Whew. I am already wiped out. This week is busy to say the least, so without further ado, here's the latest...
Language We have begun our next unit on informational text. This is one of my most favorite subjects to teach because many kids at this age love learning about space, animals, weather, history, etc. We will discuss the different non-fiction features including headings, captions/labels, index, glossary, and the table of contents. We will be learning about how animals communicate by reading books and watching videos. Writer's Workshop What a great week! We celebrated our first publishing party today. The authors edited and revised their story on Monday, and created covers yesterday. During our party, they sat with a several partners and shared their work. Afterwards, we poured lemonade and toasted individuals and the whole class on their creativity and hard work. I will post some really great pics on the picture page for your enjoyment soon. To end the week, students will be able to create some scary Halloween stories using fun paper. We will introduce our new unit on what else but informational text writing next week. Math We are smack dab in the middle of our 3rd unit on story problems. Students are working hard to find the unknown total and either addend as well. I have created partnerships for students to work together in pairs. I am so happy to see the collaboration in my room, kids helping kids is a great way to learn. Science We finished up learning and reviewing our short unit on leaves this week. We invited a 4th grade classroom to come in and coach our class on how to use a fun tool called Plickers. This is a site that allow teachers to pose multiple choice questions to students, and students then hold up a card (w/ simple QR code) to answer. I then scan the cards, and the results are automatically tallied on the SMARTBoard. Pretty cool, and hopefully we will use this more as the year progresses. Also, worth noting, our door was decorated with a Happy Falloween theme complete with leaf rubbings, trees, branches, and a ghost who will teach you about the colors of the leaves. Rocks up next. Before I began our unit today, we took a few minutes to write/draw what students knew about scientists. This usually brings up the misconception that most scientist are old, white men in lab coats exploding potions. We will watch a few videos that show that EVERYONE is a scientist, as long as you are curious about the world around you. We went on to do some simple observations about rocks as well. Miscellaneous -The Fall Musical is tomorrow night at McCracken. It will start promptly at 6:30. I will be there to help manage the students moving to and from the bleachers. Come meet my son Santiago too! -Our Fall Festival is all set for Friday. Thanks again to Kate Lockerby for doing the lions share of planning. The party will start around 1, and last an hour. We will have games and refreshments for the kids. Afterwards we will take part in the annual parade around the school, and end up in the gym. If you plan on coming to take photos, please meet us there around 2:20. Additionally, please DO NOT SEND KIDS TO SCHOOL IN COSTUMES! (sorry for the blatant caps...) But seriously, we will change into costumes after our P.E. session in the afternoon. Who wants to jump rope in an Iron Man costume anyways. -The PTA International Night is on November 6 at McCracken. The turnout for the Pumpkin Night was absolutely wonderful. Let's keep up the fun and bring some people out to McCracken to celebrate our heritage and learn about others as well. There will be crafts, food and dancing too. -Parent-teacher conferences are coming up next month. Be on the lookout for information on how to sign up for times. If you feel there is an urgent need to talk about your child before then, please feel free to email or call me. I think that's it for now. Take care, ~Mr.Layes
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...the autumn leaves, of red and gold. Who doesn't love some Nat King Cole or Miles with Cannonball Adderly. It's all about leaves this week in science and the kids are really enjoying the activities we are learning with them. Here's the latest...
Language This week we will be focusing on comprehension, accuracy and fluency strategies that go along with the Reading Log this week. I will also be pulling small groups to review word wall words and CVC short vowel words as well. Additionally, we will rehearse and perform a short Town Mouse/Country Mouse reader's theater later this week. Writier's Workshop After studying different mentor texts, the writers are beginning to include craft moves from these inspirational books. Some of these include the use of ellipses to create excitement, write small actions or steps to create 'a movie in the readers mind', and having bold, italicized or all caps to make special words more powerful. Math We have begun our next unit on story problems using both addition and subtraction. The students will be finding the unknown total or the unknown partner using various strategies. I will be assigning specific IXL lessons to augment the normal curriculum as well. Science Last week we learned the (scientific) difference between fruits and vegetables (check the picture page for some good pics). This week we will be learning all about leaves and why they change color and fall during the autumnal months. The kids went out yesterday and collected leaves, and we talked about chlorophyll and how the leaf provides nutrients from the sun to the tree. We also made leaf rubbings too. Miscellaneous -A Fall Celebration form went home last Friday. Please take a look at that, check the appropriate boxes, sign it and return to me. Thanks. -Middleton's student council will be holding a Halloween pencil buying booth next Monday-Wednesday near the lunchroom. Students can purchase a variety of pencils from .25-$1.00. -Cristian Vargas and Arielle Smith will turn 7 this week. Happy Birthday to them! -Picture retakes are scheduled for next Wednesday the 27th. Please let me know if you plan on getting any retakes done (we had no absences that day for the record.) -On that note, a picture form for buying a group/classroom photo will be coming home today. If you would like to purchase one or more, please send them back to me with payment included. Thanks. -Pumpkin night at Middleton this is this Friday from 6-8; tons of fun for the whole family! And for those with little kids, Meyer will hold theirs tomorrow from 6-7:30. -The Skokie Library Bookmobile will be here on Thursday and those students with permission and with a valid library card will be able to check out some books. If not, they can peruse at their leisure. -Please check the weekly for important dates throughout the district including assessment information, PTA meetings, etc. -Please keep sending in those box tops! Whew. That's it for now. Take care, ~Mr. Layes Even though we have been learned that fall began on the 23rd of September, only now has it begun to actually feel like autumn. I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing three-day weekend, and are ready to dive back into school/work. The kids are doing very well these days with work completion, following directions, listening to whole group lessons, and understanding the expectations and routines of 1st grade. We have worked hard to get to this point, and I'm very proud of each and every one of them. Here's the latest...
Language This week we will be reading many different versions of Town Mouse, Country Mouse. We will discuss and use Venn diagrams and learning about how to compare and contrast the two characters from the book, as well as looking at the similarities and differences between two versions of the same story. We will be assessing on the first unit of reading later this week. Writer's Workshop Wee ooo wee ooo! Here come the COPS! This entire week, I will be asking the kids to pay attention to Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling/Spacing. I will also use our mentor text Night of the Veggie Monster to introduce new tools in which to get their stories 'come to life'. Math This week the students will be wrapping up Unit 2 on addition and subtraction strategies. We will be reviewing and assessing later this week. Additionally, we will give a pre-assessment on our next unit of study on story problems this Friday. On a side note, I am happy to announce that all of the kids are able to log in and use both IXL and Dreambox independently at this time. Woo! Science Yes, Social Studies is out, Science is in. Before we begin our first official unit on rocks, I wanted to take a week or two to introduce and study a bit of our spring unit on plants. We have an opportunity to observe some of the things that are growing in our school garden, and also learn more about why the leaves change color in the fall (two things that we do not have to work with in the spring). This week the students will observe in groups the edible growth in our garden, and I will educate them on the often overlooked items such as herbs and flowers. Next week we will be collecting and studying leaves. Miscellaneous -Cristian Vargas and Arielle Smith are turning 7 next week! Happy Birthday to both of them. -Keep sending in those box tops. Thanks to those of you who already have and continue to do so. -Thanks to all of you who have purchased books from our Scholastic Reading Club. We ordered the books today, and they should be here within 5-10 business days. We will be sending another order form out next month. Be on the lookout if you missed us this month. I'm sure there is more, but that's all for now. ~Mr. Layes I will not bore you with the details, but let's just say that I've been having a very busy week and I'm a day late. So without further delay, here's what happening in room 130.
Language We will be looking at character traits all week and how readers can tell or infer how a character is feeling from their actions, words or body language. We will be reading books including The Storm and I'm Sorry, and watching videos to help us learn more about this important strategy (note: we will also learned more about this during our Social/Emotional lesson on Tuesday). Writer's Workshop Our writer's are becoming stronger with their writing muscles. Their stories are coming to life, rich with details and beautiful illustrations. This week we will be learning more spelling strategies using word wall words as a guide, making sure we are using capitalization and punctuation in our stories, and try to make our characters, think, feel, and even use dialogue (with quotation marks). Math Subtraction was introduced this week. You will see the circle drawing strategy in the nightly homework. Please help your children cross our the appropriate number of circles and more importantly, write a true equation. Story problems are being introduced as well, since we will be focusing on these during our next unit. We will be assessing next week. Dreambox and IXL are up and running, we are having groups of students use these tools while I work with smaller groups either supporting or enriching as necessary. If you have any questions about these apps, please contact me. Social Studies Maps galore! One of my favorite things to teach is maps (and geography in general). After reading several books, looking at Google Maps/Earth, and watching a few videos, students were partnered up and tasked with creating a classroom map, complete with a compass rose (as we cover the cardinal directions as well). Additionally, I brought in a blue print of the floor plan my house for the kids to see, compliments of my father who is an architect. Miscellaneous -Thanks to all of you for making Walk to School Wednesday successful. A big shout out to Mrs. Gentry too for all your help! -We did read a great book about Babe Ruth since we discussed the big Cub's win from last night. The book takes place during the Great Depression, and students had many questions about how so many people could be poor and out of work. I tried my best to explain the stock market crash, and the ensuing depression and overall, how some people don't have as much as others. Please continue this important conversation at home if prompted. -Columbus Day is next Monday, please don't send you kid to school! We will be learning more about this holiday on Friday. Please note, I will be discussing Columbus as an explorer, not as an American hero. I try to be honest about what some people feel is a controversial holiday. -Book Club order must be paid up by TOMORROW (or Monday at the very latest). Mrs. Lockerby will be placing the order next Monday so we can get the book s here in a timely fashion. I have only received a handful of orders, so if you've been waiting, now is the time to order (either online, or with a check to me). -I have received a couple of orders for school yearbooks. Please send in your order if you want one. These are on a first come first serve basis. Last year, only 250 were available. FYI. -Thank you for all your family pictures. We have begun to share them at the end of the day during our closing circle. They are wonderful! That's it for now. I think. I will update the blog as necessary. Enjoy the very summer-like weather we're having. Take care, ~Mr. Layes Hi everybody, here are a few thoughts before the weekend:
-The kids did a fabulous job learning about our school helpers this week. They worked in teams to find out more about these important roles and presented their findings to the class. We also went on a short field trip to talk to those individuals too. See the pics page for more. -Blue Folders: please return these empty but for math homework, reading log or any notes to school. -Reading Club: Please send in all payments by next Friday so we can order the books. It usually takes between 5-10 business days to arrive to school once we have ordered. Thanks. -Please help your child with their spelling words during the week. Word wall words really need to be memorized (as they do not make sense phonemically). Thank you for all your help with these. -We went over Dreambox again, and we will start using this next week in math. Please read over the letter coming home today for more information. Note, please allow the students to work on this site independently without help from you or siblings. Thanks. I think that's it. Happy Friday everyone. ~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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