May 9, 2014

Classroom News:

Don't forget to vote for JFK's Penny Ly in the Doodle 4 Google contest. Here is the video from Channel 3.

 Literacy/Social Studies Focus:

We are enjoying our study of careers! This week we read two fiction books about teachers,  Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes and The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola. We also read some nonfiction books. One about teachers and one about librarians. 

Mrs. Gallagher also came to talk about her job being our school librarian. The kids were great listeners and asked good questions.

Math  Focus:

We are tackling a new type of math story problems: number pattern or grouping problems. An example of this problem is:

How many horns do I see if there are 8 aliens. Each alien has 3 horns. The mathematicians are working on creating  a representation and an equation when solving these problems. Super perseverance! 


Social Thinking: We reviewed what is expected during a fire drill. We are creating a social behavior map to make sure every student knows what is expected and what is unexpected. We had some unexpected behaviors during our last fire drill.
 

May 2, 2014

Classroom News:

Don't forget to vote for JFK's Penny Ly in the Doodle 4 Google contest. Here is the video from Channel 3.

Friday was Miss Borowski's last day. The students and I will miss her.

 Literacy/Social Studies Focus:

We started our month long study on careers. During this time, the children will learn about a variety of careers and then choose one to research. Each child will write a speech about that career. On Career Day, June 5, the students will read their speeches. More info about career day will be coming. We hope you can come and celebrate Career Day with us!

This week we read: 

When I'm Big, by Nila Aye and Tim Drury

When I Grow Up, by Al Yankovic (Yes, that is Weird Al!)

Here is the book trailer for When I Grow Up

Math  Focus:

This week we reviewed the additive reasoning strategies we've been learning:  make 10, count on, and fact families. These are big concepts that our mathematicians have tackled head on. I am so impressed with the perseverance the students have with their math work. They love working through challenging problems and then sharing their thinking with a partner and the group. Good work matmathematicians! Keep  up the good work!



Social Thinking:
For social thinking this week, we worked on a couple of things. We reviewed expected behaviors for certain parts of the day and we also spent some time thinking about others. We show Mrs. Crandall we were thinking about her when we made her cards thanking her for helping Penny with her Doodle 4 Google.
 

Doodle 4 Google!

Big news from JFK!

Today we found out that a JFK student, Penny Ly, is the winner from Vermont for the Doodle 4 Google contest!

What does this mean? Well, she is now one of 50 finalists. If Penny wins, her doodle will be on the google page for a whole day. The entire world will be able to see it!

Please go to this page: Penny's Doodle  and vote for Penny. We want her to be the national winner! Go Vermont! Go JFK! Go Penny!

I believe you can only vote once from each device so please send it out to family and friends.

April 18, 2014

This update is from Miss Borowski

Classroom News:

What a busy week it has been! We have learned so much such as how to solve problems multiple ways during math as well as completing our Complex Instruction rotations to continue learning about sound waves. 

We have vacation next week. School starts back up on April 28th. 

Literacy Focus:

This week we continued our author study of Leo Lionni. This week we read Fish is Fish and Frederick. We focused on discussing character traits of characters in the book as well as what the big idea of each book is.

Math Focus:

This week we continued to use our additive reasoning strategies to help solve problems. We learned that mathematicians often use more then one way to solve problems. Students persevered solving a problem at least two different ways by using our additive reasoning strategies of Make 10, Base Ten Blocks, Counting On, and Fact Families.

Science/Social Thinking:

During science, we continued to learn about sound waves and how sound is made. To further explore sound waves, students participated in our Complex Instruction rotations. Students worked in groups and completed three different activities. These activities included building an instrument to demonstrate how sound is made, creating a song about sound waves, and making a sound wave poster. Students had to work together in order complete these different tasks. 

This picture shows a group working together to create a sound wave poster.

 

These past two weeks have been such a great experience! I am so glad to have had this teaching opportunity.

Miss Borowski

April 11, 2014

 This update is written by Miss Borowski:

This week was the first of my two weeks of solo teaching. It has been a great experience so far! We began a new science unit as well as continued to focus on the importance of working in a group.

Literacy Focus:

This week we began our author study of Leo Lionni. Leo Lionni is one of my favorite children’s authors. I was very excited to be able to share his books with the class. So far, we have read Swimmy and Alexander and the Wind – Up Mouse. We will read three more of his books next week. We also voted for our favorite Red Clover book.

Math Focus:

We are continuing to add to our Additive Reasoning Strategies chart. This chart lists of all the strategies that we can use to solve story problems and addition or subtraction problems. This week we learned how to Make 10. By using a friendly number like ten, students are able to solve addition problems. In this example, the student has to solve 7 + 6. In order to do it, they first add 3 to the 7 to make friendly number 10. Then add the remaining 3 to the ten.

 

Science/Social Thinking:
On Monday, we began our new science unit on sound and sound waves. We learned that sound is made by vibrations. We watched a video that helped us learn more about sound: http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/energy-light-sound/sound.htm. On Wednesday, we participated in an interactive SmartBoard activity where students were able to explore sound by plucking guitar strings and grouping loud and quiet sounds.

Next week, students will begin participating in Complex Instruction rotations regarding sound waves. We have been learning how to work in a group and the importance of working together to achieve a common goal.

April 4, 2014

Classroom News:

I've sent home all the confirmations for parent/teacher conferences. I look forward to meeting with all of you and celebrating all the hard work your child has done so far this year. 

There are two days of early dismissal next week because of parent/teacher conferences. School gets out at 11:00 Thursday and Friday.

And other big news... next week is the start of Miss Borowski's two weeks of solo teaching! She has worked hard and has some great lessons planned. I will be in the room during math each day and I will be in the building working on other things during the school day.

 
Literacy Focus: 

More Red Clover books this week! Wow! This year's nominees are really good. Miss Borowski read The World's Greatest Lion by Ralph Helfer and Monsieur Marceau by Leda Schubert.

Mr. Malcovsky read Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems. 

Next week the kids vote for their favorite book!

Math  Focus:

We are developing our Additive Reasoning Strategies chart. This chart will be a list of all the strategies that we can use to solve story problems and addition or subtraction problems. This week we have worked on the sue of fact families, using addition to help solve subtraction, and counting on to solve subtraction.
 

Science/Social Thinking:
 Miss Borowski has been developing complex instruction lessons this week to prep the students for some science work they will be doing next week. 

March 28, 2014

Classroom News:

Sorry the update is being posted a day late! I really wanted to add a photo from our taste test on  Friday and didn't have time to do that until this morning.

It was fun to see so many of you at the Fun Fair! Mrs. Thompson and I had a fun time running the limbo station.
 
Literacy Focus: 

Miss Borowski has started reading Red Clover nominated books to the class. The Red Clover award is given to one children's book year and it is voted on by the children of Vermont. Here is a list of this year's nominated books: http://libraries.vermont.gov/sites/libraries/files/cbec/RedCloverNominees13-14.pdf  
Our class will be voting during the week of April 7th. I'll make sure to post on our site which books wins the award! 

This week we've read:
Infiniity and Me by Kate Hosford
Brothers at Bat, by Audrey Vernick
One Cool Friend, by Toni Buzzeo 

Math  Focus: We are deepening our understanding of 2 digit numbers while adding and subtracting them. The children are becoming more flexible in working with tens and ones. We started with our base ten blocks and have moved to representing them on our paper.

At the end of the week, we started developing our list of additive reasoning strategies. We are now focusing on how addition helps us to solve subtraction through the use of fact families.

 

Science:

This week we studied the sense of touch and the sense of taste. The taste test was fun. The children tasted foods that ranged from sour, sweet, bitter, and salty. The bitter chocolate was a big surprise to our young scientists!
 
Social Thinking:
I saw a lot of our classmates demonstrating thoughtfulness this past week. We have been working hard to let others know we are thinking about them and offer a helping hand when needed.