Awesome 1st Graders!

Hello, dear parents and students!

I hope you are enjoying the cool Spring weather.  This week in my 1st Grade ESOL class, we are learning about making predictions.  My students have been writing about what they think the characters are thinking and saying, and what they are doing in a wordless picture book called, "Here I Am" by Patti Kim.

Here are my awesome 1st graders in our Writing Center.

They have been working really hard, and I'm just so proud of them!



Happy Spring!

Ms. Chavez

ESOL ACCESS Testing and Snow Days

Hello, dear parents and students!

I know it has been like forever since I last wrote on this blog.  It has been a busy month of testing all of my ESOL kids for ACCESS, which is the standardized testing required to determine their language proficiency levels.  This test, which includes all four domains of language (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) also determines their ESOL levels for next school year. An ESOL student should get a total score of 5 in order to exit ESOL.  Otherwise, he/she will continue to receive appropriate instructional and testing accommodations next year.

I am so glad that I am almost done testing all my kids, even with a number of snow days and two-hour delays we have had this Winter season.  I love seeing snow, even the feel of it, but I do not like the fact that it has been this bitterly cold that I almost feel like not wanting to go out.

But life goes on for all of us, so let's all keep the energy going to always be ready to learn in school.

I am sure we are all looking forward to Spring and to warmer weather.  But for the meantime, stay bundled up!!!

I missed greeting you on Valentine's day, so belated Happy Hearts Day!


Love,

Ms. Chavez

Happy New Year!

Hello, dear parents and students!

Welcome to 2015!  I am excited to see my students back in our Classroom Wonderful.

I wish I had the opportunity to post our hallway decoration photos during our "Deck the Halls" contest before 2014 ended, but as they say, "better late than never."  The good news is, we won second place!

So here are our hallway photos.

My 5th grade's Snowman project on main idea/details

My 5th grade's Snowman project on main idea/details

My 3rd grade's perimeter project - house designs

The Doorway to ESOL and Title 1 Rooms

The 3rd grade Door featuring their nonfiction project on penguins

Here are our lessons for the week of January 5th:

Kindergarten - high-frequency word "go"and /c/ words
We will trace, copy, and write the word "GO" on ConnectEd.com.  We will also draw and use "GO" in a sentence.
We will read an interactive book on "C" words on Raz-kids.com.

1st Grade:  informational/non-fiction text
                  introduction to text features: maps

                  (Map Assessment)  http://zapt.io/t2q3k2cu

                  (Click on the link to read the interactive book) Me on the Map by: Joan Sweeney
We will look at a book and review some text features we have already learned in class.
We will watch an interactive video on maps and write our responses to show our knowledge about maps.

3rd Grade and 5th Grade -  Text Features
We will look at examples of text features from a text book, watch  a video and respond to questions about text features.
We will create our text features booklet using examples from old magazines.
                 


Happy Winter!

Love,

Ms. Chavez

It's ESOL Testing Week!

Hello, parents and students!

This week we are administering the  county-mandated Quarterly ESOL Writing Assessments to all our ESOL kids.  We are also busy creating our writing projects using Winter-themed templates in time for our Deck the Halls contest.

I will be posting pictures of my kids' projects in a few days.

My Kindergarteners and 1st graders are writing a letter to Santa and are making gingerbread man and santa crafts.

My 3rd graders have designed their houses and calculated the area and perimeter of their houses, which will be included in our "Winter Wonderland" bulletin board.

Designing a house using a grid paper

My 5th graders read different non-fiction texts and identified the main idea and details using a snowman template.

I can't wait to post their completed projects on my next blog!

Bye for now, and keep yourselves warm!

Love,

Ms. Chavez

Happy December!

Welcome back, my dear students!  I hope you had a relaxing five-day Thanksgiving break.  It is time to re-energize and focus on our school work.

Today was a good day to kick off the month of December. Here are our class assignments and activities this week:

Kindergarten - letters /i/  and /n/; sight word: AND
                        ABCYa.com: letter recognition/alphabet practice

1st Grade - Interactive Read-aloud:  "Clifford's Good Deeds"
                   High-frequency words:  could, been, live, one, as
                   ABCYa.com Spelling practice
                   Writing activity:  Personal Narrative

3rd Grade:  Area and Perimeter
                   Sight word Practice
                   Edmodo in-class assignments via Snapshot  and NoREdInk

5th Grade:  Main Idea and Details
                   Edmodo in-class assignments via Snapshot and NoREdInk


It seems that everyone is getting adjusted to using his/her iPad for our interactive classwork.  Edmodo has become our go-to website for reading comprehension practice and grammar activities.

Way to go, my wonderful kids!

Love,

Ms. Chavez

Our iPads are Here!

My kids were just super-excited after seeing the iPads on their tables.  For the first time, we do not have just an iPad center but iPads for everyone to use at the same time!

Today, we used the Doceri interactive whiteboard app for our whole group lesson, and Reading Train for our reading practice.

Here are our lessons for this week:

Kindergarten - Sight word "TO", letter recognition practice

1st Grade - Sight words, cause and effect, Cause and Effect writing project

3rd Grade - Sight words, Cause and Effect Writing Project

5th Grade - Main Idea and Details; Identifying Main Idea and Details on Snapshot app;  Recognizing verbs practice on No Red Ink app  via Edmodo

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My dear students, don't forget to bundle up and keep warm!!!

Love,

Ms. Chavez

Happy American Education Week!

Hello, parents and students!

Starting tomorrow, we will be kicking off our celebration of American Education Week.  Parents, you are invited to our Open House on Tuesday.  Please do come and visit your child's classroom/s.  We would be very happy to see you!

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In other news, I am very excited to share with you what my 1st Graders had been busy about this past week.  We spent a lot of time doing some great learning about story elements, so check out their STORY ELEMENTS project:

My 1st Grade ESOL kids' "Story Elements in a Box" Project

Their Projects on Alice Nizzy Nazzy 

My 1st Grade ESOL Kids at Work!

I am so proud of my kids!

Happy American Education Week!!!

Love,

Ms. Chavez