In The Past!

My apologies for skipping the update my Blog last week, I do have a good reason. Last weekend four other Kipling teachers and I traveled to Memphis Tennessee to participate in an Edcamp. Edcamps take place all of the country. It is an opportunity for educators to get together and learn from each other. We learn a lot from our neighboring schools, but thought this would be a great opportunity to learn from teachers in another state. It was well worth the trip. We learned a, lot made some great connections with teachers from other schools and are now planning an Edcamp that we will host next fall at Kipling School.

Excited to start our day of learning!

Proud to have completed a Breakout EDU in record time!
Amazingly fun activity that Kipling will be able to do when our
own Breakout EDU boxes arrive!

I shared an app with the Memphis teachers during our App Smash Hour!

Star Leaders

The last two weeks we have had two new Star Leaders. They each created a Mystery Bag, brought in a favorite book and shared a special talent with the class. 

Star Leader Week of February 19th

Star Leader Week of February 22nd

Mystery Readers

We also had two more Mystery Readers. Mrs. Jauch came and read "The Elf on the Shelf a Birthday Tradition. A perfect story when it's your birthday.

Mrs. Hernandez came and read "My Adventures With Frozen Fever." A cool book that had her daughter as a character in the story.

ELA

Book Club

Students engaged in their Book Club groups. 

Students working on their digital character journal.

Math

Students partnering to play a place value game. 

During math rotations students played another place value game. We are getting good with place value!

Learning more about coding. Students used the app Scratch Jr to create and execute a program that they each created.

They each then built a model of a looping pattern and then drew the pattern onto paper.

Google Classroom

Two students helping each other get acclimated with our new Google Classroom app.

RED Day - Respect Each Difference

RED Day is Friday, March 4th. This past week we mingled with students from all the first grade classrooms to to prepare for our contribution to the Ability Fair being held on Friday. Students got to experience different classroom modifications to see how they can be useful to student learning. They then wrote about the ways these modifications can be used in the classroom.

A Look to the Future

We have a busy week planned. Remember it is also a short week. Friday is a half day for students. Also, we are off on Monday for Casmir Pulaski Day.

This upcoming week is RED Week. RED stands for  Respect Each Difference. Students will be learning all about how we are alike and how we are also different. Each day we will be focusing on some of the differences people may have. We will conclude our week on Friday with an Ability Fair. Each Grade level will be presenting information on a specific difference that people may have. I encourage all students to wear red on Friday in support of Red Week.

ELA

Grammar

• Review phonics skills to date
• Continue working on using adjectives in our writing

Reading

This is what our curriculum map refers to as a catch all week. We will review the fiction stories we have read about strong leaders. Will will make a chart of how each of our main characters was a strong leader and what character traits they each possessed. We will also continue to complete pages in our character journal.

Math

This week in math we will focus on 

• Adding within in 100
• Adding 2 digit and 1 digit numbers 
• Adding a 2 digit number with a multiple of 10

Science

This week students will do an experiment to see for themselves just how light travels. Students will use different materials with a beam of light to see what effects the materials may have on the light traveling.

Daily Specials Schedule

Monday - Day 5 - Art and Music

Tuesday - Day 1 - PE and Spanish

Wednesday - Day 2 - Music and Art

Thursday - Day 3 PE and Spanish

Friday - Day 4 - LMC - Remember your library books

A Look Back. . .

Fair Games

Students worked in threes to play a math game. They collected data and graphed information on the results of a game. They then used the information to problem solve. They needed to determine what a fair game means, was this a fair game and how would they change the game to make it better?

Global Math Challenge

We did several Global Math Challenges this week. In this one, students had to solve a Valentine challenge using their problem solving skills.

Measuring, Graphing and Analyzing

Students worked in pairs with unifix cubes to measure the length of various objects and then graphed their results. They then analyzed the results to answer various questions. Students were quite challenged as they began exploring ways to add large numbers efficiently. They all persevered through the challenge. Great job!

Officer Buckle and Gloria

This week we read the story "Officer Buckle and Gloria." We identified the different characteristics that made Officer Buckle a strong leader.

Students then wrote about how Officer Buckle was a strong leader and used evidence from the story to support their thinking.

More Graphing

Students had a fun time picking their favorite Valentine treat. We then made a large class graph of our results. We discovered there are a lot of chocoholics in our class! 

SSR - Sustained Silent Reading

Every day we spend 10 minutes before we clean up to go to specials reading silently. Students really love their quiet reading time. Everyone is always engaged in a good book.

Mystery Reader

Mrs. Stein was our Mystery Reader on Friday. She came and read a great story that we have not heard before called "The Most Magnificent Thing." We love new stories!

Valentine's Day Party

For this year's Valentine's Day parties, we did a school wide philanthropy project. All students K-5 made Valentine cards for a senior home. Students had fun decorating the cards. After we were done, our two party helpers, Mrs. Low and Mrs. Meliker, had a fun game for the students to play. They had a tissue heart that had to be passed from student to student. They each used a clothespin to transfer the heart from one student to the next. This took patience and a gentle touch.

A Look Ahead . . .

ELA

Grammar

• Final sounds
• Long vowels - ai, ay, y, ie, igh
• Prefixes "un" and "re"
• Adjectives

Reading

This week we will be focusing on the story "Strega Nona." We will identify what qualities Strega Nona has that make her a strong leader. Students will. . .

• Participate in collaborative conversations with  partners.
• Ask and Answer questions about key details in a text.
• Describe people, places, things and events with relevant details.

Math

Math this week will focus on. . . 

• Two digits of a two digit number representing amounts of tens and ones.
• Comparing two two digit numbers using symbols <, > and =.

Science

We were delayed in starting our next science unit. This week we will begin our unit on sound and light. We will begin with a lesson on how light helps us see.

Leader in Me

This week we will revisit Habit 6 - Synergize. We will read "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid Of Anything" and identify how synergizing was used in the story.

Weekly Specials

Tuesday - Day 1 - PE and Spanish

Wednesday - Day 2 - Music and Art

Thursday - Day 3 - PE and Spanish

Friday - Day 4 - LMC (remember your library books)

Have a great week!