**Spring break--begins March 26th, ends April 3rd. Students will return to school on Monday, April 4th.
**Thanks for helping out with our ZERO WASTE DAY. The student lunches had great food plus reusable or recyclable containers. Our School Lunch students only took what they were going to eat and we opened and drank our milk without a straw!
**The annual ACADEMIC FAIR and EGG DROP contest is Wednesday, April 20th. Ms. Creehan spoke to the students about both events and they got to look at some examples of projects. We now have 5 students doing an academic project and 7 students working on their egg drop vehicles. Come on----join in the fun and learning!!!! There is still time to decide what you would like to do. It is a great learning experience and fun to represent our kindergarten class.
**SAVE THE DATE--Friday, April 15th, 6:00-8:00 pm--Centennial Celebration/Taste of Irving. Our committee is working hard and we have some great events going on that evening. What was it like at Irving 100 years ago? Was Ms. Gullo teaching then? Find out from alums what the curriculum was like throughout the years. Bring a meal to share, hear the wonderful sounds of the Irving Chorus, view artwork from all the students at Irving. It is going to be great! More info is coming!!!!
**Thanks to those of you who participated in Family Reading Night--Swap, Shop and Read. We had a nice turnout of families, swapped some really great books and ate yummy cookies!
**Our Spelling Bee participants, Alistair and Rylee and our alternate, McKenna are hard at work practicing their word lists for Irving's Annual Spelling Bee on Wednesday, April 13th at 11:00 am. All are welcome to watch the bee take place in the auditorium.
**Our Field Trip to the Planetarium is set for Tuesday, April 12th from 9:00-2:00 pm. Our parent volunteers are Tracy Zurawski, Samir Oufkir, Diane Donaldson (Danny's grandma) and Amy Baker. Specific info will go out to you after break. Don't worry--we still have 2-3 more field trips left!!!! I appreciate that many of you were interested in coming.
**After break---send in all the giant boxes and other cool stuff that you have been saving for our space stations. We will devote the week of April 18th-21st for design, construction, painting and detailing of our space stations. The students will work in small groups.
**Route to Reading Skills Groups will resume Tuesday, April 5th. I am very pleased with all the student's progress thus far.
**CHECK IT OUT--Author Marc Brown, of "Arthur" fame will be a Irving School of Wednesday, April 13th from 12:45-1:30 pm. Order form for books is in the digital backpack.
This week:
It was all about the MOON!! What do you get when you put flour and cocoa powder in a pie tin and drop marbles down into it-----a MOONSCAPE!! Groups of students created their moonscapes and then sketched them in their science journals They labeled the craters, hills, mountains and "seas." We learned about the moon's surface and how it was formed. We talked about astronauts and space vehicles and other living things (tomato seeds, chimps, ladybugs) that have traveled to the moon.
Reading: We began Unit 6 called, "Red, White and Blue." This unit explores the idea of patriotism and loyalty to our country. It incorporates family, friends and school and takes a look at symbols that represent our country. The literature centers around our flag, citizenship, democracy and the right to vote. We continue to work on parts of speech-nouns, verbs and adjectives. We explored the use of articles (a, an and the.) The students are having fun playing a game called "Silly Sentences." We review r blends, 4-5 phoneme words, word play activities, and where they hear a particular sound--beginning, middle or end of the word. We continue to work on reading fluency and reading for meaning. Many of the students are beginning to challenge themselves by reading stories with more vocabulary. Keep reading those Busy Readers!!!! Keep those reading logs coming in.
Math: We continue work in our daily math journals. We will begin working on the subtraction the process after break. The students are becoming more consistent in recognizing coin values and exchanging pennies for dimes and nickels. We reviewed counting by 2"s and 5"s as well as counting on, comparing shapes and writing 2 -3 digit numbers.
Writing: In our writing process this week, we learned about a simple paragraph, writing about a topic and using details and descriptions to tell about a topic. We used our shadow dance photographs for our topics and constructed 4 questions to answer about them. We learned what a draft is. We wrote our answers to our questions in sentence form, read them back and made any corrections on the draft. We then transferred our work to our final copy using our best handwriting and all we know about letter size, line usage, spacing and punctuation. The students were awesome and so were their paragraphs. I will display them in the hallway after break.
Science: We pondered the questions--What is the moon? When can we see it? How does it compare in relation to the sun and earth? We took a look at many photos, reflected our thoughts and ideas in our science journal. We created our moonscapes. We are finding out that space is a pretty amazing place. We are beginning to learn our planet song.
Literature: "Meggie Moon," Kitten's first Full Moon," If You Decide to Go to the Moon," "Sun and Moon," Poetry selection--The Moon, by Robert Louis Stevenson, Seymour Simon's-"The Moon," "What is the Moon," "Spend the Day in Backwards Bay," a word family book and "Patriotism."
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
UPDATES for 3/14-3/18 2011
**Please send in permission slip and money for our Planetarium field trip ASAP. Thanks!
**REPORT CARDS went home Friday. Any questions at all---feel free to contact me.
**Tasty Dog Challenge appears to be a BIG HIT!! Thanks to all who participated.
**My class had some cool moves during the PBIS Dance Party with D. J. Mick.
**Come to Family Reading Night--Swap, Shop and Read on Thursday, March 24th from 6:30-8:00 pm. Have a snack and read with me!
**The Opera for the Young presentation of "Pirates of Penzance" was amazing! The students had a great time. It was highly visual with top notch singing.
**ZERO WASTE DAY is March 23rd. Bring your lunch in a recyclable/reusable container. Pack a healthy lunch. If you order a school, only take what you are going to eat.
**SAVE the DATE--Friday, April 15th, 6:00-8:00 pm--Centennial Celebration/Taste of Irving. What was is like at Irving School 100 years ago? Has it changed much? Find out from alums what the curriculum was like throughout the years. Bring a meal to share, hear the wonderful sounds of the Irving Chorus and view artwork from all the students at Irving. It is going to be great!!!!
**The annual ACADEMIC FAIR and EGG DROP contest is Wednesday, April 20th. Create a project about something that interest you. Create a vehicle that will prevent an egg from cracking when it is dropped from the 3rd floor window at Irving. I have asked the students to think about participating. What a great way to use thinking, predicting, researching, drawing, speaking, engineering, creativity, writing, art skills and more. Ms. Creehan will be speaking to our students on Monday to show examples and answer questions. Hey students, think about it--it could be a really cool thing to do!!!!!
**Spring Break--March 26th-April 3rd.
**Ms. Bell-Bey has compiled a big list of summers programs and camps in the area. If you are interested in seeing it please email me. It is really big and there is only one copy.
This week:
We examined the parts of a tuber (potato), looked at the eyes, viewed different varieties (purple!!), learned the history and view the flesh under a microscope. We are turning Peter's potato into a plant. No soil ---just water!.
Reading: We learned what an adjective was and how to use them in our sentences. We worked on drawing conclusions, comprehension strategies and sentence building. In our decodable book, "Hug a Bug," we discussed the idea of story extension--what could happen when we finished the story. How could the story be continued? Reviewing short u words, 3, 4 and some 5 phoneme words, word play activities and the introduction of a game where the students have to say where they hear a particular sound--beginning, middle or end, when looking at a picture were also part of this weeks activities.
Math: We began our Math Journals this week! The students are excited about listening to the story problem and recording the origin of the problem, illustrating the problem and writing the solution in number sentence form. We reviewed plus sign and equal sign terms. We continue work on counting on from a random number, time by the hour, writing 3 digit numbers and working with money values. Students played the "Piggy Bank" and "Mushroom Money" games.
Writing: We continue to work on upper and lowercase letters, paying particular attention to "dive down" letters, p, r, n. Students continue to write about various topics. We began talking about what a paragraph is and what the process is in writing one.
Science: We made frames for our silhouettes and posted our picture silhouettes in the hall. Can you tell where my shadow is? Check it out in the hall outside our classroom. Some very cosmic frames! We looked at our pictures of our "shadow dance." These will be the topic of our paragraphs. Stay tuned. We looked at where shadows fall in relation to the light. We observed their change in direction when the light source is moved. We talked about the sun. We learned about what it is made of, what impact it has on the planets and that it is a star. Next week--a shadow clock-sun dial and taking a look at the moon.
Literature: "Laura Ingalls Wilder," "1000 Facts about Space," "The Sun," "Solar Energy," "The Book of Stars," "Sun," "Dogs in Space," "The Sun is My Favorite Star," "Happy St. Patrick's Day, Clifford," "The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow," "If You Were a Plus Sign."
**REPORT CARDS went home Friday. Any questions at all---feel free to contact me.
**Tasty Dog Challenge appears to be a BIG HIT!! Thanks to all who participated.
**My class had some cool moves during the PBIS Dance Party with D. J. Mick.
**Come to Family Reading Night--Swap, Shop and Read on Thursday, March 24th from 6:30-8:00 pm. Have a snack and read with me!
**The Opera for the Young presentation of "Pirates of Penzance" was amazing! The students had a great time. It was highly visual with top notch singing.
**ZERO WASTE DAY is March 23rd. Bring your lunch in a recyclable/reusable container. Pack a healthy lunch. If you order a school, only take what you are going to eat.
**SAVE the DATE--Friday, April 15th, 6:00-8:00 pm--Centennial Celebration/Taste of Irving. What was is like at Irving School 100 years ago? Has it changed much? Find out from alums what the curriculum was like throughout the years. Bring a meal to share, hear the wonderful sounds of the Irving Chorus and view artwork from all the students at Irving. It is going to be great!!!!
**The annual ACADEMIC FAIR and EGG DROP contest is Wednesday, April 20th. Create a project about something that interest you. Create a vehicle that will prevent an egg from cracking when it is dropped from the 3rd floor window at Irving. I have asked the students to think about participating. What a great way to use thinking, predicting, researching, drawing, speaking, engineering, creativity, writing, art skills and more. Ms. Creehan will be speaking to our students on Monday to show examples and answer questions. Hey students, think about it--it could be a really cool thing to do!!!!!
**Spring Break--March 26th-April 3rd.
**Ms. Bell-Bey has compiled a big list of summers programs and camps in the area. If you are interested in seeing it please email me. It is really big and there is only one copy.
This week:
We examined the parts of a tuber (potato), looked at the eyes, viewed different varieties (purple!!), learned the history and view the flesh under a microscope. We are turning Peter's potato into a plant. No soil ---just water!.
Reading: We learned what an adjective was and how to use them in our sentences. We worked on drawing conclusions, comprehension strategies and sentence building. In our decodable book, "Hug a Bug," we discussed the idea of story extension--what could happen when we finished the story. How could the story be continued? Reviewing short u words, 3, 4 and some 5 phoneme words, word play activities and the introduction of a game where the students have to say where they hear a particular sound--beginning, middle or end, when looking at a picture were also part of this weeks activities.
Math: We began our Math Journals this week! The students are excited about listening to the story problem and recording the origin of the problem, illustrating the problem and writing the solution in number sentence form. We reviewed plus sign and equal sign terms. We continue work on counting on from a random number, time by the hour, writing 3 digit numbers and working with money values. Students played the "Piggy Bank" and "Mushroom Money" games.
Writing: We continue to work on upper and lowercase letters, paying particular attention to "dive down" letters, p, r, n. Students continue to write about various topics. We began talking about what a paragraph is and what the process is in writing one.
Science: We made frames for our silhouettes and posted our picture silhouettes in the hall. Can you tell where my shadow is? Check it out in the hall outside our classroom. Some very cosmic frames! We looked at our pictures of our "shadow dance." These will be the topic of our paragraphs. Stay tuned. We looked at where shadows fall in relation to the light. We observed their change in direction when the light source is moved. We talked about the sun. We learned about what it is made of, what impact it has on the planets and that it is a star. Next week--a shadow clock-sun dial and taking a look at the moon.
Literature: "Laura Ingalls Wilder," "1000 Facts about Space," "The Sun," "Solar Energy," "The Book of Stars," "Sun," "Dogs in Space," "The Sun is My Favorite Star," "Happy St. Patrick's Day, Clifford," "The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow," "If You Were a Plus Sign."
Thursday, March 10, 2011
UPDATES for 3/8-3/11 2011
**Information and permission slip for our field trip to the Adler Planetarium is in the homework packet. Slip and money are due by March 23rd. The trip is Tuesday, April 12th.
**SUPER TUBER volunteers needed on Thursday, March 17th from 1:30 -2:30 pm. Celebrate everything POTATO!! I will need 4 volunteers. Email or drop me a note if available.
**Report cards go home next Friday.
**Opera for the Young is Wednesday, March 16th at 9:00 am. Younger sibs may attend if accompanied by an adult.
**We had our classroom spelling bee on Tuesday. I was fabulously proud of the whole class! Each student did their very best and spelled at least 2 words. CONGRATULATIONS to Rylee, Alistair and McKenna! Rylee and Alistair will represent our homeroom at Irving School's K-2 Spelling Bee. McKenna is our alternate. The bee will take place on Wednesday, April 13th at 11:00 am. The students showed great determination and sportsmanship. It was a very positive experience.
**Student Council reps, Maggie and Danny reported on activities for National Nutrition Month. They made posters for "Eating the Rainbow." They discussed with the class the importance of eating fruits and vegetables. The class brainstormed a list of colorful fruits and veggies (red-strawberries, green-celery, lettuce etc.) Their next meeting is March 15th.
**Route to Reading will resume on Tuesday, March 15th.
**Spring Break is March 26th-April 3rd. Classes resume April 4th.
**Our school wide PBIS Celebration is Friday, March 18th from 12:30-1:30. DJ Mick will be spinning some good tunes for our Dance Party.
**Come to Family Reading Night--Swap, Shop and Read on Thursday, March 24th from 6:30-8:00 pm. Have a snack and read with me!!
**Keep saving those huge (crawl in) boxes and other cool stuff for our space station projects. You can send them in after break.
**Some of you have asked about summer programs or camps for the students. There are 6 programs for our students in the Yellow Book-School Daze Book. These books were sent home a few weeks ago. The programs are located at Irving and Hatch schools. Ms. Bell Bey and I are working to see what day camps and other programs are available to our students. Stay tuned.
This week:
For Women in History month, we read a story about Helen Keller and Beatrix Potter. The students also recalled the accomplishments of Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges and Harriet Tubman.
Reading: We continued work on reading for meaning. We discussed what the main idea of a story meant. In our decodable book, "Run, Ron," the students talked about main idea, as well as characters, setting and plot. In our literature story, "Wanda's Roses," the students worked on comprehension strategies and the use of quotations. We continued work on vocabulary development, 3-4 phoneme words and reviewing short i words.
Math: We continued work on telling time by the hour. We reivewed parts of an analog and digital clocks. We played the game, "Time to Visit," with a partner. It is included in the homework this week. We moved on to 3 dice "Got It". I am observing the different ways students are using to count what is on the dice. They are using fingers, counting by 2's or 5's, counting in their heads etc. We worked on story problems, illustrating what is happening and writing a number sentence about it. we talked about the plus sign and equal sign.
Writing: We continue work on refining our upper and lowercase letters and placement of words on a given line. The students wrote about various topics. Next week, we will talk about what a paragraph is.
Science: We continued work on shadows. In experiment 3, we learned what makes a shadow, that light passes through some objects and not others, that shadows can be light shadows, dark shadows or no shadow at all depending upon how much light they allow to pass through them. In experiment 4, recorded the changes in a shadow from morning, midday and late afternoon. We used Ceci as our shadow maker for the experiment. The students noted the change in the position of the sun each time they recorded where Ceci's shadow was. I photographed each students shadow "dance" for a writing project next week. We traced our head silhouettes. We learned what radiometer was and how it worked.
Literature: "Telling Time," "What Makes Day and Night," "Are You My Mother?" Starry Skies-Questions and Riddles About the Universe," "Chasing Shadows," "I Can See My Shadow," "Guess Who's Shadow?" 'Helen Keller," "Beatrix Potter."
**SUPER TUBER volunteers needed on Thursday, March 17th from 1:30 -2:30 pm. Celebrate everything POTATO!! I will need 4 volunteers. Email or drop me a note if available.
**Report cards go home next Friday.
**Opera for the Young is Wednesday, March 16th at 9:00 am. Younger sibs may attend if accompanied by an adult.
**We had our classroom spelling bee on Tuesday. I was fabulously proud of the whole class! Each student did their very best and spelled at least 2 words. CONGRATULATIONS to Rylee, Alistair and McKenna! Rylee and Alistair will represent our homeroom at Irving School's K-2 Spelling Bee. McKenna is our alternate. The bee will take place on Wednesday, April 13th at 11:00 am. The students showed great determination and sportsmanship. It was a very positive experience.
**Student Council reps, Maggie and Danny reported on activities for National Nutrition Month. They made posters for "Eating the Rainbow." They discussed with the class the importance of eating fruits and vegetables. The class brainstormed a list of colorful fruits and veggies (red-strawberries, green-celery, lettuce etc.) Their next meeting is March 15th.
**Route to Reading will resume on Tuesday, March 15th.
**Spring Break is March 26th-April 3rd. Classes resume April 4th.
**Our school wide PBIS Celebration is Friday, March 18th from 12:30-1:30. DJ Mick will be spinning some good tunes for our Dance Party.
**Come to Family Reading Night--Swap, Shop and Read on Thursday, March 24th from 6:30-8:00 pm. Have a snack and read with me!!
**Keep saving those huge (crawl in) boxes and other cool stuff for our space station projects. You can send them in after break.
**Some of you have asked about summer programs or camps for the students. There are 6 programs for our students in the Yellow Book-School Daze Book. These books were sent home a few weeks ago. The programs are located at Irving and Hatch schools. Ms. Bell Bey and I are working to see what day camps and other programs are available to our students. Stay tuned.
This week:
For Women in History month, we read a story about Helen Keller and Beatrix Potter. The students also recalled the accomplishments of Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges and Harriet Tubman.
Reading: We continued work on reading for meaning. We discussed what the main idea of a story meant. In our decodable book, "Run, Ron," the students talked about main idea, as well as characters, setting and plot. In our literature story, "Wanda's Roses," the students worked on comprehension strategies and the use of quotations. We continued work on vocabulary development, 3-4 phoneme words and reviewing short i words.
Math: We continued work on telling time by the hour. We reivewed parts of an analog and digital clocks. We played the game, "Time to Visit," with a partner. It is included in the homework this week. We moved on to 3 dice "Got It". I am observing the different ways students are using to count what is on the dice. They are using fingers, counting by 2's or 5's, counting in their heads etc. We worked on story problems, illustrating what is happening and writing a number sentence about it. we talked about the plus sign and equal sign.
Writing: We continue work on refining our upper and lowercase letters and placement of words on a given line. The students wrote about various topics. Next week, we will talk about what a paragraph is.
Science: We continued work on shadows. In experiment 3, we learned what makes a shadow, that light passes through some objects and not others, that shadows can be light shadows, dark shadows or no shadow at all depending upon how much light they allow to pass through them. In experiment 4, recorded the changes in a shadow from morning, midday and late afternoon. We used Ceci as our shadow maker for the experiment. The students noted the change in the position of the sun each time they recorded where Ceci's shadow was. I photographed each students shadow "dance" for a writing project next week. We traced our head silhouettes. We learned what radiometer was and how it worked.
Literature: "Telling Time," "What Makes Day and Night," "Are You My Mother?" Starry Skies-Questions and Riddles About the Universe," "Chasing Shadows," "I Can See My Shadow," "Guess Who's Shadow?" 'Helen Keller," "Beatrix Potter."
Friday, March 4, 2011
UPDATES for 2/28-3/4 2011
**No School on Monday, March 7th, in observance of Casmir Pulaski Day.
**Once again--the Fun Fair was awesome! Thanks for your contributions and attendance.
**Congratulations to our new Student Council reps, Danny and Maggie! They will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, March 8th.
**SPELLING BEE--Our classroom bee is Tuesday morning, March 8th. We are all going to try it. The top 3 (2 participants and 1 alternate), will participate in the K-2 Spelling Bee in April. Try your best....Have fun with it....Remember-- the students spell based on what their knowledge is so far.......no pressure...just exposure!
**No Route to Reading due to ISAT make ups. It will resume on March 14th.
**SPRING BREAK --March 26th -April 3rd. Classes resume Monday, April 4th.
**Today marks the end of the 2nd trimester. Report cards go out on Friday, March 18th. Look for the Trimester Update next week.
**FAMILY READING NIGHT--check out the Swap, Shop and Read flyer in homework packet. Read and have a snack with me!
**Future Field Trip--Planetarium--Thursday, April 12th....More info will follow.
**Our game afternoon was great! The students complied a list and brought in their own games from home. All students worked well with each other and many tried multiple games. Super Mario Chess (lead by Jack), Telephone Game (lead by Cole), Dizios (lead by Henry) and Charades (lead by Ceci) were HUGE hits!
**Opera for the Young is coming to Irving School on Wednesday, March 16th at 9:00 am. "Pirates of Penzance" will be presented. Students have been listening and learning a participation part in music class.
**New words for spelling city up and running.
This week:
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! We took a look at the work of Dr. Suess. We discussed what makes his stories cool---rhyming, silly words, illustrations, crazy names, tongue twisters. Ms. Noonan read the story of "The Sneetches" in library and the students discussed what the lesson of the story was.
Reading: We continued work on story elements and vocabulary development. We learned about the problem and solution that a story can have. We focused on short u words. We are doing a great job recognizing blends and digraphs. The students listened to the story "The Enormous Turnip" and wrote in their journals 3 things that happened in the story. (written recall). We revisited when to use periods, commas and question marks in our sentences.
Math: We worked on parts of an analog clock and telling time by the hour. The students can use their "clown clock" to move the hour hand. We also continued work with place value and marking tens and hundreds. We did some work with writing 2 and 3 digit numbers. We played a new dice game called "2 Dice Got It" with partners. The students rolled the dice and added the total. If they found the number on their recording sheet, they said GOT IT and put an x on the number.
Writing: The students worked in their journals on various topics. They reflected on some of the Dr. Seuss stories we read. We continue work on refining upper and lowercase letters and word placement. We revisited when to use periods, commas and question marks in our sentences.
Science: We began our new science unit--Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon. In experiment 1, we tackled the question, "What is a shadow?" The students observed and described a shadow. They defined what a shadow was and the 3 things you need to make a shadow. You need some sort of light, something to block the light and a surface to see the shadow. In experiment 2, the students learned the correct order of the 3 things and learned what a silhouette was. We saw a silhouette of Abraham Lincoln and Niko and Alistair!
Literature: What Was I Scared Of, Fox in Socks, The Cat in the Hat, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, The Eye Book, Horton Hatches an Egg, The Enormous Turnip, I Love my Shadow, What is a Shadow?, Shadows.
**Once again--the Fun Fair was awesome! Thanks for your contributions and attendance.
**Congratulations to our new Student Council reps, Danny and Maggie! They will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, March 8th.
**SPELLING BEE--Our classroom bee is Tuesday morning, March 8th. We are all going to try it. The top 3 (2 participants and 1 alternate), will participate in the K-2 Spelling Bee in April. Try your best....Have fun with it....Remember-- the students spell based on what their knowledge is so far.......no pressure...just exposure!
**No Route to Reading due to ISAT make ups. It will resume on March 14th.
**SPRING BREAK --March 26th -April 3rd. Classes resume Monday, April 4th.
**Today marks the end of the 2nd trimester. Report cards go out on Friday, March 18th. Look for the Trimester Update next week.
**FAMILY READING NIGHT--check out the Swap, Shop and Read flyer in homework packet. Read and have a snack with me!
**Future Field Trip--Planetarium--Thursday, April 12th....More info will follow.
**Our game afternoon was great! The students complied a list and brought in their own games from home. All students worked well with each other and many tried multiple games. Super Mario Chess (lead by Jack), Telephone Game (lead by Cole), Dizios (lead by Henry) and Charades (lead by Ceci) were HUGE hits!
**Opera for the Young is coming to Irving School on Wednesday, March 16th at 9:00 am. "Pirates of Penzance" will be presented. Students have been listening and learning a participation part in music class.
**New words for spelling city up and running.
This week:
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! We took a look at the work of Dr. Suess. We discussed what makes his stories cool---rhyming, silly words, illustrations, crazy names, tongue twisters. Ms. Noonan read the story of "The Sneetches" in library and the students discussed what the lesson of the story was.
Reading: We continued work on story elements and vocabulary development. We learned about the problem and solution that a story can have. We focused on short u words. We are doing a great job recognizing blends and digraphs. The students listened to the story "The Enormous Turnip" and wrote in their journals 3 things that happened in the story. (written recall). We revisited when to use periods, commas and question marks in our sentences.
Math: We worked on parts of an analog clock and telling time by the hour. The students can use their "clown clock" to move the hour hand. We also continued work with place value and marking tens and hundreds. We did some work with writing 2 and 3 digit numbers. We played a new dice game called "2 Dice Got It" with partners. The students rolled the dice and added the total. If they found the number on their recording sheet, they said GOT IT and put an x on the number.
Writing: The students worked in their journals on various topics. They reflected on some of the Dr. Seuss stories we read. We continue work on refining upper and lowercase letters and word placement. We revisited when to use periods, commas and question marks in our sentences.
Science: We began our new science unit--Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon. In experiment 1, we tackled the question, "What is a shadow?" The students observed and described a shadow. They defined what a shadow was and the 3 things you need to make a shadow. You need some sort of light, something to block the light and a surface to see the shadow. In experiment 2, the students learned the correct order of the 3 things and learned what a silhouette was. We saw a silhouette of Abraham Lincoln and Niko and Alistair!
Literature: What Was I Scared Of, Fox in Socks, The Cat in the Hat, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, The Eye Book, Horton Hatches an Egg, The Enormous Turnip, I Love my Shadow, What is a Shadow?, Shadows.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
UPDATES for 2/21-25 2011
**Don't forget to send in your child's release form for the FLWright Newsletter.
**The Fun Fair is TOMORROW!!! Tons of fun from 11-3 pm. Play a game with me! Games, food, dessert, raffle, prizes. What "crew" will get the PIE in the FACE??? The New Beats, The Rejects or Beatstreet? Bring your quarters and vote. Don't forget the silent auction--I will be donating a bed time story reading to 2 lucky winners....Check it out! Early ticket sale on Friday after school--5 tickets for $1.00.
**New reps for Student Council needed. All interested, fill out the form in the homework packet and send back. I will pick from the hat on Tuesday, March 1st. The first meeting is March 8th.
**SPELLING BEE info--Each year Irving has an All School Spelling Bee. This year the Bee will be held in April. New this year--The Kindergarten classes will participate in a Homeroom Bee to determine who represents our Homeroom. Two participants and one alternate will be selected. These students will participate in the K-2 Spelling Bee. Our Homeroom Bee is March 7th. I will enclose a list for those interested in the homework packet. Come on everyone--Let's spell!!
**No Route to Reading-February 28th-March 11th due to ISAT testing. It will resume March 14th.
**We have concluded our science unit-Investigating Water. The students had great fun, but also learned how to think like scientists and share information. Their science journals and reflection journals will go home at the end of the trimester.
**We will begin our prep for our new science unit--Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon along with our new cross-curricular theme--SPACE. Keep saving those giant boxes and cool things for our space stations. You can send them in after spring break.
**We are working on a new unit in Open Court called "Stick to It." Much of the literature centers around perseverance, working together for a common goal and holding fast to your dreams.
**Our 100 item Hearts will be sent home next Friday.
**Check out our Time of Day project in the homework packet.
This Week:
It was all about TEETH week! We learned about parts of a tooth, how many teeth we have, how to take care of our teeth, types of teeth and what a cavity is. We practiced our brushing technique on the giant toothbrush and giant teeth.
Reading: Continued work on story elements and vocabulary development. We are working on reading for meaning, getting the main idea and decoding strategies. We continue work on short vowels, recognizing blends, digraphs and segmenting 4 and 5 phoneme words.
Math: This week we worked on graphing information and outcomes. tally marks and greater than and less than with our Top It Tally game, coin recognition and values, pattern block puzzles to strengthen visual discrimination and counting by 2's and 5's to 50.
Writing: We worked on reviewing number formation 0-9 with our number rhymes, reviewed Magic 'C" lowercase letters a, c, g, d. In our journals, we continue to work on sentence structure, spacing and placement of words on a given line. Written recall--The students listened to story and wrote 2 sentences about what they remembered.
Science: We concluded our unit on Investigating Water.
Literature: "One Wonderful Smile," "Hooray for Teeth," "Little Rabbit's Lost Tooth," "My Tooth is About to Fall Out," "You Think it is Easy Being a Tooth Fairy?" "Tillie and the Wall," "Great Black Heroes--Granville Woods (electricity and the third rail), Elijah McCoy (machines and the oil cup), Poems by Langston Hughes, "Water."
**The Fun Fair is TOMORROW!!! Tons of fun from 11-3 pm. Play a game with me! Games, food, dessert, raffle, prizes. What "crew" will get the PIE in the FACE??? The New Beats, The Rejects or Beatstreet? Bring your quarters and vote. Don't forget the silent auction--I will be donating a bed time story reading to 2 lucky winners....Check it out! Early ticket sale on Friday after school--5 tickets for $1.00.
**New reps for Student Council needed. All interested, fill out the form in the homework packet and send back. I will pick from the hat on Tuesday, March 1st. The first meeting is March 8th.
**SPELLING BEE info--Each year Irving has an All School Spelling Bee. This year the Bee will be held in April. New this year--The Kindergarten classes will participate in a Homeroom Bee to determine who represents our Homeroom. Two participants and one alternate will be selected. These students will participate in the K-2 Spelling Bee. Our Homeroom Bee is March 7th. I will enclose a list for those interested in the homework packet. Come on everyone--Let's spell!!
**No Route to Reading-February 28th-March 11th due to ISAT testing. It will resume March 14th.
**We have concluded our science unit-Investigating Water. The students had great fun, but also learned how to think like scientists and share information. Their science journals and reflection journals will go home at the end of the trimester.
**We will begin our prep for our new science unit--Sunshine, Shadows and the Moon along with our new cross-curricular theme--SPACE. Keep saving those giant boxes and cool things for our space stations. You can send them in after spring break.
**We are working on a new unit in Open Court called "Stick to It." Much of the literature centers around perseverance, working together for a common goal and holding fast to your dreams.
**Our 100 item Hearts will be sent home next Friday.
**Check out our Time of Day project in the homework packet.
This Week:
It was all about TEETH week! We learned about parts of a tooth, how many teeth we have, how to take care of our teeth, types of teeth and what a cavity is. We practiced our brushing technique on the giant toothbrush and giant teeth.
Reading: Continued work on story elements and vocabulary development. We are working on reading for meaning, getting the main idea and decoding strategies. We continue work on short vowels, recognizing blends, digraphs and segmenting 4 and 5 phoneme words.
Math: This week we worked on graphing information and outcomes. tally marks and greater than and less than with our Top It Tally game, coin recognition and values, pattern block puzzles to strengthen visual discrimination and counting by 2's and 5's to 50.
Writing: We worked on reviewing number formation 0-9 with our number rhymes, reviewed Magic 'C" lowercase letters a, c, g, d. In our journals, we continue to work on sentence structure, spacing and placement of words on a given line. Written recall--The students listened to story and wrote 2 sentences about what they remembered.
Science: We concluded our unit on Investigating Water.
Literature: "One Wonderful Smile," "Hooray for Teeth," "Little Rabbit's Lost Tooth," "My Tooth is About to Fall Out," "You Think it is Easy Being a Tooth Fairy?" "Tillie and the Wall," "Great Black Heroes--Granville Woods (electricity and the third rail), Elijah McCoy (machines and the oil cup), Poems by Langston Hughes, "Water."
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
UPDATES for 2/7-2/18 2011
Glad to be up and running!!!
**Our 100th Day Celebration was a smashing success! Thanks to all who helped. Come and check out our 100 item collections on our hearts. They are up in our hallway.
**Our ART START program, in conjunction with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, has concluded. Our final project was an exploration of art glass. The students saw a slide presentation of art glass in FLW's home. They discussed the types of shapes and use of symmetry. The students then created their own stained glass using tracing paper and colored pencils. Come check them out on our windows. What a great experience for the students. Ms. Shannon would like to publish some of the pictures of our experience. A release form will be sent home Friday.
**Check out the new STATION DAY HELPER list by clicking on the link. Spelling City, Xtra Math and Starfall are also up and running. I will be looking for another suitable math link.
**NO SCHOOL on MONDAY, February 21st----President's Day.
**Thanks to Hannah and Ethan for their work on Student Council this trimester. We will be looking for 2 new reps. Look for information this Friday.
**The FUN FAIR is coming! The FUN FAIR is coming! Games, food, desserts, prizes, pie in the face--play a game with me. Saturday, February 26th from 11-3 pm. at Irving.
**Reading Grandma is reporting that I need to provide more challenging books. They are ready for it!
This Week
READING-We are finishing our unit on "Wind." We continue to work on oral comprehension, story elements, problem and solution, decoding strategies, recognizing the beginning, middle and ending of a story, reading for meaning and vocabulary development. We have been working on segmenting and blending 4 and 5 phoneme words.
MATH-We have been working on writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, place value, counting to 100 and beyond, listening to information in story problems, counting by 2's and 5's and investigating the process of addition and subtraction and coins and their values.
HANDWRITING-We continue to work on lowercase formation with "Magic C" letters, a,g,d. We are writing 2-3 sentences in our journal reflections, continuing to work on spaces between words in a sentence, punctuation, and placement of letters on a given line.
SCIENCE-We are finishing our last experiment--What dissolves in water? and studying the water cycle.
LITERATURE-"Water can Change", "The Water Cycle", "Abraham Lincoln", "Harriet Tubman", "The Story of Ruby Bridges", "A Picture Book of Jessie Owens", "Rosa Parks", Magic School Bus Has a Heart", "Big Heart",
"A Book of Friends", "Friends" and "A Picture Book of George Washington".
**Our 100th Day Celebration was a smashing success! Thanks to all who helped. Come and check out our 100 item collections on our hearts. They are up in our hallway.
**Our ART START program, in conjunction with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, has concluded. Our final project was an exploration of art glass. The students saw a slide presentation of art glass in FLW's home. They discussed the types of shapes and use of symmetry. The students then created their own stained glass using tracing paper and colored pencils. Come check them out on our windows. What a great experience for the students. Ms. Shannon would like to publish some of the pictures of our experience. A release form will be sent home Friday.
**Check out the new STATION DAY HELPER list by clicking on the link. Spelling City, Xtra Math and Starfall are also up and running. I will be looking for another suitable math link.
**NO SCHOOL on MONDAY, February 21st----President's Day.
**Thanks to Hannah and Ethan for their work on Student Council this trimester. We will be looking for 2 new reps. Look for information this Friday.
**The FUN FAIR is coming! The FUN FAIR is coming! Games, food, desserts, prizes, pie in the face--play a game with me. Saturday, February 26th from 11-3 pm. at Irving.
**Reading Grandma is reporting that I need to provide more challenging books. They are ready for it!
This Week
READING-We are finishing our unit on "Wind." We continue to work on oral comprehension, story elements, problem and solution, decoding strategies, recognizing the beginning, middle and ending of a story, reading for meaning and vocabulary development. We have been working on segmenting and blending 4 and 5 phoneme words.
MATH-We have been working on writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, place value, counting to 100 and beyond, listening to information in story problems, counting by 2's and 5's and investigating the process of addition and subtraction and coins and their values.
HANDWRITING-We continue to work on lowercase formation with "Magic C" letters, a,g,d. We are writing 2-3 sentences in our journal reflections, continuing to work on spaces between words in a sentence, punctuation, and placement of letters on a given line.
SCIENCE-We are finishing our last experiment--What dissolves in water? and studying the water cycle.
LITERATURE-"Water can Change", "The Water Cycle", "Abraham Lincoln", "Harriet Tubman", "The Story of Ruby Bridges", "A Picture Book of Jessie Owens", "Rosa Parks", Magic School Bus Has a Heart", "Big Heart",
"A Book of Friends", "Friends" and "A Picture Book of George Washington".
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