Week 5 - Clocks go back

Reminder:  You should have received information about the new optional Readers Theater program for ELLs.  It will be offered on Monday and Friday mornings at 8:00 am.  Please send in your signed permission slip if you would like your child to attend.

It will be a very busy weekend.  Saturday, October 31st is Halloween.  Please stay safe - here is a link with some safety tips.   Sunday, November 1, 2015 will be Daylight Savings Time.  (click on the words to read all about it).  At 2:00 am on Sunday, we turn our clocks back one hour, to 1:00 am.  Also, Sunday will be the 45th running of the NYC Marathon!  You can check out the webpage to see the marathon route and look for optimal places to cheer, as well as for road closures.

This picture was taken after the 2010 NYC Marathon.

Also, there will be NO SCHOOL Tuesday, November 3, 2015 for Election Day.

4/5 - This week, we started to write autobiographies - stories about ourselves.  Additionally, we started using rubrics to grade our work.  Please check out the Outstanding ELL Work page to see some of the great work we have been doing.

Home Connection:   Look for words with the prefix 'auto' (it means 'self') like in the words automatic and automobile.  

3 - This week we began looking at non-fiction texts.  We are studying features of non-fiction texts.  The vocabulary words we looked for are:

Table of Contents, photograph, map, italic print, bold print, index, illustration, heading, graph, glossary, diagram, caption.

Home Connection:  Ask your children to show you examples of the non-fiction text feature vocabulary above.

K/1 - We learned about the letter Jj.  We practiced it's sound, came up with many words that begin with j, ad created jellyfish with j shaped tentacles.  

Home Connection:  Ask your children what begins with Jj.  See how many things you can name!

Parents - Thank you for attending our first Parent English class.  If you would like to join next week, please come at to Room 212A at 8:15 am.  Your children can stay in the cafeteria.  This week we introduced ourselves and spoke about some of the many topics we will cover this year.  This class is completely driven by you, the students.  

Much like this, each week I will post what we cover in the parent class.  This week we introduced ourselves using our names, nationality, and telling about our children.  I asked where your children slept as babies.  Were they born in a hospital?  Did you co-sleep?  Or did they sleep in another room?

Week 4

4/5 - Friday we focused on rubrics.  Using a rubric is one way a student can know what is expected of them.  We used the Weekend News rubric to think about how we can evaluate our own writing.  We will be making rubrics together for our upcoming reading responses.  The reading responses will be focused on making connections (text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world) to the book Granite.

Home Connection:  1.  Look for words with the prefix 'dis' (it means 'not') like in the words disorganized and disagree.  2.  Discuss expectations at home.  What is expected of your children in your home (making their beds, doing their homework)?  How do they know?  Do you have responsibility charts?  Do you talk about the expectations?

3 - This week we had a quiz to test our knowledge of prepositions.   Prepositions are words that help us describe the location of ourselves, people, or things.  We also started brainstorming which countries we would like to study.

Home Connection:  Ask your children which countries they are curious about.

K/1 - Friday we reviewed the letters Bb and Dd.  Students sorted different objects that begin with b and d.  We practiced the b and d sounds, as in bat and dog.  We completed our ducks, practicing our reading, fine motor, and following directions skills.

Home Connection:  Ask your children what begins with Bb and Dd.  See how many things you can name!

Parents - If you are interested in learning or improving your English, please join me on October 28th at 8:15 am in Room 212A.  Your children can stay in the cafeteria.  

Week 3

School News: Please join me this Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the PS 11 Fall Festival!  You can visit me at the Face Painting Station from 12:30 - 2:00.

4/5 - This week, we continued reading Granite by Susan Butcher and David Monson.  (You can read about it by clicking on the title of the book above.)  We discussed how we make connections to texts we read.  We can make connections to texts about ourselves (text-to-self), other texts we have read (text-to-text), or the world around us (text-to-world).

Home Connection:  When reading to your child, or while watching a show together, you can discuss how you connect (relate to, what it makes you think of) it to yourself, another book or show, or the world.

3 - This week we continued our work with prepositions  and describing the locations of places (continents and bodies of water) on the world map.  Prepositions are words that help us describe the location of ourselves, people, or things.  

Home Connection:  Ask your children to tell you where the continents and bodies of water are on the map. 

K/1 - This week we studied the letter Dd.  Students worked together to come up with different words that begin with d.  We practiced the d sound, as in dog.  We made ducks, practicing our reading, fine motor, and following directions skills.

Home Connection:  Ask your children what begins with Dd.  See how many things you can name!

Parents - If you are interested in learning or improving your English, please join me on October 28th at 8:15 am in Room 212A.  Your children can stay in the cafeteria.  

Week 2

Reminder:  There is no school on Monday, October 12th because it is Columbus Day (click for information about Columbus Day).

4/5 - We started reading the book Granite by Susan Butcher and David Monson.  You can read about it by clicking on the title of the book above.  We are discussing some vocabulary from the book: wilderness, anxious, strength.

Home Connection:  Think about a time you were anxious or exhibited strength.  (We will write about these experiences next week.)  Also... think about the ANNiversary, like ANNUal, it happens every year - have you seen this anywhere else?

3 - This week we did work with prepositions.  Prepositions are words that help us describe the location of ourselves, people, or things.  Please review this with your children.  examples include: the ball is under the chair, the Bronx is north of Manhattan, the ceiling is above our heads, your lunch is in the refrigerator... and there are many, many more!  We are using these prepositions to study the locations of different places on the world map.

Home Connection:  Play iSpy around your home or the city.  Try to guess what the other is looking at by describing its location using prepositions.  Have fun!

K/1 - This week we studied the letter Bb.  Students worked together to come up with different words that begin with b.  We practiced the b sound, as in bat.  

Home Connection:  Ask your children what begins with b.  See how many things you can name!

Parents - If you are interested in learning or improving your English, please send me an email at ps11ESLteacher@gmail.com.  I will be starting a parent English group by the end of October.  It will meet at 8:00am.  The day is TBD (to be determined).

Week 1: Welcome back to school!

4/5 - It has been so amazing seeing old friends and meeting new ones.  We welcome students from Italy, Sweden, and Israel to our already eclectic group (with students from Argentina, Japan, China, and Mexico)!  We are gearing up to do a study of the United States of America.  We will be researching different topics while learning about the country.  We looked at different resources and decided whether or not they were good tools for our research.

Home Connection:  Find words that begin with the prefix re.  Bonus if you can also tell us what they mean!

3 - We are studying the world we live in.  We will be looking at the seven different continents, and the countries within them.  We will learn how to read maps, and learn new and interesting information about places we have never been.  Pack your suitcases and get ready to travel the world!

Home Connection:  Discuss with your families: What countries have you visited?  Or what countries do members of your family live in now (or have they lived in, in the past)?  How are those places similar or different than the United States of America?

K/1 - We are starting our letter study.  This week, we read two books.  The first book was The Alphabet Tree by Leo Lionni.  It prepared us for the letter work we will be doing this year.  Additionally, it showed us how we can use letters to form words, words to form sentences, and sentences to express our thoughts and opinions.  We also read the book Carlo Likes Reading by Jessica Spanyol to help us identify and label classroom objects.  It will also prepare us to label our drawings as we start writing.  Then we will be using the written labels to orally explain our writing to our peers and teacher.

Home Connection:  As you walk around outside, start to talk about signs and the letters on them.

Parents - If you are interested in learning or improving your English, please send me an email at ps11ESLteacher@gmail.com.  I will be starting a parent English group by the end of October.  It will meet at 8:00am.  The day is TBD (to be determined).