Kacsko's Kiddos: January 2015

We were scientists this week - making hypotheses and conducting experiments to discover what was and what wasn't magnetic. Everyday we gathered together in front of the magnets anchor chart and read a question (this would be the "identify the problem" step in the scientific method). The students would then form a hypothesis based on popular vote.

Side note, this exercise in reading taught us how to use a new reading strategy - Flippy the Dophin. We've been focused on identifying the vowels and their short and long sounds for the last two weeks. Flippy the Dolphin reminds us to try the other vowel sound if we've sounded a word out and it didn't make sense.

Now back to the magnets. After a thumbs up/thumbs down vote on whether something was magnetic or not, we tested the object. Then we recorded the results with a simple "yes" or "no," which just so happened to be our new sight words this week.

We even took our experiments outside to see if a magnet would attract a car. We used Mrs. Taylor's van to find out.

Magnets made their way into some of our centers this week, too. In the word work center, the students played "Read it, Build it, Write it" using magnetic word and letter tiles.

The students chose between two magnetic games they've played before in the math games center: Build Pig's House and Build a Turkey.

The number work center was quite a hodge podge of activties - but it kept the students engaged while working with numbers and that's the idea! But there was one activity specific to the theme. Students could use a magnet to drag the right amount of gumballs into their machines.

In the science/discovery center, the students got to do some hands-on exploration with magnets and random objects.

By the way, if you've noticed cute stuffed animals photo-bombing the last few pics it's because some of the kiddos got to bring one for earning ten Dojo points!

We wrapped up our magnetic week with a two-part journal writing/science activity. On Thursday, each student picked a different balled-up piece of paper from a basket at their table. Each paper had a picture of a random object: earrings, toy car, screw, safety pin, and a light bulb, The students formed their hypothesis and wrote it in their journals.

I think a magnet will attract a light bulb. I think it sticks because it has metal

The next day, the basket was full of the items themselves. So they conducted their own experiment and wrote the results.

The magnet did attract the earrings.

The magnet did not attract. It did not attract but it still has metal.

Tommy writes better than most grown-ups so I'm pretty sure you can read his without my help.

In other news, we have many new Smart Board activities this month. Our January calendar has an ABCD pattern which the kids predict and extend each day.

On the next page, we've been practicing using a number line to add numbers. I make up a story about one of the student's having a snowball fight with one of their siblings or neighbors and tell how many snowballs each makes/throws (an introduction to word problems). The students place the snowball on the higher number and move over the lower numbers. From here, we learned how to visualize a number line in our heads, and using our fists as the the snowball, we moved over counting on aloud. This strategy will lead to them becoming more fluent with addition, using mental math instead of drawing dots or counting their fingers.

We transition to the next slide by singing the first line of "Do You Wanna Build A Snowman" and one student comes up to spin the two numbers we must add together....

so that we can buy something from the snowman shop. The AM and PM classes are racing to see who builds a complete snowman first.

Next, we track our days in school. This time we're using marshmallows instead of base ten blocks. As you'll notice, we are just one day away from the 100th day! There was a baggie sent home attached to your child's newsletter today. They need to fill it with 100 of something and bring it back to school on Monday.

The next page is full of links to fun math games. One game we play helps us count by tens, identifying the pattern along the way.

But their favorite game is this penguin addition game. Fair warning - the song will be stuck in your head FOREVER.

This game, along with the raz-kids reading website are great school-substitutes for snow days. (I'll be honest - I wouldn't mind one)!

I'll leave you with a pic of some of the morning class kiddos who earned their yellow belts (for knowing the level 2 sight words). The poor PM kids had to leave beltless. So many of the morning class earned a yellow belt - I had none left for the afternoon. I promised them they'd get it Monday, though. Have a great weekend!

The last two weeks we have been learning all kinds of new routines and working for new incentives. We have started tracking daily behavior with Class Dojo which the students love. Once the students have accumulated enough Dojo points for their good behavior, they earn special rewards:

The students have also been putting their folders in their new weekly home. So that means no more remembering/forgetting them everyday! They collect their classwork throughout the week and bring it home with the all-important newsletter on Fridays.

Another new incentive was made to help the students (re)learn their sight words. It is easy to forget them over the two week Christmas break. To remedy this, the students are participating in sight word karate. For the last week, they've practiced the first 14 sight words that were introduced in August and September while in the classroom and were encouraged to also study them at home. We had MANY who passed their first belt test today, earning their white belt for knowing the first 14 sight words. They got to sign their name on the giant white belt that will be part of a hallway display and got their white belts tied around their waist. We will test next Friday on the yellow belt and will retest the students who are still working on their white belt.

And finally, the students now have their own account on www.raz-kids.com
which they can access on a computer or through the app for ipad (I'm not sure if its available for other tablets). This is a wonderful website which increases reading fluency in a fun way. The students in the PM class have had a brief tutorial on it but the AM class has not yet been coached on it. We will be using it next week in the ipad center, though, so your child can become familiar with it. This is a great tool for snow days and long breaks from school. The more the student reads, the more points they get to use to furnish their "rocket room" and build robots. Those in the AM class log-in under the teacher name rlukacsko. Those in the PM class will log-in with the teacher name rlukacskoa (notice the 'a' on the end).

And now for what we've been learning and doing in the classroom. This week was all about opposites. We sang along to this song everyday and made a list of the opposite words we found in the books we read.

The students paired opposites together in the puzzle center this week. At the end of the week, the students were each given a word and had to find their opposite partner.

Then they read their words to the class.

The students also wrote about a pair of opposites: inside and outside. The students told their favorite outdoor recess activity and their favorite indoor recess activity. Here are Sophia C.'s favorites.

In literacy, the students have learned what the vowels are and how they make two sounds; short and long. These last two weeks, we have been reviewing the short vowel sounds, especially in CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words.

On Fun Friday, we did a write the room activity where each child was assigned a vowel and had to write only words that contained that sound. This is always a favorite of theirs and mine!

For centers this week, the students matched up pairs of mittens in the the number work area. They had to find the sum to an addition problem or recognize the amount in a ten frame.

In the math games center, they worked on subtracting. The students started with twenty snowballs and spun a number to subtract. First one to zero was the winner. This week was the first time they'd ever worked exclusively with subtraction so the goal was to get them familiar with the fact that subtracting leaves you with less.

The students worked with the short vowel sounds in the word work center. They could choose their level: matching the letters to create the word, or flipping the card over and figuring out the missing sound.

The students did a sight word sort (using the "white belt" words) in the writing center and got to use a really cool rainbow-colored pencil. By the way, one of the special pencils-black and glittery on the outside- mysteriously vanished after a few days of centers. If you happen to find this pencil in your child's backpack, please send it back in. Actually. several items have turned up missing here lately (glittery pom pom balls, numbered mittens for the math games) so if you could check through pockets and backpacks, we'd appreciate it.

Last week, our theme was WINTER. We identified the signs of winter and discussed the clothes we wear and the things we do.

The students wrote about these things in their journals. Here are some of Tommy's writings.

And Sophia's...

We also read "The Mitten" by Jan Brett- a story about a mitten that is lost in the snow and becomes a warm and cozy home for the animals in the woods. Afterward, the students wrote about whether they wore gloves or mittens. We are working on adding more to our sentences now so the students were encouraged to answer the question first then to give more information, such as what color their gloves/mittens are. Oliver did a great job with this.

In the math games center last week they played a wintery game - A SNOWBALL FIGHT! This game built up their knowledge of teen numbers and how they are constructed. The students each picked a snowball up and revealed a teen number between 10 and 20. They recorded their number and their partner's number, then drew the amount in ten frames. They decided who had more and that student got to throw their snowball first - hoping to hit one of the winter friends targets taped to the table). This was quite fun - as you can see by Morgan's intensely fun face.

In the number work center, the students built a snowman piece by piece, rolling the dice and adding the numbers.

Word work was a familiar task - stringing the sight words using letter beads.

And in the puzzle center, the students put CVC words together.

Since we missed a day last week, the students didn't get to have a true Fun Friday with an art project. So this Friday, we combined last week's and this week's themes to make one cool art project. The students cut out and colored mittens. Then they put opposites into the mittens ("go" went on the left mitten, "stop" went on the right mitten and so on).