Week of December 14-21, 2007

Hello Parents!

We have had a crazy week! The students worked very hard at staying focused while counting down the days until winter break! This week, the students worked on a variety of holiday activities and even heard Spanish Christmas carols from the students taking a Spanish class.

Also, thank you very much for all of the thoughtful gifts! They will definitely be put to good use, especially with a baby Whelan on the way. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

I hope that all of you have a safe, relaxing holiday and a very happy new year!

Week of December 10-14, 2007

Hello All!

Our students have done a great job this week! Our skill lessons for this week were using and interpreting graphic sources and summarizing. The kids' comprhension skills are growing by the minute! In Language Arts, the students are continuing to increase their knowlege on adjectives and nouns. They are doing a fantastic job!

Winter break is quickly arriving! We all cannot wait to celebrate!

Week of December 3, 2007

Hello All!

What a beautiful start to the winter season! It is a winter wonderland here at the CCSD66 campus!

Our reading class this week read fantastic an heart-warming stories about individual uniqueness and learned about how authors get their great ideas for books! The students have also been working on their decoding and encoding skills, foraging through our phonics program!

In language arts, the students are working on adjectives and nouns. They are doing a great job using them in sentences! Their writing is looking great!

Have a great weekend!

Whelan/Wood 11/26/07-11/29/2007

Hello Parents!

The students this week are continuing to work very hard! We are currently working on adjectives and nouns in my Language Arts classes. In reading, we are continuing to read fantastic stories from our curriculum. Also this week, the students went bowling and had a great time!

"Week" of November 19-20, 2007

Hello All!


Today was a VICTORY for the blue team. We defeated our gold, red, and green opponents with style. Our horses were strong and our riders diligent. It was an underdog victory, since our very own Mrs. Whelan was unable to participate do to risks of injuring her"precious cargo".

Fantastic day and great participation!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and see you Monday!!

Week of November 12-16, 2007

The students had a great week! In Reading, we read a story about icebergs and the Titanics, along with the Everglades. They did a fantastic job using various comprehension skills to improve their reading. We also continued working on decoding skills using the Wilson program.
In Language Arts, the students worked on writing an extended response to prepare them for the ISAT. They are truly growing as their ideas and participation are improving. Ms. Wood and I are truly proud of their hard work!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

November 5-9th

It was a good week in our room. We worked hard and had a little fun too. Reading Group A and B worked together this week. We worked on ISAT extended response so that each student will be a little more prepared when testing time comes around. We read both "Cinderella" and "The Three Little Pigs" as practice stories to write about. Each student developed their own ideas and created their own paragraph. Each group also worked on Wilson Phonics. Group A worked on closed syllables and the exceptions to the closed syllable rule in section 2-3. Group B reviewed section 1-3. Please practice saying the sounds and words with your student at home! Language Arts group A reviewed how to write a complete paragraph, including forming a topic sentence and a conclusion. Language Arts group B worked on finishing up our final narrative draft. The students have become so good at forming ideas independently and writing full sentences. The final narrative was their best work yet.

Have a fantastic weekend and make sure to practice your Wilson Words!

Week of Oct. 30-Nov. 2nd

This was a very hauntingly fun week in our class.
Reading group A read a story about a young girl who started a food drive for the homeless. This group discussed volunteer work and how we can help people in our own community.
Reading group B read a story about tornadoes and how weather effects or communities. This group learned new weather vocabulary. Each group worked on Wilson phonics and did very well. Ask your student to review their new sounds!

Language Arts group A reviewed pronouns amd worked hard learning new material.
Language Arts group B worked on combining information in note form, and transferring it to a paragraph that was written independently. They worked on multiple drafts of two separate paragraphs, one about their favorite sport, and the other about their favorite Halloween costume. They did very well correcting their mistakes and making changes to their sentences.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Week of Oct. 22-26th

Happy Red Ribbon Week! It was a great week in our class. In Reading group B read a fantasy story about aliens and funny events that occur on a make-believe space ship. Reading group A read an interesting non-fiction story about hurricanes and their effect on different ecosystems. Each group did a great job answering difficult comprehension questions from the story. The class enjoyed great discussions about each of the stories. In our Wilson phonics groups, group B focused on the "b" "sh" "u" "h" "j" "c" "k" "ck" "e" "v" "w" sounds. Reading group A focused on digraphs, blends, and closed syllables. Please feel free to practice these sounds with your student at your leisure. They worked really hard.
In Language Arts group A worked on drafts of their narratives. This group was also able to use the IMC computers during class to type up their final drafts. Each student did an excellent job forming paragraphs and making corrections to their first and second drafts. Language Arts group B started working on supporting details and forming paragraphs this week. The students enjoyed writing paragraphs about their favorite Halloween costume, favorite and least favorite food, and their best sports memory. Each student did very well correcting mistakes and forming great topic sentences.

Overall a great week and have a wonderful weekend!

Week October 15 to October 19

This week was very busy in our room. In reading we broke into groups to read stories from our hard-back reader. One group read about diver and his adventure with a family of dolphins. The other group read about two types of plants; carnivorous and flowering. Both groups worked on vocabulary and note-taking. Each group did an excellent job participating and reading aloud.
In language arts we broke into separate groups again to work on composition skills. One group worked on finding the main idea in a paragraph and creating topic sentences. The other group worked on forming narrative paragraphs into a full paper. This group had the privilege of writing letters to soldiers serving over seas. This was wonderful practice in writing and a nice chance to show our thanks to all the members of the armed forces. Have a great weekend!

Lauren Wood Student Teacher #2

Hello,
I'm Ms. Wood and I have the awesome opportunity of student teaching here at Lakeview Junior High. I will be taking over where Mr. Nutt left off. I look forward to getting to know all of my students and continuing to work on Reading and Language Arts. I will be graduating from Eastern Illinois University in December with a degree in Special Education. In January I will be starting graduate school classes, and substituting while applying for teaching positions for the coming fall. I am so excited to spend my last eight weeks of student teaching at Lakeview and I know it is going to be a wonderful rest of the semester.


-- Ms. Wood

Mr. Nutt's last day! (10/12/07)

This week was my final week at Lakeview. We finished watching the Hatchet video, and the boys did a great job of comparing events between the film and the novel. The boys also practiced a new lesson on Wilson Phonics. I want to thank all parents for giving me the opportunity to work with your kids. I will miss them as I make the move over to Prairieview for the next 7 weeks.

Hatchet

This week the boys finished reading Hatchet. We had many thought provoking discussions throughout the unit. During the week, we split the class into groups to complete a collage and mobile assignment that summarized main parts of the story. Next week, they will watch a movie and complete a comparison alley worksheet. This is something the boys are looking forward to! We have also been working on Wilson phonics. The boys have done a great job participating. Next week, we will be working on writing personal narratives in Language Arts.

Share Your Shoes Athletic Shoe Drive

Hello All!

We have changed our shoe drive due to some unforseen circumstances. We will now be collecting for Woodridge Athletico and One World Running (see details below). We are very excited to see our students exhibit generousity and compassion for those in need.

Share Your Shoes
Shoe Drive
Start Date: 10/9/07 Completion: 10/16/07
One World Running is a not-for-profit organization based in Boulder, CO. They promote awareness of health, fitness, and nutrition by donating running shoes and other supplies to those in need in the U. S. as well as around the world.

Homebases will be collecting gym shoes (in ANY condition) from Tuesday, Oct. 9-Tuesday, Oct. 16. Shoes will be sent to impoverished and underprivileged communities and countries around the world.

Week of September 17-21, 2007

This week was a busy week for our 7th graders! Monday was Lakeview's Open House and it was a great pleasure meeting all of you parents, some for the first time! Your willingness to participate in involve yourselves in your child's education is truly appreciated. Wednesday, the students took the OLSAT during their 4th hour classes. I look forward to seeing their abilities as soon as their scores return.

This week began my phonics program which involves various strategies, such as Wilson and other multi-sensory techniques. The students are doing really well so far! I look forward their improvement in encoding, decoding, and fluency.

Week of September 10-14, 2007

In reading class this week, I continued to read Hatchet to the boys. Hatchet is a story about a 13 year old boy who survives a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness. The boys really seem to enjoy the story. Each day they are asked to work on their comprehension skills through small group discussions. The kids seem to relate to the boy in the story and enjoy coming up with ways he is going to survive. Students have been asked to list 3 summary facts and 2 interesting things on note cards at the conclusion of readings each day. They are also working on making predictions. Next week we will have them write a letter home to mom from the perspective of the main character in the story. I have been really pleased with the amount of effort that the boys have been putting into class. Make sure to give them a pat on the back!
In Language Arts class, the students have been reviewing nouns, prefixes, and suffixes. We have covered common, proper, concrete, and abstract nouns in the singular and plural forms. They have been taking great notes, and participating during class. Next week we will have our first test over the different types of nouns. We will also have workbook exercises for homework throughout the week. Have a safe and enjoyable weekend!

-Mr. Nutt



Week of September 17, 2007

• Tuesday: Early dismissal
• Wednesday: OLSAT during 4th hour for 7th graders ONLY

Have a GREAT weekend!

Welcome Mr. Nutt, New Student Teacher

This year we have a student teacher in our classroom, Mr. Michael Nutt, from Eastern Illinois University. In the following note, Mr. Nutt introduces himself and details his goals for our students.

Hello Parents!

My name is Mike Nutt and I will be working with your child for the next month under the guidance and supervision of Ivy Whelan. I am a student from Eastern Illinois University with a major in Special Education. I have been fortunate enough to be placed here at Lakeview for my student teaching experience and look forward to contributing to your child's learning process. Over the next month, I will guide the kids through a variety of skills in the area of Reading and Language Arts. I hope to help them improve their skills in these areas. We will continue to work on spelling, vocabulary, and grammar, and also introduce a novel unit on a book titled Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen. If you have any questions for me regarding your child, please feel free to email myself or Mrs. Whelan. My email address is mnutt@ccsd66.org and iwhelan@ccsd66.org. I look forward to working with your child and anticipate a fantastic year!