Weekly News for October 30th-November 3rd

A Spooktacular Week in Room 102

The last few weeks have been full of fall, writing, and hard work. We began wrapping up our narrative unit last week by beginning our last element of the unit, which is the engaging learning experience (ELE). Our ELE included three tasks: a pumpkin investigation, writing a class book, and publishing personal narratives about a fall experience that we can share with other classes and our families. Together we had fun learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin and making estimations about our pumpkin's height, weight, and circumference. After making predictions we made our pumpkin into a Jack-o-lantern and then we ate pumpkin pie. We used this fun experience to write a class narrative. After that, each student wrote their own narrative about a fall experience. This past week we worked on editing our rough drafts, and today we completed our final drafts and illustrations to our stories. Our book gets sent to be published on Tuesday! I look forward to seeing the finished project, as do the kids. This learning experience was a memorable one, and the kids really enjoyed getting to put what they have learned over the last nine weeks into practice. The kids were excited to write because this activity had meaning, and they felt as though they were really authors sharing their experiences, which is what reading and writing is all about.  The books take about 20 days to be published but they might be here sooner. I am hoping to get them by Thanksgiving break. I know the kids are anxious to share them with their families and friends.

  

      

In addition to completing working on narratives, we have also been reviewing this week sequence of events and comparing and contrasting. We read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat. We compared and contrasted the two stories and practiced putting the things that were swallowed back in order. We also made up our own sequence of items that the old lady swallowed through a writing activity and then shared our made up version with each other. Throughout the week we did various long e activities which included a class sort, scavenger hunt, sentence writing, and long e tree. We also went over our narrative post test together and talked about the answers. This was very beneficial for the students. 

 

In math, we finished our subtraction unit today. We began our week by reviewing fact families and completing a fact family scavenger hunt, and then we reviewed subtraction word problems. We also did some mixed fact practice and word problems. I was hoping to get another subtraction timed test in this week, but we just weren't able to get one in. We will take one on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week. If your child received multiplication flashcards they will begin taking a timed test over those facts next week instead of subtraction. Next week we will begin exploring shapes as well as partitioning shapes. 

Weekly News for October 23rd-27th

Today we took our first subtraction timed test. I sent home subtraction flashcards so you can practice these facts with your child at home. I also sent home 2nd quarter sight words for you to practice at home with your child as well. 

This week is Red Ribbon Week. Below are the dress up days.

Mon- Team Up Against Drugs - wear your favorite team gear

Tues- Drugs Make Me See Red - wear red

Wed- Sock it To Drugs - crazy socks

Thurs- Give Drugs the Boot - wear boots

 Fri - Turn your back to Drugs -  wear your clothes backwards

Weekly News for October 16th-19th

We did not take a timed test today. We will take one tomorrow. I have been giving the kids 2 minutes and 30 seconds to complete the timed test. I will not cut the time down anymore. I know some of you have bee practicing at home so I wanted to make sure and fill you in on how many minutes I was giving them to complete 25 problems. 

#CardinalPride

 

There were lots of activities going on this week, and our class represented well. We had great attendance at the Carnival and McTeacher Night. Our attendance was so great that we won the Happy Meal Party and came in 2nd in attendance for the Carnival! This says a lot about the support of the parents in our room. I am so grateful for how all of you support school fundraisers like the Book Fair, Carnival, and McTeacher Night. I am even more thankful for how you support your child and their learning. Our class was awarded the 1st grade attendance award because of the parents of the children in Room 102. Without your hard work and emphasis on school being important, our class would not have celebrated with a popcorn party today. I greatly appreciate each of the parents in our room for making their child's learning a priority. In addition to having a popcorn party, the students that missed 1 1/2 days or less for the month of September got to put a target on Mr. Kenney's door to represent that they met their individual attendance goal for the month. The kids were excited and were adamant about meeting their attendance goal for October. I have loved seeing how the kids are learning the importance of responsibility at a young age and are seeing the value and reward in showing up each day, doing their best, and learning.  All this is evident in the improvement and growth they are making in the classroom. We took our STAR Math and STAR Reading tests this week and I was so proud of each child's hard work and growth. I look forward to conferencing with parents next week about their child's progress and giving them feedback on their child's performance. 

Graphing our STAR scores in our Data Binders.

In reading, I introduced silent e. We focused more specifically on long a and long o. At the beginning of the week we practiced phonemic awareness skills through a long and short vowel (a/o) picture sort. We also brainstormed together a list of long a and long o words that had silent e. The next day we worked in partners to complete a word sort of long and short vowel (a/o) words. Today, we ended our phonics focus with a long a and long o "spelling assessment" by making a Sneaky e puppet. I verbally gave the students words and they had to write only the words on their puppet that were long vowel (a/o) words. This activity was used as a formative assessment to see if the kids were hearing the long vowel sounds and to see if they were applying the silent e strategy when they make words. The kids all did great, and I look forward to seeing how they use the silent e rule in their reading and writing.

We also read some fall stories this week and brainstormed various Fall vocabulary words. Our focus was on finding descriptive words that make stories more interesting. We found adjectives in our read aloud, and then applied using adjectives in our writing by creating a poem about Fall using our senses. We also made our own pumpkin out of construction paper and wrote about its size, shape, color, and texture using descriptive words we had brainstormed. The kids also described how their pumpkin looked using words like funny, scary, mad, and happy. 

 

In math, we spent this week learning different strategies to help us solve subtraction problems. We talked about drawing a picture, using our fingers, using a number bond, and using a number line to help us accurately subtract. On Wednesday and Friday this week we took addition timed tests. Last week we did 3 minutes per test, but this week I backed it down to 2:30 (we won't go any less than that).  I am very pleased with how the kids are progressing, some are so close to passing and others are ready to be challenged with addition tests to 20. Next week will continue subtraction and will spend more time doing small group instruction (STACK) to help better differentiate learning.

Weekly News October 9th-12th

There is lots going on this week. McTeacher Night is tomorrow, Walk to School is on Wednesday, and the School Carnival on Thursday. Make plans to be apart of all the awesome things that are happening. You can find more info about McTeacher Night, the Book Fair, and the Carnival in the Newsletter. If you would like your child to participate in Walk to School, then on Wednesday you can plan to drop your child off at Equity Bank between 7:15 and 7:45. Teachers and volunteers will help your child walk safely to school. 

• I sent home a sheet today with your scheduled conference time. Please don't hesitate to let me know if your time will not work. 
• We began subtraction today, but we will continue taking addition timed tests this week. The unit addition test was taken on Friday and was sent home with your child today. 
• This week we are reviewing in reading and doing some quarterly testing since the end of the quarter is on Friday. We are beginning our engaging learning experience activity this week, which is to write a book about a fall experience. We will spend the next few weeks working on this as we wrap up our Narrative Unit.

October 2nd-6th

This week was crazy fast with lots of learning! I apologize I didn't post yesterday. I pretty much collapsed after the game last night. I loved seeing lots of my friends at the game last night. It was so fun, but man the kids wore me out. I can't believe how much energy they still have after a day and week of school.

This week we started our week by finishing our witch Fairy Tale. This writing project took some time, but I was really impressed by how well this writing piece turned out. I plan to display the Fairy Tales in the hallway so they won't get sent home for a few weeks. Sorry! They are too good not to display:)

Since our theme was food this week, I read aloud a few versions of Stone Soup to the students. The kids really enjoyed hearing the different stories and comparing and contrasting them. We also focused on identifiying together the story elements of Ann McGovern's version of Stone Soup. The students applied their knowledge of story elements to their journeys story,  A Cupcake Party. After reading the story independently they recalled the characters, setting, problem, and solution by making their own story structure book. In addition to story elements, we reviewed the sequence of events in a story by completing a retell activity that went along with our read aloud. The kids taught their neighbors the order of ingredients that were added to make Stone Soup, and then together as a class we made our own Stone Soup. Yesterday, we wrote a narrative about our experience with making Stone Soup, and at the end of the day we ate our Stone Soup. Many of the kids did not like the soup as much as they thought they would, but they really enjoyed getting to make it. 

We spent time this week reviewing our short vowel sounds by doing picture sorts, word sorts, and a flap book. In our flap book we practiced writing various word families and then finding words that rhyme and fit into various word families. We even learned a cheer that goes along with each vowel. 

 

We finished our unit of addition numbers 1-10  and took our unit test today. We will begin subtraction numbers 1-10 on Monday. I will still be giving addition timed tests for the next few weeks so keep practicing those facts at home. I ended up not giving a timed test today since we had our unit test.

 

Thursday was our PBS assembly. Congrats to Kallen for being our student of the month for Cooperation and Matthew for receiving our Reading award. The new word for the month of October is Responsibility. 

Weekly News for the Week of October 2nd

Book It information went home today, along with your child's first Addition Timed Test.  We will take another timed test on Wednesday and Friday of this week. On the next test, the sum will be vary more. I didn't mean for the sum to just be 7, 8, 9, and 10. Oops! Keep working on those facts! I am looking forward to seeing some Super Improvers!

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