Mrs. Richards' Reports from Room 137

Thank you parents for your support for our Christmas concert which was such a wonderful success. The children worked hard learning all of their songs and then performing well!

We are counting down to Christmas in many ways.  We will finish up our study of how different cultures celebrate Christmas by learning about the African celebration of Kwanzaa which is on Dec. 26th. We are connecting this inquiry with learning about needs and wants. Mrs. Blank will be working with our class and teaching us how to use Scribble Press on our iPads. The children will create a few pages about needs and wants.

In Math, we will practice making tens and ones using Educreations on our iPads. In our math journals, the students are reading math problems and looking for clue words like in all, altogether, and how many left to write number sentences for addition and subtraction.

Mrs. Richards' Reports from Room 137

We have a busy week ahead with two concerts this week. Tuesday afternoon at 1:30, we will be a part of the audience as the band, orchestra, strings, and chorus perform for us. On Thursday we get to be the performers at 12:45 for the dress rehearsal and then 6:00 for family and friends. Please have your child at school by 5:30 in Room 137. I will watch the children in the classroom in between performances.

Last week we continued our inquiry about how cultures celebrate the holidays and finished up with Hanukkah by playing the dreidel game. The children made wooden shoes for St. Nick's like the children in Holland. This week we learn about Germany and Mexico and how they celebrate.

We had our last ACE presentation on what it means to be a "composer".  Students enjoyed the presentation.

****  Please be sure that your child has a hat and mittens every day. Boots and snow pants are required if your child is going to play in the snow. *****

**** The PTA  Elf Workshop is this Friday from 5:30-8:30.  I will be helping out at the 5:30 slot.
Hope to see you there!****

Here are some recent pictures from Thankful For Books Day.

Mr. Dan Bailey, Evan's Grandpa

Mr. Glomski,  Brady's Dad

Class Picture with our PJ's

Amaya reading with her buddy, Cora

Micala reading with a buddy

Austin and Ian reading on their Ipads

Evan and Hope are reading a Collins Cat Book.

                                                                        ACE Presenters are teaching us about what a  "composer"does.

Mrs. Richards' Reports from Room 137

Welcome back from Thanksgiving break! Hope you had a great time with family and friends!

There are a lot of fun things planned for this week. We will finish off our inquiry on the Pilgrims and Native Americans and move onto how other cultures/countries celebrate the holidays. We will also talk about the needs/wants of the pilgrims and compare them with ours. We have our last ACE presentation on Thursday about Modern Day Music. In Math, we will be working on counting up from a number, counting tens and ones, and adding ones to a ten.

Here are some pictures from last week!

This is Venn Diagram comparing things from the time of the pilgrims and now.

A Venn Diagram showing who liked biscuits, salted beef, and homemade butter.

We are thankful for Story's Grandpa reading to us!

Mrs. Richards' Reports from Room 137

I want to begin by wishing all of my classroom families a wonderful Thanksgiving! This is always such a special time of the year.  Enjoy these days off with your family and friends!

On Monday, we will continue our Inquiry Unit on the Pilgrims, the Native Americans, and the First Thanksgiving. We will be trying some food that the Pilgrims ate: dried beef ( jerky), biscuits, and pomegranate.  We will make our own butter to put on our biscuit by shaking cream in a jar . We will compare a pilgrim child with a child of today on a chart called a Venn diagram.

On Tuesday, we will spend our day in pajamas enjoying "BOOKS". Guest readers, Buddy reading with Ms. Alt's class, reading books on our ipads, and watching a book on a dvd are all the fun activities planned for the day with the focus on READING. Mr. Hill will be reading his favorite book to the whole school in the MPR at 3:00.

Last week, we had our third ACE presentation on the Strings Family of instruments. The children have been working in an Inquiry booklet on the Pilgrims and Native Americans. Here are some pictures from these activities.

ACE Presentation on the Strings Family

Members of the Milwaukee Symphony

Preston sharing his writing and picture

Hope sharing

Addy looking over her work

Story is proud of her work.

Colorful Picture made by Ian

Filip is carefully reading his writing.

Mrs. Richards' Reports from Room 137

 Our class was very excited at Friday's Fish Meeting to win 3 Golden Awards: Art, Guidance, and Secret Teacher.  That makes 5 Golden Awards that we have earned. So on Monday we will be voting for a special class incentive that we will do this upcoming week!  Way to go kindergarteners!

Here are some of this week learning activities:

Literacy: The children are listening and reading books on their level on RazKids which they can do at home too. On their iPads, they are working on different apps practicing sight words and writing letters.

Math: We are working on correct number formation by reciting rhymes to go with the number. We are doing some adding, comparing numbers, and counting up from a number. During one of their rotations, the children go on Dreambox which you can access at home too.

Inquiry: Our essential question is: Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving? We will learn about the Native Americans and the Pilgrims.

Writer's Workshop: We are working on beginning a sentence with a capital letter and putting an end mark.

 Here are some pictures of recent classroom activities.

Veteran's Day -  Ian with his Dad's uniform

Sharing a book about the Marines

Conductor Fransisco

Learning how to conduct

Our Autumn Tree for the Ace Program with Leaves made by our class.

Mrs. Richards Reports from Room 137

Monday is Veteran's Day, a special time for us to remember those who have served and died for our country.  Ian will be bringing in some of his Dad's things to talk about and to share with our class.

We have also rescheduled our ACE conductor presentation for this Monday afternoon.

In Literacy, our Guided  Reading groups are actively engaged and doing lots of reading and sharing. The Daily 5 rotations are running smoothly.

In Writer's Workshop, students are working on narrative writing and making lists.

In Math, students are practicing writing and counting numbers. We are comparing using these symbols:  >, =,  and <.

In Inquiry, we are going to begin to answer the question: Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?

Mrs. Reports from Room 137

Students were engaged in writing their New Learning about different water animals.

These pictures are from Field Day which had to be 

moved to the gym and the field house due to the rainy weather.

The outdoor pictures are from High Interest Day one day later.

Making and eating smores was a nice ending to High Interest Day

Showing off the wind chimes made during High Interest Day

Mrs. Richards' Reports from Room 137

What a special week with Field Day on Thursday and High Interest Day on Friday.
The sun came out for High Interest Day....yeah!

Pictures will be coming to highlight these days......

Here's what we've been up to...

Literacy / Inquiry:  We are researching water animals on pebble go.

Math Topics:  fractions, shapes, and subtraction

Writing: Writing letters, making connections to world, and forming opinions

Mrs. Richards' Reports from Room 137

Thank you Parents for all of the gifts and best wishes for Teacher's Appreciation Week!

What a busy week we had! Here are some highlights!

Our Spring Concert....We were a hit!

Poetry Reading

Author Jackie Cole gave a talk on Friday about her book.

The title of her book is: Blue Moon: A Cat's Wish
It's about a homeless cat.



Planting our Bean Seeds. We are keeping a Learning Log.

Planting our Mother's Day marigolds.

More Pictures with our author!





Mrs. Richards' Reports from Room 137

MAPS Testing for our classroom is over, and the students took their time and did very well. I'm proud of their accomplishments!

Here is the scoop for this week:

Literacy / Inquiry: We will start our inquiry of animals that live in the water.
                            5K students are being tested with the PALS Kit in reading skills.

Math: Topics.... 2-D and 3-D shapes, Fractions, and graphing

Writing: We are working on writing an opinion and giving good reasons for it.

*  We are working on "being respectful" in the classroom, on the playground, and throughout our school.
    If we show respect and have less behavior referrals, and receive caught ya's, we will earn a PJ Day.

* Due to the "lice" problem, I will be sending home the "art" smocks on Tuesday. Please wash and return it by next Tuesday May 14th. in a zip lock bag with your child's name on the bag written in marker.

Mrs. Richards'Reports from Room 137

We have been working hard to prepare for the MAPS testing in Math and Reading.  Today my students brainstormed how "good test takers" get ready for an important test. In small groups, they created posters which we then displayed in the hallway by the lunch room.  We are hoping these posters will help others students to get ready for the test too! 

Bennett, Dominic, Audrey, Hannah

I

Dhruv, Tyler, Lucas

Jack, Gavin, Jaylen

Students at work on their posters.

Adding more information and good ideas

Cora, Addisen, Isiah