Hello everybody,
At this time, my wife is still pregnant, and the baby is still cooking. Our hope is that she will make it to her May 3rd due date, if not longer. However, if baby decides differently before then, I wanted to write what I am going to call the Master May blog. This might be the last blog post I write so I'm going to include a plethora of important information. Please read it carefully. First off, Sara Preis has spent two full days in the classroom, and the kids are excited to get to know her better. If you need to contact her, her email is: [email protected] Language Our next unit will begin next week. An emphasis on summarizing, understanding author's purpose, comparing/contrasting different characters motivations and emotions, and fluency will be the name of the game. We will read some rich text that correspond to our realistic fiction writing including Matthew and Tilly, Frog and Toad, and the Dot. We will assess for unit 5 early next week. Writer's Workshop We will be wrapping up our unit on poetry this week. Students have been working very hard to write, read and rewrite their poems, including repetition, rhythm and rhyming. They will complete a small poetry book by the end of the week. Next week, we will allocate our writer's workshop time to work on several special projects dedicated for our mothers. Next month, Ms. Preis will introduce Realistic Fiction. Students will discuss the difference between fairy/folk tales and realistic fiction stories. They will be given a packet that will facilitate the creation of their very own character who will ultimately become the centerpiece of their writing. Students will describe their character and write about what they want to learn. They will create a web of secondary characters that include friends and family, and they will brainstorm problems and solutions in which their characters have to navigate through their stories. This is our final unit of the year and we will hold a publishing party at the end of the month. Math This week we began our next and final unit for the year. Unit 7 encompasses the subjects of telling time, geometry (including 3D shapes), and measurement. The curriculum goes only as far as reading a clock to the half-hour (6:30, 8:30, etc.), but I like to augment by teaching to the quarter hour, or even to the 5 minute increments if students show promise (7:15, 8:05, etc.) Geometry will be taken over by Ms. Pries and there is a strong element regarding 3D shapes and patterns. Manipulatives will be used often. Finally, measurement will be covered near the end of the month. Science Our classroom Brassica plants have sprouted and soon will bloom some pretty little flowers. Students are doing weekly observations on their small plants. Additionally, there is a small plot outside our room in the courtyard that students are observing with two plants inside. Kids are making predictions of whether the plants are the same and what they might become in the future. In the coming weeks, students will learn more about the important parts of seeds by dissecting a kidney bean. They will plant some grasses, and observe and predict what will happen if they are cut (will they grow back?) They will try growing plants from cuttings and bulbs as well. All along the way, we will use books and videos to augment their learning, while exploring the outside landscape to see the changes that are happening all around us. Shout out to Ms. Vargas for the amazing donation of plants to our room. Last week Ms. Preis took groups of kids out to a plot near the garden and each student got to get their hands dirty and put a plant in the ground. It was a good chance to get outside with the good weather, and for Ms. Preis and the kids to get to know each other. Since then, we have done more planting too, specifically sunflowers. Fun! Upcoming important dates: -Round up is coming up on May 19th at 7pm. This night acts as an open house for parents and family to come in and see some of the amazing work students have been doing recently. Come in and see! -1st grade musical will be held on May 27th from 12-1:00. Probably in the gym. Stay tuned for more. -Summer birthdays! We will be celebrating six different birthdays, two on each of day of the final week of the school year (two on Tues-Thurs.) Warm wishes to Tommy Stewart, Gewargis Shamon, Julia Orr, Noah Ishay, Zuzanna Gawron and John Easton! Miscellaneous -We received a small package from the White House this week. A response from our letters to POTUS came back with a signed letter, a photo of Obama, another of him and his family, and two small pictures with info on their dogs Bo and Sunny. There was also a written interview to the POTUS and a few more pamphlets about the White House in general. Needless to say, the kids were very excited. I am too! Happy Passover, Happy Mother's Day, Happy Memorial Day, Happy summer break! ~Mr. Layes
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In the age of google docs, I recently forgot that Weebly does not automatically save your most recent work. And of course, I wrote about 3/4 of this blog, and did not hit save. So please forgive the brevity of the post, I'm sure I'll have to update it as I remember all the things that were lost!
Note: the word good was repeated in this weeks word list. Please substitute good, for should. Thanks. Here's the latest... Language We are continuing to read poetry in class and visualize images in our heads. We have also been reading variations on the story "Jack and the Beanstalk". We first read an older, more macabre version, and then we watched another more modern version and compared and contrasted the two. We got into a good ethical discussion about whether Jack was right to steal from the Giant, and whether the Giant deserved to die at the end of the story. Heads up if you have any questions like these coming home. Writer's Workshop Poetry continues to dominate this month. We learned how to look at ordinary objects in a fresh new way (i.e. a kleenex box is a haunted house with ghosts flying out). We will also look at rhythm and line breaks from song lyrics to enhance our poems too. Math This week we are beginning a new math project around adding two, two digit numbers. Students brainstormed items that came in packets of between 10 and 50 things (i.e. crayons, jelly beans, pokemon cards, etc.) They will be using their own random numbers to create equations and solving the problems using both the base-10 proof drawings and expanded form too. We will review and assess at the end of the week. Science Our brassica seeds have sprouted over the weekend. The students are excited to take them out tomorrow and write and draw a detailed observation on how they are growing. Earlier in the week we learned about the different parts of a plant and what they do to help a plant grow or reproduce. We will be doing an art project around Jack and the Beanstalk, and students will be labeling the beanstalk accordingly. Misc. -Ryan's birthday was today. Mine is next on May 25! -Our second field trip is coming up this Thursday. We will be going to a theater to watch a version of Schoolhouse Rocks! -3rd grade is doing a service learning project this year. They are trying to raise money to build a free library. So for the small price of 1$, students can give to this project and wear any hat they choose, all day in class this Friday 4/22. -Student council has a school store set up this Thursday and Friday in the cafeteria. They will be selling school supplies. If your child is running low, send them in with a few extra dollars to buy a fun pencil or eraser. That's it for now. Take care, ~Mr. Layes There will be a letter coming come this Friday from me. Please read it carefully and contact me if you have any questions. Thanks!
Here's the latest... Language We are reading poetry all month, and this week we will be working on our visualization using poems. I will be reading selections that invoke beauty, love, silliness, confusion, and disgust. Without showing the pictures to the kids, students will share what they visualized from the poem. Many of them shared a great deal already and even imagined beyond the text too. Writer's Workshop Poems!!! This week we will build poems using a word bank, brainstorm future topics on people, places, and things we love and know a lot about, and begin the process of understanding the form of a poem. We will discuss how line breaks can have a powerful impact on a poem, and that rhythm and/or rhyming are keys to a good poem. Math We are smack dab in the middle of our unit on double digit addition. Students learned about proof drawings (i.e. breaking up numbers with base-10 blocks, and if necessary making another 10), and how to pull apart the 10's and 1's and adding them up separately (e.g. 36+23= 30 + 6 and 20+3 = 50+9). We are trying to give them all the tools and number sense before introducing them to the borrowing/carrying algorithm. Thank you for your support with this process. PLEASE NOTE: Since we skipped unit 7, you might see in the "Remembering" section of their homework problems that have to do with time, geometry and measurement. Feel free to try them if you wish, if not, please put a cross through them (I haven't taught them, so I wouldn't expect them to know yet). Sorry for the confusion. We will learn more about these topics next month. Science After a gross, wintry-mix week last week, we got to go outside this week and take a look at what is growing here at Middleton. We took a little field trip to our garden and noticed that the winter crop of Garlic was doing well. We also saw some daffodils and hyacinths that were in full bloom too. Students observed a plot near our room with two plants and debated whether or not they are the same or different plant. We took a look at the greenhouse too and the kids each picked a dandelion from there. When we got in the room, we dissected them and observed what we found (the best was, "there's fuzz in there!"). Miscellaneous -Annika Lipman will be celebrating her 7th birthday this Thursday. Ryan Lockerby is up next on the 19th. -Thank you to everyone for getting the field trip permission slips and money to me quickly. Because of limited space at the theater, I can only take one chaperone along, and they have already be chosen. There will be more opportunities in May for our next trip (currently in the planning process). -Look out for some cool things coming from the PTA. Click this link for more details: www.sd735.org/pta/calendar/20035 That's all for now, I'll update if needed. Thanks! ~Mr. Layes --Please be aware that enrichment starts next week. If you have any questions, please email Ms. Davis.
--In math, please refrain from teaching/showing your child the borrowing or carrying algorithm. This shortcut will be taught later on, but now we need to go slowly and teach how to regroup using Base-10 blocks. Thanks. Have a great weekend!!! ~Mr. Layes Snow What?!? Seriously. It's April people, and I put my snow shovel, salt, boots, mittens, etc., away for at least 8 months. Let's hope that we don't get any accumulation. Grrrrr!
Anyhoo, I hope that all of you had a nice and relaxing spring break. The kids were great coming back, and we've already hit the ground running. Lots to cover, so without further ado, here's the latest... Language Down by the Road is a book we intended to read the week before break, but did not have enough time for. We will start with that great text and talk about inferring characters feelings. Then we will do an author spotlight on Ezra Jack Keats and read two of his more famous works, highlighting character feelings and cause and effects within each story. Writer's Workshop Poetry begins this week. It is my favorite unit to teach! I have been reading Shel Silverstein poems to the group for much of the year, and they are excited at the prospects of writing some of their own poems too. We will be reading poems, learning about all the different types of poems, how to use rhyming and rhythm in our writing, and finally over the next 3-4 weeks, create a poetry journal with unique and original poems inside. Good times indeed. Math We are skipping our unit 7, and jumping ahead to unit 8 this week (we will revisit unit 7 later this year). It is a unit that deals with adding two, two-digit numbers like 28+41 or 77+12 (as well as a two-digit to one-digit number like 55+9.) We will be learning some fun strategies to solve these types of equations. NOTE: please do not show your child the algorithm of borrowing or carrying. This is a short cut that works, but does not allow the child to grow their own understanding of the problem. Thanks. Science Plants (not planets, as some misread) are the name of the game. We will begin our new unit asking some wondering questions and making several observations in and outside of the classroom. Springtime is a great time to study plants, and hopefully when the snow ceases, we'll even see some blossoms. Miscellaneous -Antoni Czarkowski is turning 7 tomorrow! We will be celebrating his birthday in the afternoon. Annika is next up on Thursday the 14th. -Wednesday night is Middleton School Night at Skokie Library from 6:30-8:00. Teachers and staff will be reading some of their favorite works to students and parents. Please come down and support your school and local public library. I might even make an appearance too. See the flier coming home with details. -Please mark your calendars for April 15th. The PTA is hosting a Buffalo Wild Wings night. Details to follow. That is all for now. I think. Take care, ~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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