**Once again, thanks for sending our little kinders prepared for the elements. Next week, it looks like we will be outside for recess. Please keep sending snow pants and boots. ALSO.....While we are very comfortable in our classroom, it is very dry in the room. We are getting frequent drinks of water but you can feel free to send a water bottle and a small chap stick or small vaseline for dry lips that will remain in their backpacks. Along with water break we have been having a "chap stick" break too.
**I am holding off on our BUSY READER Club info until this coming Friday. Look for it in your child's homework folder.
**The Friday Night Disco Dance Party was super fun. Mr. DiPaolo was the DJ. There was smoke, glow in the dark sticks and lots of dancing!!!! Thanks to all who could attend.
**Swap, Shop and Read was great. Many students selected 10 or more new books. The milk and cookies were yummy too!
**Reading Grandma Mary came to class on Thursday. She was very impressed with the students reading and comprehension. She will be with us every Thursday until the end of the year. We love her!
**Route to Reading Rotation 5 will begin on Monday, January 25th. You will receive notification of the skill your child will be working on and the teacher teaching it.
**The 100th Day is coming!!! Keep working on your 100 item heart. Students are beginning to bring them in. So creative!!! They will be displayed in our hallway. The project is due on February 4th.
**Our 100th Day/Valentine's Day Celebration in Wednesday, February, 10th from 9-11 am. We now have K. Meier, N. Massett, N. Daniel, K. Harris, H. Alvarez, G. Lowell helping out. 2 more volunteers would be absolutely great!!!!!! Think about it!!!. On February 10th, we will also have an early Valentine's Day celebration. The students can bring in Valentine's for the class. We have 18 students total. (11 girls and 7 boys) Students can also bring in a treat (nut free/dairy free) or treasure that will be put in to a treat bag and sent home. Don't forget to bring in a picture of a person you think is 100 days old and a person you think is 100 years old. You can look in magazines, the internet or if you have a family member or know someone who is near 100, you can bring a real photo in.
**Please confirm your day and time for Parent Conference. Parent/Teacher Conferences for Mid Year are Monday, February, 8th, Tuesday, February 9th and Wednesday, February10th. Please note that on Thursday and Friday (February 11th and 12th) school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, District school bus and Club House pick up will be at 11:00 am.
**Japanese Exchange Students will be visiting Irving School and come and chat with our students on Thursday, January 28th at 8:25 am. Japan Fest is Saturday, January 30th from 12-4 pm at OPRF.
**The FUN FAIR IS COMING!! THE FUN FAIR IS COMING!! The Irving School Fun Fair is Saturday, February 20th from 11-3 pm throughout the school. There will be games, prizes, silent auction, dancing for desserts and much more. Come play a game with me! Who will get the PIE IN THE FACE this year??? What special performances do the teachers have up their sleeves??? (silent auction items--I will be taking 4 special winners to lunch at the Junction Dinner. I will also be reading bedtime stories to 2 lucky students in their homes) Bid! Bid! Look for information soon from our Room Parents on making a contribution to our class basket. They are currently working on a theme.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her lesson on remaining calm or calming yourself down in frustrating situations. Be a Cool Cucumber!!
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer began a project on being a detective and looking for details.
** In Mr. Degman, Math/Tech, Mr. Degman worked with groups of students on number bounding.
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES and other cool stuff for our space station design and construction in April. Keep everything at home until after spring break. Thanks!
This week:
It was all about WATER climbing---WHAT!? Check out the science section. Our Water Table will be opening up next week. The students also enjoyed tracking the snow storm heading to the east coast via weatherundeground. Station Day activities included creating climbing water snowflakes, graphing/recording/comparing winter clothing, building from an outline using pattern blocks, snowman sequence and write, snowflake color by code, build a snowman game. (sums to ten)
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. Much of this week was spent on mid year phonemic and literacy assessments. The students continued to work on the same workstations as last week so all students could finish all workstations. Students reviewed all sight vocabulary. They worked with partners to create sentences with words, pictures and punctuation and then recorded them on paper. Students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 4-5 sound words. They worked on previous activities relating to short and long o words and consonant blends and digraphs. They listened to the trade book, "The Mitten" and used the Main Events quilt to record the key details in the story. The students did a summative Blueprint Workmat using the text, "Martin's Big Words." The students described the relationship between one of the illustrations and how is helps you to understand the story. We continue to use the "I Do," "We Do," and "You Do" format.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 100 and beyond and now trying to write their numbers from 1-100. They are also working with groups of ten objects to count to 100. The students worked with partners to set up their ten frames to reflect certain numbers. ie-How many complete ten frames to we need to make 48? They began work in their new Story Problem Journals.
The page is projected on the screen. The students read the story and then decide what to do. We are beginning with adding story problems. They record the numbers on their ten frames, illustrate the problem (show their thinking) and then write the number sentence. The students continue to work with number bonds to ten this time using grouping objects of their choice to show a way. Workstations this week included writing numbers to 50, greater/less than "Nuts and Bolts" game, "Build a Snowman" (dice game sums to 10) working on geometric solids recognition.
Writing: Students continued to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters v,w, and t were reviewed. Students used their mini boards to practice and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. They continued to work on their writing project---snowman sequence from their station day.
Science: The students reviewed what they have discovered about water so far. This week, in Experiment 3, the students experimented with paper towel, sponges, wax paper, regular paper and kleenex in wiping up water. They discussed at their table what would be the best to remove water. Lots of conversation and OPINIONS about which one did the best job. Most of the tables agreed that the paper towels and sponges did the best job of "sucking up" (their words) the water. But How and Why???? As the student used their magnifying glasses to take a closer look, they noticed holes or spaces in the sponge and paper towel. Mmmmmmmm. The students then suspended a piece of paper towel on to a dowel rod in a cup. I poured red water into the cup. What Happened? "It looks like the water is going up the paper towel." Discovery.....The water climbs into the holes/spaces....a sponge has large holes. You can also see the holes/spaces in the paper towel. The conversation shifted to other things that the water climbs fast up into. The paper didn't really suck up the water fast. The kleenex got mushy but both got soaked. Each student put a piece of celery in their water at the end of the day. What will happen? The next day......the students took their magnifying glasses and looked very carefully. What did they observe? Some of the leaves of the celery looked red and so did the stem. The top of the celery had red inside. Hattie started the ball rolling by making the connection that when you water plants, the water goes up through the root system. Ahh......could there be spaces inside the celery too? Do all plants have holes/spaces where water can travel? The connections continued with students mentioning trees, plants in your garden must have spaces where water can climb into. What about the veins in leaves? Lots of connections!!! The students recorded their thoughts in their science journals and made sketches of their findings.
Technology: In reading whole and small groups, students used the apps Montessori Crosswords and Reading Magic 3 to enhance segmenting and blending 3-4 sound words, Spelling Bug to sequence sounds in cvc words and Oz Phonics to reinforce sentence word order. In math whole and small groups students used the apps Monster Squeeze, Sam Phibian, Butterfly Math, Number Find and Subitize Tree to enhance visual motor, addition/subtraction, number order/place value, and counting quantities.
Literature: "Martin's Big Words," "The Mitten," "The First Illustrated Science Dictionary," "Snowzilla," "Water's Way," "Curious George's Snowy Day."
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Sunday, January 17, 2016
UPDATES for 1/11-1/14 2016
**The weather was frigid, but we did get to go out on Thursday. Thanks for dong such a great job of having your child prepared for the elements! Please keep this up as we will have another round of very cold weather next week. Don't forget gym shoes on gym days. (Wednesday and Thursday) Science inquiry experiments and beginning discussion on our BUSY READER CLUB have been the talk of the classroom. Information on our BUSY READER CLUB will be in your child's homework folder this Friday.
**The 100th Day is coming!!!! The students received their 100 Item Project. They are excited to put their creativity to work. The project is due on February 4th. Email me with any questions.
**Our 100th Day/Valentine's Day Celebration is Wednesday, February 10th from 9-11 am. We have Ms. Meier, Ms. Massett and Ms. Daniel helping out so far but need at least 5 more so we can do some cool activities. Please email me if you are interested. On February 10th, we will also have an early Valentine Celebration. The students can bring a valentine for the class. We have 18 students total. (11 girls and 7 boys) Students can also bring a treat or treasure for the class that will be put into a treat bag and sent home.
**Parent/Teacher Conference for Mid Year notifications were stapled to the heart project. Please confirm your day and time. Let me know if you need a different day or time. Conferences will be held on Monday, February 8th, Tuesday, February 9th and Wednesday, February 10th. Please note that on Thursday, February 11th and Friday, February 12th, school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Club House and district bus pick up will also be at 11:00 am.
**Reading Grandma Mary will begin hearing readers this Thursday, January 21st from 9-11. We are so lucky to have her every Thursday.
**Our other helping Grandma, Mrs. D. will begin again every Tuesday morning. Want more Grandma love??!! You got it! I am in the process of scheduling another Grandma of a former student who wishes to volunteer some time.
**Want some new books and to donate books you have already read----come to SWAP, SHOP and READ on Thursday, January 21st from 6-7:30 pm in the Kindergarten Hallway.
**Friday Night DISCO DANCE PARTY to benefit the 5th grade Outdoor Education will be held Friday, January 22nd from 6-8 pm in the gym. Admission is $1.00. All students must be accompanied by an adult.
**Japanese Exchange students will visit Irving School and come and chat with our students on Thursday, January 28th at 8:25 am. Japan Fest is Saturday, January 30th from 12-4 pm at OPRF.
**NO SCHOOL--Monday, January 18th in observance of ML King.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey taught a lesson on how to remain and become calm and centered. She showed breathing techniques and video clips with some meditative music and actions.
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES (the ones you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our space station design and construction in APRIL. I cannot store anything now. I will ave you bring it in after spring break.
This week:
The students began a mini unit on the life and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King. One of the texts, "Martin's Big Words," will be used for 3 of our Blueprint Workmats on text features, illustrations and author's message. We used our map skills to trace the path of the march on Washington. The students saw a BrainPop video on Dr. King's life and work. They were very thankful for Dr. King's work to use nonviolence to promote change. There were some very reflective moments in our discussions where students could not believe that there was a time when they would not have been able to attend school together. We love our classmates!! We used selected texts to examine quotes, speeches and word choices. The students also began the inquiry into the properties of water. Who knew a drop of water could be so interesting! More in the science section.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work in Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed animal babies and habitats. They accessed prior knowledge about animal habitats they knew about. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Animal Offspring ABC's." We discussed what an offspring was. The students used the story as a springboard to discuss what the name of the animal was and where and what their habitat looked like. The students reviewed the sight words play, is, in. They partnered up to create sentences using their sight words and punctuation. We continued work on sentence lifting. They are becoming quicker at spotting what needs to be done to "fix" a sentence. They reviewed the target sounds short and long o and Ff. We took time to review all of our consonant and vowel sounds as well as consonant blends and digraph combinations. Our Robust Vocabulary included HABITAT, RESPONSIBILITY, BENEATH, RAISE, ENTER. Students practiced segmenting and blending 3 and 4 sound words using their elkonin boxes. Using the decodable story, "Tap, Tap, Tap," the students revisited the words problem and solution and how they relate to a story. They then elbow chatted with a partner about what the problem was in the story and how it was fixed or solved. The students worked on sound spelling cvc and ccvc/cvcc words using their dry erase boards. They also worked on a formative Blueprint workmat for sequencing events in a story using the text "The Snow Day." Workstations included leveled readers with fluency, story elements and main idea check, reading a story and writing about the problem and solution, writing an opinion piece on which you like better--cats or dogs and supporting your answer, I Can, They Can sentences and illustrations, short o word work, reading short o word sentences, playing CHOMP--substituting sound game.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 100 and beyond by ones and tens. They are also illustrating teen numbers on a ten frame as 1 group of ten and the number that is left over on the next ten frame. They continue to listen for information in a story problem. Next week, we will begin our math story problem journals. Math workstations this week included writing numbers 2 digit numbers, greater/less than "Nuts and Bolts" game, "Build a Snowman," (addition to 10) Make 5 Bingo, Is it even or odd activity and number bonds to 10 activity.
Writing: The students continue to work on sentence structure, placement of letters on a given line, punctuation, spacing between words and reading their sentences. Writing is taking place not only in their journals, but during their reading, math, science workstations.
Science: The students began discussion/dictation on what they knew about water. They were introduced to the word property and what it means. A property is a behavior. Each student was given and experiment notebook as well as a science reflection journal to record the experiments and their own thoughts, questions, comments and sketches. In Experiment 1, the students explored water using a variety of tools--hands, spoons, straws, stick, cup. In using the tools, they described how water feels, smells, looks, sounds. In Experiment 2, they discovered that water droplets have their shape and can "stick" to one another like magnets. Using a pipette, they practiced sucking up the water into it and releasing the water back into their cup. It was fun to watch the students carefully trying to capture one droplet of water and squeeze it onto their wax paper. The students delighted in pushing one water droplet into another----what happens??? it forms a bigger droplet!!!We talked about the scientific word--cohesion-to describe the sticking together process. They recorded their findings into their science notebooks. Next week--climbing water.
Technology: No new apps were introduced this week. The students continue to use the iPad to enhanced learning and work on skill building.
Literature: "The Snowy Day," "A Drop of Water," "Water," "Investigating Water," "I Am Snow," "Martin's Big Words," "A Picture Book of Martin Luther King," "Martin's Dream," "Deep Snow," "50 Degrees Below Zero," "The Biggest Snowball Fight Ever," "A Perfect Day."
**The 100th Day is coming!!!! The students received their 100 Item Project. They are excited to put their creativity to work. The project is due on February 4th. Email me with any questions.
**Our 100th Day/Valentine's Day Celebration is Wednesday, February 10th from 9-11 am. We have Ms. Meier, Ms. Massett and Ms. Daniel helping out so far but need at least 5 more so we can do some cool activities. Please email me if you are interested. On February 10th, we will also have an early Valentine Celebration. The students can bring a valentine for the class. We have 18 students total. (11 girls and 7 boys) Students can also bring a treat or treasure for the class that will be put into a treat bag and sent home.
**Parent/Teacher Conference for Mid Year notifications were stapled to the heart project. Please confirm your day and time. Let me know if you need a different day or time. Conferences will be held on Monday, February 8th, Tuesday, February 9th and Wednesday, February 10th. Please note that on Thursday, February 11th and Friday, February 12th, school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Club House and district bus pick up will also be at 11:00 am.
**Reading Grandma Mary will begin hearing readers this Thursday, January 21st from 9-11. We are so lucky to have her every Thursday.
**Our other helping Grandma, Mrs. D. will begin again every Tuesday morning. Want more Grandma love??!! You got it! I am in the process of scheduling another Grandma of a former student who wishes to volunteer some time.
**Want some new books and to donate books you have already read----come to SWAP, SHOP and READ on Thursday, January 21st from 6-7:30 pm in the Kindergarten Hallway.
**Friday Night DISCO DANCE PARTY to benefit the 5th grade Outdoor Education will be held Friday, January 22nd from 6-8 pm in the gym. Admission is $1.00. All students must be accompanied by an adult.
**Japanese Exchange students will visit Irving School and come and chat with our students on Thursday, January 28th at 8:25 am. Japan Fest is Saturday, January 30th from 12-4 pm at OPRF.
**NO SCHOOL--Monday, January 18th in observance of ML King.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey taught a lesson on how to remain and become calm and centered. She showed breathing techniques and video clips with some meditative music and actions.
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES (the ones you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our space station design and construction in APRIL. I cannot store anything now. I will ave you bring it in after spring break.
This week:
The students began a mini unit on the life and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King. One of the texts, "Martin's Big Words," will be used for 3 of our Blueprint Workmats on text features, illustrations and author's message. We used our map skills to trace the path of the march on Washington. The students saw a BrainPop video on Dr. King's life and work. They were very thankful for Dr. King's work to use nonviolence to promote change. There were some very reflective moments in our discussions where students could not believe that there was a time when they would not have been able to attend school together. We love our classmates!! We used selected texts to examine quotes, speeches and word choices. The students also began the inquiry into the properties of water. Who knew a drop of water could be so interesting! More in the science section.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work in Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed animal babies and habitats. They accessed prior knowledge about animal habitats they knew about. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Animal Offspring ABC's." We discussed what an offspring was. The students used the story as a springboard to discuss what the name of the animal was and where and what their habitat looked like. The students reviewed the sight words play, is, in. They partnered up to create sentences using their sight words and punctuation. We continued work on sentence lifting. They are becoming quicker at spotting what needs to be done to "fix" a sentence. They reviewed the target sounds short and long o and Ff. We took time to review all of our consonant and vowel sounds as well as consonant blends and digraph combinations. Our Robust Vocabulary included HABITAT, RESPONSIBILITY, BENEATH, RAISE, ENTER. Students practiced segmenting and blending 3 and 4 sound words using their elkonin boxes. Using the decodable story, "Tap, Tap, Tap," the students revisited the words problem and solution and how they relate to a story. They then elbow chatted with a partner about what the problem was in the story and how it was fixed or solved. The students worked on sound spelling cvc and ccvc/cvcc words using their dry erase boards. They also worked on a formative Blueprint workmat for sequencing events in a story using the text "The Snow Day." Workstations included leveled readers with fluency, story elements and main idea check, reading a story and writing about the problem and solution, writing an opinion piece on which you like better--cats or dogs and supporting your answer, I Can, They Can sentences and illustrations, short o word work, reading short o word sentences, playing CHOMP--substituting sound game.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 100 and beyond by ones and tens. They are also illustrating teen numbers on a ten frame as 1 group of ten and the number that is left over on the next ten frame. They continue to listen for information in a story problem. Next week, we will begin our math story problem journals. Math workstations this week included writing numbers 2 digit numbers, greater/less than "Nuts and Bolts" game, "Build a Snowman," (addition to 10) Make 5 Bingo, Is it even or odd activity and number bonds to 10 activity.
Writing: The students continue to work on sentence structure, placement of letters on a given line, punctuation, spacing between words and reading their sentences. Writing is taking place not only in their journals, but during their reading, math, science workstations.
Science: The students began discussion/dictation on what they knew about water. They were introduced to the word property and what it means. A property is a behavior. Each student was given and experiment notebook as well as a science reflection journal to record the experiments and their own thoughts, questions, comments and sketches. In Experiment 1, the students explored water using a variety of tools--hands, spoons, straws, stick, cup. In using the tools, they described how water feels, smells, looks, sounds. In Experiment 2, they discovered that water droplets have their shape and can "stick" to one another like magnets. Using a pipette, they practiced sucking up the water into it and releasing the water back into their cup. It was fun to watch the students carefully trying to capture one droplet of water and squeeze it onto their wax paper. The students delighted in pushing one water droplet into another----what happens??? it forms a bigger droplet!!!We talked about the scientific word--cohesion-to describe the sticking together process. They recorded their findings into their science notebooks. Next week--climbing water.
Technology: No new apps were introduced this week. The students continue to use the iPad to enhanced learning and work on skill building.
Literature: "The Snowy Day," "A Drop of Water," "Water," "Investigating Water," "I Am Snow," "Martin's Big Words," "A Picture Book of Martin Luther King," "Martin's Dream," "Deep Snow," "50 Degrees Below Zero," "The Biggest Snowball Fight Ever," "A Perfect Day."
Sunday, January 10, 2016
UPDATES for 1/4-1/8 2016
**Happy New Year and welcome back! The students appeared well rested and excited to be back to our routine. Looks like we will be experiencing "real" winter next week. Please continue to send snow pants, boots, gloves and scarves for warmth. Going out for lunchtime recess is determined by Mr. Hodge and the windchill factor. It could be 24 degrees and no windchill and that might mean we will be outside. It pays to be prepared! Our classroom has been very temperate. Some students have chosen to keep a sweater in school in case other classrooms are not so temperate. As always, don't forget to send gym shoes on gym days. (Wednesdays and Thursdays)
**Eagle Extras and World Language will begin on Monday. I will be getting a list of our participants.
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 began last Tuesday. Email me if you did not receive notification of the skill and teacher your child is working with.
**Mid Year DIBELS and AIMSWEB Math assessments will begin on Monday along with Darrell Morris Sound Foundation and mid year assessments in math, reading, writing, social/emotional growth and formative and summative Blueprint assessments. I will be sharing all of these with you are our Mid Year parent conference.
**You will receive notification on Thursday (1/14) about Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences. They will be held on Monday, February 8th, Tuesday, February 9th and Wednesday, February 10th. Please note that on Thursday, February 11th and Friday, February 12th school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Club House and district bus pick up will also be at 11:00 am.
**Our 100th Day of School/Valentine's Day Celebration is Wednesday, February 10th. I will let you know Thursday if we will celebrate in the morning or afternoon. We need lots of helpers to man learning station activities that will focus on the number 100 and counting by 10's to 100. Please email me if you can help. Right now, I have K. Meier signed up. I meed LOTS MORE!!. The students will also be working on a special 100 item project. This will be sent home with instructions on Thursday, January 14th.
**The students will see a special Dental Presentation on Monday, January 11th at 10:25 am.
**Reading Grandma Mary will begin her 9th year of volunteering in our class hearing our budding readers! Each student will get to spend private time with her working on fluency and comprehension. She will come to our classroom beginning Thursday, January 21st from 9-11 am and continue every Thursday at that time. We are thrilled to have her!
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, January 15th--Teacher's Institute Day
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 18th--ML King Day observance.
**Japanese Exchange students will visit Irving School and come and chat with our students on Thursday, January 28th at 8:25 am. Japan Fest is Saturday, January 30th from 12-4 pm at OPRF.
**Swap, Shop and Read will be held on Thursday, January 21st from 6-7:30 pm in the Kindergarten Hallway. It is a great way to add new books to your home library.
**Friday Night Disco Dance Party to benefit 5th grade outdoor education trip will be held on Friday, January 22nd from 6-8 pm in the gym. Admission is $1.00. All students must be accompanied by an adult.
**No Friendship club this week.
**No Mr. Degman Math/Tech this week.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer began a new thinking project using the text, "Tomorrow's Alphabet" by George Shannon. Stay tuned!
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES (the ones you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our space station design and construction in APRIL. I cannot store anything now. I will have you start bringing things in after spring break.
This week:
The students were definitely getting back into the swing of all things related to learning. They shared their winter break stories of travels, presents and family fun. Our PTO has funded the continuation of the app Brain Pop and the students showed their appreciation by working on one of our common core standards--writing an opinion and supporting statements about why they like Brain Pop. We sent them off with Mr. Hodge to share at the PTO meeting. The students have also started their inquiry into what they know about WATER. We will begin our science unit on Monday with our first experiment. We do have a cool furry visitor from the Field Museum! I just pick him up so the students will see him on Monday. Station Day activities this week included snowmen wind socks, writing and illustrating using the sentence starter....In the winter...... construct a structure with pattern blocks using the teen number assigned and complete the ten frame, count the snowballs and glue them to the same number shovel and partner work viewing the Brain Pop video on Winter and taking the quiz.
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. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Mama Cat and Her Three Kittens." They made predictions about story content. The elbow chatted with a partner about the actions the kittens were performing. The students took turns retelling the story in their own words to their partner. We took a look at sentence structure in the story--subject/action. We did a group Story Elements Butterfly, The students are doing a great job of volunteering to write characters, setting and main events. Our sight words for this week are is and in. Our target sounds are short o and long o. They continued their student of action words by creating a group list of action words (verbs ) that a kitten can do. Our robust vocabulary for this week included ACTION, GENTILE, COMPARE, CONTENT, POUNCE. The students continued work on sequencing events in a story using the words--first, next, then and last. They worked with a partner verbally retelling the story, "Bears Snores On." We worked on our Blueprint workmat with me first presenting the format (I do) then students helping me (we do) and finally the students completing their formative Blueprint workmat on their own. We also discussed what an OPINION is. They verbally discussed the question--Do you like cats or dogs? Why? They are learning to give supporting details to back up their claim. They used the question--Why do you like Brain Pop? The students then wrote a sentence or sentences to support their opinion. Cool! The students continue to work on segmenting and blending 3. 4 and 5 phoneme words using the app OZ Phonics projected on the screen. They also continue to work on strengthening auditory skills and verbal responses by deleting, adding and substituting sounds to create new words using the Haggerty Bluebook exercises. We are also doing an exercise where they see how fast they can say or sound out a nonsense word in preparation for our DIBELS testing. Workstations this week included Lexia Core 5 work, leveled readers with concentration on sequencing events, finding main topic and reading fluency, short o and short e word sort, ch/sh digraph sort, real or nonsense word find, using the app Spelling Bug to sequence sounds to make the word.
Math: The students continue to practice counting to 100 and beyond by 1's and 10's. They continued to work on teen numbers as one group of tens and what is left over or one complete ten frame and what is on the other ten frame. The students began work on formal number sentence writing now they have learned the process of addition. I showed examples of vertical and horizontal addition problems and the signs needed to create them--plus sign, equal sign. The students are beginning to listen as I read a story problem to decide what is being added together and how they arrive at an answer. There is not just one way! The students also continued to work on the concepts GREATER THAN/LESS THAN in speaking about numbers from 1-100. Workstations this week included sorting by common attribute review, let's make ten, number bonds to 10, even or odd number activity, recognizing geometric solids review.
Writing: Students began formal lowercase letter formation. The letters c, o, s were introduced with practice on their mini boards and application in their orange books. They worked on their opinion pieces and sentences relating to winter. We also began a process called sentence lifting, where I take a sentence from somebody's journal and project it so all students can examine it. How does the sentence look? Can you read it? Does it make sense? Does it have spaces between words? Does it have an ending mark? Does it begin with an uppercase letter? Are the letters where they should be? So much to think about!! The students give positive feedback and make suggestions. We are learning from each other!!
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 a whole group setting. In math small group, students used the app Butterfly Math to work on vertical and horizontal addition facts to 10. In whole group, students used Number Find to continue work on recognizing a pattern to find the target number as quickly as they can. Partners used Brain Pop to view a video on the subject of Winter and to take the quiz.
Literature: "Bear Snores On," "10 Little Dinosaurs," "It's Winter," "Mam Cat and Her Three Kittens," "I Have To," "Hello Snow," "Snowmen at Christmas," "In the Snow--Who's Been Here?"
**Eagle Extras and World Language will begin on Monday. I will be getting a list of our participants.
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 began last Tuesday. Email me if you did not receive notification of the skill and teacher your child is working with.
**Mid Year DIBELS and AIMSWEB Math assessments will begin on Monday along with Darrell Morris Sound Foundation and mid year assessments in math, reading, writing, social/emotional growth and formative and summative Blueprint assessments. I will be sharing all of these with you are our Mid Year parent conference.
**You will receive notification on Thursday (1/14) about Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences. They will be held on Monday, February 8th, Tuesday, February 9th and Wednesday, February 10th. Please note that on Thursday, February 11th and Friday, February 12th school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Club House and district bus pick up will also be at 11:00 am.
**Our 100th Day of School/Valentine's Day Celebration is Wednesday, February 10th. I will let you know Thursday if we will celebrate in the morning or afternoon. We need lots of helpers to man learning station activities that will focus on the number 100 and counting by 10's to 100. Please email me if you can help. Right now, I have K. Meier signed up. I meed LOTS MORE!!. The students will also be working on a special 100 item project. This will be sent home with instructions on Thursday, January 14th.
**The students will see a special Dental Presentation on Monday, January 11th at 10:25 am.
**Reading Grandma Mary will begin her 9th year of volunteering in our class hearing our budding readers! Each student will get to spend private time with her working on fluency and comprehension. She will come to our classroom beginning Thursday, January 21st from 9-11 am and continue every Thursday at that time. We are thrilled to have her!
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, January 15th--Teacher's Institute Day
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 18th--ML King Day observance.
**Japanese Exchange students will visit Irving School and come and chat with our students on Thursday, January 28th at 8:25 am. Japan Fest is Saturday, January 30th from 12-4 pm at OPRF.
**Swap, Shop and Read will be held on Thursday, January 21st from 6-7:30 pm in the Kindergarten Hallway. It is a great way to add new books to your home library.
**Friday Night Disco Dance Party to benefit 5th grade outdoor education trip will be held on Friday, January 22nd from 6-8 pm in the gym. Admission is $1.00. All students must be accompanied by an adult.
**No Friendship club this week.
**No Mr. Degman Math/Tech this week.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer began a new thinking project using the text, "Tomorrow's Alphabet" by George Shannon. Stay tuned!
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES (the ones you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our space station design and construction in APRIL. I cannot store anything now. I will have you start bringing things in after spring break.
This week:
The students were definitely getting back into the swing of all things related to learning. They shared their winter break stories of travels, presents and family fun. Our PTO has funded the continuation of the app Brain Pop and the students showed their appreciation by working on one of our common core standards--writing an opinion and supporting statements about why they like Brain Pop. We sent them off with Mr. Hodge to share at the PTO meeting. The students have also started their inquiry into what they know about WATER. We will begin our science unit on Monday with our first experiment. We do have a cool furry visitor from the Field Museum! I just pick him up so the students will see him on Monday. Station Day activities this week included snowmen wind socks, writing and illustrating using the sentence starter....In the winter...... construct a structure with pattern blocks using the teen number assigned and complete the ten frame, count the snowballs and glue them to the same number shovel and partner work viewing the Brain Pop video on Winter and taking the quiz.
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. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Mama Cat and Her Three Kittens." They made predictions about story content. The elbow chatted with a partner about the actions the kittens were performing. The students took turns retelling the story in their own words to their partner. We took a look at sentence structure in the story--subject/action. We did a group Story Elements Butterfly, The students are doing a great job of volunteering to write characters, setting and main events. Our sight words for this week are is and in. Our target sounds are short o and long o. They continued their student of action words by creating a group list of action words (verbs ) that a kitten can do. Our robust vocabulary for this week included ACTION, GENTILE, COMPARE, CONTENT, POUNCE. The students continued work on sequencing events in a story using the words--first, next, then and last. They worked with a partner verbally retelling the story, "Bears Snores On." We worked on our Blueprint workmat with me first presenting the format (I do) then students helping me (we do) and finally the students completing their formative Blueprint workmat on their own. We also discussed what an OPINION is. They verbally discussed the question--Do you like cats or dogs? Why? They are learning to give supporting details to back up their claim. They used the question--Why do you like Brain Pop? The students then wrote a sentence or sentences to support their opinion. Cool! The students continue to work on segmenting and blending 3. 4 and 5 phoneme words using the app OZ Phonics projected on the screen. They also continue to work on strengthening auditory skills and verbal responses by deleting, adding and substituting sounds to create new words using the Haggerty Bluebook exercises. We are also doing an exercise where they see how fast they can say or sound out a nonsense word in preparation for our DIBELS testing. Workstations this week included Lexia Core 5 work, leveled readers with concentration on sequencing events, finding main topic and reading fluency, short o and short e word sort, ch/sh digraph sort, real or nonsense word find, using the app Spelling Bug to sequence sounds to make the word.
Math: The students continue to practice counting to 100 and beyond by 1's and 10's. They continued to work on teen numbers as one group of tens and what is left over or one complete ten frame and what is on the other ten frame. The students began work on formal number sentence writing now they have learned the process of addition. I showed examples of vertical and horizontal addition problems and the signs needed to create them--plus sign, equal sign. The students are beginning to listen as I read a story problem to decide what is being added together and how they arrive at an answer. There is not just one way! The students also continued to work on the concepts GREATER THAN/LESS THAN in speaking about numbers from 1-100. Workstations this week included sorting by common attribute review, let's make ten, number bonds to 10, even or odd number activity, recognizing geometric solids review.
Writing: Students began formal lowercase letter formation. The letters c, o, s were introduced with practice on their mini boards and application in their orange books. They worked on their opinion pieces and sentences relating to winter. We also began a process called sentence lifting, where I take a sentence from somebody's journal and project it so all students can examine it. How does the sentence look? Can you read it? Does it make sense? Does it have spaces between words? Does it have an ending mark? Does it begin with an uppercase letter? Are the letters where they should be? So much to think about!! The students give positive feedback and make suggestions. We are learning from each other!!
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 a whole group setting. In math small group, students used the app Butterfly Math to work on vertical and horizontal addition facts to 10. In whole group, students used Number Find to continue work on recognizing a pattern to find the target number as quickly as they can. Partners used Brain Pop to view a video on the subject of Winter and to take the quiz.
Literature: "Bear Snores On," "10 Little Dinosaurs," "It's Winter," "Mam Cat and Her Three Kittens," "I Have To," "Hello Snow," "Snowmen at Christmas," "In the Snow--Who's Been Here?"
Sunday, December 20, 2015
UPDATES for 12/14 -12/18 2015
**We had a productive and calm classroom this week as we headed into the last week of classes before break. The students reflected on the year 2015 and created a Compliment Card board where they posted written compliments about fellow classmates. The students worked on creating friendship chains and decorated the classroom and our Secret Snowflake classroom.
**Our Winter Concert was fabulous! Our get together afterwards gave the students a chance to showcase some of the work they had done as well as share some treats! Thanks to all who helped out. The students were delighted to see parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles brothers and sisters at their concert.
**Our End of the Year Book Buddy get together was awesome! The students shared treats and worked on a getting to know you movie trailer using iMovie. Some of the movies are still being sent to me and hopefully I will share them with you.
**Classes resume on Monday, January 4th.
**Reading Grandma Mary will be returning for her 9th year of hearing our budding readers! She will join our class one morning a week and will work one on one with each student on fluency and comprehension.
** Our other wonderful grandma, Mrs. D. will also be returning on Tuesdays to volunteer at literacy workstations.
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin on January 4th. You will receive notification of the skill your child will be working on.
**Mid Year DIBELS screening for phonemic awareness and Mid Year AIMSWEB screening for math will begin the week of January 11th.
**Vision Screening for Kindergarten students will be held Friday, January 8th in the morning.
**No School on Friday, January 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**No School on Monday, January 18th--observance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.
**Swap, Shop and Read Book Exchange will be held on January 21st from 6-7:30 pm. A flyer was in your child's homework folder.
**Hearing Screening for Kindergarten will be held on Friday, February 5th in the morning.
**Our 100th Day of School is Wednesday, February 10th. I need lots of parent help for the activities and festivities. Stay tuned!
**Mid Year Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, February 8th, Tuesday, February 9th and Wednesday, February 10th. Thursday and Friday (February 11th and 12th) dismissal is at 11:00 am. There is no afternoon session.
**The Fun Fair is Coming!!!! It's Saturday, February 20th 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 design and construction in APRIL. I cannot store anything now. I will have you start bringing it in after spring break.
LOOKING AHEAD IN 2016-----Assuming we WILL HAVE cold weather and snow......Please send your child with appropriate dress. Boots and snow pants are a must for playing on the snow hills that will form as part of plowing the playground. I will have extra mittens and a few pair of snow pants in the room if you forget. We will begin our next cross curricular theme-WINTER. We will continue to introduce Next Generation Science strands within our district science model. We will begin our first formal science unit--Investigating Water. In the area of reading, the students will continue to focus on sound foundation, sound blending and segmenting/adding/deleting phonemes in 3,4,5, and even 6 phoneme words. We will also work on oral and written comprehension, sequencing events in a story, gathering supporting details in a text, stating an opinion with a supporting reasons, naming the main topic and using text features-like photos/illustrations to help understand the author's message. The students will work on their Blueprint Workmats in these areas. Our BUSY READER CLUB will begin. I will be sending out information about this the first week of school. In the area of writing, the students will begin formal training in forming lowercase letters. Students will continue to work on sentence structure, inventive spelling, grammar and punctuation and expanding sentence length to include adjectives. In the area of math, the students will continue to work on rote counting to 100 by 1's, 10's and beyond, writing numbers, demonstrating knowledge of numbers that are greater than or less than, representing addition and subtraction with objects and mental images, solving story problems using drawing and number work, number bonding to 10, working on teen numbers and fluent addition and subtraction to 5. Socially, the students will continue to work on becoming more responsible and independent learners and thinkers and continue to develop positive relationships with their peers and teachers. In the area of technology, the students will continue to use the iPad and internet resources to enhance all areas of the curriculum. WOW!! We will be very busy!
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The discussion this week centered on types of food you would have for dinner and if you ever helped make dinner. The students accessed prior knowledge about a meal they helped prepare. They shared information about special foods they may eat during the holidays. The students designed their own workstations this week. They included using the app Montessori Crosswords in the crossword puzzle form to segment and blend 3-4 sound words, writing about their favorite meal and why they liked it, using the foam gingerbread stickers as the characters, they draw the setting and create the events to form their own story, write and illustrate in their own words how they get ready for school each morning and walk their words.
Math: The students worked on a variety of counting and problem solving activities--creating snowflakes--counting the folds to make and where to cut, making Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer by listening to the directions, cutting and figuring where to place the pieces in order to make his face, playing the Dreidel Game and creating a tree using triangles and one rectangle. Some pretty cool thinking going on!
Writing: The students finished up work on uppercase letter formation. They worked on a writing project where they first created a gingerbread person of their choice and then wrote 2-4 sentences to describe them. They continue to work on reading their own writing and are beginning to make their own corrections. They are working on placement of letters on a given line--where do lowercase letters go....uppercase letters....tall lowercase....underground letters???? The students wrote to compliment a classmate on just about anything, Super cute and caring!!
Character Education: The students worked on Growth Mindset/Fixed Mindset thinking and problem and solution while listening to the Rudolph stories--learning from mistakes, keep trying, don't give up, when others do well, I am inspired. Lots of great discussions.
Technology: One new app--Number Find was introduced. This app helps students looked for number patterns in order to find a given number. A blank grid is given. A number is given. What is the quickest way to find that number? Where would you put it on the grid?
Literature: "Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer," "Rudolph Shines Again," "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell," "Jingle Bells, Homework Smells," "How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas?" "Merry Christmas, Hungry Bear," "K is for Kwanzaa," "A Hanukkah Counting Book," "Mooseltoe," "Gingerbread Bear," "Gingerbread Friends," "The Night Before Christmas."
**Our Winter Concert was fabulous! Our get together afterwards gave the students a chance to showcase some of the work they had done as well as share some treats! Thanks to all who helped out. The students were delighted to see parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles brothers and sisters at their concert.
**Our End of the Year Book Buddy get together was awesome! The students shared treats and worked on a getting to know you movie trailer using iMovie. Some of the movies are still being sent to me and hopefully I will share them with you.
**Classes resume on Monday, January 4th.
**Reading Grandma Mary will be returning for her 9th year of hearing our budding readers! She will join our class one morning a week and will work one on one with each student on fluency and comprehension.
** Our other wonderful grandma, Mrs. D. will also be returning on Tuesdays to volunteer at literacy workstations.
**Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin on January 4th. You will receive notification of the skill your child will be working on.
**Mid Year DIBELS screening for phonemic awareness and Mid Year AIMSWEB screening for math will begin the week of January 11th.
**Vision Screening for Kindergarten students will be held Friday, January 8th in the morning.
**No School on Friday, January 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**No School on Monday, January 18th--observance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.
**Swap, Shop and Read Book Exchange will be held on January 21st from 6-7:30 pm. A flyer was in your child's homework folder.
**Hearing Screening for Kindergarten will be held on Friday, February 5th in the morning.
**Our 100th Day of School is Wednesday, February 10th. I need lots of parent help for the activities and festivities. Stay tuned!
**Mid Year Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, February 8th, Tuesday, February 9th and Wednesday, February 10th. Thursday and Friday (February 11th and 12th) dismissal is at 11:00 am. There is no afternoon session.
**The Fun Fair is Coming!!!! It's Saturday, February 20th 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 design and construction in APRIL. I cannot store anything now. I will have you start bringing it in after spring break.
LOOKING AHEAD IN 2016-----Assuming we WILL HAVE cold weather and snow......Please send your child with appropriate dress. Boots and snow pants are a must for playing on the snow hills that will form as part of plowing the playground. I will have extra mittens and a few pair of snow pants in the room if you forget. We will begin our next cross curricular theme-WINTER. We will continue to introduce Next Generation Science strands within our district science model. We will begin our first formal science unit--Investigating Water. In the area of reading, the students will continue to focus on sound foundation, sound blending and segmenting/adding/deleting phonemes in 3,4,5, and even 6 phoneme words. We will also work on oral and written comprehension, sequencing events in a story, gathering supporting details in a text, stating an opinion with a supporting reasons, naming the main topic and using text features-like photos/illustrations to help understand the author's message. The students will work on their Blueprint Workmats in these areas. Our BUSY READER CLUB will begin. I will be sending out information about this the first week of school. In the area of writing, the students will begin formal training in forming lowercase letters. Students will continue to work on sentence structure, inventive spelling, grammar and punctuation and expanding sentence length to include adjectives. In the area of math, the students will continue to work on rote counting to 100 by 1's, 10's and beyond, writing numbers, demonstrating knowledge of numbers that are greater than or less than, representing addition and subtraction with objects and mental images, solving story problems using drawing and number work, number bonding to 10, working on teen numbers and fluent addition and subtraction to 5. Socially, the students will continue to work on becoming more responsible and independent learners and thinkers and continue to develop positive relationships with their peers and teachers. In the area of technology, the students will continue to use the iPad and internet resources to enhance all areas of the curriculum. WOW!! We will be very busy!
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The discussion this week centered on types of food you would have for dinner and if you ever helped make dinner. The students accessed prior knowledge about a meal they helped prepare. They shared information about special foods they may eat during the holidays. The students designed their own workstations this week. They included using the app Montessori Crosswords in the crossword puzzle form to segment and blend 3-4 sound words, writing about their favorite meal and why they liked it, using the foam gingerbread stickers as the characters, they draw the setting and create the events to form their own story, write and illustrate in their own words how they get ready for school each morning and walk their words.
Math: The students worked on a variety of counting and problem solving activities--creating snowflakes--counting the folds to make and where to cut, making Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer by listening to the directions, cutting and figuring where to place the pieces in order to make his face, playing the Dreidel Game and creating a tree using triangles and one rectangle. Some pretty cool thinking going on!
Writing: The students finished up work on uppercase letter formation. They worked on a writing project where they first created a gingerbread person of their choice and then wrote 2-4 sentences to describe them. They continue to work on reading their own writing and are beginning to make their own corrections. They are working on placement of letters on a given line--where do lowercase letters go....uppercase letters....tall lowercase....underground letters???? The students wrote to compliment a classmate on just about anything, Super cute and caring!!
Character Education: The students worked on Growth Mindset/Fixed Mindset thinking and problem and solution while listening to the Rudolph stories--learning from mistakes, keep trying, don't give up, when others do well, I am inspired. Lots of great discussions.
Technology: One new app--Number Find was introduced. This app helps students looked for number patterns in order to find a given number. A blank grid is given. A number is given. What is the quickest way to find that number? Where would you put it on the grid?
Literature: "Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer," "Rudolph Shines Again," "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell," "Jingle Bells, Homework Smells," "How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas?" "Merry Christmas, Hungry Bear," "K is for Kwanzaa," "A Hanukkah Counting Book," "Mooseltoe," "Gingerbread Bear," "Gingerbread Friends," "The Night Before Christmas."
Sunday, December 13, 2015
UPDATES for 12/7-12/11 2015
**Gingerbread mania, practice for our Winter Concert, sharing our family traditions, so many budding readers and fun times with number bonding were just some of the many cool activities going on in Ms. Gullo's class this week.
**Our 20th Annual Gingerbread Baking, Making and Sharing was a smash!! We could not have done it without the help of our great volunteers--Ms. Meier, Ms. Metz, Ms. Polan, Ms. Constantinescu and Ms. Bell. The students were super charged with enthusiasm and creativity. Lots of time spent on the tiniest of details. Such works of art!! What a tasty treat! We bagged some of our own and shared some of ours with our table friends. Yum! Yum!
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/First Grade Winter Concert on Thursday, December 17th in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances. The first is at 8:15 am. The concert will be performed again at 9:45 am. Please be prompt so we can begin on time. Stop by our room after the concert for some refreshments and conversation.
**Trimester One Report Cards are in your child's homework folder. Please email me with any questions you may have.
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Craft Fair was great. Hope you had a chance to go. Our own First Grade teacher, Ms. Woodson was selling handmade bracelets. Cool!! There were many things to look at and lots of great buys.
**Research assignments are due Thursday, December 17th. The ones that have come in are amazing!!! They will be displayed in the hallway.
**Please let me know if you are traveling over the winter break. I will prepare a travel journal for your child to write and draw about their experiences.
**We will be getting together with our 5th Grade Book Buddies on Friday afternoon. The 5th graders have planned a project for our kinders! They will make a getting to know you movie trailer. Stay tuned!! We will also celebrate the beginning of 2016!!
**Our class has a SECRET SNOWFLAKE!! We are working on some cool surprises for them this week. Shhhhhhh.........It's a secret!
**This week in Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey conducted a voting session to see what the students wanted to do for our last Friday of the year. Outside recess won out!
** In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued to work on a project with the students involving positional concepts.
** In Mr. Degman, Math/Tech this week, the students worked on a project using the app Doodle Buddy creating a number globe with a certain amount of stickers that they then grouped into how many tens and ones. They are up in our hallway.
**School is closed for Winter Break--December 20th-January 3rd. Classes resume on Monday, January 4th.
This week:
It was all about gingerbread, celebrations and traditions. The students did a little research on how the activity of gingerbread making began and why it is so popular at this time of year. Ginger was valuable spice a long time ago traced back to the Greeks and Romans. A cake like treat was made of ginger. As time went on Europeans began using flour, ginger and other spices to create cookies, houses and cakes. The students listened to a number of gingerbread stories. They examined the characters, setting and main events in the stories. They verbally compared and contrasted the characters and the events. How did it end? (eaten...not eaten) Who were the characters? (boy, man, girl, baby, cowboy, wolf, fox, coyote) What happen in the story? They had loads of fun elbow chatting about and sharing their observations. We did a group Venn Diagram comparing the Gingerbread Man and Gingerbread Girl stories. The students discussed a tradition they had in their household. I shared one of my family traditions. The students read about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah with its traditions and symbols. Some of the students learned how to play the dreidel game. The students also read about Advent and story of Christmas with all its traditions and symbols. They are beginning to see the unifying theme of the use of lights in these celebrations. Candles, strands of lights, the light of the North Star. Next week we will chat about Kwanzaa, Ramadan and Diwali.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The unit began with a question about where food comes from. The students accessed prior knowledge about stores, farms, markets and orchards as places where food is found. Some students offered that they had gardens in their back yards in the summer. The students listened to the Big Book, "Apple Farmer Annie." They discussed where Annie lived and her daily activities as an apple farmer. Students made connections from their fall theme about apples, types of apples and what you can make with apples. Other students talked about a time when they went to a farmer's market and bought apples and apple cider. Our target words are to and have. We have added these to our growing number of sight words. Our target letter and sound is Nn. The students reviewed the use of nouns and actions words or verbs. They are also beginning to chat about 2 consonants at the beginning or end and even the middle of a word known as a consonant blend because you hear both sounds. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 4 sound words using consonant blends. Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included FARMER, MARKET, INGREDIENTS, COMBINE, NUTRITIOUS. Students read their pre decodable story, "Can Nan?" They made predictions about story content, read it to themselves and then elbow chatted about the characters, setting and main events with a partner. They reread their story to their partner to practice their fluency. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency reading and story elements, making new words (substituting sounds) main events quilt, real or nonsense categorization, write about your favorite meal, roll a word family activity and small group story elements butterfly, Reader's Checklist, Montessori Crosswords (short e and ccvc and cvcc words) create and record.
Math: The students worked on rote counting to 85. How fast can you go without making a mistake?? The students continue to work on beginning number bonding or ways to say a number. They began work on composing and decomposing teen numbers 11-19. They worked with Mr. Degman on a special project. This week, the students again chose the activities for their workstations. They measured items in the room using mini gingerbread men, counted how gingerbread men and then separated the group into a group of ten and how many left over, colored by code and review geometric solid shape names.
Writing: The students are working on a writing and drawing project about a gingerbread character. They designed and created their special gingerbread character. Using a word bank of selected words, the students are working on a writing piece to describe their gingerbread character. They are working to begin with a capital letter, space between words, form their letters and place them on a given line. They also are working on reading back what they have written. The students continue work on letter formation. They are working on "Magic C" letters and center starting letters. Uppercase letters G, S, A, I were introduced this week. The students applied what they learned in their orange practice books.
Technology: No new apps were introduced this week. The students are now working on the second part of the app Montessori Crosswords using the crossword puzzle and 4 sound words.
Literature: "The Book of Celebrations" (highlighting Advent and Christmas) "Countdown to Hanukkah," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Girl," "The Gingerbread Pirates," "The Gingerbread Baby," "Gingerbread Fred," "Gingerbread Man Loose in the School," "The Gingerbread Cowboy," "Ten Gingerbread Men," "The Gingerbread Boy."
**Our 20th Annual Gingerbread Baking, Making and Sharing was a smash!! We could not have done it without the help of our great volunteers--Ms. Meier, Ms. Metz, Ms. Polan, Ms. Constantinescu and Ms. Bell. The students were super charged with enthusiasm and creativity. Lots of time spent on the tiniest of details. Such works of art!! What a tasty treat! We bagged some of our own and shared some of ours with our table friends. Yum! Yum!
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/First Grade Winter Concert on Thursday, December 17th in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances. The first is at 8:15 am. The concert will be performed again at 9:45 am. Please be prompt so we can begin on time. Stop by our room after the concert for some refreshments and conversation.
**Trimester One Report Cards are in your child's homework folder. Please email me with any questions you may have.
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Craft Fair was great. Hope you had a chance to go. Our own First Grade teacher, Ms. Woodson was selling handmade bracelets. Cool!! There were many things to look at and lots of great buys.
**Research assignments are due Thursday, December 17th. The ones that have come in are amazing!!! They will be displayed in the hallway.
**Please let me know if you are traveling over the winter break. I will prepare a travel journal for your child to write and draw about their experiences.
**We will be getting together with our 5th Grade Book Buddies on Friday afternoon. The 5th graders have planned a project for our kinders! They will make a getting to know you movie trailer. Stay tuned!! We will also celebrate the beginning of 2016!!
**Our class has a SECRET SNOWFLAKE!! We are working on some cool surprises for them this week. Shhhhhhh.........It's a secret!
**This week in Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey conducted a voting session to see what the students wanted to do for our last Friday of the year. Outside recess won out!
** In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued to work on a project with the students involving positional concepts.
** In Mr. Degman, Math/Tech this week, the students worked on a project using the app Doodle Buddy creating a number globe with a certain amount of stickers that they then grouped into how many tens and ones. They are up in our hallway.
**School is closed for Winter Break--December 20th-January 3rd. Classes resume on Monday, January 4th.
This week:
It was all about gingerbread, celebrations and traditions. The students did a little research on how the activity of gingerbread making began and why it is so popular at this time of year. Ginger was valuable spice a long time ago traced back to the Greeks and Romans. A cake like treat was made of ginger. As time went on Europeans began using flour, ginger and other spices to create cookies, houses and cakes. The students listened to a number of gingerbread stories. They examined the characters, setting and main events in the stories. They verbally compared and contrasted the characters and the events. How did it end? (eaten...not eaten) Who were the characters? (boy, man, girl, baby, cowboy, wolf, fox, coyote) What happen in the story? They had loads of fun elbow chatting about and sharing their observations. We did a group Venn Diagram comparing the Gingerbread Man and Gingerbread Girl stories. The students discussed a tradition they had in their household. I shared one of my family traditions. The students read about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah with its traditions and symbols. Some of the students learned how to play the dreidel game. The students also read about Advent and story of Christmas with all its traditions and symbols. They are beginning to see the unifying theme of the use of lights in these celebrations. Candles, strands of lights, the light of the North Star. Next week we will chat about Kwanzaa, Ramadan and Diwali.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The unit began with a question about where food comes from. The students accessed prior knowledge about stores, farms, markets and orchards as places where food is found. Some students offered that they had gardens in their back yards in the summer. The students listened to the Big Book, "Apple Farmer Annie." They discussed where Annie lived and her daily activities as an apple farmer. Students made connections from their fall theme about apples, types of apples and what you can make with apples. Other students talked about a time when they went to a farmer's market and bought apples and apple cider. Our target words are to and have. We have added these to our growing number of sight words. Our target letter and sound is Nn. The students reviewed the use of nouns and actions words or verbs. They are also beginning to chat about 2 consonants at the beginning or end and even the middle of a word known as a consonant blend because you hear both sounds. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 4 sound words using consonant blends. Our Robust Vocabulary for this week included FARMER, MARKET, INGREDIENTS, COMBINE, NUTRITIOUS. Students read their pre decodable story, "Can Nan?" They made predictions about story content, read it to themselves and then elbow chatted about the characters, setting and main events with a partner. They reread their story to their partner to practice their fluency. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency reading and story elements, making new words (substituting sounds) main events quilt, real or nonsense categorization, write about your favorite meal, roll a word family activity and small group story elements butterfly, Reader's Checklist, Montessori Crosswords (short e and ccvc and cvcc words) create and record.
Math: The students worked on rote counting to 85. How fast can you go without making a mistake?? The students continue to work on beginning number bonding or ways to say a number. They began work on composing and decomposing teen numbers 11-19. They worked with Mr. Degman on a special project. This week, the students again chose the activities for their workstations. They measured items in the room using mini gingerbread men, counted how gingerbread men and then separated the group into a group of ten and how many left over, colored by code and review geometric solid shape names.
Writing: The students are working on a writing and drawing project about a gingerbread character. They designed and created their special gingerbread character. Using a word bank of selected words, the students are working on a writing piece to describe their gingerbread character. They are working to begin with a capital letter, space between words, form their letters and place them on a given line. They also are working on reading back what they have written. The students continue work on letter formation. They are working on "Magic C" letters and center starting letters. Uppercase letters G, S, A, I were introduced this week. The students applied what they learned in their orange practice books.
Technology: No new apps were introduced this week. The students are now working on the second part of the app Montessori Crosswords using the crossword puzzle and 4 sound words.
Literature: "The Book of Celebrations" (highlighting Advent and Christmas) "Countdown to Hanukkah," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Girl," "The Gingerbread Pirates," "The Gingerbread Baby," "Gingerbread Fred," "Gingerbread Man Loose in the School," "The Gingerbread Cowboy," "Ten Gingerbread Men," "The Gingerbread Boy."
Sunday, December 6, 2015
UPDATES for 11/23-24 and 11/30-12/4 2015
**It's been very busy around Ms. Gullo's Kindergarten! I will back track to 11/23. The students heard last minute details about their trip to Brookfield Zoo. We read informational texts about other types of bears. We also began to chat about our upcoming research projects. Students worked in their journals and their writing focused on the Bear of their choice.
**11/24--Our field Trip to Brookfield Zoo was great! We a had a spectacular day of fun and learning. A big thanks to Ms. Pillacela, Mr. Bell, Mr. Daniel, Mr Harris and Ms. Massett for all of their help as volunteers. The students enjoyed the Hamill Play Zoo for face painting and projects. Students got to see a corn snake up close! We had an indoor lunch and then on to the Great Bear Wilderness for our class. Our docents, Jim and Mary were the best! The students examined black bear fur, polar bear and grizzly bear paws and participated in activities in measuring how many students it took to equal the height of a polar bear and grizzly bear. The students also explored a pattern of a polar bear foot. How many students feet equal one polar bear foot??? We saw a hibernating grizzly bear and a snoozing polar bear. What a great day!
**We were thankful for many things! Thankful for our wonderful grandma helper, Ms. D., thankful for our great Irving school family and for each other. I was so thankful for the great support and help from my kindergarten families. You truly make a difference!
**Check your child's homework folder for their RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT. Each student came up with a question they want to find out more about. They worked on special vocabulary. On the left side of this blog are links to Encyclopedia Britannica and PowerkidsLife Science if you need additional resources. The project is due December 17th but you can hand it in sooner if you wish.
**Hibernation Day was awesome! We were cozy in our jammies with our special stuffed animals. We read about how different animals hibernate. The students made Bear Paw Snacks using biscuit dough, We also did a little science of the liquid to solid kind when the students made butter from whipping cream. There was a lot of shaking going on!! They can tell you about it. The students observed curds and whey being formed. Cool! It was perfect to spread on their golden brown Bear Paws. Yum! The students enjoyed a kindergarten Teddy Bear picnic with their peers in the kindergarten hallway. Our culminating activity in the afternoon was for the students to create a bear hibernation spot somewhere in the classroom with whatever was in the classroom. Lots of thinking going on and maybe some snoring too!
**I am still holding out hope that we can get a few more volunteers for Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Baking on Friday, December 11th from 1:15 until dismissal. We have Ms. Meier, Ms. Metz, Ms. Constantinescu and Ms. Polan so far. It is very fun and no experience is needed! Email me if you can help! The recipe is in your child's homework folder for review.
**Trimester 1 REPORT CARDS go home on Friday, December 11th. Please read the information included to better understand the grading system. Lexia reports will also be included as well as any goal updates by specialists your child may be seeing in the area of speech and language or Tier 3 intervention for reading readiness. The main idea to remember for our report card system is that it is a growth model of progress toward an end of the year goal. If you have any question after reviewing it, please email me.
**Our WINTER CONCERT is fast approaching!! Please join us on THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17th in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances. The first one is at 8:15 am and it will be repeated again at 9:45 am. We will have a reception in our room after both concerts. All are invited! Come join us!
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Handmade Craft Fair is Saturday, December 12th from 9-1 pm in the lunchroom and hallways. It is a great place to stock up on those holiday treasures.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 will conclude on December 9th. Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin in January.
**We have begun our cross curricular theme on Celebrations and Traditions. If you have a particular holiday tradition you would like to share with the class--email me and we can set it up. Kindergarten students love to have parents come to the classroom!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms Bell Bey continued chatting with the students about fostering great behavior everywhere they go. She worked individually with each child on the first part of a special project. Stay tuned.
**No Mr. Packer this week.
**In Mr. Degman Math/Tech, the students finished up their project on teen counting.
**School is closed for Winter Break--December20-January 3rd. If you are traveling over the break, let me know and I will send a travel journal.
This week:
It was all about research basics for little ones! Ms. Noonan worked with the students on the question--What is research? The students worked on thinking about a question about something they wanted to find out more about and then discussed how they might find a source to help them answer the question. The major topic is: Bears. The students worked in class on special research vocabulary and examples. I can't wait to see the results! The students continue to work on their talking book project. They practiced reading their story page and will record it on the iPad. Our station day activities this week included creating a sparkly candle, roll/add and color sums to 10, Hanukkah candles color by code, nonstandard measurement with unifix cubes and build a hibernation space in the classroom.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students built back ground knowledge about the different ways wheels are used to move people and things around. We revisited the text, "Duck on a Bike." Students identified the characters, setting and the events in the story. They took a closer look at the way the story was organized. (It had a beginning, middle and end) The students reviewed target sounds Tt and short i and used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 3 and 4 sound words. The students worked with partners to create noun/action word sentences using words and picture cards. Now that students are reading simple texts, they are working on how they read. Is it choppy or smooth?? The students were introduced to the Reader's Checklist so that they can begin to monitor their own reading fluency. A Checklist is enclosed in your child's homework folder. Robust Vocabulary for this week included ADVENTURE, WHEELS, ATTACH, HAUL, MASSIVE. The students read their predecodable story, "I See the Truck Go" to a partner. They elbow chatted about story content. They also critiqued each other's reading using the Reader's Checklist. Peers listening to each other! Workstations for this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency and main ideas, main events quilt, Reader's Checklist, story elements butterfly, CVC beginning and ending sheet, Magnetic Letters HD sentence building using sight words, writing-where would you take a trip to? What would you bring?
Math: The students began work on their December Calendar Book with some new activities. They recorded numbers, sequenced numbers, counting on from a random number, used tally marks to say how many, added dominoes and dice and the idea of number bonding--ways to say a certain number---ie-- 2 and 2 is a way to 4 and so is 4 and 0, 0 and 4, 3 and 1, 1 and 3. The students continue to work on rote counting to 85, nonstandard measurement using items to measure how long or how high something is and the idea of place value--how many groups of tens to make 33--how many left over. Students selected their own workstations this week. They included Subitize Challenge, measuring around the room. writing teen numbers, working with teen numbers and ten frames and counting bears.
Writing: The students are now working on Magic "C" capitals. The letters C, Q and O were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards with chalk and then applied their knowledge in their orange practice books. The students continue to work in their new journals thinking about sentence structure, beginning with a capital letter, spacing between words in a sentence, where to put upper and lowercase letters and reading over what they have written.
Technology: Students participated in whole group work using the app Oz Phonics to strengthen their ability to blend CVC words and used the app Sound Sort to strengthen automaticity of sound to letter symbol. Student small groups used the app iTalk to record and listen to their reading for fluency and clarity. Students continue to work on recording their talking book using the app Sonic Pics. Mr. Degman continued his project with the students using the app Chatterpix.
Literature: "Curious George-A Winter's Nap," "Hibernation Station," "Hibernation," "Time to Sleep," "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" "What is Hanukkah?" "The Book of Winter Celebrations," (highlighting St, Nicholas Day and Hanukkah) "Adding With Animals."
**11/24--Our field Trip to Brookfield Zoo was great! We a had a spectacular day of fun and learning. A big thanks to Ms. Pillacela, Mr. Bell, Mr. Daniel, Mr Harris and Ms. Massett for all of their help as volunteers. The students enjoyed the Hamill Play Zoo for face painting and projects. Students got to see a corn snake up close! We had an indoor lunch and then on to the Great Bear Wilderness for our class. Our docents, Jim and Mary were the best! The students examined black bear fur, polar bear and grizzly bear paws and participated in activities in measuring how many students it took to equal the height of a polar bear and grizzly bear. The students also explored a pattern of a polar bear foot. How many students feet equal one polar bear foot??? We saw a hibernating grizzly bear and a snoozing polar bear. What a great day!
**We were thankful for many things! Thankful for our wonderful grandma helper, Ms. D., thankful for our great Irving school family and for each other. I was so thankful for the great support and help from my kindergarten families. You truly make a difference!
**Check your child's homework folder for their RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT. Each student came up with a question they want to find out more about. They worked on special vocabulary. On the left side of this blog are links to Encyclopedia Britannica and PowerkidsLife Science if you need additional resources. The project is due December 17th but you can hand it in sooner if you wish.
**Hibernation Day was awesome! We were cozy in our jammies with our special stuffed animals. We read about how different animals hibernate. The students made Bear Paw Snacks using biscuit dough, We also did a little science of the liquid to solid kind when the students made butter from whipping cream. There was a lot of shaking going on!! They can tell you about it. The students observed curds and whey being formed. Cool! It was perfect to spread on their golden brown Bear Paws. Yum! The students enjoyed a kindergarten Teddy Bear picnic with their peers in the kindergarten hallway. Our culminating activity in the afternoon was for the students to create a bear hibernation spot somewhere in the classroom with whatever was in the classroom. Lots of thinking going on and maybe some snoring too!
**I am still holding out hope that we can get a few more volunteers for Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Baking on Friday, December 11th from 1:15 until dismissal. We have Ms. Meier, Ms. Metz, Ms. Constantinescu and Ms. Polan so far. It is very fun and no experience is needed! Email me if you can help! The recipe is in your child's homework folder for review.
**Trimester 1 REPORT CARDS go home on Friday, December 11th. Please read the information included to better understand the grading system. Lexia reports will also be included as well as any goal updates by specialists your child may be seeing in the area of speech and language or Tier 3 intervention for reading readiness. The main idea to remember for our report card system is that it is a growth model of progress toward an end of the year goal. If you have any question after reviewing it, please email me.
**Our WINTER CONCERT is fast approaching!! Please join us on THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17th in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances. The first one is at 8:15 am and it will be repeated again at 9:45 am. We will have a reception in our room after both concerts. All are invited! Come join us!
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Handmade Craft Fair is Saturday, December 12th from 9-1 pm in the lunchroom and hallways. It is a great place to stock up on those holiday treasures.
**Route to Reading Rotation 3 will conclude on December 9th. Route to Reading Rotation 4 will begin in January.
**We have begun our cross curricular theme on Celebrations and Traditions. If you have a particular holiday tradition you would like to share with the class--email me and we can set it up. Kindergarten students love to have parents come to the classroom!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms Bell Bey continued chatting with the students about fostering great behavior everywhere they go. She worked individually with each child on the first part of a special project. Stay tuned.
**No Mr. Packer this week.
**In Mr. Degman Math/Tech, the students finished up their project on teen counting.
**School is closed for Winter Break--December20-January 3rd. If you are traveling over the break, let me know and I will send a travel journal.
This week:
It was all about research basics for little ones! Ms. Noonan worked with the students on the question--What is research? The students worked on thinking about a question about something they wanted to find out more about and then discussed how they might find a source to help them answer the question. The major topic is: Bears. The students worked in class on special research vocabulary and examples. I can't wait to see the results! The students continue to work on their talking book project. They practiced reading their story page and will record it on the iPad. Our station day activities this week included creating a sparkly candle, roll/add and color sums to 10, Hanukkah candles color by code, nonstandard measurement with unifix cubes and build a hibernation space in the classroom.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students built back ground knowledge about the different ways wheels are used to move people and things around. We revisited the text, "Duck on a Bike." Students identified the characters, setting and the events in the story. They took a closer look at the way the story was organized. (It had a beginning, middle and end) The students reviewed target sounds Tt and short i and used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 3 and 4 sound words. The students worked with partners to create noun/action word sentences using words and picture cards. Now that students are reading simple texts, they are working on how they read. Is it choppy or smooth?? The students were introduced to the Reader's Checklist so that they can begin to monitor their own reading fluency. A Checklist is enclosed in your child's homework folder. Robust Vocabulary for this week included ADVENTURE, WHEELS, ATTACH, HAUL, MASSIVE. The students read their predecodable story, "I See the Truck Go" to a partner. They elbow chatted about story content. They also critiqued each other's reading using the Reader's Checklist. Peers listening to each other! Workstations for this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency and main ideas, main events quilt, Reader's Checklist, story elements butterfly, CVC beginning and ending sheet, Magnetic Letters HD sentence building using sight words, writing-where would you take a trip to? What would you bring?
Math: The students began work on their December Calendar Book with some new activities. They recorded numbers, sequenced numbers, counting on from a random number, used tally marks to say how many, added dominoes and dice and the idea of number bonding--ways to say a certain number---ie-- 2 and 2 is a way to 4 and so is 4 and 0, 0 and 4, 3 and 1, 1 and 3. The students continue to work on rote counting to 85, nonstandard measurement using items to measure how long or how high something is and the idea of place value--how many groups of tens to make 33--how many left over. Students selected their own workstations this week. They included Subitize Challenge, measuring around the room. writing teen numbers, working with teen numbers and ten frames and counting bears.
Writing: The students are now working on Magic "C" capitals. The letters C, Q and O were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards with chalk and then applied their knowledge in their orange practice books. The students continue to work in their new journals thinking about sentence structure, beginning with a capital letter, spacing between words in a sentence, where to put upper and lowercase letters and reading over what they have written.
Technology: Students participated in whole group work using the app Oz Phonics to strengthen their ability to blend CVC words and used the app Sound Sort to strengthen automaticity of sound to letter symbol. Student small groups used the app iTalk to record and listen to their reading for fluency and clarity. Students continue to work on recording their talking book using the app Sonic Pics. Mr. Degman continued his project with the students using the app Chatterpix.
Literature: "Curious George-A Winter's Nap," "Hibernation Station," "Hibernation," "Time to Sleep," "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" "What is Hanukkah?" "The Book of Winter Celebrations," (highlighting St, Nicholas Day and Hanukkah) "Adding With Animals."
Sunday, November 22, 2015
UPDATES for 11/16-11/20 2015
**Our field trip to BROOKFIELD ZOO is TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24th from 9:30-2 pm. ALL STUDENTS MUST BRING A BAG LUNCH WITH NAME ON IT and DRESS FOR THE WEATHER. No glass bottles or thermos containers. A big thanks to A. Pillacela, M. Daniel, N. Bell, U. Allgood, N. Massett and M. Harris for volunteering to help. Students and teachers will ride the school bus. Parent volunteers will carpool and meet us at the zoo. I will provide money for your parking fee. I am not able to have younger siblings on this trip. Our trip includes a special tour of the Great Bear Wilderness, a classroom experience, a spot for our picnic lunch and time for your group to explore exhibits on your own.
**Keep those gloves and mittens coming!! The end of the month is soon approaching. Student Council reps Quinn and Jackson are so excited by your contributions. Glove and mitten donations will go to the Oak Park and River Forest Infant Welfare Society.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 has concluded. You should have received a notice about your child's skill mastery. Please email if you did not. Route to Reading Rotation 3 will begin on Monday, November 30th.
**This year the Turkey Trot took place during our scheduled Art Time. We wished our Book Buddies well but did not get to see them run. We will see our Book Buddies on Monday, November 23rd. They will be helping us create some props for a Winter Concert piece the kindergarten students are working on.
**Bus Evacuation Drill for students will be held on Monday, November 23rd at 9:45 am.
**Meet Children's author, Paul Orchoski ("The Ant and Pancake" and "The Mouse in My House") on Tuesday, December 1st from 6-7 pm. He will be talking to parents and students about coming up with story ideas, writing tips, understanding craft and structure and poetry inspiration.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!! As part of our Traditions and Celebrations cross curricular theme for the month of December, I am looking for volunteers to help with Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Cookie Making and Baking on Friday, December 11th beginning at 1:15 until dismissal. No experience necessary! Roll out, create, decorate, bake and share. Email me if interested. We have 2 volunteers so far. I need about 4 more volunteers for the event to run smoothly. Think about it! I will provide the dough, sprinkles and aprons......you provide the baking sheets, spatulas, man/woman power and the love! I will provide the recipe for your viewing. It is a no egg/no dairy/no nut recipe.
**Come to the Irving Annual Handmade Craft Fair and Cookie Crumble on Saturday, December 12th from 9-1 pm. in the lunchroom and hallways. Great place to shop for holiday items.
**WINTER CONCERT featuring our own Kindergarten and First Graders is Thursday, December 17th. Due to the size of our auditorium, it will be performed twice--once at 8:15 am and again at 9:45 am in the Irving Auditorium. All are welcome to attend! I will be chatting with our Room Parents about refreshments between concerts.
**Please note that you can order from the NOVEMBER and DECEMBER See Saw Book Magazines until November 30th.
**Trimester 1 ends on November 24th. Report Cards will go home on Friday, December 11th.
**NO SCHOOL November 25th-29th in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Classes resume on Monday, November 30th.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her lessons on behavior and reviewed the behavior hero and challenges to appropriate behavior. The students participated in activities where they thought out solutions to situations posing conflicts.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer began a new project on positional concepts. He showed a video/catchy song about the concepts--in--on--under--in front of---behind --next to--between.
**In Mr. Degman Math/Tech, students completed their project on teen numbers counting using the app Chatter Pix.
This week: It continues to be all about bears and preparing for our field trip to the Brookfield Zoo. The students reviewed the facts they know thus about all bears. They discussed the similarities and differences of black and brown/grizzly bears. They looked at some cool video feed from National Geographic kids on bears/habitats/foods. We read about and found information via the internet on polar bears. The students discovered that they are different from black/brown bears because of the environment they live in. Waxy waterproof fur and black skin underneath their fur help the polar to stay dry and reflect the suns rays. Their diet is mainly seals, much to the dismay of the class. There is not a lot of plant life. The students began to compare and contrast the types of bears. How are they alike? How are they different? We used a Venn Diagram to help us sort it out. The students began work on an author/illustrator study using the works of Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. They make a great team! The student are using the craft and structure of the story, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear , What Do You See" to write their own class version of the story. They will write and illustrate and then record themselves reading their page. Stay tuned! Station day activities for this week included bear cave habitats, writing and illustrating a page for our class Brown Bear story, teen teddies cut, count and sequence, labeling parts of a bear and partner challenge using the app Top It.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began work on Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed what is meant by transportation --a way to move people and things from one place to another. They brainstormed ways to get around and discussed forms of transportation that go fast and slow. We constructed a group transportation word web. The students built background on their travels near and far. They listened to the Big Book story, "On the Go." The students observed how people travel from one place to another and the vehicles they used. We looked up each country on the globe. The students asked and answered questions about the types of vehicles used in other countries. They also worked on words that show ACTION. Our Big Book text became the basis for a summative assessment on naming key details and using text evidence. In their comprehension study, the students compared and categorized the types of travel and vehicles. The sight words go and see where reviewed. The students worked on target sounds Tt and short i. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included TRAVEL, JOURNEY, PREPARE, RELAX, FAMILIAR. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 3 phoneme words. They read their pre decodable story, "Go, Go, Go." They learned about a comma and how it is used. They made predictions about story content and elbow chatted with a partner about characters, setting and events in the story. The students listened to 2 poems about transportation--"The Bike" and "Riding the Subway." They noticed the rhyming pattern in both and tracked the words as I read them. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency and main idea, "How do you go to school?"--graph and compare, using the app Magnetic Letters HD to create sentences using their sight words, word search-ip words, creating your own retelling cards, beginning and ending sound search, word work and writing about your favorite vehicle.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 75 and beyond. The students are really getting the hang of working with ten frames and counting by tens. They worked with partners on counting and cardinality activities representing a group of objects with a written number. The students continue to work with teen numbers sequencing the order/writing them and decomposing the group of ten and what is left over. Workstations this week included working with monkey in the middle teens, sorting by common attribute, working with geometric solids cone, cube, cylinder and sphere and finishing tech teen project with Mr. Degman.
Writing: The students completed work on Starting Corner Capitals. They reviewed H, L, K, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. The students practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. The students are working hard in their new writing journals to begin with a capital letter, space between words in a sentence and where to place letters on a given line and reading their work before they come to conference with me. I love when I hear them reading their work back to themselves as they are beginning the process of self editing their writing.
Technology: In reading, whole and small group used the apps Montessori Crosswords and Rocket Speller to reinforce segmenting and blending as well as sound foundation, In Math, whole and small group used the apps Top It, Monster Squeeze to reinforce greater than/less than and number order. Students began to learn about the app Sonic Pics to record their sentence for our talking story.
Literature: "Desert Homes," "Hibernation Station," "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You Hear/" "Tree Homes," "Who Lives Here?" "Polar Bears," "Follow the Polar Bears," "Amazing Polar Bears."
**Keep those gloves and mittens coming!! The end of the month is soon approaching. Student Council reps Quinn and Jackson are so excited by your contributions. Glove and mitten donations will go to the Oak Park and River Forest Infant Welfare Society.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 has concluded. You should have received a notice about your child's skill mastery. Please email if you did not. Route to Reading Rotation 3 will begin on Monday, November 30th.
**This year the Turkey Trot took place during our scheduled Art Time. We wished our Book Buddies well but did not get to see them run. We will see our Book Buddies on Monday, November 23rd. They will be helping us create some props for a Winter Concert piece the kindergarten students are working on.
**Bus Evacuation Drill for students will be held on Monday, November 23rd at 9:45 am.
**Meet Children's author, Paul Orchoski ("The Ant and Pancake" and "The Mouse in My House") on Tuesday, December 1st from 6-7 pm. He will be talking to parents and students about coming up with story ideas, writing tips, understanding craft and structure and poetry inspiration.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!! As part of our Traditions and Celebrations cross curricular theme for the month of December, I am looking for volunteers to help with Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Cookie Making and Baking on Friday, December 11th beginning at 1:15 until dismissal. No experience necessary! Roll out, create, decorate, bake and share. Email me if interested. We have 2 volunteers so far. I need about 4 more volunteers for the event to run smoothly. Think about it! I will provide the dough, sprinkles and aprons......you provide the baking sheets, spatulas, man/woman power and the love! I will provide the recipe for your viewing. It is a no egg/no dairy/no nut recipe.
**Come to the Irving Annual Handmade Craft Fair and Cookie Crumble on Saturday, December 12th from 9-1 pm. in the lunchroom and hallways. Great place to shop for holiday items.
**WINTER CONCERT featuring our own Kindergarten and First Graders is Thursday, December 17th. Due to the size of our auditorium, it will be performed twice--once at 8:15 am and again at 9:45 am in the Irving Auditorium. All are welcome to attend! I will be chatting with our Room Parents about refreshments between concerts.
**Please note that you can order from the NOVEMBER and DECEMBER See Saw Book Magazines until November 30th.
**Trimester 1 ends on November 24th. Report Cards will go home on Friday, December 11th.
**NO SCHOOL November 25th-29th in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Classes resume on Monday, November 30th.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her lessons on behavior and reviewed the behavior hero and challenges to appropriate behavior. The students participated in activities where they thought out solutions to situations posing conflicts.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer began a new project on positional concepts. He showed a video/catchy song about the concepts--in--on--under--in front of---behind --next to--between.
**In Mr. Degman Math/Tech, students completed their project on teen numbers counting using the app Chatter Pix.
This week: It continues to be all about bears and preparing for our field trip to the Brookfield Zoo. The students reviewed the facts they know thus about all bears. They discussed the similarities and differences of black and brown/grizzly bears. They looked at some cool video feed from National Geographic kids on bears/habitats/foods. We read about and found information via the internet on polar bears. The students discovered that they are different from black/brown bears because of the environment they live in. Waxy waterproof fur and black skin underneath their fur help the polar to stay dry and reflect the suns rays. Their diet is mainly seals, much to the dismay of the class. There is not a lot of plant life. The students began to compare and contrast the types of bears. How are they alike? How are they different? We used a Venn Diagram to help us sort it out. The students began work on an author/illustrator study using the works of Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. They make a great team! The student are using the craft and structure of the story, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear , What Do You See" to write their own class version of the story. They will write and illustrate and then record themselves reading their page. Stay tuned! Station day activities for this week included bear cave habitats, writing and illustrating a page for our class Brown Bear story, teen teddies cut, count and sequence, labeling parts of a bear and partner challenge using the app Top It.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began work on Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed what is meant by transportation --a way to move people and things from one place to another. They brainstormed ways to get around and discussed forms of transportation that go fast and slow. We constructed a group transportation word web. The students built background on their travels near and far. They listened to the Big Book story, "On the Go." The students observed how people travel from one place to another and the vehicles they used. We looked up each country on the globe. The students asked and answered questions about the types of vehicles used in other countries. They also worked on words that show ACTION. Our Big Book text became the basis for a summative assessment on naming key details and using text evidence. In their comprehension study, the students compared and categorized the types of travel and vehicles. The sight words go and see where reviewed. The students worked on target sounds Tt and short i. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included TRAVEL, JOURNEY, PREPARE, RELAX, FAMILIAR. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 3 phoneme words. They read their pre decodable story, "Go, Go, Go." They learned about a comma and how it is used. They made predictions about story content and elbow chatted with a partner about characters, setting and events in the story. The students listened to 2 poems about transportation--"The Bike" and "Riding the Subway." They noticed the rhyming pattern in both and tracked the words as I read them. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency and main idea, "How do you go to school?"--graph and compare, using the app Magnetic Letters HD to create sentences using their sight words, word search-ip words, creating your own retelling cards, beginning and ending sound search, word work and writing about your favorite vehicle.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 75 and beyond. The students are really getting the hang of working with ten frames and counting by tens. They worked with partners on counting and cardinality activities representing a group of objects with a written number. The students continue to work with teen numbers sequencing the order/writing them and decomposing the group of ten and what is left over. Workstations this week included working with monkey in the middle teens, sorting by common attribute, working with geometric solids cone, cube, cylinder and sphere and finishing tech teen project with Mr. Degman.
Writing: The students completed work on Starting Corner Capitals. They reviewed H, L, K, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. The students practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. The students are working hard in their new writing journals to begin with a capital letter, space between words in a sentence and where to place letters on a given line and reading their work before they come to conference with me. I love when I hear them reading their work back to themselves as they are beginning the process of self editing their writing.
Technology: In reading, whole and small group used the apps Montessori Crosswords and Rocket Speller to reinforce segmenting and blending as well as sound foundation, In Math, whole and small group used the apps Top It, Monster Squeeze to reinforce greater than/less than and number order. Students began to learn about the app Sonic Pics to record their sentence for our talking story.
Literature: "Desert Homes," "Hibernation Station," "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You Hear/" "Tree Homes," "Who Lives Here?" "Polar Bears," "Follow the Polar Bears," "Amazing Polar Bears."
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