**Thanks so much for your attendance at Parent/Teacher conferences. I so enjoyed chatting with all of you and sharing your child's progress. Our students are sure working hard!
**We had a great morning for our FUN RUN!! The students got their picture taken with the Irving Eagle and had a great run. Thanks for your participation and pledges!!
**The Irving School Book Fair begins Monday, October 27 thru Thursday, October 30th. See the flyer for times. Our class will be visiting the fair on Monday morning. Students will bring home a wishlist with a few of their favorite selections.
**Author Eileen Christelow of "Five Little Monkeys " fame will visit Irving on Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm. Can't wait to hear her speak about her ideas for stories.
**Come on out on Wednesday, October 29th from 6:30-7:30 pm for "Sightly Spooky Family Storytime" Please join Ms. Noonan and guest readers ME, Mr. Sak and Ms. Durham for stories to get you in the Halloween mood. Come browse the Book Fair and enjoy a sweet treat!
**We will have a Bus Evacuation Drill on Tuesday, October 28th.
**The culmination of our week will be the All School Irving Halloween Parade and Celebration. There is an on line sign up from our room parents for healthy treats and help with costume changing. On Friday, October 31st, we will have regular morning activities. Students may bring a costume/make up etc. in a bag. After lunch, the students will change into their costumes. The parade begins at 1:30 pm. with our celebration, craft and refreshments immediately following. All parents and sibs are invited to attend. Students may bring a candy or non candy treat if they wish. These treats will go into a treat bag and be sent home. Please remember--we have a PEANUT FREE classroom.
**Picture Retake Day is Monday, November 3rd in the morning. Stay tuned for more info.
**Our 50th Day of School is Wednesday, November 5th! We will be half way to 100!! We will spend some time learning about the decade of the 50's. On Wednesday, November 5th, the students can dress up like the 50's. It can be as simple as a white tee shirt and jeans, slick back hair for boys and pony tails for girls. If you should have a poodle skirt--WOW! Our Math workstations on Wednesday will center on activities and games that feature the number 50. We will top that off with a Sock Hop Dance complete with 50's music! What a great movement break!
**The Children's Clinic of Oak Park will be providing FREE dental care to Irving students on November 5th, 6th and 7th. The consent form is in your child's homework folder. Last week, a representative from the Children's Clinic spoke to the class on teeth brushing and flossing.
**The last "Poppin on the Patio" will be held on Wednesday, October 29th after school. Buy some popcorn and help the 5th grade raise money for outdoor education.
**Student Council Reps, Ethan and Lily spoke to our class about the "Stand Up for Cancer" project. Students will vote for their favorite picture of a teacher standing up for cancer during the week of November 3rd-7th. Students can also submit a picture of themselves standing up for cancer. These will be hung up around the school. All money collected will go to the Stand Up for Cancer Foundation.
**Last call for a fun grown up night to raise money for Irving School. Trivia Night is coming up in November!!
**No Friendship Club this week.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, Mr. Packer began a new unit on Data and Probability.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP to Brookfield Zoo, Tuesday, November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm.
**SAVE the DATE: Kindergarten Winter Concert--Wednesday, December 17th. Because of the amount of students participating the concert will be held 2 times---once at 8:15 am and then again at 9:45 am. Stay tuned for more info.
This week:
It was all about pumpkins and spiders. And yes.....the biggest squash around! Lily brought a "cucuzza" Italian squash to show the students. It is one long squash!!! Note the picture on the side of the blog. What does it taste like when it is cooked??? Hopefully Lily will share that with us. The students learned that spiders are not so spooky. They are really very helpful to our earth. They learned the difference between spiders and insects and viewed some spider specimens. The students learned the term--arachnid. Spiders live almost everywhere and hatch from eggs. Baby spiders are called spiderlings. Spiders can be very colorful. Students listened to nonfiction and fiction stories about spiders. We accessed information via the internet on spiders of interest like tarantulas and black widows. Many spiders eat pesty bugs and insects that bother both humans and plants. The students looked inside a pumpkin. They examined the seeds, flesh, pulp and skin. The students viewed the growing sequence and wrote about it in their journals. We were lucky enough to have two station day activities days. The activities included marble painted spider webs, color by code leaf scene, pumpkin 10 frame count, cut, glue, pumpkin plant sequencing activity, pumpkin roll and number color and preparation for our leaf sort reading the story "Leaf Man" and creating a leaf man using mixed media.
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 world share activities.
The students listened to the Big Book story, "Friends Around Us." They made connections looking and listening to the activities and places in the world where friends lived. We located the countries on the map so the students could get an idea of where the friends lived. The word a was added to our sight word list. They reviewed the isolated sounds of M, S, A, P. Our Robust Vocabulary words included WORLD, GAMES, PLEASANT, ASSIST, HONEST. The students worked on asking and answering questions about the Big Book story. They also used the retelling cards to review the order of events in the story. Our guest puppets assisted the students in the practice of blending letter sounds to create 3 letter words and students used their elkonin boxes to segment 3 letter words. We read our pre decodable story "I Am a Doctor." The students tracking skills are continuing to develop. Workstations this week included leveled readers--story elements/comprehension, reader's response, draw a picture and write about how you can be a good friend, use the sentence starter--We like......
rainbow words from the word families--am, at, ad.
Math: The students continue to work on counting quantities and one to one correspondence. They are doing a great job of completing their Calendar Books daily. They are working on the concepts before and after, plus one, greater than/less than, and number families. The students did a variety of activities using their ten frames. They counted spiders, pumpkins, seeds and bats. Their number globe projects and shape review jack-o-lanterns are posted in the hall.
Writing: The students worked to complete their writing project on what they like to do in the fall. They are beginning to think about how letters are placed on a given line. Where do upper case letters go....lowercase letters.....tall lowercase? What about lowercase letters that go below the line? Lots to begin to think about. The students worked on a variety of topics including spiders, friends, pumpkins. Students continue to label pictures and work on sentence structure.
Technology: The students continue to use the iPad to reinforce what they are learning. In reading, student small groups used the apps Dolch Words, Reading Magic 1, Word Wizard to work on segmenting, sound/symbol, sight words. In math, student small groups worked on the apps Monster Squeeze, Number Find, Geoboard and student whole group work used Number Rack. Brain Pop Jr. and Facthound were used to research facts on spiders and pumpkins.
Literature: "Leaf Man," "Super Spiders," "Eensy Weensy Spider," "3 Hungry Spiders and 1 Fly," "16 Runaway Pumpkins," "Pick a Perfect Pumpkin," "Splat the Cat--Scaredy Cat," "Spiderlings," "Click, Clack, Boo," "Pumpkin's Circle," "From Seed to Pumpkin," "Fall Leaves Change Color," "Animals in Fall."
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
UPDATES for 10/14-10/17 2014
**Reminder--Parent/Teacher Conferences are Monday, October 20th--I have 7:15 am--Novak, 3:00 pm--Makonnen, 3:30 pm--Hellman, 5:00 pm--Wojcik, 6:30 pm--Nunes, 7:00 pm--Ferrigno and 7:30 pm--Pacelli/Blecha. Tuesday, October 21st--7:15 am--Pendleton, 6:00 pm--Connelly, 6:30 pm--Cervantes, 7:00 pm--Peterson, 7:30 pm--Frank. Wednesday, October 22nd--3:00 pm--McGhee/McDonald, 4:00 pm--Howell, 6:00 pm--Rodriguez, 7:00 pm--Meier. Looking forward to sharing your child's progress with you!
**Reminder--School is in session in the MORNING ONLY on Thursday, October 23rd and Friday, October 24th. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, District School Bus and Magical Minds will pick up at 11:00 am.
**Go Ms. Gullo's Class!! The FUN RUN is Wednesday, October 22nd. More info was sent in your child's homework folder. There is still time to sign up to pledge. Come cheer us on!! We run at 8:15 am. You can even make a poster!!
**Family Math Night was the best!! We rocked around the clock and had a tasty root beer float. Thanks to all those that participated!!!
**The Seasonal Babies Project is awesome! Stop by and see our adorable baby pictures.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 will begin on Tuesday, October 21st. At that time, you will receive notification of the skill your child will be working on and the teacher teaching that skill.
**There will be another "Poppin on the Patio" this Wednesday, October 22nd right after school. Stop by and support the 5th grade outdoor ed project.
**Information for accessing BrainPop Jr. is in your child's folder. It is another cool tool to try to enhance learning. It might come in handy when we do our research project later on in the year. Experiment and have fun with it if you like.
**Ah Yes! The topic of Halloween is now being discussed. The schedule is as follows--Friday, October 31st will be a regular morning of learning. Students may bring their costumes/make up/props to school in a bag. At 1:00 pm, the students will change into their costumes. At 1:30 pm--Students will participate in an all school Parade around the outside of the school. Classroom celebrations will take place from 2:15-2:55 pm. In keeping with our nonviolent classroom atmosphere, please do not send toy guns, swords, hooks, light sabers, poles, knives, brooms or handcuffs. There are no other restrictions on costumes other than that. Students may bring a candy treat for the class if you wish. Candy or non candy will be placed in the treat bags the students are making and be sent home. I will be chatting with my room parents who will have a healthy snack on hand. We will also make a craft related to our study of nocturnal animals. Parents and sibs are invited to attend both events. I will also need some parents to help with costume changing.
**Ms. Bell Bey was absent for Friendship Club.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, Mr. Packer finished a book on future thinking!
**Future Field Trip--Brookfield Zoo--Tuesday, November 25th--9:00-1:30 pm I will need about 4 parents to help out on the trip. More info soon.
This week:
It was all about the culmination of apple mania! The students discussed the sequence of events surrounding the making of applesauce. The key words--recipe and ingredients. They observed and assisted in using the apple peeling machine. The peeling came out like ribbon! Some students ate them at snack time. We discussed the cooking process and talked about the function of a crock pot. Lots of language and conversation. The students took turns using their plastic knives to cut up the flesh and put it in the pot. We added some apple cider and cranked up the crock pot. The smell of cooking apples permeated our classroom! The students thoroughly enjoyed their applesauce treat! This week was our first parent helper station day. Sign up if you can. It's really fun!!! This weeks station day activities included turning pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns/shape count/record, apple print trees, hidden picture-color by code, apple star prints, sink or float--apple science.
Reading/Language Arts: The students took a break this week from our Treasures Reading series to work on some formative assessments relating to jobs of an author and illustrator, story elements- character, setting and specific event, recognizing fiction and nonfiction, examining a book and looking at text features. The students reviewed their sight words thus far and practiced writing them down and using them in sentences. Each day, the students decided what activities they wanted to do in their workstations. Games using beginning and ending sounds were popular. Sentence building activities and syllable counting activities were also chosen. Sound blending using the app Reading Magic 1 was also chosen. It was cool to see each group of students work together to choose what they wanted to do. Students also used time for a group read aloud of their predecodable story, "I Am." They reviewed what a noun was and found nouns in their story. Students used the leveled readers from last week and chose one to read and discuss with a partner. Fun times!
Math: The students continued to work on rote counting to 40. They worked on counting quantities to 20, one to one correspondence and recognizing numbers 0-20. They are continuing to work in their calendar books on number sequencing, what comes before and after, tally marks, ten frame exercises, patterning and adding a number plus one. They enjoyed playing Apple Roll, Count and Color and comparing their results with other groups. The students continued to work on exercises using the reckenrek. The students also had a chance to decide what activities they wanted to do for their math workstations. They chose Top It, illustrating number with pictures, Heads or Tails game, sequencing their number cards from smallest to largest, using basic shapes in building and counting and reinforcing positional concepts. In the midst of the everyday workstations, small groups of students worked with me on a project called Number Globes on their iPads.
Writing: The students continue to work on their Frog Jump Capitals. So far F, E, D, B, P, R have been introduced. Students applied what they had practiced in their orange books. Students wrote and illustrated in their journals about apples using the words from their sight word list. The focus this week was on writing posture, reinforcing tripod grasp, one hand holding the paper and sitting up so their back touched the back of their chair. Students are beginning to pay more attention to where they are putting their letters. More students are experimenting with using lowercase letters. The students are currently working on a writing project about fall.
Technology: No new apps were introduced this week. Students small groups continue to work on a counting and cardinality project using the app Doodle Buddy. Stay tuned!
Literature: "Click Clack Boo," "How Do Apples Grow?" "Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie," "Ten Apples Up on Top," "Johnny Appleseed," "The Wonders of Apples,"
**Reminder--School is in session in the MORNING ONLY on Thursday, October 23rd and Friday, October 24th. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, District School Bus and Magical Minds will pick up at 11:00 am.
**Go Ms. Gullo's Class!! The FUN RUN is Wednesday, October 22nd. More info was sent in your child's homework folder. There is still time to sign up to pledge. Come cheer us on!! We run at 8:15 am. You can even make a poster!!
**Family Math Night was the best!! We rocked around the clock and had a tasty root beer float. Thanks to all those that participated!!!
**The Seasonal Babies Project is awesome! Stop by and see our adorable baby pictures.
**Route to Reading Rotation 2 will begin on Tuesday, October 21st. At that time, you will receive notification of the skill your child will be working on and the teacher teaching that skill.
**There will be another "Poppin on the Patio" this Wednesday, October 22nd right after school. Stop by and support the 5th grade outdoor ed project.
**Information for accessing BrainPop Jr. is in your child's folder. It is another cool tool to try to enhance learning. It might come in handy when we do our research project later on in the year. Experiment and have fun with it if you like.
**Ah Yes! The topic of Halloween is now being discussed. The schedule is as follows--Friday, October 31st will be a regular morning of learning. Students may bring their costumes/make up/props to school in a bag. At 1:00 pm, the students will change into their costumes. At 1:30 pm--Students will participate in an all school Parade around the outside of the school. Classroom celebrations will take place from 2:15-2:55 pm. In keeping with our nonviolent classroom atmosphere, please do not send toy guns, swords, hooks, light sabers, poles, knives, brooms or handcuffs. There are no other restrictions on costumes other than that. Students may bring a candy treat for the class if you wish. Candy or non candy will be placed in the treat bags the students are making and be sent home. I will be chatting with my room parents who will have a healthy snack on hand. We will also make a craft related to our study of nocturnal animals. Parents and sibs are invited to attend both events. I will also need some parents to help with costume changing.
**Ms. Bell Bey was absent for Friendship Club.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, Mr. Packer finished a book on future thinking!
**Future Field Trip--Brookfield Zoo--Tuesday, November 25th--9:00-1:30 pm I will need about 4 parents to help out on the trip. More info soon.
This week:
It was all about the culmination of apple mania! The students discussed the sequence of events surrounding the making of applesauce. The key words--recipe and ingredients. They observed and assisted in using the apple peeling machine. The peeling came out like ribbon! Some students ate them at snack time. We discussed the cooking process and talked about the function of a crock pot. Lots of language and conversation. The students took turns using their plastic knives to cut up the flesh and put it in the pot. We added some apple cider and cranked up the crock pot. The smell of cooking apples permeated our classroom! The students thoroughly enjoyed their applesauce treat! This week was our first parent helper station day. Sign up if you can. It's really fun!!! This weeks station day activities included turning pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns/shape count/record, apple print trees, hidden picture-color by code, apple star prints, sink or float--apple science.
Reading/Language Arts: The students took a break this week from our Treasures Reading series to work on some formative assessments relating to jobs of an author and illustrator, story elements- character, setting and specific event, recognizing fiction and nonfiction, examining a book and looking at text features. The students reviewed their sight words thus far and practiced writing them down and using them in sentences. Each day, the students decided what activities they wanted to do in their workstations. Games using beginning and ending sounds were popular. Sentence building activities and syllable counting activities were also chosen. Sound blending using the app Reading Magic 1 was also chosen. It was cool to see each group of students work together to choose what they wanted to do. Students also used time for a group read aloud of their predecodable story, "I Am." They reviewed what a noun was and found nouns in their story. Students used the leveled readers from last week and chose one to read and discuss with a partner. Fun times!
Math: The students continued to work on rote counting to 40. They worked on counting quantities to 20, one to one correspondence and recognizing numbers 0-20. They are continuing to work in their calendar books on number sequencing, what comes before and after, tally marks, ten frame exercises, patterning and adding a number plus one. They enjoyed playing Apple Roll, Count and Color and comparing their results with other groups. The students continued to work on exercises using the reckenrek. The students also had a chance to decide what activities they wanted to do for their math workstations. They chose Top It, illustrating number with pictures, Heads or Tails game, sequencing their number cards from smallest to largest, using basic shapes in building and counting and reinforcing positional concepts. In the midst of the everyday workstations, small groups of students worked with me on a project called Number Globes on their iPads.
Writing: The students continue to work on their Frog Jump Capitals. So far F, E, D, B, P, R have been introduced. Students applied what they had practiced in their orange books. Students wrote and illustrated in their journals about apples using the words from their sight word list. The focus this week was on writing posture, reinforcing tripod grasp, one hand holding the paper and sitting up so their back touched the back of their chair. Students are beginning to pay more attention to where they are putting their letters. More students are experimenting with using lowercase letters. The students are currently working on a writing project about fall.
Technology: No new apps were introduced this week. Students small groups continue to work on a counting and cardinality project using the app Doodle Buddy. Stay tuned!
Literature: "Click Clack Boo," "How Do Apples Grow?" "Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie," "Ten Apples Up on Top," "Johnny Appleseed," "The Wonders of Apples,"
Thursday, October 9, 2014
UPDATES for 10/6-10/9 2014
**No School--October 10th-Teacher's Institute--No School--October 13th-Columbus Day.
**We had a lovely afternoon for our field trip to Maze Library! Children's Librarian Ms. Jessica Bartz treated the students to a great interactive reading session which included songs, movement and dance activities. She also took us on a tour of the library pointing out where to find DVD's, audio books, nonfiction, fiction, picture books and readers. Students who completed the library card application got their cards. Thanks to K. Meier and B. Howell for volunteering to walk with us!
**Wednesday, October 8th was Walk to School Day. We had a lots of students who waked to school that day. If students didn't get a chance to walk, I walked around the playground with them. Students colored their gym shoe and got their stamp.
**Don't forget to send in your child's baby picture for our Seasonal Babies Project. We will do the project on Wednesday, October 15th.
**Please keep turning in your confirmation letters for Parent/Teacher Conferences. Please email me to reschedule if you need a different day and time. Parent/Teacher conferences are Monday, October 20th, Tuesday, October 21st and Wednesday, October 22nd. Don't forget.....Thursday and Friday, October 23rd and 24th, school is in session in the morning only. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds and the District School Bus will pick at 11:00 am.
**The first rotation of Route to Reading will conclude on Thursday, October 16th. At that time, you will receive notification of your child's skill status. Route to Reading Rotation 2 will begin on Tuesday, October 21st.
**See information for "Poppin on the Patio"--5th Grade Fund Raiser for Outdoor Education in your child's homework folder. It will be 3 consecutive Wednesdays beginning on October 15th. Let's help out our Book Buddies!
**Art Teacher, Ms. Tague sent home information on accessing ARTSONIA. Your child's username and password were included. Great way to see what your child is producing in the Art Studio.
**The 3rd Grade Girl Scout Troop is collecting toiletries for the needy. You can bring in shampoo, soap, shaving cream, toothpaste, diapers wipes etc. Students can bring items in and we will put them in the collection basket.
**You can still sign up for Family Math Night--"Rocking Round the Clock." Email me for info. It is Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm. You and your child will solve the math problems.....I will make the root beer floats in the lunchroom soda shop!
**There is still time to sign up for TRIVIA NIGHT--sponsored by PTO. Information and sign up can be done thru the PTO website. Great grown up fun!
**Go Ms. Gullo's Class---FUN RUN FUN RUN!!!! We need more students to sign up for the PTO's BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the year!!! Check the PTO website for sign up info. You can do it!!!! Kindergarten will "run" at 8:15 am. on Wednesday, October 22nd. Come cheer us on. You can even make a sign!
**Our Green Team Reps-Evan and Atessa made rags from their old shirts. Each class got a set of rags. We will use them with our dry erase boards. Great way to reuse items!
**Our Student Council Reps-Ethan and Lily reported that student council will be working on a project in conjunction with "Stand Up for Cancer." More info is coming on how they will involve the school.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP--BROOKFIELD ZOO on Tuesday, November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm. More info will be forthcoming. I need at least 4 parent volunteers.
This week:
It was all about APPLE MANIA! The students participated in an inquiry to determine what they knew about apples. They had fun using the magnifiers and the microscope to observe the blossom (flower) seeds, flesh, core, skin. They learned what a blossom was. Some apples were cut on their sides to reveal the star! We read informational (nonfiction) books on the subject and used the internet search to find out names that apples have. The students explored some of the many types of apples and observed their similarities and differences. The students learned how to create a diagram and label apple parts. We even had a bit of a taste test! Yes!!! We do have a striped skunk family visiting our classroom courtesy of the Field Museum. We will be studying nocturnal animals, bats, spiders and skeletons in an informative and noncreepy way before Halloween.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They built background knowledge about what a friend is and what types of activities you can do with a friend. They listened to the song, "The More We Get Together." Many students remembered this song from their time in preschool. The students listened to the Big Book story, "What Do You Like?" They responded and made connections about activities they do with friends. The students found the title page and discussed the main characters and the setting of the story. They learned about how to compare and find differences and commonalities by using a Venn Diagram. They compared the girl and the boy in the story--what they both liked and the types of things each one liked separately. The sight word like was introduced. The students reviewed their previous words and played "Hands Up, Hands Down." The target sound in isolation was Ss. They used chants and rhymes to reinforce the sound and created a word web of Ss words. The students reviewed what a noun was and sighted several examples in the Big Book story. Robust Vocabulary for this week included FAVORITE, FRIENDS, PARTNER, HOBBY, COMPLETE. The students read their read aloud story, "I Like." Students worked on tracking and beginning fluency. They learned what a speech bubble was. Students discussed the characters and setting and chose an event in the story to share with a partner. Workstation activities included letter/picture sort using letters M, S, A, P, sound blending (3 phonemes) activity using Reading Magic 1--tap the box record the sound/letter on your paper-tap the picture box--did you make the word? word puzzles--use the letters--connect them to make a word. How many words can you make? create a mural with your group on how friends play, a variety of games reinforcing beginning letter sounds and upper/lowercase match. The students are bring in puppets/stuffed animals to help with our Haggerty Blue Book exercises!
Math: The students continue working on rote counting and counting quantities to 20. This week, the students began using their calendar books. At present, I am projecting the page on the screen so they can learn the format. We work with a different target number each day. They are recording the date, month, day and year, circling the day of the week, filling in what number comes before and after the target number, showing the target number in a ten frame, using tally marks, adding one more to the target number, writing in how many days we have been in school. The students worked on a variety of apple themed math games in small group, individually or with a partner. They counted, grouped and classified, matched numbers. added numbers, sequenced numbers. Students continue to work on recognizing pattern block shape names and learned geometric solids--cube and cone. We continue work on visualizing number using the reckenrek. Math is fun!!!!
Writing: The students are continuing work on our Frog Jump Capitals. Letters P and B were introduced this week. In Writer's Workshop, the students are working on beginning sentence structure and spacing of words in a sentence. They are using inventive spelling---writing the letters for the sounds they hear in words and working to consistently begin their writing with an uppercase letter and use an ending mark.
Technology: The students continue to use the iPad for assignments in small group workstations for reading and math. This week, the app Reading Magic 1 was introduced and used by individuals in small group for sound blending 3 phoneme words. The same apps as last week in both reading and math continue to reinforce skills taught in the classroom. We began work on a project using Doodle Buddy in math.
Literature: "Amazing Apples," "Where in the Wild," "How Rocket Learned to Read," "The Big Apple Mystery," "How Do Apples Grow?" "Apples," "Apples, Apples, Apples," Song--"Apple Tree," "Johnny Appleseed," "Christopher Columbus,"
**We had a lovely afternoon for our field trip to Maze Library! Children's Librarian Ms. Jessica Bartz treated the students to a great interactive reading session which included songs, movement and dance activities. She also took us on a tour of the library pointing out where to find DVD's, audio books, nonfiction, fiction, picture books and readers. Students who completed the library card application got their cards. Thanks to K. Meier and B. Howell for volunteering to walk with us!
**Wednesday, October 8th was Walk to School Day. We had a lots of students who waked to school that day. If students didn't get a chance to walk, I walked around the playground with them. Students colored their gym shoe and got their stamp.
**Don't forget to send in your child's baby picture for our Seasonal Babies Project. We will do the project on Wednesday, October 15th.
**Please keep turning in your confirmation letters for Parent/Teacher Conferences. Please email me to reschedule if you need a different day and time. Parent/Teacher conferences are Monday, October 20th, Tuesday, October 21st and Wednesday, October 22nd. Don't forget.....Thursday and Friday, October 23rd and 24th, school is in session in the morning only. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Magical Minds and the District School Bus will pick at 11:00 am.
**The first rotation of Route to Reading will conclude on Thursday, October 16th. At that time, you will receive notification of your child's skill status. Route to Reading Rotation 2 will begin on Tuesday, October 21st.
**See information for "Poppin on the Patio"--5th Grade Fund Raiser for Outdoor Education in your child's homework folder. It will be 3 consecutive Wednesdays beginning on October 15th. Let's help out our Book Buddies!
**Art Teacher, Ms. Tague sent home information on accessing ARTSONIA. Your child's username and password were included. Great way to see what your child is producing in the Art Studio.
**The 3rd Grade Girl Scout Troop is collecting toiletries for the needy. You can bring in shampoo, soap, shaving cream, toothpaste, diapers wipes etc. Students can bring items in and we will put them in the collection basket.
**You can still sign up for Family Math Night--"Rocking Round the Clock." Email me for info. It is Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm. You and your child will solve the math problems.....I will make the root beer floats in the lunchroom soda shop!
**There is still time to sign up for TRIVIA NIGHT--sponsored by PTO. Information and sign up can be done thru the PTO website. Great grown up fun!
**Go Ms. Gullo's Class---FUN RUN FUN RUN!!!! We need more students to sign up for the PTO's BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the year!!! Check the PTO website for sign up info. You can do it!!!! Kindergarten will "run" at 8:15 am. on Wednesday, October 22nd. Come cheer us on. You can even make a sign!
**Our Green Team Reps-Evan and Atessa made rags from their old shirts. Each class got a set of rags. We will use them with our dry erase boards. Great way to reuse items!
**Our Student Council Reps-Ethan and Lily reported that student council will be working on a project in conjunction with "Stand Up for Cancer." More info is coming on how they will involve the school.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP--BROOKFIELD ZOO on Tuesday, November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm. More info will be forthcoming. I need at least 4 parent volunteers.
This week:
It was all about APPLE MANIA! The students participated in an inquiry to determine what they knew about apples. They had fun using the magnifiers and the microscope to observe the blossom (flower) seeds, flesh, core, skin. They learned what a blossom was. Some apples were cut on their sides to reveal the star! We read informational (nonfiction) books on the subject and used the internet search to find out names that apples have. The students explored some of the many types of apples and observed their similarities and differences. The students learned how to create a diagram and label apple parts. We even had a bit of a taste test! Yes!!! We do have a striped skunk family visiting our classroom courtesy of the Field Museum. We will be studying nocturnal animals, bats, spiders and skeletons in an informative and noncreepy way before Halloween.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began work in Unit 2 Friends in our Treasures Reading series. They built background knowledge about what a friend is and what types of activities you can do with a friend. They listened to the song, "The More We Get Together." Many students remembered this song from their time in preschool. The students listened to the Big Book story, "What Do You Like?" They responded and made connections about activities they do with friends. The students found the title page and discussed the main characters and the setting of the story. They learned about how to compare and find differences and commonalities by using a Venn Diagram. They compared the girl and the boy in the story--what they both liked and the types of things each one liked separately. The sight word like was introduced. The students reviewed their previous words and played "Hands Up, Hands Down." The target sound in isolation was Ss. They used chants and rhymes to reinforce the sound and created a word web of Ss words. The students reviewed what a noun was and sighted several examples in the Big Book story. Robust Vocabulary for this week included FAVORITE, FRIENDS, PARTNER, HOBBY, COMPLETE. The students read their read aloud story, "I Like." Students worked on tracking and beginning fluency. They learned what a speech bubble was. Students discussed the characters and setting and chose an event in the story to share with a partner. Workstation activities included letter/picture sort using letters M, S, A, P, sound blending (3 phonemes) activity using Reading Magic 1--tap the box record the sound/letter on your paper-tap the picture box--did you make the word? word puzzles--use the letters--connect them to make a word. How many words can you make? create a mural with your group on how friends play, a variety of games reinforcing beginning letter sounds and upper/lowercase match. The students are bring in puppets/stuffed animals to help with our Haggerty Blue Book exercises!
Math: The students continue working on rote counting and counting quantities to 20. This week, the students began using their calendar books. At present, I am projecting the page on the screen so they can learn the format. We work with a different target number each day. They are recording the date, month, day and year, circling the day of the week, filling in what number comes before and after the target number, showing the target number in a ten frame, using tally marks, adding one more to the target number, writing in how many days we have been in school. The students worked on a variety of apple themed math games in small group, individually or with a partner. They counted, grouped and classified, matched numbers. added numbers, sequenced numbers. Students continue to work on recognizing pattern block shape names and learned geometric solids--cube and cone. We continue work on visualizing number using the reckenrek. Math is fun!!!!
Writing: The students are continuing work on our Frog Jump Capitals. Letters P and B were introduced this week. In Writer's Workshop, the students are working on beginning sentence structure and spacing of words in a sentence. They are using inventive spelling---writing the letters for the sounds they hear in words and working to consistently begin their writing with an uppercase letter and use an ending mark.
Technology: The students continue to use the iPad for assignments in small group workstations for reading and math. This week, the app Reading Magic 1 was introduced and used by individuals in small group for sound blending 3 phoneme words. The same apps as last week in both reading and math continue to reinforce skills taught in the classroom. We began work on a project using Doodle Buddy in math.
Literature: "Amazing Apples," "Where in the Wild," "How Rocket Learned to Read," "The Big Apple Mystery," "How Do Apples Grow?" "Apples," "Apples, Apples, Apples," Song--"Apple Tree," "Johnny Appleseed," "Christopher Columbus,"
Sunday, October 5, 2014
UPDATES for 9/30-10/3 2014
**BIG REMINDER--Our walking field trip to MAZE BRANCH LIBRARY is MONDAY, OCTOBER 6th. We will eat lunch in our classroom and be on our way at 12:40 pm. K.Meier, B. Howell and T. Treadway have volunteered to walk with us. We will be back at school by 1:50 pm.
**Wednesday, October is WALK TO SCHOOL DAY. All students who walk to school will receive a hand stamp and gym shoe that they will color. Mr. Hancock will display all colored gym shoes in the gym. If you cannot walk to school on Wednesday......no worries.....At lunch, we can walk around the playground to get our stamp and shoe.
**Don't forget to send back your confirmation for Parent/Teacher Conferences. Conferences are Monday, October 20th, Tuesday, October 21st and Wednesday, October 22nd. Don't forget that on Thursday and Friday (October 23rd and 24th) school is in session in the morning only. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. District School Bus, Hephzibah and Magical Minds will also pick up at that time.
**SEASONAL BABIES PROJECT. Please send in a baby picture of your child for our Seasonal Babies Project. It can be any size. We will do the project on October 14th.
**The students were all smiles for their class and individual pictures last Tuesday. The weather did not cooperate for us so our class picture was taken inside in the auditorium. Thanks to K.Meier (Jeremy's mom) for her help!
**Route to Reading is off to a great start! You should have received notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher who is teaching it.. Please email me if you did not receive it.
**The students have earned many EAGLE SLIPS! In celebration, the students in grades K-2 will have music playing during their outside lunch recess on Monday. Job well done!!!!
**Our GREEN TEAM reps--Atessa and Evan are working on their first project of the year. They are bringing an old shirt to their next meeting on Tuesday, October 7th and making rags.'
**Our STUDENT COUNCIL reps--Ethan and Lily will attend their first Student Council Meeting on Tuesday, October 7th during their lunch recess. They will report back to us.
**Sign up for FAMILY MATH NIGHT. Let's Rock Around the Clock!! It's Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm You and your child solve the math problems......I will make the root beer floats in the lunchroom soda shop!!!
**There is still time to sigh up for TRIVIA NIGHT--sponsored by PTO. Great grown up fun!!!
**Don't forget to sign up your child for the FUN RUN FUNDRAISER--PTO'S BIGGEST FUNDRAISER OF THE YEAR. The event is Wednesday, October 22nd. Kindergarten will "run" from 8:15-8:30 am around the turf. Help raise money for our school!!!
**Scholastic Book Order for October is due October 14th. You can also order on line by clicking the book on the left side of my blog.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued discussion and activities on the Zones of Regulation. You will find a copy in your child's homework folder. Next week, she will start a unit on friendship.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week--Mr. Packer began reading the book, "Tomorrow's Alphabet." It is a really cool book about ABC's and what items become in the future. This book is the catalyst for an upcoming project.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, October 10th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, October 13th in observance of Columbus Day.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP--BROOKFIELD ZOO on November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm More info is forthcoming. I will need at least 4 volunteers.
This week:
The students are working hard on their daily curriculum. They continue to respond to our Eagle Essential Guidelines and our class 1..2..3. They are now very much a part of shaping their own behavior! We are all learning a lot from each other. The students continue to work on fostering positive peer relationships both in and out of the classroom. We had our second meeting with our Book Buddies on Friday. The "little" kids selected a book and "big" Book Buddy read it to them and then they discussed the story elements --Characters, Setting and Story Events--Fiction/Nonfiction. Afterwards they illustrated their favorite part of the story. We have amazing 5th grade Book Buddies!!! They work so well with our precious kindergarten students! We will begin our next cross curricular theme: Apples, Pumpkins and Autumn next week.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 1 Families in the Treasures Reading Series. The students discussed how families can change. Family members move away or move in. Children get older. I read the trade book, "Peter's Chair." It's the story about a boy who has a change in his family on a few different levels. We worked on story structure--a way in which things in the story happen. Stories have a beginning, middle and an end. The students made predictions about story content using the title and cover picture. After the second reading, the students matched pictures to a text that I read to them. They worked on retelling the story to a partner. They also work on reviewing sight word vocabulary and "walking" and writing their words. Robust Vocabulary for this week included CHANGE, RELATIVES, EAGER, OCCASION, CELEBRATE. Students reviewed rhyming patterns and sound blending 2 sound words. During our read aloud time, the students read "Can We?" Students caught on to the story structure...question....answer. Tracking skills are becoming more consistent. Workstations this week included completing sentence starters...I am.....I can.....with illustrations, picture sort by initial sound, before and after writing and illustration about how you have changed, rhyming word families AD and AT--nonsense or real words using the app Word Wizard, leveled readers/comprehension/story elements, shared reading with partners. Students continue to enjoy playing "Working on Syllables" and Rock. Paper, Scissors--upper/lowercase match. We were fortunate this week to be guided thru our Haggerty Blue Book exercises by Mr. Squirrel the puppet on loan to us from Evan!
Math: The students continue to work on counting quantities 0-15, recognizing numbers 0-15 and writing numbers. They used their number cards in a variety of games including the partner game Top It, where each partner draws a number and the partner with the greater number get the cards, Got It--number recognition where you roll the dice and color in the number on your recording sheet, Heads or Tails where you flip a penny and use tally marks to keep your score and number puzzles-matching number to quantity. The student worked on recognizing pattern block shapes and basic flat shapes. On our ten frames, students worked on "Slide and Say" and "Show Me" number. The students are beginning to recognize number more consistently using the reckenrek.
Writing: The students worked on activities from our hand and finger strengthening box. Holding an eraser with the ring and pinkie fingers of their writing hand, they practiced using their tri pod grasp to pick up objects, turn gears, search for pennies and beads, stamp in clay. Students continued to work on Frog Jump letters F, E, D, P. They practiced on their mini boards and also used Wet, Dry, Try method. They applied what they learned in their Orange Practice Books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students worked on a writing project using the story, "The Day the Crayons Quit." They worked on forming their own opinion of what was their favorite color. The students are creating a class book with writing and illustrations about their favorite color. When it is completed, we will share it with you!
Technology: Students are using the iPad as a tool to enhance and reinforce skills taught. In student small groups used the apps Word Wizard to work on rhyming word families, ABC Magic to reinforce sound/symbol, I Write Words for letter formation, My ABC for letter matching, letter/sound relationship, upper/lowercase match and Sound Sort for sound/object match. In math small groups students used the apps Easy Match, Intro to Math and Geoboard to reinforce counting, number recognition, shape recognition and design.
Literature: "I See Patterns," "We Share Everything," "The Quiet Book," "The Cactus Hotel," "It's Okay to Make Mistakes," "The Playground Problem," "Pete the Cat Too Cool for School," "Me and My Family Tree," "The Day the Crayons Quit," "Peter's Chair," "If Your Were a Capital Letter," "The Rabbit and the Coyote."
**Wednesday, October is WALK TO SCHOOL DAY. All students who walk to school will receive a hand stamp and gym shoe that they will color. Mr. Hancock will display all colored gym shoes in the gym. If you cannot walk to school on Wednesday......no worries.....At lunch, we can walk around the playground to get our stamp and shoe.
**Don't forget to send back your confirmation for Parent/Teacher Conferences. Conferences are Monday, October 20th, Tuesday, October 21st and Wednesday, October 22nd. Don't forget that on Thursday and Friday (October 23rd and 24th) school is in session in the morning only. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. District School Bus, Hephzibah and Magical Minds will also pick up at that time.
**SEASONAL BABIES PROJECT. Please send in a baby picture of your child for our Seasonal Babies Project. It can be any size. We will do the project on October 14th.
**The students were all smiles for their class and individual pictures last Tuesday. The weather did not cooperate for us so our class picture was taken inside in the auditorium. Thanks to K.Meier (Jeremy's mom) for her help!
**Route to Reading is off to a great start! You should have received notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher who is teaching it.. Please email me if you did not receive it.
**The students have earned many EAGLE SLIPS! In celebration, the students in grades K-2 will have music playing during their outside lunch recess on Monday. Job well done!!!!
**Our GREEN TEAM reps--Atessa and Evan are working on their first project of the year. They are bringing an old shirt to their next meeting on Tuesday, October 7th and making rags.'
**Our STUDENT COUNCIL reps--Ethan and Lily will attend their first Student Council Meeting on Tuesday, October 7th during their lunch recess. They will report back to us.
**Sign up for FAMILY MATH NIGHT. Let's Rock Around the Clock!! It's Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm You and your child solve the math problems......I will make the root beer floats in the lunchroom soda shop!!!
**There is still time to sigh up for TRIVIA NIGHT--sponsored by PTO. Great grown up fun!!!
**Don't forget to sign up your child for the FUN RUN FUNDRAISER--PTO'S BIGGEST FUNDRAISER OF THE YEAR. The event is Wednesday, October 22nd. Kindergarten will "run" from 8:15-8:30 am around the turf. Help raise money for our school!!!
**Scholastic Book Order for October is due October 14th. You can also order on line by clicking the book on the left side of my blog.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued discussion and activities on the Zones of Regulation. You will find a copy in your child's homework folder. Next week, she will start a unit on friendship.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week--Mr. Packer began reading the book, "Tomorrow's Alphabet." It is a really cool book about ABC's and what items become in the future. This book is the catalyst for an upcoming project.
**NO SCHOOL on Friday, October 10th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, October 13th in observance of Columbus Day.
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP--BROOKFIELD ZOO on November 25th from 9:00-1:30 pm More info is forthcoming. I will need at least 4 volunteers.
This week:
The students are working hard on their daily curriculum. They continue to respond to our Eagle Essential Guidelines and our class 1..2..3. They are now very much a part of shaping their own behavior! We are all learning a lot from each other. The students continue to work on fostering positive peer relationships both in and out of the classroom. We had our second meeting with our Book Buddies on Friday. The "little" kids selected a book and "big" Book Buddy read it to them and then they discussed the story elements --Characters, Setting and Story Events--Fiction/Nonfiction. Afterwards they illustrated their favorite part of the story. We have amazing 5th grade Book Buddies!!! They work so well with our precious kindergarten students! We will begin our next cross curricular theme: Apples, Pumpkins and Autumn next week.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 1 Families in the Treasures Reading Series. The students discussed how families can change. Family members move away or move in. Children get older. I read the trade book, "Peter's Chair." It's the story about a boy who has a change in his family on a few different levels. We worked on story structure--a way in which things in the story happen. Stories have a beginning, middle and an end. The students made predictions about story content using the title and cover picture. After the second reading, the students matched pictures to a text that I read to them. They worked on retelling the story to a partner. They also work on reviewing sight word vocabulary and "walking" and writing their words. Robust Vocabulary for this week included CHANGE, RELATIVES, EAGER, OCCASION, CELEBRATE. Students reviewed rhyming patterns and sound blending 2 sound words. During our read aloud time, the students read "Can We?" Students caught on to the story structure...question....answer. Tracking skills are becoming more consistent. Workstations this week included completing sentence starters...I am.....I can.....with illustrations, picture sort by initial sound, before and after writing and illustration about how you have changed, rhyming word families AD and AT--nonsense or real words using the app Word Wizard, leveled readers/comprehension/story elements, shared reading with partners. Students continue to enjoy playing "Working on Syllables" and Rock. Paper, Scissors--upper/lowercase match. We were fortunate this week to be guided thru our Haggerty Blue Book exercises by Mr. Squirrel the puppet on loan to us from Evan!
Math: The students continue to work on counting quantities 0-15, recognizing numbers 0-15 and writing numbers. They used their number cards in a variety of games including the partner game Top It, where each partner draws a number and the partner with the greater number get the cards, Got It--number recognition where you roll the dice and color in the number on your recording sheet, Heads or Tails where you flip a penny and use tally marks to keep your score and number puzzles-matching number to quantity. The student worked on recognizing pattern block shapes and basic flat shapes. On our ten frames, students worked on "Slide and Say" and "Show Me" number. The students are beginning to recognize number more consistently using the reckenrek.
Writing: The students worked on activities from our hand and finger strengthening box. Holding an eraser with the ring and pinkie fingers of their writing hand, they practiced using their tri pod grasp to pick up objects, turn gears, search for pennies and beads, stamp in clay. Students continued to work on Frog Jump letters F, E, D, P. They practiced on their mini boards and also used Wet, Dry, Try method. They applied what they learned in their Orange Practice Books. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students worked on a writing project using the story, "The Day the Crayons Quit." They worked on forming their own opinion of what was their favorite color. The students are creating a class book with writing and illustrations about their favorite color. When it is completed, we will share it with you!
Technology: Students are using the iPad as a tool to enhance and reinforce skills taught. In student small groups used the apps Word Wizard to work on rhyming word families, ABC Magic to reinforce sound/symbol, I Write Words for letter formation, My ABC for letter matching, letter/sound relationship, upper/lowercase match and Sound Sort for sound/object match. In math small groups students used the apps Easy Match, Intro to Math and Geoboard to reinforce counting, number recognition, shape recognition and design.
Literature: "I See Patterns," "We Share Everything," "The Quiet Book," "The Cactus Hotel," "It's Okay to Make Mistakes," "The Playground Problem," "Pete the Cat Too Cool for School," "Me and My Family Tree," "The Day the Crayons Quit," "Peter's Chair," "If Your Were a Capital Letter," "The Rabbit and the Coyote."
Sunday, September 28, 2014
UPDATES for 9/22-9/26 2014
**Please check your child's homework folder for permission slip and library card application for our Field Trip to Maze Branch Library. I need to turn all card applications to the library for processing on Thursday, October 2nd. I will need 2 volunteers to walk with us.
**National Education Association President, Lily Garcia and Illinois Education Association President, Cinda Klickna visited Irving as part of their visits to selected schools across the country. They were treated to breakfast and got to tour the school and visit some classrooms and our playground. We were so proud that Irving and Julian Middle Schools represented Oak Park!!
**School Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 30th. Please check your child's homework folder for the order form. You can also fill out the form and pay on line. Our picture taking time is 10:20 am. Kate Meier has signed up to make sure we look our best!
**Route to Reading Skills groups will begin on Tuesday, September 30th. Students were screened and placed at a particular skill level. That skill will be taught for 3 weeks and then assessed. 90% mastery is needed for the student to go on to the next skill. Students can remain in a skill, move to the next skill or skip skills depending upon mastery. Skills are also taught as part of their regular class. All Kindergarten teachers as well as Ms. Chinn, Language Arts Specialist and Reading Tutors Ms. Simon, Ms. Diehl, Ms. Cruz and Ms. Cairns will each have a small grouping of students. Route to Reading will meet 3 times a week for 30 minutes. You will receive notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher working with your child.
**The math baseline assessment, EASY CBM was given on Thursday. This assessment gives me a better idea of skills that students have come in with to assist in planning. I will share these with you at conference time.
**The sign up form for TRIVIA NIGHT--sponsored by PTO is in your child's homework folder. It's great fun for grown ups! Check it out!
**Don't forget to sign up your child for the FUN RUN FUNDRAISER--PTO'S BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the YEAR!! Sign up on line. The event is WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd. Kindergarten will "run" from 8:15-8:30 am around the turf. Help raise money for our school!!
**Family Math Night!!! " Let's Rock Around the Clock!! " It's Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm. Look for the green sign up/info sheet in your child's homework folder. You and your child solve the math problems......I will serve the root beer floats in the lunchroom soda shop!
**Congratulations to our GREEN TEAM REPS--Evan and Atessa!! They attended their first meeting under the direction of Ms. Parkinson and Mr. Packer on Tuesday. They will be creating projects that involve the whole school and reporting back to our class. They are working to make our school a "greener" place to be!! This is a whole year commitment!
**STUDENT COUNCIL REPS for this trimester have been chosen! Congratulations to Ethan and Lily!! They will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, October 7th during their lunch recess time.
**Look for a letter in next Friday's homework folder that will remind you about your conference day and time. Please Note---School is in session MORNING ONLY on Thursday, October 23rd and Friday, October 24th. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. District School Bus, Hephzibah and Magical Minds will also pick up at this time.
**Author visit by Eileen Christelow in Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued discussion and role play on the Zones of Regulation. She brought out her puppets, Puppy and Snail to help reinforce making good and safe choices in the classroom and with our friends.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, the students finished their project on positional concepts and sang their concept song.
This week:
We are now in the season of fall or autumn. The students are beginning to notice subtle changes that signal the season. Some students are observing leaves on the ground. In the mornings, they are needing sweat shirts or light jackets. A few trees have leaves that are changing color. They are noticing less bugs around. Our Station Day activities for this week included sort and glue signs of Fall, cover and count with unifix cubes, stamp your words, decorate your PACER necklace envelope and read one the Treasures leveled readers to a friend.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continued working on Units 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The phonics portion keyed in on target sounds short a and Mm. They worked on isolating the beginning sound by saying the picture name. The students completed their brainstormed lists of people, places and things and learned that they are called nouns. They continued work on listening comprehension and identifying story elements--characters, setting and events happening the story. In our Big Book story, "Picnic in Apple Park," the students also looked for language patterns as I read. (question--answer) The students responded and retold events in the story sequence. They had an "elbow chat" to discuss with a partner WHO was in the story, WHERE did the story happen and WHAT was happening. We discussed how the story structure can provide evidence for our predictions. In our FICTION Big Book story, one character was a skunk. In our NONFICTION story, "Night Animals," students worked on asking and answering questions from a given text. They made comparisons about each text--skunks in the park vs. facts about skunks as nocturnal animals. We charted our responses. Students worked on the concepts same and different. The students began the process of phoneme (sound) blending.....putting together sounds to create words. We used the AM and AT word families to create new words by adding a consonant to the beginning. Robust Vocabulary included ACTIVITY, COOPERATE, EXCITING, EXHAUSTED, GATHER. Students reviewed their sight vocabulary paying particular attention our target words we and the. The students read the story "I See the Apple." They also practiced their tracking skills in our group read aloud, "The Baseball." Workstations this week included ABC upper and lowercase match, counting syllable activity, read it--add to it/draw and write a new page to the story, leveled readers comprehension/discussion focusing on story elements, "Walk Your Words"--write your words, interview a friend--draw a picture of what their family likes to do, create sentences using your sight words and pictures and punctuation, Mm picture sort, sound/picture match up.
Math: Students continue to count by ones to various numbers. They are locating the number that comes before a random number and after by looking at our giant number board, thinking in their head or looking at our growing caterpillar. Students continue to work on counting activities using the reckenrek. This week we did the pattern block hokey pokey. Students worked with positional concepts as well as pattern blocks--hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus and skinny rhombus. We discussed how many sides each shape had and how many corners. Do you know the differences between the square, rectangle and trapezoid???? The students counted pennies by "hearing" them fall into the jar. Our "listening" jar was full of fun! "Slide and Say" and "Show Me" activities using a ten frame continue to reinforce number recognition and counting quantity. Math workstations this week included matching one to one, sequencing number cards, counting quantities, playing "Swat the Number," and reviewing positional concepts. and learning to record tally marks (counting by 5's.)
Writing: Students continue to work on written formation of uppercase letters. This week, Frog Jump letter D was introduced along with a sensory practice called---Wet, Dry, Try. Students use tiny wet sponges and chalk pieces that just fit their tri pod grasp. When working on letter formation on their mini chalk boards they first...Wet.....make the letter on their board with the wet sponge...then....Dry.....fan it quick with their kleenex ...it will leave a print....then Try......trace over the print let by the wet sponge. Students sang their song about starting letters at the top. This week, the students applied what they learned in their orange practice books. We learned correct posture for working on writing and coloring......sitting up straight so that our back touches the back of the chair, feet under the table....one hand has our pencil or marker....the other hand is holding down the paper or book page. Students worked on their journal entries selecting a piece they already worked on and adding more to it....whether it was more writing or more picture details. Students are beginning to grasp the concept of beginning with an uppercase letter if they are writing a sentence and using an ending mark.
Technology: I continue to slowly introduce appropriate apps that will support our reading, language, phonemic awareness and math. This week, the apps Sound Sort and Alpha Tots as well as I Write Letters were introduced to small groups. The number recognition app, Numbers was also introduced. Students are becoming more comfortable using the mouse in the lab when we are at Lexia Core 5. All students have been auto placed and are working on a variety of activities including naming pictures, rhyming, beginning sounds and recognizing upper and lowercase letters. Once or twice a week home practice can really help build the phonemic awareness foundation.
Literature: "Night Animals," "Coyote and the Rabbit,""The ABC's of Yoga," "The Day the Crayons Quit," "Pete the Cat-Rocking in My School Shoes," "Clifford's Family," "The Color of Us," "Patterns All Around," "The Bundle of Sticks,"(fable) "Why Do We Write."
**National Education Association President, Lily Garcia and Illinois Education Association President, Cinda Klickna visited Irving as part of their visits to selected schools across the country. They were treated to breakfast and got to tour the school and visit some classrooms and our playground. We were so proud that Irving and Julian Middle Schools represented Oak Park!!
**School Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 30th. Please check your child's homework folder for the order form. You can also fill out the form and pay on line. Our picture taking time is 10:20 am. Kate Meier has signed up to make sure we look our best!
**Route to Reading Skills groups will begin on Tuesday, September 30th. Students were screened and placed at a particular skill level. That skill will be taught for 3 weeks and then assessed. 90% mastery is needed for the student to go on to the next skill. Students can remain in a skill, move to the next skill or skip skills depending upon mastery. Skills are also taught as part of their regular class. All Kindergarten teachers as well as Ms. Chinn, Language Arts Specialist and Reading Tutors Ms. Simon, Ms. Diehl, Ms. Cruz and Ms. Cairns will each have a small grouping of students. Route to Reading will meet 3 times a week for 30 minutes. You will receive notification of the skill your child is working on and the teacher working with your child.
**The math baseline assessment, EASY CBM was given on Thursday. This assessment gives me a better idea of skills that students have come in with to assist in planning. I will share these with you at conference time.
**The sign up form for TRIVIA NIGHT--sponsored by PTO is in your child's homework folder. It's great fun for grown ups! Check it out!
**Don't forget to sign up your child for the FUN RUN FUNDRAISER--PTO'S BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the YEAR!! Sign up on line. The event is WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd. Kindergarten will "run" from 8:15-8:30 am around the turf. Help raise money for our school!!
**Family Math Night!!! " Let's Rock Around the Clock!! " It's Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm. Look for the green sign up/info sheet in your child's homework folder. You and your child solve the math problems......I will serve the root beer floats in the lunchroom soda shop!
**Congratulations to our GREEN TEAM REPS--Evan and Atessa!! They attended their first meeting under the direction of Ms. Parkinson and Mr. Packer on Tuesday. They will be creating projects that involve the whole school and reporting back to our class. They are working to make our school a "greener" place to be!! This is a whole year commitment!
**STUDENT COUNCIL REPS for this trimester have been chosen! Congratulations to Ethan and Lily!! They will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, October 7th during their lunch recess time.
**Look for a letter in next Friday's homework folder that will remind you about your conference day and time. Please Note---School is in session MORNING ONLY on Thursday, October 23rd and Friday, October 24th. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am. District School Bus, Hephzibah and Magical Minds will also pick up at this time.
**Author visit by Eileen Christelow in Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued discussion and role play on the Zones of Regulation. She brought out her puppets, Puppy and Snail to help reinforce making good and safe choices in the classroom and with our friends.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, the students finished their project on positional concepts and sang their concept song.
This week:
We are now in the season of fall or autumn. The students are beginning to notice subtle changes that signal the season. Some students are observing leaves on the ground. In the mornings, they are needing sweat shirts or light jackets. A few trees have leaves that are changing color. They are noticing less bugs around. Our Station Day activities for this week included sort and glue signs of Fall, cover and count with unifix cubes, stamp your words, decorate your PACER necklace envelope and read one the Treasures leveled readers to a friend.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continued working on Units 1 Families in our Treasures Reading series. The phonics portion keyed in on target sounds short a and Mm. They worked on isolating the beginning sound by saying the picture name. The students completed their brainstormed lists of people, places and things and learned that they are called nouns. They continued work on listening comprehension and identifying story elements--characters, setting and events happening the story. In our Big Book story, "Picnic in Apple Park," the students also looked for language patterns as I read. (question--answer) The students responded and retold events in the story sequence. They had an "elbow chat" to discuss with a partner WHO was in the story, WHERE did the story happen and WHAT was happening. We discussed how the story structure can provide evidence for our predictions. In our FICTION Big Book story, one character was a skunk. In our NONFICTION story, "Night Animals," students worked on asking and answering questions from a given text. They made comparisons about each text--skunks in the park vs. facts about skunks as nocturnal animals. We charted our responses. Students worked on the concepts same and different. The students began the process of phoneme (sound) blending.....putting together sounds to create words. We used the AM and AT word families to create new words by adding a consonant to the beginning. Robust Vocabulary included ACTIVITY, COOPERATE, EXCITING, EXHAUSTED, GATHER. Students reviewed their sight vocabulary paying particular attention our target words we and the. The students read the story "I See the Apple." They also practiced their tracking skills in our group read aloud, "The Baseball." Workstations this week included ABC upper and lowercase match, counting syllable activity, read it--add to it/draw and write a new page to the story, leveled readers comprehension/discussion focusing on story elements, "Walk Your Words"--write your words, interview a friend--draw a picture of what their family likes to do, create sentences using your sight words and pictures and punctuation, Mm picture sort, sound/picture match up.
Math: Students continue to count by ones to various numbers. They are locating the number that comes before a random number and after by looking at our giant number board, thinking in their head or looking at our growing caterpillar. Students continue to work on counting activities using the reckenrek. This week we did the pattern block hokey pokey. Students worked with positional concepts as well as pattern blocks--hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus and skinny rhombus. We discussed how many sides each shape had and how many corners. Do you know the differences between the square, rectangle and trapezoid???? The students counted pennies by "hearing" them fall into the jar. Our "listening" jar was full of fun! "Slide and Say" and "Show Me" activities using a ten frame continue to reinforce number recognition and counting quantity. Math workstations this week included matching one to one, sequencing number cards, counting quantities, playing "Swat the Number," and reviewing positional concepts. and learning to record tally marks (counting by 5's.)
Writing: Students continue to work on written formation of uppercase letters. This week, Frog Jump letter D was introduced along with a sensory practice called---Wet, Dry, Try. Students use tiny wet sponges and chalk pieces that just fit their tri pod grasp. When working on letter formation on their mini chalk boards they first...Wet.....make the letter on their board with the wet sponge...then....Dry.....fan it quick with their kleenex ...it will leave a print....then Try......trace over the print let by the wet sponge. Students sang their song about starting letters at the top. This week, the students applied what they learned in their orange practice books. We learned correct posture for working on writing and coloring......sitting up straight so that our back touches the back of the chair, feet under the table....one hand has our pencil or marker....the other hand is holding down the paper or book page. Students worked on their journal entries selecting a piece they already worked on and adding more to it....whether it was more writing or more picture details. Students are beginning to grasp the concept of beginning with an uppercase letter if they are writing a sentence and using an ending mark.
Technology: I continue to slowly introduce appropriate apps that will support our reading, language, phonemic awareness and math. This week, the apps Sound Sort and Alpha Tots as well as I Write Letters were introduced to small groups. The number recognition app, Numbers was also introduced. Students are becoming more comfortable using the mouse in the lab when we are at Lexia Core 5. All students have been auto placed and are working on a variety of activities including naming pictures, rhyming, beginning sounds and recognizing upper and lowercase letters. Once or twice a week home practice can really help build the phonemic awareness foundation.
Literature: "Night Animals," "Coyote and the Rabbit,""The ABC's of Yoga," "The Day the Crayons Quit," "Pete the Cat-Rocking in My School Shoes," "Clifford's Family," "The Color of Us," "Patterns All Around," "The Bundle of Sticks,"(fable) "Why Do We Write."
Sunday, September 21, 2014
UPDATES for 9/15-9/19 2014
**Parent/Teacher Conferences for Ms. Gullo's Kindergarten class will be held on Monday, October 20th, Tuesday, October 21st and Wednesday, October 22nd. Thanks to all of you who have already signed up. If you have not signed up or need to change your day and time, please email me. PLEASE NOTE: School will be in session MORNING ONLY on Thursday, October 23rd and Friday, October 24th. Dismissal will be at 11:00 am.
**DIBELS testing and PHONEMIC AWARENESS SCREENERS have been completed. Our math baseline assessment EASY CBM will be administered sometime in the next week or two. All testing and assessments will be shared with you at conference time. We are looking at beginning Route to Reading Skill specific groups on September 30th. You will receive notification of your child's skill group placement at that time.
**School Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 30th. I usually try to have the students pictures taken first thing in the morning. You will be receiving more info soon.
**Pledge information on PTO's BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the YEAR--THE FUN RUN went home on Tuesday. You can also sign up and pledge on line. It will take place on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd. Kindergarten will "run" around the turf from 8:15-8:30 am. Help raise money for our school!!
**Irving PACERS Running/Walking club began last Friday. Students used their lunch recess time to run/walk around the school grounds. 3 times around (1mile) and the student earns a special necklace with a foot on it. Each week, the students will get another opportunity to add a foot. The students are making special envelopes to hold their necklaces and we will keep them in the classroom for safekeeping. PACERS will meet 9/26, 10/3, 10/17, 11/7, 11/14, 11/21 weather permitting and resume in the spring. Let's say YES to exercise!!
**I will be choosing our STUDENT COUNCIL REPS on MONDAY. Anyone else interested...let me know. The first meeting will be October 7th at lunch recess time.
**We have a GREEN TEAM!! Each class will send 2 reps to the meetings that meet every other Tuesday with our Green Team Leaders, Mr. Packer and Ms. Parkinson. They will plan projects, discuss how to create a "greener" environment for our school and will relay information to our class.
We need 2 reps for our class. I will be having a discussion with the class on Monday to see if anyone is interested. It is a commitment for the entire school year and we will talk about what that means.
**Author of "Five Little Monkeys" fame, Eileen Christelow will visit Irving School on Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm. She will speak about her work and how she gets her ideas. Ms. Noonan will send an order form of Ms. Christelow's books prior to her visit. There will be a book signing.
**Information on Irving School's TRIVIA NIGHT was in your child's homework folder. SAVE THE DATE--Thursday, November 6th, 7:00 pm at The Wire in Berwyn. Registration begins next week.
**No School--Friday, October 10th---Teacher's Institute Day.
**No School--Monday, October 13th---Columbus Day Observance.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her discussion on the Zones of Regulation and what it means to be in the YELLOW ZONE and RED ZONE. She also went into more detail about being a "Social Detective." We have been having some well thought out and heart felt discussions and comments about our behavior and what we can do to shape it.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, we went to Mr. Packer's room to continue our project on positional concepts. Concepts in, on, under, next to, behind, in front of, between were discussed and the students looked again at the video demonstrating the concepts.
This week:
It was all about letters and numbers. The students have found letters around the classroom and school. They also located numbers around the classroom and school. What is the difference between letters and numbers? The students began a conversation about consonants (letters that have 1-2 sounds) and vowels (letters that have many different sounds.) The students found the consonants and vowels in their name. They compared that number to the number of consonant and vowels in a friends name. We are counting everything in sight---markers, crayons, chairs, books, feet, fingers, noses, shoes........What is a reckenrek?????? Station Day activities included creating patterns and counting teddy bears, continued exploration of pattern block shapes, playing "Show Me" using their ten frames, reading their paper stories to a partner, reading their word wheel sentences.
Reading/Language Arts: We have begun Unit 1 FAMILIES in our Treasures Reading Series. Students build background knowledge about types of families they knew about. They discussed human families and animal families. We all shared experiences about our families and the number of family members we have. The students listened to the Big Book story,"Whose Baby is It?" The students reviewed parts of a book--front cover, back cover, title page, spine. They also located where to find the page number. The students noted the question and answer pattern in the book. They reviewed their previous sight words and added new target words we and the. We played "Hands Up, Hands Down" adding our new words. Our target sound in isolation this week is Mm. The students worked with the sound toy box and sound cards and created a list of words that began with Mm. They also listened for the sound of Mm at the end of words. Our puppet friends, Mr. Happy and Mr. G. assisted in our Mm sound reinforcing activities. The students worked on additional vocabulary when listening to the fable," The Lioness and the Ostrich." This vocabulary is referred to as ROBUST VOCABULARY. Ask your child about the words ANIMAL, PROTECT, TOGETHER and RESEMBLE. We defined each word and gave a sample sentence. We used them frequently in our discussions. The students used retelling cards to retell the Big Book story to a partner. The students worked on story words JOEY, PUP and CUB in the baby animal world. We read aloud our pre decodable story, "I Can, We Can." The students continue to work on tracking each word and picture using their pointing finger while reading. They also read the paper story, "I Can" to a partner. The students continue to work on additional Common Core skills---recognizing FICTION and NON FICTION stories and examining the similarities and differences between a story and a poem. The students continued to work on recognizing certain parts of speech. They brainstormed lists of words that named people, animals and places (NOUNS) and words that name an action (VERBS.)
Formal literacy workstations began this week. While I worked with small group leveled readers each day, the students also worked in rotating small groups writing an I am.....sentence with picture, "walking"/writing their words, comparing family sizes project, play the beginning sound game, playing upper and lowercase match, draw a picture of your family and write about something you do together and retelling their leveled reader story to a person in their group. Each week each group is assigned a "table manager" for their group. Their jobs are setting up their workstation, controlling the noise level, gentle reminders to keep working etc. We spent time last week role playing various scenes in a workstations. Our table managers did an excellent job!
Math: The students reviewed simple shape recognition. They did the "Shape Rap" a cool listening as well as shape recognizing song activity. The students continued their exploration of pattern blocks. We looked at hexagons, trapezoid, rhombus and ovals. Students brought up how many sides each shape had. The students worked on a variety of counting activities using their 10 frame. We played "Show Me' where I write a number and the students have to create it on their 10 frame. Students worked with a variety of objects--pennies, bears, blocks and cubes matching one to one. Students worked with number cards and partners to match and sequence and sequence numbers 0-5, 0-10, 0-15 or 0-20. Movement activities that included work on greater than, less than, over, under, between, beside, behind, above, below had the students up and moving and having fun!
What is a reckenrek?????? Check out the photo on the side of the blog. Looks somewhat like an abacus but a little different..... 10 rows---5 white beads and 5 red beads in each row........mmmm. The reckenrek is a calculating frame that acts a visual model for developing strategic reasoning in math. Students are beginning to see or visualize patterns and strategies for solving math problems. There may be more than one way to solve a problem. Right now we are in the beginning stages of its use. We started by looking at the 5 white and 5 red.....10 all together. If you already know that there are 5 white....what if I add one more??? Do you have to count it???? The students worked on an activity called "slide and say." I slid the the beads from one side to another they had to "figure out" what number was being illustrated. Loads of fun........I have some serious math heads in the house!!!!!!
Writing: The students began work on their FROG JUMP capitals. They are using their mini chalk boards, chalk and sponges. The small chalk and sponge pieces help to reinforce their tri pod grasp. The students are also working with large wooden straight, curved and slant shapes to create the letter. Letters F and E were introduced this week. The students also learned a song about where ALL LETTERS start.......Where do you start your letters....AT THE TOP!!!! Appearing in the upper left corner is Mr. Smiley. He is there to remind the students to always begin on the left side. Next week the students will apply what they have learned in their orange practice books. Students continue to work on journal entries in Writer's Workshop. The student are using journal prompts from our Treasures Unit. Lots of writing and drawing about family members. Students are now seeing that they can come back to a piece of writing they have done and add more to it or they can continue to work on a piece of writing that is not finished. The students saw the video, "Arthur is a Writer."
It helped reinforce to the students that they can write about any topic that interests them.
Technology: I have begun to work with small groups of students on iPad etiquette. The apps Sound Sort and Alpha Tots were introduced to one group. Next week I will work the remainder of the groups and introduce 2 math apps. Feel free to download these apps thru the App Store on your devices. Many of them are free or between $.99-2.99.
Literature: "Arthur's Back to School Surprise," "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," "Fox in Socks,"
"Oops, David," "Hands Are Not For Hitting," "If You Give a Pig a Pancake," "Whose Baby Am I?' "Maya Was Grumpy," "A Rainbow All Around Me," "The Alphabet Adventure," "Big and Small Animals," "Animal Babies," "How Do We Learn," "Where in the Wild."
**DIBELS testing and PHONEMIC AWARENESS SCREENERS have been completed. Our math baseline assessment EASY CBM will be administered sometime in the next week or two. All testing and assessments will be shared with you at conference time. We are looking at beginning Route to Reading Skill specific groups on September 30th. You will receive notification of your child's skill group placement at that time.
**School Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 30th. I usually try to have the students pictures taken first thing in the morning. You will be receiving more info soon.
**Pledge information on PTO's BIGGEST FUNDRAISER of the YEAR--THE FUN RUN went home on Tuesday. You can also sign up and pledge on line. It will take place on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd. Kindergarten will "run" around the turf from 8:15-8:30 am. Help raise money for our school!!
**Irving PACERS Running/Walking club began last Friday. Students used their lunch recess time to run/walk around the school grounds. 3 times around (1mile) and the student earns a special necklace with a foot on it. Each week, the students will get another opportunity to add a foot. The students are making special envelopes to hold their necklaces and we will keep them in the classroom for safekeeping. PACERS will meet 9/26, 10/3, 10/17, 11/7, 11/14, 11/21 weather permitting and resume in the spring. Let's say YES to exercise!!
**I will be choosing our STUDENT COUNCIL REPS on MONDAY. Anyone else interested...let me know. The first meeting will be October 7th at lunch recess time.
**We have a GREEN TEAM!! Each class will send 2 reps to the meetings that meet every other Tuesday with our Green Team Leaders, Mr. Packer and Ms. Parkinson. They will plan projects, discuss how to create a "greener" environment for our school and will relay information to our class.
We need 2 reps for our class. I will be having a discussion with the class on Monday to see if anyone is interested. It is a commitment for the entire school year and we will talk about what that means.
**Author of "Five Little Monkeys" fame, Eileen Christelow will visit Irving School on Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm. She will speak about her work and how she gets her ideas. Ms. Noonan will send an order form of Ms. Christelow's books prior to her visit. There will be a book signing.
**Information on Irving School's TRIVIA NIGHT was in your child's homework folder. SAVE THE DATE--Thursday, November 6th, 7:00 pm at The Wire in Berwyn. Registration begins next week.
**No School--Friday, October 10th---Teacher's Institute Day.
**No School--Monday, October 13th---Columbus Day Observance.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her discussion on the Zones of Regulation and what it means to be in the YELLOW ZONE and RED ZONE. She also went into more detail about being a "Social Detective." We have been having some well thought out and heart felt discussions and comments about our behavior and what we can do to shape it.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, we went to Mr. Packer's room to continue our project on positional concepts. Concepts in, on, under, next to, behind, in front of, between were discussed and the students looked again at the video demonstrating the concepts.
This week:
It was all about letters and numbers. The students have found letters around the classroom and school. They also located numbers around the classroom and school. What is the difference between letters and numbers? The students began a conversation about consonants (letters that have 1-2 sounds) and vowels (letters that have many different sounds.) The students found the consonants and vowels in their name. They compared that number to the number of consonant and vowels in a friends name. We are counting everything in sight---markers, crayons, chairs, books, feet, fingers, noses, shoes........What is a reckenrek?????? Station Day activities included creating patterns and counting teddy bears, continued exploration of pattern block shapes, playing "Show Me" using their ten frames, reading their paper stories to a partner, reading their word wheel sentences.
Reading/Language Arts: We have begun Unit 1 FAMILIES in our Treasures Reading Series. Students build background knowledge about types of families they knew about. They discussed human families and animal families. We all shared experiences about our families and the number of family members we have. The students listened to the Big Book story,"Whose Baby is It?" The students reviewed parts of a book--front cover, back cover, title page, spine. They also located where to find the page number. The students noted the question and answer pattern in the book. They reviewed their previous sight words and added new target words we and the. We played "Hands Up, Hands Down" adding our new words. Our target sound in isolation this week is Mm. The students worked with the sound toy box and sound cards and created a list of words that began with Mm. They also listened for the sound of Mm at the end of words. Our puppet friends, Mr. Happy and Mr. G. assisted in our Mm sound reinforcing activities. The students worked on additional vocabulary when listening to the fable," The Lioness and the Ostrich." This vocabulary is referred to as ROBUST VOCABULARY. Ask your child about the words ANIMAL, PROTECT, TOGETHER and RESEMBLE. We defined each word and gave a sample sentence. We used them frequently in our discussions. The students used retelling cards to retell the Big Book story to a partner. The students worked on story words JOEY, PUP and CUB in the baby animal world. We read aloud our pre decodable story, "I Can, We Can." The students continue to work on tracking each word and picture using their pointing finger while reading. They also read the paper story, "I Can" to a partner. The students continue to work on additional Common Core skills---recognizing FICTION and NON FICTION stories and examining the similarities and differences between a story and a poem. The students continued to work on recognizing certain parts of speech. They brainstormed lists of words that named people, animals and places (NOUNS) and words that name an action (VERBS.)
Formal literacy workstations began this week. While I worked with small group leveled readers each day, the students also worked in rotating small groups writing an I am.....sentence with picture, "walking"/writing their words, comparing family sizes project, play the beginning sound game, playing upper and lowercase match, draw a picture of your family and write about something you do together and retelling their leveled reader story to a person in their group. Each week each group is assigned a "table manager" for their group. Their jobs are setting up their workstation, controlling the noise level, gentle reminders to keep working etc. We spent time last week role playing various scenes in a workstations. Our table managers did an excellent job!
Math: The students reviewed simple shape recognition. They did the "Shape Rap" a cool listening as well as shape recognizing song activity. The students continued their exploration of pattern blocks. We looked at hexagons, trapezoid, rhombus and ovals. Students brought up how many sides each shape had. The students worked on a variety of counting activities using their 10 frame. We played "Show Me' where I write a number and the students have to create it on their 10 frame. Students worked with a variety of objects--pennies, bears, blocks and cubes matching one to one. Students worked with number cards and partners to match and sequence and sequence numbers 0-5, 0-10, 0-15 or 0-20. Movement activities that included work on greater than, less than, over, under, between, beside, behind, above, below had the students up and moving and having fun!
What is a reckenrek?????? Check out the photo on the side of the blog. Looks somewhat like an abacus but a little different..... 10 rows---5 white beads and 5 red beads in each row........mmmm. The reckenrek is a calculating frame that acts a visual model for developing strategic reasoning in math. Students are beginning to see or visualize patterns and strategies for solving math problems. There may be more than one way to solve a problem. Right now we are in the beginning stages of its use. We started by looking at the 5 white and 5 red.....10 all together. If you already know that there are 5 white....what if I add one more??? Do you have to count it???? The students worked on an activity called "slide and say." I slid the the beads from one side to another they had to "figure out" what number was being illustrated. Loads of fun........I have some serious math heads in the house!!!!!!
Writing: The students began work on their FROG JUMP capitals. They are using their mini chalk boards, chalk and sponges. The small chalk and sponge pieces help to reinforce their tri pod grasp. The students are also working with large wooden straight, curved and slant shapes to create the letter. Letters F and E were introduced this week. The students also learned a song about where ALL LETTERS start.......Where do you start your letters....AT THE TOP!!!! Appearing in the upper left corner is Mr. Smiley. He is there to remind the students to always begin on the left side. Next week the students will apply what they have learned in their orange practice books. Students continue to work on journal entries in Writer's Workshop. The student are using journal prompts from our Treasures Unit. Lots of writing and drawing about family members. Students are now seeing that they can come back to a piece of writing they have done and add more to it or they can continue to work on a piece of writing that is not finished. The students saw the video, "Arthur is a Writer."
It helped reinforce to the students that they can write about any topic that interests them.
Technology: I have begun to work with small groups of students on iPad etiquette. The apps Sound Sort and Alpha Tots were introduced to one group. Next week I will work the remainder of the groups and introduce 2 math apps. Feel free to download these apps thru the App Store on your devices. Many of them are free or between $.99-2.99.
Literature: "Arthur's Back to School Surprise," "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," "Fox in Socks,"
"Oops, David," "Hands Are Not For Hitting," "If You Give a Pig a Pancake," "Whose Baby Am I?' "Maya Was Grumpy," "A Rainbow All Around Me," "The Alphabet Adventure," "Big and Small Animals," "Animal Babies," "How Do We Learn," "Where in the Wild."
Sunday, September 14, 2014
UPDATES for 9/8-9/12 2014
**Thanks so much for your attendance at OPEN HOUSE/CURRICULUM NIGHT! I know there was a lot of material presented and I could have talked for another 30 minutes! Please read through your curriculum packet. If you have any questions or would like to meet me after school or early evening to go over anything, please email me. I know the students had a great time. They were a bit sleepy eyed the next day but full of conversation about who they saw and who they introduced. Most of you signed up for Parent/Teacher Conferences. The list is posted in the room. I will send you a formal confirmation and reminder letter. Parent/Teacher Conferences for my class will be held Monday, October 20th, Tuesday, October 21st and Wednesday, October 22nd. At that time, I will be sharing my assessments, student progress in all academic areas, participation and social/emotional growth reflections. I will also share with you the standards based report card.
**I was not able to attend Barriefest but heard the Pet Parade was the bomb!!
**Eagle Extras after school classes will begin on Monday, September 15th. The students signed up will be picked up from the classroom at dismissal.
**I have completed DIBELS testing and am almost finished with the Phonemic Awareness Screening. These screeners will be used to create groupings for our Route to Reading Skill specific groups. We hope to begin Route to Reading September 30th. You will receive notification of your child's skill group at that time.
**School Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 30th. More information will be forthcoming.
**We have LIBRARY every MONDAY. Don't forget to send the book back. Next week, the students will get to select 2 books to take out.
**The PTO's BIGGEST FUND RAISER of the YEAR is coming up on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd!! It's the annual FUN RUN!! Students seek pledges from family and friends. They in turn will "run" around the turf on October 22nd. Incentives and prizes galore!! KINDERGARTEN will RUN from 8:15-8:30 am. All are welcome to attend and cheer us on!!! Pledge packets will go home on Tuesday, September 16th. Help up raise money for our school!!!
**Author of "Five Little Monkeys" fame, Eileen Christelow will visit Irving School on Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm. She will talk about her work and how she gets her ideas. Ms. Noonan will send a an order form of Ms. Christelow's books prior to her visit. There will be a book signing.
**If your child will be "TRAVELING" over any weekend or taking a vacation, let me know.....I will send a Travel Journal with them. Our class will track our "travels" throughout the year on our state and world map. It can be anywhere Chicago, Florida, Lombard, Colorado, South Carolina, a water park, hotel, France......if you go there...we will track it!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey talked about the Zones of Regulation and what it means to be in the GREEN ZONE and the BLUE ZONE. I will send you information on this topic as we delve deeper into working with the students on shaping and regulating their own behavior.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, the students got to go up to Mr. Packer's room to view a video on the positional concepts--in, on, under, behind, next to, in front of and between. There were dancing fish and a cute catchy tune! The students then began work on a project that will give them a better understanding about the various positional concepts covered. Stay tuned for part 2 next week.
This week: It was all about getting ready for OPEN HOUSE. The students worked hard on projects to display in our hallway. They thought about their future in their illustrations and writing of what they wanted to be when they grew up. They work on retelling a story both verbally and with the help of their classmates recording letters and words. It was a total group effort! The students shared information on who was in their family with each other. They drew a picture of their family members.....even their pets. Totally adorable!! The discussions on expectations, behavior, Eagle slips and direction following remain important topics.
Reading/Language Arts: The students finished Week 3 of our prep for Treasures Reading series called Smart Start. They completed their Activity Book for the unit. It is in their homework folder. The students worked on reinforcing the recognition of letter names A-Z and sounds A-P. They again used mirrors to observe where each sound came from...open/closed mouth?...puff of air?....vibrations?.....where is your tongue? The students continue to work on sight word vocabulary. They had fun with an activity called, "Walk Your Words." Sight words introduced so far--red, blue, go, I, am, yes, no, can. I read the trade book, "Jazz Baby." Before the first read, the students made predictions about story content. They were able to point out the title, title page, spine and that the story was fiction. After the second reading, the students used the retelling cards to orally retell the story. Some students volunteered to write words under the picture cards. It was a group effort to help in the sounding out words and the recording of letters to create the sentences. The students continued to work on the common core standards of comparing texts and asking and answering questions about a story read. The students compared the fiction story, "Jazz Baby," to the informational (nonfiction) story, "Made From Clay." They noted the real from the make believe, photo vs. illustrations and what each story was about (main idea. ) They also continued work on recognizing the CHARACTERS and SETTING (where the story happens.) The positional words under, in, on and over were reviewed. During oral read aloud time, the students read their paper story, "I Can." They concentrated on finger pointing each word and picture and noting each sentence begins with a capital letter and has an ending mark (period, question mark, exclamation mark.) Students took turns reading aloud while the other students followed along with their finger. (tracking)
Workstations this week included "Froggy, Froggy Where's Your Home?" (upper/lowercase match), Sound Toy Bag Game (matching toy to its appropriate initial sound box,) "Walk Your Words," and Initial Sound Magnet Board.
The students continue to work on the Haggerty Blue Book exercises which include rhyming, letter naming, sound recognition, segmenting, substituting, adding and deleting sounds and counting syllables.
Math: The students worked on common core standards matching one to one on their number boards and building number. Students worked in groups-recognition 0-5 and 0-10. They also worked on sequencing numbers 0-15. The students continue to use our calendar ten frames to count the number of days they have been in school. They also played "Swat It," (similar to Hand Up, Hands Down) The students played Towers of Ten where they drew number cards to build their tower. Concepts GREATER THAN/LESS THAN were worked on. Students began exploration of pattern block shapes (hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus, square and triangle) They use the blocks to create really cool designs and then counted how many blocks it took to make their design. Workstations this week included egg carton math, sorting and classifying activities, matching number with quantity, counting and writing to 5 or 10, playing number bingo 0-20.
Writing: Now that the students have awareness that different types of lines form our letters, we have begun to explore our writing series, Handwriting Without Tears. The students used wooden pieces (straight lines, curved lines and slant lines) to construct their name on the floor. We talked about always starting at the top when producing a letter in writing. Next week, we will begin learning to form our FROG JUMP letters and working in our orange practice book. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students are enthusiastically working in their journals. They have been using their idea lightbulb when choosing a topic to write and draw about. Students are also labeling parts of their drawings and beginning to us their inventive or phonetic spelling when sounding out words. The students are beginning to grasp the concept of a sentence NAMING (subject) and TELLING (action.) As you saw when you came to Open House---lots of exciting stuff happening with regards to writing!
Technology: The students are continuing to work on iPad etiquette. How to turn on and off, using the pad of their finger, control the sound, adding the headset and where to find activities. Our data coach, Mr. Degman will be assisting in fostering greater independence in using the iPad. iPad use in our classroom is another tool the students can use to enhance and support what they are learning in the classroom. Stay tuned!
Literature: "When I Grow Up," "The Pout, Pout Fish," "1,2,3 Peas," "A Hippopotamus Ate the Teacher," "I Like Me," "The Colors of Us," "The Alphabet Mystery," "The Cat in the Hat," "Hop on Pop," Alphabatics," "I Will Try," "Smile If You Are Human," "Ten Black Dots," "Big and Little," "How Will I Get to School this Year?" "Made from Clay,"
**I was not able to attend Barriefest but heard the Pet Parade was the bomb!!
**Eagle Extras after school classes will begin on Monday, September 15th. The students signed up will be picked up from the classroom at dismissal.
**I have completed DIBELS testing and am almost finished with the Phonemic Awareness Screening. These screeners will be used to create groupings for our Route to Reading Skill specific groups. We hope to begin Route to Reading September 30th. You will receive notification of your child's skill group at that time.
**School Pictures will be taken on Tuesday, September 30th. More information will be forthcoming.
**We have LIBRARY every MONDAY. Don't forget to send the book back. Next week, the students will get to select 2 books to take out.
**The PTO's BIGGEST FUND RAISER of the YEAR is coming up on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd!! It's the annual FUN RUN!! Students seek pledges from family and friends. They in turn will "run" around the turf on October 22nd. Incentives and prizes galore!! KINDERGARTEN will RUN from 8:15-8:30 am. All are welcome to attend and cheer us on!!! Pledge packets will go home on Tuesday, September 16th. Help up raise money for our school!!!
**Author of "Five Little Monkeys" fame, Eileen Christelow will visit Irving School on Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm. She will talk about her work and how she gets her ideas. Ms. Noonan will send a an order form of Ms. Christelow's books prior to her visit. There will be a book signing.
**If your child will be "TRAVELING" over any weekend or taking a vacation, let me know.....I will send a Travel Journal with them. Our class will track our "travels" throughout the year on our state and world map. It can be anywhere Chicago, Florida, Lombard, Colorado, South Carolina, a water park, hotel, France......if you go there...we will track it!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey talked about the Zones of Regulation and what it means to be in the GREEN ZONE and the BLUE ZONE. I will send you information on this topic as we delve deeper into working with the students on shaping and regulating their own behavior.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, the students got to go up to Mr. Packer's room to view a video on the positional concepts--in, on, under, behind, next to, in front of and between. There were dancing fish and a cute catchy tune! The students then began work on a project that will give them a better understanding about the various positional concepts covered. Stay tuned for part 2 next week.
This week: It was all about getting ready for OPEN HOUSE. The students worked hard on projects to display in our hallway. They thought about their future in their illustrations and writing of what they wanted to be when they grew up. They work on retelling a story both verbally and with the help of their classmates recording letters and words. It was a total group effort! The students shared information on who was in their family with each other. They drew a picture of their family members.....even their pets. Totally adorable!! The discussions on expectations, behavior, Eagle slips and direction following remain important topics.
Reading/Language Arts: The students finished Week 3 of our prep for Treasures Reading series called Smart Start. They completed their Activity Book for the unit. It is in their homework folder. The students worked on reinforcing the recognition of letter names A-Z and sounds A-P. They again used mirrors to observe where each sound came from...open/closed mouth?...puff of air?....vibrations?.....where is your tongue? The students continue to work on sight word vocabulary. They had fun with an activity called, "Walk Your Words." Sight words introduced so far--red, blue, go, I, am, yes, no, can. I read the trade book, "Jazz Baby." Before the first read, the students made predictions about story content. They were able to point out the title, title page, spine and that the story was fiction. After the second reading, the students used the retelling cards to orally retell the story. Some students volunteered to write words under the picture cards. It was a group effort to help in the sounding out words and the recording of letters to create the sentences. The students continued to work on the common core standards of comparing texts and asking and answering questions about a story read. The students compared the fiction story, "Jazz Baby," to the informational (nonfiction) story, "Made From Clay." They noted the real from the make believe, photo vs. illustrations and what each story was about (main idea. ) They also continued work on recognizing the CHARACTERS and SETTING (where the story happens.) The positional words under, in, on and over were reviewed. During oral read aloud time, the students read their paper story, "I Can." They concentrated on finger pointing each word and picture and noting each sentence begins with a capital letter and has an ending mark (period, question mark, exclamation mark.) Students took turns reading aloud while the other students followed along with their finger. (tracking)
Workstations this week included "Froggy, Froggy Where's Your Home?" (upper/lowercase match), Sound Toy Bag Game (matching toy to its appropriate initial sound box,) "Walk Your Words," and Initial Sound Magnet Board.
The students continue to work on the Haggerty Blue Book exercises which include rhyming, letter naming, sound recognition, segmenting, substituting, adding and deleting sounds and counting syllables.
Math: The students worked on common core standards matching one to one on their number boards and building number. Students worked in groups-recognition 0-5 and 0-10. They also worked on sequencing numbers 0-15. The students continue to use our calendar ten frames to count the number of days they have been in school. They also played "Swat It," (similar to Hand Up, Hands Down) The students played Towers of Ten where they drew number cards to build their tower. Concepts GREATER THAN/LESS THAN were worked on. Students began exploration of pattern block shapes (hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus, square and triangle) They use the blocks to create really cool designs and then counted how many blocks it took to make their design. Workstations this week included egg carton math, sorting and classifying activities, matching number with quantity, counting and writing to 5 or 10, playing number bingo 0-20.
Writing: Now that the students have awareness that different types of lines form our letters, we have begun to explore our writing series, Handwriting Without Tears. The students used wooden pieces (straight lines, curved lines and slant lines) to construct their name on the floor. We talked about always starting at the top when producing a letter in writing. Next week, we will begin learning to form our FROG JUMP letters and working in our orange practice book. In Writer's Workshop this week, the students are enthusiastically working in their journals. They have been using their idea lightbulb when choosing a topic to write and draw about. Students are also labeling parts of their drawings and beginning to us their inventive or phonetic spelling when sounding out words. The students are beginning to grasp the concept of a sentence NAMING (subject) and TELLING (action.) As you saw when you came to Open House---lots of exciting stuff happening with regards to writing!
Technology: The students are continuing to work on iPad etiquette. How to turn on and off, using the pad of their finger, control the sound, adding the headset and where to find activities. Our data coach, Mr. Degman will be assisting in fostering greater independence in using the iPad. iPad use in our classroom is another tool the students can use to enhance and support what they are learning in the classroom. Stay tuned!
Literature: "When I Grow Up," "The Pout, Pout Fish," "1,2,3 Peas," "A Hippopotamus Ate the Teacher," "I Like Me," "The Colors of Us," "The Alphabet Mystery," "The Cat in the Hat," "Hop on Pop," Alphabatics," "I Will Try," "Smile If You Are Human," "Ten Black Dots," "Big and Little," "How Will I Get to School this Year?" "Made from Clay,"
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