Last Week

3-14-16 to 3-18-16

I have Who Has

We started off our week with a review of suffixes -ly and 

-ful. Students loved the game "I have Who Has" and did a great job reading the different words with these two suffixes.

More Suffix Practice

Students had more practiced with suffixes -ly and -ful with this fun matching game. Students had to match the base word with the proper ending. Then they chose words with the a suffix to write sentences about.

Double Digit Addition

Some students were ready for the next step in double digit addition. Below students use base ten blocks to understand the concept of regrouping.

Mystery Reader

We had a great Star Leader this week. She did a great job reading a Pete the Cat favorite. We love that silly cat.

The Wizard of Oz

Friday we got to see a fabulous performance of The Wizard of Oz by the Kipling Theater. Students loved seeing friends and siblings singing and dancing on stage.

Brief Look At This Week 
3-21-16 to 3-24-16

Leader in Me Symposium

As I mentioned in an email today, I am fortunate to be heading to Detroit, Michigan with Mr. McConnell, Michelle Primack, and Caitlin Binder-Markey to a Leader in Me Symposium. I am excited to learn even more about Leader in Me and more ways to implement the habits into our day to day learning. I can't wait share all that I learn.

ELA

This week students will be do a review of the grammar and reading skills we have learned thus far. We will review different vowel combinations and the different sounds these combinations make. Students will be reading a story about another strong leader, Johnny Appleseed. Book Club groups will read different versions of a story about Johnny Appleseed and look for text evidence as they work cooperatively to answer questions.

Math

This week students will rotate different math rotations that will reinforce many of the concepts we have been working on. Students will work on adding one digit and two digit numbers and place value in a variety of different games.

Science

Students will be exploring how shadows are made. In small groups students will be using a flashlight and a puppet to make a shadow that is big, small, short or tall. They will end the week working as a group to make a shadow puppet play.

Specials Schedule

Monday - Day 4 - Library 
Tuesday - Day 5 - Art and Music

Wednesday - Day 1 - PE and Spanish

Thursday - Day 2 Music and Art

Friday - No School Spring Break Begins

Have a great week and a wonderful Spring Break!

 This Past Week

March 8-11

iPads

I completely believe that in today's learning environment technology is playing a pivotal role in aiding in our students' education. I am definitely a teacher that grabs technology ideas and begins implementing them into the classroom without hesitation. Our students are the same way and have embraced every new thing that we have done this year. Unfortunately we have reached some stumbling blocks in the use of some of the apps like Google Docs and Google Classroom. From what I understand from the technology department, our issues lie with the way the filtering system works when the iPads are being used through home wifis. A simple but unrealistic solution would be to remove the filters from the iPad. Unfortunately, this cannot happen as we want the devices our students use to be as safe as possible, and these filters keep unwanted and inappropriate information from reaching our young students. I know our tech department is working tirelessly to come up with a workable solution to the problem. I have not given up by any means on any of these apps, and I appreciate your patience as the issues get worked through.

Peer Editing

Students this week did peer editing. Once they completed a writing assignment, they partnered with another student. The students would read each other's work and looked for the following things: neatness, proper capitalization and punctuation, spacing, and letter reversals.  Students did an amazing job giving each other positive feedback.

Erin's Law - Be Seen and Heard

Victor Pacini came to deliver a great presentation to the first graders called Be Seen and Heard. The subject matter was abuse, and Victor does an amazing job talking and teaching little ones about this sensitive topic. 

Epic/Padlet

Students participated  this week in this cool national activity. Students chose from a list of books for the month of March that can be read on their Epic app. Once they finish reading the book, they then scan a QR Code related to that book. The QR Code takes them to a Padlet where they can make a post about the book. Students had to tell why someone should read the story and tell about their favorite part in the story. Students can also read the comments other students make. There are comments from students all over the country.

Reading a story in Epic.

Responding to the story on Padlet.

Double Digit Addition

This students learned a great strategy for adding 2 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers. Students caught on very quickly and were amazed how fast they could add big numbers.

Explain Everything

Students learned and explored a new app called Explain Everything. This app has limitless possibilities. Students became familiar with some of this apps features by using a Poem by Jack Prelutsky called "Green Giant" to create a picture using the descriptive details in the poem. They then used the recording feature to record themselves reading the poem about the picture they drew. Students caught on quickly and loved this new app.

Kidblog

Students wrote their own Blog Friday about what they had learned earlier with the introduction of the new app Explain Everything.

Mystery Reader

Mr. Silber surprised us as our Mystery Reader this week. He brought a Dr. Seuss favorite. "Oh The Places You'll Go!" We love Dr. Seuss' wacky rhyming style and enjoyed listening to the story.

This Upcoming Week

March 14-18

Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day

Thursday is St Patty's Day and we are having an all school spirit day - Wear Green! Let's see if our class can have 100% participation!

Progress Reports

The second semester progress reports will be available for your viewing in Skyward sometime on Friday. Checkout Mr. McConnell's Parent update for the exact time they will be released.

ELA

Grammar

• Contractions - I'm, he's, she's
• Long u spelled ( oo, ue, u_e, ew, u)
• /oo/ like in cook
• Changing y to i before adding er or est

Reading

We will continue reading the non-fiction story "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind." In addition, we will read the story of Rosa Parks. Between these two stories and Ruby Bridges, students are very intrigued how people became such strong leaders in their communities. Their stories are jump starting great conversations. Through these stories we will focus on. . .

• Identifying the main topic and key details.
• Ask and answer questions about the stories.
• Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners.

Writing 

Students will continue adding to their character journal. They will identify the meaning of the words responsible and kindness and write how they show these character traits in their own lives.

Math
This week we will. . .

• Use 2 digit numbers add 10 more and 10 less.
• Continue adding 2 - 2 digit numbers.

Science

This week science will focus on how shadows are made.

Specials Schedule

Monday - Day 4 - Library 
Tuesday - Day 5 - Art and Music

Wednesday - Day 1 - PE and Spanish

Thursday - Day 2 Music and Art

Friday - Day 3 - Pe and Spanish

Have a great week!

Last Week

February 29th - March 4th

Red Week

Red Week was a big part of our week. Each day we celebrated our similarities and our differences. We culminated the week with an assembly by Bizar Entertainment. The assembly featured Dr. Cool. We also attended an Ability Fair. At the fair students got to go to the multi-purpose room to see what all the other grade levels worked on during Red Week.

Dr. Seuss

March 2nd was Read Across America Day in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday. We did many activities this week with the use of many of Dr. Seuss' books.

I read Fox in Socks. Many students including me wore crazy socks to school. We then wrote our own crazy sock rhymes.

The Cat in the Hat

We had a special visit from The Cat in the Hat (aka Mrs. Sutic). She brought her extensive library of  Dr. Seuss books. She read us a couple of Sr. Seuss books and gave us all a Dr. Seuss pencil. Thank you Cat in the Hat!

Shared Reading of Dr. Seuss Books

We had spread out lots of Dr. Seuss books and did shared readings of all different books. We are working on a Dr. Seuss response packet and will continue to work over the next week or two to complete as many of the Dr. Seuss stories that we can.

Flipped Classroom

We successfully tried our first flipped classroom this week. A flipped classroom is when students are responsible for partaking in some learning of a skill on their own at home. They then come to class the next day with a basic understanding of this skill. We are then able to spend more classroom time on the actual application of the skill. Students at home watched a short video on vowel teams. Then, when they came to class the next day, we did a brief discussion about vowel teams and were able to jump right into an activity. 

Math

Students partnered up to practice adding four.

Star Leader

Another great Star Leader this week. This week's Star did a great job with the Mystery Bag. He really had the class stumped until the last clue. Nice Job! He also showed us some super cool invisible ink as well as doing a great job reading Dr. Seuss' Hop on Pop.

This Week!

March 8th - March 11th

ELA

Grammar

• Review phonics to date 
• Adjectives that compare

Reading

We have spent a lot of time reading fiction stories that had strong leaders in them. We will now shift our focus to non-fiction stories that are also about strong leaders. This week we will begin reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and Ruby Bridges. We will focus on. . .

• Describing the connection between two individuals, events, ideas or pieces of information from a text.
• Identify basic similarities and differences between two texts.
• Work on fluency and expression by recording and listening to ourselves read.

Writing

Students will pay close attention this week to using more adjectives in their writing. Students will also do more self evaluation and peer evaluation. Students will learn how to peer edit. In peer editing students will focus on. . .

• Capitalization
• Punctuation
• Letter reversals
• Neatness

Math

In math this week we will. . .

• Mentally find 10 more and 10 less when given a two digit number.
• Add within a 100 - both two digit and one digit numbers. 
• Understand when adding a two digit number with a one digit number that we add tens and tens and ones and ones.

Science

This week we will continue to investigate, observe and make connections about light.

Specials Schedule

Tuesday - Day 5 - Art and Music

Wednesday - Day 1 - PE and Spanish

Thursday - Day 2 Music and Art

Friday - Day 3 - Pe and Spanish

Have a great week!