This Week in Room 8 (10-26-15)

ELA:

Word Wall Words:

• has
• open
• thank
• live
• know
• walk

We will be reviewing word wall words from weeks 1-7.

Grammar:

• Special titles: Mr. , Mrs., Dr., Ms.

Phonics:

• Adding -ed with no spelling changes
• /sh/, /ch/, /th/, and /wh/ sound review
• Short vowels (a, e, i, o, u) review
• We will be reviewing phonics skills from weeks 1-7.

Writing:

• Continued letter writing practice
• Continued practice on 5 star writing: starting each sentence with a capital letter, finger spaces between words, writing nice and neat on the lines, including proper punctuation, and making sure our sentences make sense

Science:

• We will be learning about the different parts of plants

Math:

• We will be practicing more subtraction word problems.
• We will be introducing how to add three numbers together.
• We will be reviewing math skills from weeks 1-7.

Halloween Information: Mr. McConnell included this information in the Friday email for families.

Halloween Festivities

Here is the schedule for the Kipling School Halloween Activities, Friday, October 30th.

8:40 – 2:00 – School/lunch as normal

- Students get dressed after lunch/recess (sending an easy-to-put-on costume is encouraged. Face paints, hair sprays, etc become difficult to apply in a quick and clean fashion).

2:00 - School-wide parade around the inside then outside of the building will begin (we will be making one lap around the school)

2:45 - 3:25 In class parties, games, clean up, etc.

Here is some additional information regarding Halloween activities:

• You are welcome to position yourself anywhere around the perimeter of the building for the parade, but we ask you to leave a pathway for the kids to walk.
• All students should bring their costumes to school on Halloween morning so that leaving mid-day is not necessary. I strongly encourage all parents to keep their children in the building for the day, as teachers will conduct school as usual for the majority of the day.
• Please help us keep everyone safe by not allowing your child to bring rollerblades, skateboards, scooters, or gym shoes with rollers attached.
• There should be no toy weapons, including sticks or staffs, candy cigarettes/cigars, and/or anything with bloody guts and gore.
• Please remember that our Food Allergy Management Plan dictates that classroom celebrations are food-free.
• Our parking lot will fill up quickly. Please simply use the city streets (not our circle drive) if there are no spots available, or walk if possible.
• All families should leave the premises directly after the parade. Only the pre-determined room parents will be allowed in the classrooms. Room parents should sign in at the front office.
• In the event of inclement weather the outside parade will be cancelled and the indoor parade will be for students only.  We will not be having a public parade inside the school.   

The Kipling PTO will be offering FREE pizza for lunch on Friday, October 30th. The pizza will come from Pieros and each student may have 2 slices.  In compliance with our food allergy management plan parents must sign up for it through the PTO.  Below are the steps to sign up.  We will not serve pizza to students not signed up.

Steps to Sign Up

1) Log in to your paperless PTO account -www.kiplingpto.com

2) Go under the For Sale Tab

3) Click on Halloween Pizza Lunch

4) For each student, enter 1 for quantity. (This DOES NOT reflect how many slices the student will receive.)

5) Hit Add to Shopping Cart

6) Go to your shopping cart and enter pizza in the promo code box.

7) Hit Enter and you are done!

For those parents with students with allergies, please contact stefpinsky@sbcglobal.net.

This Week (so far) in Pictures!

Wow! This week got away from me. Here is a snapshot of our learning this week in Room 8:


Staley "Da Bear" stopped by to teach us about how to handle bullies.

We celebrated our Leader of the Week!

We worked on the "Global Math Task Twitter Challenge 1st Grade"

Check it out on Twitter!

#gmttc1

@cacioppocrew

We answered problems from other classrooms around the world.

This week was our turn to create math problems for others to answer!

We had a class from New Zealand answer our problems!

After hearing how our problems are seen by others around the world, 

one student said, "Wow! We are superstars!"

Students showed they can synergize by working together to create

word problems for the challenge!

This was the problem posted on day 2 for the challenge!

We worked on using counting strategies to figure out how many fingers we have altogether!

This was the problem we posted on Twitter for Day 3!

 There are 5 fingers on each hand. How many fingers are there in all?


We took time to use our math journals to solve the problem.
What is your evidence? How did you find the answer?

 We worked on being detectives and finding short vowel sounds in sentences.
Where does the word belong?

 This week we learned how to write letters.
After reading Stellaluna, the students wrote letters to Stellaluna either
as the mother bird or mother bat.

We like to share our thinking with buddies!

Leader in Me:

This week we learned about how to Sharpen the Saw (Habit 7).

When we sharpen the saw, we learn that balance is best.

5th Grade Buddies!

Today we showed we could Synergize by working together with a 5th grade buddy 

to create our own Spooky Story! 

Students worked to answer the Who? What? When? Where? for the story.

Indoor Recess!

We almost made it through our lunch recess before the rain arrived! 

Students found their own fun around the classroom. 

I Learned... I Wonder...

In Science, we are learning about the characteristics of different animals. To build our background knowledge on different animals, we have been exploring the animals on Pebble Go. We have been making observations on how animals of a certain kind are alike and different, as well as noting the different body parts for animals.

Today, we posted our learning on Kidblog. Students were asked to type what animal they read about, what they learned about the animal, and one thing they wondered about the animal. We also posted a picture of the Pebble Go screenshot for the animal. Excellent discoveries, 1st Graders!

Global Math Task Twitter Challenge (#gmttc1)

Our class has accepted the challenge!

We are solving other first grade classrooms' math problems that are posted on Twitter.

This week our challenges are coming from a first grade classroom in Canada!

Today our challenge was to "Choose a number: 8 or 10. Represent it as many ways as you can!"

Here are a few examples that we tweeted back to the hosting classroom:

What will tomorrow's Global Math Task Twitter Challenge be?

Follow our class on Twitter to find out our responses!

@CacioppoCrew

Next week, it is our classroom's turn to post math problems for other first grade classrooms around the world to answer. I can't wait to see what our class discovers!

This Week in Room 8 (10-12-15)

ELA-

• This week we will review compound words, proper nouns, adding -ing with no spelling changes, and short/long vowels.
• We will be reviewing our Word Wall Words through this week.

Writing-

• This week we will learn how to write simple letters.
• We continue to work on 5 Star Writing- starting with capital letters, finger spacing, lowercase letters when needed, and proper punctuation. We are also making sure that our writing makes sense.
• You will notice at the bottom of writing pages a circled number (1, 2, or 3). This circled number represents graded handwriting. 2s represent some of the letters correctly written on the page. 3s represent all letters written correctly. This is to get students mindful of their writing as they realize that others need to read their work.

Science-

• We continue to learn about how plants and animals are like their parents. We will continue to discuss what characteristics the animals have in common and how they are different.

Math-

• We will continue to work on relating addition and subtraction to counting on and counting back. 

Important Info:

• LMC next Monday
• Book in the Bag due Friday!
• Reading Logs due Friday! I realized when I sent home the reading/math logs on Friday that the math log is only for 1 week. You will be getting a new math log on Friday for the following week. Thanks!
• If you have not had a chance, please check out your child's Kidblog. I sent home an email last week regarding how to get parent access. Make sure to give a comment to your child's post! Thanks!

This Week (so far) in Pictures!

We started our week by learning more about our Leader of the Week!

Monster Math:

We worked on creating equations that equal the number given on Frankenstein's shirt.

We challenged ourselves by adding two, three, or four numbers 

together to create the given sum.

Fire Safety Week:

The Deerfield Fire Department popped in this morning to talk to our class

about smoke detectors. Make sure you hear the beep where you sleep!

Science:

Virtual Field Trip to the Zoo!

We have been learning about different characteristics for animals. We discovered that not all of the same kind are exactly alike. Today, we took a virtual trip to the zoo. On our trip, we stopped by to see three different kinds of animals (parrots, crocodiles, and giraffes). We made observations about the animals (noticing how each kind are alike and different). 

We documented our observations on our iPad.

Leader in Me:

Today we introduced Habit 5-

Seek First to Understand, 

Then to be Understood

We learned the importance of listening with our eyes and heart when someone is talking to us.

We spent a few minutes at the end of the school day enjoying the 

sunshine, fresh air, and friends!

This Week in Room 8 (10/5/15)

ELA:
This week we will continue our Family unit. We will be learning about how families are alike and different. We will also learn about how we are like members of our family by common physical traits and common interests.

Phonics and Grammar

• Spelling words with /j/ spelled with "j" or "dge."
• Sorting Common Digraphs (th, sh, ch, and wh)
• Differentiating between long and short vowel sounds in 1 syllable words (cap/cape)
• Proper Nouns (specific people, places, or things)

Sight Words

think   let   going   again   may

Writing:

We continue to work on 5 Star Writing and making sure our Word Wall Words are spelled correctly.

SCIENCE:

Essential Question- How are plants and animals like others of the same kind?

• We will learn how to describe animals based on colors, patterns, shapes, and parts.

MATH:

We will continue to work with identifying and extending the sequence for numbers through 120.

Our new skill we learned last week has us relating counting to addition and subtraction. We will be using the number line, hundreds chart, and ten frames to count on and count back as we add and subtract.

Xtra Math Practice:
Please have your child practice Xtra Math Fact Fluency daily. I recommend starting with Xtra Math. Then, your child can explore IXL afterwards.

IXL Practice:

I have starred skills that your child can work on for IXL. Please have your child practice C.1, C.2, and C.3 for addition and E.1, E.2, and E.3 for subtraction.

Important Info:

• LMC day is Tuesday! Please remind your child to bring in his/her books on Tuesday.
• Hello Baby! Family project is due on Wednesday, October 7th.
• Picture Day is Wednesday, October 7th. If you need an order form, please email me and I will send one home.
• No School Monday, October 12th or Tuesday, October 13th.

Room 8 Earns Kip the Cougar!

Our class earned Kip the Cougar!

We were thrilled that Mr. McConnell chose our class to take care of Kip for the week.

We have been working hard to make great choices in our classroom and throughout the school. 

Way to go, First Grade Leaders!