Hello everybody! 2015 is almost closed up tight, and we have spent about 75 days learning together, having fun, and becoming a real 1st grader.
Please note, there will be no homework sent over the break (a simple checklist will though). However, I would hope that each student will read every day, and use the math apps to keep up with academic content. Regression is common for many students over the break. Please help your children (and me), to stay on top of their learning. Thanks. Here is the latest from room 130... Language We are taking reading assessments this week for individual guided reading groups. We will be reading books about the holidays and having discussion around said books. Writer's Workshop The authors are finishing up their teaching books today. They will do a final edit and create covers for their publishable books. On Thursday, we will celebrate our 2nd Publishing Party by sharing our collective stories with one another. Afterwards, we will complement each other, and 'cheers' with a glass of lemonade. Math We will be assessing our Unit 4 today on base-10, place value, and comparing numbers. We will have some fun holiday math to do to finish up the week. Science We assessed on our Unit of Rocks earlier this week. We also got to watch a full episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy on the same topic. We will begin our unit on Space at the beginning of the year. Thanks for those who have brought in special rocks to share with the class during this time. Miscellaneous -Our Holiday concert is happening tomorrow morning in the gym from 9-10. Please come by if your schedule allows. -Pajama Day is Friday. Students can opt to wear their PJ's to school, however send them in tennis shoes, not slippers. If they want to bring a stuffed animal or lovely, they may bring one to school. They will live in their lockers for much of the day except when sharing. Thanks. -If you have any empty paper towel tubes, please send them in. We need them for a math project. Thanks. -The final day to purchase Middleton yearbooks is this Friday. If you need another form, please contact me. I think that is it for now. If there is more, I'll will post again. Take care, ~Mr. Layes
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We are only eight school days away until our holiday break. I am so proud of all the hard work that the students have put into the first part of the year. Because of this, the latter part of the year will surely be equally successful.
There is ton of stuff happening in the coming days, so without further ado... Language The little piggies are working hard on their scripts to prepare for our mini performance of The Three Little Pigs, reader's theater on Thursday. We are focusing on using our presentation voice, and reading with expression to inform the listener about what is happening in the play. We looked at another book that looks at the story from the wolf's perspective and how perhaps, the pigs who were mean to the wolf. Later in the week, we will work on our visualizing by listening to a narrated version of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. Writer's Workshop My little teachers are hard at work. I am giving them helpful tools to make their informational text better and better each day. Some strategies covered are: how to punctuate on the go (not edited afterwards), using mentor texts as examples on how to use captions, labels, headings, etc., and how to do research to help them find valuable information to add their books. We will be having another publishing party next week, so we will be wrapping up these before the break. Math After taking a short pause to cover comparisons of numbers (greater/lesser/equal to), we are back looking at base-10 number sense. We are looking at patterns between 2, 3 and 20, 30, using our counting on strategy for double digit problems (23+8), and comparing two 2-digit numbers as well. We will be wrapping up this unit early next week and assessing before the break. Science Rocks, rocks and rocks. Our little geologists are hard at work sorting their river rocks in an assortment of ways. We are working primarily with pebbles, gravel, and sand, and the students used a simple worksheet to sort them into groups. They took a short quiz telling me all the different ways they could sort rocks including size, shape, color and texture. Later this week we will be doing another experiment with sand and silt. *Ms. Williams our tech coach came to our team and offered us an opportunity to take a virtual field trip to Yellowstone National Park! As part of our informational text curriculum, we jumped at the idea. Students will be learning more about animal habitats, basic needs (food, water, shelter), and do some comparisons to animals in our own region. Super exciting (and it is going to be a surprise on Friday)! Miscellaneous -We will be holding a whole school Pride Paw assembly this Friday from 2-3. This joyous occasion is where we as a community come together to celebrate how we are ready, respectful, and responsible in school. Many students will be selected to reflect upon why they received a specific pride paw and some prizes will be given. -The holiday concert is Dec. 17th at 9 am in the gym. Put it in your calendar. For more info, see the pdf on the resources page. -A big thank you to those families who have donated for our annual food drive. We will be accepting donations until the 14th. -Pajama day is the Friday the 18th. Come in your comfy pj's and sneakers. -Birthdays Galore! Next week we will be taking two days to celebrate four students' birthdays: Isabelle, Alice, Alesha, and Josie all turn 7 over the break. -More box-tops please. Whew. That is it for now. Please note, there will be no reading log or letter next week. We will be busy with other things. Take care, ~Mr. Layes I forgot to send home the reading log today. Please excuse this error on my part. Please read tonight, however, no need to fill out Monday's entry. It was a busy, busy day. Thanks.
~Mr. Layes -Report cards are going out for most of the school, except for a few grades including ours. Please see the note coming home today. It's not on our end, it's the company we use for electronic grading. I am sorry for the delay. They should be ready by Monday. Please note, send the envelope back to school...empty!
-We have some new furniture in the library, and the kids really enjoyed using the new space. See the pics. -The food drive is still on until December 14th. We currently have an empty box. Please consider donating canned or dry goods if you have the means. -I'm posting a few more pictures as well; some of our great science experiment, and a few from a great Writer's Workshop we had recently. That is all. ~Mr. Layes Winter is not officially here, but let's call a spade a spade, it's winter. Brrr. First off, please send your children to school with warm clothes and proper winter wear. They will go outside for recess everyday unless it becomes too cold, not too snowy. On that note, please take a moment to write their names in their gloves and hats in particular. These items tend to get lost easily, and become hard to find without names inside them. The lost and found is already growing, so if you are missing anything, please check down the hall.
Please note, that there is a typo in the reading letter this week: both was listed twice. One of the words was meant to read bath. Thx. Ok, here's the latest... Language We are taking a break from learning and reading about informational text. The next two weeks we will be reading fairy tales with an emphasis on The Three Little Pigs. We will read and watch many versions of the classic tale, and compare and contrast them with Venn diagrams. We will also be rehearsing for our next reader's theater of the same story. Writer's Workshop The writer's are continuing to write their teaching books. This week I will introduce how a writer can use comparisons to describe a fact (e.g. a sharks' tooth is as sharp as a knife). Also, we will begin to use special paper to create a How-To page and a List page too (in addition to using our Table of Contents paper too). I'm learning a ton of things from their writing about rats, dogs, Minecraft, soccer, swimming, cars, among other interesting topics. Math Base-10 is still the name of the game. This week we are covering important lessons that include seeing the similarity/difference between 7, 17, 70 for example. The kids are identifying numbers with blocks, and vice versa. We will create story problems using 10's and 1's, and practice numbers up to 100. The kids are practicing these strategies with the help of manipulatives on the iPads and using white boards to draw blocks as well. IXL has a section about base-10 that students will be learning from too. Science Sorting, sorting, sorting. We are using river rocks this week to continue our sorting experiments. The students have created a word bank full of useful words, and we learned about the difference between igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks too. We will be using special screens to filter out bigger rocks from smaller rocks, or from pebbles to gravel to sand today. It is an exciting time to be a scientist! Miscellaneous -The winter music concert for 1st grade will be at 9:00 on December 17th in the gym. Please come by if you can. -Our annual Food Drive has begun. We will be collecting dry and canned goods until December 14th. Proceeds will go to the Niles Township Food Pantry. Please donate if you can. -Another spirit day is approaching. Please be on the lookout for December 18th (the Friday before break): it's PAJAMA DAY! Send them in their favorite sleepy wear (no slippers though). Thanks. -We are still collecting box tops too. Please keep them coming in. Thanks. -A big thanks to all of the students and parents who donated a book from the Book Fair to room 130. One can never have too many books. -And finally, it was a pleasure to sit down with all of you for conferences. Like I mentioned before, if you have any questions about anything, please don't hesitate to reach out via email or phone. That's it for now. If there is more, I'll post it soon. ~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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