**Happy New Year and welcome back! The students appeared well rested and excited to be back to our routine. A word about CHAPSTICK! It is very dry in our classroom. The students may bring chapstick or lip balm to school and keep it in their backpacks. Also, water bottles can be brought in daily. Don't forget gym shoes on gym days (Mondays and Wednesdays) if your child is wearing boots.
**Eagle Extra and World Language Classes begin next week. I will be getting a list of participants from our class. Feel free to drop me an email if your child is part of these classes.
**Mid Year DIBELS and AIMSWEB Math assessments will begin on Tuesday along with Darrell Morris Sound Foundation assessments. I will be sharing all of these with you along with Common Core Blueprint assessments at our Mid Year Parent Conference in February.
**You will receive notification about Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences this coming Friday. They will be held on Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Please note that on Thursday and Friday, February 16th and 17th. School will be in session in the MORNING ONLY. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds, ABC Toon Town and RFCC will also pick up at 11:00 am.
**Reading Grandma Mary will begin her 10th year of volunteering on Tuesday afternoon.
**Art Start Artist, Jonathan Franklin began working with the class this past Thursday. His first lesson was about: What is a fractal and how to use fractals in the arts. Great lesson! Check out our Gallery Wall to the right!!
**I will also be sending home info for students wishing to be a Student Council rep on Friday.
**Our 100th Day of School Celebration is Monday, February 6th from 9-11 am. Looking at my classroom sign up sheet, I have B. Zort and M. Ahring signed up so far. Please let me know if this has changed. I would love to have at least 6 more volunteers to help with all the activities. Please email me if you can help. The students will also be working on a special 100 item project. This will be sent home on January 25th.
**The students will see a special presentation on Dental Hygiene on Thursday, January 19th at 8:30.
**Vision Screening for Kindergarten will be held on Friday, January 20th in the morning.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, January 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! It is Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm. Stay tuned for more info.
**Start saving those GIANT BOXES (ones you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our engineering project in APRIL. I cannot store anything now. Please keep at home until after spring break.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey began a unit on self regulation introducing the super hero, Superflex who helps a citizen be a flexible thinker which allows the person to control his or her brain and change how he or she thinks. He helps a citizen think about how to act and behave to keep others and themselves feeling good and be a good problem solver.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, students finished up their project on thinking in shapes and using shapes in relation to surface area.
**In Art Start this week, Mr. Franklin introduced himself and outlined the lessons to be covered in his artist in residency stay. He posed the statement--Artists are always asking questions and always thinking! He started this weeks activity by drawing a Y on the board asking the students what they thought it looked like. From there he spoke to them about repeating patterns in nature and in math. Students then took their paper, drew a Y and kept on repeating y's and keeping it connected to the first Y. The students thought--"That's looking like a tree with big branches and small branches. " So cool! He explained what a fractal was which was what they were creating. The students continued creating and adding details to their drawings. Stop in and view the Gullo Gallery on the wall in the hallway.
This week:
The students ere definitely getting back into the swing of things with all things related to learning. They shared their winter break stories of travel, presents and family fun. The students worked on a mini unit on the life and accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr. The text, "Martin's Big Words" was used for our first Blueprint of the year on the use of illustrations to help us understand a story. The students watched a video of Martin Luther Kings life. They were very thankful for Dr. King's work to use nonviolence to promote change. We selected other texts to examine quotes, speeches and word choices. Thanks to Judea for bringing in the text, "Martin Luther King is a Hero." Station day activities included build and count pattern block ice cream cones, creating a snowman windsock, color by code and count the shapes on the snowflake, measure it using cube sticks and further experimentation with fractal designs.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work on Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading series. The discussions focused on the steps in growing food, what is your favorite food and why and steps in following a recipe. The students accessed prior knowledge about a meal they helped to prepare. They shared information about special foods they ate during the holidays. The students read their predecodable story, "Can Nan?" They made predictions about story content. They elbow chatted with a partner about the characters, setting and main idea. They also read to their partner to practice their fluency. Students reviewed sound blending 3-4 sound words using their elkonin boxes. They also reviewed 2 and 3 part consonant blends and short vowel sounds. Students used their white boards to work on substituting sounds to create new words some of which were nonsense words. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency and reading for meaning, real and nonsense word read and sort, writing about how to make a fruit salad, roll and read a word family list, creating a food web, adding and deleting sounds to create words and walking their words.
Math: The students continue to work in Module 3. They continue to experiment with nonstandard measuring using cube sticks, using the balance scales to measure weight and working with different containers to measure capacity or how much a container holds. Lessons this week focused on making informal comparison of area and comparing to find if there are enough. Students continue to work on finding hidden partners or number bonds using numbers 0-10. Students also listened to a story problem and determined if they had to add or take away to arrive at an answer. Workstations this week included writing 2 digit numbers, determining how many 10 frames and how many ones were needed to create a number, working with teen numbers, adding numbers to 10 and continued exploration of nonstandard measurement using cube sticks, balance scales/weight and containers/capacity.
Writing: The students continued work on lowercase letter formation. Letters o, c, s, v, w were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards with chalk and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. In Writer's Workshop, the students looked through their true stories and choose one to put a cover on for publishing. The students began a new unit on the writing of "how to"or procedural stories. The students will choose a topic and "teach" others to do it. The writing involves a series of sequencing steps from beginning to end. We took a look at some "how to" texts and students chatted with their writing partner about a topic they could teach others to do. Very exciting! Stay tuned.
Science: The students are gearing up to begin their next unit of study called "Materials and Motion." We will begin our first investigation next week.
Technology: In reading small groups, the apps Rocket Speller and Spelling Bug were used to work on letter sequencing in a word. The students also used Oz Phonics to work on consonant blends and digraphs in words as well as short vowel sounds. In math small group, students used the apps Subitize Tree and Butterfly Math to work on number visualization and vertical and horizontally presented addition facts to 10. Partners used BrainPop Jr to view a video on Winter and take the quiz.
Literature: "Martin's Big Words," "Martin Luther King is a Hero," "A Picture Book of Martin Luther King," "Dream." "Martin's Dream," "It's Winter," How To Books--"My First Soccer Game," "Food for a Day," "Let's Make Pancakes," "The Sand Castle."
Monday, January 16, 2017
Friday, January 6, 2017
UPDATES for 12/19-12/23 2016
**Our Winter Concert was fabulous! Our get together afterwards gave the students a chance to chill, be with their families and enjoy some treats! The students were delighted to see parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and sibs at their concert! A SHOUT OUT to Julianna's family for sending all the cool crafts!
**Our End of the Year Book Buddy get together was awesome! The students shared treats and worked on a cool movie trailer featuring themselves using iMovie. I will eventually share them with you. I am still looking at them myself.
**Naomi D. and her mom did a presentation about Kwanzaa. Thanks so much!
**Stop in and see our COMPLIMEN-TREE. The students worked on writing a compliment to another student in the class. It was heart felt! We love and respect each other.
**Classes resume on Monday, January 9th. Please come dressed for the weather. Mr. Hodge makes the decision on going out each day.......so we want all students to be prepared!!
**Reading Grandma Mary will be returning for her 10th year of hearing our budding readers. She will join us on Tuesday afternoons and will work one on one with each student on fluency and comprehension.
**Our wonderful grandma, Ms. D. will be also be returning on Tuesday mornings to volunteer at literacy workstations.
**Ms. Gullo's Kindergarten class will take part in a special program called ART START funded through the Oak Park Art Foundation beginning on Thursday, January 12th and running for 5 consecutive Thursdays for one hour. We are so pleased to be working with local artist and illustrator, JONATHAN FRANKLIN. He lives in Oak Park and his children all went to Irving School. I was lucky enough to have 3 of his 4 children in my kindergarten! The focus of our sessions will be related to Modules 2 and 3 in our Eureka Math program. Jonathan will be working with the students on projects that use vertical and horizontal lines, shapes, negative space and concepts of taller/shorter, more than/less than, enough/not enough and length and height. I will be sending you an update each week. It is a great opportunity for creativity and expression as well as continued work on our core standards in math.
**Our Secret Snowflakes were the students for Ms. Sakamoto's class. The class enjoyed their little clues and goodies each day.
**Student Council will be looking for 2 NEW Reps for this trimester. I will be sending out info on this when we get back from break.
**Mid Year DIDELS screening for phonemic awareness and Mid Year screening for AIMSWEB math will begin the week of January 19th.
**Vision Screening for Kindergarten will be held on Friday, January 20th in the morning.
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 16th--ML King Day.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, January 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**The 100th Day of School is FEBRUARY 6th. I need lots of parent help for the activities and festivities. Stay tuned.
**Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Thursday and Friday (February 16th and 17th) dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There is no afternoon session.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING!!! It's Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm. Stay tuned.
**Start saving those GIANT BOXES (the kind you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our space station engineering project that will be done in APRIL. I cannot keep anything in the room now. Please keep it at home until after spring break.
**We will begin our next cross/curricular theme-WINTER when we get back from break.
Coming Up in 2017--In reading/language arts/literacy--we will continue to focus on sound foundation, sound blending, deleting/adding/segmenting sounds in 3,4,5 sound words and even 6 sound words, long and short vowel sounds, some beginning phonics with silent e and vowel teams. We will continue to work on our Blueprint Workmats in the areas of written comprehension, sequencing events in a story, gathering supporting details in a text, stating an opinion with supporting reasons, naming the main topic and using text features like photos/illustrations to help understand the author's message. Our BUSY READER CLUB will continue and the students begin to read for meaning in a story. In writing--The students will continue work on lowercase letter formation, sentence structure, inventive spelling, grammar and punctuation and expanding sentence length. In Writer's Workshop the students will work on writing how to books to teach others. In math--the students will continue work on rote to 100 by 1's, 10's, 5's and 2's, writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, work on teen numbers, demonstrating knowledge of numbers greater and less than, representing addition and subtraction with objects and mental images, using number sentences, solving story problems using drawings and numbers work, finding hidden partners (number bonding) to 10, fluent addition and subtraction to 5, comparing length, weight and capacity and comparing 2 objects with a measurable attribute. In science--the students will begin their next module-Materials and Motion. They will working on investigations dealing with the study of natural resources and the properties of-wood, paper and fabric and the effects of pushes and pulls. Socially--the students will continue work on becoming more responsible and independent learners and thinkers, continue work on showing empathy, kindness and respect toward their peers and teachers and take a more active role in shaping their own behavior. In technology--the students will continue to use the iPad and internet resources to enhance areas of the curriculum. WOW! We will be very busy!
**Our End of the Year Book Buddy get together was awesome! The students shared treats and worked on a cool movie trailer featuring themselves using iMovie. I will eventually share them with you. I am still looking at them myself.
**Naomi D. and her mom did a presentation about Kwanzaa. Thanks so much!
**Stop in and see our COMPLIMEN-TREE. The students worked on writing a compliment to another student in the class. It was heart felt! We love and respect each other.
**Classes resume on Monday, January 9th. Please come dressed for the weather. Mr. Hodge makes the decision on going out each day.......so we want all students to be prepared!!
**Reading Grandma Mary will be returning for her 10th year of hearing our budding readers. She will join us on Tuesday afternoons and will work one on one with each student on fluency and comprehension.
**Our wonderful grandma, Ms. D. will be also be returning on Tuesday mornings to volunteer at literacy workstations.
**Ms. Gullo's Kindergarten class will take part in a special program called ART START funded through the Oak Park Art Foundation beginning on Thursday, January 12th and running for 5 consecutive Thursdays for one hour. We are so pleased to be working with local artist and illustrator, JONATHAN FRANKLIN. He lives in Oak Park and his children all went to Irving School. I was lucky enough to have 3 of his 4 children in my kindergarten! The focus of our sessions will be related to Modules 2 and 3 in our Eureka Math program. Jonathan will be working with the students on projects that use vertical and horizontal lines, shapes, negative space and concepts of taller/shorter, more than/less than, enough/not enough and length and height. I will be sending you an update each week. It is a great opportunity for creativity and expression as well as continued work on our core standards in math.
**Our Secret Snowflakes were the students for Ms. Sakamoto's class. The class enjoyed their little clues and goodies each day.
**Student Council will be looking for 2 NEW Reps for this trimester. I will be sending out info on this when we get back from break.
**Mid Year DIDELS screening for phonemic awareness and Mid Year screening for AIMSWEB math will begin the week of January 19th.
**Vision Screening for Kindergarten will be held on Friday, January 20th in the morning.
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 16th--ML King Day.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, January 27th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**The 100th Day of School is FEBRUARY 6th. I need lots of parent help for the activities and festivities. Stay tuned.
**Mid Year Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held Monday, February 13th, Tuesday, February 14th and Wednesday, February 15th. Thursday and Friday (February 16th and 17th) dismissal will be at 11:00 am. There is no afternoon session.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING!!! It's Saturday, February 25th from 11-3 pm. Stay tuned.
**Start saving those GIANT BOXES (the kind you can climb in) and other cool stuff for our space station engineering project that will be done in APRIL. I cannot keep anything in the room now. Please keep it at home until after spring break.
**We will begin our next cross/curricular theme-WINTER when we get back from break.
Coming Up in 2017--In reading/language arts/literacy--we will continue to focus on sound foundation, sound blending, deleting/adding/segmenting sounds in 3,4,5 sound words and even 6 sound words, long and short vowel sounds, some beginning phonics with silent e and vowel teams. We will continue to work on our Blueprint Workmats in the areas of written comprehension, sequencing events in a story, gathering supporting details in a text, stating an opinion with supporting reasons, naming the main topic and using text features like photos/illustrations to help understand the author's message. Our BUSY READER CLUB will continue and the students begin to read for meaning in a story. In writing--The students will continue work on lowercase letter formation, sentence structure, inventive spelling, grammar and punctuation and expanding sentence length. In Writer's Workshop the students will work on writing how to books to teach others. In math--the students will continue work on rote to 100 by 1's, 10's, 5's and 2's, writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, work on teen numbers, demonstrating knowledge of numbers greater and less than, representing addition and subtraction with objects and mental images, using number sentences, solving story problems using drawings and numbers work, finding hidden partners (number bonding) to 10, fluent addition and subtraction to 5, comparing length, weight and capacity and comparing 2 objects with a measurable attribute. In science--the students will begin their next module-Materials and Motion. They will working on investigations dealing with the study of natural resources and the properties of-wood, paper and fabric and the effects of pushes and pulls. Socially--the students will continue work on becoming more responsible and independent learners and thinkers, continue work on showing empathy, kindness and respect toward their peers and teachers and take a more active role in shaping their own behavior. In technology--the students will continue to use the iPad and internet resources to enhance areas of the curriculum. WOW! We will be very busy!
Monday, December 19, 2016
UPDATES for 12/12-12/16 2016
**The students have been pretty prepared for the weather. Please keep sending snow pants and boots. When we are in for the cold temperatures, the students will rotate from seeing a story in the auditorium, going up to the gym or to the library for games.
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/First Grade Winter Concert on Wednesday, December 21st in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances due to the size of our auditorium--the first being at 8:15 and the second at 9:30. There will be a reception after both performances---Please join us for refreshments and conversation. Julianna's mom will be sending some crafts for the students to do in between performances. Thanks much!
**Our Book Buddies will be with us on Friday afternoon. They are going to do an iMovie getting to know you movie trailer. We will also ring in the New Year with them.
**Bear research projects are due Friday, December 22nd.
**Let me know if your child is traveling for the winter break. I will send a travel journal with them.
**Student Council reps, Julianna and Alec will have their final meeting for their term on Tuesday. Their last project is helping to sponsor the Secret Snowflake week which begins next week. Our class was matched up with another class....shhhhhh! It's a secret! The student have planned some cute things to do for them! In January, Student Council will be looking for 2 new reps. Thanks Julianna and Alec for all of your great ideas and service.
**School is closed for Winter Break--December 24th-January 8th. Classes resume on Monday, January 9th.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the students discussed what to do if something happens by accident---how to let the person know? How would you check to see if they are okay?
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey worked with the students on asking questions in order to seek answers around a certain subject.
** In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer continued work on listening and using shapes to describe a sentence.
This week:
The students worked on rehearsing for the Winter Concert. They got their positions on the stage and part for each song. They are working hard and they sound great! The students continued their study of winter holidays. They are beginning to see the unifying theme of the use of lights in these celebrations. Candles, strands of lights, light of the North Star, lantern lights. Jeanette and Lilly's mom spoke to the students about Hanukkah. She brought lots of menorahs and dreidels and read a cool story to the class. Each student got gelt and a dreidel. Next week, Naomi D."s mom will speak about Kwanzaa. The students continue to listen to and compare and contrast Gingerbread stories. They examined the characters, setting and main events in the stories. How did it end? (eaten...not eaten) Who were the characters? (boy, girl, baby, man, cowboy, wolf, fox, coyote) What happened in the stories? They had loads of fun elbow chatting about and sharing their observations. We did a group Venn diagram comparing Gingerbread Man and Gingerbread Girl stories. In writing, they designed their own gingerbread figure and then wrote a description about their creation.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series and began Unit 4 Food. The unit began with a question about where food comes from. The students accessed prior knowledge about stores, farms, markets, gardens and orchards as places where food is found. Some students offered that they had gardens in their backyard in the summer. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Apple Farmer Annie." They discussed where Annie lives and her daily activities as an apple farmer. Students made connections from their fall theme about apples, types of apples and what you can make with apples. Other students talked about a time when they went to a farmers market and bought apples and apple cider. Our target words are to and have. Our target letter and sound is Nn. The students reviewed the function of nouns and action words or verbs. They are also chatting about 2 consonants at the beginning or end or even in the middle of a word known as a consonant blend because you hear both sounds. The students used their elkonin boxes to blend and segment 4 sound words using consonant blends and 3 sound words using consonant digraphs or words that have 2 consonants together that make only 1 sound. They also worked with white board and markers adding, deleting and substituting sounds in words. Our Robust Vocabulary for this included FARMER, MARKET, INGREDIENTS, COMBINE, NUTRITIOUS. They continue to practice their reading fluency during our group read aloud time. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency, story elements and sequencing events, word family activity, word work with substitution and reading CVC, CCVC and CVCC words.
Math: The students completed Module 2-The Study of Shapes and took their end of unit module assessment. They began Unit 3-Comparing Length, Capacity and Numbers to 10. The students began by exploring length--longer/shorter using a variety of nonstandard measures including cubes, string, bears. Students also continued work on vocabulary pertinent to the unit--long/short, enough/not enough, longer than/shorter than and the same as. Workstations included 2 digit number writing, counting quantities to 20, measuring objects using nonstandard measuring tools and finding the hidden partners using numbers 1-10.
Writing: The students continued practicing their uppercase letter formation. We quickly reviewed all uppercase letter forms. The students have been encouraged to practice writing both their first and last name. They each created a gingerbread person complete with as many details as they wanted. Then they wrote about their gingerbread person describing what they look like and what they can do. During Writer's Workshop this week, students continued work on revising old stories and writing new ones. The teaching point focused on writing partners listing to a story written by their partner and using the Writer's Checklist to listen for certain things as your partner reads their story. Listen for--I told, drew and wrote a story. I had a page that showed what happened first. My story told who was there, what they did and how the characters felt
Science: This week, the students took a look at the final topic--Weather. (How timely!) We used our calendar book where the students have been tracking the weather for the month of December. The students compared temperature, precipitation and the amount of sun, snow, clouds.
Technology: No New apps introduced this week.
Literature: "The Book of Celebrations" (highlighting Advent and Christmas), "Countdown to Hanukkah," "The Gingerbread Cowboy, " "Ninjabread Boy," "The Gingerbread Girl," "The Gingerbread Baby," "Gingerbread Friends."
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/First Grade Winter Concert on Wednesday, December 21st in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances due to the size of our auditorium--the first being at 8:15 and the second at 9:30. There will be a reception after both performances---Please join us for refreshments and conversation. Julianna's mom will be sending some crafts for the students to do in between performances. Thanks much!
**Our Book Buddies will be with us on Friday afternoon. They are going to do an iMovie getting to know you movie trailer. We will also ring in the New Year with them.
**Bear research projects are due Friday, December 22nd.
**Let me know if your child is traveling for the winter break. I will send a travel journal with them.
**Student Council reps, Julianna and Alec will have their final meeting for their term on Tuesday. Their last project is helping to sponsor the Secret Snowflake week which begins next week. Our class was matched up with another class....shhhhhh! It's a secret! The student have planned some cute things to do for them! In January, Student Council will be looking for 2 new reps. Thanks Julianna and Alec for all of your great ideas and service.
**School is closed for Winter Break--December 24th-January 8th. Classes resume on Monday, January 9th.
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the students discussed what to do if something happens by accident---how to let the person know? How would you check to see if they are okay?
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey worked with the students on asking questions in order to seek answers around a certain subject.
** In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, Mr. Packer continued work on listening and using shapes to describe a sentence.
This week:
The students worked on rehearsing for the Winter Concert. They got their positions on the stage and part for each song. They are working hard and they sound great! The students continued their study of winter holidays. They are beginning to see the unifying theme of the use of lights in these celebrations. Candles, strands of lights, light of the North Star, lantern lights. Jeanette and Lilly's mom spoke to the students about Hanukkah. She brought lots of menorahs and dreidels and read a cool story to the class. Each student got gelt and a dreidel. Next week, Naomi D."s mom will speak about Kwanzaa. The students continue to listen to and compare and contrast Gingerbread stories. They examined the characters, setting and main events in the stories. How did it end? (eaten...not eaten) Who were the characters? (boy, girl, baby, man, cowboy, wolf, fox, coyote) What happened in the stories? They had loads of fun elbow chatting about and sharing their observations. We did a group Venn diagram comparing Gingerbread Man and Gingerbread Girl stories. In writing, they designed their own gingerbread figure and then wrote a description about their creation.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series and began Unit 4 Food. The unit began with a question about where food comes from. The students accessed prior knowledge about stores, farms, markets, gardens and orchards as places where food is found. Some students offered that they had gardens in their backyard in the summer. The students listened to the Big Book story, "Apple Farmer Annie." They discussed where Annie lives and her daily activities as an apple farmer. Students made connections from their fall theme about apples, types of apples and what you can make with apples. Other students talked about a time when they went to a farmers market and bought apples and apple cider. Our target words are to and have. Our target letter and sound is Nn. The students reviewed the function of nouns and action words or verbs. They are also chatting about 2 consonants at the beginning or end or even in the middle of a word known as a consonant blend because you hear both sounds. The students used their elkonin boxes to blend and segment 4 sound words using consonant blends and 3 sound words using consonant digraphs or words that have 2 consonants together that make only 1 sound. They also worked with white board and markers adding, deleting and substituting sounds in words. Our Robust Vocabulary for this included FARMER, MARKET, INGREDIENTS, COMBINE, NUTRITIOUS. They continue to practice their reading fluency during our group read aloud time. Workstations this week included leveled readers with focus on fluency, story elements and sequencing events, word family activity, word work with substitution and reading CVC, CCVC and CVCC words.
Math: The students completed Module 2-The Study of Shapes and took their end of unit module assessment. They began Unit 3-Comparing Length, Capacity and Numbers to 10. The students began by exploring length--longer/shorter using a variety of nonstandard measures including cubes, string, bears. Students also continued work on vocabulary pertinent to the unit--long/short, enough/not enough, longer than/shorter than and the same as. Workstations included 2 digit number writing, counting quantities to 20, measuring objects using nonstandard measuring tools and finding the hidden partners using numbers 1-10.
Writing: The students continued practicing their uppercase letter formation. We quickly reviewed all uppercase letter forms. The students have been encouraged to practice writing both their first and last name. They each created a gingerbread person complete with as many details as they wanted. Then they wrote about their gingerbread person describing what they look like and what they can do. During Writer's Workshop this week, students continued work on revising old stories and writing new ones. The teaching point focused on writing partners listing to a story written by their partner and using the Writer's Checklist to listen for certain things as your partner reads their story. Listen for--I told, drew and wrote a story. I had a page that showed what happened first. My story told who was there, what they did and how the characters felt
Science: This week, the students took a look at the final topic--Weather. (How timely!) We used our calendar book where the students have been tracking the weather for the month of December. The students compared temperature, precipitation and the amount of sun, snow, clouds.
Technology: No New apps introduced this week.
Literature: "The Book of Celebrations" (highlighting Advent and Christmas), "Countdown to Hanukkah," "The Gingerbread Cowboy, " "Ninjabread Boy," "The Gingerbread Girl," "The Gingerbread Baby," "Gingerbread Friends."
Sunday, December 11, 2016
UPDATES for 12/5-12/9 2016
**Our Annual Gingerbread Making, Baking and Sharing was a smash! We could not have done it with out the last minute effort by Lily and Jeanette's mom to secure volunteers! A HUGE SHOUT OUT to her! Thanks to J. Flannery, C. Horwitz and Jackson's aunt for their super needed help! The students were charged with enthusiasm and creativity. Some students spent lots of time on details. Others, the more sprinkles....the better. Such works of art. We bagged some of our own and shared some with our table friends. Yum! Yum!
**If you have a family tradition or celebration you would like to speak about--email me to set up a day and time. We have speakers for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/First Grade Winter Concert on Wednesday, December 21st in the Irving Auditorium. Because of the size of our auditorium, there will be 2 performances--the first being at 8:15 am---the second at 9:30 am. There will be a reception in our classroom after each performance. Stop by our classroom for refreshments and conversation.
**Report Cards for the Trimester One are in your child's homework folder. Please email me with any questions you may have. The students portfolios from Mr. Packer's class are also included.
**Check your child's homework folder for their RESEARCH ASSESSMENT. Each student came up with a question they want to find out more about. They worked on special vocabulary. (It is also at the back of the assignment.) Parents can assist with source info and evidence finding but the STUDENTS will write and illustrate. Parents an assist with helping to sound out words too! The project is due December 22nd.
**The Cookie Crumble and Craft Fair was great! There were many items made and sold by students and lots of great buys!
**Please let me know if your child is traveling during winter break. I will prepare a travel journal for your child to write and draw about their experiences.
**We will be getting together with our Book Buddies on Friday, December 23rd. The 5th graders have planned a project with our kinders! They will be making a getting to know you movie trailer. Stay tuned. We will also be celebrating the beginning of 2017.
**Our Student Council reps, Alec and Julianna reported on their next project--Secret Snowflakes! Each class will get a class to do some special things for during our last week of school before break. Stay tuned!!
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the students continued to focus on feelings.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bey Bey conducted a voting session to see what the students wanted to do for their last Friday class before break. Outside recess won!!!
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, the students continued work on using shapes in different ways.
**No School-Winter Break-December 24th-January 8th. School resumes on Monday, January 9th.
This week:
The students ended their study of bears by forming their question for their research project and making and baking Bear Paw Snacks with home made butter. What a treat! The students discussed all things gingerbread. We will be reading a number of gingerbread stories in the next two weeks and examining/comparing/contrasting the characters, setting and main events in the stories. There will be a writing project connected to our gingerbread study. The students also shared a family tradition at holiday time with each other. I recorded their words. Our celebration table is now set up with many artifacts and information on the winter celebrations around the world.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue work on Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students built background knowledge about the different ways wheels are used to move people and things around. We revisited the test,"Duck on a Bike" and the companion book, "Duck on a Tractor." Students identified characters, setting and main events in both stories. They took a closer look at story organization--beginning, middle and end. The students reviewed target sound of short Ii and used their elkonin boxes to blend and segment 3-4 sound words. The students worked with partners to create noun/verb sentences using words and pictures. Now that the students are reading simple texts, they are working on how they read. Is it choppy or smooth?? The students were introduced to the Reader's Checklist so they can begin to monitor their own reading fluency. Robust Vocabulary for this week included ADVENTURE, WHEELS, ATTACH, HAUL, MASSIVE. The students continue word work on CVC, consonant blends and digraphs in words and short vowel words. Workstations this week included work on leveled readers on fluency and main ideas, working on a story elements butterfly, creating retelling cards, word work on substituting sounds, CVC beginning and ending sheet, sentence building, using go and see in a sentence with an illustration and writing a sentence about the vehicle of your choice.
Math: The students continue work on Module 2-The Study of Shapes in our Eureka Math series. They classified and compared 2D and 3D shapes and explored creating 2D and 3D shapes using magnetos, straws and pipe cleaners, blocks, string and connexts. The students created a "Shape Museum" to display some of their structures. We continue work in our calendar books including--counting by 10's, hidden partners to 10, counting on from a target number, number writing, work on weather, temperature and comparing numbers. Math workstations this week included reckenrek activities (composing and decomposing numbers) skip counting, addition and subtraction processes and writing 2 digit numbers.
Writing: The students completed work on uppercase letter formation. They practice on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. We will begin lowercase formation study next week. In Writer's Workshop this week, the lessons focused on how to make a story better. They can revise their story adding more details--using their question words--adding more to their drawings etc. Each students chose a story they had worked on and looked at it again. We worked on the idea of using scrolls or flaps to add more. The students chatted with their writing partner about their revision ideas. We also had a discussion about the job of a writing partner--making suggestions, helping with sounding out but not writing or spelling it for their partner. Being a writing partner can make both student and their partner better writers.
Science: We have put our last investigation on hold until next week.
Technology: In reading whole group this week, the students worked on the app Oz Phonics to reinforce word order, blends and digraphs and blending and segmenting 3-4 wounds words. In math whole group, students worked on the app Geoboard to work on shape construction.
Literature: "The Book of Celebrations," "The Gingerbread Boy," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School," "The Gingerbread Man," "Time to Sleep," "Hibernation Station," "Zero Is the Number of Leaves on the Tree."
**If you have a family tradition or celebration you would like to speak about--email me to set up a day and time. We have speakers for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
**Come One, Come All to the Kindergarten/First Grade Winter Concert on Wednesday, December 21st in the Irving Auditorium. Because of the size of our auditorium, there will be 2 performances--the first being at 8:15 am---the second at 9:30 am. There will be a reception in our classroom after each performance. Stop by our classroom for refreshments and conversation.
**Report Cards for the Trimester One are in your child's homework folder. Please email me with any questions you may have. The students portfolios from Mr. Packer's class are also included.
**Check your child's homework folder for their RESEARCH ASSESSMENT. Each student came up with a question they want to find out more about. They worked on special vocabulary. (It is also at the back of the assignment.) Parents can assist with source info and evidence finding but the STUDENTS will write and illustrate. Parents an assist with helping to sound out words too! The project is due December 22nd.
**The Cookie Crumble and Craft Fair was great! There were many items made and sold by students and lots of great buys!
**Please let me know if your child is traveling during winter break. I will prepare a travel journal for your child to write and draw about their experiences.
**We will be getting together with our Book Buddies on Friday, December 23rd. The 5th graders have planned a project with our kinders! They will be making a getting to know you movie trailer. Stay tuned. We will also be celebrating the beginning of 2017.
**Our Student Council reps, Alec and Julianna reported on their next project--Secret Snowflakes! Each class will get a class to do some special things for during our last week of school before break. Stay tuned!!
**In our Second Step lesson this week, the students continued to focus on feelings.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bey Bey conducted a voting session to see what the students wanted to do for their last Friday class before break. Outside recess won!!!
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, the students continued work on using shapes in different ways.
**No School-Winter Break-December 24th-January 8th. School resumes on Monday, January 9th.
This week:
The students ended their study of bears by forming their question for their research project and making and baking Bear Paw Snacks with home made butter. What a treat! The students discussed all things gingerbread. We will be reading a number of gingerbread stories in the next two weeks and examining/comparing/contrasting the characters, setting and main events in the stories. There will be a writing project connected to our gingerbread study. The students also shared a family tradition at holiday time with each other. I recorded their words. Our celebration table is now set up with many artifacts and information on the winter celebrations around the world.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue work on Unit 3 Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students built background knowledge about the different ways wheels are used to move people and things around. We revisited the test,"Duck on a Bike" and the companion book, "Duck on a Tractor." Students identified characters, setting and main events in both stories. They took a closer look at story organization--beginning, middle and end. The students reviewed target sound of short Ii and used their elkonin boxes to blend and segment 3-4 sound words. The students worked with partners to create noun/verb sentences using words and pictures. Now that the students are reading simple texts, they are working on how they read. Is it choppy or smooth?? The students were introduced to the Reader's Checklist so they can begin to monitor their own reading fluency. Robust Vocabulary for this week included ADVENTURE, WHEELS, ATTACH, HAUL, MASSIVE. The students continue word work on CVC, consonant blends and digraphs in words and short vowel words. Workstations this week included work on leveled readers on fluency and main ideas, working on a story elements butterfly, creating retelling cards, word work on substituting sounds, CVC beginning and ending sheet, sentence building, using go and see in a sentence with an illustration and writing a sentence about the vehicle of your choice.
Math: The students continue work on Module 2-The Study of Shapes in our Eureka Math series. They classified and compared 2D and 3D shapes and explored creating 2D and 3D shapes using magnetos, straws and pipe cleaners, blocks, string and connexts. The students created a "Shape Museum" to display some of their structures. We continue work in our calendar books including--counting by 10's, hidden partners to 10, counting on from a target number, number writing, work on weather, temperature and comparing numbers. Math workstations this week included reckenrek activities (composing and decomposing numbers) skip counting, addition and subtraction processes and writing 2 digit numbers.
Writing: The students completed work on uppercase letter formation. They practice on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. We will begin lowercase formation study next week. In Writer's Workshop this week, the lessons focused on how to make a story better. They can revise their story adding more details--using their question words--adding more to their drawings etc. Each students chose a story they had worked on and looked at it again. We worked on the idea of using scrolls or flaps to add more. The students chatted with their writing partner about their revision ideas. We also had a discussion about the job of a writing partner--making suggestions, helping with sounding out but not writing or spelling it for their partner. Being a writing partner can make both student and their partner better writers.
Science: We have put our last investigation on hold until next week.
Technology: In reading whole group this week, the students worked on the app Oz Phonics to reinforce word order, blends and digraphs and blending and segmenting 3-4 wounds words. In math whole group, students worked on the app Geoboard to work on shape construction.
Literature: "The Book of Celebrations," "The Gingerbread Boy," "The Gingerbread Man," "The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School," "The Gingerbread Man," "Time to Sleep," "Hibernation Station," "Zero Is the Number of Leaves on the Tree."
Sunday, December 4, 2016
UPDATEs for 11/21-22 and 11/28-12/2 2016
**It's been busy around Ms. Gullo's Kindergarten! I will back track to 11/21. The students learned last minute details about their field trip to Brookfield Zoo. We read informational texts about other types of bears. We also began to chat about an upcoming research project.
**11/22-Our field trip to Brookfield Zoo was great! We had a crisp and chilly but spectacular day of fun and learning. A big thanks to S. Raphael, E. LaFranco, D. Regan, L. Dantzler, T. Dixon, S. Flannery and Alice's Grandpa for all their help as volunteers. The students enjoyed Hamill Play Zoo for face painting and projects. Students got to pet a hen and a hamster up close! Students and volunteers also enjoyed seeing the animals of their choice. We enjoyed our lunch outside and had an entertaining visit from a peacock and guinea hen......mmmm....looking for some nice lunch! At the Great Bear Wilderness, our volunteer, Ms. H. was very knowledgable. The students examined black bear fur/paw and polar bear fur/paw. They participated in activities measuring how many students it took to equal the height of a grizzly bear and polar bear. On our outside tour, the students observed polar bears and a grizzly bear in their natural habitat.
**We were thankful for many things! Thanks for our wonderful grandma helper, Ms. D. and thankful for our Irving School family and for each other. I continue to be thankful for the great support and help from our kindergarten families. You all truly make the difference!
**The students enjoyed a visit from children's illustrator and author, Matthew Cordell. He spoke about his life and his love of drawing which began at age 3. He read 2 of his stories and showed the students how he draws a character and details. Very cool!
**First trimester REPORT CARDS will go home on Friday, December 9th. This will be in the form of standards based grading that I shared with you at conference time. Lexia reports will also be included as well as any goal updates by specialists your child may be seeing in the area of speech and language or Tier 3 intervention for reading and math. Mr. Packer will also have ready your child's portfolio of projects/explanation that were done during his class time. The main idea to remember for our report card system in that it is a growth model of progress toward end of the year goals. If you have any questions after reviewing your child's report card, please email me.
**Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Baking is Friday, December 9th beginning at 1:15 until dismissal. Currently, I have just one volunteer (thanks, Ms. Raphael!) If anyone else is interested, please email me. I will revise our making and baking so that each child will make 2 cookies instead of cookies for their family. I will provide cookie dough and everything else. The cookie dough is nut free, dairy free and egg free.
**Our WINTER CONCERT is fast approaching! Please join us Wednesday, December 21st in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances. The first will begin at 8:15 am and it will be repeated again at 9:30 am. We will have a reception in our room after both concerts. All are invited! Come join us!
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Handmade Craft Fair is Saturday, December 10th from 9-1 pm in the lunchroom and hallways. It is a great place to stock up on affordable holiday treasures.
**Just a note--Route to Reading has been suspended for the rest of this month. The students will keep working on their current skill level in the classroom and I will assess and move students as they master their skill. Thanks to Ms. Chinn who will be assisting with assessments.
**On Monday, we will begin our next cross curricular theme--TRADITIONS and CELEBRATIONS. If you have a particular family tradition or celebration that you would like to share with the class--please email me to set up a time.
**If your child is traveling over the winter break, let me know. I will provide a travel journal.
**Our Second Step lesson this week continued to focus on different feelings students have.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued chatting with the students about fostering good behavior wherever they go, including what a social detective is and using your social brain.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, the student began a project using shapes in different ways.
**No School--Winter Break--December 24th-January 8th. School reopens on Monday. January 9th.
This week:
It was all about research basics for little ones! What is RESEARCH? The students began thinking about something they wanted to know more about. They thought about it in the form of a question. We talked about how they might find a SOURCE to help them answer their question. The topic for their research is--BEARS. Next week, Ms. Noonan will continue the discussion and work on special research vocabulary and examples during their library time. The students will come up with a question they want to know more about and I will provide guidance and support. They will bring home their research question and format next Friday. Parent support is encouraged! It is exciting! Stay tuned! Station day activities this week included build and count pattern block designs, Leaf Man project, bear life cycle activity, bear read and label parts.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began work on Unit 3-Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed what is meant by transportation--a way to move people and things from one place to another. They brainstormed ways to get around and discussed forms of transportation that go fast and slow We constructed a group transportation word web. They built background on their travels near and far. They listened to the Big Book story, "On the Go." The students observed how people travel from one place to another and the vehicles they used. We looked up each country on the the world map. The students asked and answered questions about the types of vehicles used in other countries. They also worked on words that show ACTION. (verbs) Our Big Book text became the basis for a summative Blueprint on naming key details and using text evidence. In their comprehension study, the students compared and categorized types of travel and vehicles. The sight words is and play were reviewed. The students worked on the target sound Short Ii. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included TRAVEL, RELAX, JOURNEY, PREPARE, FAMILIAR. They used their elkonin boxes to blend and segment 3 sound words. They also learned about commas and how they are used. The students read their pre decodable story, "Go, Go Go" and elbow chatted with their partner about characters, setting and events. The students listened to 2 poems about transportation, "The Bike," and "Riding the Subway." They noticed the rhyming pattern in both and tracked the words as I read them. Workstations for this week included leveled readers focusing on fluency, story elements including key details, graph and compare--How do you travel to school? sentence creating with sight words and pictures with partners, creating your own retelling cards, substituting activity to create new words, CVC word search, adding a letter to create a new word activity, shared reading with partners, writing about your favorite vehicle and continued work in the Haggerty Blue Book.
Math: The students began Module 2--The Study of Shapes in our Eureka Math series. The students revisited basic flat shapes and reviewed pattern block shapes. We discussed the idea of a FLAT shape with sides and corners (vertices) of each shape and the similarities and differences between the shapes. The students explored various materials to create shapes with--straws/pipe cleaners, Connects, mini Magnetos and regular Magnetos, string and blocks. These shapes are included in the group called 2 dimensional shapes. The students then explored the world of SOLID shapes. Cones, cubes, cylinders, spheres, rectangular prisms and pyramids. The students looked throughout the room to find evidence of these shapes. They compared them to flat shapes and discovered that they have depth and are not flat. The students also used the same materials to create solid shapes. Math workstations for this week included reckenrek activities surrounding simple counting fluency, skip counting, addition and subtraction processes, going on 2D shape hunt and recording what they see, writing numbers 1 and 2 digit, solving simple story problems and finding hidden partners (number bonds) using numbers to 10 and creating a number globe using the app Doodle Buddy to write their number and choose icon stickers to represent their number.
Writing: The student worked on "Magic C" capitals C, S, G, O. They practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice book. In Writer's Workshop this week, the student reviewed all the components of past lessons in order to make their writing readable and legible. On Friday, we celebrated the end of our current unit. The students sat in a comfortable place and emptied their writing folder. They re read their stories and chose their "best" written story. They created a cover for their story that included a title and cover illustration. They then shared it with their writing partner. Totally cool!
Science: This week we deviated from the regular investigation on leaf shapes and the students listened to the story, "Leaf Man," by Lois Elhert. While I read the story, the students observed the leaf shapes on each page and the animals and figures created. On Friday, during station day, the students used leaves from our study to create their own "Leaf Man" or "Leaf Animal."
Technology: In reading whole group this week students used the Montessori Crosswords to practice blending and segmenting 3-4 sound words with side work on consonant blends and digraphs and specific vowels i and e. In math small groups, students used the app Doodle Buddy to create a number globe showcasing a specific number and illustration. The students, with my assistance, worked on saving their work and emailing it to me.
Literature: "Leaf Man," "Tree Homes," "The Amazing Turkey Rescue," "Thanksgiving Mice," "Who Lives Here?" "How Do You Travel to School?"
**11/22-Our field trip to Brookfield Zoo was great! We had a crisp and chilly but spectacular day of fun and learning. A big thanks to S. Raphael, E. LaFranco, D. Regan, L. Dantzler, T. Dixon, S. Flannery and Alice's Grandpa for all their help as volunteers. The students enjoyed Hamill Play Zoo for face painting and projects. Students got to pet a hen and a hamster up close! Students and volunteers also enjoyed seeing the animals of their choice. We enjoyed our lunch outside and had an entertaining visit from a peacock and guinea hen......mmmm....looking for some nice lunch! At the Great Bear Wilderness, our volunteer, Ms. H. was very knowledgable. The students examined black bear fur/paw and polar bear fur/paw. They participated in activities measuring how many students it took to equal the height of a grizzly bear and polar bear. On our outside tour, the students observed polar bears and a grizzly bear in their natural habitat.
**We were thankful for many things! Thanks for our wonderful grandma helper, Ms. D. and thankful for our Irving School family and for each other. I continue to be thankful for the great support and help from our kindergarten families. You all truly make the difference!
**The students enjoyed a visit from children's illustrator and author, Matthew Cordell. He spoke about his life and his love of drawing which began at age 3. He read 2 of his stories and showed the students how he draws a character and details. Very cool!
**First trimester REPORT CARDS will go home on Friday, December 9th. This will be in the form of standards based grading that I shared with you at conference time. Lexia reports will also be included as well as any goal updates by specialists your child may be seeing in the area of speech and language or Tier 3 intervention for reading and math. Mr. Packer will also have ready your child's portfolio of projects/explanation that were done during his class time. The main idea to remember for our report card system in that it is a growth model of progress toward end of the year goals. If you have any questions after reviewing your child's report card, please email me.
**Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Baking is Friday, December 9th beginning at 1:15 until dismissal. Currently, I have just one volunteer (thanks, Ms. Raphael!) If anyone else is interested, please email me. I will revise our making and baking so that each child will make 2 cookies instead of cookies for their family. I will provide cookie dough and everything else. The cookie dough is nut free, dairy free and egg free.
**Our WINTER CONCERT is fast approaching! Please join us Wednesday, December 21st in the Irving Auditorium. There will be 2 performances. The first will begin at 8:15 am and it will be repeated again at 9:30 am. We will have a reception in our room after both concerts. All are invited! Come join us!
**The Irving Cookie Crumble and Handmade Craft Fair is Saturday, December 10th from 9-1 pm in the lunchroom and hallways. It is a great place to stock up on affordable holiday treasures.
**Just a note--Route to Reading has been suspended for the rest of this month. The students will keep working on their current skill level in the classroom and I will assess and move students as they master their skill. Thanks to Ms. Chinn who will be assisting with assessments.
**On Monday, we will begin our next cross curricular theme--TRADITIONS and CELEBRATIONS. If you have a particular family tradition or celebration that you would like to share with the class--please email me to set up a time.
**If your child is traveling over the winter break, let me know. I will provide a travel journal.
**Our Second Step lesson this week continued to focus on different feelings students have.
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bell Bey continued chatting with the students about fostering good behavior wherever they go, including what a social detective is and using your social brain.
**In Mr. Packer Thinking Skills this week, the student began a project using shapes in different ways.
**No School--Winter Break--December 24th-January 8th. School reopens on Monday. January 9th.
This week:
It was all about research basics for little ones! What is RESEARCH? The students began thinking about something they wanted to know more about. They thought about it in the form of a question. We talked about how they might find a SOURCE to help them answer their question. The topic for their research is--BEARS. Next week, Ms. Noonan will continue the discussion and work on special research vocabulary and examples during their library time. The students will come up with a question they want to know more about and I will provide guidance and support. They will bring home their research question and format next Friday. Parent support is encouraged! It is exciting! Stay tuned! Station day activities this week included build and count pattern block designs, Leaf Man project, bear life cycle activity, bear read and label parts.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began work on Unit 3-Transportation in our Treasures Reading series. The students discussed what is meant by transportation--a way to move people and things from one place to another. They brainstormed ways to get around and discussed forms of transportation that go fast and slow We constructed a group transportation word web. They built background on their travels near and far. They listened to the Big Book story, "On the Go." The students observed how people travel from one place to another and the vehicles they used. We looked up each country on the the world map. The students asked and answered questions about the types of vehicles used in other countries. They also worked on words that show ACTION. (verbs) Our Big Book text became the basis for a summative Blueprint on naming key details and using text evidence. In their comprehension study, the students compared and categorized types of travel and vehicles. The sight words is and play were reviewed. The students worked on the target sound Short Ii. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included TRAVEL, RELAX, JOURNEY, PREPARE, FAMILIAR. They used their elkonin boxes to blend and segment 3 sound words. They also learned about commas and how they are used. The students read their pre decodable story, "Go, Go Go" and elbow chatted with their partner about characters, setting and events. The students listened to 2 poems about transportation, "The Bike," and "Riding the Subway." They noticed the rhyming pattern in both and tracked the words as I read them. Workstations for this week included leveled readers focusing on fluency, story elements including key details, graph and compare--How do you travel to school? sentence creating with sight words and pictures with partners, creating your own retelling cards, substituting activity to create new words, CVC word search, adding a letter to create a new word activity, shared reading with partners, writing about your favorite vehicle and continued work in the Haggerty Blue Book.
Math: The students began Module 2--The Study of Shapes in our Eureka Math series. The students revisited basic flat shapes and reviewed pattern block shapes. We discussed the idea of a FLAT shape with sides and corners (vertices) of each shape and the similarities and differences between the shapes. The students explored various materials to create shapes with--straws/pipe cleaners, Connects, mini Magnetos and regular Magnetos, string and blocks. These shapes are included in the group called 2 dimensional shapes. The students then explored the world of SOLID shapes. Cones, cubes, cylinders, spheres, rectangular prisms and pyramids. The students looked throughout the room to find evidence of these shapes. They compared them to flat shapes and discovered that they have depth and are not flat. The students also used the same materials to create solid shapes. Math workstations for this week included reckenrek activities surrounding simple counting fluency, skip counting, addition and subtraction processes, going on 2D shape hunt and recording what they see, writing numbers 1 and 2 digit, solving simple story problems and finding hidden partners (number bonds) using numbers to 10 and creating a number globe using the app Doodle Buddy to write their number and choose icon stickers to represent their number.
Writing: The student worked on "Magic C" capitals C, S, G, O. They practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice book. In Writer's Workshop this week, the student reviewed all the components of past lessons in order to make their writing readable and legible. On Friday, we celebrated the end of our current unit. The students sat in a comfortable place and emptied their writing folder. They re read their stories and chose their "best" written story. They created a cover for their story that included a title and cover illustration. They then shared it with their writing partner. Totally cool!
Science: This week we deviated from the regular investigation on leaf shapes and the students listened to the story, "Leaf Man," by Lois Elhert. While I read the story, the students observed the leaf shapes on each page and the animals and figures created. On Friday, during station day, the students used leaves from our study to create their own "Leaf Man" or "Leaf Animal."
Technology: In reading whole group this week students used the Montessori Crosswords to practice blending and segmenting 3-4 sound words with side work on consonant blends and digraphs and specific vowels i and e. In math small groups, students used the app Doodle Buddy to create a number globe showcasing a specific number and illustration. The students, with my assistance, worked on saving their work and emailing it to me.
Literature: "Leaf Man," "Tree Homes," "The Amazing Turkey Rescue," "Thanksgiving Mice," "Who Lives Here?" "How Do You Travel to School?"
Saturday, November 19, 2016
UPDATES for 11/7-11/11 and 11/14-11/18 2016
**I am thankful for your patience! The students have had a very busy 2 weeks and are looking forward to their Thanksgiving break with family and friends.
**The students celebrated the 50th day of school with blue jeans, slick back hair, sunglasses, poodle skirts and ponytails. The students enjoyed our sock hop and dancing to the music of the 50's. The students also worked on math and literacy stations involving the number 50. The countdown continues! Only 50 more to go until our 100th day celebration.
**The Mexican Dance assembly was pretty cool and of course the school wide election between Bad Kitty and Scaredy Squirrel. Bad Kitty was the winner at Irving. The district winner was Scaredy Squirrel. The students also expressed their thoughts on the real presidential election.
**The Annual Turkey Trot took place on a beautiful Thursday afternoon. The students made special signs and cheered on brothers and sisters, friends and book buddies.
**Our Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo is Tuesday, November 22nd from 9-2 pm. ALL STUDENTS NEED TO BRING A BAG LUNCH and DRESS FOR THE WEATHER. It will be chilly and perhaps a rainy one. We have S. Raphael, D. Regan, J. Flannery, E. LaFranco, L. Dantzler, T. Dixon and K. James volunteering to help. Students and teachers will be riding the bus. Parent volunteers will be carpooling. Our trip includes a tour of the Great Bear Wilderness, a classroom experience, time spent exploring other exhibits and lunch.
**Family Math Night was mind boggling as students used their clues to solve the "guess who" mystery person. They were treated to some special treats and prizes. Thanks to all who came out.
**Kindergarten won the Student Council sponsored PENNY CHALLENGE!! All proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders. A special shout out to all those who brought in money.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 has concluded. You should have received notification on your child's skill mastery. Please email me if you did not. Route to Reading Rotation 3 will begin on Monday, November 28th.
**Meet children's author and illustrator, Matthew Cordell on Thursday, December 1st. He will be speaking to the our kindergarten and first grade students at 12:45 pm in the Irving Library.
**NO SCHOOL---11/23-11/27 Thanksgiving Holiday.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!! As part of our Traditions and Celebrations theme for the month of December, I am looking for volunteers to help with Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Cookie Making and Baking on Friday, December 9th beginning at 1:15 until dismissal. No experience necessary. Email me if interested. I will provide the dough, sprinkles and aprons.....you provide the baking sheets, rolling pins, man/woman power and the love! It is a no egg/no dairy and nut free recipe.
**SAVE THE DATE!! Our WINTER CONCERT featuring Kindergarten and First Grade is Wednesday, December 21st. Due to the size of our auditorium, it will be performed twice--once at 8:15 and again at 9:30 am. I will be chatting with room parents about refreshments and get together between the concerts.
**Our Second Step lesson this week was a recap of skills and topics of the first trimester.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, Mr Packer worked with the student on looking for clues and sequencing events in a story.
**No Friendship Club this week.
The past two weeks:
The students took time to chat about the meaning of Veteran's Day and to salute those who are in service for our country. The students were interested in the different branches of the military. They made connections in their own lives about people they knew in the military. I shared a personal connection about my niece and nephew who are in the Air Force and shared their stories.
Then it was all about our cross curricular theme--BEARS/ADAPTATIONS. The students completed an inquiry about what they knew about bears. We then gathered information from book sources and the internet about common characteristics all bears share. The students were excited to learn that humans share something in common with bears--we are both mammals. We then took a look at black, brown/grizzly and polar bears. The students read about their habitats, diets and other other characteristics. We made a group Venn Diagram comparing brown bear and black bears and also comparing brown bears and polar bears. Which one does not hibernate?? Students learned the terms omnivore (eating plants and meat) carnivore (meat eating) and herbivore (plant eating.) Our nature table has many bear artifacts including black bear fur, black bear jaw bone and skull and a claw and paw print on loan from the Field Museum. Cool! We viewed BrainPop videos on bears and hibernation. The students continue to prepare for their zoo field trip.
Students went to our class garden bed to harvest sweet potatoes and white potatoes. The also found tomatoes, some edamame, radishes and other seed pods. Lots of fun getting dirty and digging deep. The students observed some cool root systems. Check out the photo! Each child that wanted some took a sweet potato and some white potatoes. Wash well and cook! Let me know how they taste! Our garden bed is now asleep for the winter. In the spring, the students will decide what to plant.
Station day activities included creating a bear cave, pattern block bear building and counting quantities, leaf rubbings and sponge painted brown bears and a partner Subitize Challenge.
Reading/Language Arts: The past two weeks, the students worked to complete Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They used the text, "Simon and Molly Plus Hester" to work on key details in a story and what the character says that is important. The also explored the idea of a problem and a solution in a story. Who are the characters? How are they alike? Different? What do you think the author's message is? This text was used for a Blueprint Workmat summative assessment on key details and why they are important to the story. The students reviewed all of their sight words in a group game of "Hands Up, Hands Down." They wrote their words and partnered up to use them in oral sentences. Students reviewed target sounds Pp, Ss, Tt, Aa, Ee and Mm. We are working on our sound blending skills using our elkonin boxes. As I say a word.....the students segment or break down the word by each individual sound and pull down a cube for each sound. We are using real words and nonsense words. The nonsense words are crucial in the students ability to automatically sound out a word. The students continue to strengthen their short and long vowel recognition. We chatted about two consonant letters that are together in a word and you hear both sounds (consonant blend) and two consonant letters in a word but you hear one sound (consonant digraph.) We also began practice using 4 sound words using our elkonin boxes where you have to break the blend to segment each sound. Wow! The students read the predecodable story, "We Like Sam." They made predictions about story content. They listened to the story, "The Little Red Hen."
noting how I read the story (fluency) and once again thought about the problem and the solution in the story and sequencing events. Workstations for the past two weeks included leveled readers focusing on fluency, story elements, sound blending, word search for short a and short e words, sentence writing using sight words, read it and add to it, story elements butterfly, word families, at, it, et, readers response-rate the story and tell why, sequencing frame, word work with sight words we and is and shared reading with partners.
Math: The students continue to work to complete Module 1 Numbers to 10 in our Eureka Math series. The students worked on numbers 9 and 10 in vertical and horizontal configurations and matching number to quantity. They also continue to refine written number forms 0-10 and write numbers 0-20. Students worked on the concepts one less and one more using numbers 0-10 and finding the missing number in the number sequence. Students are listening to oral story problems to determine if you add or take away. They are working on writing an adding number sentence. Workstations for the past two weeks included playing the game "Race to 50," finding the hidden partners, writing numbers 0-50, creating an oral story problem using bear counters, counting down and counting on from a given number, playing the one more, one less game and using their number cards to sequence numbers.
Writing: The past two weeks, the students completed work on their Starting Corner Capitals U, V, W, H, K, L, X, Y, Z. They practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. In Writer's Workshop the past two weeks, the teaching points were using the power of vowels to write the middles of words and the use of a vowel chart added to the folders as a new tool for assistance. Using vowels helps make writing more readable. I chose some students writing to project for further discussion and suggestions. Using a students writing can be a powerful tool for all students! We also discussed using our word window and their yellow word help card to also assist in their composing. Working with their writing partner is so helpful. Students can bounce off true story ideas, help in sounding out a word or provide suggestions for adding more writing or illustrations. It is totally cool to see the writing partners at work! The students are discovering that their stories are becoming more readable and more detailed.
Science: Students began Investigation 2-Leaves. We took a Leaf Walk around our school. The students observed and picked up leaf specimens to add to the leaves they collected around their homes. In small groups, they looked at the shapes of leaves in their sort and match them to geometric shapes. They worked with the leaf silhouettes matching size, edges and shape. The students worked in their science journals and also tried their hand at leaf rubbings.
Technology: In reading whole and small groups the apps Montessori Crosswords, Magic Reading 2 and Vowels were used to reinforced cvc, ccvc, ccvc and short vowel words.
Differentiated small groups used the same apps for silent e, vowel teams and consonant blend work. In math whole and small groups the apps Subitize Tree, Easy Match and Top it were used to reinforce
number patterns, addition, one less, one more, visual counting, quantity counting and number recognition. BrainPop Jr. videos on Bears, Fall, Seasons and Hibernation were used to enhance science and theme concepts.
Literature: "Amazing Bears," "Bears," "Black Bear Cubs," "A Day In The Life of a Black Bear Cub," "Time To Sleep," "Grizzly Bears," "Bears in the Forest," "Bears of the World," "Polar Bears," "Follow the Polar Bears," "Amazing Polar Bears."
**The students celebrated the 50th day of school with blue jeans, slick back hair, sunglasses, poodle skirts and ponytails. The students enjoyed our sock hop and dancing to the music of the 50's. The students also worked on math and literacy stations involving the number 50. The countdown continues! Only 50 more to go until our 100th day celebration.
**The Mexican Dance assembly was pretty cool and of course the school wide election between Bad Kitty and Scaredy Squirrel. Bad Kitty was the winner at Irving. The district winner was Scaredy Squirrel. The students also expressed their thoughts on the real presidential election.
**The Annual Turkey Trot took place on a beautiful Thursday afternoon. The students made special signs and cheered on brothers and sisters, friends and book buddies.
**Our Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo is Tuesday, November 22nd from 9-2 pm. ALL STUDENTS NEED TO BRING A BAG LUNCH and DRESS FOR THE WEATHER. It will be chilly and perhaps a rainy one. We have S. Raphael, D. Regan, J. Flannery, E. LaFranco, L. Dantzler, T. Dixon and K. James volunteering to help. Students and teachers will be riding the bus. Parent volunteers will be carpooling. Our trip includes a tour of the Great Bear Wilderness, a classroom experience, time spent exploring other exhibits and lunch.
**Family Math Night was mind boggling as students used their clues to solve the "guess who" mystery person. They were treated to some special treats and prizes. Thanks to all who came out.
**Kindergarten won the Student Council sponsored PENNY CHALLENGE!! All proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders. A special shout out to all those who brought in money.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 has concluded. You should have received notification on your child's skill mastery. Please email me if you did not. Route to Reading Rotation 3 will begin on Monday, November 28th.
**Meet children's author and illustrator, Matthew Cordell on Thursday, December 1st. He will be speaking to the our kindergarten and first grade students at 12:45 pm in the Irving Library.
**NO SCHOOL---11/23-11/27 Thanksgiving Holiday.
**CALLING ALL COOKS!! As part of our Traditions and Celebrations theme for the month of December, I am looking for volunteers to help with Room 110's Annual Gingerbread Cookie Making and Baking on Friday, December 9th beginning at 1:15 until dismissal. No experience necessary. Email me if interested. I will provide the dough, sprinkles and aprons.....you provide the baking sheets, rolling pins, man/woman power and the love! It is a no egg/no dairy and nut free recipe.
**SAVE THE DATE!! Our WINTER CONCERT featuring Kindergarten and First Grade is Wednesday, December 21st. Due to the size of our auditorium, it will be performed twice--once at 8:15 and again at 9:30 am. I will be chatting with room parents about refreshments and get together between the concerts.
**Our Second Step lesson this week was a recap of skills and topics of the first trimester.
**In Mr. Packer's Thinking Skills this week, Mr Packer worked with the student on looking for clues and sequencing events in a story.
**No Friendship Club this week.
The past two weeks:
The students took time to chat about the meaning of Veteran's Day and to salute those who are in service for our country. The students were interested in the different branches of the military. They made connections in their own lives about people they knew in the military. I shared a personal connection about my niece and nephew who are in the Air Force and shared their stories.
Then it was all about our cross curricular theme--BEARS/ADAPTATIONS. The students completed an inquiry about what they knew about bears. We then gathered information from book sources and the internet about common characteristics all bears share. The students were excited to learn that humans share something in common with bears--we are both mammals. We then took a look at black, brown/grizzly and polar bears. The students read about their habitats, diets and other other characteristics. We made a group Venn Diagram comparing brown bear and black bears and also comparing brown bears and polar bears. Which one does not hibernate?? Students learned the terms omnivore (eating plants and meat) carnivore (meat eating) and herbivore (plant eating.) Our nature table has many bear artifacts including black bear fur, black bear jaw bone and skull and a claw and paw print on loan from the Field Museum. Cool! We viewed BrainPop videos on bears and hibernation. The students continue to prepare for their zoo field trip.
Students went to our class garden bed to harvest sweet potatoes and white potatoes. The also found tomatoes, some edamame, radishes and other seed pods. Lots of fun getting dirty and digging deep. The students observed some cool root systems. Check out the photo! Each child that wanted some took a sweet potato and some white potatoes. Wash well and cook! Let me know how they taste! Our garden bed is now asleep for the winter. In the spring, the students will decide what to plant.
Station day activities included creating a bear cave, pattern block bear building and counting quantities, leaf rubbings and sponge painted brown bears and a partner Subitize Challenge.
Reading/Language Arts: The past two weeks, the students worked to complete Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They used the text, "Simon and Molly Plus Hester" to work on key details in a story and what the character says that is important. The also explored the idea of a problem and a solution in a story. Who are the characters? How are they alike? Different? What do you think the author's message is? This text was used for a Blueprint Workmat summative assessment on key details and why they are important to the story. The students reviewed all of their sight words in a group game of "Hands Up, Hands Down." They wrote their words and partnered up to use them in oral sentences. Students reviewed target sounds Pp, Ss, Tt, Aa, Ee and Mm. We are working on our sound blending skills using our elkonin boxes. As I say a word.....the students segment or break down the word by each individual sound and pull down a cube for each sound. We are using real words and nonsense words. The nonsense words are crucial in the students ability to automatically sound out a word. The students continue to strengthen their short and long vowel recognition. We chatted about two consonant letters that are together in a word and you hear both sounds (consonant blend) and two consonant letters in a word but you hear one sound (consonant digraph.) We also began practice using 4 sound words using our elkonin boxes where you have to break the blend to segment each sound. Wow! The students read the predecodable story, "We Like Sam." They made predictions about story content. They listened to the story, "The Little Red Hen."
noting how I read the story (fluency) and once again thought about the problem and the solution in the story and sequencing events. Workstations for the past two weeks included leveled readers focusing on fluency, story elements, sound blending, word search for short a and short e words, sentence writing using sight words, read it and add to it, story elements butterfly, word families, at, it, et, readers response-rate the story and tell why, sequencing frame, word work with sight words we and is and shared reading with partners.
Math: The students continue to work to complete Module 1 Numbers to 10 in our Eureka Math series. The students worked on numbers 9 and 10 in vertical and horizontal configurations and matching number to quantity. They also continue to refine written number forms 0-10 and write numbers 0-20. Students worked on the concepts one less and one more using numbers 0-10 and finding the missing number in the number sequence. Students are listening to oral story problems to determine if you add or take away. They are working on writing an adding number sentence. Workstations for the past two weeks included playing the game "Race to 50," finding the hidden partners, writing numbers 0-50, creating an oral story problem using bear counters, counting down and counting on from a given number, playing the one more, one less game and using their number cards to sequence numbers.
Writing: The past two weeks, the students completed work on their Starting Corner Capitals U, V, W, H, K, L, X, Y, Z. They practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. In Writer's Workshop the past two weeks, the teaching points were using the power of vowels to write the middles of words and the use of a vowel chart added to the folders as a new tool for assistance. Using vowels helps make writing more readable. I chose some students writing to project for further discussion and suggestions. Using a students writing can be a powerful tool for all students! We also discussed using our word window and their yellow word help card to also assist in their composing. Working with their writing partner is so helpful. Students can bounce off true story ideas, help in sounding out a word or provide suggestions for adding more writing or illustrations. It is totally cool to see the writing partners at work! The students are discovering that their stories are becoming more readable and more detailed.
Science: Students began Investigation 2-Leaves. We took a Leaf Walk around our school. The students observed and picked up leaf specimens to add to the leaves they collected around their homes. In small groups, they looked at the shapes of leaves in their sort and match them to geometric shapes. They worked with the leaf silhouettes matching size, edges and shape. The students worked in their science journals and also tried their hand at leaf rubbings.
Technology: In reading whole and small groups the apps Montessori Crosswords, Magic Reading 2 and Vowels were used to reinforced cvc, ccvc, ccvc and short vowel words.
Differentiated small groups used the same apps for silent e, vowel teams and consonant blend work. In math whole and small groups the apps Subitize Tree, Easy Match and Top it were used to reinforce
number patterns, addition, one less, one more, visual counting, quantity counting and number recognition. BrainPop Jr. videos on Bears, Fall, Seasons and Hibernation were used to enhance science and theme concepts.
Literature: "Amazing Bears," "Bears," "Black Bear Cubs," "A Day In The Life of a Black Bear Cub," "Time To Sleep," "Grizzly Bears," "Bears in the Forest," "Bears of the World," "Polar Bears," "Follow the Polar Bears," "Amazing Polar Bears."
Sunday, November 6, 2016
UPDATES for 10/31-11/4 2016
**We had a lovely fall afternoon for our Halloween Parade around the school grounds. Super heroes, princesses, vampires and other cool creatures were some of the fun costumes worn by the students. A BIG THANKS to our room parents and all who helped us celebrate the afternoon.
**Our 50th Day of School is MONDAY, November 7th. Come dressed in your 50's attire! It can be as simple as a white tee shirt and blue jeans, ponytails for the girls, slick back hair for the boys, sunglasses, leather jackets. If you should have a poodle skirt--WOW! We will have a "sock hop" of favorite tunes and math workstations with activities relating to the number 50.
**The Mexican Dance Assembly is scheduled for Monday, November 7th at 10:00 in the gym.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 will conclude on Wednesday. Look for information on your child's skill mastery in their homework folder.
**Trivia Night (adult only) Fundraiser is Thursday, November 10th at 7:00 pm at The Wire.
**Information on our next FIELD TRIP to Brookfield Zoo--Tuesday, November 22nd is in your child's homework folder. Please sign and return permission slip with money. Thanks! I would love to have 4 more volunteers for the trip. Right now I just have one. Email me if interested.
**Picture Retake Day is Wednesday, November 9th beginning at 8:30 am. Please email me to let me know if anyone is having picture retaken. Thanks!
**Join in the Student Council sponsored PENNY CHALLENGE to help "Doctor's Without Borders." Bring in any loose change (pennies, silver money or paper) the weeks of November 7th-18th. Each classroom will be keeping track and collecting points for money brought in. It's for a great cause. Help contribute!!
**NO SCHOOL on Tuesday, November 8th Election Day! On Monday, the students be voting in a mock election for book characters--Bad Kitty and Scaredy Squirrel. Who will win????? Mr. Packer will also hold a school wide election for the 4 candidates running in the real election. All students have filled out their voter registration cards.
**Come on out for FAMILY MATH NIGHT on Thursday, November 17th from 6:00-7:30 pm. This years theme is a "Guess Who" using math clues and detective fun! Information on the event was in last weeks homework folder. Families need to sign up. Email me if you need a flyer.
** Author Matthew Cordell will visit Irving School on Thursday, December 1st at 12:45 in the Library. Ms. Noonan will be sending a form to purchase a book this week.
**FUTURE EVENTS--December 9th afternoon--23rd Annual Gingerbread Baking in Room 110 as part of our Celebrations and Traditions theme. We need lots of helpers. No experience needed. I will provide the cookie dough, cookie cutters, sprinkles, aprons. YOU provide the baking sheets, rolling pins, spatulas and love! Email me if interested. Also--KDG-1 WINTER CONCERT is December 21st being performed twice--once at 8:15 am and again at 9:30 am. More info forthcoming.
**NO SCHOOL-11/23-11/27--Thanksgiving Holiday.
**In our Second Step lesson this week the students discussed the idea of having empathy--the ability to feel or understand what someone else is feeling. The students looked for body clues, point of view, how can I help! and what is a kind thing to say?
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bey Bey continued working with the students on ways to be a good social detective and doing the expected.
**In Mr. Packer 's Thinking Skills this week, the students worked on sequencing events in the story, "The Little Red Hen."
This week:
It was all about what an election is, who can vote in it, what are you voting for, what a ballot is and what makes a good leader. Lots of thoughtful conversations and discussion. We used the text, "Duck for President," to kick off the week. The students worked on story elements including characters, setting, key events and main idea. Who was a better leader--Duck or Farmer Brown--why? What were your supporting details? The students also took a look at what life was like in the 1950's. WHAT--no cell phones, colored tv's, microwaves, computers/tablets??!! What's a record player??How did we ever survive!! The students did a group Venn Diagram of comparing the 1950's and now. Station day activities included following directions to make "Duck," working on our class nature scrapbook, group thoughts on what makes a good leader and finishing up our Time of Year/Seasonal Babies bulletin board. (It's super cute!)
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They built background knowledge about how friends around the word share different activities and who can be a friend. They listened to the Big Book story, "Friends Around the World." They made connections looking and listening to the activities and places in the world where friends lived. We looked up these countries on the world map. Students reviewed sounds M, S, A, P. The students also began work using their elkonin boxes to sequence sounds (beginning, middle, end) in order to sound blend them into a word. Robust Vocabulary included WORLD, GAMES, PLEASANT, ASSIST, HONEST. The students worked on identifying the main topic of our Big Book story. They elbow chatted about what they knew and told their partners 3 details from the story. Students reviewed all sight vocabulary presented thus far. The students also reviewed the function of a speech bubble to show who is speaking in a selected text. In the Haggerty Blue Book exercises, students continue to work on isolating beginning and ending sounds, segmenting and blending CVC words and substituting the beginning sound in a word to create a new word. Workstations this week included leveled readers story elements/comprehension/main idea and fluency, sound blend and rainbow writing cvc words, walking your words, at and an family word work, working with short a, writing about what 2 friends might say to each other using speech bubbles and sentence building subject/action.
Math: The students practiced counting to 50 and writing each decade. In our Eureka Math lessons, the students worked on numbers 7, 8, 9 in vertical and horizontal configurations and matching objects to the quantity. Using these numbers, they continue to work on the concept of one more, counting down, finding a missing number in a sequence and writing the number to show how many. We took a look at hidden partners for 7, 8, 9. Math workstations included counting quantities and recording the number, finding the missing hidden partner, writing numbers to 50.
Writing: The students worked on Starting Corner capital letters U, V, W. They practiced formation on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. In Writer's Workshop this week, students went through their writing folder and selected a piece to put a cover on. They also shared their writing piece with a partner. In the next set of workshop lessons, the student were each assigned a writing partner. With their writing partners, the students can chat about true story ideas, read their writing to the partner and seek feed back from their partner on their writing. I reviewed teaching points about making their writing easier to read--spaces between words, using their knowledge of sound blending to stretch out and record all the sounds they hear in a word, to use their question words-who, where, what, why, when and how, sequencing the events in their story (beginning, middle, end) and using an ending mark. The students also review how beginning writers, like beginning readers, use pictures to help them make meaning and generate language.
Science: The students wrapped up Investigation 1-Observing Trees. They created a scrapbook of the nature they collected around our adopted White Oak Tree. Back in class, the organized the what they collected and worked in small groups on each page. The categories they selected where samples of bark, food, leaves, trigs/branches and rocks. It was great to see them working collaboratively in their small groups. We will keep the book in our classroom. The students have explored trees in their immediate area. We read an article about environments where trees can grow. The students looked at different land form cards. Can trees grow on mountains? around rivers? deserts? valleys? oceans? We also read and discussed an article about what plants need to grow. The students made a list in their science notebooks. Their list included water, light, roots, soil/dirt, food, space. The most important being water and light. In Investigation 2, the students began to take a closer look at leaves. Stay tuned for more!
Technology: In reading whole group and some small groups, the apps Magic Reading 2 and Montessori Crosswords were used to reinforce sound blending in cvc and ccvc words, consonant blend and digraphs and Oz Phonics for sentence word order and beginning and ending sound recognition. In math whole group, the apps Easy Match for dice and domino patterns, subitizing and adding and Brainy Bugs for counting, cardinality and mazes.
Literature: "Duck for President," "I Can Be President Too!" "If I Were the President," "So You Want to be President," "The White House," "Grace for President."
**Our 50th Day of School is MONDAY, November 7th. Come dressed in your 50's attire! It can be as simple as a white tee shirt and blue jeans, ponytails for the girls, slick back hair for the boys, sunglasses, leather jackets. If you should have a poodle skirt--WOW! We will have a "sock hop" of favorite tunes and math workstations with activities relating to the number 50.
**The Mexican Dance Assembly is scheduled for Monday, November 7th at 10:00 in the gym.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 will conclude on Wednesday. Look for information on your child's skill mastery in their homework folder.
**Trivia Night (adult only) Fundraiser is Thursday, November 10th at 7:00 pm at The Wire.
**Information on our next FIELD TRIP to Brookfield Zoo--Tuesday, November 22nd is in your child's homework folder. Please sign and return permission slip with money. Thanks! I would love to have 4 more volunteers for the trip. Right now I just have one. Email me if interested.
**Picture Retake Day is Wednesday, November 9th beginning at 8:30 am. Please email me to let me know if anyone is having picture retaken. Thanks!
**Join in the Student Council sponsored PENNY CHALLENGE to help "Doctor's Without Borders." Bring in any loose change (pennies, silver money or paper) the weeks of November 7th-18th. Each classroom will be keeping track and collecting points for money brought in. It's for a great cause. Help contribute!!
**NO SCHOOL on Tuesday, November 8th Election Day! On Monday, the students be voting in a mock election for book characters--Bad Kitty and Scaredy Squirrel. Who will win????? Mr. Packer will also hold a school wide election for the 4 candidates running in the real election. All students have filled out their voter registration cards.
**Come on out for FAMILY MATH NIGHT on Thursday, November 17th from 6:00-7:30 pm. This years theme is a "Guess Who" using math clues and detective fun! Information on the event was in last weeks homework folder. Families need to sign up. Email me if you need a flyer.
** Author Matthew Cordell will visit Irving School on Thursday, December 1st at 12:45 in the Library. Ms. Noonan will be sending a form to purchase a book this week.
**FUTURE EVENTS--December 9th afternoon--23rd Annual Gingerbread Baking in Room 110 as part of our Celebrations and Traditions theme. We need lots of helpers. No experience needed. I will provide the cookie dough, cookie cutters, sprinkles, aprons. YOU provide the baking sheets, rolling pins, spatulas and love! Email me if interested. Also--KDG-1 WINTER CONCERT is December 21st being performed twice--once at 8:15 am and again at 9:30 am. More info forthcoming.
**NO SCHOOL-11/23-11/27--Thanksgiving Holiday.
**In our Second Step lesson this week the students discussed the idea of having empathy--the ability to feel or understand what someone else is feeling. The students looked for body clues, point of view, how can I help! and what is a kind thing to say?
**In Friendship Club this week, Dr. Bey Bey continued working with the students on ways to be a good social detective and doing the expected.
**In Mr. Packer 's Thinking Skills this week, the students worked on sequencing events in the story, "The Little Red Hen."
This week:
It was all about what an election is, who can vote in it, what are you voting for, what a ballot is and what makes a good leader. Lots of thoughtful conversations and discussion. We used the text, "Duck for President," to kick off the week. The students worked on story elements including characters, setting, key events and main idea. Who was a better leader--Duck or Farmer Brown--why? What were your supporting details? The students also took a look at what life was like in the 1950's. WHAT--no cell phones, colored tv's, microwaves, computers/tablets??!! What's a record player??How did we ever survive!! The students did a group Venn Diagram of comparing the 1950's and now. Station day activities included following directions to make "Duck," working on our class nature scrapbook, group thoughts on what makes a good leader and finishing up our Time of Year/Seasonal Babies bulletin board. (It's super cute!)
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They built background knowledge about how friends around the word share different activities and who can be a friend. They listened to the Big Book story, "Friends Around the World." They made connections looking and listening to the activities and places in the world where friends lived. We looked up these countries on the world map. Students reviewed sounds M, S, A, P. The students also began work using their elkonin boxes to sequence sounds (beginning, middle, end) in order to sound blend them into a word. Robust Vocabulary included WORLD, GAMES, PLEASANT, ASSIST, HONEST. The students worked on identifying the main topic of our Big Book story. They elbow chatted about what they knew and told their partners 3 details from the story. Students reviewed all sight vocabulary presented thus far. The students also reviewed the function of a speech bubble to show who is speaking in a selected text. In the Haggerty Blue Book exercises, students continue to work on isolating beginning and ending sounds, segmenting and blending CVC words and substituting the beginning sound in a word to create a new word. Workstations this week included leveled readers story elements/comprehension/main idea and fluency, sound blend and rainbow writing cvc words, walking your words, at and an family word work, working with short a, writing about what 2 friends might say to each other using speech bubbles and sentence building subject/action.
Math: The students practiced counting to 50 and writing each decade. In our Eureka Math lessons, the students worked on numbers 7, 8, 9 in vertical and horizontal configurations and matching objects to the quantity. Using these numbers, they continue to work on the concept of one more, counting down, finding a missing number in a sequence and writing the number to show how many. We took a look at hidden partners for 7, 8, 9. Math workstations included counting quantities and recording the number, finding the missing hidden partner, writing numbers to 50.
Writing: The students worked on Starting Corner capital letters U, V, W. They practiced formation on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. In Writer's Workshop this week, students went through their writing folder and selected a piece to put a cover on. They also shared their writing piece with a partner. In the next set of workshop lessons, the student were each assigned a writing partner. With their writing partners, the students can chat about true story ideas, read their writing to the partner and seek feed back from their partner on their writing. I reviewed teaching points about making their writing easier to read--spaces between words, using their knowledge of sound blending to stretch out and record all the sounds they hear in a word, to use their question words-who, where, what, why, when and how, sequencing the events in their story (beginning, middle, end) and using an ending mark. The students also review how beginning writers, like beginning readers, use pictures to help them make meaning and generate language.
Science: The students wrapped up Investigation 1-Observing Trees. They created a scrapbook of the nature they collected around our adopted White Oak Tree. Back in class, the organized the what they collected and worked in small groups on each page. The categories they selected where samples of bark, food, leaves, trigs/branches and rocks. It was great to see them working collaboratively in their small groups. We will keep the book in our classroom. The students have explored trees in their immediate area. We read an article about environments where trees can grow. The students looked at different land form cards. Can trees grow on mountains? around rivers? deserts? valleys? oceans? We also read and discussed an article about what plants need to grow. The students made a list in their science notebooks. Their list included water, light, roots, soil/dirt, food, space. The most important being water and light. In Investigation 2, the students began to take a closer look at leaves. Stay tuned for more!
Technology: In reading whole group and some small groups, the apps Magic Reading 2 and Montessori Crosswords were used to reinforce sound blending in cvc and ccvc words, consonant blend and digraphs and Oz Phonics for sentence word order and beginning and ending sound recognition. In math whole group, the apps Easy Match for dice and domino patterns, subitizing and adding and Brainy Bugs for counting, cardinality and mazes.
Literature: "Duck for President," "I Can Be President Too!" "If I Were the President," "So You Want to be President," "The White House," "Grace for President."
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