**Open House was spectacular! The students had so much fun being your tour guides! I enjoyed seeing all the families! The students are still chatting about the cool Doodle Buddy slideshow! Many of you signed up for a Conference Time. If you did not have a chance...don't worry, I will sending out a formal letter. Parent/Teacher Conferences for my class will be held on Tuesday, October 16th, Wednesday, October 17th, Thursday, October 18th and Friday, October 19th in our classroom. At that time, I will be sharing any assessments, student progress in all academic areas, participation and social/emotional reflections.
**Our class has earned enough EAGLE WINGS and have voted to have a PAJAMA PARTY on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19th. The students can come in their pajamas or bring them to change into. They may also bring a bedtime stuff animal if they choose. Fluffy slippers can be worn in the classroom only so send gym shoes to change into.
**MILLION MINUTES READING CHALLENGE is beginning soon in October! Your child will get a recording log each week and we are asking that each child read/be read to for 20 minutes each day. I am looking for a volunteer who would be willing to collect our weekly reading logs and record the number of minutes on a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet will be provided for you. It is a School Wide goal to read 1,000,000 minutes by April. We can do it!! We need your help. Email me if interested.
**PICTURE DAY is Tuesday, October 2nd. I try to book an early slot. Thanks to M. Schwager and L. Pointer for their assistance. Stay tuned for more info.
**KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM NIGHT is this coming Thursday, September 20th from 6:30-7:30 pm. (half hour later then previously mentioned) in the Irving Auditorium. This adult only event will provide you will absolutely everything you need to know about the tools used to educate your child. Hope to see you there. Please bring any questions you may have.
**I am in the last week of assessing students using the PHONIC SCREENERS. We will be discussing their use in creating our skill specific groups for Route to Reading at curriculum night.
**Don't forget--Library books can remain out 1 week and then must be brought back so your child can choose new ones. This week, Ms. Noonan spoke to the students about books being FICTION and NON-FICTION. Each child selected a fiction and non-fiction book.
**Ms. Bell Bey began Friendship Club today. She spoke about the topics that the students will be working on and introduced the students to her puppet friends. A note about her goals is in your child's folder.
**Mr. Packer will absolutely begin Math Enrichment next Tuesday. He was out of the building on Tuesday afternoon at a meeting.
**Students received their usernames and passwords for the at home program, READING EGGS today. They can click on the reading eggs name at the side of the blog. If they are reading and have a reading vocabulary of 50 words then they can click top selection. Most of my students will be clicking the bottom selection that will review letters and letter sounds. Experiment with it. This is just another option for practice. Parents set the amount of time and number of days. I can check in remotely through my computer.
**Travel Journals were shared by Kanohi (Eagle, Wisconsin) and Emerson (St. Louis, Missouri.) The students love locating the places on the our giant map and noting the distance between destinations.
**We will have a student assembly for the FUN RUN PTO Fundraiser on Monday, September 17th. Families will get the information sent home that day. Stay tuned for more info!
**Our 24th student will start class on Monday. Our class is now closed!
This week:
It was all about getting ready for open house. The students worked hard on projects to be displayed on our hallway wall. They thought about the future in their writing and illustrations of what they wanted to be when they grew up. They worked cooperatively with a partner on their border patterns and worked independently to create their pattern block design. What masterpieces!!! The most fun of all was working on their Doodle Buddy Project and seeing it in slideshow form. They are recognizing their classmates names and chatting with them about the stickers and drawings each used to personalize their photo. The students had such a great time playing 'Heads or Tails," that I postponed their Station Day activities until next Friday! More about that in the Math section!
Reading/Social Studies: The students finished week 3 of our prep for Treasures Reading Series called Start Smart. The students worked on letter names A-Z and letter sounds for letters A-P. They used their mirrors to observe where each letter sound came from....open/closed mouth?.....puff of air.....vibrations?...where is your tongue? The students continued work on on their sight vocabulary. We did some work with naming the letters (spelling) each word. In our interactive read aloud story, the students listened to a folktale from South America. They located the continent of South America on our world map. In the folktale, "The Clever Turtle," a man wants to make turtle soup. The turtle is very clever. The class discussed what that meant. (smart) The turtle plays the flute. The students recognized that this story was fiction. The students talked about what makes the turtle clever. (He does not become turtle soup!) and also thought about what the lesson might be in the story. Once again, the students created a picture in their mind as the story was being read. The students reviewed the trade book, "Jazz Baby." They used the retelling cards to tell the story. Students volunteered to write a sentence under each card. I said the letters and students recorded them. Some student volunteers knew how to spell and wrote the words on their own. The students compared the fiction story, "Jazz Baby," to the informational (non-fiction) story, "Made From Clay." They noted the real from the make believe, photos vs. illustrations and what each story was about (making music vs. clay.) The position words, under, on, in and over were reviewed. During our read aloud time, students re-read their paper story, "I Can." They concentrated on finger pointing each word and picture and noting that each sentence begins with a capital letter and has an ending mark at the end. Students took turns reading aloud while the other students followed along with their finger. Our workstations this week included "Froggy, Froggy, Where's your Home," (upper/lowercase match) Sound Toy Bag Game, "Broken Egg" letter match, "Go Fish" for letters and iPad apps My ABC's, ABC Touch and Sound Sort. The students continue to work on Haggerty Blue Book exercises which include, letter recognition and sounds, rhyming, segmenting, substituting sounds, deleting sounds, adding sounds and counting syllables.
Math: The students continued their study of pattern block shapes. They reviewed the name of each shape. They students experimented with shape, design and visual perception. Each student created a design all their own. Marvelous! The students worked on counting quantities and counting down and counting on from a random number (0-25.) We discussed the terms greater than and less than. The students reviewed naming and finding basic shapes throughout the classroom. The students explored the penny and what it is worth. We took a look at the "Head" side--Abraham Lincoln and the "Tail" side--the Lincoln Memorial building. The students were introduced to tally marks which is a way of counting by 5's. The students played the game, "Heads or Tails" with a partner. It is in their homework folder.
Writing: Now that the students are aware that different types of lines form our letters, they began work on formal letter formation. In our Handwriting Without Tears series, students learn to form the letters using rhymes and cues. They have begun work on the FROG JUMP CAPITALS. Letters F, E and D were introduced. We used our wooden pieces to form the letters and worked on our mini boards with 'baby" chalk and "baby" sponges. Students are reinforcing their tripod grasp using these tools. The students located "Mr. Smiley" on their mini board to help guide them to start at the top left. An example--for letter F---starting up at the top----straight line down.....Frog Jump UP...(lift hand back to the top)...straight line across....(go to the center)....straight line across. The students continue using the writing prompts from our Treasures series. We continue to work on what a sentence is (NAMES and TELLS), beginning with a capital letter, putting a space between every word and seeing if we can write our words by recording the first and last sound we hear and even recording any middle sounds we hear (inventive spelling.)
Technology: The students continue to use the iPad apps My ABC's, ABC Touch and Sound Sort for as a tool to strengthen upper/lowercase recognition, sound/letter imprinting and language development during our reading/language arts times. The iPad app Intro to Math, was introduced this week to enhance number recognition and sequence. The activities contained in this app include musical counting sequence, sequencing number order, number tracing and recognition, touching number and number scatter.
Literature: "Countdown to Kindergarten," "Alphabet Rescue," "My Friends," "Words Are Not For Hurting," "What Will the Fat Cat Sit On?" "Me I Am," "Good Boy, Fergus," "New Bear at School," "No, No and No"-no, no, y no (English/Spanish,) "Leo, the Late Bloomer."
Friday, September 14, 2012
Saturday, September 8, 2012
UPDATES for 9/4-9/7 2012
**The students shared many Labor Day stories about family and friends. We all enjoyed our long weekend. I enjoyed spending time with family in Arizona. The students enjoyed a book I brought back called "Cactus Hotel," about all the desert creatures who take advantage of the marvelous cactus plant. They sampled cactus candy to mixed reviews (too sweet, too sticky, pretty good , very good.)
**Thanks to all of our parent volunteers for their help at lunch. The students are used to the lunch routine. They are still getting used to the school lunch menu. Many times the food does not look like what mom makes at home! Next week, we will be on our own. I will continue to work lunch Monday thru Thursday. On Fridays, Ms. Creehan will take over for me. Ms. Dennis will be working all five days. Once again, thanks for sending great home lunches and snacks!
**Zaria shared with the class the first Travel Journal. She traveled to Aurora, Illinois. The students helped me locate it on our map. She shared some experiences from her weekend.
**COME ONE, COME ALL to IRVING SCHOOL'S OPEN HOUSE this coming Thursday, September 13th from 6:30-7:30 pm. Stop by our classroom first to sign in and sign up for parent conferences and other cool volunteer stuff. Your child will be your tour guide! See the room and student work and then move on to meet all the teachers involved in your child's learning at Irving. Fun! Fun! Fun!
**KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM NIGHT is Thursday, September 20th from 6:00-7:00 pm in the Irving Auditorium. This adult only event will provide you with absolutely everything you really need to know about the tools used to educate your child. Hope to see you there. Bring your questions.
**I am currently in the process of assessing students with the DIBELS test and PHONIC SCREENERS. These assessments will help in determining each students placement in our skill specific Route to Reading Groups. You will hear much more about this at Curriculum Night. This week all KRT (Kindergarten Readiness Test) were given to students who did not take them prior to the beginning of kindergarten. The score is in your child's backpack. Any questions...email me.
**The students chose their first library book this week. They keep it for 1 week, bring it back and then can check out 2 books. They must return the book to check out more. Make sure to keep the book in your child's back pack when not reading it to keep it from getting lost.
**Friendship Club and Mr. Packer Math Enrichment will begin next week.
**MILLION MINUTES READING CHALLENGE will begin in October. You will be receiving more info on it soon. The whole school is taking part! I will need a parent volunteer to help co-ordinate the weekly minutes.
**Magical Minds after school Program could use a few more students. See me if interested.
**For this school year, I will not be posting any student projects or pictures of students on the web. I have parents who have signed to not have their child's picture out there. I do respect this. Any projects or student work will be directly emailed to each of you. I will also show projects in our classroom via slideshow.
**The students are earning their EAGLE WINGS and individual EAGLE SLIPS!!! Let's hear it for great following of the EAGLE ESSENTIALS!!!! (Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe, Be Peaceful Everywhere and Have Fun) A special shout out to our first Eagle Slip winner--WILL. His EAGLE SLIP was pick out of the big box by Mr. Hodge!!!!! Our whole class earned enough EAGLE WINGS to choose a special activity. Way to go!!!!
This week:
It was all about getting to know ourselves, our classmates and teachers. What do we look like? What activities do we like to do? Where do we like to go? Have we made any new friends? Who is in our family? What do we like best about school? The students have begun to share many aspects of their lives with me and each other. The students looked in the giant mirror to see what they look like. They used MAT MAN as a guide to include body parts when drawing their self portrait. They made a paper doll of themselves. (totally adorable!) and we looked at their "HEADS" to see the commonalities in our hobbies, favorite foods, family members, favorite activities and books. We had our first Station Day where the students are responsible for completing 4 activities before snack and choice. They are learning to follow directions, manage time and produce quality work. Our Station Day activities included creating a number board using numbers 0-10, sticker pattern charts, stamping your name and building a dog out of pattern blocks. (great for spacial awareness and visual discrimination development)
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to work in week 2 of our prep for Treasures called START SMART. They reviewed their sound foundation for letters A-H. We used our mirrors to help imprint how the sound looks. The students listened to a read aloud story, "The Gingerbread Man." The students are beginning to learn terms such as genre-type of story and folktale-a story from long ago that has been told many times and sometimes changes. They created a picture in their minds about what was happening in the story. We discussed the story and students then retold it in their own words. Students worked on letter recognition with letters J-P. They played letter match up and pop for letters. Students read their pre-decodable story "I Can." They located the front and back cover, the title and title picture and where to begin to read the words. (from the left to the right) We practiced finger pointing each word and picture and found out that all sentences begin with a big letter and have some ending mark. The students took turns reading the sentence and the others followed along with their finger. I shared the trade book, "Jazz Baby." The students made predictions about story content and made connections in their daily lives about the instruments mentioned. They used the retelling cards to sequence the instruments mentioned. The students reviewed sight words using the games, "Hands Up, Hands Down" and "Walk your Words." They are getting quicker at recognizing these words. We created a word web about how we dance. They recited rhymes they learned in their early childhood like "Little Boy Blue" and "Humpty Dumpty," They have begun to listen to the parts or syllables of words such as hor-ses (2 parts or syllables.) Our workstations this week included "Froggy, Froggy Where's your Home," sound matching game, "The Three Pigs," Sound Toy Bag Game and iPad app activities ABC Touch, Sound Sort, ABC Magic and ABC Lite. The students also continue work on the Haggerty Blue Book exercises.
Math: The students worked on pattern block shape recognition. We even did the Shape Hokey Pokey!! Did you know that a diamond can also be called a rhombus?!! They also worked on basic patterning skills and the idea that a pattern repeats or starts over again. The students chose a partner for their boarder pattern project. They will be on display at Open House. Nice job, great taking turns and good encouragement from each other. The students worked on recognizing numbers 0-12. We used egg carton math, counting and building number boards and "What's My Number" to reinforce skills. The students listened to tell how many pennies they heard drop into the Listening Jar. We began a discussion about what tally marks are. The students are also creating patterns using unifix cubes.
Writing: The students reviewed the types of lines used in making letters. They were introduced to the format used in teaching how to form their letters. The first set in our Handwriting Without Tears Series in our FROG JUMP LETTERS. To get our hands and fingers ready they explored the HAND STRENGTHENING BOX filled with activities to strengthen grip and tripod grasp. These items will also be on display at Open House. Fun! Fun! Fun! We worked on the letters F and E. Our new mantra--Where do you start your letters----At the top!!!!! The students also continue to use our great smelling clay to work all the muscles and joints in their fingers and hands. The students continue to use the writing prompts from our Treasures series in their journals. They continue to experiment with drawing their picture and recording the sounds they hear in a word that describes their picture. They are working on starting their sentence with a big letter and that a sentence NAMES and TELLS.
Technology: The students continue to learn about the operation and care of the iPad. We are currently using apps about the ABC's and Sounds. Next week apps on math/numbers and more on language arts will be introduced.
Literature: "The Best Teacher in the World," "Smile If Your'e Human," "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," "The Cactus Hotel," "Yes We Can," "The Pout Pout Fish," "Hedgies Surprise," "How Do Dinosaurs Go to School," "The Alphabet Adventure," "The Pout Pout Fish in the Big Big Dark," "Fox in Socks," "Silly Sally."
**Thanks to all of our parent volunteers for their help at lunch. The students are used to the lunch routine. They are still getting used to the school lunch menu. Many times the food does not look like what mom makes at home! Next week, we will be on our own. I will continue to work lunch Monday thru Thursday. On Fridays, Ms. Creehan will take over for me. Ms. Dennis will be working all five days. Once again, thanks for sending great home lunches and snacks!
**Zaria shared with the class the first Travel Journal. She traveled to Aurora, Illinois. The students helped me locate it on our map. She shared some experiences from her weekend.
**COME ONE, COME ALL to IRVING SCHOOL'S OPEN HOUSE this coming Thursday, September 13th from 6:30-7:30 pm. Stop by our classroom first to sign in and sign up for parent conferences and other cool volunteer stuff. Your child will be your tour guide! See the room and student work and then move on to meet all the teachers involved in your child's learning at Irving. Fun! Fun! Fun!
**KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM NIGHT is Thursday, September 20th from 6:00-7:00 pm in the Irving Auditorium. This adult only event will provide you with absolutely everything you really need to know about the tools used to educate your child. Hope to see you there. Bring your questions.
**I am currently in the process of assessing students with the DIBELS test and PHONIC SCREENERS. These assessments will help in determining each students placement in our skill specific Route to Reading Groups. You will hear much more about this at Curriculum Night. This week all KRT (Kindergarten Readiness Test) were given to students who did not take them prior to the beginning of kindergarten. The score is in your child's backpack. Any questions...email me.
**The students chose their first library book this week. They keep it for 1 week, bring it back and then can check out 2 books. They must return the book to check out more. Make sure to keep the book in your child's back pack when not reading it to keep it from getting lost.
**Friendship Club and Mr. Packer Math Enrichment will begin next week.
**MILLION MINUTES READING CHALLENGE will begin in October. You will be receiving more info on it soon. The whole school is taking part! I will need a parent volunteer to help co-ordinate the weekly minutes.
**Magical Minds after school Program could use a few more students. See me if interested.
**For this school year, I will not be posting any student projects or pictures of students on the web. I have parents who have signed to not have their child's picture out there. I do respect this. Any projects or student work will be directly emailed to each of you. I will also show projects in our classroom via slideshow.
**The students are earning their EAGLE WINGS and individual EAGLE SLIPS!!! Let's hear it for great following of the EAGLE ESSENTIALS!!!! (Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe, Be Peaceful Everywhere and Have Fun) A special shout out to our first Eagle Slip winner--WILL. His EAGLE SLIP was pick out of the big box by Mr. Hodge!!!!! Our whole class earned enough EAGLE WINGS to choose a special activity. Way to go!!!!
This week:
It was all about getting to know ourselves, our classmates and teachers. What do we look like? What activities do we like to do? Where do we like to go? Have we made any new friends? Who is in our family? What do we like best about school? The students have begun to share many aspects of their lives with me and each other. The students looked in the giant mirror to see what they look like. They used MAT MAN as a guide to include body parts when drawing their self portrait. They made a paper doll of themselves. (totally adorable!) and we looked at their "HEADS" to see the commonalities in our hobbies, favorite foods, family members, favorite activities and books. We had our first Station Day where the students are responsible for completing 4 activities before snack and choice. They are learning to follow directions, manage time and produce quality work. Our Station Day activities included creating a number board using numbers 0-10, sticker pattern charts, stamping your name and building a dog out of pattern blocks. (great for spacial awareness and visual discrimination development)
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to work in week 2 of our prep for Treasures called START SMART. They reviewed their sound foundation for letters A-H. We used our mirrors to help imprint how the sound looks. The students listened to a read aloud story, "The Gingerbread Man." The students are beginning to learn terms such as genre-type of story and folktale-a story from long ago that has been told many times and sometimes changes. They created a picture in their minds about what was happening in the story. We discussed the story and students then retold it in their own words. Students worked on letter recognition with letters J-P. They played letter match up and pop for letters. Students read their pre-decodable story "I Can." They located the front and back cover, the title and title picture and where to begin to read the words. (from the left to the right) We practiced finger pointing each word and picture and found out that all sentences begin with a big letter and have some ending mark. The students took turns reading the sentence and the others followed along with their finger. I shared the trade book, "Jazz Baby." The students made predictions about story content and made connections in their daily lives about the instruments mentioned. They used the retelling cards to sequence the instruments mentioned. The students reviewed sight words using the games, "Hands Up, Hands Down" and "Walk your Words." They are getting quicker at recognizing these words. We created a word web about how we dance. They recited rhymes they learned in their early childhood like "Little Boy Blue" and "Humpty Dumpty," They have begun to listen to the parts or syllables of words such as hor-ses (2 parts or syllables.) Our workstations this week included "Froggy, Froggy Where's your Home," sound matching game, "The Three Pigs," Sound Toy Bag Game and iPad app activities ABC Touch, Sound Sort, ABC Magic and ABC Lite. The students also continue work on the Haggerty Blue Book exercises.
Math: The students worked on pattern block shape recognition. We even did the Shape Hokey Pokey!! Did you know that a diamond can also be called a rhombus?!! They also worked on basic patterning skills and the idea that a pattern repeats or starts over again. The students chose a partner for their boarder pattern project. They will be on display at Open House. Nice job, great taking turns and good encouragement from each other. The students worked on recognizing numbers 0-12. We used egg carton math, counting and building number boards and "What's My Number" to reinforce skills. The students listened to tell how many pennies they heard drop into the Listening Jar. We began a discussion about what tally marks are. The students are also creating patterns using unifix cubes.
Writing: The students reviewed the types of lines used in making letters. They were introduced to the format used in teaching how to form their letters. The first set in our Handwriting Without Tears Series in our FROG JUMP LETTERS. To get our hands and fingers ready they explored the HAND STRENGTHENING BOX filled with activities to strengthen grip and tripod grasp. These items will also be on display at Open House. Fun! Fun! Fun! We worked on the letters F and E. Our new mantra--Where do you start your letters----At the top!!!!! The students also continue to use our great smelling clay to work all the muscles and joints in their fingers and hands. The students continue to use the writing prompts from our Treasures series in their journals. They continue to experiment with drawing their picture and recording the sounds they hear in a word that describes their picture. They are working on starting their sentence with a big letter and that a sentence NAMES and TELLS.
Technology: The students continue to learn about the operation and care of the iPad. We are currently using apps about the ABC's and Sounds. Next week apps on math/numbers and more on language arts will be introduced.
Literature: "The Best Teacher in the World," "Smile If Your'e Human," "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," "The Cactus Hotel," "Yes We Can," "The Pout Pout Fish," "Hedgies Surprise," "How Do Dinosaurs Go to School," "The Alphabet Adventure," "The Pout Pout Fish in the Big Big Dark," "Fox in Socks," "Silly Sally."
Friday, August 31, 2012
UPDATES for 8/27-8/31 2012
**The students are becoming more familiar with our daily routines and expectations of all of their teachers and classes. Lunch time is going well! The students are learning to eat their main entre first, clean up and recycle their milk carton and tray. A special shout out to our parent volunteers at lunch!! You have made a big difference! We are learning what popcorn chicken is as well as pizza dippers!
**We had our first FIRE DRILL today. Yes, the sound is very loud! The class did a great job of leaving the building in a quiet and orderly manner. The students participated in a follow up discussion about staying safe, following directions and not being afraid of the sound.
**NO SCHOOL-Monday, September 3rd for LABOR DAY observance.
**Please let me know if your child will be traveling at any time this year. I will send a TRAVEL JOURNAL with them so they can record their experiences and then share them with the class. We will then chart them on our United States and World maps.
**Our schedule is nearly complete. A hard copy is in your child's folder. It is also posted on the blog under specials schedule. All that is left to schedule is LEXIA, a computer based program that companions nicely with our Treasures Reading Series. This will be done after MAP testing of older students.
**The students have gone to LIBRARY this week, under the direction of Ms. Noonan. Ms. Noonan talked about how to handle books and how to use the resources in the library. She shared a cute slide show of Library Do's and Don'ts. The students will check out a book next week!
**The students will have their first Friendship Club with Ms. Bell-Bey next Friday from 8:45-9:15 am.
**Mr. Packer Math Enrichment will begin next Tuesday from 2:00-2:30 pm
**Next week, students will be given the DIBELS test along with PHONIC SCREENERS. These assessments will help in determining each students placement in our skill specific Route to Reading Groups. You will hear much more about this at Kindergarten Curriculum Night on September 20th from 6:00-7:00 pm in the Irving Auditorium. Adults only please.
**COME ONE, COME ALL to the Irving School Open House on Thursday, September 13th from 6:30-7:30 pm. Come meet all the teachers involved in your child's learning at Irving. Your child will be your tour guide!!
**Scholastic Book Order information is in your child's backpack. First order is due by September 12th.
**Spelling City is up and running. Information on access is in your child's backpack.
**The students learned about the process of earning Eagle Slips and also about how our whole class can earn Eagle Wings. This is part of our school wide PBIS behavior plan. We have already earned some!!
This week:
It was all about the students continued effort to feel comfortable with their daily school routine and meet all of their teachers for the year. It was also about ABC's everywhere! What do they look like? How do they sound? What does our mouth look like when we say them? Uppercase? Lowercase? What happens when we put letters together? The students experienced many activities surrounding the alphabet.
Reading/Social Studies: We are continuing to work on our prep to Treasures called START SMART. The students are focusing on letter sounds A-G. We are learning about imprinting sound and how our mouth looks when we make that sound. The students are using mirrors to really see what happens when they produce a sound. Is their mouth open or closed? Is there air coming out of their mouth? Is there a vibration in the throat? Lots to think about! The students are learning to work with me to create word webs on suggested topics. "What can we do in kindergarten? What can Hands do? How do we look? These exercises generate conversation and participation that stimulates oral vocabulary. The students continue to listen to rhyming patterns in words. They are learning to chant the ending. An example would be " bat, cat they end with at." The students worked on their sight vocabulary from last week and we played, "Hands Up, Hands Down." They also learned a new game called, "Walk Your Words." This week the students were introduced to their first story with words. The students are learning to track (point) to each word and picture and begin at the left when reading. The students listened to the big book story, "Hands Can." They made predictions about story content. The students also made connections in their own lives about what their hands can do. The story was reread and the students worked on story structure, story sequence and story details. In our Haggerty Blue Book exercises, the students continue work on letter naming, rhyming, blending, saying the beginning sound, segmenting and substituting sounds and telling how many words are in a sentence. Our workstations this week included matching uppercase to lowercase (Froggy, Froggy Where's your Home?), Sound matching (Little Red Riding Hood Activity), iPad acitivites-ABC Touch and Sound Sort and Sound Toy Bag Match--matching toys to their letter container.
Math: The students worked on a variety of number recognition activities including Egg Carton Math, Listen and Count and building Number Boards to reinforce concrete meaning of numbers in their workstations The students discussed what a pattern does--it repeats or starts over again. We continue to work on calendar and weather observation routines and observed our newly made AGE CHANGE GRAPH. Next week, we will have 1 student who will change their age!! The students explored face and digital clocks and components. We talked about time by the hour. The students reviewed positional words--ABOVE, BELOW, BETWEEN, IN THE MIDDLE.
Writing: The students are learning about the types of lines we use to form letters--straight, curved, slanted.
The students used these lines to create MAT MAN. We even learned a song about him. The students are using their journal prompts from our Treasures Series when drawing their pictures and beginning to write down words. Students are beginning to inventive or phonetic spelling. They may record the first letter they hear, the first and last letter or even place a vowel in spots. This is very acceptable. The students are using their knowledge of letter sounds to "spell" the word. The students began sentence mapping and written cloze activities this week.
Technology: The students have begun their training on iPad use. This year all kindergarten students will use the iPad as a tool to enhance and motivate their learning. This week, the students learned basic operation skills and care of this great tool. In reading workstations, all students explored the app--ABC Touch, while others explored the app Sound Sort with a partner.
Literature: "Oops!" "The Cat in the Hat." "Hands Are Not For Hitting," "Skippyjon Jones-Class Action," "The Mixed Up Alphabet," "Alphabet Mystery," "I Like Myself." "ABC, I Like Me," "How Do Dinosaurs Go To School?" "Curious George's First Day of School."
**We had our first FIRE DRILL today. Yes, the sound is very loud! The class did a great job of leaving the building in a quiet and orderly manner. The students participated in a follow up discussion about staying safe, following directions and not being afraid of the sound.
**NO SCHOOL-Monday, September 3rd for LABOR DAY observance.
**Please let me know if your child will be traveling at any time this year. I will send a TRAVEL JOURNAL with them so they can record their experiences and then share them with the class. We will then chart them on our United States and World maps.
**Our schedule is nearly complete. A hard copy is in your child's folder. It is also posted on the blog under specials schedule. All that is left to schedule is LEXIA, a computer based program that companions nicely with our Treasures Reading Series. This will be done after MAP testing of older students.
**The students have gone to LIBRARY this week, under the direction of Ms. Noonan. Ms. Noonan talked about how to handle books and how to use the resources in the library. She shared a cute slide show of Library Do's and Don'ts. The students will check out a book next week!
**The students will have their first Friendship Club with Ms. Bell-Bey next Friday from 8:45-9:15 am.
**Mr. Packer Math Enrichment will begin next Tuesday from 2:00-2:30 pm
**Next week, students will be given the DIBELS test along with PHONIC SCREENERS. These assessments will help in determining each students placement in our skill specific Route to Reading Groups. You will hear much more about this at Kindergarten Curriculum Night on September 20th from 6:00-7:00 pm in the Irving Auditorium. Adults only please.
**COME ONE, COME ALL to the Irving School Open House on Thursday, September 13th from 6:30-7:30 pm. Come meet all the teachers involved in your child's learning at Irving. Your child will be your tour guide!!
**Scholastic Book Order information is in your child's backpack. First order is due by September 12th.
**Spelling City is up and running. Information on access is in your child's backpack.
**The students learned about the process of earning Eagle Slips and also about how our whole class can earn Eagle Wings. This is part of our school wide PBIS behavior plan. We have already earned some!!
This week:
It was all about the students continued effort to feel comfortable with their daily school routine and meet all of their teachers for the year. It was also about ABC's everywhere! What do they look like? How do they sound? What does our mouth look like when we say them? Uppercase? Lowercase? What happens when we put letters together? The students experienced many activities surrounding the alphabet.
Reading/Social Studies: We are continuing to work on our prep to Treasures called START SMART. The students are focusing on letter sounds A-G. We are learning about imprinting sound and how our mouth looks when we make that sound. The students are using mirrors to really see what happens when they produce a sound. Is their mouth open or closed? Is there air coming out of their mouth? Is there a vibration in the throat? Lots to think about! The students are learning to work with me to create word webs on suggested topics. "What can we do in kindergarten? What can Hands do? How do we look? These exercises generate conversation and participation that stimulates oral vocabulary. The students continue to listen to rhyming patterns in words. They are learning to chant the ending. An example would be " bat, cat they end with at." The students worked on their sight vocabulary from last week and we played, "Hands Up, Hands Down." They also learned a new game called, "Walk Your Words." This week the students were introduced to their first story with words. The students are learning to track (point) to each word and picture and begin at the left when reading. The students listened to the big book story, "Hands Can." They made predictions about story content. The students also made connections in their own lives about what their hands can do. The story was reread and the students worked on story structure, story sequence and story details. In our Haggerty Blue Book exercises, the students continue work on letter naming, rhyming, blending, saying the beginning sound, segmenting and substituting sounds and telling how many words are in a sentence. Our workstations this week included matching uppercase to lowercase (Froggy, Froggy Where's your Home?), Sound matching (Little Red Riding Hood Activity), iPad acitivites-ABC Touch and Sound Sort and Sound Toy Bag Match--matching toys to their letter container.
Math: The students worked on a variety of number recognition activities including Egg Carton Math, Listen and Count and building Number Boards to reinforce concrete meaning of numbers in their workstations The students discussed what a pattern does--it repeats or starts over again. We continue to work on calendar and weather observation routines and observed our newly made AGE CHANGE GRAPH. Next week, we will have 1 student who will change their age!! The students explored face and digital clocks and components. We talked about time by the hour. The students reviewed positional words--ABOVE, BELOW, BETWEEN, IN THE MIDDLE.
Writing: The students are learning about the types of lines we use to form letters--straight, curved, slanted.
The students used these lines to create MAT MAN. We even learned a song about him. The students are using their journal prompts from our Treasures Series when drawing their pictures and beginning to write down words. Students are beginning to inventive or phonetic spelling. They may record the first letter they hear, the first and last letter or even place a vowel in spots. This is very acceptable. The students are using their knowledge of letter sounds to "spell" the word. The students began sentence mapping and written cloze activities this week.
Technology: The students have begun their training on iPad use. This year all kindergarten students will use the iPad as a tool to enhance and motivate their learning. This week, the students learned basic operation skills and care of this great tool. In reading workstations, all students explored the app--ABC Touch, while others explored the app Sound Sort with a partner.
Literature: "Oops!" "The Cat in the Hat." "Hands Are Not For Hitting," "Skippyjon Jones-Class Action," "The Mixed Up Alphabet," "Alphabet Mystery," "I Like Myself." "ABC, I Like Me," "How Do Dinosaurs Go To School?" "Curious George's First Day of School."
Friday, August 24, 2012
UPDATES for 8/22-24 2012
**Once again--WELCOME NEW KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS and FAMILIES!! I am so glad you are a part of the Irving school family. I was very happy to meet all of you. We are going to have a great year!
**Thanks to all of you who have signed up to help at LUNCH for the next 3 weeks. The students are learning about the lunch routine and about recycling the paper products like trays and milk cartons. Because of our large class size, we now have 2 tables for our students to sit at. We can enjoy eating lunch with our friends Kaya and Emma from Ms. Von Hagel's class. Please keep reinforcing--HOME LUNCH or SCHOOL LUNCH?--MILK?--WHAT KIND? Our volunteers and myself are encouraging the students to eat their MAIN ENTRE first, whether it is a sandwich, salad, noodles etc. and then eating fruit, granola bars, pudding etc. Thanks for sending such good choices in their lunches and for snacks. I will always have either Veggie Straws or fruit on hand if your child forgets a snack.
**If you have not sent in head sets, don't worry about it. I was lucky enough to purchase lots from the Dollar Store. Our lab time for LEXIA READING, which is the computer companion to our Treasures Reading Series will be scheduled after MAP testing of older students. I will need 2 parent troubleshooters to help out in the lab. I am hoping to sign up for two-30minute periods twice a week in the afternoon. Stay tuned. LEXIA will also be available online for home use.
**I will be setting up SPELLING CITY, XTRAMATH and TREASURES online sites hopefully next week. These are skill building activities for your child to access at home. STARFALL.com is up and running. It is located on the left side of this blog under resources. Also check out the great sites on our Irving Parents Resource Wikispaces.com also located in resources.
**Please remember GYM SHOES and SOCKS on GYM DAYS. Check the specials schedule on left side.
**BACK TO SCHOOL PARTY was Friday, August 24th beginning at 5:30 pm at Barrie Par.k. I arrived later than expected but still enjoyed seeing many of my new students as well as old friends. Fun, Pizza, Band, Movie and Community!!!
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, September 3rd--Labor Day.
This week:
It was all about routines and expectations! Yes, I talked a lot! Our daily schedule is slowly taking shape. The students are meeting their special area teachers. We are getting to know each other and fostering new friendships. The students learned how to earn EAGLE SLIPS and class EAGLE WINGS as part of our PBIS Behavior Initiative.
Reading: This week students began a 3 week prep in our Treasures Reading Series called START SMART. The students are using their language skills by responding to a Daily Warm Up question. They worked on their listening comprehension and making predictions and connections by listening to the big book story, "Animals in the Park-An ABC Book." The students worked on identifying a sequence of sounds using the nursery rhyme, "Hey Diddle Diddle." We reviewed the letters Aa, Bb, Cc, and the sounds they make. The sight words, I, am, yes, no, can, red, blue were introduced. We learned how to play Hands Up, Hands Down game to help reinforce our new sight vocabulary. The students were introduced to a wordless pre-decodable story, "We Go to School." They took turns telling the about the pictures on each page. The students learned about book handling, locating the title, author's name, illustrator and making predictions about what they think the story is about using the title and cover pictures. We retold the story together as we looked at each page. Then the students partnered up and retold the story to each other. The students listened to a fable in our read aloud book. In the fable, "You are Beautiful as You Are," the students created a picture in their mind about what was happening. There were no pictures. They thought about what the lesson of the story might be and give their ideas. In our Haggerty Blue Book exercises, the students worked on recognizing rhyming words, segmenting words, adding and taking away word parts and counting how many words are in a specific sentence.
Math: The students were introduced to our calendar and weather chart routines. We are adding a number each day to our worm. When we get to 100--PARTY!!!! The students did an activity called "Partner Match," where they found a partner who had the same length of paper that they did. We compared the lengths and ranked them from shortest to longest. The students worked on recognizing numbers from 0-12, counting backward from10-0 and recognizing basic shapes. We learned to play, "Got It." During choice activity time, the students explored unifix cubes, pattern blocks, geo boards and gears. We worked on the positional words--top and bottom.
Writing: The students discussed what a school journal was. They used the writing prompts from our Treasures series, drew a picture of themselves and wrote their name. The students began to explore the types of lines used to make a letter.
Literature: "David Goes to School," "Wemberly Worried," "How Will I Get to School this Year," "Splat the Cat," "Muse Loves School," "Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches," "Kindergarten Rocks."
**Thanks to all of you who have signed up to help at LUNCH for the next 3 weeks. The students are learning about the lunch routine and about recycling the paper products like trays and milk cartons. Because of our large class size, we now have 2 tables for our students to sit at. We can enjoy eating lunch with our friends Kaya and Emma from Ms. Von Hagel's class. Please keep reinforcing--HOME LUNCH or SCHOOL LUNCH?--MILK?--WHAT KIND? Our volunteers and myself are encouraging the students to eat their MAIN ENTRE first, whether it is a sandwich, salad, noodles etc. and then eating fruit, granola bars, pudding etc. Thanks for sending such good choices in their lunches and for snacks. I will always have either Veggie Straws or fruit on hand if your child forgets a snack.
**If you have not sent in head sets, don't worry about it. I was lucky enough to purchase lots from the Dollar Store. Our lab time for LEXIA READING, which is the computer companion to our Treasures Reading Series will be scheduled after MAP testing of older students. I will need 2 parent troubleshooters to help out in the lab. I am hoping to sign up for two-30minute periods twice a week in the afternoon. Stay tuned. LEXIA will also be available online for home use.
**I will be setting up SPELLING CITY, XTRAMATH and TREASURES online sites hopefully next week. These are skill building activities for your child to access at home. STARFALL.com is up and running. It is located on the left side of this blog under resources. Also check out the great sites on our Irving Parents Resource Wikispaces.com also located in resources.
**Please remember GYM SHOES and SOCKS on GYM DAYS. Check the specials schedule on left side.
**BACK TO SCHOOL PARTY was Friday, August 24th beginning at 5:30 pm at Barrie Par.k. I arrived later than expected but still enjoyed seeing many of my new students as well as old friends. Fun, Pizza, Band, Movie and Community!!!
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, September 3rd--Labor Day.
This week:
It was all about routines and expectations! Yes, I talked a lot! Our daily schedule is slowly taking shape. The students are meeting their special area teachers. We are getting to know each other and fostering new friendships. The students learned how to earn EAGLE SLIPS and class EAGLE WINGS as part of our PBIS Behavior Initiative.
Reading: This week students began a 3 week prep in our Treasures Reading Series called START SMART. The students are using their language skills by responding to a Daily Warm Up question. They worked on their listening comprehension and making predictions and connections by listening to the big book story, "Animals in the Park-An ABC Book." The students worked on identifying a sequence of sounds using the nursery rhyme, "Hey Diddle Diddle." We reviewed the letters Aa, Bb, Cc, and the sounds they make. The sight words, I, am, yes, no, can, red, blue were introduced. We learned how to play Hands Up, Hands Down game to help reinforce our new sight vocabulary. The students were introduced to a wordless pre-decodable story, "We Go to School." They took turns telling the about the pictures on each page. The students learned about book handling, locating the title, author's name, illustrator and making predictions about what they think the story is about using the title and cover pictures. We retold the story together as we looked at each page. Then the students partnered up and retold the story to each other. The students listened to a fable in our read aloud book. In the fable, "You are Beautiful as You Are," the students created a picture in their mind about what was happening. There were no pictures. They thought about what the lesson of the story might be and give their ideas. In our Haggerty Blue Book exercises, the students worked on recognizing rhyming words, segmenting words, adding and taking away word parts and counting how many words are in a specific sentence.
Math: The students were introduced to our calendar and weather chart routines. We are adding a number each day to our worm. When we get to 100--PARTY!!!! The students did an activity called "Partner Match," where they found a partner who had the same length of paper that they did. We compared the lengths and ranked them from shortest to longest. The students worked on recognizing numbers from 0-12, counting backward from10-0 and recognizing basic shapes. We learned to play, "Got It." During choice activity time, the students explored unifix cubes, pattern blocks, geo boards and gears. We worked on the positional words--top and bottom.
Writing: The students discussed what a school journal was. They used the writing prompts from our Treasures series, drew a picture of themselves and wrote their name. The students began to explore the types of lines used to make a letter.
Literature: "David Goes to School," "Wemberly Worried," "How Will I Get to School this Year," "Splat the Cat," "Muse Loves School," "Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches," "Kindergarten Rocks."
Thursday, August 16, 2012
SUMMER UPDATES August 2012
**Greetings... my soon to be first graders. Kindergarten is but a memory...a good memory!!! I can not believe the new school year is beginning. My summer went by so fast. I bet yours did too! I will be saying good bye to you and wish you well in your first grade class. I will be welcoming my brand new class of kindergarten students for 2012-2013. Here is our last IRVING GARDEN update. Thanks to all of you who have been coming to harvest the veggies and herbs. Please continue to do so. Our zucchini plants are still continuing to produce flowers so we will have more zucchini. Carrots and potatoes still need some growing time. There is quite a bit of basil, mint and sage. The chard and kale are in abundance and are so very tasty. I have been enjoying that. There are peppers (jalepino and ancho), cucumbers, zucchini, chives celery, parsley, onion and a few beans that can be harvested. Also, more baby egg plant will soon be ready. Have a great weekend! See you at lunch or in the halls! School is cool!!!!!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
SUMMER UPDATES July 2012
**Summer greetings! Hope your summer is going well and you are keeping cool in this heat. The Irving Garden Plot is looking pretty cool. Many plants are growing and flowering. The volunteers have been doing a great job of keeping everything watered. In the planting beds, I have observed lettuce, mint, basil, baby kale, radishes, chard and parsley that are ready for harvesting. Look closely and you can see tiny purple eggplants. In our class garden plot, the onions are nearly ready. Our zucchini plants are HUGE and I have had to trellis them. Look closely and you can see the squash blossoms (flowers.) The female blossoms are located at the end of an emergent zucchini. The male blossom grows directly on the stem and are slightly smaller. The zucchini plants need the bees around. Don't be afraid of the bees!! We still have time before we will see little zucchinis. The plants should be at least 6 inches before we harvest them. I will keep you posted on the harvesting of onions and zucchinis. Please stop by and harvest some of the plants I have mentioned above. Please be careful not to step on any baby plants. Have mom or dad work with you. Check back again in a couple of weeks for an update. Keep cool and have fun!!!!
Friday, June 1, 2012
UPDATES for 5/29-6/1 2012
**We continue to be very busy in our last week. Pizza and Play End of the Year Family Picnic was absolutely fabulous! We had a great weather day! The pizza, veggies, fruit and pudding were very yummy. All students had a wonderful time interacting with their peers. Ms. Amanda and her service dog, Hunt, also attended to watch the students play and chat about her upcoming graduation from Oak Park High School. We wish her the best!! Thanks to all who attended. It was a great way to end our productive year!
**Our First Grade Tour and question and answer time was very cute. Ms. Solomon and Mr. Degman's classes wrote letters to us about what they do in First Grade. Ms. Massarello's class did a Reader's Theater for us. We wished her well in her retirement. Ms. Collins class was out and about but, she hug us all and we wished her well in her relocation to California. Many students asked pressing questions that had been on their minds. Do we still have recess? What is homework like? Do we have science? Is First Grade hard? Do we have to do lots of homework? Could we see our First Grade reading book? Do we do journals? All questions were answered with the utmost care and concern. They are ready!!!!
**Reading Grandma Mary also came to visit. The students had written letters of thanks to her and she responded by writing a letter to us and making a poster for us to hang up.
**ALL students received a large summer packet today. The packet contains your child's report card, activities and workbooks to use over the summer, summer tips, Spelling City updates with first grade words, information on logging on to LEXIA and XTRAMATH if you have not already done so and information on Summer Incentive Reading and Math Programs at Irving. There is lots to keep you busy over the summer along with keeping physically fit. Please keep active!
**The students went into the READING BUBBLE today! All 20 of us fit in to the bubble to listen to some stories. Ms. Noonan was kind enough to photograph us!
**Please join us today (Friday) from 1:30 on for Parent /Sibling Hour. The students will kick back, have some treats, sign autograph books they made and interact with each other. They will then turn into First Graders!!!!!!! Oh........It looks like Mr. Hodge is going to put on his DANCING SHOES!! Oh My!!!
We will all go out to the blacktop at 2:15 today to see what is up!!!!
**Our Line Soccer Game against Ms. Ricchio's class was fun. It was a close game!! Ms. Gullo's class won by a score of 10 to 7!! Good team work!
**Please join all of Irving for the Annual End of the Year Party at Barrie Park from 5-7 pm this evening. Pizza and drinks will be for sale.
**Garden Update....Everything is beginning to grow!!!! The students are so excited!! I will keep you updated throughout the summer with growth news and photos. When we are ready to harvest, I will do a group email so you can come and pick some zucchini, green onions and nasturtiums! Stop by over the summer to see it. If you have any recipes to share--email me and we can post them.
**Addresses for summer incentive programs--READING--www.scholastic.com/readingeveryday.
MATH--http://irvingsummermath.blogspot.com.
**I told the class that they can email me at my op97.org address over the summer and share summer news. I will be testing new kindergarten students, working as a one on one assistant to a special education student for 5 weeks and teaching a summer school class. This will be a working summer for me!
**A HUGE SHOUT OUT to my room parents--T. Naber, M. Chlebek, J. Brock, G. Garcia-Quionones and L.Waste for all of their help! Thanks also to my garden moms T. Naber and I. Henry and one more thanks to LEXIA moms M. Meagher and T. Naber and our honorary helper, Alexis! A HEARTFELT THANKS to all of our Station Day Helpers and helpers for parties. I would also like to acknowledge Hertha Orszula (Yaya"s grandma) for her support of our program and the WONDERFUL Ms. Applebey for her support and wisdom in our technology sessions. This year, my class has had 100% parent participation. You all are the best! You are the reason our program runs so well. It has been a great partnership. Thanks! Have an active and fun summer. First Grade----here we come!!!!
Reading/Social Studies: This week the students did a lot of independent reading. They chose their own stories and decided what assignments they would do as a follow up. They also showcased their reading to First Grade students during their tour.
Math: It was game week. The students revisited Monster Squeeze, It Takes 2 and 3 Place Value Game, Number Pop, Racing Addition and Subtraction Game, Coin Grab and creating 2-3 dimensional structures using straws, pipe cleaners and the magneetos. They used the whiteboards to write 2-3 digit numbers.
Writing: This week the students reworked their drafts and wrote their final copy for their paragraph on WORMS. You will find them in their summer packet along with their water color worm study.
Science: It was all about watching what is coming up in our garden! Our last zucchini plant sprouted on Tuesday. We also took out our wormy friends and check out compost. We will return the compost bin to Salome. We have found a home for most plants from our class garden. For those who have taken them in--keep us updated. The students are still bringing me seeds. I told them to try planting them at home.
Technology: All IPADS are being updated. I will send you a list of all of our apps next week.
Literature: "When It's the Last Day of School," "Why Do I Run," "Stella, Queen of the Forest," "Summer," "Summer Activities," "Ms. Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten," "The Best Teacher in the World."
Check out our end of the year movie below!!!!!! Let the summer begin!!!!
**Our First Grade Tour and question and answer time was very cute. Ms. Solomon and Mr. Degman's classes wrote letters to us about what they do in First Grade. Ms. Massarello's class did a Reader's Theater for us. We wished her well in her retirement. Ms. Collins class was out and about but, she hug us all and we wished her well in her relocation to California. Many students asked pressing questions that had been on their minds. Do we still have recess? What is homework like? Do we have science? Is First Grade hard? Do we have to do lots of homework? Could we see our First Grade reading book? Do we do journals? All questions were answered with the utmost care and concern. They are ready!!!!
**Reading Grandma Mary also came to visit. The students had written letters of thanks to her and she responded by writing a letter to us and making a poster for us to hang up.
**ALL students received a large summer packet today. The packet contains your child's report card, activities and workbooks to use over the summer, summer tips, Spelling City updates with first grade words, information on logging on to LEXIA and XTRAMATH if you have not already done so and information on Summer Incentive Reading and Math Programs at Irving. There is lots to keep you busy over the summer along with keeping physically fit. Please keep active!
**The students went into the READING BUBBLE today! All 20 of us fit in to the bubble to listen to some stories. Ms. Noonan was kind enough to photograph us!
**Please join us today (Friday) from 1:30 on for Parent /Sibling Hour. The students will kick back, have some treats, sign autograph books they made and interact with each other. They will then turn into First Graders!!!!!!! Oh........It looks like Mr. Hodge is going to put on his DANCING SHOES!! Oh My!!!
We will all go out to the blacktop at 2:15 today to see what is up!!!!
**Our Line Soccer Game against Ms. Ricchio's class was fun. It was a close game!! Ms. Gullo's class won by a score of 10 to 7!! Good team work!
**Please join all of Irving for the Annual End of the Year Party at Barrie Park from 5-7 pm this evening. Pizza and drinks will be for sale.
**Garden Update....Everything is beginning to grow!!!! The students are so excited!! I will keep you updated throughout the summer with growth news and photos. When we are ready to harvest, I will do a group email so you can come and pick some zucchini, green onions and nasturtiums! Stop by over the summer to see it. If you have any recipes to share--email me and we can post them.
**Addresses for summer incentive programs--READING--www.scholastic.com/readingeveryday.
MATH--http://irvingsummermath.blogspot.com.
**I told the class that they can email me at my op97.org address over the summer and share summer news. I will be testing new kindergarten students, working as a one on one assistant to a special education student for 5 weeks and teaching a summer school class. This will be a working summer for me!
**A HUGE SHOUT OUT to my room parents--T. Naber, M. Chlebek, J. Brock, G. Garcia-Quionones and L.Waste for all of their help! Thanks also to my garden moms T. Naber and I. Henry and one more thanks to LEXIA moms M. Meagher and T. Naber and our honorary helper, Alexis! A HEARTFELT THANKS to all of our Station Day Helpers and helpers for parties. I would also like to acknowledge Hertha Orszula (Yaya"s grandma) for her support of our program and the WONDERFUL Ms. Applebey for her support and wisdom in our technology sessions. This year, my class has had 100% parent participation. You all are the best! You are the reason our program runs so well. It has been a great partnership. Thanks! Have an active and fun summer. First Grade----here we come!!!!
Reading/Social Studies: This week the students did a lot of independent reading. They chose their own stories and decided what assignments they would do as a follow up. They also showcased their reading to First Grade students during their tour.
Math: It was game week. The students revisited Monster Squeeze, It Takes 2 and 3 Place Value Game, Number Pop, Racing Addition and Subtraction Game, Coin Grab and creating 2-3 dimensional structures using straws, pipe cleaners and the magneetos. They used the whiteboards to write 2-3 digit numbers.
Writing: This week the students reworked their drafts and wrote their final copy for their paragraph on WORMS. You will find them in their summer packet along with their water color worm study.
Science: It was all about watching what is coming up in our garden! Our last zucchini plant sprouted on Tuesday. We also took out our wormy friends and check out compost. We will return the compost bin to Salome. We have found a home for most plants from our class garden. For those who have taken them in--keep us updated. The students are still bringing me seeds. I told them to try planting them at home.
Technology: All IPADS are being updated. I will send you a list of all of our apps next week.
Literature: "When It's the Last Day of School," "Why Do I Run," "Stella, Queen of the Forest," "Summer," "Summer Activities," "Ms. Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten," "The Best Teacher in the World."
Check out our end of the year movie below!!!!!! Let the summer begin!!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)