Monday

Bonjour!

This week and next we are studying art and artists. Today we read a book about Henry Matisse called Henry’s Scissors. When Matisse became ill he was forced to stay in bed most of the time. He was no longer able to paint and so he cut out shapes with scissors and had them glued onto paper. Today we tried making Matisse-style artwork.

Books We Read This Week…

We walked to the public library to pick out books and came back to read them in our classroom…

Math

We learned about the shapes triangle, pentagon, hexagon, and octagon. We counted the sides of each shape. We also explored 3D shapes such as the cuboid, pyramid, and cone. We labeled the face, edge, and vertex (vertices) of each shape.

Recess

Tuesday

Today we read a book about Georges Seurat. He was a French painter who lived between 1859-1891. He devised the painting technique known as pointillism. Pointillism is the technique of painting with small, distinct dots. His large scale work, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, is one of the icons of late 19th century painting and you can find it hanging in The Art Institute of Chicago.

We tried our hand at pointillism by using the tip of a Q Tip to paint a sketch from one of Seurat’s famous paintings.

As a community building activity, we played a memory game where we tried to remember the favorite color of everyone in the class.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Journaling- My dream house would have…

Math

In math we practiced measuring different items using a ruler.

Wednesday

Today we learned about artist Joan Miro. He was a Spanish painter and sculptor born in Barcelona. As you can see below, we practiced the style of art for which he was famous…

Math

In Math we practiced reading the information on a bar graph.

Ms. Stephanie’s Visit…

Ms. Stephanie from the Des Plaines Public Library came today to read a hilarious book called Lou.

We then did a fun craft showing how there is a sparkling hero inside us all…

Thursday

We learned a new math game called Jump One. In math we also solved a variety of story problems from our Mindset Math curriculum using two digit by two digit addition and subtraction…

The following questions were asked of the students…

-What is happening in the story? What do you need to figure out?

-How can you show what is happening in the story with objects or numbers?

-What strategies can you use to solve the problems?

-How can you show your thinking on paper? What pictures can you draw for others to understand what you did?

-How can you label your work to make your thinking clear?

Centers/Free Choice/Recess

Have a great weekend!

Love,

Ms. Melissa

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Happy Halloween! This week we read books having to do with witches, bats, black cats, ghosts… all things Halloween!

Here are the books we read…

We learned about the origin of Halloween. The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons told us that a long time ago people believed that ghosts, witches, and goblins roamed around on Halloween night. Some people built bonfires to scare them away. Later, October 31st was called All Hallows Eve which means holy evening. It was the night before the church festival called All Hallows or All Saints Day. All Hallows Eve was shortened to Halloween.

Art

We made black cat collages…

Journaling

We brainstormed a list of words that remind us of Halloween. We used these words in our stories…

We read a story called Room on the Broom where a witch, a cat, a dog, a bird, and a frog all needed to fir on one broom. We completed a STEM challenge by using cubes to try to balance all of the “animals” and the witch onto the “broom.” In this activity we explored the center of mass.

Math

Reader’s Theater Performance

Free Choice and Centers

Halloween Day

Have a great long weekend!

Love,
Ms. Melissa

Hello, Families and Friends! This week we studied bats and engaged in activities inspired by the classic Reading Rainbow book, Stellaluna!

Blurb about the story from Amazon…

Knocked from her mother’s safe embrace by an attacking owl, Stellaluna lands headfirst in a bird’s nest. This adorable baby fruit bat’s world is literally turned upside down when she is adopted by the occupants of the nest and adapts to their peculiar bird habits.

Before we got into our bat activities, the students went batty over decorating their little pumpkins. We used the new Sharpie paint markers and the students loved them.

Stellaluna Reader’s Theater

We did a reader’s theater for our picture book, Stellaluna. Each child has the opportunity to say several lines- possibly memorizing them, and best of all, they practice reading fluently with expression in their voices. The students are excited about presenting this piece to Ms. Lisa, Ms. Demetra, and Ms. Anna’s class next Thursday! I found an article that explains the research behind why Reader’s Theater is so beneficial to children…

Reader’s Theater is a fun, interactive and collaborative way to get kids reading aloud by letting the “perform” as characters. The goal of Reader’s Theater is to enhance a reader’s skill and confidence by allowing them to practice reading with a purpose for an authentic audience.

Not only does Reader’s Theater give students a reason to read, but students can explore different types of genres, get a sense of story, think about characterization, and work together on a team toward a common goal. It also gives students the opportunity to read with expression, work on oral language, and articulation, voice volume, and speaking skills.

Reader’s Theater helps build fluency in a disguised way because there are many repeated readings/rehearsals. Fluency is vital in order to comprehend. Reader’s Theater allows students to re-read the same story, yet read as different characters or as the same character but with different expression in their voice. This re-reading allows students to practice fluency and ultimately increases comprehension.

Journaling Spooky Halloween Stories

Plato is holding a “Halloween Story Contest” and all of room 120 wants to enter their stories!

Night Sky Bat Scenes

Multiplicity Lab Wednesday Wonder

Math Games

Math Mindsets…

Happy Birthday, EMMA!! We hope all your wishes come true!

Spanish Class

Preparing our portfolios for conferences…

Recess

Free Choice and Centers

Have a great weekend!!

Love,
Ms. Melissa

This week we studied…Bears!

We began the week by “Going on a Bear Hunt.” We chanted/sang the old campfire song where we acted out going through tall grass, climbing a tall tree, swimming through a wide river, and finally entering a dark cave where we found… A Bear! We ran home experiencing the hurdles in reverse. The students really enjoyed this make-believe adventure!

We read a beautifully illustrated book called The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett which is a retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This version tells the story of an Inuit girl, it has playful Arctic animals in the boarders, and spotlights an endearing family of polar bears. After reading, we painted a snowy scene and made a collage of a polar bear with newspaper.

Polar Bear Art Activity

Books we read this week…

Journaling

What would you do if you saw a Brown Bear in the wild?

Mystery Science- Polar Bears

How do polar animals survive the cold?

Why are polar bears white?

How do polar bears walk on ice and snow?

We brainstormed a list of types of bears we know of. I helped by adding a few others.

Polar Bear Blubber Experiment

We learned that polar bears stay warm because they have a four inch layer of blubber under their skin. In order to experience the difference between having blubber and not, we conducted an experiment. We stuck one hand in a bowl of ice water to feel how freezing cold it is. We then, (with a glove), stuck our other hand in a baggie of Crisco and then stuck it in the ice water. The students found that the Crisco protected their hand from the cold temperature.

Gummy Bear Science

We added gummy bears to various glasses of water. One glass contained sugar water… the others had baking soda, white vinegar, salt, and tap water. We wanted to find out whether or not gummy bears grow when placed in this variety of liquids using the process know as osmosis. We found that the water will move into the membrane of the bear and make the bear expand. The bears that expanded the most were the ones placed in white vinegar water and tap water. The gummy bear that grew the least was the one placed in salt water. We learned that osmosis is when a liquid (usually water) moves from one side of a membrane to another.

Math Games

Slap Down-

Bunny Hop

Free Choice and Centers

Have a fabulous weekend!

Love,

Ms. Melissa

Happy Fall!

We had a cozy week exploring all things fall…apples, leaves, scarecrows, mums…

We kicked off our learning by reading the informative picture book, Apples, by Gail Gibbons. We learned the following facts about apples…

~Apple trees grow in more parts of the world than any other fruit tree. ~They have been in existence for about two million years. ~The first American colonists brought apple seeds and seedlings with them from England. ~In the early 1800s John Chapman traveled throughout the wilderness of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana planting apple seeds. He became known as Johnny Appleseed. ~Each apple blossom needs to be pollinated by insects or by wind in order for an apple to grow. ~An apple tree will not grow apples until it is five to eight years old. ~There are thousands of varieties of apples.

We tasted three types of apples to see how different kinds vary in flavor. The three types we sampled were Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, and Sweet Tango. (Red, green, and yellow).

We graphed our favorite kind of apples… Sweet Tango was the clear winner. 🙂

We played a memory game that involves passing around an apple and taking turns saying a fruit or vegetable we bought at the farmer’s market. The students had to think of a fruit or vegetable they would buy and then remember the students’ purchases that proceeded them. The students’ ability to remember up to 12 items with no problem is always amazing to me.

We journaled about fall…

We read several fun and brightly illustrated books about fall. Today we read The Runaway Pumpkin. In this story the witch’s pumpkin rolls down a hill. The students were challenged to draw a picture of a contraption or Halloween character that could catch a runaway pumpkin.

We read a book about leaves changing colors and illustrated some fall scenes.

Trip to the Des Plaines Library

Math Games

Fill the Stairs- Skills- logic and ordering numbers

Guess my Number- Skills include developing number sense

Even or Odd?

100 Chart Puzzle- Math Mindsets

Free Choice and Centers

Have a great long weekend!

Love,

Ms. Melissa

Hello, families and friends of room 120!

We had a fun week delving further into our novel, Charlotte’s Web. We analyzed characters, defined some vocabulary words, and talked about some of the important themes of the story such as…

The Difficulty of Growing Up~ and ~ The Importance of Friendship

We categorized the characters into two groups- human and non-human…

Character Web-

We responded each day in our journals to comprehension questions such as…

How does Templeton the rat help Charlotte?

Why does Charlotte help Wilbur?

In the story the spider, Charlotte, wove four messages for Wilbur- “Some Pig,” “Terrific,” “Radiant,” and “Humble.” The students took apart the letters to make new words in the web…

We “harvested” some new vocabulary words. We defined the words and used each one in a sentence…

Art

Using oil pastels, we drew and colored pictures of Wilbur the pig…

Math

Story problems based on Charlotte’s Web…

Counting money…

Counting Base Ten Blocks…

Telling Time…

Mystery Science- Spiders

Multiplicity Lab Image of the Week–

Centers and Free-Choice Time-

Getting ready for Halloween!

Ms. Stephanie from the Des Plaines Public Library came to read a Monarch Book called There’s a Ghost in This House by Oliver Jeffers

Ms. Stephanie also helped the students with a craft…

Breast Cancer Awareness Day and Bake Sale–

Have a great weekend!

Love,

Ms. Melissa

We had a terrific week beginning our new novel study on Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. This unit also features spiders, (and pigs), so we created our own spider web by tossing a ball of string to the friend across from us. We incorporated a fun game of “Would You Rather” as a community building activity. As the child caught the ball of string I asked questions such as…

Would you rather lose your sense of smell or your sense of taste? (smell)

Would you rather eat a bowl of worms or a bowl of crickets? (neither)

Would you rather live on the beach or a cabin in the woods? (beach)

Would you rather have more time or more money? (money)

It was fun hearing the students answer these questions.

We are spending time brainstorming the character traits of each of the main characters in Charlotte’s Web. Here is an example of a ‘word web’ about ourselves in preparation for thinking about attributes of characters in the story. Word webs will be recurring throughout this unit.

Art

The type of spider web we created is called an orb web. These spiral wheel-shaped webs are often found in gardens, fields, and forests. There are 3,108 species of orb weavers or spiders that spin orb webs.

Books we read this week…

The students especially enjoyed the book, Spiders, by Gail Gibbons. In it we learned the word arachnid comes from an old Greek Legend…

Once there was a woman named Arachne who was angry when she lost a weaving contest against the goddess Athena. When Arachne died, Athena turned Arachne’s body into a spider so she could weave forever.

We use a KWL chart for almost every unit of study. KWL charts are effective tools for engaging students in the learning process, helping them recall knowledge and tracking their learning progress. They are often used to help students improve their reading comprehension.

Math

Sum Swamp- a game that allows for practicing addition and subtraction as well as identifying even and odd numbers

Fraction Bingo-

Practicing “fast doubles”- We played a ‘Jeopardy’ style came to become more automatic when answering problems such as 2+2, 4+4, 5+5, 6+6, 7+7. 8+8, 9+9, 10+10

Rolling Ten Dice Game- Mindset Mathematics

Multiplicity Lab Image of the Week

Trip to the Des Plaines Library

Centers and Free Choice…

Have a wonderful fall weekend!

Love,

Ms. Melissa

FAIRY TALES

Once upon a time there was a delightful class of children who read and analyzed fairy tales. They learned that a fairy tale is a make-believe story written for children about magic and enchantment. They now know that fairy tales include nice and wicked characters, they begin with once upon a time, and end with everyone living happily ever after…

To start off our unit, we read two popular fairy tales– Little Red Ridinghood and The Three Little Pigs. We discussed which characters were good and which ones were wicked, and we pin pointed the instances of magic within the stories.

After reading The Three Little Pigs, we incorporated a math/science activity. Each student built a stick house for a pig that would be “wolf-proof.” We used toothpicks and marshmallows to build the houses. For the Huffing and puffing Big Bad Wolf we used a hair dryer. We tested whether or not the house would sustain a strong wind. I’m happy to report that everyone’s house stood up to the Big Bad Wolf. 🙂

We continued our study by reading two versions of Cinderella– one was the traditional story similar to the Disney version, and the other was an adaptation called Rough Faced Girl. Rough Faced Girl is a Native American story about a mistreated girl who rises to prominence above her sisters due to her good heart, catching the heart of a higher up fellow. Unlike the classic story, this one does not have a fairy godmother and relies entirely on the girl’s resourcefulness; she depends on her intelligence to win. We had an interesting conversation about the similarities and differences between the two stories.

The students were introduced to “fractured fairy tales” by reading The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. A fractured fairy tale is a story based on or inspired by traditional fairytales. The new stories have been altered to include different perspectives, unexpected endings, or new settings. Ask your child about the differences between The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and the original story. Is your child “Team Wolf” or “Team Pig”? 🙂

We wrapped up our fairy tale week by exploring a Chinese version of Little Red Ridinghood called Lon Po Po. We brainstormed ways in which the two stories are alike and different by reading the information in a Venn Diagram.

Fairy tales are not only a fun theme for kids in early childhood, but they also aid in emotional resilience by helping children connect stories to real life. Fairy tales show that people face adversity, but if they believe in themselves, they can overcome obstacles. Stories can help children confront real-life fears and anxieties in a fantastical setting.

Math

In Math I worked individually with each student on some more story problems. Our Mindset Mathematics text encourages us to ask questions such as, What is happening in the story? What do you see in your mind? How can we act it out? Asking these questions help the students move toward making visualizations rather than using key words. Depending on key words in the text such as ‘altogether’ means add and ‘how many are left?’ means subtract, prevents students from thinking creatively about their solution pathways and restricts the tools they use.

Another Math activity involved sorting objects. This activity asked me to show the students a collection of objects from the real world. I asked what makes the items different from one another? I pointed out that these features such as color, shape, size, decoration, patterns, texture, or material are called attributes. Attributes can help us compare and organize.

Math Games…

Sea to 10 ~

Fact Families~ A fact family is a group of math facts or equations created using the same set of numbers.

True or False~ Students explore the meaning of equivalence by playing True or False? with equations.

Number of the Day

Free Choice and Centers

Have a great and relaxing weekend!

Love,

Ms. Melissa

ROBOTS and Inventions

Books Read This Week

We had lots of fun learning about, writing about, and building robots this week! In celebration of our novel, The Wild Robot, we created and named our own robots… They were built from Lego one day, and Model Magic the next…

This is a house robot that drives itself.

Robie reaches things in the kitchen that are stored up high.

This robot will play with you!

This robot does gymnastics.

Robot house or Smart House

This is a Smart House.

This robot will clean your house, serve you food, and drive you around!

This robot shoots lasers.

This robot shoots fire and flies.

This is a “Movie Night” robot. It walks, meets new friends, will show you a movie and make popcorn!

To pay tribute to the people who build robots and other amazing things, we read Rosie Revere, Engineer! It’s a beautifully illustrated story of a girl and her dream to become a great engineer. Where some people see rubbish, Rosie Revere sees inspiration. Alone in her room at night, shy Rosie constructs great inventions from odds and ends… hot dog dispensers, helium pants, python-repelling cheese hats.

We brainstormed a list of inventions…

Math

I gave students 100 boards to practice writing numbers 1-100.

We explored the concept of greater-than less-than by deciding if the robotic symbol would like to eat the greater number of flies…

We solved story problems in our Math Mindsets text. Here are some examples of the problems we solved using manipulatives to represent objects in the stories…

Ada Twist, Scientist

This story was well received and praised for encouraging children, especially girls, to develop an interest in STEM. This story celebrates curiosity, the power of perseverance, and the importance of asking “Why?” We then did a science experiment to find out what happens when you add a drop of dish soap to whole milk and a few drops of food coloring…

The link below explains what is causing the food coloring to burst like the 4th of July in a pan of milk. Steve Spangler has many more cool science experiments for kids on his website.

Journaling

If you owned a robot, what would you have it do for you?

DEAR- “Drop Everything and Read”

Centers and Free Choice Time

DesPlaines Library

We took a fieldtrip to the Prairie Lakes Theater to see an assembly showcase. It was a variety show of several mini-performances such as storytellers, athletes, motivational speakers, magicians, etc.

Will we waited to be seated we did some buddy reading with Ms. Anna’s class…

Have a great weekend!!

Love,

Ms. Melissa

FROGS and Toads!

We had a fantastic week as we jumped right into a unit of study on frogs. Did you know there are 7,000 frog and toad species on Earth? Here are 5 Fun Frog Facts…

1. Glass frogs make their skin transparent by hiding red blood cells in their livers.
2. Certain species of frogs can freeze nearly solid in the winter, and emerge unscathed in the Spring.
3. Frogs use their eyeballs to help them eat.
4. The biggest frog in the world can weigh nearly seven pounds– the size of a newborn baby!
5. Extinct in the wild, the Bronx Zoo is the only place in the world where you can see the Kihansi Spray Toad.

Books we read this week…

Some of our frog-related activities included journaling about what lives in a pond and filling out a KWL chart about what we already Know about frogs, what we Want to know about frogs, and what we Learned about frogs. The students helped to fill out a Venn diagram comparing the differences and commonalities between frogs and toads. We also put together a ‘Life Cycle of the Frog’ diagram.

Journaling

What Lives in a pond?

Art

We practiced following step-by-step directions by drawing a picture of a frog…

Free Choice and Centers

The students played a variety of games during their center time. Research shows that playing games can improve children’s abilities to plan, organize, get along with others, and regulate emotions. In addition, play helps with language, math, social skills, and even helps children cope with stress.

Literature

We finished our first novel, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, which the students really seemed to enjoy, and made a connection to the picture book, A Froggy Fable. Both illustrate the theme, “Be thankful for what you have.” The students were able to note that both of the main characters went on unexpected adventures that changed them for the better.

We began reading another popular novel, The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. It’s so popular with kids that they are making a movie that will be coming to theaters in late September! I hope you get a chance to see it with your families! 🙂

Here is a snippet from Goodreads about the novel…

Can a robot survive in the wilderness?

When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is all alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is—but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a violent storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realizes that her only hope for survival is to adapt to her surroundings and learn from the island’s unwelcoming animal inhabitants.

As Roz slowly befriends the animals, the island starts to feel like home—until, one day, the robot’s mysterious past comes back to haunt her.

From bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator Peter Brown comes a heartwarming and action-packed novel about what happens when nature and technology collide.

Visit from Ms. Stephanie

Ms. Stephanie is a librarian from the Des Plaines Library. She will come to visit us once a month to read a Monarch Story, (stories voted on by Illinois children as their favorites). Wednesday’s story was called Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots

She read the story helping the students learn the difference between a fact and opinion. She then led them in a craft activity, creating their own paper robots…

Math

Our Mindset Mathematics curriculum encourages students to find the most concise way of counting a large number of objects. I gave the students a large bag of small cubes and in groups they decided how to count them in a way other than by ones. They used sorting cups to make groups of 10 and counted by 10. It was a faster way to count 506 squares rather than by counting each one individually.

The second Math lesson of the week called for counting the dots on several dice. We talked about how the easiest and fastest way to count them was to, again, separate them into groups of ten and then add on any ones at the end.

Measurement-

A frog is approximately 2 inches tall. We practiced measuring items around our room using a ruler. The students were to find objects that were two inches long…

Have a great weekend and we’ll see you at the ice cream social tomorrow, (Friday), right after school lets out! Tomorrow is also our first Spirit Day! Students may wear any Plato spirit wear tops with any shorts or bottoms.

Love,

Ms. Melissa