100th Day of School!!!!

Monday is the 100th day of school. Wow, it is amazing we have already been in school 100 days. Take this time to reflect on how much growth your child has made!!! On Monday we will be doing a lot of fun activities , such as counting 100 objects, jumping for 100 seconds, reading as a class 100 books, and so much more!!!!! I sent home a letter yesterday with a bag for your child to collect 100 things. Small items are great and I will have extra in case someone forgets!!!

Penguin Unit: Last week we learned all about two different types of Penguins: Emperor and Macaroni. With Mrs. Guzman's class we studied where both penguins habitat, diet, predators, and interesting facts. The kids worked with a partner to record their learning. We had a Penguin party celebration where the students pretended they were carrying the babies at their feet. We also made mini penguins on the ice, ate baby goldfish, and practiced drawing penguins. It was fun unit for the students to learn some new interesting facts. Ask your child what their favorite part was!

Readers Workshop This week in readers we talked about ending sounds –ed and –ing, trying to see that if we sound out the words, we repeat them to ourselves to see if they make sense and then if they don’t, change the word to a word we know, instead of guessing. We also practiced whole class tricky word strategies, such as look at the picture, say the first sound, stretch it out. Please ask your reader about this!

Writers Workshop This week for writers, we brainstormed ideas for persuasive writing topics and tried to look outside the box for ideas that not only benefit us as humans, but the greater good. For example, we finished reading The predators and talked about reasons why the Lorax was so passionate about saving the trees. We also wrote about whether or not the boy from the story Hey Little Ant, should squish the ant. The kids practiced writing who the letter was to, stating their opinion, and giving reasons why. They also learned how to end their letters. Ask your child what their reasons were.

Valentine's Day!

Thank you to all the families who came to help with the valentines day party! It was so nice to have everyone there helping the kids and get to see them so excited to pass out sweet cards to their friends. Also a big THANK YOU to Aly for taking those really cute pictures! I hope everyone enjoyed them.
Student of the Week:

Sumayah! This week Sumayah has really pushed herself as a mathematician. She worked very hard on some difficult problem solving problems. She didn’t give up or just guess, but really spent the time to figure them out. She also worked so hard on sight words and blends to move up a reading level!! Sumayah is a warm welcoming friend to everyone. Way to go Sumayah!

Black History Month

This year our amazing equity team has reached out to our community to bring in some influential African American community members to speak to our school during every Monday morning assembly, for the month of February. Our first guest speaker was Reggie Jones, a former NFL player who helped the New Orleans Saints to their 2009 Superbowl victory. Reggie spoke to the school about the importance of effort, leadership, integrity, and encouraged students to push themselves to always strive for excellence. Additionally, the K-1 classes will be helping Leschi celebrate Black History Month by performing songs by influential African American artists. Each class has taken on a decade to feature. Our class will be highlighting the 60’s and has chosen to perform “Can’t Hurry Love” by The Supremes. We will be filming all of the performances and showing the video during black history night on Feb. 27th.

Music! We welcomed Ms. Davis to our school this week! She is the new music teacher who will be coming to Leschi every other week to teach music to all the K-3 classes. She has already made a huge impression on our students and they are very excited to proceed with her. Ask your student about their new music teacher!

Celebrating the Seahawks!!!!!!!!!

Readers Workshop This week in readers we focused on visualizing. Ms. Ooton taught the students the importance of visualizing what is happening as we read. Being able to visualize helps us to remember important details about the story and it’s characters. Ms. Ooton read a very descriptive book, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. As the students listened to the story, they drew out what they imagined was happening! It was wonderful to see their creative and listening skills come to life!

Writers Workshop

In writers workshop last week we continued to practice using transition words to enhance our writing. We also used our writers checklist to go back through our writing and see what we could add. Student's then set two goals for their writing. We divided into groups to work on those goals. Students then got to use special editing pens to add more to their opinion writing. Some goals students came up with were: work on getting the readers attention, use transition words, add more details, and spelling. This was a great task for students to have to self-reflect on their own writing and think about how they could make it even better. Ask you child what their goals were.
In writers workshop this week we are about to embark on a new unit, persuasive writing!!!! TO help get us ready to be persuasive writers we have read several persuasive text, such as The Lorax, Hey little Ant, and Don’t let the Pigeon drive the bus! Next week we are going to start writing our own persuasive letters and brainstorming things that matter to us, that we hope to change.

Student of the Week:

Kaz has been an excellent role model this week in class. We started a new system in class, Complement Captains. Which are given out to students showing the Leschi Motto of being respectful, responsible, and safe. IN turn they get to give out a complement to someone following that same Motto. This week Kaz has not only been a complement captain, but also received a complement. Way to be a great leader in our class KAZ!!!!!
Rosa has been working so hard last week!! She received her math binder and has been working in it none stop! She has pushed herself as a mathematician, learning new facts, operations, and problem solving skills. She also did a great job this week adding many more details to her writing and really worked on editing her piece! Way to go Rosa!!!!!!!!!

Jan 24th
Continent Study: South America

We are continuing to learn about the continent of South America! So far we’ve explored information on different landmarks and people from the continent. Students are beginning to learn about many different South American animals and will watch a fun video presentation on the South American jungle and the animals that live there. Please let me know if you are interested in coming in to teach our students something about South America! We’d love to have you in our class. 

Readers Workshop This week in readers we focused on making connections to new things we are learning in our nonfiction books. Students drew on their own experiences to talk and write about what they were reminded of while reading. They then discussed how that helped them understand a little bit more about their topic. Talk to your student about the connections they’re making by asking what they think of when they read a new fact!

Writers Workshop

In writers workshop this week we continued to strengthen our opinion writing by adding more reasons and examples to support our opinions. Students have been working hard to persuade their readers by making sure their opinion is clearly stated, has at least three supporting reasons and examples, and has a conclusion to restate their opinion. Our class also worked on adding transition words to our writing like and, also and because to make our writing flow more smoothly.

We imagined our writing like an oreo. The outsides are opinions, that we state in the beginning and again at the end. The middle is the best part, with all the examples and details that support our opinion.
Practice this at home with your student – ask about their opinions and make sure they give you reasons to support their stance!

Student of the Week:

Solene has been extra focused on her work and actively engaged in many different lessons, from math to geography to reading! She has been a collaborative learner during work time, often choosing to tackle works as a team with her fellow classmates. Solene has especially been challenging herself in reading by taking risks to read more difficult words and books. Way to go Solene – keep up the hard work!!!

Welcome back from the long weekend!!! I hope you all enjoyed the nice break and were able to watch the game, GO SEAHAWKS!!!!

We also remember this weekend a courageous man, Dr. Martin Luther King. The students were able on Friday to write their own "I have a dream speeches" and today we read Martin's Big Words. We also listened to some of Dr. King's speech and painted pictures on him and a beautiful poem. Ask your child what they have learned so far about Dr. Martin Luther King.

Continent Study: South America We are starting to learn about the continent of South America! We learned about different landmarks, animals, and people from South American. Next we will watched a fun fact/video presentation on the continents of the world and we zoomed in on Africa, our previous continent and our new continent of South America! We will compare and contrasted the continents by shape and size and learned a few facts! If you are interested in coming in to teach our students about South America, please let me know! We’d love to have you.

Readers Workshop This week in readers we talked about the main idea of our texts. We talked about how we identify the main idea by pointing out the fact that a main idea is what our text is MOSTLY about. We looked at titles, heading, pictures, looked at repeated words throughout the text, and talked about how sometimes the main idea of a text can be located in the first or last sentence. Please identify the main idea of a text that you read at home with your student!

Writers Workshop

In writers workshop this week we continued to state our opinion. We watched two 5 minute movie clips and wrote about which one we liked best and stated 3 reasons to support our opinion and restated our opinion again. We also wrote our opinion on our favorite ice cream flavor, following the opinion writing structure of: Statement sentence Reason #1 Reason #2 Reason #3 Restate opinion sentence Practice this at home with your student!

Student of the Week:

Olive is becoming a more independent worker and learner everyday. She is starting to focus on his work and is becoming a persistent learner! She really stepped up this week with her writing. She wrote almost four sentences about which movie she felt was the best and gave great reason’s why. She comes to reading groups ready and excited to learn. Keep up all the hard work Olive!!!!!!!!!!

Jan. 10th

Worktime Wow!!!! Everyone has come back this week fresh and ready to learn! Several students have moved up to a blue language workplan! Other students have been working hard at math and learning their teens, completing birds eye-view, and working on their place values! We also introduce some 3D shapes such as cube, cone, sphere, cylinder, and rectangular prism. Ask your child to see if they can find these shapes around your home, outside, or in while driving!!!

Readers Workshop

This week continued learning about non-fiction. We focused on remembering the difference between fiction and non-fiction. We also learned some new text features: table of contents and the index! The students did a great job using these features to find out where in their books there was specific information. Ask them to try using these two non-fiction text features at home.

Writers Workshop:

This week we started a new unit, OPINION WRITING!!!!! Students learned what an opinion is and how to write their opinion, including their reasons. This week they wrote their opinion on the best pet and the best tasting popcorn. Next week they will be watching a few movie previews and writing about which movie they think is the best and why!

Science !

We have started our new unit on wood!! So far we have looked at several wood samples and used our sense to describe each sample.







Geography

We about to start our geography study on the fascinating continent of, South America!!! Please let us know if you would life to come and share or have any artifacts to bring in!!






This week was Romaree’s last week. He is moving to a school closer to his Mom’s home in Redmond. We have been so lucky as a class to have Romaree in room 204 these past two years! We’ll miss his love of learning and great kickball skills!!! Good luck Romaree. Love, Room 204!!!!

Student of the Week:

Charlie has been working so hard since we’ve been back. He has grown so much as a writer and yesterday wrote an amazing opinion piece about soccer! He has made many great friends in class and has become a strong independent student. He is also engaged in reading and writing lessons, and also comes to school with a smile and positive attitude! Way to go Charlie!!!

Dec. 21st

Winter Break! Happy Holidays to all of you! Ms. Swchartz, Ms. Ooton, and I are so thankful for all the wonderful gifts we received. It was so thoughtful and we feel so lucky to have such wonderful families!
These past few weeks have been busy. I was gone two days the previous week. One for a training and another day to visit some local tutoring organizations. I am on the board of a great non-profit organization called North West Children's Fund, that supports over 30 organizations around Seattle for at-risk children and their families that help try to end the cycle of child abuse and neglect and are devoted to improving child welfare.

Gingerbread Boy This week we devoted our afternoons to a gingerbread unit. We read four different gingerbread books, made our own gingerbread characters, made our own ginger bread recipe, and our own how to books. Finally, we wrote our own endings and decorated our cookies to enjoy! It was a fun filled week.

Music

We ended the week with a wonderful music concert. The Students did a fabulous job with both performances and were so proud to be up on stage. Thank you to all the families who were able to come and see the kids perform!!!

Africa Continent Study

Last week we saw an amazing presentation by Lucy’s mom! She showed us pictures from a trip she took to Uganda where she participated in a Ugandan wedding ceremony! It was so great to see photographs of a traditional wedding ceremony! We learned about the culture of a Ugandan wedding ceremony and noticed similarities and differences between a traditional wedding that we might see in the U.S. in comparison with the one we learned about this week! Please ask your student about this! We also had Lena’s mom come in and share with us her experience in Kenya. She taught the students how to greet one another in Swahili and then had students practice the new words they learned by singing a song. Ask your child to sing with you: “Jambo. Jambo rafiki. Habari Gani? Mzuri Sana!”

This week we wrapped up our African Continent Study with an African Market celebration! We had rice balls and lentils made by Ruby and Nathan’s parents, from room 206, and the parents of Kaz, Henry, and Charlie made rice ball and brought in Ingera bread. We also had plantains and shredded chicken, bread and olive oil with spices. We lit our kinara candles for Kwanzaa and celebrated the last principle which is unity or umoja!

Writers Workshop: This week in writing we finished our All About Books!! We added the dedication page, cover page, glossary page, and favorite things page, and the all about the author page. We had a writers celebration and Ms. Claytor and Mr. Case, Mr. Glenn and Ms. Tedi, Ms. Stout and Ms. Lee all came to read our writing! It was a wonderful celebration and our students are proud of the work that they accomplished!

Star Student

Nina has been working so hard the week before. She finished her language work plan and her weekly work plan. She has pushed herself as a learner in readers and has moved up several reading levels. She has become a writing machine! She also stepped up this week and invited a kindergartner to sit with her at lunch and be a recess buddy for him. She invited him to play and show her all the things she does at recess. I know that really filled that kindergartners bucket! Way to Go Nina!!!!!

Lucy will be the star student when we get back. Lucy really pushed herself as a writer, working on her all about book. She was so focused and driven and wrote a ton about SHRIMP!!!! She also finished her pink language work plan, which she worked on almost everyday. Lucy always comes to school with an excitement to learn. She has been a kind friend to everyone in class and a great role model for everyone. WaY to go LUCY!!!!!!!

Enjoy the rest of you break!! I am currently enjoying half of it in sunny Tucson, where I just visited Biosphere 2. Next week I will be headed to snowy cold Idaho! Hope your spending time with your family, friends, and creating your own adventures. See you in January.

Welcome back!

Worktime

The students came back ready from break and focused. This week for work time students have learned more practical life works that focus on multi-step directions, fine motor skills, and concentration. Many more kindergartners have received language work plans and moved up to a new language work plan. The kindergartners have been learning about place value through golden beads and a work called birds-eye-view. It has been wonderful to come back and see all the growth that is happening!!!
Africa

This week for Africa students have learned more about Kwanza traditions, the candles (kanara), and weaving a Kwanza mat. The students have also learned about different geographic locations and important mountains, landforms, and rivers in Africa. On Dec. 20th we will have our final African celebration during the morning. If you have anything to share or bring in please let us know!!!





Readers Workshop In readers this week we have introduced a little bit about non-fiction. We compared the differences between fiction and non-fiction books. We also looked at the cover page to get ourselves ready for the book. We focused on thinking about what is this book going to teach us and then reflecting what did we learn. We talked with a reading buddy, " What is the main idea, and how do you know? We will continue non-fiction through January delving deeper into features and information non-fictions offers.

Writers Workshop: This week in writing, we have been continuing our great work on our all about books. We focused this week on doing a quick sketch and then trying to add words. We have also zoned in on trying to stretch our topic over multiple pages, making sure each page has a clear focus. We then learned about headings (tells us what each page is about) and how we can add headings to our own writing. Our next goals will be to continue to learning about how to add diagrams, captions, table of contents, and editing.

Student of the Week: Mateo has been working very hard this week. He finished his work plan and really pushed himself to do some challenging math. He was motivated and driven this week to keep up with his work. Mateo has set great goals for himself and is trying to meet those goals. He always comes to school with a Can do attitude !! He has been a great 1st great leader and role model. WAY TO GO Mateo!!!