trip--Field Museum--Tuesday, March 7th from 9-2 pm. Look for field trip permission slips and info soon. I will need 5 volunteers for the trip. Email me is interested.
**Keep saving GIANT BOXES and other COOL STUFF for our engineering project in April.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued her lessons on self regulation using Superflex, Rock Brain and introducing Glassman who makes people have upsets over little things. The students viewed a webisode about a girl who broke her pencil and throws a fit. It's a Glassman moment. How can the girl calm down? The students discussed how to fix the situation--get a new pencil, ask the teacher to sharpen her pencil, use self talk, belly breathe, count to get calm---great suggestions.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr Packer worked with students on a project illustrating positional concepts with boxes and a black dot.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the students continued work on how to calm strong feelings.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin worked with the students on shapes, paper folds and negative space to create a house. The students then made a neighborhood landscape out of blocks and placed their houses along the street.
This week:
It was all about our 100th day celebration. The students were counting up a storm by 10's, by 5's and by 1's to 100. The students also continued work on their science investigation about wood. We continue to explore the accomplishments of African Americans. Our favorite story and discussion was on "The Story of Ruby Bridges." The students were so proud to know that even a young child can effect change in our country. Lots of thoughtful insights by students. Station day activities included color by code horizontal addition, build and count 2 different ways and record the blocks that you used, let's make 10 and coloring/decorating their Valentine card holder.
Reading/Language Arts: The students are working to complete Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. The students reviewed all the sight words learned thus far. We also reviewed parts of speech--noun and verb. In all of our reading, students have been looking for them. This week we took a look at how animals can change and grow. We discussed how an animal grows from a baby into an adult. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Baby Animals ABC." The word offspring appeared in our story about different animal babies and some facts about them. What does that word mean? Are there any clues or pictures in the book that could help you figure out what it means? The students also commented on how the book was set up. It was in ABC order with a baby animal with the same beginning letter on each page. During our reading, the students made predictions about what would come next, made inferences about what an animal could do and classified and categorized animals into certain groups. The students had a chance to elbow chat about their favorite animal baby and the fact they learned about it. The students continued work on the text "Animals in Winter" for their blueprint summative. This non fiction story focused on animals that migrated, hibernated or stayed put for the winter. The students acted out animals actions, did a group "we do" illustration of their favorite animal facts and completed a "you do" blueprint where they wrote about the main topic and cited 2 examples of how the animal of their choice spends the winter. Cool! Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency, naming main topic and looking for nouns and verbs, short vowel/long vowel word sort, writing about an animal from your reader and telling 2 facts, real/nonsense word sort, making ccvc and cvcc words, discussing and writing about the problem and solution in a story and substituting beginning sounds to form new words. Next week, we will begin an author study on children's author and illustrator Mo Willems.
Math: The students began Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. The lessons this week focused on composing (adding) and decomposing (subtracting) numbers to 5 using multiple representations--drawings, numbers and objects. As in our story problem books, the students were asked to look at a picture and tell a story about it to their partner and then fill in a parts and whole on the number bond. The students also did another math race called a sprint. Sprints are 1 minute tests that help build confidence strengthen number recall and focus.. This sprint was about filling the missing number on the number line using numbers 0-5. Workstations this week included writing the missing numbers from 1-100, review of 2D and 3D shapes, story problems writing a number bond to tell the parts and whole and number writing practice.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters e and l were worked on. The students practiced formation on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue to work on their "how to" story format to inform and teach. The teaching point was to write "how to" steps that a reader can easily follow, it's really important to remember yourself doing something and picture it, almost like you are watching a video in slow motion. The students worked with their writing partners to choose one of their stories and act out the parts. Did they have all the steps they needed? So fun to observe their interest and see them work everything out!
Science: Our next science question in our study of natural resources was on exploring parts of wood--sawdust and wood shavings. Vocabulary included sawdust, screen, shavings, waterlogged. The students worked with their tablemates to compare sawdust (the tiny pieces of wood they made using sandpaper) and wood shavings. Each student had a chance to look at the cup of sawdust and cup of wood shavings with their magnifying glass. How are sawdust and shavings the same? (they are both wood) How are sawdust and shavings different? (tinier vs. bigger) The students mixed the two with water. What did you observe? Students made entries in their science notebook about shavings floating and some sinking. Wood that is waterlogged sinks. We also talked about wood having tiny holes or spaces where the water can soak in. Who knew!!! Next week: paper!
Technology: In reading, group work was done with the app Oz Phonics on blends, digraphs, word order in sentences and cvc words. The app Rocket Speller was used in small group work to strengthen sound blending and segmenting. In math, the app Butterfly Math was used to work on horizontal addition problems with objects and numbers. The students watched a BrainPop video on the accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln and Rosa Parks and in science on Wood
Literature: "Animals in Winter," "The Story of Ruby Bridges," "Fluffy's 100 Days," "The 100th Day of School," "The Night Before the 100th Day of School," "100Ways to Celebrate the 100 Days," "A Picture Book of Rosa Parks," "Ms. Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten," "Harlem," "Duke Ellington."
**Parent/Teacher Conferences begin on Monday, February 13th and continue Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Your family can attend if needed. I will be sharing all progress reports, work samples and assessments for midyear.
**Our Valentine Sharing and Caring Party is Tuesday, February 14th! Bring in your valentines and a treat (NUT FREE) if you wish. The students have made a special valentine card holder. All treats will be sent home.
**Don't forget to sign up to contribute to our class "Game Night" Basket. Michelle Ahring's mom has set up a Sign Up Genius. You can send your contribution game or money to school and I will deliver it to Michelle. Let's make our basket the COOLEST!
**The FUN FAIR is almost here! I believe the PTO will begin selling tickets this week. The FUN FAIR is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm. There will also be a "sensory" time to go to the Fair from 10-11 am. The time is reserved for students and family who desire a less crowded, low stress and low sound time. There will be games prizes, food, dancing for desserts, raffles, a silent auction and much more! Come play a game with me! Silent Auction items--BID! BID! I will be taking 4 lucky winners to lunch at Junction Diner and will be reading a special bedtime story to 2 lucky winners in their home. Join in the fun!
**Congratulations to DECLAN and NAOMI D. our new Student Council Reps for this trimester. Their first meeting will be Tuesday, February 21st.
**Hearing Screening is Friday, February 24th in the morning for all Irving students.
**Our class has been participating in Irving School's African American Read In under the direction of Ms. Noonan. Our story this week was "The Story of Ruby Bridges." The story was followed by a discussion and reflection by the students of story content.
**Future Field Trip--Field Museum--Tuesday, March 7th from 9-2 pm. Look for field trip permission slips and info soon. I will need 5 volunteers for the trip. Email me is interested.
**Keep saving GIANT BOXES and other COOL STUFF for our engineering project in April.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued her lessons on self regulation using Superflex, Rock Brain and introducing Glassman who makes people have upsets over little things. The students viewed a webisode about a girl who broke her pencil and throws a fit. It's a Glassman moment. How can the girl calm down? The students discussed how to fix the situation--get a new pencil, ask the teacher to sharpen her pencil, use self talk, belly breathe, count to get calm---great suggestions.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr Packer worked with students on a project illustrating positional concepts with boxes and a black dot.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the students continued work on how to calm strong feelings.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin worked with the students on shapes, paper folds and negative space to create a house. The students then made a neighborhood landscape out of blocks and placed their houses along the street.
This week:
It was all about our 100th day celebration. The students were counting up a storm by 10's, by 5's and by 1's to 100. The students also continued work on their science investigation about wood. We continue to explore the accomplishments of African Americans. Our favorite story and discussion was on "The Story of Ruby Bridges." The students were so proud to know that even a young child can effect change in our country. Lots of thoughtful insights by students. Station day activities included color by code horizontal addition, build and count 2 different ways and record the blocks that you used, let's make 10 and coloring/decorating their Valentine card holder.
Reading/Language Arts: The students are working to complete Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. The students reviewed all the sight words learned thus far. We also reviewed parts of speech--noun and verb. In all of our reading, students have been looking for them. This week we took a look at how animals can change and grow. We discussed how an animal grows from a baby into an adult. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Baby Animals ABC." The word offspring appeared in our story about different animal babies and some facts about them. What does that word mean? Are there any clues or pictures in the book that could help you figure out what it means? The students also commented on how the book was set up. It was in ABC order with a baby animal with the same beginning letter on each page. During our reading, the students made predictions about what would come next, made inferences about what an animal could do and classified and categorized animals into certain groups. The students had a chance to elbow chat about their favorite animal baby and the fact they learned about it. The students continued work on the text "Animals in Winter" for their blueprint summative. This non fiction story focused on animals that migrated, hibernated or stayed put for the winter. The students acted out animals actions, did a group "we do" illustration of their favorite animal facts and completed a "you do" blueprint where they wrote about the main topic and cited 2 examples of how the animal of their choice spends the winter. Cool! Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency, naming main topic and looking for nouns and verbs, short vowel/long vowel word sort, writing about an animal from your reader and telling 2 facts, real/nonsense word sort, making ccvc and cvcc words, discussing and writing about the problem and solution in a story and substituting beginning sounds to form new words. Next week, we will begin an author study on children's author and illustrator Mo Willems.
Math: The students began Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. The lessons this week focused on composing (adding) and decomposing (subtracting) numbers to 5 using multiple representations--drawings, numbers and objects. As in our story problem books, the students were asked to look at a picture and tell a story about it to their partner and then fill in a parts and whole on the number bond. The students also did another math race called a sprint. Sprints are 1 minute tests that help build confidence strengthen number recall and focus.. This sprint was about filling the missing number on the number line using numbers 0-5. Workstations this week included writing the missing numbers from 1-100, review of 2D and 3D shapes, story problems writing a number bond to tell the parts and whole and number writing practice.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters e and l were worked on. The students practiced formation on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue to work on their "how to" story format to inform and teach. The teaching point was to write "how to" steps that a reader can easily follow, it's really important to remember yourself doing something and picture it, almost like you are watching a video in slow motion. The students worked with their writing partners to choose one of their stories and act out the parts. Did they have all the steps they needed? So fun to observe their interest and see them work everything out!
Science: Our next science question in our study of natural resources was on exploring parts of wood--sawdust and wood shavings. Vocabulary included sawdust, screen, shavings, waterlogged. The students worked with their tablemates to compare sawdust (the tiny pieces of wood they made using sandpaper) and wood shavings. Each student had a chance to look at the cup of sawdust and cup of wood shavings with their magnifying glass. How are sawdust and shavings the same? (they are both wood) How are sawdust and shavings different? (tinier vs. bigger) The students mixed the two with water. What did you observe? Students made entries in their science notebook about shavings floating and some sinking. Wood that is waterlogged sinks. We also talked about wood having tiny holes or spaces where the water can soak in. Who knew!!! Next week: paper!
Technology: In reading, group work was done with the app Oz Phonics on blends, digraphs, word order in sentences and cvc words. The app Rocket Speller was used in small group work to strengthen sound blending and segmenting. In math, the app Butterfly Math was used to work on horizontal addition problems with objects and numbers. The students watched a BrainPop video on the accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln and Rosa Parks and in science on Wood
Literature: "Animals in Winter," "The Story of Ruby Bridges," "Fluffy's 100 Days," "The 100th Day of School," "The Night Before the 100th Day of School," "100Ways to Celebrate the 100 Days," "A Picture Book of Rosa Parks," "Ms. Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten," "Harlem," "Duke Ellington."
Sunday, February 5, 2017
UPDATES for 1/30-2/3 2017
**The students are getting themselves and the classroom ready for our 100th Day Celebration. Check out our 100 Item Heart Projects on the right side of post. They are pretty cool! The projects will remain up in the hallway thru until the end of the month. Our Celebration is Monday, February 6th from 9-11 am. Lots of activities surrounding the number 100 and counting by 10's to 100.
**Alec's mom, Michelle has created a Sign Up Genius for you to contribute to our "GAME NIGHT" class basket for the Fun Fair. Please note--You can send in money and games to me at Irving and I can deliver it to Michelle. Let's make our basket the COOLEST!
**I just need a few more confirmed responses for Parent/Teacher Conferences and we will be all set. Parent/Teacher Conferences are Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Please note---Thursday, and Friday February 16th and 17th school will be in session only in the morning. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will pick up at 11:00 am. There are NO Eagle Extra classes those days.
**Thanks to all of you who participated the Irving Dental Clinic. The students enjoyed showing off their sparkling white teeth!!
**Happy Chinese New Year! It's the Year of the Rooster. The students had some fun reading about the origin of the lunar new year and all the animal signs. They loved finding out what animal sign they were born under.
**Yes! The Groundhog saw his shadow. Six more weeks of winter. So far....not too bad! The students were evenly divided in their predictions.
**We had lots of fun with the Japanese students who cam to visit our class! The students had questions about how they got to school, what school was like and what their writing looks like. The hosting students from OPRF read a story by a famous Japanese children's author and played a game with our students using Japanese words. Three of the hosting students from OPRF were former Irving students who were in my kindergarten. AWESOME!! They are all college bound!! So proud!!
**Our Valentine Caring and Sharing Party is Tuesday, February 14th. Information on this is in your child's homework folder. Just a reminder--if you are sending a treat....it must be NUT FREE. Thanks!
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is Coming! It is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm all around the school. There will be games, prizes, food, dancing for desserts, raffles, a silent auction and much more! Who will get the PIE in the FACE? The students will be voting by placing coins into the jar for their favorite teacher. What special performances do the teachers have up their sleeve??? Silent Auction items--BID! BID! I will be taking 5 lucky winners to lunch at the JUNCTION DINNER and will be reading a special bedtime story to 2 lucky winners in their home. Join in the fun!!!!
**Future Field Trip--Field Museum--Tuesday, March 7th from 9-2 pm. 5 volunteers needed.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey had a discussion with the students about things, people, places that mean the most to them in our daily lives. In the month of sharing and caring, the students had many things to chat about. Each child created a tee shirt ornament writing about what they care about. They hung them on our Tree and our complement tree has become the "I Care" tree!
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer helped us prepare for 100's Day by reading a special story and working with the students on creating 100 by grouping by 2's, 5's, 1's, 10's, 25's and 50's.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the lesson focused on how to calm down strong feelings you may have in certain situations.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin worked with the students combining 2D and 3D shapes to create a movable cat or dog.
This week:
It was about the students getting ready for the 100th Day. They did a partner project counting 100 items in the classroom, reading about the number 100 and grouping 100 in different ways. Our 100 Item Hearts look amazing! The students experimented with changing the shape of wood. More in the science section. Station day activities included build and count 3D animals with cubes, color by code addition problems 0-5, search and write short vowel words, count to make 10 and writing numbers to 100.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continued work on Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. This week focused on using informational or expository texts. They listened to a story about the work of doctors who take care of animals called, "Let's go To The Vet." They made predictions about story content by looking at the title. They worked on content vocabulary--veterinarian, diagram. After the story was read, the students discussed what was the main idea of the story? What kinds of animals to vets take care? What are some things a vet does? Our next Blueprint will focus on the students ability to describe the connections between the pieces of information and tell the main topic and details from a non fiction text. We will be using the text, "Animals in Winter" for this. We had our first reading and discussion. Continuing along those lines, the student listened to the Big Book story, "Animals Babies ABC." They built background knowledge about how animal grow and change. Target words--play, me, my. Target sounds--Ff and short i. The students elbow chatted about story content and the animal they knew. Robust vocabulary included BELONG, FRAGILE, INFORMATION, PARENT, SEVERAL. Workstations this week included leveled readers with concentration on main topic and supporting details, fluency, sight word round up, word work with consonant blends (2 part and 3 part), long vowel/short vowel sort, work with vowel teams and sentence writing using the sentence starters- I can...They can and word work with sound substitution.
Math: Students began to work in their Math Story Problem Books which are now part of their morning math exercises. The page is projected onto the board. We read the story problem together. For now, we are working with addition stories. The students work to show the numbers being added on their ten frames, illustrate their work with a drawing and then write a number sentence or equation for their work. This week, we spent time working on counting to, reading and writing numbers to 100. The students worked with partners to count a group of objects from our classroom grouping by tens and labeling the groups. Check them out when you come visit the room! Next week, we will begin Module 4 in our Eureka Math series, The focus will be on hidden partners--now called number bonding to understand how to take apart (decompose) and put together (compose) numbers to 10. We are adding and subtracting!
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. Underground letter g as well as i and u were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue the "how to" format to teach something they know about in their writing. They looked at an Information Writing Checklist Poster. The teaching point --remember everything you already know about writing informational books. The Checklist poster is now part of their writing tools. The students worked with their partners using the new checklist to tell their partners what they were going to work on.
Let's check--Do I have a topic? Did I put different things I know about the topic on my pages? Did I have a last part? Did I write some details? Did I draw or diagram each page?
Science: The next science question in our study of the natural resource--wood is How can you change the shape of wood? Vocabulary included--change, sand, sandpaper, sawdust, wood dust, shape. The students looked at a piece of sandpaper and we discussed what is was. Some students knew how to use it, others commented on how it felt when touched. The students then each took a piece of wood and a piece of sandpaper. They rubbed the wood with the sandpaper. As they worked--lots of conversation--What is the best technique for sanding? How does the wood feel after you sand. Does the wood shape change? Where does the wood dust come from? How does the wood dust feel? The students chatted and recorded their findings with pictures and writing in their science notebook.
Technology: The students saw BrainPop videos on natural resources, wood, teeth and sink and float and took the quizzes. The student continue to use Lexia Core 5 to build skills in phonemic awareness and phonics.
Literature: "Animals in Winter," "Let's Go To the Vet," "Martin's Big Words," "One Hundred Shoes," "How to Make a Cherry Pie," "Groundhog Day," "The Groundhog's Special Secret," "Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day," "Chinese New Year," 'Portrait of African American History."
**Alec's mom, Michelle has created a Sign Up Genius for you to contribute to our "GAME NIGHT" class basket for the Fun Fair. Please note--You can send in money and games to me at Irving and I can deliver it to Michelle. Let's make our basket the COOLEST!
**I just need a few more confirmed responses for Parent/Teacher Conferences and we will be all set. Parent/Teacher Conferences are Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Please note---Thursday, and Friday February 16th and 17th school will be in session only in the morning. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will pick up at 11:00 am. There are NO Eagle Extra classes those days.
**Thanks to all of you who participated the Irving Dental Clinic. The students enjoyed showing off their sparkling white teeth!!
**Happy Chinese New Year! It's the Year of the Rooster. The students had some fun reading about the origin of the lunar new year and all the animal signs. They loved finding out what animal sign they were born under.
**Yes! The Groundhog saw his shadow. Six more weeks of winter. So far....not too bad! The students were evenly divided in their predictions.
**We had lots of fun with the Japanese students who cam to visit our class! The students had questions about how they got to school, what school was like and what their writing looks like. The hosting students from OPRF read a story by a famous Japanese children's author and played a game with our students using Japanese words. Three of the hosting students from OPRF were former Irving students who were in my kindergarten. AWESOME!! They are all college bound!! So proud!!
**Our Valentine Caring and Sharing Party is Tuesday, February 14th. Information on this is in your child's homework folder. Just a reminder--if you are sending a treat....it must be NUT FREE. Thanks!
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is Coming! It is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm all around the school. There will be games, prizes, food, dancing for desserts, raffles, a silent auction and much more! Who will get the PIE in the FACE? The students will be voting by placing coins into the jar for their favorite teacher. What special performances do the teachers have up their sleeve??? Silent Auction items--BID! BID! I will be taking 5 lucky winners to lunch at the JUNCTION DINNER and will be reading a special bedtime story to 2 lucky winners in their home. Join in the fun!!!!
**Future Field Trip--Field Museum--Tuesday, March 7th from 9-2 pm. 5 volunteers needed.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey had a discussion with the students about things, people, places that mean the most to them in our daily lives. In the month of sharing and caring, the students had many things to chat about. Each child created a tee shirt ornament writing about what they care about. They hung them on our Tree and our complement tree has become the "I Care" tree!
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer helped us prepare for 100's Day by reading a special story and working with the students on creating 100 by grouping by 2's, 5's, 1's, 10's, 25's and 50's.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the lesson focused on how to calm down strong feelings you may have in certain situations.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin worked with the students combining 2D and 3D shapes to create a movable cat or dog.
This week:
It was about the students getting ready for the 100th Day. They did a partner project counting 100 items in the classroom, reading about the number 100 and grouping 100 in different ways. Our 100 Item Hearts look amazing! The students experimented with changing the shape of wood. More in the science section. Station day activities included build and count 3D animals with cubes, color by code addition problems 0-5, search and write short vowel words, count to make 10 and writing numbers to 100.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continued work on Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. This week focused on using informational or expository texts. They listened to a story about the work of doctors who take care of animals called, "Let's go To The Vet." They made predictions about story content by looking at the title. They worked on content vocabulary--veterinarian, diagram. After the story was read, the students discussed what was the main idea of the story? What kinds of animals to vets take care? What are some things a vet does? Our next Blueprint will focus on the students ability to describe the connections between the pieces of information and tell the main topic and details from a non fiction text. We will be using the text, "Animals in Winter" for this. We had our first reading and discussion. Continuing along those lines, the student listened to the Big Book story, "Animals Babies ABC." They built background knowledge about how animal grow and change. Target words--play, me, my. Target sounds--Ff and short i. The students elbow chatted about story content and the animal they knew. Robust vocabulary included BELONG, FRAGILE, INFORMATION, PARENT, SEVERAL. Workstations this week included leveled readers with concentration on main topic and supporting details, fluency, sight word round up, word work with consonant blends (2 part and 3 part), long vowel/short vowel sort, work with vowel teams and sentence writing using the sentence starters- I can...They can and word work with sound substitution.
Math: Students began to work in their Math Story Problem Books which are now part of their morning math exercises. The page is projected onto the board. We read the story problem together. For now, we are working with addition stories. The students work to show the numbers being added on their ten frames, illustrate their work with a drawing and then write a number sentence or equation for their work. This week, we spent time working on counting to, reading and writing numbers to 100. The students worked with partners to count a group of objects from our classroom grouping by tens and labeling the groups. Check them out when you come visit the room! Next week, we will begin Module 4 in our Eureka Math series, The focus will be on hidden partners--now called number bonding to understand how to take apart (decompose) and put together (compose) numbers to 10. We are adding and subtracting!
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. Underground letter g as well as i and u were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue the "how to" format to teach something they know about in their writing. They looked at an Information Writing Checklist Poster. The teaching point --remember everything you already know about writing informational books. The Checklist poster is now part of their writing tools. The students worked with their partners using the new checklist to tell their partners what they were going to work on.
Let's check--Do I have a topic? Did I put different things I know about the topic on my pages? Did I have a last part? Did I write some details? Did I draw or diagram each page?
Science: The next science question in our study of the natural resource--wood is How can you change the shape of wood? Vocabulary included--change, sand, sandpaper, sawdust, wood dust, shape. The students looked at a piece of sandpaper and we discussed what is was. Some students knew how to use it, others commented on how it felt when touched. The students then each took a piece of wood and a piece of sandpaper. They rubbed the wood with the sandpaper. As they worked--lots of conversation--What is the best technique for sanding? How does the wood feel after you sand. Does the wood shape change? Where does the wood dust come from? How does the wood dust feel? The students chatted and recorded their findings with pictures and writing in their science notebook.
Technology: The students saw BrainPop videos on natural resources, wood, teeth and sink and float and took the quizzes. The student continue to use Lexia Core 5 to build skills in phonemic awareness and phonics.
Literature: "Animals in Winter," "Let's Go To the Vet," "Martin's Big Words," "One Hundred Shoes," "How to Make a Cherry Pie," "Groundhog Day," "The Groundhog's Special Secret," "Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day," "Chinese New Year," 'Portrait of African American History."
Sunday, January 29, 2017
UPDATES for 1/23-1/27 2017
**The Opera for the Young was awesome! The students really enjoyed their production of "Elixir of Love." The students got the opportunity to chat with some of the actors after the show and ask questions about the performance, staging and singing. Cool!
**Eagle Extras and World Language Classes are in full swing now. The students appear to really enjoy them.
**Keep sending your confirmation for Parent/Teacher Conferences. They are Monday, February, 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Please note--Thursday and Friday, February 16th and 17th school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will pick up at 11:00 am.
**The DENTAL CLINIC will be open at Irving School next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for free dental cleanings. Please send back the sign up information if you are interested.
**Reading Grandma Mary joined us on Tuesday. She was so impressed with student's reading and comprehension. She will be with us every Tuesday afternoon until the end of the year! We love her!
**In reference to Route to Reading---The skill groupings will not continue but IN CLASS work will! I will continue to present skills and test in both Kindergarten and First Grade Continuums. Ms. Chinn will continue to assist with testing. With all the new curriculum and less personnel to help out, the skill groupings became difficult to manage. Never the less--I will continue what I believe to be valuable work in phonemic and phonic skills acquisition.
**The 100 Item Heart Projects were sent home on Tuesday. Please read the info accompanying the project. It is due Thursday, February 2nd. Don't forget to send a picture of 100 day old and a 100 year old person for our comparison board. Our 100th Day Celebration is Monday, February 6th from 9-11 am. We could still use more volunteers!! No experience necessary! Email me if interested.
**We will have a Valentine Sharing Party on February 14th. I will be sending information about this next Friday and chatting with our Room Parents.
**JAPANESE EXCHANGE STUDENTS will be visiting Irving School and will be coming to chat and do activities with our students on Tuesday, January 31st at 2:15 pm.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is COMING! Our Room Parents will be deciding on a theme for our class basket and you will be asked to contribute items. Each class will have basket that will be auctioned off with other items. The Fun Fair is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm all over Irving School. Come play a game with me!! Sign up for my special auction items!! There will be a Bouncy House, Dancing for Desserts, Raffles, Games, Prizes, Silent Auction and much more!!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued lessons of self regulating your own behavior using the Superflex and Rock Brain.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer continued work on a project surrounding positional concepts that relate to our Common Core Standards.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin work with the students on the concept of SUMMETRY. I will be creating a showcase gallery of their symmetry butterflies.
This week:
The students are having a great time exploring types of wood investigating sinking and floating and creating a raft out of the different woods using paper clips as the passengers! More in the science section! Mr. Franklin did a folded paper project and spoke about creating symmetry. The students folded paper turned into lovely symmetrical butterflies!
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 4 Food and began Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed background knowledge by discussing where animals might live. House, zoo, outside, forest, jungle, trees, caves were just some of their thoughtful answers. We took a look at our Showshoe Hare from the Field Museum to check out where this animal lives. We discussed the word-habitat. A habitat is a home. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Mama Cat and Her Three Kittens." They made predictions about story content. The students elbow chatted about about the actions the kittens were performing. We reviewed the verb-a word that shows action. The students took turns retelling the story in their own words. We took a look at sentence structure--subject/action. We did a group story elements Butterfly which included characters, setting, time of day, plot/what is happening. The students are doing a good job of volunteering to write. Our new sight words for the week are is and in . Our target sounds are short o and long o. Our robust Vocabulary included ACTION, GENTILE, COMPARE, POUNCE, The students continued work on sequencing events in the story using the words--first, next, then and last. The students continue work on segmenting and blending 3-4-5 sound words using their elkonin boxes and the app OZ Phonics projected on the screen. They also continue to strengthen auditory skills and verbal responses using the Haggerty Blue Book exercises to add, delete and substitute sounds in words. We are also continuing to work on exercises to see how fast students can sound out and read a nonsense word. Workstations this week included leveled readers with concentration on sequencing events, finding the main topic and reading fluency, 2 and 3 part blend activities, working with word family on and in words, sort and say real and nonsense words, work with vowel teams, digraph match and search, sort, spell and write short vowel words.
Math: The students completed Module 3 and will take their assessment next week. The students reviewed one to one matching, one more and one less, looking at 2 rows of objects and completing the sentence--___is more than___ and ___is less than ___. The students also began work using a number line to add and work with horizontal and vertical addition problems to 6. Workstations this week included writing numbers to 100, using a ten frame or ten tower to work on teens numbers, finding the hidden partners for sums to 10 and listening to a story problem to see if you add or subtract.
Writing: The students continue practice work on lowercase letters. In Writer's Workshop, students continue to work on their "how to" books. They also worked on the idea that writers become readers, asking, "Can I follow this?" Writer's worked with their partners having their partners read their story so far. Can they follow it? Is there something you can add? Are your steps in order? The teaching point becomes--writer's reread to check to see if their writing makes sense. The students are really working hard especially on the writing goal that they have chosen.
Science: The investigated types of wood. They looked at cedar, pine, basswood, particleboard and plywood. They worked on the focus questions--How can you sink wood? How many passengers can a wood raft hold? Each table was supplied with the types of wood pieces, paper clips and rubber bands. The students worked with their tablemates to construct rafts and practiced dropping them in the water. Lots of conversation around the concepts of above, below, compare, sink, float, test. Which piece of wood took more paperclips to sink? Each table made a bar graph of their findings. Next week-How can you change the shape of wood?
Technology: The students continue to use the same apps as last week. Their work with the Lexia Core 5 program has been a real plus in reinforcing skills.
Literature: "Martin's Big Words," "The Snowy Day," "Animals in Winter," "the Mitten Tree," "The Snowman."
.
**Eagle Extras and World Language Classes are in full swing now. The students appear to really enjoy them.
**Keep sending your confirmation for Parent/Teacher Conferences. They are Monday, February, 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Please note--Thursday and Friday, February 16th and 17th school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will pick up at 11:00 am.
**The DENTAL CLINIC will be open at Irving School next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for free dental cleanings. Please send back the sign up information if you are interested.
**Reading Grandma Mary joined us on Tuesday. She was so impressed with student's reading and comprehension. She will be with us every Tuesday afternoon until the end of the year! We love her!
**In reference to Route to Reading---The skill groupings will not continue but IN CLASS work will! I will continue to present skills and test in both Kindergarten and First Grade Continuums. Ms. Chinn will continue to assist with testing. With all the new curriculum and less personnel to help out, the skill groupings became difficult to manage. Never the less--I will continue what I believe to be valuable work in phonemic and phonic skills acquisition.
**The 100 Item Heart Projects were sent home on Tuesday. Please read the info accompanying the project. It is due Thursday, February 2nd. Don't forget to send a picture of 100 day old and a 100 year old person for our comparison board. Our 100th Day Celebration is Monday, February 6th from 9-11 am. We could still use more volunteers!! No experience necessary! Email me if interested.
**We will have a Valentine Sharing Party on February 14th. I will be sending information about this next Friday and chatting with our Room Parents.
**JAPANESE EXCHANGE STUDENTS will be visiting Irving School and will be coming to chat and do activities with our students on Tuesday, January 31st at 2:15 pm.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is COMING! Our Room Parents will be deciding on a theme for our class basket and you will be asked to contribute items. Each class will have basket that will be auctioned off with other items. The Fun Fair is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm all over Irving School. Come play a game with me!! Sign up for my special auction items!! There will be a Bouncy House, Dancing for Desserts, Raffles, Games, Prizes, Silent Auction and much more!!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued lessons of self regulating your own behavior using the Superflex and Rock Brain.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer continued work on a project surrounding positional concepts that relate to our Common Core Standards.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin work with the students on the concept of SUMMETRY. I will be creating a showcase gallery of their symmetry butterflies.
This week:
The students are having a great time exploring types of wood investigating sinking and floating and creating a raft out of the different woods using paper clips as the passengers! More in the science section! Mr. Franklin did a folded paper project and spoke about creating symmetry. The students folded paper turned into lovely symmetrical butterflies!
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 4 Food and began Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed background knowledge by discussing where animals might live. House, zoo, outside, forest, jungle, trees, caves were just some of their thoughtful answers. We took a look at our Showshoe Hare from the Field Museum to check out where this animal lives. We discussed the word-habitat. A habitat is a home. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Mama Cat and Her Three Kittens." They made predictions about story content. The students elbow chatted about about the actions the kittens were performing. We reviewed the verb-a word that shows action. The students took turns retelling the story in their own words. We took a look at sentence structure--subject/action. We did a group story elements Butterfly which included characters, setting, time of day, plot/what is happening. The students are doing a good job of volunteering to write. Our new sight words for the week are is and in . Our target sounds are short o and long o. Our robust Vocabulary included ACTION, GENTILE, COMPARE, POUNCE, The students continued work on sequencing events in the story using the words--first, next, then and last. The students continue work on segmenting and blending 3-4-5 sound words using their elkonin boxes and the app OZ Phonics projected on the screen. They also continue to strengthen auditory skills and verbal responses using the Haggerty Blue Book exercises to add, delete and substitute sounds in words. We are also continuing to work on exercises to see how fast students can sound out and read a nonsense word. Workstations this week included leveled readers with concentration on sequencing events, finding the main topic and reading fluency, 2 and 3 part blend activities, working with word family on and in words, sort and say real and nonsense words, work with vowel teams, digraph match and search, sort, spell and write short vowel words.
Math: The students completed Module 3 and will take their assessment next week. The students reviewed one to one matching, one more and one less, looking at 2 rows of objects and completing the sentence--___is more than___ and ___is less than ___. The students also began work using a number line to add and work with horizontal and vertical addition problems to 6. Workstations this week included writing numbers to 100, using a ten frame or ten tower to work on teens numbers, finding the hidden partners for sums to 10 and listening to a story problem to see if you add or subtract.
Writing: The students continue practice work on lowercase letters. In Writer's Workshop, students continue to work on their "how to" books. They also worked on the idea that writers become readers, asking, "Can I follow this?" Writer's worked with their partners having their partners read their story so far. Can they follow it? Is there something you can add? Are your steps in order? The teaching point becomes--writer's reread to check to see if their writing makes sense. The students are really working hard especially on the writing goal that they have chosen.
Science: The investigated types of wood. They looked at cedar, pine, basswood, particleboard and plywood. They worked on the focus questions--How can you sink wood? How many passengers can a wood raft hold? Each table was supplied with the types of wood pieces, paper clips and rubber bands. The students worked with their tablemates to construct rafts and practiced dropping them in the water. Lots of conversation around the concepts of above, below, compare, sink, float, test. Which piece of wood took more paperclips to sink? Each table made a bar graph of their findings. Next week-How can you change the shape of wood?
Technology: The students continue to use the same apps as last week. Their work with the Lexia Core 5 program has been a real plus in reinforcing skills.
Literature: "Martin's Big Words," "The Snowy Day," "Animals in Winter," "the Mitten Tree," "The Snowman."
.
Sunday, January 22, 2017
UPDATES for 1/17-1/20 2017
**It's been another busy week in our Kindergarten. Our artist in residence, Mr. Franklin continued working with the students, this time on a landscape design project. Dental professional, Ms. Novotny, presented a program on good dental hygiene. Children's author, Rachel Ruiz read from her recent book, "When Penny Met POTUS" and took questions from the students about "how to" make a book. The students are also getting ready for the Opera for the Young's presentation of "Elixir of Love." Ms. Hiolski is working with the students on the audience participation part.
**As the weather turns chilly next week.......please have your child dressed for the weather.
**The rest of the World Language and Eagle Extra classes begin next week. I have been receiving the roster on the day the class begins. Many of you have already responded to me if your child is participating in classes. Feel free to email me if your child is in a class. Thanks!
**Mid Year assessments are continuing next week. I will be sharing all information with you at parent/teacher conferences.
**Notification letter for Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences is in your child's homework folder. Please return bottom confirmation portion ASAP. Conferences are scheduled for Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Thursday, February 15th. Please note that on Thursday and Friday, February 16th and 17th, school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will also pick up at 11:00 am.
**Opera for the Young's presentation of "The Elixir of Love," is Wednesday,January 25th at 12:45 pm in the gym. It is an all school event.
**Reading Grandma was a bit under the weather this week. She will be with us next Tuesday.
**Our 100th Day of School Celebration is Monday, February 6th from 9-11 am. I currently have 3 volunteers but could use 5 more! It is very fun! Lots of activities surrounding the number 100! Email me if you can help.
**100 Item Heart Project will be sent home on Monday, January 23rd. Explanation and suggestion sheet will be attached. The project is due Friday, February 3rd.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, January 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is COMING! It's Saturday, February 25th from 11-3pm all over the school. Games, food, prizes, cake walk, silent auction. Fun! Fun! Fun! Come and play a game with me!
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued her lessons on self regulation by reviewing the super hero, Superflex and introducing Rock Brain who tries to undermined Superflex.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer began a project surrounding positional concepts that relate to our Common Core Standards.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin posed the question....."What is landscape?" He showed the students how to use different types of lines in creating mountains/hills, river and trees and provided markers and cray pas oil crayons for students to use to experiment drawing a landscape. Check out our gallery on the right!
This week:
The students have a furry friend visiting our classroom courtesy of the Field Museum. The Snowshoe Hare will be in our classroom to help us begin our next unit in our Treasures Reading series Animals. Our Nature Table is full of all things Winter! The students are checking out snowflake patterns and crystals. Ms. Novotny from the Children's Clinic provided an excellent presentation on how to brush your teeth and how good food helps build strong teeth. Station day activities this included pattern block build and count, exploring scale balance and capacity, writing project with sentence starter...."In the winter...." and make 10 with snowman addition to 10.
Reading/Language Arts: The students worked to complete Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. They worked in small groups to review nouns and verbs by writing a recipe for a food that showed what they needed (nouns) and what they do (verbs) to complete the recipe. They reviewed all sight words learned thus far as well as digraphs and short vowel words. The students used their elkonin boxes to blend and segment 2 and 3 part consonant blend words. They also worked on sound substitution to create new words. The students began a Blueprint to study sequencing of main events in a story. The text, "The Snowy Day" was used. During the first reading, the students listened to the story and visualized the adventures of Peter and thought about the order of the events using the words first, next, then last. After the second reading, the students retold the story using pictures and their own words. Several students had the opportunity to act out the main event of their choice using props and dialogue. In our "we do" Blueprint, the students illustrated and wrote down their ideas on the projected screen Blueprint. The students will do a "you do" Blueprint independently next week. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency and event sequencing, reading for meaning, creating a recipe.....a "how to" steps, story elements butterfly small group work, word substitution and work on blends and digraphs, vowel teams and writing about your favorite food and why you like it.
Math: The students continued work in Module 3 comparing sets using the terms more, less and fewer and identifying and creating a set that has the same number of objects and identifying the set that has one more. They continued work on nonstandard measure with cube sticks and measuring weight and capacity. Students also are continuing work on finding hidden partners (number bonds) using numbers 0-10 and reading information in a story problem to determine if you add or subtract. Workstations this week included writing 2 digit numbers, exploring teen numbers and the idea of ten plus more and working with hidden partners to10.
Writing: The students continue work on lowercase letter formation. The letters t, a, d were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. In Writer's Workshop, the students are writing their "how to" books. They are learning the process of numbering the pages or steps in their process, sequencing events in their "how to" book, illustrating and labeling each page and working with their partner to support each other. We wrote a group how to story about how to build a snowman. The class helped me write the text and read it back, illustrate and label and use all the tools they learned in their previous units--spaces between words, beginning with a capital letter, be able to read back what you wrote and using their writing tools in their writing folder. (sight words, checklist, vowel support) It is getting exciting!
Science: The students began their first investigation in Unit 2 Materials and Motion. We began with the focus questions--Where does wood come from? What is made of wood? We discussed what a natural resource is and how the properties of materials determine their use. The students looked for examples of wood in our classroom and school. From our previous unit, they learned that trees are the source of wood and that trees are a natural resource. Next week, the students will be testing wood products including sinking and floating, changing the shape and comparing and contrasting wood products.
Technology: In reading small groups, the apps Rocket Speller and Spelling Bug were used to sequence sounds in a word, Montessori Crosswords was used to reinforce cvc and ccvc, cvcc word sound blending. The app Magic Reading 2 was used to reinforce short vowels, vowel teams and consonant blends in words. In math whole group, the apps Subitize Tree and Animal Math were used to enhance visual number and number patterns and addition facts to 10.
Literature: "The Snowy Day," "I am Snow," "A Perfect Day," "Let's Make a Cake."
**As the weather turns chilly next week.......please have your child dressed for the weather.
**The rest of the World Language and Eagle Extra classes begin next week. I have been receiving the roster on the day the class begins. Many of you have already responded to me if your child is participating in classes. Feel free to email me if your child is in a class. Thanks!
**Mid Year assessments are continuing next week. I will be sharing all information with you at parent/teacher conferences.
**Notification letter for Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences is in your child's homework folder. Please return bottom confirmation portion ASAP. Conferences are scheduled for Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Thursday, February 15th. Please note that on Thursday and Friday, February 16th and 17th, school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will also pick up at 11:00 am.
**Opera for the Young's presentation of "The Elixir of Love," is Wednesday,January 25th at 12:45 pm in the gym. It is an all school event.
**Reading Grandma was a bit under the weather this week. She will be with us next Tuesday.
**Our 100th Day of School Celebration is Monday, February 6th from 9-11 am. I currently have 3 volunteers but could use 5 more! It is very fun! Lots of activities surrounding the number 100! Email me if you can help.
**100 Item Heart Project will be sent home on Monday, January 23rd. Explanation and suggestion sheet will be attached. The project is due Friday, February 3rd.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, January 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is COMING! It's Saturday, February 25th from 11-3pm all over the school. Games, food, prizes, cake walk, silent auction. Fun! Fun! Fun! Come and play a game with me!
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued her lessons on self regulation by reviewing the super hero, Superflex and introducing Rock Brain who tries to undermined Superflex.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer began a project surrounding positional concepts that relate to our Common Core Standards.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin posed the question....."What is landscape?" He showed the students how to use different types of lines in creating mountains/hills, river and trees and provided markers and cray pas oil crayons for students to use to experiment drawing a landscape. Check out our gallery on the right!
This week:
The students have a furry friend visiting our classroom courtesy of the Field Museum. The Snowshoe Hare will be in our classroom to help us begin our next unit in our Treasures Reading series Animals. Our Nature Table is full of all things Winter! The students are checking out snowflake patterns and crystals. Ms. Novotny from the Children's Clinic provided an excellent presentation on how to brush your teeth and how good food helps build strong teeth. Station day activities this included pattern block build and count, exploring scale balance and capacity, writing project with sentence starter...."In the winter...." and make 10 with snowman addition to 10.
Reading/Language Arts: The students worked to complete Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. They worked in small groups to review nouns and verbs by writing a recipe for a food that showed what they needed (nouns) and what they do (verbs) to complete the recipe. They reviewed all sight words learned thus far as well as digraphs and short vowel words. The students used their elkonin boxes to blend and segment 2 and 3 part consonant blend words. They also worked on sound substitution to create new words. The students began a Blueprint to study sequencing of main events in a story. The text, "The Snowy Day" was used. During the first reading, the students listened to the story and visualized the adventures of Peter and thought about the order of the events using the words first, next, then last. After the second reading, the students retold the story using pictures and their own words. Several students had the opportunity to act out the main event of their choice using props and dialogue. In our "we do" Blueprint, the students illustrated and wrote down their ideas on the projected screen Blueprint. The students will do a "you do" Blueprint independently next week. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency and event sequencing, reading for meaning, creating a recipe.....a "how to" steps, story elements butterfly small group work, word substitution and work on blends and digraphs, vowel teams and writing about your favorite food and why you like it.
Math: The students continued work in Module 3 comparing sets using the terms more, less and fewer and identifying and creating a set that has the same number of objects and identifying the set that has one more. They continued work on nonstandard measure with cube sticks and measuring weight and capacity. Students also are continuing work on finding hidden partners (number bonds) using numbers 0-10 and reading information in a story problem to determine if you add or subtract. Workstations this week included writing 2 digit numbers, exploring teen numbers and the idea of ten plus more and working with hidden partners to10.
Writing: The students continue work on lowercase letter formation. The letters t, a, d were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. In Writer's Workshop, the students are writing their "how to" books. They are learning the process of numbering the pages or steps in their process, sequencing events in their "how to" book, illustrating and labeling each page and working with their partner to support each other. We wrote a group how to story about how to build a snowman. The class helped me write the text and read it back, illustrate and label and use all the tools they learned in their previous units--spaces between words, beginning with a capital letter, be able to read back what you wrote and using their writing tools in their writing folder. (sight words, checklist, vowel support) It is getting exciting!
Science: The students began their first investigation in Unit 2 Materials and Motion. We began with the focus questions--Where does wood come from? What is made of wood? We discussed what a natural resource is and how the properties of materials determine their use. The students looked for examples of wood in our classroom and school. From our previous unit, they learned that trees are the source of wood and that trees are a natural resource. Next week, the students will be testing wood products including sinking and floating, changing the shape and comparing and contrasting wood products.
Technology: In reading small groups, the apps Rocket Speller and Spelling Bug were used to sequence sounds in a word, Montessori Crosswords was used to reinforce cvc and ccvc, cvcc word sound blending. The app Magic Reading 2 was used to reinforce short vowels, vowel teams and consonant blends in words. In math whole group, the apps Subitize Tree and Animal Math were used to enhance visual number and number patterns and addition facts to 10.
Literature: "The Snowy Day," "I am Snow," "A Perfect Day," "Let's Make a Cake."
Monday, January 16, 2017
UPDATES for 1/9-1/13 2017
**Happy New Year and welcome back! The students appeared well rested and excited to be back to our routine. A word about CHAPSTICK! It is very dry in our classroom. The students may bring chapstick or lip balm to school and keep it in their backpacks. Also, water bottles can be brought in daily. Don't forget gym shoes on gym days (Mondays and Wednesdays) if your child is wearing boots.
**Eagle Extra and World Language Classes begin next week. I will be getting a list of participants from our class. Feel free to drop me an email if your child is part of these classes.
**Mid Year DIBELS and AIMSWEB Math assessments will begin on Tuesday along with Darrell Morris Sound Foundation assessments. I will be sharing all of these with you along with Common Core Blueprint assessments at our Mid Year Parent Conference in February.
**You will receive notification about Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences this coming Friday. They will be held on Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Please note that on Thursday and Friday, February 16th and 17th. School will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will also pick up at 11:00 am.
**Reading Grandma Mary will begin her 10th year of volunteering on Tuesday afternoon.
**Art Start Artist, Jonathan Franklin began working with the class this past Thursday. His first lesson was about: What is a fractal and how to use fractals in the arts. Great lesson! Check out our Gallery Wall to the right!!
**I will also be sending home info for students wishing to be a Student Council rep on Friday.
**Our 100th Day of School Celebration is Monday, February 6th from 9-11 am. Looking at my classroom sign up sheet, I have B. Zort and M. Ahring signed up so far. Please let me know if this has changed. I would love to have at least 6 more volunteers to help with all the activities. Please email me if you can help. The students will also be working on a special 100 item project. This will be sent home on January 25th.
**The students will see a special presentation on Dental Hygiene on Thursday, January 19th at 8:30.
**Vision Screening for Kindergarten will be held on Friday, January 20th in the morning.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, January 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! It is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm. Stay tuned for more info.
**Start saving those GIANT BOXES (ones you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our engineering project in APRIL. I cannot store anything now. Please keep at home until after spring break.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey began a unit on self regulation introducing the super hero, Superflex who helps a citizen be a flexible thinker which allows the person to control his or her brain and change how he or she thinks. He helps a citizen think about how to act and behave to keep others and themselves feeling good and be a good problem solver.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, students finished up their project on thinking in shapes and using shapes in relation to surface area.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin introduced himself and outlined the lessons to be covered in his artist in residency stay. He posed the statement--Artists are always asking questions and always thinking! He started this weeks activity by drawing a Y on the board asking the students what they thought it looked like. From there he spoke to them about repeating patterns in nature and in math. Students then took their paper, drew a Y and kept on repeating y's and keeping it connected to the first Y. The students thought--"That's looking like a tree with big branches and small branches. " So cool! He explained what a fractal was which was what they were creating. The students continued creating and adding details to their drawings. Stop in and view the Gullo Gallery on the wall in the hallway.
This week:
The students ere definitely getting back into the swing of things with all things related to learning. They shared their winter break stories of travel, presents and family fun. The students worked on a mini unit on the life and accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr. The text, "Martin's Big Words" was used for our first Blueprint of the year on the use of illustrations to help us understand a story. The students watched a video of Martin Luther Kings life. They were very thankful for Dr. King's work to use nonviolence to promote change. We selected other texts to examine quotes, speeches and word choices. Thanks to Judea for bringing in the text, "Martin Luther King is a Hero." Station day activities included build and count pattern block ice cream cones, creating a snowman windsock, color by code and count the shapes on the snowflake, measure it using cube sticks and further experimentation with fractal designs.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The discussions focused on the steps in growing food, what is your favorite food and why and steps in following a recipe. The students accessed prior knowledge about a meal they helped to prepare. They shared information about special foods they ate during the holidays. The students read their predecodable story, "Can Nan?" They made predictions about story content. They elbow chatted with a partner about the characters, setting and main idea. They also read to their partner to practice their fluency. Students reviewed sound blending 3-4 sound words using their elkonin boxes. They also reviewed 2 and 3 part consonant blends and short vowel sounds. Students used their white boards to work on substituting sounds to create new words some of which were nonsense words. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency and reading for meaning, real and nonsense word read and sort, writing about how to make a fruit salad, roll and read a word family list, creating a food web, adding and deleting sounds to create words and walking their words.
Math: The students continue to work in Module 3. They continue to experiment with nonstandard measuring using cube sticks, using the balance scales to measure weight and working with different containers to measure capacity or how much a container holds. Lessons this week focused on making informal comparison of area and comparing to find if there are enough. Students continue to work on finding hidden partners or number bonds using numbers 0-10. Students also listened to a story problem and determined if they had to add or take away to arrive at an answer. Workstations this week included writing 2 digit numbers, determining how many 10 frames and how many ones were needed to create a number, working with teen numbers, adding numbers to 10 and continued exploration of nonstandard measurement using cube sticks, balance scales/weight and containers/capacity.
Writing: The students continued work on lowercase letter formation. Letters o, c, s, v, w were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards with chalk and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. In Writer's Workshop, the students looked through their true stories and choose one to put a cover on for publishing. The students began a new unit on the writing of "how to"or procedural stories. The students will choose a topic and "teach" others to do it. The writing involves a series of sequencing steps from beginning to end. We took a look at some "how to" texts and students chatted with their writing partner about a topic they could teach others to do. Very exciting! Stay tuned.
Science: The students are gearing up to begin their next unit of study called "Materials and Motion." We will begin our first investigation next week.
Technology: In reading small groups, the apps Rocket Speller and Spelling Bug were used to work on letter sequencing in a word. The students also used Oz Phonics to work on consonant blends and digraphs in words as well as short vowel sounds. In math small group, students used the apps Subitize Tree and Butterfly Math to work on number visualization and vertical and horizontally presented addition facts to 10. Partners used BrainPop Jr to view a video on Winter and take the quiz.
Literature: "Martin's Big Words," "Martin Luther King is a Hero," "A Picture Book of Martin Luther King," "Dream." "Martin's Dream," "It's Winter," How To Books--"My First Soccer Game," "Food for a Day," "Let's Make Pancakes," "The Sand Castle."
**Eagle Extra and World Language Classes begin next week. I will be getting a list of participants from our class. Feel free to drop me an email if your child is part of these classes.
**Mid Year DIBELS and AIMSWEB Math assessments will begin on Tuesday along with Darrell Morris Sound Foundation assessments. I will be sharing all of these with you along with Common Core Blueprint assessments at our Mid Year Parent Conference in February.
**You will receive notification about Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences this coming Friday. They will be held on Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Please note that on Thursday and Friday, February 16th and 17th. School will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will also pick up at 11:00 am.
**Reading Grandma Mary will begin her 10th year of volunteering on Tuesday afternoon.
**Art Start Artist, Jonathan Franklin began working with the class this past Thursday. His first lesson was about: What is a fractal and how to use fractals in the arts. Great lesson! Check out our Gallery Wall to the right!!
**I will also be sending home info for students wishing to be a Student Council rep on Friday.
**Our 100th Day of School Celebration is Monday, February 6th from 9-11 am. Looking at my classroom sign up sheet, I have B. Zort and M. Ahring signed up so far. Please let me know if this has changed. I would love to have at least 6 more volunteers to help with all the activities. Please email me if you can help. The students will also be working on a special 100 item project. This will be sent home on January 25th.
**The students will see a special presentation on Dental Hygiene on Thursday, January 19th at 8:30.
**Vision Screening for Kindergarten will be held on Friday, January 20th in the morning.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, January 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! It is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm. Stay tuned for more info.
**Start saving those GIANT BOXES (ones you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our engineering project in APRIL. I cannot store anything now. Please keep at home until after spring break.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey began a unit on self regulation introducing the super hero, Superflex who helps a citizen be a flexible thinker which allows the person to control his or her brain and change how he or she thinks. He helps a citizen think about how to act and behave to keep others and themselves feeling good and be a good problem solver.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, students finished up their project on thinking in shapes and using shapes in relation to surface area.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin introduced himself and outlined the lessons to be covered in his artist in residency stay. He posed the statement--Artists are always asking questions and always thinking! He started this weeks activity by drawing a Y on the board asking the students what they thought it looked like. From there he spoke to them about repeating patterns in nature and in math. Students then took their paper, drew a Y and kept on repeating y's and keeping it connected to the first Y. The students thought--"That's looking like a tree with big branches and small branches. " So cool! He explained what a fractal was which was what they were creating. The students continued creating and adding details to their drawings. Stop in and view the Gullo Gallery on the wall in the hallway.
This week:
The students ere definitely getting back into the swing of things with all things related to learning. They shared their winter break stories of travel, presents and family fun. The students worked on a mini unit on the life and accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr. The text, "Martin's Big Words" was used for our first Blueprint of the year on the use of illustrations to help us understand a story. The students watched a video of Martin Luther Kings life. They were very thankful for Dr. King's work to use nonviolence to promote change. We selected other texts to examine quotes, speeches and word choices. Thanks to Judea for bringing in the text, "Martin Luther King is a Hero." Station day activities included build and count pattern block ice cream cones, creating a snowman windsock, color by code and count the shapes on the snowflake, measure it using cube sticks and further experimentation with fractal designs.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The discussions focused on the steps in growing food, what is your favorite food and why and steps in following a recipe. The students accessed prior knowledge about a meal they helped to prepare. They shared information about special foods they ate during the holidays. The students read their predecodable story, "Can Nan?" They made predictions about story content. They elbow chatted with a partner about the characters, setting and main idea. They also read to their partner to practice their fluency. Students reviewed sound blending 3-4 sound words using their elkonin boxes. They also reviewed 2 and 3 part consonant blends and short vowel sounds. Students used their white boards to work on substituting sounds to create new words some of which were nonsense words. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency and reading for meaning, real and nonsense word read and sort, writing about how to make a fruit salad, roll and read a word family list, creating a food web, adding and deleting sounds to create words and walking their words.
Math: The students continue to work in Module 3. They continue to experiment with nonstandard measuring using cube sticks, using the balance scales to measure weight and working with different containers to measure capacity or how much a container holds. Lessons this week focused on making informal comparison of area and comparing to find if there are enough. Students continue to work on finding hidden partners or number bonds using numbers 0-10. Students also listened to a story problem and determined if they had to add or take away to arrive at an answer. Workstations this week included writing 2 digit numbers, determining how many 10 frames and how many ones were needed to create a number, working with teen numbers, adding numbers to 10 and continued exploration of nonstandard measurement using cube sticks, balance scales/weight and containers/capacity.
Writing: The students continued work on lowercase letter formation. Letters o, c, s, v, w were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards with chalk and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. In Writer's Workshop, the students looked through their true stories and choose one to put a cover on for publishing. The students began a new unit on the writing of "how to"or procedural stories. The students will choose a topic and "teach" others to do it. The writing involves a series of sequencing steps from beginning to end. We took a look at some "how to" texts and students chatted with their writing partner about a topic they could teach others to do. Very exciting! Stay tuned.
Science: The students are gearing up to begin their next unit of study called "Materials and Motion." We will begin our first investigation next week.
Technology: In reading small groups, the apps Rocket Speller and Spelling Bug were used to work on letter sequencing in a word. The students also used Oz Phonics to work on consonant blends and digraphs in words as well as short vowel sounds. In math small group, students used the apps Subitize Tree and Butterfly Math to work on number visualization and vertical and horizontally presented addition facts to 10. Partners used BrainPop Jr to view a video on Winter and take the quiz.
Literature: "Martin's Big Words," "Martin Luther King is a Hero," "A Picture Book of Martin Luther King," "Dream." "Martin's Dream," "It's Winter," How To Books--"My First Soccer Game," "Food for a Day," "Let's Make Pancakes," "The Sand Castle."
Friday, January 6, 2017
UPDATES for 12/19-12/23 2016
**Our Winter Concert was fabulous! Our get together afterwards gave the students a chance to chill, be with their families and enjoy some treats! The students were delighted to see parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and sibs at their concert! A SHOUT OUT to Julianna's family for sending all the cool crafts!
**Our End of the Year Book Buddy get together was awesome! The students shared treats and worked on a cool movie trailer featuring themselves using iMovie. I will eventually share them with you. I am still looking at them myself.
**Naomi D. and her mom did a presentation about Kwanzaa. Thanks so much!
**Stop in and see our COMPLIMEN-TREE. The students worked on writing a compliment to another student in the class. It was heart felt! We love and respect each other.
**Classes resume on Monday, January 9th. Please come dressed for the weather. Mr. Hodge makes the decision on going out each day.......so we want all students to be prepared!!
**Reading Grandma Mary will be returning for her 10th year of hearing our budding readers. She will join us on Tuesday afternoons and will work one on one with each student on fluency and comprehension.
**Our wonderful grandma, Ms. D. will be also be returning on Tuesday mornings to volunteer at literacy workstations.
**Ms. Gullo's Kindergarten class will take part in a special program called ART START funded through the Oak Park Art Foundation beginning on Thursday, January 12th and running for 5 consecutive Thursdays for one hour. We are so pleased to be working with local artist and illustrator, JONATHAN FRANKLIN. He lives in Oak Park and his children all went to Irving School. I was lucky enough to have 3 of his 4 children in my kindergarten! The focus of our sessions will be related to Modules 2 and 3 in our Eureka Math program. Jonathan will be working with the students on projects that use vertical and horizontal lines, shapes, negative space and concepts of taller/shorter, more than/less than, enough/not enough and length and height. I will be sending you an update each week. It is a great opportunity for creativity and expression as well as continued work on our core standards in math.
**Our Secret Snowflakes were the students for Ms. Sakamoto's class. The class enjoyed their little clues and goodies each day.
**Student Council will be looking for 2 NEW Reps for this trimester. I will be sending out info on this when we get back from break.
**Mid Year DIDELS screening for phonemic awareness and Mid Year screening for AIMSWEB math will begin the week of January 19th.
**Vision Screening for Kindergarten will be held on Friday, January 20th in the morning.
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 16th--ML King Day.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, January 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**The 100th Day of School is FEBRUARY 6th. I need lots of parent help for the activities and festivities. Stay tuned.
**Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Thursday and Friday (February 16th and 17th) dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There is no afternoon session.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING!!! It's Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm. Stay tuned.
**Start saving those GIANT BOXES (the kind you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our space station engineering project that will be done in APRIL. I cannot keep anything in the room now. Please keep it at home until after spring break.
**We will begin our next cross/curricular theme-WINTER when we get back from break.
Coming Up in 2017--In reading/language arts/literacy--we will continue to focus on sound foundation, sound blending, deleting/adding/segmenting sounds in 3,4,5 sound words and even 6 sound words, long and short vowel sounds, some beginning phonics with silent e and vowel teams. We will continue to work on our Blueprint Workmats in the areas of written comprehension, sequencing events in a story, gathering supporting details in a text, stating an opinion with supporting reasons, naming the main topic and using text features like photos/illustrations to help understand the author's message. Our BUSY READER CLUB will continue and the students begin to read for meaning in a story. In writing--The students will continue work on lowercase letter formation, sentence structure, inventive spelling, grammar and punctuation and expanding sentence length. In Writer's Workshop the students will work on writing how to books to teach others. In math--the students will continue work on rote to 100 by 1's, 10's, 5's and 2's, writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, work on teen numbers, demonstrating knowledge of numbers greater and less than, representing addition and subtraction with objects and mental images, using number sentences, solving story problems using drawings and numbers work, finding hidden partners (number bonding) to 10, fluent addition and subtraction to 5, comparing length, weight and capacity and comparing 2 objects with a measurable attribute. In science--the students will begin their next module-Materials and Motion. They will working on investigations dealing with the study of natural resources and the properties of-wood, paper and fabric and the effects of pushes and pulls. Socially--the students will continue work on becoming more responsible and independent learners and thinkers, continue work on showing empathy, kindness and respect toward their peers and teachers and take a more active role in shaping their own behavior. In technology--the students will continue to use the iPad and internet resources to enhance areas of the curriculum. WOW! We will be very busy!
**Our End of the Year Book Buddy get together was awesome! The students shared treats and worked on a cool movie trailer featuring themselves using iMovie. I will eventually share them with you. I am still looking at them myself.
**Naomi D. and her mom did a presentation about Kwanzaa. Thanks so much!
**Stop in and see our COMPLIMEN-TREE. The students worked on writing a compliment to another student in the class. It was heart felt! We love and respect each other.
**Classes resume on Monday, January 9th. Please come dressed for the weather. Mr. Hodge makes the decision on going out each day.......so we want all students to be prepared!!
**Reading Grandma Mary will be returning for her 10th year of hearing our budding readers. She will join us on Tuesday afternoons and will work one on one with each student on fluency and comprehension.
**Our wonderful grandma, Ms. D. will be also be returning on Tuesday mornings to volunteer at literacy workstations.
**Ms. Gullo's Kindergarten class will take part in a special program called ART START funded through the Oak Park Art Foundation beginning on Thursday, January 12th and running for 5 consecutive Thursdays for one hour. We are so pleased to be working with local artist and illustrator, JONATHAN FRANKLIN. He lives in Oak Park and his children all went to Irving School. I was lucky enough to have 3 of his 4 children in my kindergarten! The focus of our sessions will be related to Modules 2 and 3 in our Eureka Math program. Jonathan will be working with the students on projects that use vertical and horizontal lines, shapes, negative space and concepts of taller/shorter, more than/less than, enough/not enough and length and height. I will be sending you an update each week. It is a great opportunity for creativity and expression as well as continued work on our core standards in math.
**Our Secret Snowflakes were the students for Ms. Sakamoto's class. The class enjoyed their little clues and goodies each day.
**Student Council will be looking for 2 NEW Reps for this trimester. I will be sending out info on this when we get back from break.
**Mid Year DIDELS screening for phonemic awareness and Mid Year screening for AIMSWEB math will begin the week of January 19th.
**Vision Screening for Kindergarten will be held on Friday, January 20th in the morning.
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 16th--ML King Day.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, January 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**The 100th Day of School is FEBRUARY 6th. I need lots of parent help for the activities and festivities. Stay tuned.
**Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Thursday and Friday (February 16th and 17th) dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There is no afternoon session.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING!!! It's Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm. Stay tuned.
**Start saving those GIANT BOXES (the kind you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our space station engineering project that will be done in APRIL. I cannot keep anything in the room now. Please keep it at home until after spring break.
**We will begin our next cross/curricular theme-WINTER when we get back from break.
Coming Up in 2017--In reading/language arts/literacy--we will continue to focus on sound foundation, sound blending, deleting/adding/segmenting sounds in 3,4,5 sound words and even 6 sound words, long and short vowel sounds, some beginning phonics with silent e and vowel teams. We will continue to work on our Blueprint Workmats in the areas of written comprehension, sequencing events in a story, gathering supporting details in a text, stating an opinion with supporting reasons, naming the main topic and using text features like photos/illustrations to help understand the author's message. Our BUSY READER CLUB will continue and the students begin to read for meaning in a story. In writing--The students will continue work on lowercase letter formation, sentence structure, inventive spelling, grammar and punctuation and expanding sentence length. In Writer's Workshop the students will work on writing how to books to teach others. In math--the students will continue work on rote to 100 by 1's, 10's, 5's and 2's, writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, work on teen numbers, demonstrating knowledge of numbers greater and less than, representing addition and subtraction with objects and mental images, using number sentences, solving story problems using drawings and numbers work, finding hidden partners (number bonding) to 10, fluent addition and subtraction to 5, comparing length, weight and capacity and comparing 2 objects with a measurable attribute. In science--the students will begin their next module-Materials and Motion. They will working on investigations dealing with the study of natural resources and the properties of-wood, paper and fabric and the effects of pushes and pulls. Socially--the students will continue work on becoming more responsible and independent learners and thinkers, continue work on showing empathy, kindness and respect toward their peers and teachers and take a more active role in shaping their own behavior. In technology--the students will continue to use the iPad and internet resources to enhance areas of the curriculum. WOW! We will be very busy!
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