We are proud to welcome a new bilingual Telegu teaching assistant!
Due to our large population of Telugu speakers, Mrs. Anjani Karra will be here at May Watts supporting our Telegu speaking students. We are very happy to have her here to help! :)
May Watts Elementary
May Watts Elementary School
Friday, January 27, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
May Watts Open House!
MAY WATTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
800 S. Whispering Hills Drive
Phone: 630 428-6700
FAX: 630 428-6701
January 11, 2012
OPEN HOUSE
Dear Parents and Students:
You and your family are cordially invited to attend May Watts School’s Open House on Tuesday, January 31, 2012. We are holding only one Open House this year. To alleviate being overcrowded, we are asking families whose last name begins with “A thru L” attend from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Families whose last name begins with “M thru Z” are requested to attend from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
This is an excellent opportunity for you and your family to see your children's work, meet your child's teacher and see your school. All members of our support staff will also be available for you to visit. Please be sure to stop by and visit with them. Due to the informal nature of the night, it will not be possible to conduct parent/teacher conferences. Our next conference date is Tuesday, February 21st, or you can call the teacher anytime to schedule a meeting.
There will not be a Book Fair during Open House this year. We will be holding the Book Fair in March and more information will be forthcoming.
Please remember to check our "Lost & Found" which will be on display in the Office hallway during the evening. Any items not claimed this evening will be donated to a charity.
We will open all outside building doors in order for you to enter the building so that you may park in the rear of the building. Come on in. We are looking forward to your visit.
Sincerely,
May Watts Staff
Friday, January 13, 2012
ACCESS Testing
Just as a reminder, ACCESS testing will begin next week January 17th and will continue to February 17th. Each student that qualified for the ELL program will be given this test at some point throughout the testing window to determine their current language proficiency level. There are four sections to this test including; speaking, listening, reading and writing. I will be testing each student during their normal ELL time, therefore, they should not miss any of their core instruction during the day.
Your child was given a letter that describes this test in further detail.Please feel free to contact me by e-mail or phone if you have any questions!
Your child was given a letter that describes this test in further detail.Please feel free to contact me by e-mail or phone if you have any questions!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Winter Break begins 12/23 and school resumes 1/9
ACCESS testing will begin January 17th and will last through the middle of February. Students will be given the Language Proficiency test at various times throughout this time frame.
Have a wonderful holiday break!! See you all in 2012 :)
Miss Lundeen
ACCESS testing will begin January 17th and will last through the middle of February. Students will be given the Language Proficiency test at various times throughout this time frame.
Have a wonderful holiday break!! See you all in 2012 :)
Miss Lundeen
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
This week in ELL!
Winter Break is almost upon us!
Here is a look at what each grade level is working on this week:
Kindergarten: These students are working on the letter "D" in their classrooms and will be practicing their writing skills and reading stories that surround the letter D. Kindergartners will be working on creating sentences and using vocabulary that they will be working with in class.
First Grade: These first graders are working on measurement and comparing different objects. We have been reading stories and looking at objects and identifying big, bigger, biggest; heavy, heavier, heaviest; tall, taller, tallest; etc. Students will be working with small groups to observe and analyze different objects and incorporating the numbered-heads together cooperative strategy to share their information.
Second Grade: Second grade is working with symmetry this week. Earlier in the week, we finished our discussion about comparing and contrasting 2D and 3D shapes, now we are working on creating pictures that are symmetrical. Our language skill for this week is creating and describing drawings that have symmetry or are the "same".
Third Grade: This week, our focus is on animal adaptations and understanding that all animals need some adaptation to survive. We have read stories, looked at national geographic videos, and even pretended to be whales and experimented with "blubber". Students had the opportunity to feel what it would be like to be a whale in icy cold water without the special adaptation of blubber to help keep them warm. We did this experiment using a bucket of ice water and zip-loc bags filled with vegetable shortening (Don't worry the "blubber" was in separate bags, so the 3rd graders did not get messy :) )
Fourth Grade: We are exploring the Southeast this week! We are reading documents and taking virtual explorations through the Florida Everglades to experience what life is like down in the Southeast Region. Our main focus to assist with their social studies instruction in class is identifying vocabulary related to the geography, economy, and the history of the Civil Rights Movement.
Fifth Grade: Mrs. Bennick and Miss Lundeen are working with 5th grade students on exploring multi-cultural books and analyizing interesting information from each. We have completed synthesizing reading guides to help maintain our focus and summarize key information.
These units will continue into parts of next week due to the shortened time frame! As always, please let me know of any questions :)
Miss Lundeen
Here is a look at what each grade level is working on this week:
Kindergarten: These students are working on the letter "D" in their classrooms and will be practicing their writing skills and reading stories that surround the letter D. Kindergartners will be working on creating sentences and using vocabulary that they will be working with in class.
First Grade: These first graders are working on measurement and comparing different objects. We have been reading stories and looking at objects and identifying big, bigger, biggest; heavy, heavier, heaviest; tall, taller, tallest; etc. Students will be working with small groups to observe and analyze different objects and incorporating the numbered-heads together cooperative strategy to share their information.
Second Grade: Second grade is working with symmetry this week. Earlier in the week, we finished our discussion about comparing and contrasting 2D and 3D shapes, now we are working on creating pictures that are symmetrical. Our language skill for this week is creating and describing drawings that have symmetry or are the "same".
Third Grade: This week, our focus is on animal adaptations and understanding that all animals need some adaptation to survive. We have read stories, looked at national geographic videos, and even pretended to be whales and experimented with "blubber". Students had the opportunity to feel what it would be like to be a whale in icy cold water without the special adaptation of blubber to help keep them warm. We did this experiment using a bucket of ice water and zip-loc bags filled with vegetable shortening (Don't worry the "blubber" was in separate bags, so the 3rd graders did not get messy :) )
Fourth Grade: We are exploring the Southeast this week! We are reading documents and taking virtual explorations through the Florida Everglades to experience what life is like down in the Southeast Region. Our main focus to assist with their social studies instruction in class is identifying vocabulary related to the geography, economy, and the history of the Civil Rights Movement.
Fifth Grade: Mrs. Bennick and Miss Lundeen are working with 5th grade students on exploring multi-cultural books and analyizing interesting information from each. We have completed synthesizing reading guides to help maintain our focus and summarize key information.
These units will continue into parts of next week due to the shortened time frame! As always, please let me know of any questions :)
Miss Lundeen
Monday, December 5, 2011
Happy December!
December is officially upon us! The weather is starting to feel colder and Winter will slowly be approaching. Here is a look at what each grade level has been up to in ELL class...
Kindergarten: The students have been discussing healthy food choices. We have looked at different pictures to identify what foods are healthy choices, what foods are unhealthy, how they taste (salty, sweet, bitter, sour) and we have also described by speaking and writing why certain foods are healthy.
First Grade: Last week, our focus was on the skill of rhyming! We read various stories, used our rhyming "Brag Bag" to make predictions of what objects rhyme with our clue, and played Read and Rhyme where students needed to read a word and identify a rhyme that matched the written word.
Second Grade: Second Grade has been working on a nutrition unit as well. Last week, we discussed what foods are healthy and what foods are unhealthy by creating a "healthy meal" using a paper plate and pictures from magazines. We also discussed the many ways to describe how foods taste aside from just sweet, sour, salty, etc. This week, we will be reviewing key vocabulary and discussing the concept of trees from their The Secret Life of Trees story from their classrooms.
Third Grade: Third Grade is beginning their animal habitat unit and we will be focusing on keywords and concepts that revolve around habitats. The students will be able to identify various habitats and describe key characteristics of those (climate, animals, location, etc). Each student will be doing some research on a particular habitat and reporting their findings to the rest of our group!
Fourth Grade: After completing the Rocks, minerals and volcanoes unit, the students will be discovering the Southeast region. We will be reading non-fiction material, watching National Geographic videos and creating brochures to identify key components of this region.
Fifth Grade: Mrs. Bennick and Miss Lundeen have been working together to focus on key literature skills throughout the week in our Flex group time. This week, we will be reading a mystery story and attempting to find the clues within the story to identify the solution to the mystery!
That will wrap up our first week in December :) As always, please let me know if you have any questions!
Miss Lundeen
Kindergarten: The students have been discussing healthy food choices. We have looked at different pictures to identify what foods are healthy choices, what foods are unhealthy, how they taste (salty, sweet, bitter, sour) and we have also described by speaking and writing why certain foods are healthy.
First Grade: Last week, our focus was on the skill of rhyming! We read various stories, used our rhyming "Brag Bag" to make predictions of what objects rhyme with our clue, and played Read and Rhyme where students needed to read a word and identify a rhyme that matched the written word.
Second Grade: Second Grade has been working on a nutrition unit as well. Last week, we discussed what foods are healthy and what foods are unhealthy by creating a "healthy meal" using a paper plate and pictures from magazines. We also discussed the many ways to describe how foods taste aside from just sweet, sour, salty, etc. This week, we will be reviewing key vocabulary and discussing the concept of trees from their The Secret Life of Trees story from their classrooms.
Third Grade: Third Grade is beginning their animal habitat unit and we will be focusing on keywords and concepts that revolve around habitats. The students will be able to identify various habitats and describe key characteristics of those (climate, animals, location, etc). Each student will be doing some research on a particular habitat and reporting their findings to the rest of our group!
Fourth Grade: After completing the Rocks, minerals and volcanoes unit, the students will be discovering the Southeast region. We will be reading non-fiction material, watching National Geographic videos and creating brochures to identify key components of this region.
Fifth Grade: Mrs. Bennick and Miss Lundeen have been working together to focus on key literature skills throughout the week in our Flex group time. This week, we will be reading a mystery story and attempting to find the clues within the story to identify the solution to the mystery!
That will wrap up our first week in December :) As always, please let me know if you have any questions!
Miss Lundeen
Thursday, November 17, 2011
This week in ELL!
The weather is now cooling down, Winter is slowly coming upon us!
It was wonderful to meet so many parents who have children in the ELL program at conferences last week! Although I was not able to attend every conference, I enjoyed the time that I had attending as many as possible and meeting all of you :)
As we head into Thanksgiving week, here is a look at what the students have been doing in ELL:
Kindergarten: Kindergarten has been working on the Five Senses. We have done various activities including listening to sounds and responding to what we hear, playing I spy games to identify what we see around is and using our sense of touch to guess what objects are without looking.
First Grade: 1st Grade has been reviewing their Rocks unit. Last week, we discussed characteristics of rocks. This week, we sequenced the layers of the Earth and described characteristics of each layer. We are finishing this week by becoming geologists or "Rock Hunters" and identifying where our mystery rocks come from in the Earth! We also created a graph that shows where most and the least of our rocks come from.
Second Grade: Second grade has been differentiating between what is a fact and what is an opinion. We have used their reading anthology story, Johnny Appleseed to guide our discussions about facts and opinions. We have worked on identifying keywords (I feel, like, it seems, etc) to provide our opinions and stating them in complete sentences.
Third Grade: 3rd Grade has been discussing key terms related to government and has started to identify three key components of our United States History. We have been diving deeper into the Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary War, and Constitution and identifying how these three important events have constructed our History. This week, we read stories in partners related to these events and created a foldable that identifies at least one fact about each event.
Fourth Grade: 4th grade is also studying Rocks and Minerals. We have been reading stories and watching video clips that describe ways to test characteristics of rocks (hardness, streak, luster, color) and have identified what each of these properties represents. We created a foldable activity identifying facts and have also read different non-fiction stories to describe igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.
Fifth Grade: Mrs. Bennick and I have been working with 5th grade flex on fictional stories. Earlier this week, we read aloud a story and had the students fill in a graphic organizer identifying key elements to show understanding. Later this week, we read stories in small groups and discussed narrative elements within the stories (plot, setting and characters)
It was wonderful to meet so many parents who have children in the ELL program at conferences last week! Although I was not able to attend every conference, I enjoyed the time that I had attending as many as possible and meeting all of you :)
As we head into Thanksgiving week, here is a look at what the students have been doing in ELL:
Kindergarten: Kindergarten has been working on the Five Senses. We have done various activities including listening to sounds and responding to what we hear, playing I spy games to identify what we see around is and using our sense of touch to guess what objects are without looking.
First Grade: 1st Grade has been reviewing their Rocks unit. Last week, we discussed characteristics of rocks. This week, we sequenced the layers of the Earth and described characteristics of each layer. We are finishing this week by becoming geologists or "Rock Hunters" and identifying where our mystery rocks come from in the Earth! We also created a graph that shows where most and the least of our rocks come from.
Second Grade: Second grade has been differentiating between what is a fact and what is an opinion. We have used their reading anthology story, Johnny Appleseed to guide our discussions about facts and opinions. We have worked on identifying keywords (I feel, like, it seems, etc) to provide our opinions and stating them in complete sentences.
Third Grade: 3rd Grade has been discussing key terms related to government and has started to identify three key components of our United States History. We have been diving deeper into the Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary War, and Constitution and identifying how these three important events have constructed our History. This week, we read stories in partners related to these events and created a foldable that identifies at least one fact about each event.
Fourth Grade: 4th grade is also studying Rocks and Minerals. We have been reading stories and watching video clips that describe ways to test characteristics of rocks (hardness, streak, luster, color) and have identified what each of these properties represents. We created a foldable activity identifying facts and have also read different non-fiction stories to describe igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.
Fifth Grade: Mrs. Bennick and I have been working with 5th grade flex on fictional stories. Earlier this week, we read aloud a story and had the students fill in a graphic organizer identifying key elements to show understanding. Later this week, we read stories in small groups and discussed narrative elements within the stories (plot, setting and characters)
Next week is a very short week of school! May Watts will be off of school Wednesday, Thursday and Friday due to the Thanksgiving holiday!
As always, please feel free to contact me with any comments or questions :)
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