**REMINDER--Parent/Teacher Conferences are Monday, October 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 21st. MONDAY---7:15 am Polan....5:00 Constantinescu...6:00 Lowell...6:30 Wulff and 7:00 Guzman. TUESDAY--7:15 am Bell...3:00 Massett....3:30 Meier...5:30 Harper....6:00 Daniel....6:30 Metz....7:00 Harris....7:30 Hagedorn. WEDNESDAY--2:00 Allgood...3:30 Awad....5:00 Jackson....6:30 Nelson. On Tuesday, October 27th at 7:15 am Pillacela. I am looking forward to sharing your child's progress with you.
**REMINDER--School is in session in the MORNING ONLY on Thursday, October 22nd and Friday, October 23rd. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, District School Bus and Clubhouse will pick up at 11:00 am.
**GO Ms. Gullo's Class!! Don't forget to sign up and send your pledge money in!!! The FUN RUN is Wednesday, October 21st. Kindergarten will be running at beginning at 8:15 am on the turf. Come cheer us on!! Make a poster if you like!!
**WOW! The Egg Drop and Academic Fair was awesome! Ella, Zadie, Hattie, Aidan, Jackson and Quinn designed cool vehicles. Check out their picture. Ella and Audrey did a super job with their projects and speaking about their projects to those that stopped by. A HUGE SHOUT OUT to all of our participants!!!
**Route to Reading skills specific groups has begun. If you did not receive notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher teaching it, please let me know.
**A few more photos to go and we will do our SEASONAL BABIES project. Don't forget to bring in your baby picture.
**Ah Yes! The topic of Halloween is being discussed. The schedule is as follows--Friday, October 30th will be a regular morning of learning. If your child chooses to, they may bring their costumes/make up/props to school in a bag. At 12:45 pm --students will change into their costumes. At 1:30 pm-Students will participate in an all school Parade around the outside of school. Classroom celebrations will take place from 2:15-2:55 pm. In keeping with our non violent classroom atmosphere, please do not send toy guns, swords, hooks, light sabers, poles, knives, brooms, ropes or handcuffs. There are no other restrictions on costumes. Students will be allowed to bring a candy treat if they wish. It will go into a treat bag that will be sent home. Please----NO NUTS/ NUT PRODUCTS or DAIRY. I will be chatting with room parents who will have a healthy snack on hand. We will also do a craft related to our study of nocturnal animals. Parents and sibs are invited to attend both events. I will also need some parent help with costume changing.
**The Irving Book Fair will be the week of October 26th-29th in the auditorium. We will be visiting the book fair as a class. Your child may be chatting with you about a special book they saw. The book fair will be open in the evening.
**Slightly Spooky Family Storytime will be held in the the auditorium during the book fair on Wednesday October 28th from 6:30-7:30 pm. I will be reading a cool Halloween story and so will my friends Ms. Noonan, Mr Sak and Ms. Durham. It may be slightly spooky but very fun!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey chatted with the students about what is means to be a Social Detective and doing what is expected in our daily lives. She shared a story and posters and discussed what expectations are in terms of good behavior.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer read a story called "Ten Black Dots," and encouraged students to think "outside of the box" and use their imagination on a project that involved making a black dot part of a bigger picture. Some really cool ideas!!! Great thinking going on!!!
**Field Trip to Maze Branch Library. Our tentative date is Thursday, November 5th. It will be a walking field trip. I will send out more info next week. There will be an opportunity for your child to get a library card if they do not have one.
**Future Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm.
This week:
It was all about APPLE MANIA!! The students participated in an inquiry to determine what they know about apples. They had a ball using the magnifiers and the microscope to observe the blossom (flower) seeds, flesh, core and skin. They learned what a blossom was--the beginning of the apple. Some apples were cut on their sides to reveal the star!! We read information books (nonfiction) books on the subject and used the internet search to find out names the apples have. The students explored some of the many types of apples and observed their similarities and differences. The students learned how to create a diagram and label apple parts. Part two of apple mania next week. Station day activities included apple print trees, mixed media apples, build, count and record using unifix cubes and color by code autumn leaves.
Reading/English Language Arts: The students completed Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The students began their next Blueprint workmat using the text, "Peter's Chair." We will be doing 2 Blueprint Workmats this time. The students will continue working on story elements--characters, setting, main events in the story and why they are important. We will also be working on what key details in a story are. We talked about a key detail as being something important that happens in the story that effects the characters. In our first reading of the text, students listened to the story of Peter, a boy who experiences a change in his family and himself on a few different levels. We worked on story structure--the way in which things in the story happen. Stories can have a beginning, middle and end. The students made predictions about story content before I began to read using the title and cover picture. After the first reading, the students elbow chatted with a partner about story elements. I did a group outline where with the help of the students, we discussed what the beginning, middle and ending of the story was. The students thought about something the characters said or how they acted. The students took turns acting out certain parts of the story they thought were important. This text study will take about 2 weeks with a culminating project. Fun! The students continue to work on beginning and ending sounds in words as well as short and long vowel sounds and beginning sound blending. Workstations this week included leveled readers and discussion about story elements, read alouds and partner reading, rainbow writing sight words, writing and illustrating before (when you were a baby) and after (now that you are 5/6) how did you look? What could you do? creating words using the word family ad and am, word work focusing on ending sounds and sound games.
Math: The students are continuing to work on counting quantities to 20 and writing their numbers to 20 as well as rote counting to 40. They reviewed their number rhymes for numbers 6-9. They worked on activities that involve subitizing or looking for number patterns and visualization to come up with the answer. Students reviewed all basic and pattern block shapes and begun looking at geometric solids--cone and cube. How are they different from a triangle or square?? We began chatting about what numbers we can use to make another number. If we want to make 5 and we already have 3....how many more do we need? Math workstations this week included writing numbers to 9, building, counting and recording and comparing a number, working with concepts greater than/less than, and playing "Hungry for Apples."
Writing: The students completed formation work on the Frog Jump Capitals. F, E, D, P, B, R, N, M have been introduced. They applied what they had learned in their orange practice books. Students wrote and illustrated in their journals about apples using the words from their sight word list. The focus of this weeks writing workshop was on posture, reinforcing tripod grasp, one hand holding their pencil and other holding their paper and sitting up so their back is touching the back of the chair.
Technology: No new apps introduced this week. Students began working on Lexia Core 5 on their iPads. You will receive information at parent conference on how to set up the program on your home iPad and computer or tablet. Students have their own username (which is case sensitive and requires some practice) and password. They are very excited to be working on it!
Literature: "How Do Apples Grow?" "Johnny Appleseed," "The Wonders of Apples," "Amazing Apples," "The Big Apple Mystery," "Apples, Apples, Apples," "Apples A-Z,"
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Saturday, October 10, 2015
UPDATES for 10/5-10/8 2015
**Our Walk to School Day was a success! Over half of our class walked to school in the morning. The rest of the class walked with Mr. Hancock at lunchtime. Each student colored their gym shoe and received a hand stamp. Mr Hancock will put up all the shoes on the gym walls. Cool!
**Thanks for sending in your Parent Conference confirmed responses. Keep them coming! I will reschedule parents who need a new day and time this week. I will email you. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, October 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 21st. Please note: On Thursday, October 22nd and Friday, October 23rd school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There will be district bus service, Hephzibah and Clubhouse pick up at 11:00 am. There is NO afternoon session.
**CALLING ALL CURIOUS KIDS!!! There is still time to design a vehicle for the Egg Drop or create a project for the Academic Fair. Both events are Wednesday, October 14th. We have 2 students doing projects that I know of and 5 students who have designed vehicles. Don't forget you need to sign up online for one or both events on the Irving website. Come on....the more the merrier!!! Come join us on Wednesday afternoon beginning at 1:00 pm on the turf for the Egg Drop Contest. Come to view and hear the students speak about their projects on Wednesday night beginning at 6:30 pm in the gym. It will be one FUN day!
**The students began prep for Lexia Core 5 in the lab this week. They will be getting their usernames and passwords next week and will begin work in the lab 2X week for 30 minutes. I will also send information home with them on adding Lexia Core 5 to your home computer or tablet for practice at home.
**Our Pacer's Walking/Running Club is in full swing. The students are enjoying the fresh air and the activity. Each student has earned 2 foot charms to put on their necklaces. We will keep our necklaces in a special envelope here at school.
**The first rotation of Route to Reading skills specific groups will begin on Tuesday. October 13th. You will receive notification of the phonemic awareness skill your child will be working on and the teacher who is teaching it. Route to Reading will meet Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 9:05-9:45. Each rotation is 3 weeks with assessment of the skill in the third week. Students must score 90% on the skill to move to another skill. Students have the opportunity to remain at the skill, move to the next skill or skip skills. I will speak about this in more detail at parent conferences.
**WOW! Thanks to the great response for Friday Station Day helpers. The Sign Up Genius did the trick. If you are interested and there are no more spots.....email me a Friday and we can have 2 parents helping out. I would love it and your child would too. I believe Sign Up Genius will send out a reminder to you. Thanks again K. Meier for suggesting this.
**Let's Run!!!! Information about the Annual Irving Fun Run in is your child's homework folder. This is a BIG fundraiser for our PTO. Sign up online to pledge your support. The Fun Run will be held on Wednesday, October 21st beginning at 8:30 am. Our Kindergarten classes will run first at 8:15 am. Come out and support us on Wednesday morning!! Cheer, make signs, take a picture of us with the Irving Eagle!! Let's get moving!!
**While we are on the subject of fundraisers.......sign up for TRIVIA NIGHT another huge fundraiser. It's super great for grown ups. It will be held on Thursday, November 5th from 7-10 pm at the Wire in Berwyn.
**Our Student Council Reps, Quinn and Jackson went to their first meeting. They met with other students representing grades K-5. They discussed their mission and began chatting about different projects and events that would benefit Irving School and our community. They came back to class and reported on some of the ideas. Stay tuned!
**No School Monday, October 12th in observance of Columbus Day.
**Walking Field Trip to Maze Library is in the works for the first week in November. Details and permission slip soon. I will need 1-2 volunteers.
**Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm. I will need 4-5 volunteers.
**Yes......Halloween is coming (the afternoon of October 30th) There is chatter amongst the children!!! We have not talked about it as a class yet. Too early. Our approach will be to study nocturnal animals, the skeleton as it relates to humans and animals and a mini unit on spiders. Informational and noncreepy!! I will be chatting with our room parents as soon as I know what the PTO has planned for that day. Our afternoon usually begins with a all school parade, some all school event and then our class party. We will follow our regular schedule in the morning. More info on costumes and treats to come. All families are welcome to attend!
This week:
Yes! We do have a striped skunk visiting our class for a few weeks courtesy of the Field Museum. The students were all a buzz about this nocturnal animal......Is it dead? How did it get in that exhibit case? We discussed how the museum can let us borrow an animal that is stuffed so we can learn about it and see it up close. Yes...It was once alive! The students observed its fur, face and claws. Skunks are common to Oak Park and they are nocturnal. Skunks, like humans are mammals. We also talked about what makes a mammal. We humans are observing what happens in the fall. What are skunks doing in the fall? Stay tuned. The students began an initial inquiry about what they knew about apples. Next week is all about apple science!
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed how families can change. Family members move away or move in. Children grow older. Family sizes can increase. The students elbowed chatted with a partner about an activity they did when they were a baby and an activity they can now do as a 5/6 year old. We made a list of activities we did when we were babies.....cry, be carried, crawl, drink a bottle and a list of activities that we can now do.....ride a bike, dress ourselves, walk.....This preparation will assist the students next week when they begin their summative text activity using the trade book, "Peter's Chair." We continue to work on story structure and will begin to look more closely at the details that support the story. The students continue work on retelling a story and that most stories have a beginning, middle and ending part. We use the text, "Picnic at Apple Park" from last week. The students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story in order. They worked on thinking about the big or main idea of the story. What is this story about? How do you know? Can you find evidence for your thinking in the story? Can the pictures help you? The students reviewed the sight words taught thus far. They "walked their words." Robust Vocabulary for this week included CHANGE, RELATIVES, EAGER, OCCASION, CELEBRATE. In our phonemic awareness activities this week, the students continue to work on rhyme patterns, 2-4 syllables words and beginning sound blending of 2 sound words. During our read aloud time, the students read "Can We." Students caught on to the story structure.....a question and an answer. Tracking skills are becoming more consistent. Pointing to each word and picture and keeping your place while other are reading are important in our whole group read aloud. Target sounds reviewed were Mm and Ss and short A. Students did a formative text Blueprint Workmat about characters, setting and main event on the nonfiction story, "How Do You Get To School?" Our Haggerty BlueBook exercises continue to reinforce rhyming, initial and final sounds, syllables, blending sounds, counting words in a sentence and adding and substituting word parts. Workstations this week included leveled read aloud, elbow chatting about characters, setting and main events, walking your words, drawing your family and writing about an activity you like to do with them (sentence starter....We like to.....) sentence building with sight words and pictures, sentence writing, What can happen next?--adding to the story you read, the syllable game and roll, cover and bump-initial sounds and Monster Mash--initial sound activity.
Math: This week, the students began work on their number rhymes for 6-9. They continue to work on counting quantities to 15 and writing their numbers. In their calendar books, the students are becoming more comfortable telling and writing which number will come next, recording the date, writing the number of the day, working on A/B, AA/B and ABC patterns and completing their ten frames. The students are finding the temperature on the weatherunderground app and recording it and what kind of weather we are having each day. They are working to understand place value--number of groups of tens and ones. The students worked on reckenrek activities "Slide and Say" and "Show Me." They learned and played the game "Heads or Tails Tally" with a partner. Our math workstations included pattern block shape find, "Heads or Tails Tally," "Swat the Number," Writing numbers 0-20 and how high can you count?
Writing: The students continue to work on Frog Jump capitals. This week, letters N and M were introduced. Students experimented with using the wooden pieces to form the letters. They used their mini boards and tripod grasp with their tiny chalk. In Writer's Workshop, the students illustrated and wrote about an animal and one fact about it, something they like to do with their family and something they can see outside. The students are working on beginning with a capital letter, spacing between words and having an ending mark. At this point, it is still very early in letter formation and all letter types (all upper or some lowercase) are acceptable. Students continue to use their letter/sound cards to assist in their writing. Labeling of pictures is occurring along with inventive or phonetic spelling. Students are talking more chances and feeling more confident about trying to write on their own. During Journal conference time, I am working individually with students on sentence structure.
Technology: In reading whole group, the app My ABC was used to reinforce letter recognition, sound/symbol and upper and lowercase math and Word Wizard to reinforce blending sounds to creating words. The app Oz Phonics was used to enhance knowledge od beginning and ending sounds. In Math whole group, the apps Easy Match, Number Rack (reckenrek app) and Geoboard were used to enhance study of number patterns, shapes and visual thinking. Next week, iPad assignment may be part of a student workstation in reading and math.
Literature: "How Do You Go To School?" "Me and My Family Tree," "In 1492," "Where in the Wild," "Why Do Leaves Change Color?" "Picnic at Apple Park," "Night Animals."
**Thanks for sending in your Parent Conference confirmed responses. Keep them coming! I will reschedule parents who need a new day and time this week. I will email you. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, October 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 21st. Please note: On Thursday, October 22nd and Friday, October 23rd school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There will be district bus service, Hephzibah and Clubhouse pick up at 11:00 am. There is NO afternoon session.
**CALLING ALL CURIOUS KIDS!!! There is still time to design a vehicle for the Egg Drop or create a project for the Academic Fair. Both events are Wednesday, October 14th. We have 2 students doing projects that I know of and 5 students who have designed vehicles. Don't forget you need to sign up online for one or both events on the Irving website. Come on....the more the merrier!!! Come join us on Wednesday afternoon beginning at 1:00 pm on the turf for the Egg Drop Contest. Come to view and hear the students speak about their projects on Wednesday night beginning at 6:30 pm in the gym. It will be one FUN day!
**The students began prep for Lexia Core 5 in the lab this week. They will be getting their usernames and passwords next week and will begin work in the lab 2X week for 30 minutes. I will also send information home with them on adding Lexia Core 5 to your home computer or tablet for practice at home.
**Our Pacer's Walking/Running Club is in full swing. The students are enjoying the fresh air and the activity. Each student has earned 2 foot charms to put on their necklaces. We will keep our necklaces in a special envelope here at school.
**The first rotation of Route to Reading skills specific groups will begin on Tuesday. October 13th. You will receive notification of the phonemic awareness skill your child will be working on and the teacher who is teaching it. Route to Reading will meet Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 9:05-9:45. Each rotation is 3 weeks with assessment of the skill in the third week. Students must score 90% on the skill to move to another skill. Students have the opportunity to remain at the skill, move to the next skill or skip skills. I will speak about this in more detail at parent conferences.
**WOW! Thanks to the great response for Friday Station Day helpers. The Sign Up Genius did the trick. If you are interested and there are no more spots.....email me a Friday and we can have 2 parents helping out. I would love it and your child would too. I believe Sign Up Genius will send out a reminder to you. Thanks again K. Meier for suggesting this.
**Let's Run!!!! Information about the Annual Irving Fun Run in is your child's homework folder. This is a BIG fundraiser for our PTO. Sign up online to pledge your support. The Fun Run will be held on Wednesday, October 21st beginning at 8:30 am. Our Kindergarten classes will run first at 8:15 am. Come out and support us on Wednesday morning!! Cheer, make signs, take a picture of us with the Irving Eagle!! Let's get moving!!
**While we are on the subject of fundraisers.......sign up for TRIVIA NIGHT another huge fundraiser. It's super great for grown ups. It will be held on Thursday, November 5th from 7-10 pm at the Wire in Berwyn.
**Our Student Council Reps, Quinn and Jackson went to their first meeting. They met with other students representing grades K-5. They discussed their mission and began chatting about different projects and events that would benefit Irving School and our community. They came back to class and reported on some of the ideas. Stay tuned!
**No School Monday, October 12th in observance of Columbus Day.
**Walking Field Trip to Maze Library is in the works for the first week in November. Details and permission slip soon. I will need 1-2 volunteers.
**Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm. I will need 4-5 volunteers.
**Yes......Halloween is coming (the afternoon of October 30th) There is chatter amongst the children!!! We have not talked about it as a class yet. Too early. Our approach will be to study nocturnal animals, the skeleton as it relates to humans and animals and a mini unit on spiders. Informational and noncreepy!! I will be chatting with our room parents as soon as I know what the PTO has planned for that day. Our afternoon usually begins with a all school parade, some all school event and then our class party. We will follow our regular schedule in the morning. More info on costumes and treats to come. All families are welcome to attend!
This week:
Yes! We do have a striped skunk visiting our class for a few weeks courtesy of the Field Museum. The students were all a buzz about this nocturnal animal......Is it dead? How did it get in that exhibit case? We discussed how the museum can let us borrow an animal that is stuffed so we can learn about it and see it up close. Yes...It was once alive! The students observed its fur, face and claws. Skunks are common to Oak Park and they are nocturnal. Skunks, like humans are mammals. We also talked about what makes a mammal. We humans are observing what happens in the fall. What are skunks doing in the fall? Stay tuned. The students began an initial inquiry about what they knew about apples. Next week is all about apple science!
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed how families can change. Family members move away or move in. Children grow older. Family sizes can increase. The students elbowed chatted with a partner about an activity they did when they were a baby and an activity they can now do as a 5/6 year old. We made a list of activities we did when we were babies.....cry, be carried, crawl, drink a bottle and a list of activities that we can now do.....ride a bike, dress ourselves, walk.....This preparation will assist the students next week when they begin their summative text activity using the trade book, "Peter's Chair." We continue to work on story structure and will begin to look more closely at the details that support the story. The students continue work on retelling a story and that most stories have a beginning, middle and ending part. We use the text, "Picnic at Apple Park" from last week. The students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story in order. They worked on thinking about the big or main idea of the story. What is this story about? How do you know? Can you find evidence for your thinking in the story? Can the pictures help you? The students reviewed the sight words taught thus far. They "walked their words." Robust Vocabulary for this week included CHANGE, RELATIVES, EAGER, OCCASION, CELEBRATE. In our phonemic awareness activities this week, the students continue to work on rhyme patterns, 2-4 syllables words and beginning sound blending of 2 sound words. During our read aloud time, the students read "Can We." Students caught on to the story structure.....a question and an answer. Tracking skills are becoming more consistent. Pointing to each word and picture and keeping your place while other are reading are important in our whole group read aloud. Target sounds reviewed were Mm and Ss and short A. Students did a formative text Blueprint Workmat about characters, setting and main event on the nonfiction story, "How Do You Get To School?" Our Haggerty BlueBook exercises continue to reinforce rhyming, initial and final sounds, syllables, blending sounds, counting words in a sentence and adding and substituting word parts. Workstations this week included leveled read aloud, elbow chatting about characters, setting and main events, walking your words, drawing your family and writing about an activity you like to do with them (sentence starter....We like to.....) sentence building with sight words and pictures, sentence writing, What can happen next?--adding to the story you read, the syllable game and roll, cover and bump-initial sounds and Monster Mash--initial sound activity.
Math: This week, the students began work on their number rhymes for 6-9. They continue to work on counting quantities to 15 and writing their numbers. In their calendar books, the students are becoming more comfortable telling and writing which number will come next, recording the date, writing the number of the day, working on A/B, AA/B and ABC patterns and completing their ten frames. The students are finding the temperature on the weatherunderground app and recording it and what kind of weather we are having each day. They are working to understand place value--number of groups of tens and ones. The students worked on reckenrek activities "Slide and Say" and "Show Me." They learned and played the game "Heads or Tails Tally" with a partner. Our math workstations included pattern block shape find, "Heads or Tails Tally," "Swat the Number," Writing numbers 0-20 and how high can you count?
Writing: The students continue to work on Frog Jump capitals. This week, letters N and M were introduced. Students experimented with using the wooden pieces to form the letters. They used their mini boards and tripod grasp with their tiny chalk. In Writer's Workshop, the students illustrated and wrote about an animal and one fact about it, something they like to do with their family and something they can see outside. The students are working on beginning with a capital letter, spacing between words and having an ending mark. At this point, it is still very early in letter formation and all letter types (all upper or some lowercase) are acceptable. Students continue to use their letter/sound cards to assist in their writing. Labeling of pictures is occurring along with inventive or phonetic spelling. Students are talking more chances and feeling more confident about trying to write on their own. During Journal conference time, I am working individually with students on sentence structure.
Technology: In reading whole group, the app My ABC was used to reinforce letter recognition, sound/symbol and upper and lowercase math and Word Wizard to reinforce blending sounds to creating words. The app Oz Phonics was used to enhance knowledge od beginning and ending sounds. In Math whole group, the apps Easy Match, Number Rack (reckenrek app) and Geoboard were used to enhance study of number patterns, shapes and visual thinking. Next week, iPad assignment may be part of a student workstation in reading and math.
Literature: "How Do You Go To School?" "Me and My Family Tree," "In 1492," "Where in the Wild," "Why Do Leaves Change Color?" "Picnic at Apple Park," "Night Animals."
Saturday, October 3, 2015
UPDATES for 9/28-10/2 2015
**We were all smiles for our Class Picture Day! The individual photos were pretty cute too! A big thanks to K. Meier for helping us look our best.
**Family Math Night was a huge success! Thanks to those of you that attended. The attendees followed the Yellow Brick Road to fun activities and were treated to an Emerald City Sundae in the lunchroom. Some students and parents even dressed the part!
**Our school wide PACERS Running/Walking Club began on Thursday. Every Thursday at lunchtime until Thanksgiving break, students will be able to run or walk around the block of the school. For every mile students run or walk, they will receive a foot charm to attach to a necklace. Our class has decorated a special envelope to keep their necklace in. At the end of the year, it should look pretty cool with lots of foot charms.
**We had our first parent facilitated Station Day on Friday. Ella's mom was our first volunteer. My room parents have offered to create a Sign Up Genius so that parents can see actual dates for the entire year and sign up on line. Great idea! Look for that soon. Some of you have sent back the form.....please go ahead and sign up on line when it becomes available. Thanks!!!!!
**Notices for Parent/Teacher Conferences are in your child's homework folder. Many of you had signed up during Open House. Please send back your confirmation. If you didn't not sign up, I sent you a day and time. Please confirm or send me some suggestions for a new and day and time. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, October, 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 21st. Please note: On Thursday, October 22nd and Friday, October 23rd, school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There will be district bus service, Hephzibah and Clubhouse pick up at 11:00 am. There is NO afternoon session.
**Wednesday, October 7th is Walk to School Day. All students who walk to school will receive a hand stamp and gym shoe to color. The colored shoe will be displayed in the gym. If you cannot walk to school on Wednesday......no worries.....You can walk with Mr. Hancock at lunchtime and get your hand stamp and shoe to color.
**CONGRATULATIONS to QUINN and JACKSON who are our Student Council Reps. They will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, October 6th and report back to us. We can't wait to hear about projects they are thinking up. Thanks to all of the students who were interested. We will choose new reps in December for the new trimester.
**Our Route to Reading skills groups have been pushed back to begin on Monday, October 13th so that all teachers can complete the necessary testing for skills placement groups.
**This week, our students participated in a Math baseline screening called AIMSWEB. This screening will assist us in planning our daily lessons and allow for differentiation of instruction. I will share the results of this screening with you at conference time.
**Lots of student conversation around the Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest that will be held on Wednesday, October 14th. Ms. Creehan visited our class this week to share project format and talk to the students about ideas they might have for a project. She also discussed with the students the idea of a vehicle that can hold a raw egg securely so that when it is dropped out of a 3rd floor window.....it will not break. Some students have already created theirs!!!!! WOW!!!! Online registration is necessary. I had sent the information in your child's homework folder last week. You can also access it on the Irving School website. Think about assisting your child in a project or vehicle. It's so fun!!!!! Email me with any questions you may have. Ms. Noonan and myself can be a resource for you too.
**The sign up for for TRIVIA NIGHT---sponsored by PTO is in your child's homework folder. It is super great fun for grown ups! Check it out! It is Thursday, November 5th from 7-10 pm at the Wire in Berwyn.
**Information on PTO's BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the YEAR will be posted soon. The FUN RUN FUNDRAISER will be held on Wednesday, October 21st. Our primary students will run around the turf beginning at 8:30 am. Come cheer us on!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued the discussion, role playing and puppetry surrounding the zones of regulation The students are getting lots of ideas about how to regulate their own behavior. I am seeing evidence of this in class. Yeah!!!!!
** In Mr. Packer's first Problem Solving session, he spoke to the students about teaching them how to be a good thinker and problem solver. He did a really cute activity using the students names and a word of something they like beginning with the beginning sound that is the same as the first letter sound in their name.
**In Mr. Degman Math/Tech, Mr. Degman worked with groups of students on an app called Educreations. The students worked on different shape configurations. Cool!
**Planning a walking field trip to the Maze Branch Library sometime at October or early November. As soon as I have the details, I will pass them on to you. 2 volunteers needed
**Future Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm. 4-5 volunteers needed.
This week:
We are now in the season of fall/autumn. The students are beginning to notice some changes taking place outside and in their home. Some students are noticing leaves falling from the trees and whole trees beginning to change color. In the morning, more students are coming to school with jackets and sweatshirts. They are noticing less bugs outside. Our nature table and microscope areas are beginning to fill up with items from outdoors. Next week, we will begin to chat more about changes both for humans and animals as we dive into fall. Shhhhhh.....We will have surprise "visitor" in our class on Monday. Station Day activities included writing and illustrating about a fall activity, pattern block build and count, number writing and quantity review 0-5 and initial sound roll, cover and bump with partners.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue working on Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The phonemic awareness portion keyed in on target sounds short a and Mm. The students brainstormed a word list for words that name animals. Next week, they will brainstorm a word list for words that name items or things. The students continue to work on listening comprehension and identifying story elements--characters, setting, main events and why the events are important tot the story. In our Big Book story, "Picnic at Apple Park," the students also looked for language patterns as I read. (question-answer) The students responded and retold events in the story sequence. They had an "elbow chat" to discuss with a partner WHO was in the story, WHERE the story happens and WHAT was happening. We discussed how story structure can provide evidence for our predictions. Our summative text this week was "How Rocket Learned to Read." The students worked on the same Blueprint Workmat format. They acted out certain parts and took turns being the characters. They elbow chatted with a partner about the elements of the story. During our second reading of the story, students were already volunteering to help me write or draw a picture on the projected workmat. They are remembering key vocabulary and special words that enhance the story. They are becoming more familiar with the format now. I encouraged the students to try some of their own writing. Their summative Blueprints showed more details in their pictures and more students taking that chance to write about an event, characters and setting. Cool! Robust Vocabulary for this week included COOPERATIVE, EXCITING, CAPTIVATED, STARTLED, GATHER, EXHAUSTED. The students practiced their tracking skills in our group read aloud, "The Baseball." Part of this exercise is to see if students can track the words while another student is reading aloud. Students continue work in our Haggerty Book on phonemic awareness exercises---initial sound and final sound recognition, working with short and long vowel sounds. syllables, adding and deleting sounds to create words and substituting word parts to create new words. Our workstations are in full swing. The table managers are getting the hang of positive management skills and the groups are working more cooperatively to complete assignments. It is lovely to hear the sounds of beginning and sometimes very eager readers!!!!! Workstations this week included upper and lowercase match, counting syllables activity, creating sentence using sight words and pictures, sound/picture match up, finishing up paper dolls of your family members and leveled readers-read aloud and partner comprehension check.
Math: What is a reckenrek??? Check out the photo on the side of the blog. Looks a little like an abacus but a little different.....10 rows.....5 white beads....5 red beads in each row.....mmmm. The reckenrek is a calculating frame that acts as a visual model for developing strategic reasoning in math. Students are beginning to see or visualize patterns and strategies for solving math problems. There may be more than one way to solve a problem. Right now the students are at the beginning stages. We started by looking at the 5 white and 5 red beads....10 altogether. If you already know that there are 5 white and I add 1 more???? Do you have to count it or can you see it???? The students worked on an activity call count and slide. I slid beads from one side to another. They had to figure out what number was being illustrated. I may have some serious math heads here!!!! Loads of fun. Next week, we will be using app with reckenrek activities. The students continue to work on recognizing pattern block shapes. We did the pattern block shape "Hokey Pokey." Hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus and skinny rhombus--we discussed how many sides and corners each shape has. What do a trapezoid, square, rectangle and rhombus have in common???? The students counted pennies by hearing to them fall into a jar. Our "listening jar" was tons of fun! Our math workstations this week included "swat the number," count and record, beginning work with tally marks, sequencing number cards, number rhymes for 6 and 7 and working on positional concepts.
Writing: The students continue work on their Frog Jump capitals. This week letters P, B and R were introduced. The students applied what they learned in their orange practice books. Proper writing posture continues to be reinforced--sitting up straight so that our back touches the back of the chair--feet under the table---one hand holding our pencil or marker (tripod grasp) and the other hand holding down our paper. In our Writer's Workshop this week, the students worked on labeling parts of their pictures with a word that describes their drawing. They continue to add more details and color to their drawings. More students are attempting to write down a word and use their sounds and sound cards as an assist. Sentence writers are beginning to use a capital letter at the beginning more consistently.
Technology: In reading whole group, the app Montessori Crosswords was used to enhance knowledge of putting sounds together to form a word. We have been concentrating on short a words with a simple consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. Magnetic Letters HD was used to reinforce sight words and sentence building. In math, the apps Subitize Tree and Geoboard were used whole group to work on visual recognition of number and shape recognition. Student small groups used the app Educreations with Mr. Degman work on shapes and shape concepts. As we begin to chart our weather patterns, the app Storm and Weatherunderground was used this week to track temperature, wind speed and the amount of sun or clouds. The students enjoyed watching clouds moving across the screen!
Literature: "How Rocket Learned to Read," "Where In The Wild," "Chipmunck at Hollow Tree Lane," "I am a Leaf,""Leaves Fall Down,""The Way I Feel,""Mean Jean the Recess Queen," "Smile If You Are Human," "I Can, We Can," "The Clever Turtle," "It's Autumn."
**Family Math Night was a huge success! Thanks to those of you that attended. The attendees followed the Yellow Brick Road to fun activities and were treated to an Emerald City Sundae in the lunchroom. Some students and parents even dressed the part!
**Our school wide PACERS Running/Walking Club began on Thursday. Every Thursday at lunchtime until Thanksgiving break, students will be able to run or walk around the block of the school. For every mile students run or walk, they will receive a foot charm to attach to a necklace. Our class has decorated a special envelope to keep their necklace in. At the end of the year, it should look pretty cool with lots of foot charms.
**We had our first parent facilitated Station Day on Friday. Ella's mom was our first volunteer. My room parents have offered to create a Sign Up Genius so that parents can see actual dates for the entire year and sign up on line. Great idea! Look for that soon. Some of you have sent back the form.....please go ahead and sign up on line when it becomes available. Thanks!!!!!
**Notices for Parent/Teacher Conferences are in your child's homework folder. Many of you had signed up during Open House. Please send back your confirmation. If you didn't not sign up, I sent you a day and time. Please confirm or send me some suggestions for a new and day and time. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, October, 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 21st. Please note: On Thursday, October 22nd and Friday, October 23rd, school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There will be district bus service, Hephzibah and Clubhouse pick up at 11:00 am. There is NO afternoon session.
**Wednesday, October 7th is Walk to School Day. All students who walk to school will receive a hand stamp and gym shoe to color. The colored shoe will be displayed in the gym. If you cannot walk to school on Wednesday......no worries.....You can walk with Mr. Hancock at lunchtime and get your hand stamp and shoe to color.
**CONGRATULATIONS to QUINN and JACKSON who are our Student Council Reps. They will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, October 6th and report back to us. We can't wait to hear about projects they are thinking up. Thanks to all of the students who were interested. We will choose new reps in December for the new trimester.
**Our Route to Reading skills groups have been pushed back to begin on Monday, October 13th so that all teachers can complete the necessary testing for skills placement groups.
**This week, our students participated in a Math baseline screening called AIMSWEB. This screening will assist us in planning our daily lessons and allow for differentiation of instruction. I will share the results of this screening with you at conference time.
**Lots of student conversation around the Academic Fair and Egg Drop Contest that will be held on Wednesday, October 14th. Ms. Creehan visited our class this week to share project format and talk to the students about ideas they might have for a project. She also discussed with the students the idea of a vehicle that can hold a raw egg securely so that when it is dropped out of a 3rd floor window.....it will not break. Some students have already created theirs!!!!! WOW!!!! Online registration is necessary. I had sent the information in your child's homework folder last week. You can also access it on the Irving School website. Think about assisting your child in a project or vehicle. It's so fun!!!!! Email me with any questions you may have. Ms. Noonan and myself can be a resource for you too.
**The sign up for for TRIVIA NIGHT---sponsored by PTO is in your child's homework folder. It is super great fun for grown ups! Check it out! It is Thursday, November 5th from 7-10 pm at the Wire in Berwyn.
**Information on PTO's BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the YEAR will be posted soon. The FUN RUN FUNDRAISER will be held on Wednesday, October 21st. Our primary students will run around the turf beginning at 8:30 am. Come cheer us on!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued the discussion, role playing and puppetry surrounding the zones of regulation The students are getting lots of ideas about how to regulate their own behavior. I am seeing evidence of this in class. Yeah!!!!!
** In Mr. Packer's first Problem Solving session, he spoke to the students about teaching them how to be a good thinker and problem solver. He did a really cute activity using the students names and a word of something they like beginning with the beginning sound that is the same as the first letter sound in their name.
**In Mr. Degman Math/Tech, Mr. Degman worked with groups of students on an app called Educreations. The students worked on different shape configurations. Cool!
**Planning a walking field trip to the Maze Branch Library sometime at October or early November. As soon as I have the details, I will pass them on to you. 2 volunteers needed
**Future Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm. 4-5 volunteers needed.
This week:
We are now in the season of fall/autumn. The students are beginning to notice some changes taking place outside and in their home. Some students are noticing leaves falling from the trees and whole trees beginning to change color. In the morning, more students are coming to school with jackets and sweatshirts. They are noticing less bugs outside. Our nature table and microscope areas are beginning to fill up with items from outdoors. Next week, we will begin to chat more about changes both for humans and animals as we dive into fall. Shhhhhh.....We will have surprise "visitor" in our class on Monday. Station Day activities included writing and illustrating about a fall activity, pattern block build and count, number writing and quantity review 0-5 and initial sound roll, cover and bump with partners.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue working on Unit 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The phonemic awareness portion keyed in on target sounds short a and Mm. The students brainstormed a word list for words that name animals. Next week, they will brainstorm a word list for words that name items or things. The students continue to work on listening comprehension and identifying story elements--characters, setting, main events and why the events are important tot the story. In our Big Book story, "Picnic at Apple Park," the students also looked for language patterns as I read. (question-answer) The students responded and retold events in the story sequence. They had an "elbow chat" to discuss with a partner WHO was in the story, WHERE the story happens and WHAT was happening. We discussed how story structure can provide evidence for our predictions. Our summative text this week was "How Rocket Learned to Read." The students worked on the same Blueprint Workmat format. They acted out certain parts and took turns being the characters. They elbow chatted with a partner about the elements of the story. During our second reading of the story, students were already volunteering to help me write or draw a picture on the projected workmat. They are remembering key vocabulary and special words that enhance the story. They are becoming more familiar with the format now. I encouraged the students to try some of their own writing. Their summative Blueprints showed more details in their pictures and more students taking that chance to write about an event, characters and setting. Cool! Robust Vocabulary for this week included COOPERATIVE, EXCITING, CAPTIVATED, STARTLED, GATHER, EXHAUSTED. The students practiced their tracking skills in our group read aloud, "The Baseball." Part of this exercise is to see if students can track the words while another student is reading aloud. Students continue work in our Haggerty Book on phonemic awareness exercises---initial sound and final sound recognition, working with short and long vowel sounds. syllables, adding and deleting sounds to create words and substituting word parts to create new words. Our workstations are in full swing. The table managers are getting the hang of positive management skills and the groups are working more cooperatively to complete assignments. It is lovely to hear the sounds of beginning and sometimes very eager readers!!!!! Workstations this week included upper and lowercase match, counting syllables activity, creating sentence using sight words and pictures, sound/picture match up, finishing up paper dolls of your family members and leveled readers-read aloud and partner comprehension check.
Math: What is a reckenrek??? Check out the photo on the side of the blog. Looks a little like an abacus but a little different.....10 rows.....5 white beads....5 red beads in each row.....mmmm. The reckenrek is a calculating frame that acts as a visual model for developing strategic reasoning in math. Students are beginning to see or visualize patterns and strategies for solving math problems. There may be more than one way to solve a problem. Right now the students are at the beginning stages. We started by looking at the 5 white and 5 red beads....10 altogether. If you already know that there are 5 white and I add 1 more???? Do you have to count it or can you see it???? The students worked on an activity call count and slide. I slid beads from one side to another. They had to figure out what number was being illustrated. I may have some serious math heads here!!!! Loads of fun. Next week, we will be using app with reckenrek activities. The students continue to work on recognizing pattern block shapes. We did the pattern block shape "Hokey Pokey." Hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus and skinny rhombus--we discussed how many sides and corners each shape has. What do a trapezoid, square, rectangle and rhombus have in common???? The students counted pennies by hearing to them fall into a jar. Our "listening jar" was tons of fun! Our math workstations this week included "swat the number," count and record, beginning work with tally marks, sequencing number cards, number rhymes for 6 and 7 and working on positional concepts.
Writing: The students continue work on their Frog Jump capitals. This week letters P, B and R were introduced. The students applied what they learned in their orange practice books. Proper writing posture continues to be reinforced--sitting up straight so that our back touches the back of the chair--feet under the table---one hand holding our pencil or marker (tripod grasp) and the other hand holding down our paper. In our Writer's Workshop this week, the students worked on labeling parts of their pictures with a word that describes their drawing. They continue to add more details and color to their drawings. More students are attempting to write down a word and use their sounds and sound cards as an assist. Sentence writers are beginning to use a capital letter at the beginning more consistently.
Technology: In reading whole group, the app Montessori Crosswords was used to enhance knowledge of putting sounds together to form a word. We have been concentrating on short a words with a simple consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. Magnetic Letters HD was used to reinforce sight words and sentence building. In math, the apps Subitize Tree and Geoboard were used whole group to work on visual recognition of number and shape recognition. Student small groups used the app Educreations with Mr. Degman work on shapes and shape concepts. As we begin to chart our weather patterns, the app Storm and Weatherunderground was used this week to track temperature, wind speed and the amount of sun or clouds. The students enjoyed watching clouds moving across the screen!
Literature: "How Rocket Learned to Read," "Where In The Wild," "Chipmunck at Hollow Tree Lane," "I am a Leaf,""Leaves Fall Down,""The Way I Feel,""Mean Jean the Recess Queen," "Smile If You Are Human," "I Can, We Can," "The Clever Turtle," "It's Autumn."
Saturday, September 26, 2015
UPDATES for 9/21-9/25 2015
**Thanks so much for your attendance at Open House/Curriculum Night. I know that there was a lot of material presented and I probably could have talked another 30 minutes! Please read through your curriculum handouts. If you have any questions or would like to meet to go over anything, please email me. I know the students had a great time. They were a bit sleepy eyed the next morning but full of conversation about who they saw and the teachers they introduced you to. Thanks again.
**Many of you signed up for Parent/Teacher Conferences. I will be sending a hard copy of your day and time. If you did not sign up......I will give you a date and time and we can work from there. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, October 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 22nd. At that time, I will be sharing assessments. student progress in all academic areas, participation and social/emotional growth reflections. I will also share with you what our standards based report card looks like. Please note: On Thursday and Friday, October 22nd and 23rd, school in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There will be district bus service, Hephzibah and Kids Club pick up at 11:00 am. There is NO afternoon session.
**Eagle Extra Classes have begun. The students really seem to be enjoying themselves.
**School Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 29th. Please check your child's homework folder for the order form. You can also order on line. Our picture taking time is 8:30 am. K. Meier will assist us. Thanks!
**Family Math Night is Thursday, October 1st from 6:00-7:30 pm. There is still time to join us for "There's No Place Like Math Night." I will be on the yellow brick road serving some Oz treats after you complete your adventure. Email me for information.'
**Irving Pacers Running/Walking will begin on Thursday, October 1st during our lunch hour. Instead of going on the playground, the students will walk/run around the school to earn cute little foot charms to add to a necklace. I will be walking and students are welcome to walk with me or RUN!!!! Pacers will continue thru November and start up again in the spring.
**I am continuing to assess student phonemic awareness skills. Everything will be completed by Friday. Route to Reading skill specific groups will begin on Monday, October 5th. Students are in the process of being screened to see which skill level they fall into. The skill will be taught for 3 weeks and then assessed. 90% mastery is needed for a students to move to another skill. Students can remain at a skill, move to the next skill or even test out/skip skills. All kindergarten teachers as well as Ms. Chinn, our Language Arts specialist and reading tutors Ms. Simon, Ms. Cruz, Ms. Deihl and Ms. Cairns will each a have a small group of students. You will receive notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher teaching it. Route to Reading will meet 3 times a week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday from 9:05-9:45 am.
**Information on those interested in being a Student Council Rep in in your child's homework folder. I will be choosing 2 reps on Friday.
**Do you have a topic that you are really interested in?? Do you have a question you want answered on a certain topic?? Can you construct a vehicle that will keep an egg from breaking when dropped from a 3rd floor window?? Think about it!!!! Be part of the Irving School's Academic Fair and Egg Drop contest on Wednesday, October 14th. Information on signing up on line is in your child's homework folder. Ms. Creehan will be coming in next week to show the students examples of projects and vehicles. I would love to see our class represented! The Egg Drop will take place on the playground beginning at 12:45 pm. The Academic Fair will be open to the public beginning at 6:30 pm. and students can chat about their projects. Email me with any questions.
**Information on Green Team reps will be in next weeks homework folder.
**Calling all Girls!!! Sign up to become a DAISY SCOUT. The meetings are every 3rd Thursday of the month from 3-4:15 pm. Contact Troop Leader N. Daniel, (Quinn's mom) at nicole.h.daniel@gmail.com.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued to work on the Zones of Regulation and how we can work to get ourselves out of those blue, yellow or red zone. She share some cool apps (see technology section) for calming and contemplating. Great lesson!
**Mr. Packer Problem Solving and Mr. Degman Math Technology will begin next week.
**SAVE THE DATE: Irving's Annual Trivia Night Fundraiser is Thursday, November 5th from 7-10 pm. at the Wire in Berwyn. More info will follow!
**Kindergarten is in the process of planning a walking field trip to the Maze Library the week of October 13th-16th. More in on this next week. I will need 2 volunteers.
**Future field trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm. I will need 4-5 volunteers.
This week:
It was all about getting ready for Open House. The students worked hard on projects to display in the hallway. They thought about their future in their illustrations and writing about about what they wanted to be when they grew up. They worked on retelling a story both verbally and with a whole effort, recording letters and words. The students shared information about who was in their family. They drew pictures of family members. Discussions on expectations, behavior, Eagle Slips and following directions remain important topics.
Reading/Language Arts: We have begun Unit 1 FAMILIES in our Treasures Reading series. Students shared background knowledge about types of families they know about. They discussed human families and animal families. We all shared experiences about our families and how many family members we have. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Whose Baby Is It?" They reviewed parts of the book--front and back cover, spine, title page. They also located where to find the page number. Students noted the question and answer pattern of the book. The sight word we and the were introduced. We used our word "feet" to play "Walk Your Words." Our target sound in isolation is Mm. We used our sound cards and toys to tell if the sound was heard and the beginning or the end of a target word. The students worked on additional vocabulary when listening to the thinking fable, "The Lioness and the Ostrich." This vocabulary will be referred to a ROBUST VOCABULARY. Our words this week were PROTECT, RESEMBLE, TOGETHER, ANIMAL. We defined the words and gave sentence examples. The students used the retelling cards to retell the Big Book story with a partner. The story words, joey, pup and cub were discussed. We read aloud our predecodable story, "We Can." The students continue to work on using their famous pointing finger to track each word and picture when they read. In our round robin reading, all students got a chance to read aloud to the group and also read to a partner. In our formative text study this week, we read the story, "Duck on a Bike." We continue to work on story elements--Characters, Setting, Main Event and why the main event is important. I set up the format of our Blueprint Workmat. (I do) As we go thru our second reading, the students helped me with pictures and writing as the Blueprint is projected on the screen. (we do) Students acted out parts of the story and elbow chatted about the character, setting and main events. Students did their own Blueprint Workmat of the story. (you do) It is pretty cool to see their thinking reflected in their drawing and a little more attempts at writing this time. We will begin our summative text, "How Rocket Learns to Read" next week. The students continue to create group word webs for action words and words that people and animals. In the Haggerty Blue Book, our puppet friends, Mr. Happy and Mr. G assist in oral exercises on rhyming words, initial and final sounds in words, adding, deleting and substituting sounds to create new words and counting how words are in a sentence. We are just beginning to chat about word parts or syllables. This week, we began our literacy workstations. While I work with small group leveled readers each day, the students also work in rotating small groups. They also have a story read to themselves and then to a partner containing their sight words and then activities emphasizing our unit and phonemic awareness. This week our workstations included comparing family sizes project, stamp your words, upper and lowercase match game. "Oh No" initial sound game, "walk your words"-write your words and games Little Read Ridinghood and Froggy, Froggy Where's Your Home (initial sound and letter match.) Each week, the groups are assigned a "table manager." Their jobs are to set out the materials needed, controlling noise level and give gentle reminders to keep group on task. We spent time last week roll playing varies scenes to a workstation. Our table managers did an excellent job!
Math: The students continue their study of simple shapes. They counted the sides and corners of their shapes and made comparisons--how the square and rectangle alike? Students are working with pattern block shapes hexagon, trapezoid, oval and rhombus as well as basic shapes. The students worked on a variety of counting activities using their ten frames. We played "Show Me" where I write a number and the students have to create it on their ten frame. Students worked with a variety of objects-pennies, bears, blocks and cubes matching one to one. Students worked with partners and number cards to match numbers and sequence numbers 0-5, 0-10, 0-15 and 0-20. We continue to work on positional concepts above, below, behind, beside, between and next to. Math workstations this week included creating a number globe using the app Doodle Buddy, playing "spin and cover" number/ten frame match, counting corners and sides of shapes, number practice using their number rhymes 0-5.
Writing: The students began work on their Frog Jump Capitals. They are using their mini boards, tiny pieces of chalk (great for tripod grasp) and rags for erasing. The students are also working with wooden curved, straight and slanting pieces to assist in imprinting not only formation but directionality of the letters. Letters F, E, D were introduced. The students learned a song about where to begin all letters......Where do you start your letters......AT THE TOP!!! Appearing at the top left corner is Mr. Smiley, He is there to remind students to begin their writing on the left. Next week, the students will apply what they have learned in their orange practice books. Students continue to work on their journal entries in Writer's Workshop. This week, we talked about how to label parts of our drawings with a word or two.
Technology: The students were thrilled to do their first project in math using the app Doodle Buddy. They used their globe template, chose their number, and selected the icon they wanted to use to show their number. They worked on steps to email their project to my computer so I could print it out and display it. Cool! The apps Subitize Tree, Easy Match and Sam Phibian were projected to work on visualizing number and number patterns, matching number to quantity and quickly locating the quantity needed to match the number. In reading, the app Montessori Crosswords was introduced and projected for group use. It is a great sound foundation app to assist students in ordering of sounds to create a word and has many different levels. In Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey used the apps Calm Counter and Breath, Think, Do in her lesson on ways to self regulate.
Literature: "Animal Babies," "Hop On Pop," "I Will Try," "Pete the Cat Wheels on the Bus," "A Kiss Goodbye," "Family Fun," "Author's Back to School Surprise," "Duck on a Bike."
**Many of you signed up for Parent/Teacher Conferences. I will be sending a hard copy of your day and time. If you did not sign up......I will give you a date and time and we can work from there. Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, October 19th, Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 22nd. At that time, I will be sharing assessments. student progress in all academic areas, participation and social/emotional growth reflections. I will also share with you what our standards based report card looks like. Please note: On Thursday and Friday, October 22nd and 23rd, school in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There will be district bus service, Hephzibah and Kids Club pick up at 11:00 am. There is NO afternoon session.
**Eagle Extra Classes have begun. The students really seem to be enjoying themselves.
**School Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 29th. Please check your child's homework folder for the order form. You can also order on line. Our picture taking time is 8:30 am. K. Meier will assist us. Thanks!
**Family Math Night is Thursday, October 1st from 6:00-7:30 pm. There is still time to join us for "There's No Place Like Math Night." I will be on the yellow brick road serving some Oz treats after you complete your adventure. Email me for information.'
**Irving Pacers Running/Walking will begin on Thursday, October 1st during our lunch hour. Instead of going on the playground, the students will walk/run around the school to earn cute little foot charms to add to a necklace. I will be walking and students are welcome to walk with me or RUN!!!! Pacers will continue thru November and start up again in the spring.
**I am continuing to assess student phonemic awareness skills. Everything will be completed by Friday. Route to Reading skill specific groups will begin on Monday, October 5th. Students are in the process of being screened to see which skill level they fall into. The skill will be taught for 3 weeks and then assessed. 90% mastery is needed for a students to move to another skill. Students can remain at a skill, move to the next skill or even test out/skip skills. All kindergarten teachers as well as Ms. Chinn, our Language Arts specialist and reading tutors Ms. Simon, Ms. Cruz, Ms. Deihl and Ms. Cairns will each a have a small group of students. You will receive notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher teaching it. Route to Reading will meet 3 times a week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday from 9:05-9:45 am.
**Information on those interested in being a Student Council Rep in in your child's homework folder. I will be choosing 2 reps on Friday.
**Do you have a topic that you are really interested in?? Do you have a question you want answered on a certain topic?? Can you construct a vehicle that will keep an egg from breaking when dropped from a 3rd floor window?? Think about it!!!! Be part of the Irving School's Academic Fair and Egg Drop contest on Wednesday, October 14th. Information on signing up on line is in your child's homework folder. Ms. Creehan will be coming in next week to show the students examples of projects and vehicles. I would love to see our class represented! The Egg Drop will take place on the playground beginning at 12:45 pm. The Academic Fair will be open to the public beginning at 6:30 pm. and students can chat about their projects. Email me with any questions.
**Information on Green Team reps will be in next weeks homework folder.
**Calling all Girls!!! Sign up to become a DAISY SCOUT. The meetings are every 3rd Thursday of the month from 3-4:15 pm. Contact Troop Leader N. Daniel, (Quinn's mom) at nicole.h.daniel@gmail.com.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued to work on the Zones of Regulation and how we can work to get ourselves out of those blue, yellow or red zone. She share some cool apps (see technology section) for calming and contemplating. Great lesson!
**Mr. Packer Problem Solving and Mr. Degman Math Technology will begin next week.
**SAVE THE DATE: Irving's Annual Trivia Night Fundraiser is Thursday, November 5th from 7-10 pm. at the Wire in Berwyn. More info will follow!
**Kindergarten is in the process of planning a walking field trip to the Maze Library the week of October 13th-16th. More in on this next week. I will need 2 volunteers.
**Future field trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9-2 pm. I will need 4-5 volunteers.
This week:
It was all about getting ready for Open House. The students worked hard on projects to display in the hallway. They thought about their future in their illustrations and writing about about what they wanted to be when they grew up. They worked on retelling a story both verbally and with a whole effort, recording letters and words. The students shared information about who was in their family. They drew pictures of family members. Discussions on expectations, behavior, Eagle Slips and following directions remain important topics.
Reading/Language Arts: We have begun Unit 1 FAMILIES in our Treasures Reading series. Students shared background knowledge about types of families they know about. They discussed human families and animal families. We all shared experiences about our families and how many family members we have. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Whose Baby Is It?" They reviewed parts of the book--front and back cover, spine, title page. They also located where to find the page number. Students noted the question and answer pattern of the book. The sight word we and the were introduced. We used our word "feet" to play "Walk Your Words." Our target sound in isolation is Mm. We used our sound cards and toys to tell if the sound was heard and the beginning or the end of a target word. The students worked on additional vocabulary when listening to the thinking fable, "The Lioness and the Ostrich." This vocabulary will be referred to a ROBUST VOCABULARY. Our words this week were PROTECT, RESEMBLE, TOGETHER, ANIMAL. We defined the words and gave sentence examples. The students used the retelling cards to retell the Big Book story with a partner. The story words, joey, pup and cub were discussed. We read aloud our predecodable story, "We Can." The students continue to work on using their famous pointing finger to track each word and picture when they read. In our round robin reading, all students got a chance to read aloud to the group and also read to a partner. In our formative text study this week, we read the story, "Duck on a Bike." We continue to work on story elements--Characters, Setting, Main Event and why the main event is important. I set up the format of our Blueprint Workmat. (I do) As we go thru our second reading, the students helped me with pictures and writing as the Blueprint is projected on the screen. (we do) Students acted out parts of the story and elbow chatted about the character, setting and main events. Students did their own Blueprint Workmat of the story. (you do) It is pretty cool to see their thinking reflected in their drawing and a little more attempts at writing this time. We will begin our summative text, "How Rocket Learns to Read" next week. The students continue to create group word webs for action words and words that people and animals. In the Haggerty Blue Book, our puppet friends, Mr. Happy and Mr. G assist in oral exercises on rhyming words, initial and final sounds in words, adding, deleting and substituting sounds to create new words and counting how words are in a sentence. We are just beginning to chat about word parts or syllables. This week, we began our literacy workstations. While I work with small group leveled readers each day, the students also work in rotating small groups. They also have a story read to themselves and then to a partner containing their sight words and then activities emphasizing our unit and phonemic awareness. This week our workstations included comparing family sizes project, stamp your words, upper and lowercase match game. "Oh No" initial sound game, "walk your words"-write your words and games Little Read Ridinghood and Froggy, Froggy Where's Your Home (initial sound and letter match.) Each week, the groups are assigned a "table manager." Their jobs are to set out the materials needed, controlling noise level and give gentle reminders to keep group on task. We spent time last week roll playing varies scenes to a workstation. Our table managers did an excellent job!
Math: The students continue their study of simple shapes. They counted the sides and corners of their shapes and made comparisons--how the square and rectangle alike? Students are working with pattern block shapes hexagon, trapezoid, oval and rhombus as well as basic shapes. The students worked on a variety of counting activities using their ten frames. We played "Show Me" where I write a number and the students have to create it on their ten frame. Students worked with a variety of objects-pennies, bears, blocks and cubes matching one to one. Students worked with partners and number cards to match numbers and sequence numbers 0-5, 0-10, 0-15 and 0-20. We continue to work on positional concepts above, below, behind, beside, between and next to. Math workstations this week included creating a number globe using the app Doodle Buddy, playing "spin and cover" number/ten frame match, counting corners and sides of shapes, number practice using their number rhymes 0-5.
Writing: The students began work on their Frog Jump Capitals. They are using their mini boards, tiny pieces of chalk (great for tripod grasp) and rags for erasing. The students are also working with wooden curved, straight and slanting pieces to assist in imprinting not only formation but directionality of the letters. Letters F, E, D were introduced. The students learned a song about where to begin all letters......Where do you start your letters......AT THE TOP!!! Appearing at the top left corner is Mr. Smiley, He is there to remind students to begin their writing on the left. Next week, the students will apply what they have learned in their orange practice books. Students continue to work on their journal entries in Writer's Workshop. This week, we talked about how to label parts of our drawings with a word or two.
Technology: The students were thrilled to do their first project in math using the app Doodle Buddy. They used their globe template, chose their number, and selected the icon they wanted to use to show their number. They worked on steps to email their project to my computer so I could print it out and display it. Cool! The apps Subitize Tree, Easy Match and Sam Phibian were projected to work on visualizing number and number patterns, matching number to quantity and quickly locating the quantity needed to match the number. In reading, the app Montessori Crosswords was introduced and projected for group use. It is a great sound foundation app to assist students in ordering of sounds to create a word and has many different levels. In Friendship Club, Ms. Bell Bey used the apps Calm Counter and Breath, Think, Do in her lesson on ways to self regulate.
Literature: "Animal Babies," "Hop On Pop," "I Will Try," "Pete the Cat Wheels on the Bus," "A Kiss Goodbye," "Family Fun," "Author's Back to School Surprise," "Duck on a Bike."
Saturday, September 19, 2015
UPDATES for 9/14-9/18 2015
**Come One, Come All to Irving School's OPEN HOUSE/CURRICULUM NIGHT on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24th beginning at 6:30 pm. The schedule is as follows: I will have a PARENT ONLY curriculum overview from 6:30-7:00 pm in our classroom. You can drop your child off in the auditorium for a supervised special feature. I will be speaking about our daily routine. all subject areas, testing that is done in Kindergarten, behavior management, Route to Reading skill specific groupings and special area classes. I will also have handouts with other information on our year. There will be SIGN UP SHEETS for PARENT CONFERENCES, ROOM PARENTS, and for other COOL EVENTS. Please pick up your child after my presentation and they will become your TOUR GUIDES as they bring you to meet the teachers who will be working with them. I will give you a list of teachers and room numbers as an assist. Hope to see everyone!
**We had our first BOOK BUDDY meeting on Friday!! This year our Book Buddies are Ms. Balicki's 5th grade class. Each one of our students were matched up with one and sometimes two book buddies. The buddies completed a getting to know me book. Each kindergarten student has one to take home and share. After, the kindergarten buddy chose a story that the 5th grade buddy read to them. We will be meeting every month and sharing stories, writing, projects. So fun!!
**Sign up for FAMILY MATH NIGHT! It is Thursday, October 1st from 6:00-7:30 pm. The theme this year is "There's No Place Like Math Night--A Wizard of Oz Adventure." I will be there on the yellow brick road!! Email me if you need another sign up flyer.
**Class and Individual Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 29th.t I usually try for an early morning time.
**Our Tech Advisor, Mr. Degman, will be in on Monday, September 21st to speak with students on proper and safe use of our classroom student iPads. I am also in the process of securing a time each week where Mr. Degman will be part of our math workstations with an iPad activity. Fun! Fun!
**Mr. Packer"s Problem Solving Session will begin in two weeks every Friday, from 10:30-11:00 am. Mr. Packer will use small group and whole group activities and projects to encourage thinking outside of the box. All lessons will be taught on multi levels to support and to challenge all learners.
**I will be speaking to the students about STUDENT COUNCIL representation for our class. Each classroom will have 2 reps. I will be sending home a flyer on the merits of being on Student Council. If your child is interested in being a rep, they can fill out the flyer.
**We have a GREEN TEAM! Each class will send 2 reps to the meetings that meet every other Tuesday. The Green Team plans projects, discusses ways to create a "greener" school environment and will relay information to our class. I will also send more info home next week about rep responsibilities.
**Calling all girls!!!! Be a Daisy Girl Scout!!! Quinn's mom is one of the leaders!!! Meetings are every THIRD THURSDAY from 3:00-4:15. There is a $15 registration fee. There will also be a $30 fee that will cover Daisy vest, badges and some supplies. Any questions--you can contact Quinn's mom at nicole.h.daniel@gmail.com.
**There was a flyer in your child's homework packet on Irving School's Annual Egg Drop and Academic Fair to be held on Wednesday, October 14th. I will be giving students more info about participating in this super fun event. Ms. Creehan will also be chatting with the students and showing examples of projects and vehicles. Stay tuned!
**EAGLE EXTRA CLASSES begin on Monday, September 21st. I will be getting a listing of all students participating. An Eagle Extra supervisor will pick up your child in our classroom at dismissal.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey reviewed with the students what whole body learning is and began the conversation about the ZONES of REGULATION. I have enclosed some information on this in your child's homework folder.
**Future Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9:00-2:00 pm. More info to follow. I will need 4-5 volunteers.
This week:
It was all about letters and numbers. The students have found letters and numbers throughout our classroom and the school. What is the difference between letters and numbers? The students began the conversation about consonants (letters that have 1-2 sounds) and vowels (letters that can have many different sounds.) The students found the consonants and vowels in their name. They then compared that number to the number of consonants and vowels in a friends name. We are counting everything in sight--crayons, markers, chairs, books, fingers, shoes. The students worked on their number formation rhymes 0-5. Station day activities included pattern block build, count and record, build a dog out of pattern blocks and hand prints!
Reading/Language Arts: The students have completed Week 3 of our prep for our Treasures Reading series called Start Smart. The students worked on reinforcing letters names A-Z and sounds A-P. They again used mirrors to observe where each sound came from--open/closed mouth?....puff of air?.....vibrations?.....where is your tongue? The students continue to work on sight vocabulary. The words A, THE and SEE were added. They played "Hands Up, Hands Down" using their sight words. The students used their sight words, pictures and ending marks for sentence building with a partner. Each student had to build 2 sentences to read to their partner. The partner had to do the same. Planning, recall, and tracking were in play with this activity. The students did their first formative Blueprint Workmat independently! Again we used the formative text, "Chysanthemum." The goal was for the students to draw and write about the characters, setting, main event and why the main event is important. Quite a task! In the beginning, pictures and talking about the key concepts is happening. A few students did do some writing. As we work throughout the year on this format, more writing will occur. We will begin our next formative text, "Duck on a Bike" next week. The students brainstormed words that name people and words that show action. I read the trade book, "Jazz Baby." Before reading, the students made predictions on story content. They were able to point to the title, title page, spine and tell that the story was fiction. During the reading, the students were able to tell me about words that showed action in the story. (dance, sway, sing) After a second reading, the students used the retelling cards to retell the story. Some students volunteered to write some words about each picture. It was a group effort to sound out words and record the letters to create the sentences. Great Team Work! During our group read aloud of the paper story, "I Can," the students were spot on at naming the action pictures and words. We continue to work on tracking words in a sentence from left to right, noting that a sentence begins with an uppercase letter and has an ending mark. Finger pointing during reading is essential!!! We continued to work on foundational skills in the Haggerty Blue Book which included rhyming, letter naming, first sound and ending sound fluency, adding and deleting word parts and counting words in a sentence.
Math: The student work on calendar books is becoming more routine. Focus this week was on basic and pattern block shapes. The students went on a shape hunt around the room. We looked for circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, ovals, hexagon, trapezoids and rhombuses They used their blocks to create really cool designs and counted how many blocks it took to make the design. We will take our hunt for shapes around the school next week. We continue to work on positional words using lots of movement activities. Above, below, between, behind, in front of, next were covered, Number rhymes for 0-5 have been practiced. Workstations this week included egg carton math, sorting and classifying activities, matching number with quantity, writing numbers 0-5, playing number bingo 0-20.
Writing: The students are learning about what kinds of lines are used to make letters--straight, slant and curved. The students used these lines to form MAT MAN. We even sang a song about him. Students drew their own Mat Man. During Writer's Workshop, We read a story called "I Can Write." What do writers do? Who is a writer? Where do I find writers? We worked together to complete a three column chart. The students chose their own topics to write about this week. I suggested some sentence starters for those wanting to try writing. "I can........... I see............ The students are also working on adding more details to their pictures.
Technology: The students continue to participate by using the interactive apps that are projected on the screen. In reading, the students worked on creating a simple sentence with their sight words and pictures using the app Magnetic Letters HD. They continue to delight in setting their sight words and name on "fire" using the app Fire Finger. In math, I introduced the app Easy Match working on matching quantity to number and examining number patterns and continue work on Subitize Tree working on visual counting and number patterns. Next week, Mr. Degman will work with the students on classroom iPad etiquette.
Literature: "Curious George Goes to School," "Chysanthemum,""It's Okay to Make Mistakes," "Kindergarten Rules," "Jazz Baby," "Oh, David," "Hands Are Not For Hitting," "I Can," "At School," "We Go To School," thinking story--"You Are As Beautiful As You Are."
**We had our first BOOK BUDDY meeting on Friday!! This year our Book Buddies are Ms. Balicki's 5th grade class. Each one of our students were matched up with one and sometimes two book buddies. The buddies completed a getting to know me book. Each kindergarten student has one to take home and share. After, the kindergarten buddy chose a story that the 5th grade buddy read to them. We will be meeting every month and sharing stories, writing, projects. So fun!!
**Sign up for FAMILY MATH NIGHT! It is Thursday, October 1st from 6:00-7:30 pm. The theme this year is "There's No Place Like Math Night--A Wizard of Oz Adventure." I will be there on the yellow brick road!! Email me if you need another sign up flyer.
**Class and Individual Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 29th.t I usually try for an early morning time.
**Our Tech Advisor, Mr. Degman, will be in on Monday, September 21st to speak with students on proper and safe use of our classroom student iPads. I am also in the process of securing a time each week where Mr. Degman will be part of our math workstations with an iPad activity. Fun! Fun!
**Mr. Packer"s Problem Solving Session will begin in two weeks every Friday, from 10:30-11:00 am. Mr. Packer will use small group and whole group activities and projects to encourage thinking outside of the box. All lessons will be taught on multi levels to support and to challenge all learners.
**I will be speaking to the students about STUDENT COUNCIL representation for our class. Each classroom will have 2 reps. I will be sending home a flyer on the merits of being on Student Council. If your child is interested in being a rep, they can fill out the flyer.
**We have a GREEN TEAM! Each class will send 2 reps to the meetings that meet every other Tuesday. The Green Team plans projects, discusses ways to create a "greener" school environment and will relay information to our class. I will also send more info home next week about rep responsibilities.
**Calling all girls!!!! Be a Daisy Girl Scout!!! Quinn's mom is one of the leaders!!! Meetings are every THIRD THURSDAY from 3:00-4:15. There is a $15 registration fee. There will also be a $30 fee that will cover Daisy vest, badges and some supplies. Any questions--you can contact Quinn's mom at nicole.h.daniel@gmail.com.
**There was a flyer in your child's homework packet on Irving School's Annual Egg Drop and Academic Fair to be held on Wednesday, October 14th. I will be giving students more info about participating in this super fun event. Ms. Creehan will also be chatting with the students and showing examples of projects and vehicles. Stay tuned!
**EAGLE EXTRA CLASSES begin on Monday, September 21st. I will be getting a listing of all students participating. An Eagle Extra supervisor will pick up your child in our classroom at dismissal.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey reviewed with the students what whole body learning is and began the conversation about the ZONES of REGULATION. I have enclosed some information on this in your child's homework folder.
**Future Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 23rd from 9:00-2:00 pm. More info to follow. I will need 4-5 volunteers.
This week:
It was all about letters and numbers. The students have found letters and numbers throughout our classroom and the school. What is the difference between letters and numbers? The students began the conversation about consonants (letters that have 1-2 sounds) and vowels (letters that can have many different sounds.) The students found the consonants and vowels in their name. They then compared that number to the number of consonants and vowels in a friends name. We are counting everything in sight--crayons, markers, chairs, books, fingers, shoes. The students worked on their number formation rhymes 0-5. Station day activities included pattern block build, count and record, build a dog out of pattern blocks and hand prints!
Reading/Language Arts: The students have completed Week 3 of our prep for our Treasures Reading series called Start Smart. The students worked on reinforcing letters names A-Z and sounds A-P. They again used mirrors to observe where each sound came from--open/closed mouth?....puff of air?.....vibrations?.....where is your tongue? The students continue to work on sight vocabulary. The words A, THE and SEE were added. They played "Hands Up, Hands Down" using their sight words. The students used their sight words, pictures and ending marks for sentence building with a partner. Each student had to build 2 sentences to read to their partner. The partner had to do the same. Planning, recall, and tracking were in play with this activity. The students did their first formative Blueprint Workmat independently! Again we used the formative text, "Chysanthemum." The goal was for the students to draw and write about the characters, setting, main event and why the main event is important. Quite a task! In the beginning, pictures and talking about the key concepts is happening. A few students did do some writing. As we work throughout the year on this format, more writing will occur. We will begin our next formative text, "Duck on a Bike" next week. The students brainstormed words that name people and words that show action. I read the trade book, "Jazz Baby." Before reading, the students made predictions on story content. They were able to point to the title, title page, spine and tell that the story was fiction. During the reading, the students were able to tell me about words that showed action in the story. (dance, sway, sing) After a second reading, the students used the retelling cards to retell the story. Some students volunteered to write some words about each picture. It was a group effort to sound out words and record the letters to create the sentences. Great Team Work! During our group read aloud of the paper story, "I Can," the students were spot on at naming the action pictures and words. We continue to work on tracking words in a sentence from left to right, noting that a sentence begins with an uppercase letter and has an ending mark. Finger pointing during reading is essential!!! We continued to work on foundational skills in the Haggerty Blue Book which included rhyming, letter naming, first sound and ending sound fluency, adding and deleting word parts and counting words in a sentence.
Math: The student work on calendar books is becoming more routine. Focus this week was on basic and pattern block shapes. The students went on a shape hunt around the room. We looked for circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, ovals, hexagon, trapezoids and rhombuses They used their blocks to create really cool designs and counted how many blocks it took to make the design. We will take our hunt for shapes around the school next week. We continue to work on positional words using lots of movement activities. Above, below, between, behind, in front of, next were covered, Number rhymes for 0-5 have been practiced. Workstations this week included egg carton math, sorting and classifying activities, matching number with quantity, writing numbers 0-5, playing number bingo 0-20.
Writing: The students are learning about what kinds of lines are used to make letters--straight, slant and curved. The students used these lines to form MAT MAN. We even sang a song about him. Students drew their own Mat Man. During Writer's Workshop, We read a story called "I Can Write." What do writers do? Who is a writer? Where do I find writers? We worked together to complete a three column chart. The students chose their own topics to write about this week. I suggested some sentence starters for those wanting to try writing. "I can........... I see............ The students are also working on adding more details to their pictures.
Technology: The students continue to participate by using the interactive apps that are projected on the screen. In reading, the students worked on creating a simple sentence with their sight words and pictures using the app Magnetic Letters HD. They continue to delight in setting their sight words and name on "fire" using the app Fire Finger. In math, I introduced the app Easy Match working on matching quantity to number and examining number patterns and continue work on Subitize Tree working on visual counting and number patterns. Next week, Mr. Degman will work with the students on classroom iPad etiquette.
Literature: "Curious George Goes to School," "Chysanthemum,""It's Okay to Make Mistakes," "Kindergarten Rules," "Jazz Baby," "Oh, David," "Hands Are Not For Hitting," "I Can," "At School," "We Go To School," thinking story--"You Are As Beautiful As You Are."
Saturday, September 12, 2015
UPDATES for 9/8-9/11 2015
**The students are becoming more familiar with the daily routines and expectations of all of their teachers and classes. Lunch is going well!. At lunch, we are reinforcing eating our main entre first, drinking our beverages and recycling the school lunch trays and milk cartons. Don't forget to send a healthy snack each day. Please put that snack in your child's backpack and not the lunchbox. Our lunchboxes are going into a big lunch bin that goes down to the lunchroom each morning. Thanks!
**Thanks for seeing that your child's HOMEWORK FOLDER is in their backpack each THURSDAY. It was lovely sharing our "Getting to Know me Heads!" Games and paper practice stories can remain home is a secure place in your home for future review. A reminder to please check HOMEWORK FOLDERS every FRIDAY for homework and other updates. Check the assignments page on my website for activities and due dates.
**The Irving Back to School Party was rained out! Bummer! We all were hoping to see each other and watch the movie. Hope you will enjoy Barrie Fest this weekend.
**COME ONE COME ALL to Irving School's OPEN HOUSE/CURRICULUM NIGHT on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24th beginning at 6:30 pm. The schedule is as follows: I will have a PARENT ONLY curriculum overview from 6:30-7:00 pm in our classroom Room 110. You can drop your child of in the auditorium for a supervised special feature. I will be speaking about our daily routine, all subject areas, testing that is done in Kindergarten, Route to Reading skills specific groupings and special area classes. I will also have handouts with other information on our year. There will also be SIGN UP SHEETS for PARENT CONFERENCES, ROOM PARENTS and for other COOL EVENTS. Please pick up your child after the presentation and they will become your TOUR GUIDE as they bring you to meet the teachers who are working with them. I will give you a list with the teachers name, subject and room number as an assist. Hope to see everyone!
**Sign up for FAMILY MATH NIGHT! It is Thursday, October 1st from 6:00-7:30 pm. The theme this year is "There Is No Place Like Math Night--a Wizard of Oz Adventure." I will be there on the yellow brick road!!! Email me if you need another sign up flyer.
**We will have our first LIBRARY TIME with Ms. Noonan on Monday where the students can check out one book and keep it to read at home for 7 days until the next Library Time. After awhile, the students will be able to check out 2 books. Ms. Noonan will reading many types of fiction and non fiction books, helping with projects and showing students how the library is organized and where to find certain books. The students will be able to check out one book each week as long as they bring the previous book back. It is recommended that when not reading their book....students should keep it in their backpack to lessen the chances of it getting lost.
**The students had their first FRIENDSHIP CLUB meeting with Ms. Bell Bey, our social worker. She will be working with the class on a variety of lessons centering on around fostering positive peer relationships, feelings, conflict resolution, sharing, regulating their own behavior and other topics that may arise. She will use a variety of materials and approaches including stories, videos, role playing, acting, games and puppets to name a few. This week, Ms. Bell Bey gave an overview about being ready to learn and school manners.
**Last week, I began screening students with the DIBELS test and baseline letter and number recognition. In the coming week, I will be using a PHONIC SCREENER to asses basic phonemic awareness. All of these screeners take a small amount of time. These assessments will help in determining each students placement in our skills specific ROUTE TO READING groups. You will hear much more about this at CURRICULUM NIGHT.
**I had forgotten to mention that we had our first FIRE DRILL last week. We discussed how important it is to have a plan to get out of the school in case of a fire. The students did a great job of following directions. We will be having fire drills periodically throughout the year.
**The students continue to learn about the process of earning an EAGLE SLIP. This is in conjunction with our school wide PBIS behavior incentive. Everyone in our class has earned an Eagle Slip or more. Every Friday, Mr. Hodge will reach into the big container of slips and pull out 10 lucky winners.
**Information for DAISY SCOUTS is in your child's homework folder. It was a super fun experience for our girls last year! Think about signing your daughters up.
**Don't forget to check out the cool after school Eagle Extra classes out last week. Email me with any questions.
**Class and Individual Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 29th. More info will follow.
**Future Field Trip--Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 24th from 9:00-2:00 pm. More info to follow. I will need about 5 volunteers.
This week:
It was all about the student's continued effort to feel comfortable with our daily routines and meet all of their teachers for the year. It was about ABC's everywhere! Why do we need them? What do they look like? How do they sound? What does our mouth look like when we say them? Many sounds? One sound? Uppercase? Lowercase? What happens when we put letters together? The students experienced many activities surrounding the alphabet! Station Day activities included creating a paper doll and using their sight words "I am (their name)" to complete their project, count and color to 5, building with pattern blocks and magnatiles.
Reading/Language Arts: The students are continuing to work on their prep for our Treasures Reading series using Smart Start. The students focused on letter recognition and sounds for letters A-M. They are learning about imprinting sound and how our mouth looks when we make that sound. The students used mirrors to really see what happens when a letter sound is produced. Is their mouth opened or closed? Can they feel a vibration in their throat? Can they feel any air coming out of their mouth? Lot's to think about! It is also very fun to look in your own personal mirror. The students are learning to work with me to create word webs on suggested topics--What do we do in Kindergarten? What do hands do? How do we look? These exercises generate conversation and participation that stimulate vocabulary. The students continue listen for rhyming patterns in words. They are learning to chant the ending. Our mantra or chant is for example--"Cat, Bat they end in at."
Students have begun work on sight word recognition. Words presented this week were--YES, NO, I, AM, CAN. The students read their first paper story, "I Can." They practiced finger pointing each word and mini picture. We talked about beginning at the left and reading to the right. We had a group read aloud, locating the title and page numbers. Students then practiced reading their story with a partner. The students also worked on describing the pictures in the story using a complete sentence and finding as many details as they could. In our formative text study using the story "Chrysanthemum," the students continued finding the title, front cover, back cover and spine of the book. Once again, we discussed the job of the author and illustrator. This week we talked about who is in the story (characters) and where the story happens (setting) We used the term, event to describe something that happens in the story. The students began work on a group Blueprint Workmat identifying the characters, setting and important events. Some of the students helped me to fill in the Blueprint which was projected on the board. The students will eventually complete their own individual Blueprint Workmat on selected stories. Pretty cool! The students continued to work on foundational skills using the Haggerty Blue Book. Whole group instruction aided by our reading puppet, Mr. Happy, centered on upper and lowercase recognition, counting words in sentence, isolating beginning and ending sounds and counting word parts and beginning work on syllables. Small group workstations included letter hunt, rhyming board game, sequencing ABC's, beginning sound sequence activities and Hands Up, Hands Down using their new sight words.
Math: The students continuing working in their calendar book each day. They are working on writing the correct number for the date and year, patterning exercises, forming numbers using rhymes, learning about tally marks and ten frames and recording the weather. The students also worked on a variety of small group workstations on counting and cardinality including egg carton math, "Got It," "Listen and Count," number/object match, counting to 20, using their rhymes to write numbers 1-5 and basic shape recognition. Together they worked on a project where they wrote their name...one letter in each box. The students arranged the names on the chart according to the number of letters in their name. Who had the least letters in their name? Who had the most? Ask you child!
Our Problem of the Day this week centered on positional words. Concepts, above, below, next to and under were included. The students explored pattern blocks.
Writing: The students are working on strengthening their hands and fingers by using clay. Kneading, squishing and rolling are great ways to get our fingers and hands moving. Students are also using the giant tweezers (great tripod grasp tools) to "feed" the dog and place the beads into the cups. In Writer's Workshop this week, each student created an idea light bulb and used stickers and drawings to show what they liked or are interested in. Writers write about what they know! The topics this week were friends and family. We talked about what a sentence is----it NAMES and TELLS us about something or someone. During their journal conference, I may ask them to read to me what they wrote, record on the paper what they tell me their picture is about or assist them (I will write a word, you write a word) as they talk about their pictures. During our journal time, the students are beginning to use "inventive spelling"---it could be just the beginning sound, the beginning and ending sound to spell a word. It is what they are hearing that is important. Many times, vowels are omitted. Let them spell what they hear.
Technology: We continue to work on foundational apps that are projected for the whole group. We kept to the same ones that were introduced last week. Next week, we will begin learning about personal iPad care and operation of our classroom iPads.
Literature: "Chrysathemum," "David Goes to School," "What Would the Fat Cat Sit On?" "If You Take a Mouse to School," "Mouse Loves School," "Who Will My Teacher Be This Year?" "How do Dinosaurs go To School?" "Shades of Black," "The Mixed Up Alphabet," "This is the Teacher," "I Measure Myself." (poem)
**Thanks for seeing that your child's HOMEWORK FOLDER is in their backpack each THURSDAY. It was lovely sharing our "Getting to Know me Heads!" Games and paper practice stories can remain home is a secure place in your home for future review. A reminder to please check HOMEWORK FOLDERS every FRIDAY for homework and other updates. Check the assignments page on my website for activities and due dates.
**The Irving Back to School Party was rained out! Bummer! We all were hoping to see each other and watch the movie. Hope you will enjoy Barrie Fest this weekend.
**COME ONE COME ALL to Irving School's OPEN HOUSE/CURRICULUM NIGHT on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24th beginning at 6:30 pm. The schedule is as follows: I will have a PARENT ONLY curriculum overview from 6:30-7:00 pm in our classroom Room 110. You can drop your child of in the auditorium for a supervised special feature. I will be speaking about our daily routine, all subject areas, testing that is done in Kindergarten, Route to Reading skills specific groupings and special area classes. I will also have handouts with other information on our year. There will also be SIGN UP SHEETS for PARENT CONFERENCES, ROOM PARENTS and for other COOL EVENTS. Please pick up your child after the presentation and they will become your TOUR GUIDE as they bring you to meet the teachers who are working with them. I will give you a list with the teachers name, subject and room number as an assist. Hope to see everyone!
**Sign up for FAMILY MATH NIGHT! It is Thursday, October 1st from 6:00-7:30 pm. The theme this year is "There Is No Place Like Math Night--a Wizard of Oz Adventure." I will be there on the yellow brick road!!! Email me if you need another sign up flyer.
**We will have our first LIBRARY TIME with Ms. Noonan on Monday where the students can check out one book and keep it to read at home for 7 days until the next Library Time. After awhile, the students will be able to check out 2 books. Ms. Noonan will reading many types of fiction and non fiction books, helping with projects and showing students how the library is organized and where to find certain books. The students will be able to check out one book each week as long as they bring the previous book back. It is recommended that when not reading their book....students should keep it in their backpack to lessen the chances of it getting lost.
**The students had their first FRIENDSHIP CLUB meeting with Ms. Bell Bey, our social worker. She will be working with the class on a variety of lessons centering on around fostering positive peer relationships, feelings, conflict resolution, sharing, regulating their own behavior and other topics that may arise. She will use a variety of materials and approaches including stories, videos, role playing, acting, games and puppets to name a few. This week, Ms. Bell Bey gave an overview about being ready to learn and school manners.
**Last week, I began screening students with the DIBELS test and baseline letter and number recognition. In the coming week, I will be using a PHONIC SCREENER to asses basic phonemic awareness. All of these screeners take a small amount of time. These assessments will help in determining each students placement in our skills specific ROUTE TO READING groups. You will hear much more about this at CURRICULUM NIGHT.
**I had forgotten to mention that we had our first FIRE DRILL last week. We discussed how important it is to have a plan to get out of the school in case of a fire. The students did a great job of following directions. We will be having fire drills periodically throughout the year.
**The students continue to learn about the process of earning an EAGLE SLIP. This is in conjunction with our school wide PBIS behavior incentive. Everyone in our class has earned an Eagle Slip or more. Every Friday, Mr. Hodge will reach into the big container of slips and pull out 10 lucky winners.
**Information for DAISY SCOUTS is in your child's homework folder. It was a super fun experience for our girls last year! Think about signing your daughters up.
**Don't forget to check out the cool after school Eagle Extra classes out last week. Email me with any questions.
**Class and Individual Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 29th. More info will follow.
**Future Field Trip--Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 24th from 9:00-2:00 pm. More info to follow. I will need about 5 volunteers.
This week:
It was all about the student's continued effort to feel comfortable with our daily routines and meet all of their teachers for the year. It was about ABC's everywhere! Why do we need them? What do they look like? How do they sound? What does our mouth look like when we say them? Many sounds? One sound? Uppercase? Lowercase? What happens when we put letters together? The students experienced many activities surrounding the alphabet! Station Day activities included creating a paper doll and using their sight words "I am (their name)" to complete their project, count and color to 5, building with pattern blocks and magnatiles.
Reading/Language Arts: The students are continuing to work on their prep for our Treasures Reading series using Smart Start. The students focused on letter recognition and sounds for letters A-M. They are learning about imprinting sound and how our mouth looks when we make that sound. The students used mirrors to really see what happens when a letter sound is produced. Is their mouth opened or closed? Can they feel a vibration in their throat? Can they feel any air coming out of their mouth? Lot's to think about! It is also very fun to look in your own personal mirror. The students are learning to work with me to create word webs on suggested topics--What do we do in Kindergarten? What do hands do? How do we look? These exercises generate conversation and participation that stimulate vocabulary. The students continue listen for rhyming patterns in words. They are learning to chant the ending. Our mantra or chant is for example--"Cat, Bat they end in at."
Students have begun work on sight word recognition. Words presented this week were--YES, NO, I, AM, CAN. The students read their first paper story, "I Can." They practiced finger pointing each word and mini picture. We talked about beginning at the left and reading to the right. We had a group read aloud, locating the title and page numbers. Students then practiced reading their story with a partner. The students also worked on describing the pictures in the story using a complete sentence and finding as many details as they could. In our formative text study using the story "Chrysanthemum," the students continued finding the title, front cover, back cover and spine of the book. Once again, we discussed the job of the author and illustrator. This week we talked about who is in the story (characters) and where the story happens (setting) We used the term, event to describe something that happens in the story. The students began work on a group Blueprint Workmat identifying the characters, setting and important events. Some of the students helped me to fill in the Blueprint which was projected on the board. The students will eventually complete their own individual Blueprint Workmat on selected stories. Pretty cool! The students continued to work on foundational skills using the Haggerty Blue Book. Whole group instruction aided by our reading puppet, Mr. Happy, centered on upper and lowercase recognition, counting words in sentence, isolating beginning and ending sounds and counting word parts and beginning work on syllables. Small group workstations included letter hunt, rhyming board game, sequencing ABC's, beginning sound sequence activities and Hands Up, Hands Down using their new sight words.
Math: The students continuing working in their calendar book each day. They are working on writing the correct number for the date and year, patterning exercises, forming numbers using rhymes, learning about tally marks and ten frames and recording the weather. The students also worked on a variety of small group workstations on counting and cardinality including egg carton math, "Got It," "Listen and Count," number/object match, counting to 20, using their rhymes to write numbers 1-5 and basic shape recognition. Together they worked on a project where they wrote their name...one letter in each box. The students arranged the names on the chart according to the number of letters in their name. Who had the least letters in their name? Who had the most? Ask you child!
Our Problem of the Day this week centered on positional words. Concepts, above, below, next to and under were included. The students explored pattern blocks.
Writing: The students are working on strengthening their hands and fingers by using clay. Kneading, squishing and rolling are great ways to get our fingers and hands moving. Students are also using the giant tweezers (great tripod grasp tools) to "feed" the dog and place the beads into the cups. In Writer's Workshop this week, each student created an idea light bulb and used stickers and drawings to show what they liked or are interested in. Writers write about what they know! The topics this week were friends and family. We talked about what a sentence is----it NAMES and TELLS us about something or someone. During their journal conference, I may ask them to read to me what they wrote, record on the paper what they tell me their picture is about or assist them (I will write a word, you write a word) as they talk about their pictures. During our journal time, the students are beginning to use "inventive spelling"---it could be just the beginning sound, the beginning and ending sound to spell a word. It is what they are hearing that is important. Many times, vowels are omitted. Let them spell what they hear.
Technology: We continue to work on foundational apps that are projected for the whole group. We kept to the same ones that were introduced last week. Next week, we will begin learning about personal iPad care and operation of our classroom iPads.
Literature: "Chrysathemum," "David Goes to School," "What Would the Fat Cat Sit On?" "If You Take a Mouse to School," "Mouse Loves School," "Who Will My Teacher Be This Year?" "How do Dinosaurs go To School?" "Shades of Black," "The Mixed Up Alphabet," "This is the Teacher," "I Measure Myself." (poem)
Friday, September 4, 2015
UPDATES for 8/31-9/4 2015
**We are off to a great start! I am so glad all of you are part of our Irving School Family! I was so happy to meet all of you and your extended family and caregivers. We are going to have a great year!
**We were a bit hot and sweaty, but we survived the heat and humidity this week. The students were real troopers! Although the temperature and humidity will come down next week, you can continue to send a water bottle with your child.
**Thanks to all of you who have signed up to help at lunch. Things are going very well. The students are learning about the lunch routine and recycling milk cartons and paper trays. Please continue to reinforce--HOME LUNCH or SCHOOL LUNCH---MILK---WHAT KIND? If your child is ordering milk with their HOME LUNCH.......would you Email me? Many students were asking for milk with their home lunch. I would like to get an accurate account so you are not charged in error.
**Your child's HOMEWORK FOLDER is in their backpacks. It has their homework and many information items for parents to read. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SIGN THE iLEARN iPAD MINI PROGRAM AGREEMENT. You child needs this form signed in order to use our student iPADS. Thanks! Please CHECK the HOMEWORK FOLDERS EVERY FRIDAY. If there is work to send back, that will be due on the following Thursday. Games and stories can remain at home. Read the info under "click here for assignments" for other learning suggestions.
**Please remember to wear or send gym shoes and socks everyday. They are especially needed on gym days.
**Information on being an Irving Volunteer, Eagle Extra On Line Registration, the Irving Events Calendar, Menu and the Back to School Party and Movie Night at Barrie Park is in your child's Homework Folder.
**I am still in the process of scheduling Mr. Packer Problem Solving class and Mr. Degman Math/Technology class. Friendship Club, our character education class, under the direction of Ms. Bell Bey will begin next Friday.
**As soon as I set up student passwords, students will begin working on Lexia Core 5 in our computer lab. This program is a great companion piece to our Language Arts and Literacy Program. Students are able to work at their own pace on skills ranging from Kindergarten to Grade 3. I will also set up SPELLING CITY, BRAINPOP JR. and DREAMBOX MATH. You can access FREE activities on STARFALL and MATHNOOK from the left side of this blog under "check out these great resources." Feel free to explore.
**ROOM PARENTS WANTED!!!! I have Kate Meier and Julie Wulff signed up. We could 1 or 2 more. Email me if interested. You can plan, facilitate and organize activities in our classroom.
**OPEN HOUSE/CURRICULUM NIGHT is Thursday, September 24th from 6:30-8:30 pm. More information is forthcoming.
**Picture Day is Tuesday, September 29th. Both individual and class pictures will be taken that day. We try to set up an early morning time for our students.
**Family Math is Thursday, October 1st from 6:00-7:30 pm. The theme this year is "There's No Place Like Math Night." I'll be there! It's great fun! Sign up is in your child's homework folder.
**I have included the recipe we use for clay. Clay is a great way to get the fingers and hands moving. We have been developing our tripod grasp by "feeding" the dogs his bones and picking up small pebbles with kid tweezers. Kid chopsticks with the connector is also great for practice--all very tactile and sensory oriented.
**In the future---if your child is traveling where they are staying overnight---let me know and I will send a "Travel Journal." We are going to be tracking places where we have been and sharing our travel stories. It can be to grandma's, another town, state or country. Great geography!!!
**Future Field Trip---Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 24th from 9:00-2:00 pm. More info to come. We will need about 5 volunteers.
**NO SCHOOL--Monday, September 7th in observance of Labor Day.
This week:
It was all about routines, expectations and meeting new friends and teachers. Yes......I talked a lot!! The students met with most of their special area teachers-- Ms. Hiolski-Music, Senorita Zaragoza-Spanish, Ms. Noonan-Library, Mr. Hancock-Gym and Mr. Patterson-Art. The students are getting to know each other and fostering new friendships. The students have learned how to earn EAGLE SLIPS as part of our school wide behavior incentive. Our DAILY Mantra is--Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe EVERYWHERE and HAVE FUN!! Many students earned EAGLE SLIPS this week. Each Friday, Mr. Hodge picks 10 winners to receive a little token. We had a winner picked from our room!!! Congratulations to Aidan!!! Great start!
Reading/Language Arts: In our first week of school, the students began a 3 week prep in our Treasures Reading series call Smart Start. Our Common Core State Standards have under gone some tweaking and we will be focusing on teaching the standards thru selected texts. I will be speaking more about this at Open House/Curriculum Night. The students are using their language skills to respond to a daily warm up question. We are working on raising our hand to volunteer information. Students worked on their listening comprehension skills and making predictions and connections by listening and responding to the Big Book Story "Animals in the Park-ABC Book." The students also began work on recognizing rhyming sequences. Rhyming words have the same ending parts. Students began to generate words and rhyming patterns. They began to learn the rhyming chant---"bat, cat, they end with at." Students are working on upper and lowercase letter recognition. They learned how to play, "Hands Up, Hands Down." It is one of their homework assignments! Students also work on "tracking" words in a sentence from left to right and counting how words are in a given sentence. In our formative text, "Chrysanthemum," the students worked on finding the title, the front and back cover and the spine of the book. We discussed what an author does and what an illustrator does. The students are working on foundational skills using the Haggerty Blue Book. Whole group instruction centered around upper and lowercase letter recognition, counting words in a sentence, isolating the beginning and ending letter sounds. Workstation (small group) activities centered around sequencing ABC's, playing Hands Up, Hands Down, Go Fish for Letters and finding the rhyme.
Math: The students were introduced to the daily calendar activities, What is a ten frame? The students began placing a black dot on the ten frame for each day we are in school. When we get to 100----PARTY!!! Our Math Problem of the Day was about a different positional word each day. We are counting and counting and counting!!! We are beginning number formation and worked on numbers 1-5. The students worked in small group workstations on "egg carton math" (placing the correct number of beans in each place in the carton, spin a number--using a pencil and paper clip as a spinner and moving their marker along the board, stamping their names and counting the number of letters in their name and writing numbers 1-5. The students also explored pattern blocks, geo boards, simple plane shapes, making numbers with clay and problem solving activities using "Gears" and "Magnatiles."
Social Studies/Cross Curricular: Our theme is All About Me and My Family. This week the students shared information about their daily lives and likes and dislikes. They chatted about their family, where they live and what is important to them. They drew their self portrait and related a little fact about themselves. They chatted about their feelings and reflected about a place they could go to in their home to "chill" or "cool out" if they are angry or upset. We read the story, "Jared's Cool Out Space and began to chat about a space we could use in our classroom for a place to "chill out" if we are having a hard time with our feelings.
Writing: In our Writer's Workshop, we read the story, "It's All About You--Writing Your Own Journal." The students chatted about what a school journal is and what they can put in it. We can draw, sketch, write words or sentences or even a story. I modeled a format. They will make an entry most days. Most students were able to tell me about their pictures, Some student chose to write their own words.
Technology: We have been working together on some foundational skills apps that have been projected onto the screen for student interaction. In reading, the students enjoyed the apps Sound Sort (letter sound association,) Magnetic Letters ABC (letter recognition/spelling) and Fire Finger (letter recognition--setting their letter on fire!) In math, the student enjoyed Brainy Bugs (counting and cardinality) and Subitize Tree (visual recognition of number by finding the pattern.) Most of these apps are free or inexpensive. Feel free to load them onto your child's iPad or tablet.
Literature: "You Are Beautiful As You Are," "You're Finally Here," "Splat the Cat," "Pete the Cat Too School for School," "Ms. Bindergarten Get's Ready For Kindergarten,""Cool Dog, School Dog," "Pirates Go To School," "Time for School, Mouse," "Kindergarten Rocks," "Chrysanthemum."
**We were a bit hot and sweaty, but we survived the heat and humidity this week. The students were real troopers! Although the temperature and humidity will come down next week, you can continue to send a water bottle with your child.
**Thanks to all of you who have signed up to help at lunch. Things are going very well. The students are learning about the lunch routine and recycling milk cartons and paper trays. Please continue to reinforce--HOME LUNCH or SCHOOL LUNCH---MILK---WHAT KIND? If your child is ordering milk with their HOME LUNCH.......would you Email me? Many students were asking for milk with their home lunch. I would like to get an accurate account so you are not charged in error.
**Your child's HOMEWORK FOLDER is in their backpacks. It has their homework and many information items for parents to read. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SIGN THE iLEARN iPAD MINI PROGRAM AGREEMENT. You child needs this form signed in order to use our student iPADS. Thanks! Please CHECK the HOMEWORK FOLDERS EVERY FRIDAY. If there is work to send back, that will be due on the following Thursday. Games and stories can remain at home. Read the info under "click here for assignments" for other learning suggestions.
**Please remember to wear or send gym shoes and socks everyday. They are especially needed on gym days.
**Information on being an Irving Volunteer, Eagle Extra On Line Registration, the Irving Events Calendar, Menu and the Back to School Party and Movie Night at Barrie Park is in your child's Homework Folder.
**I am still in the process of scheduling Mr. Packer Problem Solving class and Mr. Degman Math/Technology class. Friendship Club, our character education class, under the direction of Ms. Bell Bey will begin next Friday.
**As soon as I set up student passwords, students will begin working on Lexia Core 5 in our computer lab. This program is a great companion piece to our Language Arts and Literacy Program. Students are able to work at their own pace on skills ranging from Kindergarten to Grade 3. I will also set up SPELLING CITY, BRAINPOP JR. and DREAMBOX MATH. You can access FREE activities on STARFALL and MATHNOOK from the left side of this blog under "check out these great resources." Feel free to explore.
**ROOM PARENTS WANTED!!!! I have Kate Meier and Julie Wulff signed up. We could 1 or 2 more. Email me if interested. You can plan, facilitate and organize activities in our classroom.
**OPEN HOUSE/CURRICULUM NIGHT is Thursday, September 24th from 6:30-8:30 pm. More information is forthcoming.
**Picture Day is Tuesday, September 29th. Both individual and class pictures will be taken that day. We try to set up an early morning time for our students.
**Family Math is Thursday, October 1st from 6:00-7:30 pm. The theme this year is "There's No Place Like Math Night." I'll be there! It's great fun! Sign up is in your child's homework folder.
**I have included the recipe we use for clay. Clay is a great way to get the fingers and hands moving. We have been developing our tripod grasp by "feeding" the dogs his bones and picking up small pebbles with kid tweezers. Kid chopsticks with the connector is also great for practice--all very tactile and sensory oriented.
**In the future---if your child is traveling where they are staying overnight---let me know and I will send a "Travel Journal." We are going to be tracking places where we have been and sharing our travel stories. It can be to grandma's, another town, state or country. Great geography!!!
**Future Field Trip---Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday, November 24th from 9:00-2:00 pm. More info to come. We will need about 5 volunteers.
**NO SCHOOL--Monday, September 7th in observance of Labor Day.
This week:
It was all about routines, expectations and meeting new friends and teachers. Yes......I talked a lot!! The students met with most of their special area teachers-- Ms. Hiolski-Music, Senorita Zaragoza-Spanish, Ms. Noonan-Library, Mr. Hancock-Gym and Mr. Patterson-Art. The students are getting to know each other and fostering new friendships. The students have learned how to earn EAGLE SLIPS as part of our school wide behavior incentive. Our DAILY Mantra is--Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe EVERYWHERE and HAVE FUN!! Many students earned EAGLE SLIPS this week. Each Friday, Mr. Hodge picks 10 winners to receive a little token. We had a winner picked from our room!!! Congratulations to Aidan!!! Great start!
Reading/Language Arts: In our first week of school, the students began a 3 week prep in our Treasures Reading series call Smart Start. Our Common Core State Standards have under gone some tweaking and we will be focusing on teaching the standards thru selected texts. I will be speaking more about this at Open House/Curriculum Night. The students are using their language skills to respond to a daily warm up question. We are working on raising our hand to volunteer information. Students worked on their listening comprehension skills and making predictions and connections by listening and responding to the Big Book Story "Animals in the Park-ABC Book." The students also began work on recognizing rhyming sequences. Rhyming words have the same ending parts. Students began to generate words and rhyming patterns. They began to learn the rhyming chant---"bat, cat, they end with at." Students are working on upper and lowercase letter recognition. They learned how to play, "Hands Up, Hands Down." It is one of their homework assignments! Students also work on "tracking" words in a sentence from left to right and counting how words are in a given sentence. In our formative text, "Chrysanthemum," the students worked on finding the title, the front and back cover and the spine of the book. We discussed what an author does and what an illustrator does. The students are working on foundational skills using the Haggerty Blue Book. Whole group instruction centered around upper and lowercase letter recognition, counting words in a sentence, isolating the beginning and ending letter sounds. Workstation (small group) activities centered around sequencing ABC's, playing Hands Up, Hands Down, Go Fish for Letters and finding the rhyme.
Math: The students were introduced to the daily calendar activities, What is a ten frame? The students began placing a black dot on the ten frame for each day we are in school. When we get to 100----PARTY!!! Our Math Problem of the Day was about a different positional word each day. We are counting and counting and counting!!! We are beginning number formation and worked on numbers 1-5. The students worked in small group workstations on "egg carton math" (placing the correct number of beans in each place in the carton, spin a number--using a pencil and paper clip as a spinner and moving their marker along the board, stamping their names and counting the number of letters in their name and writing numbers 1-5. The students also explored pattern blocks, geo boards, simple plane shapes, making numbers with clay and problem solving activities using "Gears" and "Magnatiles."
Social Studies/Cross Curricular: Our theme is All About Me and My Family. This week the students shared information about their daily lives and likes and dislikes. They chatted about their family, where they live and what is important to them. They drew their self portrait and related a little fact about themselves. They chatted about their feelings and reflected about a place they could go to in their home to "chill" or "cool out" if they are angry or upset. We read the story, "Jared's Cool Out Space and began to chat about a space we could use in our classroom for a place to "chill out" if we are having a hard time with our feelings.
Writing: In our Writer's Workshop, we read the story, "It's All About You--Writing Your Own Journal." The students chatted about what a school journal is and what they can put in it. We can draw, sketch, write words or sentences or even a story. I modeled a format. They will make an entry most days. Most students were able to tell me about their pictures, Some student chose to write their own words.
Technology: We have been working together on some foundational skills apps that have been projected onto the screen for student interaction. In reading, the students enjoyed the apps Sound Sort (letter sound association,) Magnetic Letters ABC (letter recognition/spelling) and Fire Finger (letter recognition--setting their letter on fire!) In math, the student enjoyed Brainy Bugs (counting and cardinality) and Subitize Tree (visual recognition of number by finding the pattern.) Most of these apps are free or inexpensive. Feel free to load them onto your child's iPad or tablet.
Literature: "You Are Beautiful As You Are," "You're Finally Here," "Splat the Cat," "Pete the Cat Too School for School," "Ms. Bindergarten Get's Ready For Kindergarten,""Cool Dog, School Dog," "Pirates Go To School," "Time for School, Mouse," "Kindergarten Rocks," "Chrysanthemum."
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