Words of Wisdom: “Great works are performed not by strength but by perserverance.”  - Samuel Johnson

Language Arts in Action: We learned to read the word, “she,” and to sing a funny song called She’ll Be Comin’ Round The Mountain. We unscrambled tiles with words to read many different sentences with the word “she.”  Baggie books we began this week were The Bad Leg, Spots, and Sheila Rae The Brave.  We reviewed the short e sound and made flip charts writing short e words like bed, leg, and ten.

Math Star Minutes: We continued to explore computation through combining groups and removing from a group.  This week we discussed strategies for solving story problems.  We discussed and retold the problems, then recorded our ideas for solving them using pictures, numbers, and/or equations.

Super Scientists: We were engrossed with our Earth Day activities this week.  We created Earth Day badges with our handprints, so we could hang them in our room. We read many stories such as This Is Our Earth by Laura Lee Benson, I Stink by Kate McMullen, and The Clean Up Surprise by Christine Loomis.  We learned to sing This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie.  We reused all the trash we had collected by creating some very original sculptures including spaceships, cars, skyscrapers, boats, etc.  We started an experiment to help us understand the importance of recycling.  We buried an apple core and a plastic lid in a bucket of dirt called “Our Classroom Landfill.”  We’re going to take a look at what happens to each object over the next few weeks.  We read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and then drew and painted pictures to show what the world looked like before and after all the colorful Truffala trees were cut down. We read A House Is A House For Me by Maryann Hoberman and then we drew different animals in their homes to display on our classroom board.   We enjoyed our Earth Day show and tell.  The kids did a great job explaining where they found their “pieces of earth” and why they are important.

Happy Happenings: Here’s a link to a photo slide show from our recent shared reading event with Mr. Erf’s third grade class.  Thanks to Mr. Erf for producing.  Enjoy!

http://readingbuddies.zapd.net/

Words of Wisdom: “More men fail through lack of purpose than lack of talent.” – Billy Sunday

Language Arts in Action: We learned two new sight words:  ”are” and “they.”  We put reading them to use in our baggie books, Get The Hen, A Big Box, Don’t Be Late, and Sheep In A Jeep.  We also used our new sight words in our writing log entries for the week.  We met letter friend, Jenna the Jumper, and we learned the sound for the letter j.  We practiced writing capital and lowercase Jj on lines.  We listened to the story, The Tiny Seed, and we created giant sunflowers that look like the flower in the story using our handprints in paint and real sunflower seed centers.

Math Star Minutes: We focused on understanding computational concepts and number writing by playing the games Roll and Record 3 (addition) and Build and Remove (subtraction).  We told and acted out story problems to emphasize the actions involved in combining groups or removing a number from a group.

Super Scientists: The kids are intrigued with our states of matter investigations.  This week we turned a liquid into a solid (freezing water into ice), turned a liquid into a gas (boiling water and watching the steam evaporate), and turned a gas into a liquid (heating air inside a bottle then watching it condense as it cooled off).  We blew up a balloon without blowing by putting it over the mouth of a bottle and heating the bottle in a pan of water.  As the air in the bottle grew heated, it expanded upward into the balloon.  We also explored the concept that hot air rises by holding a paper spiral on a stick above a hot plate and watching the hot air rapidly spin the spiral.

Happy Happenings: Ari was our Star Student this week!  We enjoyed seeing the great pictures from his travels.

Nuts and Bolts: Please don’t forget to save your trash for us, so that we can re-use it to create some trash can art sculptures next Thursday, April 19th.  Also, help your child select a “piece of the earth” to share during our special Earth Day Show and Tell on Friday, April 20th.  Detailed information regarding both of these projects came in a separate e-mail.

March 15, 2012

Words of Wisdom: “The highest result of education is tolerance.” – Helen Keller

Language Arts in Action: We met Jen the Hen and learned the short e sound.  We practiced hearing it at the beginning and in the middle of words.  We wrote -et word family words on index cards and then decorated an envelope house for our word family cards to live in.  We learned to read the sight word, “we” and we illustrated the words “me,” “he,” and “we” to show we understood the meaning of each word.  We also added the sight word “want” to our word wall and we played a fun Pot Of Gold board game to practice reading all the words on our wall.  We read If You Want A Pet and we wrote about what type of pet we would like to own if we could get a new pet.  We also wrote about leprechauns.  We read Moonbear’s Skyfire.  Afterwards, we painted colorful rainbows and wrote about what we’d like to find at the end of a rainbow.

Math Star Minutes: Much of this week was devoted to a big project called “Arrangements and Equations.”  The purpose of the project was for the students to have experiences constructing numbers in different ways.  The students were asked to create at least two different tile arrangements for the numbers 5-10.  Then they recorded their arrangements and wrote equations to show how they pictured each.  I was very pleased with how maturely they persisted at the task and at how independently most were able to work!  Great job!

Social Studies Scene: Last week a leprechaun visited our classroom and left us some magic seeds!  We planted them in cute leprechaun pots and were surprised to find that the seeds grew funny green grass leprechaun hair!  We wrote about leprechauns in our writing logs and those little men have captured our imaginations.  Many of the children have been busy creating leprechaun traps during their free choice time and their ideas are most original!  I invite your child to wear something green on Friday, March 16th, in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.  We completed our Maps and Position unit by finding our countries of origin on a world map and adding our pictures to it.  Then we painted colorful flags from those countries.  We played a fun game called Mother Hen and Her Chick.  The object of the game was to have one “Mother Hen” child stand on the rainbow rug.  The other students then took turns rolling a large, sponge die and directing the hen to take “2 steps north, 3 steps south,” etc. until the Hen reached the square on the rug where the baby chick beanie baby was located.

Super Scientists: We began a unit on states of matter with a float and sink investigation.  We took turns dropping a variety of objects into a tank of water.  We made predictions about which we thought would float or sink, counted the totals for each, and recorded them on a class chart.  Tomorrow we will drop similar cubes made of three different materials (wood, metal, and sponge) to see which materials float and which sink.  The bulbs we planted last fall are already blooming!  We went out to enjoy them and recorded our observations in our Bulb Journals.

Happy Happenings: Nalin was our star student this week.  Congrats to Ian Vichnick, who was Principal for Half a Day this week.  Ian won the job at the Fun Fair Raffle in February!

Nuts and Bolts: Report cards were mailed last week.  Please sign the parent signature page and return it to school at your earliest convenience.  The rest of the report is yours to keep.  Thanks!

Feb. 24, 2012

Words of Wisdom: “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”  – B.F. Skinner

Language Arts in Action: We learned to recognize the sight word, “two” and used it in our writing logs writing about what two can do.  We played tic tac toe on the promethean board using -ot family words and we stamped and illustrated -ot family words at the stamp station.  We read our baggie books together, with partners, and independently.  We met letter friend Willie the Washer and listened for the /w/ sound in words.

Math Star Minutes: We made shapes on geoboards and with playdoh.  We reviewed pattern block shape names and made pattern block designs and pictures to record.  We also solved pattern block puzzles and were challenged to complete the puzzle using more than one combination of pattern blocks.  We also played the pattern block game called Fill The Hexagon, in which we rolled a shape cube and tried to fill the hexagons with the shapes we rolled.  We created a beach shapes mural by adding shape pictures to a tropical theme.

Social Studies Scene: We put up signs in our classroom to help us identify north, south, east, and west.  We tried to use those terms to figure out which direction we are walking when we are in the hallway.  We used directions and a compass rose to complete a Little Boy Blue map and a petting zoo map.  We added directions and legends to our classroom map.

Happy Happenings: We brightened a snowy day with our tropical wear on Beach Day!  We read On The Edge of The Sea by Betty Paraskevas and A Beach Day by Douglas Florian, and brainstormed many different activities that can be done at the beach.  We organized our ideas with a graphic organizer and then wrote our own “At The Beach” stories.  We had a fun time at our beach towel picnic in the lunchroom!  Because we have an “extra” day of learning on Leap Day this year, I asked the students to help me decide what fun topic we might explore that day.  We voted to choose between Jungle Day, Dinosaur Day, and Teddy Bear Day.  Dinosaurs won the day, so Wednesday, Feb. 29th, has been declared Dinosaur Day in our classroom.  If your child has a toy dinosaur that he/she would like to bring to school that day, please allow him or her to do so.  Please do not feel you have to purchase a toy dinosaur if you don’t own one.  I have a box full of extra dinosaurs here at school that will be out for the children to use that day and we’ll learn some “din0-mite” dinosaur facts, as well!

February 13, 2012

Words of Wisdom: “Learning without thought is useless.  Thought without learning is dangerous.”  - Confucius

Language Arts In Action: I spent time with each child to determine individual guided reading levels and skill growth since September.  Your children are blooming and I’m excited to share news of their progress in reading and writing at our parent-teacher conferences this week.  We’ve met Larry the Lion and Harry the Hound Dog, who help us practice the sounds for Ll and Hh.  We learned to read the sight words “you” and “one.”

Mathematics: We spent time assessing in math to determine progress achieved with numbers and number concepts, shapes, and patterns.  Again, data gathered will be shared at conferences.  We also began a unit on shapes and reviewed two dimensional shapes such as circle, square, rectangle, triangle, oval, and rhombus (diamond). We created a poster by finding these different shapes in common classroom objects.  We made paper shapes into pictures and labeled them.  We made shapes from play doh and sorted them by like attributes.

Social Studies Scene: We’ve continued to explore position words and used them as we’ve introduced maps.  We read Mapping Penny’s World and worked cooperatively in small groups to create our own maps of the classroom.  We learned about map tools such as a key and a compass rose.

Happy Happenings: Happy Birthday to Sawyer last week and to Faith this week!  Thanks to all families for providing Valentines and treats for our classroom Valentine’s Day celebration.  Please remember to send in the Valentines your child made for each of his/her classrooms for sharing tomorrow, Feb. 14th.  We will also be collecting canned goods for less fortunate families and any child making a donation on Valentine’s Day will earn an “I Gave” heart sticker from the Avoca West student council.

Nuts and Bolts: All kindergartners will be dismissed at 11:15 a.m. on Wed. and Thurs., Feb. 15th and 16th due to the parent-teacher conferences held later that afternoon and evening.  See you then!

Jan. 27, 2012

Words of Wisdom: “The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live.”   -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Language Arts in Action: We used the whiteboard app on ipads to write colorful words from the -in word family.  We brainstormed words from the -ig word family, practiced reading and writing them, then illustrated them to show comprehension.  We practiced reading our newest sight words:  where and do in the baggie books, Where Do I Go? and Kim Can Do It.  We’ve been reading aloud many books with winter themes including The Littlest Snowflake, Mama, Do You Love Me, and Bear Snores On. We made winter snow globe pictures and wrote about the scenes we created.

Math Star Minutes: Our current Math Investigation has us developing strategies for accurately counting a set of objects by ones when we move spaces on our Racing Bears gameboards.  We are also combining two amounts and comparing totals  in a number card game called Double Compare.  We are adding or subtracting one to/from numbers up to ten in the activity One More, One Fewer, and we are adding to or subtracting from one quantity to make another quantity in the activity Build It, Change It.

Social Studies Scene:  We observed where objects were placed in the illustration titled The Big Bug Hunt.  We wrote a class chart story using position words to tell where objects were in the bug hunt picture.  Then we created our own pictures and used position words to describe where things were positioned in our own pictures.  We later added written descriptions of our position pictures.

Super Scientists: We used our sense of smell to identify mystery objects such as a strawberry, an onion, cinnamon, and an orange.  We learned about the taste buds on our tongue that allow us to differentiate between sweet, salty, sour, and bitter foods.

Happy Happenings: Valentine’s Day is February 14th.  Each child should purchase or make and address a valentine for each of his or her classmates and bring them to school by Feb. 14th.  Thanks for your help with this!

Jan. 19, 2012

Words of Wisdom: “Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education.”  -John F. Kennedy

Language Arts in Action: We had to twist and turn unifix cube blocks to create, read, and record short a and short i words such as bib, bit, and fin.  We also made flip charts to sound out and write words like bat, fan, and pit.  We learned to read a new sight word – where.  We wrote stories about where we like to go for our writing logs.  We read a non-fiction book about real penguins and a fictional story about a penguin named Pinky.  We brainstormed ideas about what real penguins can do and what real penguins do not do.  Then we used our ideas to create an imaginative flip book.  If you read the book one way, it is called Real Penguins Do.  If you flip the book over, you can read it a different way and it has the title, Real Penguins Do Not.  Your child will bring the class book home to share with you soon!

Math Star Minutes: We are learning activities to help us combine two groups of objects and get a total for the two.  Some of us begin at one when counting the total, but we have been introduced to the idea of starting with the larger group and counting on one, two, or three to get the total of two combined groups.  Games like Build On and Roll and Record Two help us practice these skills.  We also practiced visualizing numbers to ten by using a ten frame and discussing how different numbers can be arranged in the ten frame.  In the activity Quick Images, we only had a few seconds to see an amount of chips displayed on a ten frame.  The the frame was hidden and we had to recreate the number of chips in the frame from memory on our own ten frames.  We are learning to keep track of a growing number of objects by playing the game Collect 15 Together.

Super Scientists:  We loved using our sense of sight to read  Tana Hoban’s book called Look, Look, Look.  It was fun to see only a partial picture and try to guess what the object on each page was.  Then we used magazines to create our own Look, Look Look class book.  We made puppets for each of our sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hands) and we had to decide which of these we use when doing activities such as baking cookies, reading a book, listening to an ipod, etc.

Social Studies Scene: We made beautiful peace dove pictures to illustrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s idea of solving conflicts peacefully.

Jan. 13, 2012

Words of Wisdom: “A good education should leave much to be desired.”  -Alan Gregg

Language Arts in Action: We met two new letterfriends this week to listen for the sound of /b/ and the sound of /k/ in words.  We also learned two new sight words:  me and for.  We will be picking up steam and learning some more difficult sight words with more frequency so it is a good idea to create some flashcards at home and make sure your child can read all the sight words we’ve learned thus far.  They are:  a, come, for, go, he, here, I, like, my, me, the, to, and this.

Math Star Minutes: We completed our measurement unit with activities such as measuring our classmates’ and Avoca teachers’ footprints with cubes.  We also used popsicle sticks to measure different lengths of ribbons.  We measured classroom objects using lima bean rulers and colorful inchworms.  We reviewed one to one counting with the activities Build On and Collect Ten Together.  With the activities Grab and Count: 2 Handfuls, and Build On, we began to explore different ways to combine and reach a total.

Super Scientists: We used our sense of hearing to have fun listening for sounds on a recording and playing along with a variety of rhythm instruments.  We classified the different sounds we made as fast, slow, loud, and soft.

Social Studies Scene: We learned about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and about some of his big ideas.  The kindergarten teachers co-teach this unit, so it was really fun to have a chance to trade classrooms and spend a little time with Mrs. Zebro, Mrs. Crispin and Mrs. Moran, and Mrs. Rosic.  In our own classroom, we got to open two birthday presents in honor of Dr. King’s birthday.  We were surprised to see that the beautifully wrapped present had some boring old rocks inside, but the very plain, simple present had a candy treat inside.  This helped us understand Dr. King’s idea that it is inside qualities that are more important than outside appearance.  We learned that Dr. King earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his ideas and we each decorated our own medal that we earned for possessing our own special inside qualities. The highlight of our unit was singing our Martin Luther King songs in front of the whole school at our all-school Spirit Assembly.  I will try to post some video of this and let you know where to find it soon.

Happy Happenings: Thanks for remembering winter wear now that we have snow on the ground.  There is no school on Monday, Jan. 16th for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and no school for students on Tuesday, Jan. 17th due to a teacher institute day.

Words of Wisdom: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”  -William Butler Yeats

Language Arts in Action: We used literature combined with art to enjoy a fun farm unit.  We read the story Rosie’s Walk, then created a mural and “shared the pen” to rewrite the story and added the words to our mural.  We also read Down on The Farm, and Farms Feed the World, and Pigsty.  We used handprints to create horses romping in fields of green and handprints to create wings for baby chicks hanging from our ceiling.  We wrote about several different farm animals in our writing logs.  We read Mrs. Wishy Washy and created fun pigs in mud pictures.  We sequenced the Mrs. Wishy Washy story and practiced our oral language skills by having to retell our story to two friends.  We also immersed ourselves in many Dr. Seuss stories such as Horton Hatches The Egg, The Cat In The Hat, and Green Eggs and Ham.  We are excited to have the opportunity to see many of Dr. Seuss’s magical characters come to life when we visit the theater and see Seussical next week!  We haved added a second vowel to our letter friend collection.  Pickles the Pig helps us remember the short i sound and we used short i to write and read words such as pig, did, Tim, and in.  Our baggie book, Come In, sparked a great discussion about going to the swimming pool and the kids wrote their first “in depth” stories during a writer’s workshop session.  I am so amazed at their growth!  We are focusing on putting spaces between words, using a period at the end of a sentence, stretching out words we don’t know to write the sounds we hear, using word wall words and word bank words when we write, and including details.  Next week we will have some gingerbread man fun and hear many different versions of the classic folktale.

Math Star Minutes:  We’ve been busy patterning!  We are learning to identify the repeating units of patterns and have had practice creating patterns, breaking them apart into units, and extending patterns.  We’ve been recording many of the patterns we created and are excited to be compiling our pages into a book of patterns to bring home and share.  We loved doing number patterns on calculators!

Super Scientists: We learned the basics of staying healthy and made some fun “cover your cough” art projects.  We also wrote our own “prescriptions” for staying healthy and had fun dressing up in a doctor’s outfit to illustrate our ideas.  We used our five senses to explore a mystery object.  We did a great job of listing describing words to tell how the mystery object looked, felt, sounded, smelled, and tasted!  It was a pomegranate!

Happy Happenings: The student council is sponsoring a bake sale during lunchtime on Wednesday, Dec. 14th to collect funds to be used to purchase signs promoting safety in our parking lots and school driveways.  All bake sale items are $1.00 and you may send in money for your child to purchase a bake sale item that day if you would like to participate.

We are looking forward to kicking off the start of Winter Break next week with our Winter Party next Friday at 1:00 p.m.  Thanks to many of you who are busy planning activities or purchasing games, crafts, and treats for our party.  I wish you all the happiest of holidays and a bright New Year!

Words of Wisdom: “To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching.  To attain it we must be able to guess what will interest; we must learn to read the childish soul as we might a piece of music.”  – H.F. Amiel

Language Arts in Action: We used -am and -ad family words when reading our baggie book, Sam Can.  We made more short a words on our flip cards and matched the pictures for each.  On the back we wrote a sentence using one or more of our short a words.  We learned to read a new sight word:  “he” and we wrote about a silly turkey and his friend, silly squirrel using our new word.

Math Star Minutes: We have mini-cars and trucks in our counting jars.  We have to count and record how many in at least two ways.  We learned to play “What’s Missing.”  We have nine small objects to place on a grid.  Then one partner closes his eyes while the other player removes one piece.  Partner one must guess what piece is missing.  This activity is a good warm-up for our powers of observation, which we’ll be using in our upcoming patterns unit.  We made connecting cube trains and sorted them by how they are alike and different.  We noticed different patterns in our trains.  We made pasta necklaces by following a pattern and we created patterns on the Native American headbands we created for our Friendship Feast next week.

Social Studies Scene: We are still engrossed in our chapter book, If You Sailed On The Mayflower.  By now, the Pilgrims have safely made their way to the New World and we are learning about what their lives were like in Plymouth.  We wrote about Pilgrims in our writing logs.  We created Native American vests which will be worn at our Friendship Feast.  We each decided if we want to dress like a Pilgrim or Native American at our feast next week.  We’re excited about sharing a classroom meal together.  On Tuesday Nov. 22nd, please send a sandwich/bagel to school with your child.  The rest of the feast will be provided.

Nuts and Bolts: The weather is changing.  You might want to be on the look out for mitten clips to attach mittens to your child’s coat.  I can’t tell you how many mittens disappear each week at school.  Please label the inside of your children’s winter wear, as this will help you retrieve things that go missing more easily.  If we have  snow, children should wear snowpants and boots to school.  Please remember that we have gym everyday, so if your child wear boots, you will also need to send gym shoes for him/her to change into.  If the extra set of clothes you provided for your child’s locker has only warm weather clothing, please send in a set of clothes that will be practical for the cold weather if we need to make a change.  Also, it takes us longer to remove outerwear/unpack during the winter months.  If you bring your child to school, please try to drop him/her off at the front door by 8:50 each morning so that we can begin our day promptly.  Many thanks for your help!

Happy Happenings: There is no school Nov. 23-25 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.  I wish you a happy and healthful holiday.  Please know that when I count my blessings this year, your wonderful, enthusiastic children will be in my thoughts.  Happy Thanksgiving!