**Thanks for your patience! I will combine two weeks of activities. We are all on the mend! It has been a month of sickness but hopefully SPRING will prevail and more warmer weather will help!
**There have been lots of the changes in student achievement this month. The flood gates of learning are opening wide!! In Route to Reading, many students are mastering skills to complete the Kindergarten continuum and many students have also "jumped" skills to move closer to completion. Lots of great morning story sharing between students with Busy Readers! Students are looking forward to starting their new subtraction story problem journal in April and be challenged even more by Mr. Packer's "thinking" skills projects. And yes........the students are very excited that we are getting closer to planning/creating/constructing our space stations. The week of 4/18-4/22 is set aside for this. YES......start sending GIANT boxes and cool stuff after spring break.
**Pi Day was cool! The students did some cute activities surrounding the number 3.14159. We saw a really cool video of music created by corresponding notes on a piano, xylophone, drums and flute. Pi even has its own website! We topped it off with some apple PIE for PI Day made with love by Michelle at the Happy Apple Pie Shop! The students LOVED the pie. It even had the Pi sign on the top. The students wrote and illustrated thank you notes to Michelle.
**Bagpiper Patrick Lynch was amazing! The students really enjoyed his presentation and lively, loud music. The whole school came out to hear him on a very windy but sunny day.
**Super Tuber was very fun! The students learned a little history about the potato and its connection to Ireland. They observed and measured their tubers and counted the "eyes." They looked at some different varieties even viewed and compared the skin of a purple and red potato under the microscope. I showed the class how to grow a potato from a potato and we chose Ella's (white potato) and Omar's (sweet potato) to grow on our windowsill. Stay tuned!
**Congratulations to our SPELLING BEE participants--Lauren and Zadie. They will represent our class in the Annual K-2 Spelling Bee on Wednesday, April 13th at lunchtime. Also give a shout out to Juliet who is our alternate.
**School Sprit Week was the bomb!! Pajamas, crazy hair, backwards wildness and Irving colors were the ticket of the week. Thanks Student Council for organizing it!
**Our field trip to the Field Museum was AWESOME!!! Yes..... it was the rainiest, but inside was hopping! Students worked with their parent volunteers and discussed the exhibits they wanted most to see. Sue, Ancient Egypt, Mummies, Animals, lots of Bones and Fossils were the top choices. Pictures are beginning to come in. Our writing project will be fantastic. A HUGE THANKS to E. Hagedorn, N. Bell, M. Davis, H. Alvarez and J. Wulff for volunteering!
**SPRING BREAK HOMEWORK HOLIDAY WEEK!! But.......you can still work on Lexia, Raz Kids, Xtra Math or your favorite app. Lots of students are traveling. I can't wait to read their Travel Journals. Even if you are just hanging out-----write about it!!
**Report cards are in your child's homework folder. Please sign and return the envelope.
**No Friendship Club this week or last week.
**No Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week or last week.
**Mr. Degman will resume his Math/Tech after spring break.
The past two weeks:
It was all about weather, shadows, bagpipers and fun potato facts. Science abounds in our classroom! Our study of weather includes math, reading and writing all woven together. Great fun! Very motivating. The students observed daily wind speeds, weather instruments and how meteorologists use data to make predictions about what kind of weather we will have in our area. Yes....they do not get it right all the time!! We are growing 2 types of potatoes. Stay tuned! The students loved Pi Day and bagpiper, Patrick Lynch. Station day activities included magical math facts activity, constructing 2D and 3D structures and learning to play Spring Memory Match up. The students prepared for their trip to the Field Museum. They looked for reading material and videos on Ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, mummies, extinct and endangered animals and mammals. Pictures taken during our trip will be part of a writing/research project.
Reading/Language Arts: The students worked to complete Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. The students built background knowledge about how weather effects people and animals. Students came to the board to write what they experience in snowy, hot, rainy and cold weather. They also spoke about how animals react to those weather conditions. The students reviewed all sight vocabulary presented thus far. The students reviewed target sounds Bb, Ll and short Ee and words that describe. (adjectives) The students continued to work on segmenting, sound blending 4 and 5 sound words on their white boards along with addition, deletion and substitution activities. The students listened to the oral language selection "Animal in Winter." They recalled many of their facts from our Changing Seasons theme. Robust Vocabulary for this week included CLEAR, COZY, EXPERIENCE, HIBERNATE, RETREAT. Workstations for the first week included leveled readers, comprehension and fluency checks, vocabulary building, writing and illustrating What can you do in the rain? completing a story elements butterfly on a specific text, writing a question about your story and answering it, working with blends and digraphs and using iTalk to record and listen to your own reading. For week two, the students students mixed it up by using leveled Fountas and Pinnell texts. They worked collaboratively with their group to come up with an assignment to go with their text. I loved their interactions and suggestions! Workstations included elbow chats about story elements and doing a group story elements butterfly, chatting about problem/solution and writing about it individually, chatting about specific vocabulary and creating a word web of meanings, chatting about characters and comparing how they acted in the text. What an excellent job!
Math: The student continued their exploration of of 2D and 3D shapes. They have been using a variety of materials including straws, pipe cleaners, k-nects, magnetos and mini magnetos. Discussion centered around the terms flat, solid, sides, vertex-vertices or corners and faces of the shapes. Can that shape you constructed roll or can you only stack it? What is a rectangular prism? The students participated in a particular activity where they matched certain pictures according to their shape. The students are starting a "Structure Museum." Workstations for the past two weeks included building 2D and 3D structures, analyzing and comparing 2D and 3D shapes, reading and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, number bonds to 10 and working with the number line to solve an addition or subtraction problem.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. Letters r, n, m, h, b and f were covered in the past two weeks. They applied what they learned in their orange practice books. Their "fix it up" checklist has become a great guide as they work to refine their writing.
Science: The students began our next Science unit beginning with the inquiry--What makes a shadow? The students took turns creating shadows using an overhead projector. Do we need certain elements before we can have a shadow? All students agreed we needed some kind of light source. Some students commented that a body or some kind of object blocked the light source. Other students said we needed a place to see the shadow. The recipe for creating a shadow became--a light source, something to block the light and a surface in which to see the shadow. A shadow is blocked light. Some students noted that shadows can be lighter or darker...they can be seen in front of or in back of......they also observed a water shadow and the rainbow that formed. Cool! Stay tuned!
Technology: The students are getting ready for our Keyboarding Without Tears program. We will begin this after spring break. They will also be able to use it for home practice. In science, we looked at a cool app on extreme weather. Awesome live footage of rainbows, hurricanes, blizzards, thunderstorms and lightening etc. Students sought out information for their field trip via BrainPop Jr. and the Field Museum site. All the apps we have been using for reading and math continue.
Literature: "Chasing Shadows," "Guess Who's Shadow?" "Super Storms," "Clouds," "Walkabout Weather," "How Thunder and Lightening Came to Be," "Clouds, Rain and Clouds Again," "The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow," "The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever," "It's St. Patricks Day," "Morning, Noon and Night," 'Dinosaurs and Other Reptiles," "Fly Guy Presents Dinosaurs,""Danny and the Dinosaur," "If Dinosaurs Came Back," "What Dinosaurs Ate,""National Geographic Kids-Dinosaurs,""Raptors," "Mummies," "Ancient Egypt."
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Sunday, March 13, 2016
UPDATES for 3/7-3/11 2016
**Warmer weather and rain! Spring is near!!! We are ending the last 10 minutes of our day outside and the students are really enjoying it. They love being on the playground equipment when a small number of other students are on the playground.
**Author Jonah Winter was delightful! The author of biographies for children spoke to students about where he gets his ideas from. He read passages from a biography about the members of his family during the Depression and also read from his newest book--a biography about Hillary Clinton. He told the students he was very interested in the life of the woman who was running for president in a field of all men. He had great illustrations and photos in his books.
**Please keep sending in money and permission slip for our field trip to the Field Museum. We will travel by bus on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:l30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students need to bring a BAG LUNCH with name it. Thanks to our volunteers! We have N. Bell, E. Hagedorn, M. Daniel, J. Wulff, H. Alvarez and M. Davis joining us. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Volunteers will help us out with some picture taking. This can be done on your phone and forwarded to my email.
Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will need probably 2 drivers. Be thinking about this, volunteers. I will give you directions and cash for parking.
**It's PACK WEEK (3/14-3/18) Let's pack more colorful fruits and veggies into our diets! Pack a fruit or veggie based on the color of the day. See the flyer in your child's homework folder. Monday-pack purple/blue, Wednesday-pack red, Thursday-pack yellow/orange and Friday-pack green.) You can pack it in a snack or a lunch. The school lunches will also include items.
**Pi Day is March 14th! We will be doing a little something from our on line resources and Quinn will be sharing a treat with the class! (apple PIe)
**SPRING PICTURES will be taken on Monday, March 14th in the morning. This year you must prepay if you want the photo taken. You can do this on line or with the envelope that was in your child's homework folder. Please indicate if you want a photo with Irving sibling.
**Please bring a POTATO (not cooked) on Thursday, March 17th. We will have SUPER TUBER DAY from 10:30-11:30 am. It will be our salute to St. Patrick's Day. It can be any kind.
We will learn a little history about the potato and Ireland, do some potato science--examine and count the "eyes," measure its length, sketch it, and take a look at some different varieties. We will even try to grow potatoes from the tuber! I have E. Meier and G. Lowell to help out. Another pair of hands would be helpful. Email me if you are interested.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper, Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and then play some tunes for all on the blacktop at dismissal. Come on out to hear him!
**Kindergarten classrooms will be piloting Keyboarding Without Tears after spring break. Teachers will receive training at our Institute Day on Tuesday. Please the read the flyer in your child's homework folder.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her Character Education lessons stating "Character grows as you grow." She talked about citizenship, self respect and self control meaning keeping our words and actions under control.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued the "thinking in shapes" theme but now the shapes were already on 2 squares and the students had to listen to the directive and make the drawing. "Find the drawings that would make a king." Very cool visual discrimination strengthener. Can you see the shapes needed on the square?
**Trimester Two has ended. Report cards go home on Thursday, March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL-Tuesday, March 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking)--Maze Branch Library--April 28th
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday--May 3rd.
**Future Event--Annual Irving Spelling Bee in April--Date and time TBA. K-2 will be participating.
**We are getting really close!! Giant boxes and cool stuff for our space station projects.
This week:
The students continue to gather information about the weather. They have observed clouds types and have examined weather maps and radar on line. Lots of questions--What keeps the earth warm? How can people stay cool in hot weather? What makes storms on earth? How can people prepare for storms? We read about blizzards, hot weather, storms, thunder and lightening, hurricanes and tornadoes and took a look at the seasons and weather. How does water affect weather patterns? What is a front? Totally fascinating!! Students looked up information on their iPads and watch rainbows being formed, thunder storms and blizzards and even a tornado. Students looked up weather words and weather instruments.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work in Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. This week, the students built background knowledge around the idea of the seasons or certain times of the year and different activities and ways people and animals relate to them. The students listened to the Big Book story, "In the Yard." They made predictions about story content by reading the title and looking at the book cover illustrations. After listening to the story, the students discussed what the main idea was. They made connections in the story about activities they do in their back yards at different times of the year. They noted certain details in the story. All sight words introduced thus far were reviewed. Target sounds Bb and Ll were reviewed. They did an activity where they told me if they heard the target sound at the beginning, middle or end of the word. Other word work centered around adding, deleting or substituting sounds to form new words on their dry erase boards. Students worked on actions of a character and sequencing those actions in the story using the text, "Sheila the Brave." Students worked on story vocabulary, sequencing order of events in the story and the story elements of character, setting and key details. In preparation for our summative blueprint, the students elbowed chatted about the character's actions and acted out different scenes depicting Sheila's actions in the story. The students were thrilled that Mr. Hodge sat in and observed their "we do" session. While students came up to write and draw about the actions of Sheila on the projection board, the other students did their own illustration on their white boards. Audrey had a great idea---when the students finished their drawings--let's put them in order across the front of the classroom. Cool!!! The first ten minutes of class each morning is now devoted to students sharing a page or sharing a story using their Busy Reader. They can share with a partner or share with a small group. They are certainly becoming more confident readers!! Workstations this week included leveled readers comprehension and fluency check, vocabulary development, writing and illustrating-what is your favorite season and what can you do? review short e, i, o, a, u word work, word family cut and paste ock and op, create retelling cards, write and illustrate-what you like to play, working with beginning and ending sounds activity, short E word search and writing sentences using the words this and do.
Math: The students continue the exploration of the study of geometric solids and 3D shapes. They learned that 3D shapes are solid like cones, cubes, cylinders and 2D shapes are flat like squares, triangles and circles. Students created 2D shapes by using straws and pipe cleaners and went on to think about and experiment with creating a 3D shape. It was interesting for me to observe the different ways the students approached the task. Students continue to work on number bonding to 10, counting on from a random number, exploring vertical and horizontal addition and subtraction problem writing, revisiting the terms--addend, sum. equal, plus, minus, greater than/less than. Math workstations this week included writing number sequences, magic number facts, exploring and experimenting with 2D and 3D shape building and reading and illustrating addition and subtraction story problems.
Writing: Wow! We are writing 4 sentences in our topic journals! Lots of writing going on here! Inventive spelling (phonetic spelling) remains a big acceptable part of their own word building. Students can now refer to their own "Fix It Up Checklist" when composing and writing in their journals and in their daily writing work. (Thanks Ms. Grogan!) A copy for home use is in your child's homework folder. In lowercase letter formation, the letters y, j, and p were worked on using their mini boards. They applied what they had learned in their orange practice books. The students completed a writing piece on writing about a personal experience that experience being things they do/have/seen in the spring. Check them out in our hallway!
Science: The students continue to be curious and study about all things weather. The students observed the water tornado bottle to check out its funnel shape and looked at thermometers that measure temperature. What kinds of clouds cause precipitation? How do we measure it? How do we measure humidity? Lots of weather instruments. Next week--what is a shadow?
Technology: In reading, student small groups and with partners the apps Montessori Crosswords, Magic Reading 2 and iTalk were used to enhance sound blending skills, review use of consonant blends and digraphs and emphasize word families. The app Oz Phonics was used with whole group to work on sequencing of words in a sentence. Students listened to their own reading via iTalk and critiqued themselves using the Reader's Checklist. In math whole and small group, the apps Top-It Addition, Butterfly Math, Math, Animal Math, Number Line and Number Find were used enhance addition and subtraction to 10, place value, missing addend, number bond and number order. Weatherunderground, Storm and BranPop Jr. were source material on weather and science.
Literature: "Sheila the Brave," "Rain," "Bringing Science Alive-Unit 3-Weather," "Weather," "Thunder Storms," "Lightening," "Snow," "Blizzards," "Hurricanes," "Weather Instruments," "Weather Words," "Weather Watching," "Danger-Earthquakes," ""Volcanoes."
**Author Jonah Winter was delightful! The author of biographies for children spoke to students about where he gets his ideas from. He read passages from a biography about the members of his family during the Depression and also read from his newest book--a biography about Hillary Clinton. He told the students he was very interested in the life of the woman who was running for president in a field of all men. He had great illustrations and photos in his books.
**Please keep sending in money and permission slip for our field trip to the Field Museum. We will travel by bus on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:l30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students need to bring a BAG LUNCH with name it. Thanks to our volunteers! We have N. Bell, E. Hagedorn, M. Daniel, J. Wulff, H. Alvarez and M. Davis joining us. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Volunteers will help us out with some picture taking. This can be done on your phone and forwarded to my email.
Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will need probably 2 drivers. Be thinking about this, volunteers. I will give you directions and cash for parking.
**It's PACK WEEK (3/14-3/18) Let's pack more colorful fruits and veggies into our diets! Pack a fruit or veggie based on the color of the day. See the flyer in your child's homework folder. Monday-pack purple/blue, Wednesday-pack red, Thursday-pack yellow/orange and Friday-pack green.) You can pack it in a snack or a lunch. The school lunches will also include items.
**Pi Day is March 14th! We will be doing a little something from our on line resources and Quinn will be sharing a treat with the class! (apple PIe)
**SPRING PICTURES will be taken on Monday, March 14th in the morning. This year you must prepay if you want the photo taken. You can do this on line or with the envelope that was in your child's homework folder. Please indicate if you want a photo with Irving sibling.
**Please bring a POTATO (not cooked) on Thursday, March 17th. We will have SUPER TUBER DAY from 10:30-11:30 am. It will be our salute to St. Patrick's Day. It can be any kind.
We will learn a little history about the potato and Ireland, do some potato science--examine and count the "eyes," measure its length, sketch it, and take a look at some different varieties. We will even try to grow potatoes from the tuber! I have E. Meier and G. Lowell to help out. Another pair of hands would be helpful. Email me if you are interested.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper, Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and then play some tunes for all on the blacktop at dismissal. Come on out to hear him!
**Kindergarten classrooms will be piloting Keyboarding Without Tears after spring break. Teachers will receive training at our Institute Day on Tuesday. Please the read the flyer in your child's homework folder.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her Character Education lessons stating "Character grows as you grow." She talked about citizenship, self respect and self control meaning keeping our words and actions under control.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued the "thinking in shapes" theme but now the shapes were already on 2 squares and the students had to listen to the directive and make the drawing. "Find the drawings that would make a king." Very cool visual discrimination strengthener. Can you see the shapes needed on the square?
**Trimester Two has ended. Report cards go home on Thursday, March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL-Tuesday, March 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking)--Maze Branch Library--April 28th
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday--May 3rd.
**Future Event--Annual Irving Spelling Bee in April--Date and time TBA. K-2 will be participating.
**We are getting really close!! Giant boxes and cool stuff for our space station projects.
This week:
The students continue to gather information about the weather. They have observed clouds types and have examined weather maps and radar on line. Lots of questions--What keeps the earth warm? How can people stay cool in hot weather? What makes storms on earth? How can people prepare for storms? We read about blizzards, hot weather, storms, thunder and lightening, hurricanes and tornadoes and took a look at the seasons and weather. How does water affect weather patterns? What is a front? Totally fascinating!! Students looked up information on their iPads and watch rainbows being formed, thunder storms and blizzards and even a tornado. Students looked up weather words and weather instruments.
Reading/Language Arts: The students continue to work in Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. This week, the students built background knowledge around the idea of the seasons or certain times of the year and different activities and ways people and animals relate to them. The students listened to the Big Book story, "In the Yard." They made predictions about story content by reading the title and looking at the book cover illustrations. After listening to the story, the students discussed what the main idea was. They made connections in the story about activities they do in their back yards at different times of the year. They noted certain details in the story. All sight words introduced thus far were reviewed. Target sounds Bb and Ll were reviewed. They did an activity where they told me if they heard the target sound at the beginning, middle or end of the word. Other word work centered around adding, deleting or substituting sounds to form new words on their dry erase boards. Students worked on actions of a character and sequencing those actions in the story using the text, "Sheila the Brave." Students worked on story vocabulary, sequencing order of events in the story and the story elements of character, setting and key details. In preparation for our summative blueprint, the students elbowed chatted about the character's actions and acted out different scenes depicting Sheila's actions in the story. The students were thrilled that Mr. Hodge sat in and observed their "we do" session. While students came up to write and draw about the actions of Sheila on the projection board, the other students did their own illustration on their white boards. Audrey had a great idea---when the students finished their drawings--let's put them in order across the front of the classroom. Cool!!! The first ten minutes of class each morning is now devoted to students sharing a page or sharing a story using their Busy Reader. They can share with a partner or share with a small group. They are certainly becoming more confident readers!! Workstations this week included leveled readers comprehension and fluency check, vocabulary development, writing and illustrating-what is your favorite season and what can you do? review short e, i, o, a, u word work, word family cut and paste ock and op, create retelling cards, write and illustrate-what you like to play, working with beginning and ending sounds activity, short E word search and writing sentences using the words this and do.
Math: The students continue the exploration of the study of geometric solids and 3D shapes. They learned that 3D shapes are solid like cones, cubes, cylinders and 2D shapes are flat like squares, triangles and circles. Students created 2D shapes by using straws and pipe cleaners and went on to think about and experiment with creating a 3D shape. It was interesting for me to observe the different ways the students approached the task. Students continue to work on number bonding to 10, counting on from a random number, exploring vertical and horizontal addition and subtraction problem writing, revisiting the terms--addend, sum. equal, plus, minus, greater than/less than. Math workstations this week included writing number sequences, magic number facts, exploring and experimenting with 2D and 3D shape building and reading and illustrating addition and subtraction story problems.
Writing: Wow! We are writing 4 sentences in our topic journals! Lots of writing going on here! Inventive spelling (phonetic spelling) remains a big acceptable part of their own word building. Students can now refer to their own "Fix It Up Checklist" when composing and writing in their journals and in their daily writing work. (Thanks Ms. Grogan!) A copy for home use is in your child's homework folder. In lowercase letter formation, the letters y, j, and p were worked on using their mini boards. They applied what they had learned in their orange practice books. The students completed a writing piece on writing about a personal experience that experience being things they do/have/seen in the spring. Check them out in our hallway!
Science: The students continue to be curious and study about all things weather. The students observed the water tornado bottle to check out its funnel shape and looked at thermometers that measure temperature. What kinds of clouds cause precipitation? How do we measure it? How do we measure humidity? Lots of weather instruments. Next week--what is a shadow?
Technology: In reading, student small groups and with partners the apps Montessori Crosswords, Magic Reading 2 and iTalk were used to enhance sound blending skills, review use of consonant blends and digraphs and emphasize word families. The app Oz Phonics was used with whole group to work on sequencing of words in a sentence. Students listened to their own reading via iTalk and critiqued themselves using the Reader's Checklist. In math whole and small group, the apps Top-It Addition, Butterfly Math, Math, Animal Math, Number Line and Number Find were used enhance addition and subtraction to 10, place value, missing addend, number bond and number order. Weatherunderground, Storm and BranPop Jr. were source material on weather and science.
Literature: "Sheila the Brave," "Rain," "Bringing Science Alive-Unit 3-Weather," "Weather," "Thunder Storms," "Lightening," "Snow," "Blizzards," "Hurricanes," "Weather Instruments," "Weather Words," "Weather Watching," "Danger-Earthquakes," ""Volcanoes."
Sunday, March 6, 2016
UPDATES for 2/29-3/4 2016
**Dare I say it.......No more snow pants.....but please continue to send boots to keep feet dry and free of mud. Thanks!
**Opera for the Young's production of "The Magic Flute" was awesome! The students really got into the group singing parts and enjoyed the story, costumes and the 4th and 5th grade participation on stage. Students were interested in how the singers prepared for their roles, who made the costumes and how the set was made. The story was funny and had a lot of action.
**Author Jonah Winter will visit Irving on Friday, March 11th from 1-1:45 pm in the auditorium.
He will be sharing the magic of biography writing with students. If you are interested in purchasing books by this author, there was a green sheet in your child's folder last week. You can return it with your selection and money to me.
**Please keep sending in money and permission slip for our Field Trip to the Field Museum. We will travel by bus on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students will need a BAG LUNCH with their name on it. Thanks to those of you who volunteered. I will be getting info out to you soon. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will provide money for parking.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Monday, March 14th. Please read the information on purchasing pictures that is in your child's homework folder. This year you need to pay on line or submit money into the envelope first. Only students who have already submitted their order will have their pictures taken.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and play some tunes for everyone to enjoy on the blacktop at dismissal.
**In keeping with the theme, we will have SUPER TUBER DAY on Thursday, March 17th from 10:30-11:30 am. Students need to bring a POTATO (not cooked.) It can be any kind. We will learn a little history about the potato and Ireland, examine its surface, count the "eyes", measure its length and take a look at different varieties. I have E. Meier and G. Lowell signed up to help Another volunteer would be great! Email me if you are interested.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey began a unit on good citizenship and what it means to be a good citizen.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued working with the students on "thinking in shapes."
**No Mr. Degman Math/Tech this week. The big kids are getting ready for PARCC testing.
**March 11th--end of Trimester 2. Report Cards go home on March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL--Tuesday, March 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking) Maze Branch Library--April 28th.
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday, May 3rd.
**Future Event--Annual Spelling Bee in April. Date and time TBA.
**We are getting closer!!!! Keep saving those boxes and cool things for our space station projects.
This week:
It was all about the weather and Dr. Seuss. The students are tracking weather patterns all over the United States. With many students traveling for spring break, it is very cool to track and compare weather where they will be going. The students have been observing "fronts" moving in and the direction that weather patterns can take and how our oceans can affect weather. They love watching the color changes on the animated radar. They are also interested in the chance or percentage of precipitation and what form it will be in depending upon the temperature. They will be tracing the daily weather as part of their Weather Project. We celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss and our BrainPop video gave some incite into his life and how he got his ideas for his stories. We discussed rhyming and nonsense word patterns and how they enhance the story. We read many Dr. Suess stories. Station day this week celebrated all things Dr. Suess including making Thing 1 and Thing 2 out of handprints, writing about what you would do if they came to your house, Dr. Suess subtraction, creating your own rhyming words, Dr. Suess word search and drawing your own Dr. Seuss characters.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. We began by pondering, "What's the weather like today?" Students accessed prior knowledge about what they understood about weather, not only in their own area but all across the United States. The students listened to the Big Book story, "The Rainy Day." They thought about what the main idea would be. They made connections about rain in their daily lives. Sight words this, do and what were introduced. The target sound for the week is Short e. Students used pictures as well as words to create a Short e web. They continue to work on recognizing nouns and verbs in their daily sentence work. In the second reading of our Big Book story, the students visualized what it might look like after it rains. They reviewed the water cycles contribution to weather making (go science!) and some facts about rain. The students examined 2 more parts of a book--the glossary and the index and what they are used for. The students used their elkonin boxes to blend segment and blend 5 sound words. Students read their paper stories to a partner and elbow chatted about the the sequence of events that happened in the story. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included BLUSTERY, DRIZZLE, CHILLY, CLOUDY, WEATHER. The students also listened to 4 poems about weather and did some comparing across weather related texts. Students used their white boards and dry erase markers to work on a group substitution activity. Students also completed summative "you do" assessment Blue Prints on writing an opinion about their favorite Mo Willems story and writing about the beginning, middle and ending sequence using the text, "Edwina, the Dinosaur that Didn't Know She Was Extinct." Workstations for this week included leveled readers, comprehension check and fluency building, writing and drawing about a favorite weather activity, word work with beginning and ending sounds, problem/solution writing for a story, color by code word families, creating a word web for your favorite season, using words and pictures creating 3 sentences and writing them and playing CVC "Pot of Gold" and "Three Little Pigs Vowel Game."
Math: The students began work in their March calendar books. Among the daily activities contained in the book are number patterns, tally marks, ten frames, writing in the 3 numbers that come before a random number, addition and subtraction sentences, time by the hour on an analog clock, number bonds, daily temperature recording and conditions, graphing weather conditions and number hunt. The students continue to work in their Addition Story Problem Journals--reading the story problem, illustrating part and whole on ten frames, illustrating thru pictures and writing the number sentence/equation. Students reviewed all geometric solid shapes and are now beginning the introduction into 3D shapes, terminology and how they differ from 2D shapes. Math workstations this week included Dr. Seuss math activities in addition and subtraction, addition on a number line activities, exploration of 2D shapes and building exploration of 3D shapes and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers.
Writing: The students continue to work on their writing stamina and sentence structure in their journals and in workstation assignments. Focus continues to be on lowercase letter formation, spacing between words and placement of words on a given line. More students are really reading what they have written and making their own corrections.
Science: The students began some prep for the first part of our Science Unit-Shadows. They will also be doing some weather related experiments.
Technology: In reading, student small groups and individuals used the apps Magic Reading 2 building words with short e, silent e and beginning blends and digraphs, Rocket Speller for sound spelling and iTalk for fluency check. In math, students small groups and individuals used the apps Brainy Bugs for number sequencing and visual integration, Animal Math for addition and subtraction to 10, greater, less than and equal to, even and odd and place value. BrainPop videos assisted in providing facts about Dr. Seuss and to trace the water cycle.
Literature: "The Cat in the Hat, " "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," "Fox in Socks," "Hop on Pop," "Oh the Things You Can Think," "Green Eggs and Ham," "Snow," "I do Not Want to Get Up Today," "The Things I am Scared Of," "Weather," "Weather Words," "Roberto Clemente" by Jonah Winter, "The Cloud Book," "Little Cloud," "Rain."
**Opera for the Young's production of "The Magic Flute" was awesome! The students really got into the group singing parts and enjoyed the story, costumes and the 4th and 5th grade participation on stage. Students were interested in how the singers prepared for their roles, who made the costumes and how the set was made. The story was funny and had a lot of action.
**Author Jonah Winter will visit Irving on Friday, March 11th from 1-1:45 pm in the auditorium.
He will be sharing the magic of biography writing with students. If you are interested in purchasing books by this author, there was a green sheet in your child's folder last week. You can return it with your selection and money to me.
**Please keep sending in money and permission slip for our Field Trip to the Field Museum. We will travel by bus on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students will need a BAG LUNCH with their name on it. Thanks to those of you who volunteered. I will be getting info out to you soon. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will provide money for parking.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Monday, March 14th. Please read the information on purchasing pictures that is in your child's homework folder. This year you need to pay on line or submit money into the envelope first. Only students who have already submitted their order will have their pictures taken.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and play some tunes for everyone to enjoy on the blacktop at dismissal.
**In keeping with the theme, we will have SUPER TUBER DAY on Thursday, March 17th from 10:30-11:30 am. Students need to bring a POTATO (not cooked.) It can be any kind. We will learn a little history about the potato and Ireland, examine its surface, count the "eyes", measure its length and take a look at different varieties. I have E. Meier and G. Lowell signed up to help Another volunteer would be great! Email me if you are interested.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey began a unit on good citizenship and what it means to be a good citizen.
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer continued working with the students on "thinking in shapes."
**No Mr. Degman Math/Tech this week. The big kids are getting ready for PARCC testing.
**March 11th--end of Trimester 2. Report Cards go home on March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL--Tuesday, March 15th--Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking) Maze Branch Library--April 28th.
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday, May 3rd.
**Future Event--Annual Spelling Bee in April. Date and time TBA.
**We are getting closer!!!! Keep saving those boxes and cool things for our space station projects.
This week:
It was all about the weather and Dr. Seuss. The students are tracking weather patterns all over the United States. With many students traveling for spring break, it is very cool to track and compare weather where they will be going. The students have been observing "fronts" moving in and the direction that weather patterns can take and how our oceans can affect weather. They love watching the color changes on the animated radar. They are also interested in the chance or percentage of precipitation and what form it will be in depending upon the temperature. They will be tracing the daily weather as part of their Weather Project. We celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss and our BrainPop video gave some incite into his life and how he got his ideas for his stories. We discussed rhyming and nonsense word patterns and how they enhance the story. We read many Dr. Suess stories. Station day this week celebrated all things Dr. Suess including making Thing 1 and Thing 2 out of handprints, writing about what you would do if they came to your house, Dr. Suess subtraction, creating your own rhyming words, Dr. Suess word search and drawing your own Dr. Seuss characters.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 7 Weather in our Treasures Reading series. We began by pondering, "What's the weather like today?" Students accessed prior knowledge about what they understood about weather, not only in their own area but all across the United States. The students listened to the Big Book story, "The Rainy Day." They thought about what the main idea would be. They made connections about rain in their daily lives. Sight words this, do and what were introduced. The target sound for the week is Short e. Students used pictures as well as words to create a Short e web. They continue to work on recognizing nouns and verbs in their daily sentence work. In the second reading of our Big Book story, the students visualized what it might look like after it rains. They reviewed the water cycles contribution to weather making (go science!) and some facts about rain. The students examined 2 more parts of a book--the glossary and the index and what they are used for. The students used their elkonin boxes to blend segment and blend 5 sound words. Students read their paper stories to a partner and elbow chatted about the the sequence of events that happened in the story. Our Robust Vocabulary this week included BLUSTERY, DRIZZLE, CHILLY, CLOUDY, WEATHER. The students also listened to 4 poems about weather and did some comparing across weather related texts. Students used their white boards and dry erase markers to work on a group substitution activity. Students also completed summative "you do" assessment Blue Prints on writing an opinion about their favorite Mo Willems story and writing about the beginning, middle and ending sequence using the text, "Edwina, the Dinosaur that Didn't Know She Was Extinct." Workstations for this week included leveled readers, comprehension check and fluency building, writing and drawing about a favorite weather activity, word work with beginning and ending sounds, problem/solution writing for a story, color by code word families, creating a word web for your favorite season, using words and pictures creating 3 sentences and writing them and playing CVC "Pot of Gold" and "Three Little Pigs Vowel Game."
Math: The students began work in their March calendar books. Among the daily activities contained in the book are number patterns, tally marks, ten frames, writing in the 3 numbers that come before a random number, addition and subtraction sentences, time by the hour on an analog clock, number bonds, daily temperature recording and conditions, graphing weather conditions and number hunt. The students continue to work in their Addition Story Problem Journals--reading the story problem, illustrating part and whole on ten frames, illustrating thru pictures and writing the number sentence/equation. Students reviewed all geometric solid shapes and are now beginning the introduction into 3D shapes, terminology and how they differ from 2D shapes. Math workstations this week included Dr. Seuss math activities in addition and subtraction, addition on a number line activities, exploration of 2D shapes and building exploration of 3D shapes and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers.
Writing: The students continue to work on their writing stamina and sentence structure in their journals and in workstation assignments. Focus continues to be on lowercase letter formation, spacing between words and placement of words on a given line. More students are really reading what they have written and making their own corrections.
Science: The students began some prep for the first part of our Science Unit-Shadows. They will also be doing some weather related experiments.
Technology: In reading, student small groups and individuals used the apps Magic Reading 2 building words with short e, silent e and beginning blends and digraphs, Rocket Speller for sound spelling and iTalk for fluency check. In math, students small groups and individuals used the apps Brainy Bugs for number sequencing and visual integration, Animal Math for addition and subtraction to 10, greater, less than and equal to, even and odd and place value. BrainPop videos assisted in providing facts about Dr. Seuss and to trace the water cycle.
Literature: "The Cat in the Hat, " "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," "Fox in Socks," "Hop on Pop," "Oh the Things You Can Think," "Green Eggs and Ham," "Snow," "I do Not Want to Get Up Today," "The Things I am Scared Of," "Weather," "Weather Words," "Roberto Clemente" by Jonah Winter, "The Cloud Book," "Little Cloud," "Rain."
Saturday, February 27, 2016
UPDATES for 2/22-2/26 2016
**There is a touch of spring in the air. The students are beginning to feel it! As always, keep monitoring the weather and dressing your child appropriately. We will be trying to get to the playground before dismissal as the weather warms. The students really enjoy playing and demonstrating their skills when they have the playground to themselves!
**The FUN FAIR was spectacular! I hope you all had as much fun as I did. I loved running the new spinning game! Our JUNIOR CHEF"S BASKET was awesome! Thanks to all of you who donated your time or an item. I was thrilled to see former students who are in high school, college or now with families of their own enjoying our fun fair. The teacher acts were very funny. Congratulations to the BLUE TEAM! They got the pie in the face. If you are the recipient of one of my auction items, I will be contacting you in the next few weeks. Once again, this event represents our Irving school community at its best. I am so proud to be a part of it. Go Irving!
**Lynn Allen, director of the Multicultural Center did a fabulous presentation on African American history with very cool artifacts. She spoke about slavery, struggles and the rich culture of Africa. The students experimented with instruments, masks, cloth and looked at pictures and maps. The students really enjoyed it! Thanks, Lynn.
**Route to Reading Rotation 6 will begin on Monday, February 29th. At that time you will receive notification of the skill your child will be working on.
**Our new Student Council reps, Hattie and Lauren had their first meeting. They are already full of ideas for a new fundraiser to help someone in need. Stay tuned!
**The Kindergarten Team has planned a FIELD TRIP to the FIELD MUSEUM on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students will need a BAG LUNCH with their name on it. Permission slip and info is in your child's homework folder. I will need 5 volunteers to help out on this trip. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will provide money for parking.
**The OPERA is coming! The OPERA is coming! This years OPERA for the YOUNG will be a production of "The Magic Flute." It will be Friday, March 4th from 9-10 am in the gym. It is an interactive opera where the students will be singing along in certain parts. Ms. Hiolski has been working on this. Should be great fun!
**If you are interested in purchasing books from author, Jonah Winter, the green sheet is in your child's homework folder. He will be sharing the magic of biography writing with students on Friday, March 11th from 1-1:45 pm.
**Spring Pictures will be taken Monday, March 14th in the morning.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper, Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th, from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and play some tunes for everyone to enjoy on the blacktop at dismissal.
**In keeping with the theme, we will have SUPER TUBER DAY on Thursday, March 17th from 10:30-11:30 am. It's about all things POTATO. Students need to bring a POTATO (not cooked) It can be any kind. I have E. Meier and G. Lowell signed up to help. Another volunteer would be great. Email me if you can help.
**Please welcome another grandma helper, Ms. Cummings to our class. She will be working with students on Wednesday mornings during our literacy workstation time. She is a former 8th grade teacher and administrator. We love our Grandmas!!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her work on conflict resolution with the class. She asked the questions--Is it safe?? Should I do this???
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer worked with the students on a project called "thinking in shapes." The students were given 5 shapes. Mr. Packer ave them some rules to follow. He told them how many shapes to use and then said a sentence containing the picture he wanted them to make. Check it out in the pics. "I turned on the LAMP in my room." What does your lamp look like?
**No Mr. Degman Math/Tech this week.
**March 11th-- end of Trimester Two. Report cards home on Thursday, March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL--Tuesday, March 15th-Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking) Maze Branch Library--Thursday, April 28th
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday, May 3rd.
**We are getting closer!!! Keep saving those boxes and cool things!!
This week:
The students continued with our author study on Mo Willems. The students completed summative assessments using his texts. We will finish our author study next week. They were also doing their last experiments on investigating water. Will will be completing our science unit also next week. The students are beginning prep work for our next Treasures Unit Weather and will also begin prep work for our next science unit, Sunshine, Shadows, the Moon and Space. We continued exploring the accomplishments of African Americans. Our favorite story and discussion was on "The Story of Ruby Bridges." The students were so proud to know that even a young child can effect change in our country. Lots of thoughtful insights by students. Station day activities this week included pattern block kite building, reading and illustrating a story problem, writing about a sequence of events, and exploring new choice time activities.
Reading/Language Arts: The students used this week to work on a variety of formative and summative assessments using texts from our author study of Mo Willems. The students responded verbally, thru illustration and thru writing. They worked to answer a variety of questions. Who are the characters is the story? How are they alike? Different? What is the problem? What does the character do to solve the problem? What effect does a repeating phrase have on a text? How does the illustration help you understand the setting? What important job does the author or illustrator have in telling the story? The students did some marvelous group work on problem/solution using the text, "That is not a Good Idea." Using the text "Knuffle Bunny," the students worked with partners to sequence events in the story. Lots of great drawings were done during our "we do" of story elements in the text, "Knuffle Bunny." In the text, "Edwina, the Dinosaur that Didn't Know She Was Extinct," students participated in a word study to best describe the main character. Students are forming OPINIONS about what Mo story they like the best and why. Workstations this week included leveled readers, comprehension check and fluency building, sight word review, sequencing events, word family sort, nonsense/real word activity, CVC puzzles and simple sentences, digraph review, color by word family and working on consonant blends and Silent E.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 130. Focus this week was on subtraction or taking away from the whole (biggest number) or counting down. They began using the number line to assist in the counting down process. Some students are using manipulatives and fingers and even visualizing the answer! Students reviewed their geometric solid identification. They also continue to experiment with incline and plane surfaces and 3 dimensional structures. Math workstations this week included addition cross out, domino number bonds, snowman subtraction and domino number sentences.
Writing: The students continue work on forming lowercase letters. This week the letters k and e were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards and then applied what they had learned in their orange practice books. They continue to develop their writing stamina by writing on topics in their green journals. We continue to stress beginning with a big letter, spacing between words in a sentence, using an ending mark and placement of letters on a given line. Read it back. Does it make sense? Did you name and tell? Did you use some words to describe what you are writing about? We also took some time to write and draw get well wishes to our classmate, Juliet who has been out sick for a while. Get well soon, Juliet!! We love and miss you!
Science: The students have experimented with water as a liquid and solid and this week experimented with water as a gas in the form of steam. We discussed the freezing temperature of water (32 degrees) and boiling temperature of water (212 degrees.) The students observed "smoke"or steam coming from the water that had been boiled. Where is that gas going? We talked about the word--evaporation. After releasing some steam, I covered the container with plastic wrap. We left the container and went to class. Upon returning, the students noticed water droplets on the top of the plastic wrap inside of the container. How did it get there? Abe remarked, "The water gas cannot evaporate because it is trapped by the plastic and can't get out into the air." The water droplets got bigger and bigger until they dropped back into the container. Mmmm......precipitation! It is raining inside of the container. The students reflected in their science journal. We reviewed our BrainPop video on the water cycle and the idea of evaporation, condensation, precipitation. Cool!
Technology: Whole group learners in Math worked on a new app called Animal Math. It is a paid app but very cool and contains counting, sequences and patterns, basic shapes, classification, addition to 5, addition to 10, subtraction to 5 and 10, greater, less and equal to, even/odd, place value and challenges! Students in small group math work on the app Doodle Buddy to create and illustrate their own story problem, Students are really beginning to look for the pattern when solving the number on the app Number Find. In small group reading, students worked on skill building with the app Build a Sentence. It is great for word order and finding the noun, verb and adjectives. We watched videos via BrainPop about the lives of Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver and author Eloise Greenfield and took the quizzes.
Literature: "Edwina the Dinosaur That Didn't Know She Was Extinct," "Night on Neighborhood Street," "The Story of Ruby Bridges," "Knuffle Bunny," "Harriet Tubman," "Trains Can Float,' "George Washington Carver," "Five Brave Explorers--Great Black Heroes," "A Drop of Water," "Evaporation/Condensation."
**The FUN FAIR was spectacular! I hope you all had as much fun as I did. I loved running the new spinning game! Our JUNIOR CHEF"S BASKET was awesome! Thanks to all of you who donated your time or an item. I was thrilled to see former students who are in high school, college or now with families of their own enjoying our fun fair. The teacher acts were very funny. Congratulations to the BLUE TEAM! They got the pie in the face. If you are the recipient of one of my auction items, I will be contacting you in the next few weeks. Once again, this event represents our Irving school community at its best. I am so proud to be a part of it. Go Irving!
**Lynn Allen, director of the Multicultural Center did a fabulous presentation on African American history with very cool artifacts. She spoke about slavery, struggles and the rich culture of Africa. The students experimented with instruments, masks, cloth and looked at pictures and maps. The students really enjoyed it! Thanks, Lynn.
**Route to Reading Rotation 6 will begin on Monday, February 29th. At that time you will receive notification of the skill your child will be working on.
**Our new Student Council reps, Hattie and Lauren had their first meeting. They are already full of ideas for a new fundraiser to help someone in need. Stay tuned!
**The Kindergarten Team has planned a FIELD TRIP to the FIELD MUSEUM on Thursday, March 24th from 9:30-1:30 pm. The cost is $5.00. ALL students will need a BAG LUNCH with their name on it. Permission slip and info is in your child's homework folder. I will need 5 volunteers to help out on this trip. We will be working on a research and shared writing project that will be connected with this trip. Students will ride the bus. Parent volunteers will carpool. I will provide money for parking.
**The OPERA is coming! The OPERA is coming! This years OPERA for the YOUNG will be a production of "The Magic Flute." It will be Friday, March 4th from 9-10 am in the gym. It is an interactive opera where the students will be singing along in certain parts. Ms. Hiolski has been working on this. Should be great fun!
**If you are interested in purchasing books from author, Jonah Winter, the green sheet is in your child's homework folder. He will be sharing the magic of biography writing with students on Friday, March 11th from 1-1:45 pm.
**Spring Pictures will be taken Monday, March 14th in the morning.
**In a salute to all things Irish, bagpiper, Patrick Lynch will come to Irving on Wednesday, March 16th, from 12:45-2:15 pm. He will give a presentation to the kindergarten classes on the instrument and play some tunes for everyone to enjoy on the blacktop at dismissal.
**In keeping with the theme, we will have SUPER TUBER DAY on Thursday, March 17th from 10:30-11:30 am. It's about all things POTATO. Students need to bring a POTATO (not cooked) It can be any kind. I have E. Meier and G. Lowell signed up to help. Another volunteer would be great. Email me if you can help.
**Please welcome another grandma helper, Ms. Cummings to our class. She will be working with students on Wednesday mornings during our literacy workstation time. She is a former 8th grade teacher and administrator. We love our Grandmas!!!!
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her work on conflict resolution with the class. She asked the questions--Is it safe?? Should I do this???
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving this week, Mr. Packer worked with the students on a project called "thinking in shapes." The students were given 5 shapes. Mr. Packer ave them some rules to follow. He told them how many shapes to use and then said a sentence containing the picture he wanted them to make. Check it out in the pics. "I turned on the LAMP in my room." What does your lamp look like?
**No Mr. Degman Math/Tech this week.
**March 11th-- end of Trimester Two. Report cards home on Thursday, March 24th.
**NO SCHOOL--Tuesday, March 15th-Teacher's Institute Day.
**NO SCHOOL--3/25-4/3--Spring Break. Classes resume on Monday, April 4th. Let me know if your child is traveling and I will send a travel journal.
**Future Field Trip--(walking) Maze Branch Library--Thursday, April 28th
**Future Field Trip--Adler Planetarium--Tuesday, May 3rd.
**We are getting closer!!! Keep saving those boxes and cool things!!
This week:
The students continued with our author study on Mo Willems. The students completed summative assessments using his texts. We will finish our author study next week. They were also doing their last experiments on investigating water. Will will be completing our science unit also next week. The students are beginning prep work for our next Treasures Unit Weather and will also begin prep work for our next science unit, Sunshine, Shadows, the Moon and Space. We continued exploring the accomplishments of African Americans. Our favorite story and discussion was on "The Story of Ruby Bridges." The students were so proud to know that even a young child can effect change in our country. Lots of thoughtful insights by students. Station day activities this week included pattern block kite building, reading and illustrating a story problem, writing about a sequence of events, and exploring new choice time activities.
Reading/Language Arts: The students used this week to work on a variety of formative and summative assessments using texts from our author study of Mo Willems. The students responded verbally, thru illustration and thru writing. They worked to answer a variety of questions. Who are the characters is the story? How are they alike? Different? What is the problem? What does the character do to solve the problem? What effect does a repeating phrase have on a text? How does the illustration help you understand the setting? What important job does the author or illustrator have in telling the story? The students did some marvelous group work on problem/solution using the text, "That is not a Good Idea." Using the text "Knuffle Bunny," the students worked with partners to sequence events in the story. Lots of great drawings were done during our "we do" of story elements in the text, "Knuffle Bunny." In the text, "Edwina, the Dinosaur that Didn't Know She Was Extinct," students participated in a word study to best describe the main character. Students are forming OPINIONS about what Mo story they like the best and why. Workstations this week included leveled readers, comprehension check and fluency building, sight word review, sequencing events, word family sort, nonsense/real word activity, CVC puzzles and simple sentences, digraph review, color by word family and working on consonant blends and Silent E.
Math: The students continue to work on rote counting to 130. Focus this week was on subtraction or taking away from the whole (biggest number) or counting down. They began using the number line to assist in the counting down process. Some students are using manipulatives and fingers and even visualizing the answer! Students reviewed their geometric solid identification. They also continue to experiment with incline and plane surfaces and 3 dimensional structures. Math workstations this week included addition cross out, domino number bonds, snowman subtraction and domino number sentences.
Writing: The students continue work on forming lowercase letters. This week the letters k and e were introduced. The students practiced on their mini boards and then applied what they had learned in their orange practice books. They continue to develop their writing stamina by writing on topics in their green journals. We continue to stress beginning with a big letter, spacing between words in a sentence, using an ending mark and placement of letters on a given line. Read it back. Does it make sense? Did you name and tell? Did you use some words to describe what you are writing about? We also took some time to write and draw get well wishes to our classmate, Juliet who has been out sick for a while. Get well soon, Juliet!! We love and miss you!
Science: The students have experimented with water as a liquid and solid and this week experimented with water as a gas in the form of steam. We discussed the freezing temperature of water (32 degrees) and boiling temperature of water (212 degrees.) The students observed "smoke"or steam coming from the water that had been boiled. Where is that gas going? We talked about the word--evaporation. After releasing some steam, I covered the container with plastic wrap. We left the container and went to class. Upon returning, the students noticed water droplets on the top of the plastic wrap inside of the container. How did it get there? Abe remarked, "The water gas cannot evaporate because it is trapped by the plastic and can't get out into the air." The water droplets got bigger and bigger until they dropped back into the container. Mmmm......precipitation! It is raining inside of the container. The students reflected in their science journal. We reviewed our BrainPop video on the water cycle and the idea of evaporation, condensation, precipitation. Cool!
Technology: Whole group learners in Math worked on a new app called Animal Math. It is a paid app but very cool and contains counting, sequences and patterns, basic shapes, classification, addition to 5, addition to 10, subtraction to 5 and 10, greater, less and equal to, even/odd, place value and challenges! Students in small group math work on the app Doodle Buddy to create and illustrate their own story problem, Students are really beginning to look for the pattern when solving the number on the app Number Find. In small group reading, students worked on skill building with the app Build a Sentence. It is great for word order and finding the noun, verb and adjectives. We watched videos via BrainPop about the lives of Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver and author Eloise Greenfield and took the quizzes.
Literature: "Edwina the Dinosaur That Didn't Know She Was Extinct," "Night on Neighborhood Street," "The Story of Ruby Bridges," "Knuffle Bunny," "Harriet Tubman," "Trains Can Float,' "George Washington Carver," "Five Brave Explorers--Great Black Heroes," "A Drop of Water," "Evaporation/Condensation."
Friday, February 19, 2016
UPDATES for 2/8-2/12 and 2/16-2/19 2016
**Thanks so much for your patience at this busy time. I really appreciate it. It was great to chat with all of you and to share your child's progress. Thanks for your continued support. The students surely do shine!!
**Our 100th Day/Valentine's Day Celebration was a smash! 100 fruit loop necklaces, 100 spots on a dog, 100 food grid. writing 100 words, making 100 Day crowns, and sharing Valentine's with friends were just some of the many activities that filled our morning. A HEART felt THANKS to all of our volunteers--K.Meier, Hattie's Grandma, Lauren's Grandma, Amir's Grandma, K. Harris, G. Lowell, N. Daniel, H. Alvarez, J. Wulff and A. Pillacela. FANTASTIC!!!
**The FUN FAIR IS SATURDAY!!!!! Come one, Come all to the Annual Irving Fun Fair, February 20th from 11-3 pm all over the school. On line bidding for some of the auction items is in process. Students can still bring in their coins to vote for who will get the PIE in the FACE the day of the fair. There will be games, prizes, dancing for desserts, photo booth and other attractions plus the silent auction (bid! bid! bedtime story, lunch at Junction Diner) There are some really cool things to be had. There are 4 teacher teams vying for the Pie in the Face. Teacher Team performances and pie in the face will begin at 2:30 pm. YOU don't want to miss it! All proceeds from the day will go to Irving School. COME PLAY A GAME WITH ME in the gym!!!
**I hear our CHEF'S CLASS BASKET is awesome! Many thanks to those who sent in donations.
**Congratulations to HATTIE and LAUREN our new Student Council Members. They will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, February 23rd.
**Route to Reading Rotation 6 will begin on Monday, February 29th, a little later then originally planned.
**In Friendship Club last week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her lessons on screening distractions that might impede out learning. This week, the students created tee shirt designs writing about what matters to them most in their lives. Cool! We will hang them on the "I Care" Tree.
**No Mr. Packer or Mr. Degman both weeks.
**Lynn Allen, director of the Multicultural Center, will speak to our kindergarten students on February, 25th from 9-9:45 about contributions to African American History.
**Opera for the Young is coming!!! On Friday, March 4th at 9:00 am, students will see a production of the opera, "The Magic Flute." It is an interactive opera where the students can sing certain parts. Ms. Hiolski is working with the students on this. It will be great fun!!
**Children's author, Jonah Winter will visit Irving on Friday, March 11th from 1-1:45 pm. Mr. Winter is the author of children's picture book biographies.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Monday, March 14th.
**Teacher's Institute Day is Tuesday, March 15th. No school for students.
**SUPER TUBER DAY is Thursday, March 17th. We will examine and study the potato. I will need 3 volunteers from 10:30-11:30 am. Email if you are interested.
**Future Field Trip (walking) Maze Library--Thursday, April 28th.
**Future Field Trip --Adler Planetarium--May 3rd from 9:00-1:30 pm.
**Keep saving GIANT BOXES and other cool stuff for our space station design and construction in APRIL. You can bring it in after spring break.
The past two week:
It was all about our 100th Day/Valentine's Day Celebration, working on our writing stamina in our green journals, continuing our author study of Mo Willems and observing and experimenting with water as ice in science. We took a look at the contributions of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington thru stories and videos and pondered what makes a good president.
Reading/Language Arts: The students worked on and completed Unit 6 Neighborhoods in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed prior knowledge about places in and around their neighborhood and who you can find there. We had a great discussion about types of community workers. The students listened to the Big Book story, " Bus Stops." They made predictions about story content and listened for what happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story. They also made connections about places in the story and how they relate to their own community. The students reviewed target words for, you, are and target sounds Hh, Dd and Rr. Students worked in small groups to create sentences using words and pictures. They also used their elkonin boxes in an activity that worked on sound blending 4-5 sound words. Robust Vocabulary for the past two weeks included ADMIRE, DELIVER, CELEBRATION, SCHEDULE, COMMUNITY, ALERT, JOB, PRECISE, REPAIR. Our author study on the work of Mo Willems is lots of fun! The students verbally recalled the problem and solution is the stories, "That is Not a Good Idea" and "My Friend is Sad." They then set to write in their own words about the problem and the solution. When listening to the story, "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," and "Leonardo the Terrible Monster," the students took a look at repetitive phrases and thought about why the illustrations can be important to the story. We did some formative assessing using our Blueprint Workmats. We will continue next week with more selections from Mo. The students have enjoyed taking a look at the Mo Willems website too. Check it out if you like! Workstations for the past two weeks included leveled readers with comprehension check and fluency building, writing about what job we would like to do and why, box it up CVC activity, playing "STING" busy bee blends, cut and paste blends, written retelling of the story "We Work for You," building CCVC and CVCC words, making new short i words, word family activity and read and color.
Math: The students continue to work on counting in sequence using numbers 1-120. We continue work on addition story problems--reading the story, setting up the part/whole on ten frames and writing their number sentence. The students are beginning to think about the process of subtraction, counting down, one fewer, 2 fewer etc. They also continue to work on counting on from a random number. Math workstations for the past two weeks have included make 10 Bingo, writing 2 digit numbers, what's my number?? color by code addition problems, geometric solid review, working with incline planes and ramps and creating 3 dimensional structures.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters u, i and l were taught this week. They practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. Our green journals continue to be a source of joy as the students build their writing stamina and work to strengthen their sentence writing. Writing topics for the past two weeks have included snow, friends, animals, myself, the 100th Day, water.
Science: The students reviewed their investigation of water thus far. What do they know now? What was surprising to them? The next experiment pondered the question--What is ice? The students worked in their groups to chat about what ice was....how it is formed...... how does it turn back into water? We discussed the freezing point (32 degree and lower) and that it is cold. Ice is really hard water that has become very cold or frozen. A liquid turned into a solid as one student put it. We discussed the idea of temperature for something to freeze and also to melt. In our experiment, each group of 4 students had a baggie with ice cubes in it. The challenge was to work with your group to melt the ice in the baggie the fastest way you can think of. All groups chatted and came up with a strategy. Interesting thinkers!! I started the timer and each group tried out their strategy. So fun to watch!! The strategies were--sit on it, pound it and squeeze it, shake it and rub it, put it in hot water. The results were--at 8 minutes--the group who put their baggie in hot water from the sink had a baggie full of water. (shortest time) At 23 minutes--sitting on it produced water. (longest time) At 17 and 19 minutes shaking and rubbing and pounding and squeezing produced a baggie full of water. In reflections, the students chatted about what strategy worked the best, what strategy did not work as well, why did some strategies take a long time. In our final week of water investigation, we will look at water as a gas. (steam)
Technology: Student whole group used BrainPop to seek out information on Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, the Presidency, the Water Cycle and we worked with Mo Willems website. In reading small group, the apps OZ Phonics, Spelling Bug and Montessori Crosswords enhanced sound spelling, word order, CVC words and blends/digraphs. In math small groups, the apps Doodle Buddy, Educreations and Math Bug enhanced addition and subtraction practice using story problems, creating their own story problem, illustrating part/whole and writing the number sentence and how many more are needed to complete the ten frame.
Literature: "Force and Motion," "Water's Journey," "Leonardo the Terrible Monster," "My Friend is Sad," "That is Not a Good Idea," "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," "Abe Lincoln's Hat," "Love, Splat," "The Story of George Washington," "If You Lived in the Time of Abraham Lincoln," "Will You Be My Valentine," "Celebrate the 100th Day," "Ms. Bindergarten Gets Ready for the 100th Day of Kindergarten,"
**Our 100th Day/Valentine's Day Celebration was a smash! 100 fruit loop necklaces, 100 spots on a dog, 100 food grid. writing 100 words, making 100 Day crowns, and sharing Valentine's with friends were just some of the many activities that filled our morning. A HEART felt THANKS to all of our volunteers--K.Meier, Hattie's Grandma, Lauren's Grandma, Amir's Grandma, K. Harris, G. Lowell, N. Daniel, H. Alvarez, J. Wulff and A. Pillacela. FANTASTIC!!!
**The FUN FAIR IS SATURDAY!!!!! Come one, Come all to the Annual Irving Fun Fair, February 20th from 11-3 pm all over the school. On line bidding for some of the auction items is in process. Students can still bring in their coins to vote for who will get the PIE in the FACE the day of the fair. There will be games, prizes, dancing for desserts, photo booth and other attractions plus the silent auction (bid! bid! bedtime story, lunch at Junction Diner) There are some really cool things to be had. There are 4 teacher teams vying for the Pie in the Face. Teacher Team performances and pie in the face will begin at 2:30 pm. YOU don't want to miss it! All proceeds from the day will go to Irving School. COME PLAY A GAME WITH ME in the gym!!!
**I hear our CHEF'S CLASS BASKET is awesome! Many thanks to those who sent in donations.
**Congratulations to HATTIE and LAUREN our new Student Council Members. They will attend their first meeting on Tuesday, February 23rd.
**Route to Reading Rotation 6 will begin on Monday, February 29th, a little later then originally planned.
**In Friendship Club last week, Ms. Bell Bey continued her lessons on screening distractions that might impede out learning. This week, the students created tee shirt designs writing about what matters to them most in their lives. Cool! We will hang them on the "I Care" Tree.
**No Mr. Packer or Mr. Degman both weeks.
**Lynn Allen, director of the Multicultural Center, will speak to our kindergarten students on February, 25th from 9-9:45 about contributions to African American History.
**Opera for the Young is coming!!! On Friday, March 4th at 9:00 am, students will see a production of the opera, "The Magic Flute." It is an interactive opera where the students can sing certain parts. Ms. Hiolski is working with the students on this. It will be great fun!!
**Children's author, Jonah Winter will visit Irving on Friday, March 11th from 1-1:45 pm. Mr. Winter is the author of children's picture book biographies.
**Spring Pictures will be taken on Monday, March 14th.
**Teacher's Institute Day is Tuesday, March 15th. No school for students.
**SUPER TUBER DAY is Thursday, March 17th. We will examine and study the potato. I will need 3 volunteers from 10:30-11:30 am. Email if you are interested.
**Future Field Trip (walking) Maze Library--Thursday, April 28th.
**Future Field Trip --Adler Planetarium--May 3rd from 9:00-1:30 pm.
**Keep saving GIANT BOXES and other cool stuff for our space station design and construction in APRIL. You can bring it in after spring break.
The past two week:
It was all about our 100th Day/Valentine's Day Celebration, working on our writing stamina in our green journals, continuing our author study of Mo Willems and observing and experimenting with water as ice in science. We took a look at the contributions of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington thru stories and videos and pondered what makes a good president.
Reading/Language Arts: The students worked on and completed Unit 6 Neighborhoods in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed prior knowledge about places in and around their neighborhood and who you can find there. We had a great discussion about types of community workers. The students listened to the Big Book story, " Bus Stops." They made predictions about story content and listened for what happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story. They also made connections about places in the story and how they relate to their own community. The students reviewed target words for, you, are and target sounds Hh, Dd and Rr. Students worked in small groups to create sentences using words and pictures. They also used their elkonin boxes in an activity that worked on sound blending 4-5 sound words. Robust Vocabulary for the past two weeks included ADMIRE, DELIVER, CELEBRATION, SCHEDULE, COMMUNITY, ALERT, JOB, PRECISE, REPAIR. Our author study on the work of Mo Willems is lots of fun! The students verbally recalled the problem and solution is the stories, "That is Not a Good Idea" and "My Friend is Sad." They then set to write in their own words about the problem and the solution. When listening to the story, "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," and "Leonardo the Terrible Monster," the students took a look at repetitive phrases and thought about why the illustrations can be important to the story. We did some formative assessing using our Blueprint Workmats. We will continue next week with more selections from Mo. The students have enjoyed taking a look at the Mo Willems website too. Check it out if you like! Workstations for the past two weeks included leveled readers with comprehension check and fluency building, writing about what job we would like to do and why, box it up CVC activity, playing "STING" busy bee blends, cut and paste blends, written retelling of the story "We Work for You," building CCVC and CVCC words, making new short i words, word family activity and read and color.
Math: The students continue to work on counting in sequence using numbers 1-120. We continue work on addition story problems--reading the story, setting up the part/whole on ten frames and writing their number sentence. The students are beginning to think about the process of subtraction, counting down, one fewer, 2 fewer etc. They also continue to work on counting on from a random number. Math workstations for the past two weeks have included make 10 Bingo, writing 2 digit numbers, what's my number?? color by code addition problems, geometric solid review, working with incline planes and ramps and creating 3 dimensional structures.
Writing: The students continue to work on lowercase letter formation. The letters u, i and l were taught this week. They practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange books. Our green journals continue to be a source of joy as the students build their writing stamina and work to strengthen their sentence writing. Writing topics for the past two weeks have included snow, friends, animals, myself, the 100th Day, water.
Science: The students reviewed their investigation of water thus far. What do they know now? What was surprising to them? The next experiment pondered the question--What is ice? The students worked in their groups to chat about what ice was....how it is formed...... how does it turn back into water? We discussed the freezing point (32 degree and lower) and that it is cold. Ice is really hard water that has become very cold or frozen. A liquid turned into a solid as one student put it. We discussed the idea of temperature for something to freeze and also to melt. In our experiment, each group of 4 students had a baggie with ice cubes in it. The challenge was to work with your group to melt the ice in the baggie the fastest way you can think of. All groups chatted and came up with a strategy. Interesting thinkers!! I started the timer and each group tried out their strategy. So fun to watch!! The strategies were--sit on it, pound it and squeeze it, shake it and rub it, put it in hot water. The results were--at 8 minutes--the group who put their baggie in hot water from the sink had a baggie full of water. (shortest time) At 23 minutes--sitting on it produced water. (longest time) At 17 and 19 minutes shaking and rubbing and pounding and squeezing produced a baggie full of water. In reflections, the students chatted about what strategy worked the best, what strategy did not work as well, why did some strategies take a long time. In our final week of water investigation, we will look at water as a gas. (steam)
Technology: Student whole group used BrainPop to seek out information on Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, the Presidency, the Water Cycle and we worked with Mo Willems website. In reading small group, the apps OZ Phonics, Spelling Bug and Montessori Crosswords enhanced sound spelling, word order, CVC words and blends/digraphs. In math small groups, the apps Doodle Buddy, Educreations and Math Bug enhanced addition and subtraction practice using story problems, creating their own story problem, illustrating part/whole and writing the number sentence and how many more are needed to complete the ten frame.
Literature: "Force and Motion," "Water's Journey," "Leonardo the Terrible Monster," "My Friend is Sad," "That is Not a Good Idea," "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," "Abe Lincoln's Hat," "Love, Splat," "The Story of George Washington," "If You Lived in the Time of Abraham Lincoln," "Will You Be My Valentine," "Celebrate the 100th Day," "Ms. Bindergarten Gets Ready for the 100th Day of Kindergarten,"
Sunday, February 7, 2016
UPDATES for 2/1-2/5 2016
**The whole school came out to wish Mr. Hodge a Happy Birthday. What better way then to be Mr. Hodge all day! The students wore their Mr. Hodge masks whenever they went to the office. That's around 500 or so Mr. Hodges!!!! Check out the photo!!
**Route to Reading Rotation 5 will conclude this week. You will be receiving notification on your child's skill mastery. Route to Reading Rotation 6 will begin on Monday, February 16th.
**The BUSY READER CLUB is in full swing! Don't forget to listen to your child read each day. They bring the book back and get a new reader. At the beginning of each morning, the students have an opportunity to read to their peers. "Share a story--share a page" is going great. The students love to read to their peers and practice their decoding and fluency. Let's keep this going!! Be sure to record the time you read on your Reading Log. Don't forget to bring back your book!!
**We are getting ready for our 100th Day/Valentine's Day festivities. Stop by school to check out all the 100 item hearts. They are really cool!! Don't forget to bring in your picture of a 100 day old person and a 100 year old person. Also--on Wednesday, bring a Valentine for each member of our class (18 students.) If you like---you can also bring a treat (nut/dairy free) or a treasure to put into our treat bags. Those bags will be sent home. We are having a double celebration!!!
**Our 100th Day/Valentine's Day Celebration is Wednesday, February 10th from 9-11 am. We have K. Meier, N. Massett, N. Daniel, K. Harris, H. Alvarez, G. Lowell, Amir's Grandma, J. Wulff and P. Jordan helping out. YEAH!!! It will be great!
**Parent/Teacher Conferences are next week. (2/8, 2/9 and 2/10) Looking forward to sharing your child's progress with you. Please confirm your day and time. Don't forget--School in only in session in the MORNING on Thursday and Friday (2/11 and 2/12) Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, District school bus and Club House pick up is at 11:00 am.
**The FUN FAIR IS COMING! THE FUN FAIR IS COMING!! The Annual Irving School Fun Fair is Saturday, February 20th from 11-3 pm throughout the school. There will be games, prizes, silent auction, food, dancing for desserts and much more!! Who will get the PIE in the FACE!!?? The students will be voting by putting coins or other money into the jug with a picture of their favorite person on the front. Students can begin bringing in their coins/money on Tuesday. There will continue to be opportunities for students to vote during the Fun Fair too. What special performances do the teachers have up their sleeves??!! (silent auction items--BID! BID! I will be taking 4 lucky winners to lunch at Junction Diner. I will also be reading a bedtime story to 2 lucky winners in their home) Make a contribution to our class CHEF BASKET. You can send your contribution with your child to school.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey introduced the character BODY SNATCHER who tries to distract you from the group. Super Flex to the rescue! Let's not be distracted from learning!!!
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, Mr. Packer continued his project on looking for details and retelling using the process of elimination.
**No Mr. Degman this week.
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES and other cool for our our space station design and construction in April. Keep everything at home until after spring break.
This week:
It was all about Mr. Hodge's Birthday, getting ready for the 100th Day of School and Bubble mania!! What is a bubble made of? Why does it pop? More in the science section. Station day activities this week included build a stairway, count and compare, blizzard bubble paintings and making bubbles using different wands and chasing bubbles from the bubble machine.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 6 Neighborhoods in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed prior knowledge about what a neighborhood is and what is included in a neighborhood. The students worked together to create a HUGE word web of places and things that describe a neighborhood. They listened to the Big Book story, "Russ and the Firehouse." The students recognized this story as nonfiction. The students elbow chatted about story elements--Who is Russ? Why is he at the firehouse? What does he do there? The students also retold the story in their own words sequencing main events. Target words for this week were are and for. They added these words to their growing list of sight words. Target sounds for the week were Hh and short and long u. They reviewed all consonant and vowel sounds. Students worked with a partner and practiced asking a WH question about the story and having their partner answer it. In the second reading of the story, the students discussed the main idea of the story and created a list of the jobs that Russ did at the firehouse. Students took turns using the retelling cards and summarized the events. They used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 4 sound words using consonant blends. They read the decodable book, "Are Caps Hats?" The students made predictions about story content. Each student had an opportunity to read aloud. Some questions to ponder--Could the group hear you? Did you stop at each ending mark? Did you pause at the comma? Were you able to blend the sounds together to make a word you didn't know? Was your reading choppy or smooth? The students chose a partner to read to. The partner listened, discussed and critiqued using the Reader's Checklist. Peers evaluating peers!! We completed our final Blueprint workmat on Martin's Big Words. Next week, we will be taking a look at the life of Jackie Robinson. It will be the text for our next Blueprint. Workstations this week included leveled readers with comprehension check, asking and answering question about a given text, creating a page for our neighborhood book, short vowel written cloze, writing about a neighborhood place/illustrate, word work with blends and digraphs, short vowel work, sentence completion.
Math: The students partnered up and chose an item that they could group by tens to show 100. After their counting and grouping, they labeled each group--10, 20, 30 etc. The photos are up in our hallway. Check them out! The students continued to count and group by tens to 100. Some students even tried to group 2's and 5's. Cool! We continued to work on the process of subtraction using using drawing and objects to show the process. We played game of number find where students search their paper for the numbers called out by the caller. We are also working on writing our numbers from 1-100. The students are exploring building 3 dimensional structures or solid shapes using a variety of straws/pipe cleaners, connects straws, magnetos and mini magnetos. Fun! Fun! We will begin chatting about geometric solids vocabulary next week. Math workstations this week included addition color by code, ten frames count, number bonds to 10, make 5 Bingo and subtraction story problems.
Writing: The students are working on increasing their writing stamina!! They have begun working in their GREEN writing journals. Their green journals have an illustration space and room for 5 sentences. It also has all the kindergarten sight words in ABC order in the front. The students are topic writing each day and taking special care to notice that they begin with a capital letter, space between words in a sentence, forming letters correctly and placing letters (tall lowercase, lowercase, underground letters) in the appropriate spot on the line. Read your sentences? Does is name and tell? Can you add some details to your sentences? Can you tell more? We have just started to work on words that describe. (adjectives) Their goal is to write 4 sentences independently on a given topic. I will be sharing these with you at conferences. It is exciting!!
Science: What is a bubble? The students discussed and made some observations and shared their thoughts. The students learned that a bubble is a thin layer of liquid (soapy water) that is surrounded by a air (gas) The outside layer is like a skin or as one student said, "It is like their jacket." We took a look at utube videos depicting bubble blowing (fill the surrounding soapy water with air) We also saw lots of types of bubble wands and creating a bubble without blowing air. Why do bubbles pop? The students went outside and created bubbles using different types of wands. Some students blew air into the soapy water, others waved or ran with the wand to create the bubbles. Students observed bubbles sticking together (water can stick together) and bubbles floating in the air. Other students saw a bubble stay on the wand and not move. They noted that no matter what shape the wand was the bubble was a sphere. As the bubble popped, students got the idea that the water around the bubble evaporates. The students had a ball chasing the bubbles from the bubble machine. The students continued their exploration on building incline planes. I introduced the vocabulary force (a push or a pull), gravity, weight and motion (changing direction) and speed. They have built some really cool structures!
Technology: The students watched a BrainPop video on the water cycle and loved viewing videos of babies learning to blow bubbles. Mr. Bubble Man and a bubble popping in slow motion courtesy of utube. In reading student partners used the app Spelling Bug and Magnetic Letters HD to working on sound spelling and sentence structure/word order. In math student partners used the app Educreations to write about and illustrate a simple addition story problem.
Literature: "Force and Motion," "Water Cycle," "Water," "Why Does It Float," "Turn on the Faucet," "One Hundred Shoes," "I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words," "Jackie Robinson," "Math-The M and M Way,""Some Things Float."
**Route to Reading Rotation 5 will conclude this week. You will be receiving notification on your child's skill mastery. Route to Reading Rotation 6 will begin on Monday, February 16th.
**The BUSY READER CLUB is in full swing! Don't forget to listen to your child read each day. They bring the book back and get a new reader. At the beginning of each morning, the students have an opportunity to read to their peers. "Share a story--share a page" is going great. The students love to read to their peers and practice their decoding and fluency. Let's keep this going!! Be sure to record the time you read on your Reading Log. Don't forget to bring back your book!!
**We are getting ready for our 100th Day/Valentine's Day festivities. Stop by school to check out all the 100 item hearts. They are really cool!! Don't forget to bring in your picture of a 100 day old person and a 100 year old person. Also--on Wednesday, bring a Valentine for each member of our class (18 students.) If you like---you can also bring a treat (nut/dairy free) or a treasure to put into our treat bags. Those bags will be sent home. We are having a double celebration!!!
**Our 100th Day/Valentine's Day Celebration is Wednesday, February 10th from 9-11 am. We have K. Meier, N. Massett, N. Daniel, K. Harris, H. Alvarez, G. Lowell, Amir's Grandma, J. Wulff and P. Jordan helping out. YEAH!!! It will be great!
**Parent/Teacher Conferences are next week. (2/8, 2/9 and 2/10) Looking forward to sharing your child's progress with you. Please confirm your day and time. Don't forget--School in only in session in the MORNING on Thursday and Friday (2/11 and 2/12) Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, District school bus and Club House pick up is at 11:00 am.
**The FUN FAIR IS COMING! THE FUN FAIR IS COMING!! The Annual Irving School Fun Fair is Saturday, February 20th from 11-3 pm throughout the school. There will be games, prizes, silent auction, food, dancing for desserts and much more!! Who will get the PIE in the FACE!!?? The students will be voting by putting coins or other money into the jug with a picture of their favorite person on the front. Students can begin bringing in their coins/money on Tuesday. There will continue to be opportunities for students to vote during the Fun Fair too. What special performances do the teachers have up their sleeves??!! (silent auction items--BID! BID! I will be taking 4 lucky winners to lunch at Junction Diner. I will also be reading a bedtime story to 2 lucky winners in their home) Make a contribution to our class CHEF BASKET. You can send your contribution with your child to school.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey introduced the character BODY SNATCHER who tries to distract you from the group. Super Flex to the rescue! Let's not be distracted from learning!!!
**In Mr. Packer Problem Solving, Mr. Packer continued his project on looking for details and retelling using the process of elimination.
**No Mr. Degman this week.
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES and other cool for our our space station design and construction in April. Keep everything at home until after spring break.
This week:
It was all about Mr. Hodge's Birthday, getting ready for the 100th Day of School and Bubble mania!! What is a bubble made of? Why does it pop? More in the science section. Station day activities this week included build a stairway, count and compare, blizzard bubble paintings and making bubbles using different wands and chasing bubbles from the bubble machine.
Reading/Language Arts: The students began Unit 6 Neighborhoods in our Treasures Reading series. They accessed prior knowledge about what a neighborhood is and what is included in a neighborhood. The students worked together to create a HUGE word web of places and things that describe a neighborhood. They listened to the Big Book story, "Russ and the Firehouse." The students recognized this story as nonfiction. The students elbow chatted about story elements--Who is Russ? Why is he at the firehouse? What does he do there? The students also retold the story in their own words sequencing main events. Target words for this week were are and for. They added these words to their growing list of sight words. Target sounds for the week were Hh and short and long u. They reviewed all consonant and vowel sounds. Students worked with a partner and practiced asking a WH question about the story and having their partner answer it. In the second reading of the story, the students discussed the main idea of the story and created a list of the jobs that Russ did at the firehouse. Students took turns using the retelling cards and summarized the events. They used their elkonin boxes to segment and blend 4 sound words using consonant blends. They read the decodable book, "Are Caps Hats?" The students made predictions about story content. Each student had an opportunity to read aloud. Some questions to ponder--Could the group hear you? Did you stop at each ending mark? Did you pause at the comma? Were you able to blend the sounds together to make a word you didn't know? Was your reading choppy or smooth? The students chose a partner to read to. The partner listened, discussed and critiqued using the Reader's Checklist. Peers evaluating peers!! We completed our final Blueprint workmat on Martin's Big Words. Next week, we will be taking a look at the life of Jackie Robinson. It will be the text for our next Blueprint. Workstations this week included leveled readers with comprehension check, asking and answering question about a given text, creating a page for our neighborhood book, short vowel written cloze, writing about a neighborhood place/illustrate, word work with blends and digraphs, short vowel work, sentence completion.
Math: The students partnered up and chose an item that they could group by tens to show 100. After their counting and grouping, they labeled each group--10, 20, 30 etc. The photos are up in our hallway. Check them out! The students continued to count and group by tens to 100. Some students even tried to group 2's and 5's. Cool! We continued to work on the process of subtraction using using drawing and objects to show the process. We played game of number find where students search their paper for the numbers called out by the caller. We are also working on writing our numbers from 1-100. The students are exploring building 3 dimensional structures or solid shapes using a variety of straws/pipe cleaners, connects straws, magnetos and mini magnetos. Fun! Fun! We will begin chatting about geometric solids vocabulary next week. Math workstations this week included addition color by code, ten frames count, number bonds to 10, make 5 Bingo and subtraction story problems.
Writing: The students are working on increasing their writing stamina!! They have begun working in their GREEN writing journals. Their green journals have an illustration space and room for 5 sentences. It also has all the kindergarten sight words in ABC order in the front. The students are topic writing each day and taking special care to notice that they begin with a capital letter, space between words in a sentence, forming letters correctly and placing letters (tall lowercase, lowercase, underground letters) in the appropriate spot on the line. Read your sentences? Does is name and tell? Can you add some details to your sentences? Can you tell more? We have just started to work on words that describe. (adjectives) Their goal is to write 4 sentences independently on a given topic. I will be sharing these with you at conferences. It is exciting!!
Science: What is a bubble? The students discussed and made some observations and shared their thoughts. The students learned that a bubble is a thin layer of liquid (soapy water) that is surrounded by a air (gas) The outside layer is like a skin or as one student said, "It is like their jacket." We took a look at utube videos depicting bubble blowing (fill the surrounding soapy water with air) We also saw lots of types of bubble wands and creating a bubble without blowing air. Why do bubbles pop? The students went outside and created bubbles using different types of wands. Some students blew air into the soapy water, others waved or ran with the wand to create the bubbles. Students observed bubbles sticking together (water can stick together) and bubbles floating in the air. Other students saw a bubble stay on the wand and not move. They noted that no matter what shape the wand was the bubble was a sphere. As the bubble popped, students got the idea that the water around the bubble evaporates. The students had a ball chasing the bubbles from the bubble machine. The students continued their exploration on building incline planes. I introduced the vocabulary force (a push or a pull), gravity, weight and motion (changing direction) and speed. They have built some really cool structures!
Technology: The students watched a BrainPop video on the water cycle and loved viewing videos of babies learning to blow bubbles. Mr. Bubble Man and a bubble popping in slow motion courtesy of utube. In reading student partners used the app Spelling Bug and Magnetic Letters HD to working on sound spelling and sentence structure/word order. In math student partners used the app Educreations to write about and illustrate a simple addition story problem.
Literature: "Force and Motion," "Water Cycle," "Water," "Why Does It Float," "Turn on the Faucet," "One Hundred Shoes," "I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words," "Jackie Robinson," "Math-The M and M Way,""Some Things Float."
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
UPDATES for 1/25-1/29 2016
**We are up and running again......the world of modern technology!!!! It has its advantages and its stresses!!
**The students had a blast with the visiting students from Japan. We had map skills, stories, origami and writing your name in Japanese. Great fun and learning.
** Please read the information on our BUSY READER CLUB! It is in your child's homework folder. The students are really excited to practice their sound blending skills and beginning reading fluency by reading to you each night a book that they have selected. The students will record the number of books they read on a special sticker chart. In about 3 weeks time, I will send you a feedback sheet to get your reactions/thoughts. Happy listening!!
**You also received information on a reading program called RAZ-KIDS. This program provides ebooks, comprehension checks and incentives for students to work on their reading fluency and reading for meaning. Sign up and try it! Email me with any questions.
**100 item hearts are due February 4th. The ones that have come in are awesome! They will be displayed in our hallway and in the front of the school by the office. Don't forget to bring a picture of a 100 day old person and a 100 year old person to add to our board. We also need students to bring their Valentine cards for our combined celebration. We have 18 students. (11 girls/17 boys) Students can also bring a treat (nut/dairy free) or a treasure that will be put into a treat bag to take home.
**Our 100th Day/Valentine's Day Celebration is Wednesday, February 10th from 9-11 am. We now have K. Meier, N. Massett, N. Daniel, K. Harris, H. Alvarez, G. Lowell, Amir's Grandma, J. Wulff helping out! The more the merrier!! Email if you would like to volunteer!
**If you haven't already, please confirm your day and time for Parent/Teacher Conference.
Mid Year Conferences are Monday, February 8th, Tuesday, February 9th and Wednesday, February 10th. Please note that school is in session in the MORNING ONLY on Thursday and Friday, February 11th and 12th. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Club House, District school bus will pick up at 11:00 am.
**Hearing Screening for Kindergarten students will be held on Friday, February 5th in the morning.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is COMING!! The Annual Irving School Fun Fair is Saturday, February 20th from 11-3 pm throughout the school. There will be games, prizes, silent auction, dancing for desserts and much more. Who will get the PIE in the FACE this year??? What special performances do the teachers have up their sleeves??? (silent auction items--I will be taking 4 lucky winners to lunch at Junction Diner. I will also be reading a bed time story to 2 lucky winners in their home.) Bid! Bid! Sign up to make a contribution to our class basket. You can send your contribution with your child if you like.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued lessons on getting to calm.
**In Mr. Packer continued his project on looking for details and retelling.
**No Mr. Degman this week.
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES and other cool stuff for our space station design and construction in APRIL. Keep everything at home until after spring break.
This week:
It was all about the culture of Japan. Students from Japan and students studying Japanese at OPRF were so great with our kinders! The students had so much fun creating origami and learning how to spell their name in Japanese. We looked up the country of Japan on our world map. Students learned what an island is. The students listened as the teens spoke Japanese. "It does not sound at all like how we talk!" they all exclaimed. ABC's versus character writing. Very cool! Station Day activities included building with animal with cubes, graph, record compare animals in winter, playing Snowman Bump, It's Geometric color by code and exploring slanted and sloped surfaces using Marble Works, Magnetos and Contraption.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. The students accessed prior knowledge about animal habitats they knew about. They listened to the text, "Mole and Baby Bird." The particular focus of the story was how it was organized with a beginning, middle and end. The students looked to identify story structure and identify main events in the story. After listening, students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words. The students reviewed all consonant and vowel sounds. They also reviewed all sight words presented thus far. I read a selection from our vocabulary cards called, "Hidden Homes." The students discussed what kind of animals might live in habitats that you cannot see. The students listened to the informational text, "At Home in the Rain Forest." We had an interesting discussion on Wild vs. Domestic animals and how some animals could be both depending upon their situation. The students worked on spelling CVC, CCVC and CVCC words using their dry erase boards. They also completed a summative assessment on a Blueprint Workmat relating to what the author might be thinking and why and how the author words and pictures are connected. Workstation activities for this week included leveled reader story elements, fluency check, vowel review, substituting sounds sheet, noun/verb sort, blend find, writing and illustrating about and animal habitat.
Math: The students continue work on rote counting to 100 by ones and tens. They also worked on the process of subtraction. Workstations this week included number bond activities using numbers 1-10, 10 frame activities, greater than and less than game, work on subtraction using objects, drawings and mental images and writing numbers to 100. They are really enjoying their story problem journal where they read a story problem, illustrate on ten frames and write their number sentence.
Writing: The students worked on lowercase formation of letters a, d, and g. They practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. We will be getting our new green journals next week and will build our writing stamina by working on writing 2-4 sentences about a given topic.
Science: The students made some great discoveries about water this week. They experimented with pouring water into different containers. Question: Did the water remain the same shape from container to container? The students discovered that water takes the shape of the container it is in.
It has no shape of its own. In Experiment 5, the students worked with their tablemates taking turns--first making a guess (what they think might happen) and then dropping the item into the water--observing and then recording what actually happened--SINK/FLOAT? I used some really big words--displacement (making room, pushing away) and density (measure of mass) Why did one item sink and the other item float? Lots of discussion! In our next experiment, we added a little engineering to the mix. The students each constructed a boat out of tin foil. All students had the same size piece. They could construct their boat any way they chose. While they made their boat, they thought about these questions--How many marbles do you think it would take to sink your boat? How would you build it to hold the greatest number of marbles? It was really interesting to observe how each child approached construction. Some modeled after a boat they saw, sides up, back up, front pitched like a triangle, shaped into a circle. The students sketched their boat and then wrote down a guess of how many marble it would take to sink it. Then the fun began!!! Each student took a turn placing their boat in the water and filling it up with marbles. Such fun! Some were very surprised at the outcome. Who's boat took on the most marbles? Ask your child about the experiment! Next week--What is a bubble?
Technology: In reading small groups, the apps iTalk, Rocket Speller, Sight Words, iWrite Words and Magic Reading 3 were used to enhance segmenting and blending, word practice and beginning fluency. In math small groups, the apps Number Find, Butterfly Math, 100's Board and Subitize Tree were used to enhance place value, adding, number order, and visual memory.
Literature: "Force and Motion," "Water's Journey," "Floating and Sinking," "All About Water," "I am Snow," "Punctuation."
**The students had a blast with the visiting students from Japan. We had map skills, stories, origami and writing your name in Japanese. Great fun and learning.
** Please read the information on our BUSY READER CLUB! It is in your child's homework folder. The students are really excited to practice their sound blending skills and beginning reading fluency by reading to you each night a book that they have selected. The students will record the number of books they read on a special sticker chart. In about 3 weeks time, I will send you a feedback sheet to get your reactions/thoughts. Happy listening!!
**You also received information on a reading program called RAZ-KIDS. This program provides ebooks, comprehension checks and incentives for students to work on their reading fluency and reading for meaning. Sign up and try it! Email me with any questions.
**100 item hearts are due February 4th. The ones that have come in are awesome! They will be displayed in our hallway and in the front of the school by the office. Don't forget to bring a picture of a 100 day old person and a 100 year old person to add to our board. We also need students to bring their Valentine cards for our combined celebration. We have 18 students. (11 girls/17 boys) Students can also bring a treat (nut/dairy free) or a treasure that will be put into a treat bag to take home.
**Our 100th Day/Valentine's Day Celebration is Wednesday, February 10th from 9-11 am. We now have K. Meier, N. Massett, N. Daniel, K. Harris, H. Alvarez, G. Lowell, Amir's Grandma, J. Wulff helping out! The more the merrier!! Email if you would like to volunteer!
**If you haven't already, please confirm your day and time for Parent/Teacher Conference.
Mid Year Conferences are Monday, February 8th, Tuesday, February 9th and Wednesday, February 10th. Please note that school is in session in the MORNING ONLY on Thursday and Friday, February 11th and 12th. Dismissal is at 11:00 am. Hephzibah, Club House, District school bus will pick up at 11:00 am.
**Hearing Screening for Kindergarten students will be held on Friday, February 5th in the morning.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING! The FUN FAIR is COMING!! The Annual Irving School Fun Fair is Saturday, February 20th from 11-3 pm throughout the school. There will be games, prizes, silent auction, dancing for desserts and much more. Who will get the PIE in the FACE this year??? What special performances do the teachers have up their sleeves??? (silent auction items--I will be taking 4 lucky winners to lunch at Junction Diner. I will also be reading a bed time story to 2 lucky winners in their home.) Bid! Bid! Sign up to make a contribution to our class basket. You can send your contribution with your child if you like.
**In Friendship Club this week, Ms. Bell Bey continued lessons on getting to calm.
**In Mr. Packer continued his project on looking for details and retelling.
**No Mr. Degman this week.
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES and other cool stuff for our space station design and construction in APRIL. Keep everything at home until after spring break.
This week:
It was all about the culture of Japan. Students from Japan and students studying Japanese at OPRF were so great with our kinders! The students had so much fun creating origami and learning how to spell their name in Japanese. We looked up the country of Japan on our world map. Students learned what an island is. The students listened as the teens spoke Japanese. "It does not sound at all like how we talk!" they all exclaimed. ABC's versus character writing. Very cool! Station Day activities included building with animal with cubes, graph, record compare animals in winter, playing Snowman Bump, It's Geometric color by code and exploring slanted and sloped surfaces using Marble Works, Magnetos and Contraption.
Reading/Language Arts: The students completed Unit 5 Animals in our Treasures Reading series. The students accessed prior knowledge about animal habitats they knew about. They listened to the text, "Mole and Baby Bird." The particular focus of the story was how it was organized with a beginning, middle and end. The students looked to identify story structure and identify main events in the story. After listening, students took turns using the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words. The students reviewed all consonant and vowel sounds. They also reviewed all sight words presented thus far. I read a selection from our vocabulary cards called, "Hidden Homes." The students discussed what kind of animals might live in habitats that you cannot see. The students listened to the informational text, "At Home in the Rain Forest." We had an interesting discussion on Wild vs. Domestic animals and how some animals could be both depending upon their situation. The students worked on spelling CVC, CCVC and CVCC words using their dry erase boards. They also completed a summative assessment on a Blueprint Workmat relating to what the author might be thinking and why and how the author words and pictures are connected. Workstation activities for this week included leveled reader story elements, fluency check, vowel review, substituting sounds sheet, noun/verb sort, blend find, writing and illustrating about and animal habitat.
Math: The students continue work on rote counting to 100 by ones and tens. They also worked on the process of subtraction. Workstations this week included number bond activities using numbers 1-10, 10 frame activities, greater than and less than game, work on subtraction using objects, drawings and mental images and writing numbers to 100. They are really enjoying their story problem journal where they read a story problem, illustrate on ten frames and write their number sentence.
Writing: The students worked on lowercase formation of letters a, d, and g. They practiced on their mini boards and applied what they learned in their orange practice books. We will be getting our new green journals next week and will build our writing stamina by working on writing 2-4 sentences about a given topic.
Science: The students made some great discoveries about water this week. They experimented with pouring water into different containers. Question: Did the water remain the same shape from container to container? The students discovered that water takes the shape of the container it is in.
It has no shape of its own. In Experiment 5, the students worked with their tablemates taking turns--first making a guess (what they think might happen) and then dropping the item into the water--observing and then recording what actually happened--SINK/FLOAT? I used some really big words--displacement (making room, pushing away) and density (measure of mass) Why did one item sink and the other item float? Lots of discussion! In our next experiment, we added a little engineering to the mix. The students each constructed a boat out of tin foil. All students had the same size piece. They could construct their boat any way they chose. While they made their boat, they thought about these questions--How many marbles do you think it would take to sink your boat? How would you build it to hold the greatest number of marbles? It was really interesting to observe how each child approached construction. Some modeled after a boat they saw, sides up, back up, front pitched like a triangle, shaped into a circle. The students sketched their boat and then wrote down a guess of how many marble it would take to sink it. Then the fun began!!! Each student took a turn placing their boat in the water and filling it up with marbles. Such fun! Some were very surprised at the outcome. Who's boat took on the most marbles? Ask your child about the experiment! Next week--What is a bubble?
Technology: In reading small groups, the apps iTalk, Rocket Speller, Sight Words, iWrite Words and Magic Reading 3 were used to enhance segmenting and blending, word practice and beginning fluency. In math small groups, the apps Number Find, Butterfly Math, 100's Board and Subitize Tree were used to enhance place value, adding, number order, and visual memory.
Literature: "Force and Motion," "Water's Journey," "Floating and Sinking," "All About Water," "I am Snow," "Punctuation."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)