Yes, there are no more reading logs or letters for the rest of the year. Woo!
~Mr. Layes
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It has been a great year! What a ride we have had in room 130. Thank you so much for all your support at home that you have given your child. I cannot tell you how wonderful my room parents were this year. The kiddos have made vast improvements academically and also social/emotionally from the start of the year. I can't wait to see them wandering the halls in 2nd grade.
Only 6 more days left of school. Crazy. Here's the latest... Language In this short week, the students will be working on an End of Year Reflection packet. Additionally, today we hosted a class of 8th graders from McCracken to come in and read with our students. They graduate soon, and it was great to see them interact with the kids. Thanks to Rinya and Carly Sue's siblings for helping out too. Finally, we will assess our 20 random word wall words on Friday morning. Please help your student practice these important words. Writer's Workshop The writers are preparing their realistic fiction stories to be published this Friday. I have been conferencing with each of them, helping them find clarity with their characters and story as well as reminding them about their punctuation and capitalization. Some of these stories are very well written and have such creativity and details. I'm very proud of the work that they have put into their writing. Many times when I turn off the lights to remind them that it is time for lunch, many students seem disappointed at having to put away their folders. It makes me proud of their strong writing muscles (as we say). Math We wrapped up our final unit last Friday. Much of this week is going to be dedicated to reviewing odd and even numbers. Students will be playing math games and spending time on IXL during class. Science Our final brassica observation will be done today. The students will review the parts of a plant, what a plant needs to survive, and how the various parts function. We will assess their knowledge on Thursday. Miscellaneous -Keani will turn 7 this Wednesday! Yay for Gemini babies! -We have three summer birthdays that we will informally celebrate on Tuesday afternoon, June 1. Abby, Ava and Rinya will all turn 7 over the summer break. -The last day of school is Wednesday the 3rd. There is a tentative "Play Day" scheduled for the entire day. I've been told that this is an annual tradition on the last day of school where kids play games, take part in races outside, and participate in other fun activities. -Most of you should have received a 2nd grade reading book and letter home today. This outlines the summer reading expectations of the incoming student. Please read the selection and help your child with the directions in order to be prepared to share their findings early next year. As usual, I'm sure I'm leaving something out. I'll revise as needed. Thanks again everybody! ~Mr. Layes Now were getting to the nitty gritty. The end is near and June is around the corner. We have so much left to accomplish, yet so little time. Here's the latest on a rare Monday blog post...
Language This entire week, the 1st grade team will be reading with our students and assessing their final spring reading level. I will take Friday to read with the majority of the room, but I will be using guided reading time to assess as well. In addition, we will find time to read a few books including Frog and Toad, and Inspector Hopper and discuss story elements, plot and setting. Additionally, we will be practicing our word wall words for the next two weeks and have an End of 1st Grade spelling test. Twenty words from our word wall will be selected at random to be tested upon on Friday May 29th. Writer's Workshop Last week the writers created characters complete with special attributes, a supporting cast, and a list of realistic problems and solutions. Today they finished up those graphic organizer and set out to write their very own realistic fiction stories. The students will be writing in this genre for the next two weeks, culminating in a final publishing party on Friday the 29th. Math We are knee-deep in double digit addition at the moment. The kids will be working on the numeric method and proof drawing method to solidify their number sense while adding two digit numbers together. I cannot thank you enough for not showing them the shortcut of borrowing. The verbiage of borrowing gets kids confused because they think they need to give some number back. We use the term regrouping these days, and our two strategies shows them how this works. Trust me, they will learn the algorithm soon enough. Let's just give them some time to understand why it works in the first place. We will be wrapping up our unit at the end of the week and assessing on Friday. Science Because of all these birthdays being held in the afternoon, science will take a break for now. We will do one observation with our brassica seeds, and our normal curriculum will resume next week. We will be assessing the parts of a plant and what their function or job is to help keep the plant alive. Miscellaneous -Birthday Mania!!! On Tuesday, Sarah will turn seven. On Thursday the 20th, Christian will join her. Julia, Jennifer and myself all have birthdays next weekend, so we will be celebrating our triple birthday on Friday afternoon. Whew! -We will be hosting Ms. Kasova's class on Wednesday to help the Kindergartners get a peek at what's to come for them next year. We will read them a nice story, and open up the floor for a questions and answers. -There is a PTA meeting on this Tuesday night at Middleton starting at 7 pm. That's all I've got for now. I'm sure I'll be updating again sometime this week. Enjoy the gorgeous weather! ~Mr. Layes Thank you to all of those families who were able to come out to our big Round Up night. I know the kids were really excited to share their hard work with you, in addition to showing you everything in the room that they have made or want to share. I hope everybody enjoyed your Mother's Day celebrations. I'm crossing my fingers that all the seeds will germinate and that you'll be overflowing with beautiful flowers or herbs soon.
Only 14 days. Yes, you heard me correctly. 14 days left of instruction before the end of the year. After our big night last Thursday, the end of the school year seemed to be much more nearer than I anticipated. So here's the latest... Language We will piggy-backing on our new Writer's Workshop unit by reading a few realistic fiction stories this week including The Dot, Amelia Bedelia, and Matt and Tilly among others. We will discuss what it means to be realistic fiction vs. a fairy tale and how problems in stories are resolved. Writer's Workshop Our final unit will be dealing with realistic fiction. The entire week, the students will be creating a new imaginary character. They will assign attributes (honest, funny, sad), describe what they want to learn and what they're not good at and create a list of family/friends to add to their stories. The students will brainstorm realistic problems and solutions and work with a story line graphic organizer prior to writing stories next week. Math We will begin our final unit on double digit addition. The students will learn strategies to add numbers with and without regrouping, using 10's sticks and 1's circles/cubes and other ways too. * Please refrain from teaching your child the borrowing method at this time. We are working hard on learning number sense, and using the algorithm finds the right answer, but without any understanding of place value or why it really works. Thanks for your understanding on this matter. Science This week we will be doing another observation with our brassica plants. These days, some plants are beginning to die, so we will have a discussion about the different stages plants go through. Additionally, we will read about summer storms in our newsletters at the end of the week. Miscellaneous -The Spring Musical of the Three Little Pigs will occur this Friday at 9am sharp in the gym. The kids are very excited, and they all have special masks to wear for the occasion. Please dress your kids in summer-y, fun and bright clothing for the performance. -We'll take any more box-tops you have! -I'm sending a letter home that talks about the movement break website we use in our classroom called GoNoodle. The have a new summer online program called Camp GoNoodle. I believe it is free to sign up, and the kids really enjoy these short breaks. Take a look at the letter and sign up for a parent account to use at home. That's about it for now. Enjoy the spring weather, ~Mr. Layes I'm sorry. I know it's my first year, but when I think of the words 'round up' I either think of things associated with a rodeo (i.e. cowboys, boots, etc.), or the Monsanto owned pesticide (careful of cancer). However, here at Middleton Elementary Round Up means something totally different. It means the kids get to invite their families into their classroom and showcase all that they have accomplished over the course of the year. They all have been working very hard, not only this week, but also all year so please come by tonight between the hours of 7-8 o'clock to see all the fruits of your child's labor.
Here's the latest... Language Much of this week has been taken up with Round Up or Mother's Day related activities. For instance, we revisited the book Tall, Tall Grass and used that text as an inspiration to create a hallway art piece. The students used only paper, glue and scissors to create all the things one might see if you look closely in the grass. We also worked hard on a special Mother's Day project that will either come home on Friday afternoon, or during Round Up night. Writer's Workshop Our young poets are finishing up their poetry booklets. These will be on display during Round Up. Students were able to choose their very best poems to be rewritten in a special booklet complete with illustrations. They are very proud of their work, as am I. Math This week we will be wrapping up our unit on time, shapes, and measurement. We reviewed today and we will be assessing tomorrow. Next up is double digit addition. Science We made another brassica observation this week. The plants are getting pretty big (perhaps too big for their small cups), and many have sprouted small yellow flowers. The students are doing a good job of documenting the changes they see in their plant. We will discuss the parts of a plant, and more importantly how those parts function to keep the plant alive. Miscellaneous -Tristan Tran will be turning seven on Mother's Day, and we'll celebrate his birthday this Friday as a result. Happy B-day! Avery Joy will be having his birthday the following week on Wednesday the 13th. -Officer Friendly will be visiting Middleton our school next Monday to talk about school safety, stranger danger, and other police related issues. -Our Spring Music Concert will be held next Friday morning at 9:00. More details to follow. That's about it for now, 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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