Well it's my birthday month, along with my wife and son Mateo. Additionally, there are three other student birthdays in May too. Add Mother's Day and Memorial day, you get a busy month. Only about 30 more days of school and counting down. Home stretch! Here's the latest...
Math We wrapped up Module 4 last week and we will dive into our last unit, Module 6 (we skipped around a bit). The first part of this module will look very much like our last unit but using bigger numbers. The second part of the unit will be learning all about money. Here are the standards that go along with the unit. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.A.1 CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.NBT.A.1 CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.NBT.B.2 CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.NBT.B.3 CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.NBT.C.5 Science Our unit on plant and animals is chugging along. Last week we learned more about animal adaptations and we will continue our learning this week within our design teams. A new engineering problem is upon us, and teams will have to investigate and build a prototype to solve a particular problem (mimicking one from a real animal). I don't want to give it away... Language Problems and solutions, and sequencing the beginning/middle/end is still the topic of the week. Many students have begun writing summaries in their guided reading groups, and the work we are doing in our language lessons is going to help them immensely. And everyone loves some Frog and Toad books. Word work This week we will delve into -ou words. Spelling words: out, cloud, around, could, would, shouldn't Word wall words: been, cold, fly, keep, new, round Writer's Workshop Our young researchers are gathering data and fun facts to ultimately begin writing their informational text book on their special animal. Resources including books, websites, and videos will be using to collect data. Then next week, we will begin the process of sifting through all of the information and find a way to share our findings in an organized way (using many text features). Miscellaneous -May 11th is the first grade concert from 6:30-7:30. Ms. Sylvester just sent out a reminder about how some students are struggling to remember the words. If you can find the time, please practice with your child at home. Thanks! -Simon Girgis is turning 7 on May 6th. Happy Birthday Simon! -Our next field trip is coming up on My 18th and we're going to the Shedd Museum. It will be a free trip, but permission slips need to be signed and sent back in by May 12th. If you would like to volunteer to chaperone, please email me. -New Scholastic Reading Club newsletter went out today. You have until the Friday to purchase books (online code PDTZJ). Thanks in advance! That is all! Mic drop. ~Mr. Layes
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Time is flying! Whew. Here's the latest...
Math We will be wrapping up Module 4 this week, reviewing and assessing at the end of the week. We will continue to add two, 2-digit numbers by breaking up one number to find a ten. Science We will continue to learn more about animals this week. We will also do two Mystery Science lessons on the SMARTBoard about animal adaptations. We will start our big design project next week. Language Our class will be reading several selections from our friends Frog and Toad. We will be identifying both the problem and solution from the small stories, and then why these components are important to all good stories. Word Work Double -oo words will be the name of the game this week. Spelling words: look, football, book, pool, balloon, school Word wall words: because, again, never, off, myself, fly Writer's Workshop We will begin a new unit in writing this week: informational text writing. Students will be writing a semi-research paper on an animal that they know many facts about. We will be using a plethora of books and other resources to add to our writing. Miscellaneous -Nela Hadzic will be turning 7 this Friday. Happy Birthday Nela! -Big shout out to the entire crew of Peter Pan. If you went to see the play this weekend, thank you for supporting the arts in our district! -The school is Standing Against Racism this week. See this link for more information: http://standagainstracism.org/ -It is 'Every Kid Healthy' week, and we'll be having two special assemblies by athletes this week. -Smencils are for sale from next Wed-Fri, courtesy of the student council. Please bring in $1 for each pencil, to be bought during lunch. That is all for now. ~Mr. Layes Brings May flowers. Bring on the good, sunny and warm spring weather. Things are chugging along in our room.
*Please note, we are taking our field trip to the theater on Tuesday, but we will return by lunchtime. Students will have a chance to order hot lunch. The bus leaves promptly at 8:50, make sure your child is not late. *Also, on Thursday, Middleton students will go to McCracken in the afternoon to watch Peter Pan. They will return back to school before dismissal. Here's the latest... Math We will continue to use tape diagrams and build our own story problems. Later in the week, we will continue to add numbers and look at how to break up the numbers to make it easier to count (13+18 = 13 + 7 + 11, or 18 +2 + 11). We will begin adding two digit to two digit numbers as well. Science We have taken two weeks to focus on our keyboarding program called Talking Fingers. I think the students enjoyed practicing and getting a feel or the keyboard. Note: you can log in at home, but make sure that students are using the correct finger/key combination! Now we will begin our final unit of study that deals with animals and plants. More specifically, their habitats, adaptations, and hereditary similarities and differences. We will begin this week by reading many animal books and having discussions around where they live, what they eat, are they a predator or prey, etc. The following week we will do some Mystery Science lessons and delve into another project about animal feet. Here are the 3 standards connected to this unit for your perusal: 1-LS1-1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes 1-LS1-2 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes 1-LS3-1 Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits Language We are in our final week of poetry. The kids have done a great job at visualizing poems and either describing the picture in their head, or drawing a picture from their mind. We will read and do a fun activity based around a great book named Tall, Tall, Grass. Students will use their creative juices as a team and build a mural to mimic the animals from the book. Word Work We'll be working on words with -ow. Spelling words: know, snow, below, shower, crown, now Word wall words: seven, eight, nine, ten, today, who Writer's Workshop Poetry is still the name of the game. Students will have a chance to continue writing poems leading up to the great revision/rewrite into their poetry booklets happening at the end of the week. Their poems are getting better everyday, and some are truly inspiring and/or clever. Miscellaneous -Happy Easter to those who celebrated yesterday! -Earth Day is on Saturday the 22nd. Get outside! Here a link to a free Earth Day celebration at Emily Oaks: https://www.skokieparks.org/node/8546 -Thanks to those who ordered books from the Scholastic Book Club. -We will be 'Standing Against Racism' on April 28th. For more info see here: standagainstracism.org -In honor of 'Every Kid Healthy' week, we will have 2 assemblies on the week of the 24th. More details to follow. -Nela Hadzic will turn 7 on April 28th. Happy Birthday! That's it for now. Take care, ~Mr. Layes I'd like to take a moment and reflect on this year and this great group of kids. The amount of personal and academic growth they have shown already is incredible. They are a tight-knit group, that always helps each other out, and they have matured into very responsible and independent students. I'm going to miss them dearly. Here's the latest...
Math Place value, adding ones and tens and finding patterns is still the main topic being covered (e.g. 19+3 is really just like 20+2, or 8+5 is similar to 18+5, 28+5, etc.) Later in the week we will introduce tape diagrams and solve a variety of problems within 20. Keyboarding With only 3 days of using the keyboard (due to a short Tuesday schedule and Friday's library time), and Monday really just practicing logging on and off, I have decided to extend our keyboarding time during science this week as well. It takes time for the kids to understand, for instance, that they need to press the 'a' button only with their left pinkie and space bar only with their thumbs. Now that they have sort of found their groove, I want to stay consistent for another week. Coding will have to be postponed until the end of the year. However, we did use our library time last week to meet with a computer coding teacher and he taught the students about Emoji coding. They had a blast! Language We will continue to read more poetry, visualize what we see in our mind and apply these lessons to our writing unit. One parent sent me a favorite poem of hers, and we read it to the class. If you have one, send it my way too! Word Work Introducing soft -c and -g this week. Here are the words: Spelling words: price, nice, circus, page, large, magic Word wall words: their, think, brown, walk, start, stop Writer's Workshop This week, my fine young poets will continue writing their lovely poems. Lessons will include how to find a good/meaningful topic, how to show, don't tell, and how to hear the voices in poems (brevity!). Miscellaneous -Enrichment begins TUESDAY this week, not Monday (because of Passover) -Thanks to those who purchased books from the Scholastic Reading Club last week. -Peter Pan is coming up. See the flyer that went out last week for dates. That is all! ~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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