**The students enjoyed the Bagpipe presentation by Patrick Lynch. They had some great questions about where the sound comes from on a bagpipe and Mr. Lynch's traditional dress. It was very chilly and wet so our outside bagpipe concert was short to protect the instrument.
**Super Tuber Day was spectacular! Check out Alice's potato!!! The students learned some facts about Ireland and where it is on the map. They also learned about how potatoes came to Ireland and used their magnifiers to find the "eyes," used cubes to measure the length and sketched their potato. They had a blast weighing their potato using a scale and teddy bears counters. Alice had to estimate how many because even after 69 teddy bears, the scale did not budge! The students spent the rest of their station day choosing a variety of activities using thinking, writing, math, coloring. Thanks to S. Raphael for her help!
**Thanks to all who PACKed the rainbow of fruits, veggies and grains into their child's lunch for PACK Week. It really brought a greater awareness to eating healthier.
**Don't forget to stop by the Oak Park Village Hall to view the work of our Kindergarten student artists! Ms. Gullo's class is exhibiting their "Symmetry Butterflies" under the direction of guest artist, Jonathan Franklin. They will be on display until the end of April.
**We will have our classroom "spelling bee" on Monday. All the students will participate! Upon conclusion of the bee, we will have our 2 students and 1 alternate who will represent our room in the Irving Annual Spelling on Wednesday, April 12 during the lunch hour.
**NEXT WEEK IS SPIRIT WEEK!!! Student Council has decreed the following: Monday--Pajama and Stuffed Animal Day.....Tuesday--Twin Day (you can call a friend and dress alike or dress like a teacher)....Wednesday--Decade Day (dress like the 50's, 60's, 70's 80's etc.).....Thursday--Each grade level will dress in a different color! Kindergarten wears PURPLE......Friday--Show your Irving School Spirit by wearing red, black, white or any Irving wear.
**PTO Cultural Event--"Justin and Liam" is Thursday, March 23rd at 9:15 am.
**We will use the photos taken on our flied trip to the Field Museum in a writing project next week. I have most of them. If you were a chaperone and haven't sent them, please do. Thanks!
**We will also visit our Book Buddies next Friday for a project in their classroom.. The students are excited to see what it is like on the 3rd floor!
**After spring break---Send in all the giant boxes and cool stuff you have been saving for our engineering project! It will be exciting! Our engineering project is schedule for the week of April 17-21. Please send everything in by April 14th.
**Spring Break is 3/27-3/31. School resumes on Monday, April 3rd. Some of you have let me know but if your child is traveling email me so I can send along a travel journal.
**NO SCHOOL--April 4th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**No Friendship Club or Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week due to their involvement in PARCC testing.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, we reviewed and revisited managing feelings and saw a Brain Pop video on Anger.
This week:
It was all about bagpipes, potatoes, weather. Science abounds in our classroom! Our unit on Weather in reading also included math and writing activities. Great fun! Very motivating! The students observed wind speeds, read and saw pictures of weather instruments and how meteorologists use data to make predictions about what kind of weather we will have in our area. Yes...it's true.....they do not get it right all the time! The United States has many different kinds of weather during each season depending upon where you live. Our tubers are in water and we will be watching them. Awesome fun investigating potatoes! Bagpiper, Patrick Lynch put together his bagpipes and played some cool tunes. Wow! It was loud! Station Day activities included Super tubers and activities containing reading, writing, math, following directions, what makes the colors of the rainbow and coloring by code.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. The students built background knowledge about how weather affects animal and people. Students came to board to write what they experience in snowy, rainy and cold weather. They also discussed how animals react to those conditions. The students reviewed all sight vocabulary learned thus far and reviewed target sounds Bb, Ll, short Ee and words that describe--adjectives!
The students continued to work on segmenting, sound blending 4-5 sound words on their white boards along with addition, deletion and substitution activities. Robust vocabulary this week included CLEAR, EXPERIENCE, HIBERNATE, RETREAT. The students worked on a blueprint about how the actions of a character affect the story (author's words and message) and sequencing those actions using the text "Sheila Rae, the Brave." Students worked on story vocabulary, sequencing the order of events and the story elements of character, setting and locating key details. In preparation for our blueprint, students elbow chatted about the events and characters and acted out key events that showed the characters actions. Workstations this week included leveled readers with fluency building and comprehension check/discussion, vocabulary development, writing and illustrating about your favorite season and what activities you can do, read and rhyme cut and paste word families, roll, say and read blend and digraph words, read and spell cvc words, writing about a favorite picture in the text and telling what information the picture gives you, playing words games "Chomp,"(substituting sounds) "Humpty Dumpty (short vowels) "Word Construction," (word families) and "Build a Word."
Math: The students continue work on Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. Lessons are shifting focus now to work on finding how many are left in a story problem. (subtraction/decomposing numbers) Students are illustrating their thinking by beginning with a picture of a group of objects--listening to the story--and crossing out what is going away. The students are taking a look at the horizontal presentation of the subtraction number sentence using the minus sign. Students used a variety of objects when practicing with partners and telling a take away story.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. They worked on lowercase j and p. They practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students began a new unit on persuasive writing. The unit includes opinion writing, persuasive writing and writing to create change. We began with chatting about a problem that occurs in school (the topic) and thinking of a way to fix the problem. The students had many ideas including--running in the hall, not finishing their food at lunch, not following the Eagle Essential....... Starting very simply, the students--see a problem--think--write what they might do to fix it. Stay tuned!!!
Science: The weather was not very conducive for our next investigation, so we kept it inside of our classroom. Students created slopes of all magnitudes! They used many items from our classroom. They also used objects from the classroom they thought would hold off a collision or make a big collision. A variety of ball types were used--soccer, whiffle, tennis, mini super. It was collision mania!!! So much fun! Lots of great conversation about slope, speed, direction, size of the ball, size of the barrier. Wow--when objects collide they push one another which can change the motion. The students sketched and wrote their reflections in their science notebook. Next week will be our final investigation for our study on Materials and Motion---using air to propel a balloon rocket. How can we manage how far a balloon rocket will travel? We will be making one!!! Stay tuned!!
Technology: The students used the same apps as last week to continue to enhance the skills of segmenting/blending, adding/deleting sounds, cvc, ccvc, cvcc words, sentence word order, addition and subtraction problems to 10, finding the missing addends.
Literature: "Sheila Rae, the Brave," "It's St. Patrick's Day," "Snow Dude," "The Leprechaun who Lost His Rainbow," "The Enormous Potato," "Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato," "Weather Instruments," "What Makes the Wind?" "The Cloud Book," "Clifford's Story Day Rescue."
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Monday, March 13, 2017
UPDATES for 3/6-3/10 2017
**Just when we are really thinking of Spring.......snow is on the radar! Please see that your child is dressed for the weather. Depending upon the amount...boots and snow pants. Thanks!
** Our Field Trip to the Field Museum was awesome! Students worked with their parent volunteers and discussed the exhibits they wanted to see. Sue, Ancient Egypt, Mummies, Animals, lots of Bones and Fossils were the top choices. Our photos are beginning to come in. Our writing project will be the week before spring break. A HUGE THANKS to L. Dantzler, D. Regan, T. Dixon and L. Danley for their help.
**In salute to all things Irish, bagpiper Patrick Lynch will be coming to Irving on Thursday, March 16th at 2:30 pm. He will present the history behind bagpipe music and show the students how he puts it all together. He will also be wearing a traditional Irish kilt. At dismissal, Mr. Lynch will give a concert on the black top for the school. Come join us!
**In keeping with the Irish theme, we will have SUPER TUBER DAY on Friday, March 17th during our station day time. PLEASE SEND A POTATO (any kind-not cooked) on Friday. We will learn a little history aboutIreland and the potato, examine its surface, count the "eyes," measure its length and take a look at different varieties. I have S. Raphael signed up to help but could use 1 or 2 more volunteers. Please email if you can help.
**It's PACK Week! Let's put the rainbow into our lunch! Pack a fruit or vegetable on the color of the day. Monday--pack PURPLE/BLUE, Tuesday--pack WHITE/TAN, Wednesday--pack RED, Thursday--packYELLOW/ORANGE, Friday--pack GREEN. All school lunches will have an appropriate color fruit or vegetable.
**The Irving Online Auction begins on March 12th and runs through March 16th. Log on to see what is being auctioned. Some really cool stuff and great parties.
**WE ARE ARTISTS!! The Oak Park Education Foundation and the Oak Park Area Arts Council are exhibiting the work of District 97 students. Our Symmetry Butterflies will be on display along with art projects from other schools at the Oak Park Village Hall from now through the end of April. Stop by and see them!!
**The Annual Irving School K-2 Spelling Bee will be held Wednesday, April 12th during the lunch hour. Our class will have a "classroom bee" to determine the 2 participants and 1 alternate that will represent our classroom. We will be having our "bee" next Monday. I will be speaking to the class about this event this week.
**PTO Cultural Event-"Justin and Liam," is Thursday, March 23rd at 9:15 am.
**Report cards go home on Friday, March 24th.
**Spring Break is 3/27-2/31. School resumes on Monday, April 3rd. Please let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**NO SCHOOL--April 4th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**Bring in those giant boxes and other cool stuff for our engineering project after spring break. More information will follow soon.
**No Friendship Club or Mr. Packer Thinking Skills due to their involvement in PARCC Testing.
**Our Second Step lesson this week continued to focus on managing feelings.
This week:
The students prepared for their field trip to the Field Museum. They looked at reading material and videos on Ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, mummies, extinct and endangered animals and mammals. Pictures taken during our trip will become part of a writing research project. The students continue to investigate ramps, slopes and inclines. This week they constructed a double ramp and experimented with increasing the slope. More in the science section. They thoroughly enjoyed their Pajamas and Publishing culmination to our unit on "how to" writing. Station day activities included addition kites, writing about spring, pattern block building houses and finding the missing addends.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. We began with a question--"What's the weather like today?" Students accessed prior knowledge about what they understood about weather not only in their own area but all across the United States. The students listened to the Big Book story, "The Rainy Day." They thought about what the main idea might be. They made connections about rain in their daily lives. Sight words this, what were reviewed. The target sounds for the week were short and long e. They continue to work on recognizing nouns and verbs in their daily sentence work. In the second reading of the Big Book story, the students visualized what it looks like after it rains. They also learned some facts about rain. The students examined 2 more parts of a book--the glossary and index and what they are used for. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 4-5 sound words. Students read their paper stories to a partner and elbow chatted about the sequence of events and main idea. Our Robust Vocabulary included BLUSTERY, DRIZZLE, CHILLY, CLOUDY, WEATHER. The students listened to poems about the weather and did some comparing across weather related texts. The students used their white boards to work on a sound substitution activity. Workstations this week included leveled readers comprehension and fluency building, word work on beginning and ending sounds, short and long vowel sort, roll, say and color ccvc words, writing about the weather, rhyming word families activity and using words and pictures to create 3 sentences.
Math: The students continue work in Module 4 of our Eureka Math series. Lessons continue to focus on part/whole reasoning behind addition and that a number sentence can be presented with the sum first and then its parts or addends. Students worked on creating number bonds for sums 6,7,8,9. Our math races or sprints are becoming more challenging! Workstations this week included writing numbers 1-122, finding the missing addend, even and odd sort, telling time by the hour activity using digital and analog clocks, solving addition story problems using ten frames to show part and whole.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. They had a review of the letters learned thus far. In Writer's Workshop this week, students completed their "how to" stories on school. They used their checklist to critique their own writing and then shared their writing with their partner. Our Friday Pajamas and Publishing was very cool! Students wore their pajamas, brought special stuffed animals or bedtime items. They went through their stories and shared them with others. They also acted out their books. They then chose a story they wanted to "publish." Our next unit is on persuasive or opinion writing and we will begin prep for it next week.
Science: Our investigations this week centered around what happens when objects collide? Each table built a ramp and experimented with putting objects at the end of it and discussed what happened when they rolled a ball down the ramp and had a collision. Super fun to watch the students faces! They also increased the slope by adding books to their base. Did it affect the collision? The students recorded their thoughts and drawings in their science notebook. Next each table build a double ramp testing to see if the ball rolled all the way across. Did the white small ball move faster or slower? Did the larger red ball move differently? Once again the students built up their ramps to increase the slope. They observed--bigger the slope....faster the ball traveled. Smaller the slope.....slower the ball traveled. They drew and reflected in their science journal. Next week (weather permitting) we taking our investigations outside.
Technology: Whole group work in reading centered around the apps Consonant Blend Sort and Montessori Crossword to reinforce recognition and sound blending. In whole group work in math, the apps Subitize Tree, Number Rack and Let's Do Math were used to reinforce visual counting, part/whole and number bonds to 10. The students viewed a Brain Pop video on nouns, verbs and sentence structure.
Literature: "Rain," "Weather," "Thunder Storms," "Weather Watching," "Green Eggs and Ham," "Snow," "The Things I am Scared Of," "Weather Words," "I Do Not Want To Get Up Today."
** Our Field Trip to the Field Museum was awesome! Students worked with their parent volunteers and discussed the exhibits they wanted to see. Sue, Ancient Egypt, Mummies, Animals, lots of Bones and Fossils were the top choices. Our photos are beginning to come in. Our writing project will be the week before spring break. A HUGE THANKS to L. Dantzler, D. Regan, T. Dixon and L. Danley for their help.
**In salute to all things Irish, bagpiper Patrick Lynch will be coming to Irving on Thursday, March 16th at 2:30 pm. He will present the history behind bagpipe music and show the students how he puts it all together. He will also be wearing a traditional Irish kilt. At dismissal, Mr. Lynch will give a concert on the black top for the school. Come join us!
**In keeping with the Irish theme, we will have SUPER TUBER DAY on Friday, March 17th during our station day time. PLEASE SEND A POTATO (any kind-not cooked) on Friday. We will learn a little history aboutIreland and the potato, examine its surface, count the "eyes," measure its length and take a look at different varieties. I have S. Raphael signed up to help but could use 1 or 2 more volunteers. Please email if you can help.
**It's PACK Week! Let's put the rainbow into our lunch! Pack a fruit or vegetable on the color of the day. Monday--pack PURPLE/BLUE, Tuesday--pack WHITE/TAN, Wednesday--pack RED, Thursday--packYELLOW/ORANGE, Friday--pack GREEN. All school lunches will have an appropriate color fruit or vegetable.
**The Irving Online Auction begins on March 12th and runs through March 16th. Log on to see what is being auctioned. Some really cool stuff and great parties.
**WE ARE ARTISTS!! The Oak Park Education Foundation and the Oak Park Area Arts Council are exhibiting the work of District 97 students. Our Symmetry Butterflies will be on display along with art projects from other schools at the Oak Park Village Hall from now through the end of April. Stop by and see them!!
**The Annual Irving School K-2 Spelling Bee will be held Wednesday, April 12th during the lunch hour. Our class will have a "classroom bee" to determine the 2 participants and 1 alternate that will represent our classroom. We will be having our "bee" next Monday. I will be speaking to the class about this event this week.
**PTO Cultural Event-"Justin and Liam," is Thursday, March 23rd at 9:15 am.
**Report cards go home on Friday, March 24th.
**Spring Break is 3/27-2/31. School resumes on Monday, April 3rd. Please let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**NO SCHOOL--April 4th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**Bring in those giant boxes and other cool stuff for our engineering project after spring break. More information will follow soon.
**No Friendship Club or Mr. Packer Thinking Skills due to their involvement in PARCC Testing.
**Our Second Step lesson this week continued to focus on managing feelings.
This week:
The students prepared for their field trip to the Field Museum. They looked at reading material and videos on Ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, mummies, extinct and endangered animals and mammals. Pictures taken during our trip will become part of a writing research project. The students continue to investigate ramps, slopes and inclines. This week they constructed a double ramp and experimented with increasing the slope. More in the science section. They thoroughly enjoyed their Pajamas and Publishing culmination to our unit on "how to" writing. Station day activities included addition kites, writing about spring, pattern block building houses and finding the missing addends.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. We began with a question--"What's the weather like today?" Students accessed prior knowledge about what they understood about weather not only in their own area but all across the United States. The students listened to the Big Book story, "The Rainy Day." They thought about what the main idea might be. They made connections about rain in their daily lives. Sight words this, what were reviewed. The target sounds for the week were short and long e. They continue to work on recognizing nouns and verbs in their daily sentence work. In the second reading of the Big Book story, the students visualized what it looks like after it rains. They also learned some facts about rain. The students examined 2 more parts of a book--the glossary and index and what they are used for. The students used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 4-5 sound words. Students read their paper stories to a partner and elbow chatted about the sequence of events and main idea. Our Robust Vocabulary included BLUSTERY, DRIZZLE, CHILLY, CLOUDY, WEATHER. The students listened to poems about the weather and did some comparing across weather related texts. The students used their white boards to work on a sound substitution activity. Workstations this week included leveled readers comprehension and fluency building, word work on beginning and ending sounds, short and long vowel sort, roll, say and color ccvc words, writing about the weather, rhyming word families activity and using words and pictures to create 3 sentences.
Math: The students continue work in Module 4 of our Eureka Math series. Lessons continue to focus on part/whole reasoning behind addition and that a number sentence can be presented with the sum first and then its parts or addends. Students worked on creating number bonds for sums 6,7,8,9. Our math races or sprints are becoming more challenging! Workstations this week included writing numbers 1-122, finding the missing addend, even and odd sort, telling time by the hour activity using digital and analog clocks, solving addition story problems using ten frames to show part and whole.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. They had a review of the letters learned thus far. In Writer's Workshop this week, students completed their "how to" stories on school. They used their checklist to critique their own writing and then shared their writing with their partner. Our Friday Pajamas and Publishing was very cool! Students wore their pajamas, brought special stuffed animals or bedtime items. They went through their stories and shared them with others. They also acted out their books. They then chose a story they wanted to "publish." Our next unit is on persuasive or opinion writing and we will begin prep for it next week.
Science: Our investigations this week centered around what happens when objects collide? Each table built a ramp and experimented with putting objects at the end of it and discussed what happened when they rolled a ball down the ramp and had a collision. Super fun to watch the students faces! They also increased the slope by adding books to their base. Did it affect the collision? The students recorded their thoughts and drawings in their science notebook. Next each table build a double ramp testing to see if the ball rolled all the way across. Did the white small ball move faster or slower? Did the larger red ball move differently? Once again the students built up their ramps to increase the slope. They observed--bigger the slope....faster the ball traveled. Smaller the slope.....slower the ball traveled. They drew and reflected in their science journal. Next week (weather permitting) we taking our investigations outside.
Technology: Whole group work in reading centered around the apps Consonant Blend Sort and Montessori Crossword to reinforce recognition and sound blending. In whole group work in math, the apps Subitize Tree, Number Rack and Let's Do Math were used to reinforce visual counting, part/whole and number bonds to 10. The students viewed a Brain Pop video on nouns, verbs and sentence structure.
Literature: "Rain," "Weather," "Thunder Storms," "Weather Watching," "Green Eggs and Ham," "Snow," "The Things I am Scared Of," "Weather Words," "I Do Not Want To Get Up Today."
Sunday, March 5, 2017
UPDATES for 2/27-3/3 2017
**Our Field Trip to the Field Museum is TUESDAY, MARCH 7th from 9:30-1:30 pm. I still need permission slips and money from some of you. If your child is not going on the field trip, please email me so I can make arrangements and assignments for their day at Irving while we are gone. PLEASE SEND A BAG LUNCH WITH NAME ON IT. The lunch must be NUT FREE. No glass bottles or lunch boxes please. Chaperones will be taking pictures of their groups favorite exhibits. We will be turning the photos into a writing project.
**In salute to all things Irish, bagpiper Patrick Lynch will be coming to Irving on Thursday, March 16th in the afternoon. He will present history behind bagpipe music and show the kids how he puts it all together. At dismissal, Mr. Lynch will give a concert on the black top for the school. Come join us!
**In keeping with the Irish theme, we will have SUPER TUBER DAY on Friday, March 17th during our station day time. PLEASE SEND A POTATO (any kind, not cooked) We will learn a little history about Ireland and the potato, examine its surface, count the "eyes," measure its length and take a look a different varieties. I have S. Raphael signed up to help but could use 1 or 2 more volunteers. Please email me if you can help.
**Future Event--The PTO Cultural Enrichment Committee has scheduled an assembly on March 23rd at 9:15 am called "Justin and Liam." It teachers character education through music and song writing.
**Please let me know if your child is traveling for Spring Break. I will send a TRAVEL JOURNAL.
**Trimester 2 ends on March 10th.
**Report cards go home on March 24th.
**Spring Break is 3/27-3/31. School resumes on Monday, April 3rd.
**NO SCHOOL--April 4th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey lesson focused on being bossy. She read a story and the students reflected their thoughts in writing and drawing.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer continued his small group work on positional concepts and following directions.
**Our Second Step lesson this week focused on how to manage when we are disappointed.
This week:
It was all about Pushes, Pulls and Ramps! More about that in the science section. The students concluded their author study on Mo Willems and celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday with a mini author study and Brain Pop Jr. video on his life and work. We had a whole station day planned of Dr. Seuss activities relating to math, writing and phonics but.......the students were so very involved in ramp building and experimenting that we extended our science time. We will have our Dr. Seuss activities on Monday.
Reading/Language Arts: The students used this week to work on a variety of formative and summative assessments using texts from our author study of Mo Willems. The students responded verbally, thru illustration and thru writing. They worked to answer a variety of questions. Who are the characters in the story? How are they alike? Different? What is the problem in the story? What does the character do to solve the problem? What effect does a repeating phrase have on a text? How does the illustration help you to understand the setting? What important job does the author or illustrator have in telling the story? Can you identify the key details in the story? The students did some marvelous work on problem/solution using the text, "That is Not A Good Idea." Using the text, "Knuffle Bunny," the students worked with partners to sequence events in the story and worked on how the author's words and illustrations helped students to understand the story. Lots of great drawings were done during our "we do" of author's words in the text, "Knuffle Bunny." In the text, "Edwina, the Dinosaur That Didn't Know She Was Extinct," students participated in a word study to best describe the main character. Workstations this week included leveled readers comprehension check and fluency, word family sort, digraph work, rhyming cvc words, read and draw simple sentences, digraph game, Pot of Gold CVC game, substituting sounds activity.
Math: The students continue to work in Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. Lessons continue to focus on creating a number bond for a given illustration for numbers 6,7,8,9. The students continue to use pictures, cube sticks and other drawings as well as number sentences to show their work. They continue to work on math races or sprints to strengthen sequencing, subitizing and number order. Workstations this week included writing numbers from 1-120, even and odd number sort, reading and solving addition and subtraction story problems using ten frames and writing the equation and counting on from a given number.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters k and y were introduced this week. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students were busy writing their "how to" stories on the topic of School. We will be completing our unit on "how to" writing next week with a publishing party.
Science: Our investigations this week centered on what causes objects to move? The students experimented with rolling balls at different speeds and determining the strength of the push require to achieve a certain speed. Pushes can move objects. Declan was our investigator for the use of pulls to move objects. He demonstrated using a string tied around a chair so he could pull it to a different spot. Pulls can move objects. People push. Wind can push. People pull. Gravity can pull! The pull of gravity can push and pull a person on swing. Key vocabulary this week---push, pull, gravity, direction, speed, motion, rolling, slope, collide. The students built a variety of ramps and rolled balls and cars down them to observe the pull of gravity. They had a complete blast working with their table mates on ramp construction. Question--What could we do to change the speed of the object rolling down a slope? Students experimented with raising the slope using book stacks. They found that the higher the slope, the faster the object moved. The activity Contraption and Marble Works and Legos were introduced as Choice time activities to continue experimentation. Students worked in their science notebooks to draw sketches of their ramps and record their thoughts and reflections. Next week--more on colliding objects.
Technology: Whole group in reading worked on the apps Learn Consonant Blends and Oz Phonics for cvc, ccvc, cvcc and short vowel recognition as well as consonant blends and word order. In whole group math, students worked on the apps Let's Do Math and Subitize Tree for providing the missing addend, number bonds to 10 and visual number recognition and number patterns.
Literature: "Knuffle Bunny," "Edwina the Dinosaur That Didn't Know She Was Extinct," "Leonardo," "That Big Guy Took My Ball," "Hop On Pop," "The Cat In The Hat," "Let's Find Out--Dr Seuss," "Telling Time," "Clocks and Calendars," "Roll, Slope and Slide," "Force and Motion," "Pushes and Pulls."
**In salute to all things Irish, bagpiper Patrick Lynch will be coming to Irving on Thursday, March 16th in the afternoon. He will present history behind bagpipe music and show the kids how he puts it all together. At dismissal, Mr. Lynch will give a concert on the black top for the school. Come join us!
**In keeping with the Irish theme, we will have SUPER TUBER DAY on Friday, March 17th during our station day time. PLEASE SEND A POTATO (any kind, not cooked) We will learn a little history about Ireland and the potato, examine its surface, count the "eyes," measure its length and take a look a different varieties. I have S. Raphael signed up to help but could use 1 or 2 more volunteers. Please email me if you can help.
**Future Event--The PTO Cultural Enrichment Committee has scheduled an assembly on March 23rd at 9:15 am called "Justin and Liam." It teachers character education through music and song writing.
**Please let me know if your child is traveling for Spring Break. I will send a TRAVEL JOURNAL.
**Trimester 2 ends on March 10th.
**Report cards go home on March 24th.
**Spring Break is 3/27-3/31. School resumes on Monday, April 3rd.
**NO SCHOOL--April 4th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey lesson focused on being bossy. She read a story and the students reflected their thoughts in writing and drawing.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer continued his small group work on positional concepts and following directions.
**Our Second Step lesson this week focused on how to manage when we are disappointed.
This week:
It was all about Pushes, Pulls and Ramps! More about that in the science section. The students concluded their author study on Mo Willems and celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday with a mini author study and Brain Pop Jr. video on his life and work. We had a whole station day planned of Dr. Seuss activities relating to math, writing and phonics but.......the students were so very involved in ramp building and experimenting that we extended our science time. We will have our Dr. Seuss activities on Monday.
Reading/Language Arts: The students used this week to work on a variety of formative and summative assessments using texts from our author study of Mo Willems. The students responded verbally, thru illustration and thru writing. They worked to answer a variety of questions. Who are the characters in the story? How are they alike? Different? What is the problem in the story? What does the character do to solve the problem? What effect does a repeating phrase have on a text? How does the illustration help you to understand the setting? What important job does the author or illustrator have in telling the story? Can you identify the key details in the story? The students did some marvelous work on problem/solution using the text, "That is Not A Good Idea." Using the text, "Knuffle Bunny," the students worked with partners to sequence events in the story and worked on how the author's words and illustrations helped students to understand the story. Lots of great drawings were done during our "we do" of author's words in the text, "Knuffle Bunny." In the text, "Edwina, the Dinosaur That Didn't Know She Was Extinct," students participated in a word study to best describe the main character. Workstations this week included leveled readers comprehension check and fluency, word family sort, digraph work, rhyming cvc words, read and draw simple sentences, digraph game, Pot of Gold CVC game, substituting sounds activity.
Math: The students continue to work in Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. Lessons continue to focus on creating a number bond for a given illustration for numbers 6,7,8,9. The students continue to use pictures, cube sticks and other drawings as well as number sentences to show their work. They continue to work on math races or sprints to strengthen sequencing, subitizing and number order. Workstations this week included writing numbers from 1-120, even and odd number sort, reading and solving addition and subtraction story problems using ten frames and writing the equation and counting on from a given number.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters k and y were introduced this week. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students were busy writing their "how to" stories on the topic of School. We will be completing our unit on "how to" writing next week with a publishing party.
Science: Our investigations this week centered on what causes objects to move? The students experimented with rolling balls at different speeds and determining the strength of the push require to achieve a certain speed. Pushes can move objects. Declan was our investigator for the use of pulls to move objects. He demonstrated using a string tied around a chair so he could pull it to a different spot. Pulls can move objects. People push. Wind can push. People pull. Gravity can pull! The pull of gravity can push and pull a person on swing. Key vocabulary this week---push, pull, gravity, direction, speed, motion, rolling, slope, collide. The students built a variety of ramps and rolled balls and cars down them to observe the pull of gravity. They had a complete blast working with their table mates on ramp construction. Question--What could we do to change the speed of the object rolling down a slope? Students experimented with raising the slope using book stacks. They found that the higher the slope, the faster the object moved. The activity Contraption and Marble Works and Legos were introduced as Choice time activities to continue experimentation. Students worked in their science notebooks to draw sketches of their ramps and record their thoughts and reflections. Next week--more on colliding objects.
Technology: Whole group in reading worked on the apps Learn Consonant Blends and Oz Phonics for cvc, ccvc, cvcc and short vowel recognition as well as consonant blends and word order. In whole group math, students worked on the apps Let's Do Math and Subitize Tree for providing the missing addend, number bonds to 10 and visual number recognition and number patterns.
Literature: "Knuffle Bunny," "Edwina the Dinosaur That Didn't Know She Was Extinct," "Leonardo," "That Big Guy Took My Ball," "Hop On Pop," "The Cat In The Hat," "Let's Find Out--Dr Seuss," "Telling Time," "Clocks and Calendars," "Roll, Slope and Slide," "Force and Motion," "Pushes and Pulls."
Sunday, February 26, 2017
UPDATES for 2/21-2/24 2017
**The FUN FAIR was spectacular! I hope you all had as much fun as I did. I loved running the spinning game. It was also great to see many former Irving students as middle schoolers, teens and adults with children of their own! Our FAMILY GAME NIGHT class basket was wonderful. Once again, thanks to all who donated items. A HUGE SHOUT OUT to Michelle Ahring for putting the basket together. The "exercise class" featuring Irving teachers and run by raffle winning students was super funny. Those teachers need some more exercise time! Mr. Hodge, Ms. Pelling and Ms. Sak were the pie in the face winners! This event represents the Irving community at its best.
**Our Field Trip to the FIELD MUSEUM is TUESDAY, MARCH 7th from 9:30-1:30 pm. Please send in your permission slip and money ASAP! I have L. Dantzler, A. Maldonado as chaperones so far. I really would like to have at least 2 more chaperones so our groups will not be so large. Please consider volunteering. Parents will be able to ride the bus with us. All students need to bring a NUT FREE BAG LUNCH with your NAME ON IT. No glass bottles or lunch boxes please. Chaperones will be taking pictures of exhibits that interest their group. The students will build a writing project around a picture they selected.
**In salute to spring and all things Irish, bagpiper Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Thursday, March 16th in the afternoon. He will present history behind bagpipe music and show the kids how he puts it all together. At dismissal, Mr. Lynch will give a concert on the black top for the school. Come join us!
**We participated in Ms. Noonan's African American Read In. Our story this week was "Red Light, Green Light Momma and Me.," by Cari Best.
**Bring in any kind of potato (not cooked) for our SUPER TUBER activity on Friday, March 17th. The activity will be done during our station day activities. I have one volunteer. I would love one more! Email me if interested.
**Future Event-The PTO Cultural Enrichment Committee has scheduled an assembly on March 23rd at 9:15 am called, "Justin and Liam." It teaches character education through music and song writing.
**Trimester 2 ends on March 10th.
**Report Cards go home on March 24th.
**Spring Break is 3/27-3/31. School resumes on Monday, April 3rd.
**NO SCHOOL-April 4th-Teacher's Institute Day.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey did a lesson on personal space and introduced the unthinkable, Space Invader who makes a persons body move into someones space and makes them feel uncomfortable. The student saw a webisode about personal space and had a discussion after. The also saw a role playing scene done by myself and Dr. Bell Bey and shared their thoughts.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer worked with small groups on positional concepts and direction following.
**Our Second Step Lesson focused on managing anger--anger is a natural feeling--your body lets you know when you are angry--Learning to calm yourself down.
This week:
The students continued with our author study on Mo Willems. We ventured into the world of Elephant and Piggie. The students absolutely love Mo's style of writing and the lessons that are embedded in the stories. Lots of conversation and investigation on different types of fabric in science. Number bond study abounds in Math! Workstations this week included flip tile mats (creating equations to 10) Sentence writing--What does the Pigeon think of Irving School? and building with pattern blocks, count and record two different ways to solve the puzzle.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continued work on Unit 6 Neighborhoods in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed prior knowledge of places in and around their neighborhood. The students listened to the Big Book story,"Bus Stops." They made predictions about story content and listened for what happened at the beginning, middle and ending of the story. They also made connections about places in the story and how they relate to their own community. The student reviewed target words what and that and letter sounds Hh, Dd, Rr and short and long u. Students worked in small groups to create sentences using words and pictures. They also used their elkonin boxes in an activity that worked on sound blending 4-5 sound words. Whole group lessons continue to work on Haggerty Blue Book exercises on consonant blends and digraphs, segmenting, blending sounds, adding, deleting and substituting sounds to create words. Robust Vocabulary for this week included ADMIRE, DELIVER, CELEBRATION, SCHEDULE. Our author study of Mo Willems continues to be lots of fun for the students. The students listened to Mo's Elephant and Piggie stories. They discussed the problems and solutions in the stories, "My Friend is Sad" and "Can I Play Too?" They then set out to write in their own words about the problem and solution in the story of their choice. When listening to the story, "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and "Leonardo the Terrible Monster," the students took a look at repetitive phrases and why the illustrations can be so important to a story. Workstations this week included leveled reader with comprehension check and fluency building, writing about our favorite neighborhood place and why we like it, box it up CVC word activity, cut and paste consonant blends, reading the sentence and color by code, short and long u word sort and building CCVC and CVCC words.
Math: The students continue to work in Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. Their lessons focused on creating a number bond for a given illustration for numbers 6,7,8,9. The students continue to use pictures, cube sticks and other drawings to show their work. They continue to work on math races or sprints to strengthen sequencing, subitizing and number order. Workstations this week included writing numbers to 112, reading and solving addition story problems using ten frames and writing the equation, fluency reading of teen numbers, geometric solids review.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. They have also started to review uppercase letters on their mini boards. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue work on "how to" books but with a little twist. The students began work on writing books on the topic of school--teaching others things they know how to do in reading, science, math, gym, music, lunchtime and any other thing they have learned throughout their school day. We jogged our memories by constructing a "School Day" web of of activities. Lots of great thoughts. Some students have already written about school activities but now all students will write their books on the same topic of school. The students also discussed their day and the activities they did even on the playground, during gym, music and art. Stay tuned.
Science: Our investigations this week centered on the resource--fabric. The students brainstormed and created a chart about what we knew about fabric. It is cloth. We wear it. It can come from a plant or animal. It can even come from oil! The students examined many different kinds of fabric. How are fabrics different? How do they feel? Vocabulary discussed--texture, nubby, rough, scratchy, soft, shiny, smooth, slippery. The students listened to a story about types of fabric. They went on a fabric hunt around the room and recorded their findings in their science notebooks. They also took apart fabric to see the threads. Students used their magnifying glasses to check out different fabrics up close and personal. They chatted at their table about color and feel and pulled apart threads of the fabric. The students also investigated what happens when water is put on fabric. Does the water soak into the fabric? What fabrics absorbed water? Does water "bead up" on any fabric? Students recorded their findings in their science notebooks. Next week--our last investigation of this unit on pushes and pulls.
Technology: Whole group in reading worked on the apps Learn Consonant Blends and Montessori Crosswords for consonant blends, blending and segmenting 3-4 sound words. In math whole group the apps Let's Do Math worked number bonds to 10 and Subitize Tree work on visual number recognition and number patterns. The students viewed Brain Pop Jr. videos on Harriet Tubman and George Washington Carver.
Literature: "My Friend Is Sad," Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," "The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog,""Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late," "The Pigeon Has Feelings Too," "The Duckling Gets A Cookie," "Red Light, Green Light Momma and Me," "Jackie Robinson-A Life of Determination," "Can I Play Too?" "A Look At Maps," poem-"The Park," "In My Neighborhood," "Bus Stops," "What is Fabric Made Of?"
**Our Field Trip to the FIELD MUSEUM is TUESDAY, MARCH 7th from 9:30-1:30 pm. Please send in your permission slip and money ASAP! I have L. Dantzler, A. Maldonado as chaperones so far. I really would like to have at least 2 more chaperones so our groups will not be so large. Please consider volunteering. Parents will be able to ride the bus with us. All students need to bring a NUT FREE BAG LUNCH with your NAME ON IT. No glass bottles or lunch boxes please. Chaperones will be taking pictures of exhibits that interest their group. The students will build a writing project around a picture they selected.
**In salute to spring and all things Irish, bagpiper Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Thursday, March 16th in the afternoon. He will present history behind bagpipe music and show the kids how he puts it all together. At dismissal, Mr. Lynch will give a concert on the black top for the school. Come join us!
**We participated in Ms. Noonan's African American Read In. Our story this week was "Red Light, Green Light Momma and Me.," by Cari Best.
**Bring in any kind of potato (not cooked) for our SUPER TUBER activity on Friday, March 17th. The activity will be done during our station day activities. I have one volunteer. I would love one more! Email me if interested.
**Future Event-The PTO Cultural Enrichment Committee has scheduled an assembly on March 23rd at 9:15 am called, "Justin and Liam." It teaches character education through music and song writing.
**Trimester 2 ends on March 10th.
**Report Cards go home on March 24th.
**Spring Break is 3/27-3/31. School resumes on Monday, April 3rd.
**NO SCHOOL-April 4th-Teacher's Institute Day.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey did a lesson on personal space and introduced the unthinkable, Space Invader who makes a persons body move into someones space and makes them feel uncomfortable. The student saw a webisode about personal space and had a discussion after. The also saw a role playing scene done by myself and Dr. Bell Bey and shared their thoughts.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer worked with small groups on positional concepts and direction following.
**Our Second Step Lesson focused on managing anger--anger is a natural feeling--your body lets you know when you are angry--Learning to calm yourself down.
This week:
The students continued with our author study on Mo Willems. We ventured into the world of Elephant and Piggie. The students absolutely love Mo's style of writing and the lessons that are embedded in the stories. Lots of conversation and investigation on different types of fabric in science. Number bond study abounds in Math! Workstations this week included flip tile mats (creating equations to 10) Sentence writing--What does the Pigeon think of Irving School? and building with pattern blocks, count and record two different ways to solve the puzzle.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continued work on Unit 6 Neighborhoods in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed prior knowledge of places in and around their neighborhood. The students listened to the Big Book story,"Bus Stops." They made predictions about story content and listened for what happened at the beginning, middle and ending of the story. They also made connections about places in the story and how they relate to their own community. The student reviewed target words what and that and letter sounds Hh, Dd, Rr and short and long u. Students worked in small groups to create sentences using words and pictures. They also used their elkonin boxes in an activity that worked on sound blending 4-5 sound words. Whole group lessons continue to work on Haggerty Blue Book exercises on consonant blends and digraphs, segmenting, blending sounds, adding, deleting and substituting sounds to create words. Robust Vocabulary for this week included ADMIRE, DELIVER, CELEBRATION, SCHEDULE. Our author study of Mo Willems continues to be lots of fun for the students. The students listened to Mo's Elephant and Piggie stories. They discussed the problems and solutions in the stories, "My Friend is Sad" and "Can I Play Too?" They then set out to write in their own words about the problem and solution in the story of their choice. When listening to the story, "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and "Leonardo the Terrible Monster," the students took a look at repetitive phrases and why the illustrations can be so important to a story. Workstations this week included leveled reader with comprehension check and fluency building, writing about our favorite neighborhood place and why we like it, box it up CVC word activity, cut and paste consonant blends, reading the sentence and color by code, short and long u word sort and building CCVC and CVCC words.
Math: The students continue to work in Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. Their lessons focused on creating a number bond for a given illustration for numbers 6,7,8,9. The students continue to use pictures, cube sticks and other drawings to show their work. They continue to work on math races or sprints to strengthen sequencing, subitizing and number order. Workstations this week included writing numbers to 112, reading and solving addition story problems using ten frames and writing the equation, fluency reading of teen numbers, geometric solids review.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. They have also started to review uppercase letters on their mini boards. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue work on "how to" books but with a little twist. The students began work on writing books on the topic of school--teaching others things they know how to do in reading, science, math, gym, music, lunchtime and any other thing they have learned throughout their school day. We jogged our memories by constructing a "School Day" web of of activities. Lots of great thoughts. Some students have already written about school activities but now all students will write their books on the same topic of school. The students also discussed their day and the activities they did even on the playground, during gym, music and art. Stay tuned.
Science: Our investigations this week centered on the resource--fabric. The students brainstormed and created a chart about what we knew about fabric. It is cloth. We wear it. It can come from a plant or animal. It can even come from oil! The students examined many different kinds of fabric. How are fabrics different? How do they feel? Vocabulary discussed--texture, nubby, rough, scratchy, soft, shiny, smooth, slippery. The students listened to a story about types of fabric. They went on a fabric hunt around the room and recorded their findings in their science notebooks. They also took apart fabric to see the threads. Students used their magnifying glasses to check out different fabrics up close and personal. They chatted at their table about color and feel and pulled apart threads of the fabric. The students also investigated what happens when water is put on fabric. Does the water soak into the fabric? What fabrics absorbed water? Does water "bead up" on any fabric? Students recorded their findings in their science notebooks. Next week--our last investigation of this unit on pushes and pulls.
Technology: Whole group in reading worked on the apps Learn Consonant Blends and Montessori Crosswords for consonant blends, blending and segmenting 3-4 sound words. In math whole group the apps Let's Do Math worked number bonds to 10 and Subitize Tree work on visual number recognition and number patterns. The students viewed Brain Pop Jr. videos on Harriet Tubman and George Washington Carver.
Literature: "My Friend Is Sad," Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," "The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog,""Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late," "The Pigeon Has Feelings Too," "The Duckling Gets A Cookie," "Red Light, Green Light Momma and Me," "Jackie Robinson-A Life of Determination," "Can I Play Too?" "A Look At Maps," poem-"The Park," "In My Neighborhood," "Bus Stops," "What is Fabric Made Of?"
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
UPDATES for 2/13-2/17 2017
**It was great to chat with you and share your child's progress. Thanks much for your continued support. The students surely do shine!!
**Our Valentine Sharing and Caring Party was so special! The students made special Valentine card holders and had special treat bags. It was so much fun to see their treasures and read their Valentines!
**Please don't forget to send the dollar amount of your class basket donation to Ben's mom. (Michelle Ahring) I hear the basket is looking pretty great! Thanks for your donations!!
**The FUN FAIR IS SATURDAY!!! Come one, Come all to the Annual Irving Fun Fair, February 25th from 11-3 pm all over the school. Pre sale tickets will be sold on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at lunchtime and after school in front of the office. They will also be sold the day of the fair. Who will get the PIE IN THE FACE?? Students can bring in their coins to vote beginning Thursday and up until 1:00 pm on Saturday. There is an online silent auction as well as a special teacher donation auction the day of the fair. (BID! BID!--bedtime story at your home and lunch at Junction Diner with me!!!! ) Games, prizes, bouncy house, raffles, bingo, face painting, tattoos, food, dancing for desserts and much more. Come and play the spinning game with me in the gym!! All proceeds from the day will go to Irving School.
**Hearing Screening for Irving students is Friday, February 24th at 10:05 am.
**Declan and Naomi D., our new Student Council reps will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, February 28th.
**Our class continues to participate in the African American Read In. This week, we read and discussed the story, "Ron's Big Mission." It is the story of Astronaut Ron McNair and an event he experienced as a 9 year old going to his neighborhood library. Ask your child about it.
**Permission slip and information about our FIELD TRIP to the FIELD MUSEUM is in your child's backpack. It is Tuesday, March 7th from 9:30-1:30 pm. The cost is $6.00. Please send a BAG LUNCH with NAME on it. It must be NUT FREE. No glass bottles or lunch boxes. I will need 5 chaperones to help out. I have 1 volunteer so far. Email me if interested. The focus of our trip will be for the students to select something interesting to write about. The chaperone can take pictures and email them to me!
**I will begin testing Route to Reading skill levels next week.
**Future Event--Bag Piper- Patrick Lynch will visit the Kindergarten classes on Thursday, March 16th in the afternoon to share and speak about all things bag pipe. He will be giving a concert on the blacktop at dismissal. Let's welcome spring!!
**Future Event--"Super Tuber" Activity (all things potato) on Friday, March 17th during Station Day. I will need 3 volunteers from 1:30-2:00 pm. Email me if interested.
**Future Event--The PTO Cultural Enrichment Committee has scheduled a assembly on March 23rd at 9:15 am called, "Justin and Liam." It teaches character education through music and song writing. **Trimester 2 ends on March 10th. Report Cards go home on Friday, March 24th.
**Spring Break is 3/27-2/31.
**NO SCHOOL--Tuesday, April 4th-Teacher's Institute Day.
**Keep savings those GIANT BOXES and other COOL STUFF for our engineering project in April.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued lessons on self regulation and managing feelings.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer began a project with the students centering on positional concepts and colored dots. Listen to the script-----move the dots to correct place.
**Our Second Step lesson this week focused on a review of hall way behavior. The students of Ms. Gullo and Ms. Grogan's classes created a poster of what "kindness" looks like in the hallway.
**The students had their final meeting with guest artist, Jonathan Franklin. Their final project was about using negative space and shapes. We have had a great time with Mr. Franklin! Good News!! The Oak Park Education Foundation would like to exhibit our class Symmetry Butterflies at the Village Hall in April. I will be sending more info on this next month. So cool!!
This week:
It was all about our Valentine's Caring and Sharing, beginning our author study on Mo Willems and continuing our science investigation on paper. We took a look at the contributions of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington thru stories and videos and pondered what makes a great leader.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 6 Neighborhoods in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed prior knowledge about what a neighborhood is and what is included in a neighborhood. The students worked together to create a huge word web of places and things that describe a neighborhood. They listened to the Big Book story, "Russ and the Firehouse." They recognized the story as nonfiction. The students chatted about story elements--Who is Russ? Why is he in the firehouse? What does he do there? The students also retold the story in their own words sequencing events. Target words: what and that. Target sounds this week: Hh, short and long u.
Students worked with partners and practiced asking a WH question about the story and having their partner answer it. During group read aloud, the students read the decodable story, "Are Caps Hats?" The students made predictions about story content. Each student had an opportunity to read aloud. Some questions to pondered--Could the group hear you? Did you stop at the ending mark? Did you pause at the comma? Were you able to blend the sounds together to make a word you didn't know? Was your reading choppy or smooth? The students reading partner listened, discussed and critiqued using the Reader's Checklist. Peers evaluating peers! The students were excited to begin their author study on Mo Willems. His "Pigeon" and "Elephant and Piggy" stories are so cool! The students took a look at some information on how he got started writing and drawing. Speech bubbles--less words--facial and body expressions in drawings--bold letters--lots of feeling!!! We will be taking a look at some websites and interviews with Mo himself. Feel free to check out his website. "Do you think the Pigeon should drive the bus????? Our students said NO!!!! We discussed the WHY and your own thoughts to back it up. Workstations this week included leveled readers, asking and answering questions about a given text, opinion writing, short and long vowel sort, creating CVC words, adding and deleting sounds to create words, sentence completion and reading short sentences.
Math: The students continued work in Module 4 working on creating number bonds for a given illustration using numbers 1-10. They also worked on telling their partner a story about an illustration and seeing the number bond their partner came up with. The students worked on an app called Butterfly Math projected on the board. It was great practice in finding the sum and missing addend. Key concept words--plus, equal, addend, sum, horizontal addition and vertical addition. This week the students also worked on subtraction or taking away. We are using concrete counters and pictures in our learning. Workstations for this week included writing to 110, finding the missing addend, tally mark addition, roll and add, decomposing teen numbers as 10 and what is left over.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. This week, they reviewed what they know so far and practiced on their mini boards. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue to work on their "how to" books. The teaching point this week was to elaborate or add tips and warnings. They do this by thinking about how the learner could go wrong and then adding advice to keep that from happening. We took a look at some mentor texts and read things like--"Don't forget to....." "Be sure to......." The students and their writing partners chose one of their stories and acted it out to see if it needed any warnings or tips. It is really so inspiring to see these students work with partners and hear their suggestions.
Science: Our investigations this week centered on the resource--paper. The students brainstormed and we created a chart about what we know about paper. It comes from wood--many objects are made out of paper--some paper looks different from other paper--paper can be useful--sometimes paper can change--paper can be reused and recycled. The students looks for paper samples throughout our classroom. They used different kinds of paper and experimented with markers, pens and pencils on types of paper. What makes paper good for writing? They also investigated what happens when certain kinds of paper get wet? Some paper adsorbs water, some does not. Some types of paper change what water gets on it. Some types of paper break down. The student recorded their findings in their science notebooks. Next week---fabric!
Technology: In reading whole group students used the app Oz Phonics to work on CVC words, consonant blends, word order and missing sounds. We used BrainPop to seek out information on Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, the Presidency and the African American author, Eloise Greenfield. We used the internet to gain more information on author and illustrator Mo Willems.
Literature: "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," "Abe Lincoln's Hat," "The Story of George Washington," "If You Lived in the Time of Abraham Lincoln," "Will You Be My Valentine," "Night on Neighborhood Street," "Ron's Big Mission," "Harriet Tubman," "A Train Without Tracks," "Author's great Big Valentine."
**Our Valentine Sharing and Caring Party was so special! The students made special Valentine card holders and had special treat bags. It was so much fun to see their treasures and read their Valentines!
**Please don't forget to send the dollar amount of your class basket donation to Ben's mom. (Michelle Ahring) I hear the basket is looking pretty great! Thanks for your donations!!
**The FUN FAIR IS SATURDAY!!! Come one, Come all to the Annual Irving Fun Fair, February 25th from 11-3 pm all over the school. Pre sale tickets will be sold on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at lunchtime and after school in front of the office. They will also be sold the day of the fair. Who will get the PIE IN THE FACE?? Students can bring in their coins to vote beginning Thursday and up until 1:00 pm on Saturday. There is an online silent auction as well as a special teacher donation auction the day of the fair. (BID! BID!--bedtime story at your home and lunch at Junction Diner with me!!!! ) Games, prizes, bouncy house, raffles, bingo, face painting, tattoos, food, dancing for desserts and much more. Come and play the spinning game with me in the gym!! All proceeds from the day will go to Irving School.
**Hearing Screening for Irving students is Friday, February 24th at 10:05 am.
**Declan and Naomi D., our new Student Council reps will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, February 28th.
**Our class continues to participate in the African American Read In. This week, we read and discussed the story, "Ron's Big Mission." It is the story of Astronaut Ron McNair and an event he experienced as a 9 year old going to his neighborhood library. Ask your child about it.
**Permission slip and information about our FIELD TRIP to the FIELD MUSEUM is in your child's backpack. It is Tuesday, March 7th from 9:30-1:30 pm. The cost is $6.00. Please send a BAG LUNCH with NAME on it. It must be NUT FREE. No glass bottles or lunch boxes. I will need 5 chaperones to help out. I have 1 volunteer so far. Email me if interested. The focus of our trip will be for the students to select something interesting to write about. The chaperone can take pictures and email them to me!
**I will begin testing Route to Reading skill levels next week.
**Future Event--Bag Piper- Patrick Lynch will visit the Kindergarten classes on Thursday, March 16th in the afternoon to share and speak about all things bag pipe. He will be giving a concert on the blacktop at dismissal. Let's welcome spring!!
**Future Event--"Super Tuber" Activity (all things potato) on Friday, March 17th during Station Day. I will need 3 volunteers from 1:30-2:00 pm. Email me if interested.
**Future Event--The PTO Cultural Enrichment Committee has scheduled a assembly on March 23rd at 9:15 am called, "Justin and Liam." It teaches character education through music and song writing. **Trimester 2 ends on March 10th. Report Cards go home on Friday, March 24th.
**Spring Break is 3/27-2/31.
**NO SCHOOL--Tuesday, April 4th-Teacher's Institute Day.
**Keep savings those GIANT BOXES and other COOL STUFF for our engineering project in April.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued lessons on self regulation and managing feelings.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer began a project with the students centering on positional concepts and colored dots. Listen to the script-----move the dots to correct place.
**Our Second Step lesson this week focused on a review of hall way behavior. The students of Ms. Gullo and Ms. Grogan's classes created a poster of what "kindness" looks like in the hallway.
**The students had their final meeting with guest artist, Jonathan Franklin. Their final project was about using negative space and shapes. We have had a great time with Mr. Franklin! Good News!! The Oak Park Education Foundation would like to exhibit our class Symmetry Butterflies at the Village Hall in April. I will be sending more info on this next month. So cool!!
This week:
It was all about our Valentine's Caring and Sharing, beginning our author study on Mo Willems and continuing our science investigation on paper. We took a look at the contributions of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington thru stories and videos and pondered what makes a great leader.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 6 Neighborhoods in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed prior knowledge about what a neighborhood is and what is included in a neighborhood. The students worked together to create a huge word web of places and things that describe a neighborhood. They listened to the Big Book story, "Russ and the Firehouse." They recognized the story as nonfiction. The students chatted about story elements--Who is Russ? Why is he in the firehouse? What does he do there? The students also retold the story in their own words sequencing events. Target words: what and that. Target sounds this week: Hh, short and long u.
Students worked with partners and practiced asking a WH question about the story and having their partner answer it. During group read aloud, the students read the decodable story, "Are Caps Hats?" The students made predictions about story content. Each student had an opportunity to read aloud. Some questions to pondered--Could the group hear you? Did you stop at the ending mark? Did you pause at the comma? Were you able to blend the sounds together to make a word you didn't know? Was your reading choppy or smooth? The students reading partner listened, discussed and critiqued using the Reader's Checklist. Peers evaluating peers! The students were excited to begin their author study on Mo Willems. His "Pigeon" and "Elephant and Piggy" stories are so cool! The students took a look at some information on how he got started writing and drawing. Speech bubbles--less words--facial and body expressions in drawings--bold letters--lots of feeling!!! We will be taking a look at some websites and interviews with Mo himself. Feel free to check out his website. "Do you think the Pigeon should drive the bus????? Our students said NO!!!! We discussed the WHY and your own thoughts to back it up. Workstations this week included leveled readers, asking and answering questions about a given text, opinion writing, short and long vowel sort, creating CVC words, adding and deleting sounds to create words, sentence completion and reading short sentences.
Math: The students continued work in Module 4 working on creating number bonds for a given illustration using numbers 1-10. They also worked on telling their partner a story about an illustration and seeing the number bond their partner came up with. The students worked on an app called Butterfly Math projected on the board. It was great practice in finding the sum and missing addend. Key concept words--plus, equal, addend, sum, horizontal addition and vertical addition. This week the students also worked on subtraction or taking away. We are using concrete counters and pictures in our learning. Workstations for this week included writing to 110, finding the missing addend, tally mark addition, roll and add, decomposing teen numbers as 10 and what is left over.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. This week, they reviewed what they know so far and practiced on their mini boards. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue to work on their "how to" books. The teaching point this week was to elaborate or add tips and warnings. They do this by thinking about how the learner could go wrong and then adding advice to keep that from happening. We took a look at some mentor texts and read things like--"Don't forget to....." "Be sure to......." The students and their writing partners chose one of their stories and acted it out to see if it needed any warnings or tips. It is really so inspiring to see these students work with partners and hear their suggestions.
Science: Our investigations this week centered on the resource--paper. The students brainstormed and we created a chart about what we know about paper. It comes from wood--many objects are made out of paper--some paper looks different from other paper--paper can be useful--sometimes paper can change--paper can be reused and recycled. The students looks for paper samples throughout our classroom. They used different kinds of paper and experimented with markers, pens and pencils on types of paper. What makes paper good for writing? They also investigated what happens when certain kinds of paper get wet? Some paper adsorbs water, some does not. Some types of paper change what water gets on it. Some types of paper break down. The student recorded their findings in their science notebooks. Next week---fabric!
Technology: In reading whole group students used the app Oz Phonics to work on CVC words, consonant blends, word order and missing sounds. We used BrainPop to seek out information on Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, the Presidency and the African American author, Eloise Greenfield. We used the internet to gain more information on author and illustrator Mo Willems.
Literature: "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," "Abe Lincoln's Hat," "The Story of George Washington," "If You Lived in the Time of Abraham Lincoln," "Will You Be My Valentine," "Night on Neighborhood Street," "Ron's Big Mission," "Harriet Tubman," "A Train Without Tracks," "Author's great Big Valentine."
Monday, February 13, 2017
UPDATES for 2/6-2/10 2017
**Our 100th Day Celebration was a smash! 100 fruit loop necklaces, 100 stamps in a stamp book, writing 100 words, making 100 day crowns, creating and building using 100 cups, 100 legos, 100 craft sicks, 100 pattern blocks, graphing 100 items by tens and writing numbers from 1-100 were the activities. A BIG SHOUT OUT to our great volunteers D. Regan, C. Horwitz, B. Ahring, L. Dantzler and J. Flannery.
**Parent/Teacher Conferences begin on Monday, February 13th and continue Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Your family can attend if needed. I will be sharing all progress reports, work samples and assessments for midyear.
**Our Valentine Sharing and Caring Party is Tuesday, February 14th! Bring in your valentines and a treat (NUT FREE) if you wish. The students have made a special valentine card holder. All treats will be sent home.
**Don't forget to sign up to contribute to our class "Game Night" Basket. Michelle Ahring's mom has set up a Sign Up Genius. You can send your contribution game or money to school and I will deliver it to Michelle. Let's make our basket the COOLEST!
**The FUN FAIR is almost here! I believe the PTO will begin selling tickets this week. The FUN FAIR is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm. There will also be a "sensory" time to go to the Fair from 10-11 am. The time is reserved for students and family who desire a less crowded, low stress and low sound time. There will be games prizes, food, dancing for desserts, raffles, a silent auction and much more! Come play a game with me! Silent Auction items--BID! BID! I will be taking 4 lucky winners to lunch at Junction Diner and will be reading a special bedtime story to 2 lucky winners in their home. Join in the fun!
**Congratulations to DECLAN and NAOMI D. our new Student Council Reps for this trimester. Their first meeting will be Tuesday, February 21st.
**Hearing Screening is Friday, February 24th in the morning for all Irving students.
**Our class has been participating in Irving School's African American Read In under the direction of Ms. Noonan. Our story this week was "The Story of Ruby Bridges." The story was followed by a discussion and reflection by the students of story content.
**Future Field Trip--Field Museum--Tuesday, March 7th from 9-2 pm. Look for field trip permission slips and info soon. I will need 5 volunteers for the trip. Email me is interested.
**Keep saving GIANT BOXES and other COOL STUFF for our engineering project in April.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued her lessons on self regulation using Superflex, Rock Brain and introducing Glassman who makes people have upsets over little things. The students viewed a webisode about a girl who broke her pencil and throws a fit. It's a Glassman moment. How can the girl calm down? The students discussed how to fix the situation--get a new pencil, ask the teacher to sharpen her pencil, use self talk, belly breathe, count to get calm---great suggestions.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr Packer worked with students on a project illustrating positional concepts with boxes and a black dot.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the students continued work on how to calm strong feelings.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin worked with the students on shapes, paper folds and negative space to create a house. The students then made a neighborhood landscape out of blocks and placed their houses along the street.
This week:
It was all about our 100th day celebration. The students were counting up a storm by 10's, by 5's and by 1's to 100. The students also continued work on their science investigation about wood. We continue to explore the accomplishments of African Americans. Our favorite story and discussion was on "The Story of Ruby Bridges." The students were so proud to know that even a young child can effect change in our country. Lots of thoughtful insights by students. Station day activities included color by code horizontal addition, build and count 2 different ways and record the blocks that you used, let's make 10 and coloring/decorating their Valentine card holder.
Reading/Language Arts: The students are working to complete Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. The students reviewed all the sight words learned thus far. We also reviewed parts of speech--noun and verb. In all of our reading, students have been looking for them. This week we took a look at how animals can change and grow. We discussed how an animal grows from a baby into an adult. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Baby Animals ABC." The word offspring appeared in our story about different animal babies and some facts about them. What does that word mean? Are there any clues or pictures in the book that could help you figure out what it means? The students also commented on how the book was set up. It was in ABC order with a baby animal with the same beginning letter on each page. During our reading, the students made predictions about what would come next, made inferences about what an animal could do and classified and categorized animals into certain groups. The students had a chance to elbow chat about their favorite animal baby and the fact they learned about it. The students continued work on the text "Animals in Winter" for their blueprint summative. This non fiction story focused on animals that migrated, hibernated or stayed put for the winter. The students acted out animals actions, did a group "we do" illustration of their favorite animal facts and completed a "you do" blueprint where they wrote about the main topic and cited 2 examples of how the animal of their choice spends the winter. Cool! Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency, naming main topic and looking for nouns and verbs, short vowel/long vowel word sort, writing about an animal from your reader and telling 2 facts, real/nonsense word sort, making ccvc and cvcc words, discussing and writing about the problem and solution in a story and substituting beginning sounds to form new words. Next week, we will begin an author study on children's author and illustrator Mo Willems.
Math: The students began Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. The lessons this week focused on composing (adding) and decomposing (subtracting) numbers to 5 using multiple representations--drawings, numbers and objects. As in our story problem books, the students were asked to look at a picture and tell a story about it to their partner and then fill in a parts and whole on the number bond. The students also did another math race called a sprint. Sprints are 1 minute tests that help build confidence strengthen number recall and focus.. This sprint was about filling the missing number on the number line using numbers 0-5. Workstations this week included writing the missing numbers from 1-100, review of 2D and 3D shapes, story problems writing a number bond to tell the parts and whole and number writing practice.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters e and l were worked on. The students practiced formation on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue to work on their "how to" story format to inform and teach. The teaching point was to write "how to" steps that a reader can easily follow, it's really important to remember yourself doing something and picture it, almost like you are watching a video in slow motion. The students worked with their writing partners to choose one of their stories and act out the parts. Did they have all the steps they needed? So fun to observe their interest and see them work everything out!
Science: Our next science question in our study of natural resources was on exploring parts of wood--sawdust and wood shavings. Vocabulary included sawdust, screen, shavings, waterlogged. The students worked with their tablemates to compare sawdust (the tiny pieces of wood they made using sandpaper) and wood shavings. Each student had a chance to look at the cup of sawdust and cup of wood shavings with their magnifying glass. How are sawdust and shavings the same? (they are both wood) How are sawdust and shavings different? (tinier vs. bigger) The students mixed the two with water. What did you observe? Students made entries in their science notebook about shavings floating and some sinking. Wood that is waterlogged sinks. We also talked about wood having tiny holes or spaces where the water can soak in. Who knew!!! Next week: paper!
Technology: In reading, group work was done with the app Oz Phonics on blends, digraphs, word order in sentences and cvc words. The app Rocket Speller was used in small group work to strengthen sound blending and segmenting. In math, the app Butterfly Math was used to work on horizontal addition problems with objects and numbers. The students watched a BrainPop video on the accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln and Rosa Parks and in science on Wood
Literature: "Animals in Winter," "The Story of Ruby Bridges," "Fluffy's 100 Days," "The 100th Day of School," "The Night Before the 100th Day of School," "100Ways to Celebrate the 100 Days," "A Picture Book of Rosa Parks," "Ms. Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten," "Harlem," "Duke Ellington."
**Parent/Teacher Conferences begin on Monday, February 13th and continue Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Your family can attend if needed. I will be sharing all progress reports, work samples and assessments for midyear.
**Our Valentine Sharing and Caring Party is Tuesday, February 14th! Bring in your valentines and a treat (NUT FREE) if you wish. The students have made a special valentine card holder. All treats will be sent home.
**Don't forget to sign up to contribute to our class "Game Night" Basket. Michelle Ahring's mom has set up a Sign Up Genius. You can send your contribution game or money to school and I will deliver it to Michelle. Let's make our basket the COOLEST!
**The FUN FAIR is almost here! I believe the PTO will begin selling tickets this week. The FUN FAIR is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm. There will also be a "sensory" time to go to the Fair from 10-11 am. The time is reserved for students and family who desire a less crowded, low stress and low sound time. There will be games prizes, food, dancing for desserts, raffles, a silent auction and much more! Come play a game with me! Silent Auction items--BID! BID! I will be taking 4 lucky winners to lunch at Junction Diner and will be reading a special bedtime story to 2 lucky winners in their home. Join in the fun!
**Congratulations to DECLAN and NAOMI D. our new Student Council Reps for this trimester. Their first meeting will be Tuesday, February 21st.
**Hearing Screening is Friday, February 24th in the morning for all Irving students.
**Our class has been participating in Irving School's African American Read In under the direction of Ms. Noonan. Our story this week was "The Story of Ruby Bridges." The story was followed by a discussion and reflection by the students of story content.
**Future Field Trip--Field Museum--Tuesday, March 7th from 9-2 pm. Look for field trip permission slips and info soon. I will need 5 volunteers for the trip. Email me is interested.
**Keep saving GIANT BOXES and other COOL STUFF for our engineering project in April.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued her lessons on self regulation using Superflex, Rock Brain and introducing Glassman who makes people have upsets over little things. The students viewed a webisode about a girl who broke her pencil and throws a fit. It's a Glassman moment. How can the girl calm down? The students discussed how to fix the situation--get a new pencil, ask the teacher to sharpen her pencil, use self talk, belly breathe, count to get calm---great suggestions.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr Packer worked with students on a project illustrating positional concepts with boxes and a black dot.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the students continued work on how to calm strong feelings.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin worked with the students on shapes, paper folds and negative space to create a house. The students then made a neighborhood landscape out of blocks and placed their houses along the street.
This week:
It was all about our 100th day celebration. The students were counting up a storm by 10's, by 5's and by 1's to 100. The students also continued work on their science investigation about wood. We continue to explore the accomplishments of African Americans. Our favorite story and discussion was on "The Story of Ruby Bridges." The students were so proud to know that even a young child can effect change in our country. Lots of thoughtful insights by students. Station day activities included color by code horizontal addition, build and count 2 different ways and record the blocks that you used, let's make 10 and coloring/decorating their Valentine card holder.
Reading/Language Arts: The students are working to complete Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. The students reviewed all the sight words learned thus far. We also reviewed parts of speech--noun and verb. In all of our reading, students have been looking for them. This week we took a look at how animals can change and grow. We discussed how an animal grows from a baby into an adult. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Baby Animals ABC." The word offspring appeared in our story about different animal babies and some facts about them. What does that word mean? Are there any clues or pictures in the book that could help you figure out what it means? The students also commented on how the book was set up. It was in ABC order with a baby animal with the same beginning letter on each page. During our reading, the students made predictions about what would come next, made inferences about what an animal could do and classified and categorized animals into certain groups. The students had a chance to elbow chat about their favorite animal baby and the fact they learned about it. The students continued work on the text "Animals in Winter" for their blueprint summative. This non fiction story focused on animals that migrated, hibernated or stayed put for the winter. The students acted out animals actions, did a group "we do" illustration of their favorite animal facts and completed a "you do" blueprint where they wrote about the main topic and cited 2 examples of how the animal of their choice spends the winter. Cool! Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency, naming main topic and looking for nouns and verbs, short vowel/long vowel word sort, writing about an animal from your reader and telling 2 facts, real/nonsense word sort, making ccvc and cvcc words, discussing and writing about the problem and solution in a story and substituting beginning sounds to form new words. Next week, we will begin an author study on children's author and illustrator Mo Willems.
Math: The students began Module 4 in our Eureka Math series. The lessons this week focused on composing (adding) and decomposing (subtracting) numbers to 5 using multiple representations--drawings, numbers and objects. As in our story problem books, the students were asked to look at a picture and tell a story about it to their partner and then fill in a parts and whole on the number bond. The students also did another math race called a sprint. Sprints are 1 minute tests that help build confidence strengthen number recall and focus.. This sprint was about filling the missing number on the number line using numbers 0-5. Workstations this week included writing the missing numbers from 1-100, review of 2D and 3D shapes, story problems writing a number bond to tell the parts and whole and number writing practice.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters e and l were worked on. The students practiced formation on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue to work on their "how to" story format to inform and teach. The teaching point was to write "how to" steps that a reader can easily follow, it's really important to remember yourself doing something and picture it, almost like you are watching a video in slow motion. The students worked with their writing partners to choose one of their stories and act out the parts. Did they have all the steps they needed? So fun to observe their interest and see them work everything out!
Science: Our next science question in our study of natural resources was on exploring parts of wood--sawdust and wood shavings. Vocabulary included sawdust, screen, shavings, waterlogged. The students worked with their tablemates to compare sawdust (the tiny pieces of wood they made using sandpaper) and wood shavings. Each student had a chance to look at the cup of sawdust and cup of wood shavings with their magnifying glass. How are sawdust and shavings the same? (they are both wood) How are sawdust and shavings different? (tinier vs. bigger) The students mixed the two with water. What did you observe? Students made entries in their science notebook about shavings floating and some sinking. Wood that is waterlogged sinks. We also talked about wood having tiny holes or spaces where the water can soak in. Who knew!!! Next week: paper!
Technology: In reading, group work was done with the app Oz Phonics on blends, digraphs, word order in sentences and cvc words. The app Rocket Speller was used in small group work to strengthen sound blending and segmenting. In math, the app Butterfly Math was used to work on horizontal addition problems with objects and numbers. The students watched a BrainPop video on the accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln and Rosa Parks and in science on Wood
Literature: "Animals in Winter," "The Story of Ruby Bridges," "Fluffy's 100 Days," "The 100th Day of School," "The Night Before the 100th Day of School," "100Ways to Celebrate the 100 Days," "A Picture Book of Rosa Parks," "Ms. Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten," "Harlem," "Duke Ellington."
Sunday, February 5, 2017
UPDATES for 1/30-2/3 2017
**The students are getting themselves and the classroom ready for our 100th Day Celebration. Check out our 100 Item Heart Projects on the right side of post. They are pretty cool! The projects will remain up in the hallway thru until the end of the month. Our Celebration is Monday, February 6th from 9-11 am. Lots of activities surrounding the number 100 and counting by 10's to 100.
**Alec's mom, Michelle has created a Sign Up Genius for you to contribute to our "GAME NIGHT" class basket for the Fun Fair. Please note--You can send in money and games to me at Irving and I can deliver it to Michelle. Let's make our basket the COOLEST!
**I just need a few more confirmed responses for Parent/Teacher Conferences and we will be all set. Parent/Teacher Conferences are Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Please note---Thursday, and Friday February 16th and 17th school will be in session only in the morning. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will pick up at 11:00 am. There are NO Eagle Extra classes those days.
**Thanks to all of you who participated the Irving Dental Clinic. The students enjoyed showing off their sparkling white teeth!!
**Happy Chinese New Year! It's the Year of the Rooster. The students had some fun reading about the origin of the lunar new year and all the animal signs. They loved finding out what animal sign they were born under.
**Yes! The Groundhog saw his shadow. Six more weeks of winter. So far....not too bad! The students were evenly divided in their predictions.
**We had lots of fun with the Japanese students who cam to visit our class! The students had questions about how they got to school, what school was like and what their writing looks like. The hosting students from OPRF read a story by a famous Japanese children's author and played a game with our students using Japanese words. Three of the hosting students from OPRF were former Irving students who were in my kindergarten. AWESOME!! They are all college bound!! So proud!!
**Our Valentine Caring and Sharing Party is Tuesday, February 14th. Information on this is in your child's homework folder. Just a reminder--if you are sending a treat....it must be NUT FREE. Thanks!
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is Coming! It is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm all around the school. There will be games, prizes, food, dancing for desserts, raffles, a silent auction and much more! Who will get the PIE in the FACE? The students will be voting by placing coins into the jar for their favorite teacher. What special performances do the teachers have up their sleeve??? Silent Auction items--BID! BID! I will be taking 5 lucky winners to lunch at the JUNCTION DINNER and will be reading a special bedtime story to 2 lucky winners in their home. Join in the fun!!!!
**Future Field Trip--Field Museum--Tuesday, March 7th from 9-2 pm. 5 volunteers needed.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey had a discussion with the students about things, people, places that mean the most to them in our daily lives. In the month of sharing and caring, the students had many things to chat about. Each child created a tee shirt ornament writing about what they care about. They hung them on our Tree and our complement tree has become the "I Care" tree!
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer helped us prepare for 100's Day by reading a special story and working with the students on creating 100 by grouping by 2's, 5's, 1's, 10's, 25's and 50's.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the lesson focused on how to calm down strong feelings you may have in certain situations.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin worked with the students combining 2D and 3D shapes to create a movable cat or dog.
This week:
It was about the students getting ready for the 100th Day. They did a partner project counting 100 items in the classroom, reading about the number 100 and grouping 100 in different ways. Our 100 Item Hearts look amazing! The students experimented with changing the shape of wood. More in the science section. Station day activities included build and count 3D animals with cubes, color by code addition problems 0-5, search and write short vowel words, count to make 10 and writing numbers to 100.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continued work on Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. This week focused on using informational or expository texts. They listened to a story about the work of doctors who take care of animals called, "Let's go To The Vet." They made predictions about story content by looking at the title. They worked on content vocabulary--veterinarian, diagram. After the story was read, the students discussed what was the main idea of the story? What kinds of animals to vets take care? What are some things a vet does? Our next Blueprint will focus on the students ability to describe the connections between the pieces of information and tell the main topic and details from a non fiction text. We will be using the text, "Animals in Winter" for this. We had our first reading and discussion. Continuing along those lines, the student listened to the Big Book story, "Animals Babies ABC." They built background knowledge about how animal grow and change. Target words--play, me, my. Target sounds--Ff and short i. The students elbow chatted about story content and the animal they knew. Robust vocabulary included BELONG, FRAGILE, INFORMATION, PARENT, SEVERAL. Workstations this week included leveled readers with concentration on main topic and supporting details, fluency, sight word round up, word work with consonant blends (2 part and 3 part), long vowel/short vowel sort, work with vowel teams and sentence writing using the sentence starters- I can...They can and word work with sound substitution.
Math: Students began to work in their Math Story Problem Books which are now part of their morning math exercises. The page is projected onto the board. We read the story problem together. For now, we are working with addition stories. The students work to show the numbers being added on their ten frames, illustrate their work with a drawing and then write a number sentence or equation for their work. This week, we spent time working on counting to, reading and writing numbers to 100. The students worked with partners to count a group of objects from our classroom grouping by tens and labeling the groups. Check them out when you come visit the room! Next week, we will begin Module 4 in our Eureka Math series, The focus will be on hidden partners--now called number bonding to understand how to take apart (decompose) and put together (compose) numbers to 10. We are adding and subtracting!
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. Underground letter g as well as i and u were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue the "how to" format to teach something they know about in their writing. They looked at an Information Writing Checklist Poster. The teaching point --remember everything you already know about writing informational books. The Checklist poster is now part of their writing tools. The students worked with their partners using the new checklist to tell their partners what they were going to work on.
Let's check--Do I have a topic? Did I put different things I know about the topic on my pages? Did I have a last part? Did I write some details? Did I draw or diagram each page?
Science: The next science question in our study of the natural resource--wood is How can you change the shape of wood? Vocabulary included--change, sand, sandpaper, sawdust, wood dust, shape. The students looked at a piece of sandpaper and we discussed what is was. Some students knew how to use it, others commented on how it felt when touched. The students then each took a piece of wood and a piece of sandpaper. They rubbed the wood with the sandpaper. As they worked--lots of conversation--What is the best technique for sanding? How does the wood feel after you sand. Does the wood shape change? Where does the wood dust come from? How does the wood dust feel? The students chatted and recorded their findings with pictures and writing in their science notebook.
Technology: The students saw BrainPop videos on natural resources, wood, teeth and sink and float and took the quizzes. The student continue to use Lexia Core 5 to build skills in phonemic awareness and phonics.
Literature: "Animals in Winter," "Let's Go To the Vet," "Martin's Big Words," "One Hundred Shoes," "How to Make a Cherry Pie," "Groundhog Day," "The Groundhog's Special Secret," "Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day," "Chinese New Year," 'Portrait of African American History."
**Alec's mom, Michelle has created a Sign Up Genius for you to contribute to our "GAME NIGHT" class basket for the Fun Fair. Please note--You can send in money and games to me at Irving and I can deliver it to Michelle. Let's make our basket the COOLEST!
**I just need a few more confirmed responses for Parent/Teacher Conferences and we will be all set. Parent/Teacher Conferences are Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Please note---Thursday, and Friday February 16th and 17th school will be in session only in the morning. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will pick up at 11:00 am. There are NO Eagle Extra classes those days.
**Thanks to all of you who participated the Irving Dental Clinic. The students enjoyed showing off their sparkling white teeth!!
**Happy Chinese New Year! It's the Year of the Rooster. The students had some fun reading about the origin of the lunar new year and all the animal signs. They loved finding out what animal sign they were born under.
**Yes! The Groundhog saw his shadow. Six more weeks of winter. So far....not too bad! The students were evenly divided in their predictions.
**We had lots of fun with the Japanese students who cam to visit our class! The students had questions about how they got to school, what school was like and what their writing looks like. The hosting students from OPRF read a story by a famous Japanese children's author and played a game with our students using Japanese words. Three of the hosting students from OPRF were former Irving students who were in my kindergarten. AWESOME!! They are all college bound!! So proud!!
**Our Valentine Caring and Sharing Party is Tuesday, February 14th. Information on this is in your child's homework folder. Just a reminder--if you are sending a treat....it must be NUT FREE. Thanks!
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is Coming! It is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm all around the school. There will be games, prizes, food, dancing for desserts, raffles, a silent auction and much more! Who will get the PIE in the FACE? The students will be voting by placing coins into the jar for their favorite teacher. What special performances do the teachers have up their sleeve??? Silent Auction items--BID! BID! I will be taking 5 lucky winners to lunch at the JUNCTION DINNER and will be reading a special bedtime story to 2 lucky winners in their home. Join in the fun!!!!
**Future Field Trip--Field Museum--Tuesday, March 7th from 9-2 pm. 5 volunteers needed.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey had a discussion with the students about things, people, places that mean the most to them in our daily lives. In the month of sharing and caring, the students had many things to chat about. Each child created a tee shirt ornament writing about what they care about. They hung them on our Tree and our complement tree has become the "I Care" tree!
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer helped us prepare for 100's Day by reading a special story and working with the students on creating 100 by grouping by 2's, 5's, 1's, 10's, 25's and 50's.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the lesson focused on how to calm down strong feelings you may have in certain situations.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin worked with the students combining 2D and 3D shapes to create a movable cat or dog.
This week:
It was about the students getting ready for the 100th Day. They did a partner project counting 100 items in the classroom, reading about the number 100 and grouping 100 in different ways. Our 100 Item Hearts look amazing! The students experimented with changing the shape of wood. More in the science section. Station day activities included build and count 3D animals with cubes, color by code addition problems 0-5, search and write short vowel words, count to make 10 and writing numbers to 100.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continued work on Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. This week focused on using informational or expository texts. They listened to a story about the work of doctors who take care of animals called, "Let's go To The Vet." They made predictions about story content by looking at the title. They worked on content vocabulary--veterinarian, diagram. After the story was read, the students discussed what was the main idea of the story? What kinds of animals to vets take care? What are some things a vet does? Our next Blueprint will focus on the students ability to describe the connections between the pieces of information and tell the main topic and details from a non fiction text. We will be using the text, "Animals in Winter" for this. We had our first reading and discussion. Continuing along those lines, the student listened to the Big Book story, "Animals Babies ABC." They built background knowledge about how animal grow and change. Target words--play, me, my. Target sounds--Ff and short i. The students elbow chatted about story content and the animal they knew. Robust vocabulary included BELONG, FRAGILE, INFORMATION, PARENT, SEVERAL. Workstations this week included leveled readers with concentration on main topic and supporting details, fluency, sight word round up, word work with consonant blends (2 part and 3 part), long vowel/short vowel sort, work with vowel teams and sentence writing using the sentence starters- I can...They can and word work with sound substitution.
Math: Students began to work in their Math Story Problem Books which are now part of their morning math exercises. The page is projected onto the board. We read the story problem together. For now, we are working with addition stories. The students work to show the numbers being added on their ten frames, illustrate their work with a drawing and then write a number sentence or equation for their work. This week, we spent time working on counting to, reading and writing numbers to 100. The students worked with partners to count a group of objects from our classroom grouping by tens and labeling the groups. Check them out when you come visit the room! Next week, we will begin Module 4 in our Eureka Math series, The focus will be on hidden partners--now called number bonding to understand how to take apart (decompose) and put together (compose) numbers to 10. We are adding and subtracting!
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. Underground letter g as well as i and u were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students continue the "how to" format to teach something they know about in their writing. They looked at an Information Writing Checklist Poster. The teaching point --remember everything you already know about writing informational books. The Checklist poster is now part of their writing tools. The students worked with their partners using the new checklist to tell their partners what they were going to work on.
Let's check--Do I have a topic? Did I put different things I know about the topic on my pages? Did I have a last part? Did I write some details? Did I draw or diagram each page?
Science: The next science question in our study of the natural resource--wood is How can you change the shape of wood? Vocabulary included--change, sand, sandpaper, sawdust, wood dust, shape. The students looked at a piece of sandpaper and we discussed what is was. Some students knew how to use it, others commented on how it felt when touched. The students then each took a piece of wood and a piece of sandpaper. They rubbed the wood with the sandpaper. As they worked--lots of conversation--What is the best technique for sanding? How does the wood feel after you sand. Does the wood shape change? Where does the wood dust come from? How does the wood dust feel? The students chatted and recorded their findings with pictures and writing in their science notebook.
Technology: The students saw BrainPop videos on natural resources, wood, teeth and sink and float and took the quizzes. The student continue to use Lexia Core 5 to build skills in phonemic awareness and phonics.
Literature: "Animals in Winter," "Let's Go To the Vet," "Martin's Big Words," "One Hundred Shoes," "How to Make a Cherry Pie," "Groundhog Day," "The Groundhog's Special Secret," "Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day," "Chinese New Year," 'Portrait of African American History."
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