I hope that everyone had a lovely, relaxing spring break. I was busy sunning myself with the palm trees out in California. Swimming was a daily activity, as well as some hiking, golfing, and much lounging. I'm ready to finish this awesome year on a high note, and I hope your child is too! Here's the latest...
Math We are smack dab in the middle of Module 4. Students will continue to learn strategies to add/subtract 10's and 1's. At the end of the week we will learn about tape diagrams (like a circle drawing and number bond together). Science We wrapped up our light/wave science unit and the Shadow Box Theater was a huge success. We are going to take a gap week and work on our keyboarding program that has taking a back seat for the past few weeks. I'm also looking into adding some coding curriculum into our classroom for the latter part of the year. We will start up with our new science unit soon on animal/plant lifecycles, habitats, and adaptation. Language We are beginning our poetry unit in ELA this week. We will be reading a ton of different authors over the next few weeks, and our work in language should transfer to our poetry unit in writing. Students will work on visualization and drawing their mental picture of the story. They will look for details in the poems and find any hidden meaning as well. Word Work Compound words are the name of the game. These are longer words, so please practice at home. Also, we will put some more of the common contractions up on the board as well. Spelling words: sailboat, seashell, mailbox, pancake, flashlight, highway Word wall words: don’t, can’t, I’m, isn’t, I’d, it’s Writer's Workshop We are sticking with poetry for the next few weeks. We have been reading a ton of poems to the kids' delight. We have learned about special poems like acrostic, feelings, and colors poems, but now we will let the kids get creative and write their own poems. We will highlight Dr. Suess and Eloise Greenfield as well. Miscellaneous -Isabella Badal will turn 7 today, April 3rd. Happy Birthday! -Officer Friendly is making another visit to Middleton on Monday. -April 5th is Middleton's night at the Skokie Public Library. From 6:30-7:30 a few teachers from the school will be reading from their favorite books. It's a fun night and open for all to attend. That is all. ~Mr. Layes
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Hello everybody! Long time no see. I hope all is well. Report cards went out on Friday, and if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out. One more week before our much needed break. The kids have been working very hard this trimester, so I hope everyone can relax and gear up for the spring trimester. Here's the latest...
Math Students have been working on their place value unit for the past few weeks. We will review on Tuesday and have a mid-module assessment on Wednesday. Afterwards, we will start to solve addition problems of tens or ones to a two-digit number. BTW, their math scrolls are coming together nicely. Science/Social Studies Our Shadow Puppet Theater is coming together. Teams have been working hard building scenery and characters. This week we will finalize these parts, rehearse, and perform their fairy tales to their classmates. Career Week is this week too. We will be attending talks from a firefighter, pediatrician and room 130's own Ms. Al-Bazi who is a flight attendant. Kids can dress up on Friday as what they want to be when they grow up. It is also the first day of Spring on Monday. We will do some fun activities to celebrate the changing of the season. Language This week we will be assesing for out unit on informational text. No new content will be covered. Word Work This is a review week. Please see the word wall list coming home on Monday. Please study with your child. We will take a 20 question, randomly selected spelling quiz on these words on Friday. Writer's Workshop We finished up our opinion papers with a nice publishing party on Friday. Next up, poetry (my favorite!) We will start by reading a ton of poems and try to understand what a poem is, and where we hear and see poems every day. We will create 3 special poems about spring this week (acrostic, feelings, colors). When we get back from break, we will do some author studies, and then create a Poetry Booklet to finish up the unit in mid-April. Miscellaneous -There are field trip forms coming home this week. Please fill them out and send $4.25 back to school this week. I know it says that they are due until sometime in April (that was a typo). We're going to a theater to watch A Snowy Day! -New Spring Enrichment forms are going home today. If you choose to sign your child up, please complete and return the back page of the packet along with your payment, by FRIDAY!!! Spring Enrichment begins April 11th. -Please fill out the reading logs on a daily basis. I'm not getting these back on a regular basis from everybody. Please read at home!!! -Thanks to those of you who bought books for the Scholastic Reading Club. I was able to purchase some new poetry books (from the extra bonus points) for our upcoming unit! -Last day for Winter Enrichment is Thursday Please enjoy your break. I'm not sending any homework or checklist this time. Please hop onto an iPad app for reading/math work if so desired. I'll be sunning myself in the desert all week. Adios! ~Mr. Layes Hello everybody, I'm busy with grades this weekend/week. Report cards go out on Friday. If we already had conferences, much of the narrative should be familiar. If we did not meet, and you have any questions, please feel free to reach out at any time. Here's the latest...
Math We will spend the early part of the week comparing more numbers. Students will have to navigate between two digit numbers (23 is greater than 22), but also with numbers as written the 10-way (2 tens, 3 ones is greater than 2 tens, 2 ones). They might have to navigate the groups of ten to bundle (i.e. 2 tens, 13 ones is greater than 3 tens, 2 ones). We are using dimes and pennies to augment their learning. Later in the week we will be adding/subtracting 10's to a two-digit number. *Kids also began their math scrolls last week. They are taking a grid of 100 squares and counting as high as they can over the course of the next month or so. I am asking them to search for patterns in the number grids, and count not only by 1's (left to right), but by 10's (up/down). Some insightful students can see patterns diagonally too! Science/Social Studies Kids have been experimenting with shadow, and this week they will work in their groups to create scenery for their Shadow Puppet theater. Each group will be assigned their own fairy tale to retell with their shadows. We will rehearse and perform the following week. We will also learn about St. Patrick's Day, and do some fun activities around the holiday. *We did have a tornado drill last Friday and talked about how to be prepared if a tornado is in the vicinity of school. Students were very interested about the drill and tornadoes in general, so we spent about 20 minutes talking and learning about this strange weather phenomenon. Language We will continue to highlight non-fiction, informational text this week by learning more about sea animals. Students will need to identify key details in a book, and be a good detective to find the glossary, index, table of contents, labels, captions and headings. Word Work More work with contractions. Please study with your child. These are tricky! Spelling words: don't, won't, can't, you've, they're, he'd Word wall words: red, after, before, tell, much, help Writer's Workshop Last week for opinion papers. We will be doing restaurant reviews this week. Students will start with a question, and then state their opinion clearly. Then they must give at least 3 reasons (and possibly a counter argument) and then restate their opinion. We will edit and revise all three of their opinion papers, create covers, and have a publishing party on Friday. Miscellaneous -Caroline Cottrell turns 7 on Wednesday. Hooray! -Enrichment ends on March 23. Spring break starts at 3:00 on March 24. Just saying... -Thanks for all the paper towel rolls! I don't need any more at this time. -Keep those box tops coming too! That's all for now. Bye everyone! ~Mr. Layes Maybe, maybe not. Anyhoo, I really can't believe that it is already March. Time flies when you're having fun, and I've had a blast this year. What a great group of kids! I'm already getting a little choked up at the prospects of them moving on to 2nd grade in a couple of months. They grow up so fast, right? Here's the latest.
Math We are delving in deep to place value and base-10 blocks this week. Students are seeing bundles of ten, and understand that numbers like 34 are just 3 groups of 10 and 4 ones. They will identify 10 more/less and 1 more/less, use dimes and pennies to represent 10's and 1's and later in the week they will start comparing numbers as well. Science Light and shadows will guide us this week. Last week, we just introduced our design problem (to build a background and scenery using shadows for a Shadow Box Theatre production of a fairy tale), and kids started investigating ways in which light travels. We will review key vocabulary terms including opaque, translucent, and transparent. This week students will work in groups to explore shadows further by making complex shapes using a combination of simple shapes. Language We are still working on identifying informational text features, understanding why they help a reader, and comparing them to fiction stories. We will read more about kangaroos and ocean animals too. Word Work I will introduce contractions (and apostrophe's by proxy) this week. Spelling words: I'll, she'll, they'll, wouldn't haven't isn't Word wall words: about, around, where, here, how, put Writer's Workshop Students are just beginning to write their movie and T.V. reviews. We have watched several kid reviews, both written and as video. They have begun by writing their thoughts on a graphic organizer and will then transfer those to their writing paper/folders. We will talk about how to state their opinions clearly, how to introduce their opinions by asking questions, and of course, ask them to give multiple reasons, including using counterarguments, to make their opinions strong. Miscellaneous -Thanks for the paper towel tubes. I could still use a few more if you have them. -Report cards will by coming home on March 17th. FYI. -New Scholastic Reading Club orders went out on Thursday. They are due next Friday. Thank you in advance. If there is more, I'll add it later. Until then. ~Mr. Layes |
AuthorMr. Layes hails from the Pacific NW, cut his teeth on the streets of NYC, and now calls the Midwest... home. Archives
September 2017
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