Hello everybody,
The sun is shining on my back, the flowers are popping, the gardens are being seeded and spring is in full effect. That means that we have about one more month of teaching. May is especially busy for many reasons including: -we have 8 birthdays this month!!! -spring benchmark testing begins next week -Round Up! night is next Thursday night from 7-8 pm, don't miss it -we will be hosting the Kindergarten classes for a short Q&A about 1st grade -spring report cards issued -Spring Musical in two weeks Needless to say, this will keep me and the students busy for the next few weeks. Here's the latest... Language We are reading fairy tales that connect to our science unit revolving around plants. The kids will create a fun art project that combines our science unit on plants with the story Jack and the Beanstalk. We also are reading stories about where our food comes from and how it looks differently in its natural state (i.e. wheat/bread, cocoa beans/chocolate). We will spend time in the computer lab learning about choosemyplate.gov and how we need to each a healthy diet every day in order to grow up and be strong both physically and mentally. Writer's Workshop The young poets are hard at work. We are working on strategies to help them create poems with strong and powerful feelings, help them find meaningful topics, and add to their repertoire of great writing. They will begin to add these to a poetry booklet next week for full viewing during next weeks' Round Up night. Math 3-dimensional shapes take up most of the time this week. The students are learning all the language around these including faces and vertices. They will be asked to see similarities and differences in the shapes as well. We will be doing some ordering later in the week based on length. Science Our brassica seeds have fully sprouted and we will be doing more observations and drawings this week. We had a guest speaker come in and talk to the students about pollination and how we have to help the plants to pollinate manually (since we don't want a room full of bees!). We also planted some grasses and created a nice cozy science corner for all things related to plants (complete with books, calendar, and other plants). Miscellaneous -Wellness Week is this week and the students are focusing their attention on building strong muscles and bones, and eating a healthy diet. -I did send home last week's reading log without stickers for many students. This means that their log was turned in incomplete. Please double check that your child is completing this homework on a daily basis. Thank you. I think that is all for now. Take care, and enjoy the beautiful weather... ~Mr. Layes
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Hello everybody,
A little birdie told me recently that we have only 30 instructional days left in the school year. I'm going to try and pack as much learning in those days as possible to prepare the students for 2nd grade. We're learning some fun things these days, and the kiddos are really motivated to work! Here's the latest... Language Arts We are continuing our unit on poetry. The children are listening to poems and trying to find the rhyming words, rhythm and repetition in them. We will be spending most of the week reading and rereading a book called In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming. This is a book that reads like a poem, with beautiful and colorful pictures and amazing describing words like chomp/stomp, zap/flap, etc. Writer's Workshop Our poets have started churning out some good work these days. The poems are becoming more creative, thoughtful and funny. The poets are learning to reread their poems and find the music and rhythm embedded in the text. Moving, snapping, and dancing help them read them aloud. We read Things by Eloise Greenfield (that I keep in my wallet), in order to let the students know how important it is to read your poems over and over and over again, until you can hear the music and almost memorize them. Math We have started the second half of our unit that deals with geometry. Students will learn all about squares, rectangles, circles and triangles this week. We will be experimenting with tangrams, pattern blocks, and shape templates as well. Science Our brassica seeds have begun sprouting and the kids have been documenting their growth. We will be reviewing the parts of a plant, and what seeds need in order to grow. We are also spending time learning and celebrating Earth Day! We will go to a special website that will help people understand what they can do to help our planet. Miscellaneous -We will have a few short lessons on acceptance/tolerance vs. racism leading up to Friday's Stand Up Against Racism Day. All Middleton students will march out the building and stand united on the sidewalk to help raise awareness of the effects of racism on the community. -Please keep sending in those box tops! Thank you to those who have already. -Our final Wellness Week will begin next week. -May is nearly upon us. There are a ton of Taurus and Gemini babies in our classroom. Please be on the lookout for an email home that will give you details on your child's' birthday celebration. That is all for now. I'll update the blog if anything comes up. Take care, ~Mr. Layes Hello everybody,
What a beautiful weekend we recently had, and we're having nice spring weather all week! Without jinxing anything, I hope not to see any more snow until next November. The kiddos are moving and grooving, learning all sorts of new things this week. Here's the latest... Language Poetry is the name of the game this week. I will be reading many different kinds of poems in the class including a selection from Rudyard Kipling, Shel Silverstein, and Eloise Greenfield (among others). We will work on visualization and making connections to the poems, as well as finding the rhythmic patterns, rhyming words, and repetition. Writer's Workshop Aligned with our Language Arts unit, we will also be learning how to write poetry. Students (aka poets) will brainstorm a list of topics to choose from that are meaningful to them. They will learn about how to write a short descriptive poem and learn how line breaks, and different configurations to the text can illicit different feelings. They also started the week writing a class acrostic poem for spring, using a litany of great words including adjectives to describe spring. Math We are taking our extra week to learn more about clocks and telling time. The students will use various tools to understand the minute hand, and how by counting by fives can help them understand times other than :00 and :30. Language including half-past and quarter-til/past will be covered, as well as what a.m. and p.m. mean. Science We have begun our final science unit on plants! On Tuesday the kiddos all planted a few small Brassica seeds into some small cups filled with potting soil. They are currently germinating under a grow lamp. Hopefully we will see some growth by next week. We also explored plant parts, and the ingredients for plant growth at the Chicago Botanical Gardens website. Miscellaneous -Our class will be taking a short field trip to McCracken Middle School tomorrow to see a student performance of Cinderella. Everyone is very excited! -It was Ms. Negru's birthday on last Sunday, and the class celebrated last Friday. If you have a chance, please wish her a happy birthday next time you see her. -Check the details for the final two spirit days in my previous post. The mix-up Friday last week was hilarious! -Keep those box tops coming. Pizza party!!! That about wraps it up. Thanks for everything. ~Mr. Layes Hello everybody,
Silly weebly is a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes time to saving and posting its blog posts. My apologies for my partially finished blog post last week (and my day late post this week). Here's the latest... Language We will be looking at character development and making inferences about characters' feelings this week. We will study work from Ezra Jack Keats and learn more about this amazing author. Partners will work together to form ideas around specific questions asked. Writers Workshop The authors in the room and getting very strong writing muscles these days. They have just about wrapped up their unit on opinion writing and we will have our second publishing party tomorrow to celebrate. This piece was written about their favorite restaurant, T.V. show, or movie. I have learn much about their tastes (i.e. Abby loves Subway, Isha loves Buffalo Wild Wings, Sarah loves Frozen and hates Star Wars, etc.). Next week we begin our unit on poetry. Math We are continuing our work with clock and reading time. I am going to spend an extra week with this subject and try to get the majority of my class reading time at least to the 5 minute increments. Next week, you will see none of the usual Math Expressions homework, but other items that we will be working on in class. Thank you for all your help with this complex subject. Science We have finally wrapped up learning about fossils and dinosaurs this week. The students enjoyed researching their favorite dinosaur on the dino directory and we used the cafeteria to measure and imagine how massive some of these extinct beasts were. Next week we will begin our new unit on plants just in time for some warm spring temperatures. Miscellaneous -Spirit Days are upon us, and the student council has gifted us with a few fun dress up days in the month of April. Tomorrow (4/10) is mix and match day where students can come to school with clothing that doesn't match (especially socks). The next two dates are 4/17 Hawaiian shirt day, and 4/24 crazy shoe day. -Please send in the order form and a check/cash for $18 if you still want a school yearbook. There is a limited supply and it is first come first serve. That's it for now. As always, feel free to call me at any time. Take care, ~Mr. Layes - I hope that everybody had a very relaxing and enjoyable spring break. It feels as if the students are rested, refreshed and ready to get back to work. Just about two months to go until the end of the year, and still so much to teach! Here's the latest...
Language Arts Writer's Workshop Our opinion writers are taking a break from writing about their collections, and delving into new topics including their favorite movies, restaurants and television shows. We'll be looking at professional reviews and taking our cue from them. We will learn that in order to persuade readers (who much of the time are strangers), that we need many good and thoughtful reasons for our opinions. I am also pushing students to watch their punctuation, capitalization, spacing and spelling. Math Tick...tick...tick. It's all about clocks! Students will begin this week learning about clocks, parts of the clock, and how to read a clock to the hour. Reading an analog clock can be very tricky for many first graders. We will use various tools to help us understand time including analog and digital clocks, watching videos and playing games. We will be spending two weeks learning about time. Science Miscellaneous |
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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