ABC Countdown!

Reading:  We spent this week comparing non-fiction text books.
Writing:  We are enjoying our Small Moment Writing.  Students are working on getting feelings into their stories.
Math:  We continue to work on teen numbers and grouping 10s.  Practice counting on at home from different numbers.

ABC Countdown is next week.  There are calendars in your child's folder today. Please put them in a safe spot.  This is the homework for the rest of the year.  It is fun for the kids to participate.

Tuesday:  A-Dress like your favorite animal
Wednesday: B- We will chew bubblegum during writing.  I will provide the gum.  Please do not send any gum!
Thursday: C-Wear your favorite color head to toe!
Friday: D-Dance Party!  We will dance in the pod with our friends!

Upcoming Dates!

May 2:  Alphabet Countdown Begins!

weeks of May 8th and May 15th. Students will travel to classrooms during library to recite their poems. 

May 8-12:  KRT will be given at Irving for Incoming Kindergarten Students.  All Kindergarten teachers will be out of the room in the afternoon to administer this assessment. 

May 18th from 6:00-8:30pm Art Fest and the Poetry Slam

May 19:  Young Athletes Field Trip

May 25:  Walking Field Trip to Maze Library 9:30 (Thursday)

May 29:  No School

May 31:  Pizza and Play at Rehm Park with all Kindergarten Classes

June 8:  Last day of School

Spring!

Upcoming Dates 

April 20:  I will be out in the afternoon for a district meeting.

May 2:  Alphabet Countdown Begins!  You will be given a calendar of events that celebrate each letter of the alphabet. 

Students will travel to classrooms during library the weeks of May 8th and May 15th to recite poems they will be given in library this week. This is a great Irving tradition.  Your child will memorize a very short (3 line) poem to recite to other classes during these weeks.  We call these "poetry breaks" and kids look forward to them every year.

Thursday, May 18th from 6:00-8:30pm:  Art Fest and Poetry Slam   This is my favorite Irving event and I encourage you all to come and find your child's artwork on display and stay for the poetry slam and chorus performance.

May 8-12:  KRT will be given at Irving for Incoming Kindergarten Students.  All Kindergarten teachers will be out of the room in the afternoon to administer this assessment. 

May 19:  Young Athletes Field Trip

May 25:  Walking Field Trip to Maze Library

May 29:  No School

May 31:  Pizza and Play at Rehm Park with all Kindergarten Classes

June 8:  Last day of School

Reading:  We are reviewing main idea and details in nonfiction books this week.  We are also looking at unknown words.

Writing:  We are finishing up  Opinion Writing this week and next.  We set new goals for ourselves this week.  The students did a great job figuring out what they need to work on next in Writing with a partner.  

Math:  We are finishing up our addition and subtraction unit this week.  We will continue to focus on teen numbers. 

Art Start:  We continue to learn about different fibers and materials.  Today we made paper.  Last week we learned about taking animal fibers (wool) and turning it into felt.

What a Fun Week!

We had so much fun this week!
Worms:  We read a lot about worms and enjoyed observing them and labeling the parts of a worm.  Next week we will meet larger worms (ack!) and compare and contrast them.

Butterflies:  We are also observing the caterpillars that came to our classroom.  We haven't learned a lot about them yet, but we will get to that soon enough!
Construction:  We really enjoyed having Mr. McDermott come in and teach us about different tools used in construction and he showed us how to build a wall!  He left a 23x24 wall for us!

Reading:  We are practicing using picture and word clues to figure out unknown words.  We are reading words with silent e and learning about vowel teams!

Writing:  We worked on our opinion writing this week.  Next week we will learn about letter writing.
Math:  We worked with teen numbers, number bonds and worked on building up our math fact fluency.

A little business:
Can Food Drive
Please click here to learn about our canned food drive. 

Book Fair:  Please read the message about our Spring Book Fair.

Due to its great success the last two years, the Irving spring book fair will be participating in Scholastic's All For Booksprogram by holding our 3rd Irving Classroom Coin Challenge.  Money raised through the AFB program is used to add to our funds to purchase books for our library and will also be used to donate books to a local organization (Parenthesis Family Center, a program of New Moms) that aids families with young children through several different programs.  Ms. Noonan was able to use the money the classrooms raised to make library purchases. In addition, Scholastic then meets our donations by giving books to two national foundations that get books to schools, communities, and children in need (schools destroyed by tornados, impoverished areas, etc).

We will be holding a classroom coin collection challenge the week before the book fair.  Mrs. Vonhagel, Mrs. Schassburger, and Ms. Saliny's students' donations will go in with the mainstream classrooms that those students are associated with, like we did last year.

1)  The coin drive will run Mon, April 17 - Thu, April 20.

2)  Letters explaining the coin collection will go home to the families the week of April 10th.  

Upcoming Dates

April 10:  Art Start begins

April 12:  Spelling Bee.  Good luck Colin and Veronica!  I will be out that day at a district meeting. 

April 14:  No school

April 20:  I will be out in the afternoon for a district meeting.

May 2:  Alphabet Countdown Begins!

May 8-12:  KRT will be given at Irving for Incoming Kindergarten Students.  All Kindergarten teachers will be out of the room in the afternoon to administer this assessment. 

May 19:  Young Athletes Field Trip

May 25:  Walking Field Trip to Maze Library

May 29:  No School

May 31:  Pizza and Play at Rehm Park with all Kindergarten Classes

June 8:  Last day of School

Back at It!

I hope everyone was able to enjoy a little extra time with the family during D97's Spring Break.  I am eager to get back to work with the kids and finish the year strong!
Here are a few highlights for the last few months.

Reading:  We will be focusing on figuring out unknown words in reading for a while.  Sometimes we will be practicing figuring out what the word is (sounding it out, breaking it into smaller chunks).  Sometimes we will be figuring out what the word means.  Enjoy listening to your child read to you at home!

Writing:  We will be working on opinion writing and persuasive writing for the next few weeks.  We will also learn how to write a letter.  Be prepared to be persuaded!  We will finish our handwriting book and kids will be asked to pay attention to using lower case letters unless it is the start of a sentence.

Math:  We continue to work on composing and decomposing numbers.  This is a conceptual way of thinking about addition and subtraction.  Our focus now is on teen numbers and finding the tens and ones.

Science:  We have a lot going on in Science.  WORMS are coming to Kindergarten this week.  We will learn about red words and earth worms.  We will also have caterpillars.  Soon we will even have fish and guppies!  We are learning about how to observe animals.  We are also working on Materials and Motion-learning about wood, paper, and how things move.

Art Start:  We are participating in OPEF's Art Start program with artist Pamela Penney.  I have worked with her several times in the past few years and I look forward to working with her again. We will be catching up on some science concepts of Materials and Motion.

Upcoming Dates
April 4:  No School.  Get out and VOTE!
April 7:  Presentation from Mr. McDermott about building with wood.  This is a science presentation.  We will be building a wall!
April 10:  Art Start begins
April 12:  Spelling Bee.  Good luck Colin and Veronica!  I will be out that day at a district meeting.
April 14:  No school
April 20:  I will be out in the afternoon for a district meeting.
May 2:  Alphabet Countdown Begins!
May 8-12:  KRT will be given at Irving for Incoming Kindergarten Students.  All Kindergarten teachers will be out of the room in the afternoon to administer this assessment.
May 19:  Young Athletes Field Trip
May 25:  Walking Field Trip to Maze Library
May 29:  No School
May 31:  Pizza and Play at Rehm Park with all Kindergarten Classes
June 8:  Last day of School