May 23, 2014

Classroom News:

Wednesday is our field trip! Woo hoo!


It was fun to see Skylar, Alexis, and Theo at the Empty Bowls Dinner on Thursday night!

 Literacy/Social Studies Focus:

We read a great book, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton. This book was  published in 1939 and is still a great book in 2014. We also read I Stink by Kate McMullen.

Then, we started to focus on books that we will be using during our field trip next week in the dancing and acting workshops. The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens  and Susan Stevens Crummel is one of my favorite books to read aloud. Please check out this book if you haven't read it. It's filled with fun dialogue and alliteration.

Another book we will be using on the field trip is Mortimer by Robert Munsch. This book is also a great one to read aloud. We found more examples of author's craft in this book too:  onomatopoeia and repeated text.

Math  Focus:

The mathematicians are now applying the conjectures they have developed in the geometry unity. They had to fill two of the same shape but one way had to have fewer blocks and one had to have more blocks. The students had to plan out how they would use the different blocks to achieve this goal. 

Social Thinking/Wellness:
The class did something really special this week. As a school district, we are trying to make connections across the building and using this connection to share different wellness activities. 

Our class went over to the middle school and joined Mrs. Sherrer and her students during their SIM time (Spartans in Motion). We had a blast out on the soccer field participating in activities such as hula hoops, jump roping, crane, and many others. The middle school students were partnered up with our students and showed them how to do the activities. 

On Friday, we invited the middle school kids over to join us for mindfulness. The students explained how mindfulness practice helps us to focus and relax. This helps us throughout our day. Hope helped to lead the large group through a mindfulness activity and then we shared a mindful message.

May 19, 2013

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.  
• Please make sure your child brings his/her backpack to school each day. 
• May 28th is our field trip to the Flynn for a day of dancing and acting workshops.

 Literacy/Social Studies Focus:

This week we looked at more careers. For fiction we read Dr. DeSoto by William Steig and Andrew's Loose Tooth by Robert Munsch. We read several nonfiction books about careers and we had Officer Dean come and talk to us about being a police officer. On Friday, the kids each chose a career that they want to be when they grow up.  They will research these careers and write a speech. Speeches will be presented on June 6, this is a different date from what we mentioned at parent/teacher conferences.

Math  Focus:

We started a new unit: geometry! We are working on vocabulary and the mathematicians are developing some conjectures about what they discover during math time.

Social Thinking:We had such a great week. The students have been great working together as a team. They also have worked so hard during our learning times of the day. They continue to impress me with their perseverance and goal setting. As a treat we had some extra Chinese Jump Rope time.

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.