Welcome to the ESL Classroom!
School Year 2019-2020 Parent Letter
February 2019
Testing is complete and all students did their best! Next week, we will continue working on sequencing, compare and contrast and cause and effect in small groups. Some groups are also working on a name project, figuring out the meaning on their names and how their culture has made an impact on their names. We will also start labeling locations and items throughout the school in several languages. Keep your eyes peeled for new signs throughout the school in the near-future!
Mid-January 2019- Mid-February 2019
April 2018
The ESL classroom is excited about the Spring weather coming our way!
To celebrate the first graders are working on a Spring time poem. We are watching videos and discussing the five senses. We will then come up with adjectives to help us describe the senses, then we will take a trip outside to jot down some of the adjectives we can use to describe the senses we have during a beautiful Spring day! After that we will create poems and even use the iPads to record our poems to share with our classrooms/families!
The Kindergarten group is going to start working on an alphabet book! This book will consist of all the letters of the alphabet and we will then travel around the school on a scavenger hunt to find items that start with the letters of the alphabet! After we cover all the letters, students will create a video to showcase their work!
The second graders are working on non-fiction texts. We did a scavenger hunt in our books to find text features, and now we are moving on to find facts and information in our texts!
We will also be spending some time working on building our vocabulary and the different parts of speech.
The ESL classroom is excited about the Spring weather coming our way!
To celebrate the first graders are working on a Spring time poem. We are watching videos and discussing the five senses. We will then come up with adjectives to help us describe the senses, then we will take a trip outside to jot down some of the adjectives we can use to describe the senses we have during a beautiful Spring day! After that we will create poems and even use the iPads to record our poems to share with our classrooms/families!
The Kindergarten group is going to start working on an alphabet book! This book will consist of all the letters of the alphabet and we will then travel around the school on a scavenger hunt to find items that start with the letters of the alphabet! After we cover all the letters, students will create a video to showcase their work!
The second graders are working on non-fiction texts. We did a scavenger hunt in our books to find text features, and now we are moving on to find facts and information in our texts!
We will also be spending some time working on building our vocabulary and the different parts of speech.
ACCESS TestingWelcome back and Happy 2018! We are starting this year off with our annual ACCESS testing. Students will be tested in English on their listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills. If you have any questions about testing, please feel free to reach out at any time!
November 2017Happy November! We are very busy in the ESL room this month. Some of the things we are working on are: non-fiction vs. fiction texts, where to put a comma, character traits, making connections, and story elements.
Conferences are on November 15th, please feel free to come by room at any time! Also, don't forget, no school on November 22nd-24th for Thanksgiving. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please reach out to me any time. Pictures will be added soon! October 2017The 2017-2018 school year is off to an excellent! We have spent the past few weeks getting to know more about where our families have come from around the world, and what languages we speak! This year students will be working on their reading, writing, listening and speaking through fun and engaging lessons! We will take time to get to know each student's culture and we will learn a lot about new cultures along the way!
We have created our new journals, and each small group has been working on different skills to enhance their English Proficiency. Kindergarten/1st- Making pictures in our minds, drawing pictures, and labeling with first letter sounds. 1st Grade- Creating Identity Charts 2nd- Making connections 3rd- fables/folktales 4th- Assisting with class work 5th- Assisting with class work Below I have included a few resources and my schedule for this year!
|
February 2018What you can expect to see in the month of February:
Keep an eye out for more pictures throughout the year!Useful Websites/Apps:
RAZ Kids Tumble Books Brainpop Jr. Brainpop ESL Fun Brain PBS Kids |
2017-2018 School Year Parent Letter
May 2017
   |
It's getting closer to the end of the year for us and the students are working harder than ever!
We are learning all about Grammar this month. Many of us have already talked about nouns and verbs, and are ready to move to adjectives and adverbs. The first and second graders will begin working on an adjective poem soon. we will be going outside and discovering all the wonderful attributes of spring using our 5 senses to help us find inspiration. The kindergartners and some first graders will also be making alphabet books! Our poems and our alphabet books will be posted when they are completed. Come back next month to see the hard work that has been happening! ****If your student receives a form for summer school and is interested in attending, please feel free to contact me with any questions!**** |
March & April, 2017
|
|
Here are a couple of students showcasing their work, writing sentences. You will also see a few of the topics we have been covering in the ESL classroom! We are having such a great year. Check back for more pictures soon! |
January-February
During January and February, students will be participating in ACCESS testing. ACCESS testing is very important because it will be testing your child's ability to use and understand the English Language. This test will show their proficiency and will also help to see what they still may need help with in the future. Results usually come by the next school year and will be shared with parents and teachers throughout the building. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at any time.
October 26,2016
|
Welcome to the ESL classroom for the 2016-2017 school year! We are off to such a wonderful start. It's been so nice getting to know all of the new students to Shoesmith. We have a wide variety of languages and cultures at this school and it is so great to be apart of all their learning.
To start the year, we are focusing on reading and writing through listening to stories and figuring out who the characters and setting are. We have used brainpop jr. to get a better understanding of what story elements might look like in a book. We have also begun using flow maps to show sequencing throughout a story, while others are working on creating graphic organizers for beginning, middle and end. Remember, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at any time. |
|
June 6, 2016
|
First Grade students have finished their poems using their five senses! They did a fantastic job.
For the remainder of the school year, we will be practicing our literacy skills by using Brainpop Jr. ESL. This is a great tool to use at home with your child over the summer and after getting practice at school, they will be excellent at navigating the app on any smartphone or tablet. On the app, students can practice using new vocabulary, learn about the world around them, grammar usage and take short quizzes to test their knowledge! They really enjoy the characters and it makes learning fun! |
|
May 16th, 2016
|
First Graders are well on their way to finishing their spring poems! To the right are some pictures of what they have been working with in class. We are now filling in our poems with nouns and adjectives that we came up with as a class and while we were outside exploring a beautiful Spring day!
The Kindergartners have finished their alphabet book and movie! Please check it out below! They did such an excellent job and had lots of fun in process!
|
Photos of the Kindergarten ABC movie process
|
|
Second graders are still working very hard on non-fiction texts! We are focusing on finding the main idea of the books... what are they really about, and important facts in these texts.
|
|
|
|
|
To the right is the video we used to learn more about the five senses!
Below are pictures of some of the things we have been doing in the classroom. -Non-fiction -5 Senses -Adjectives -ABC book- E is for Elevator Check back for more updated pictures and information! |
March 30th, 2016
Students have been working very hard in the ESL classroom! First graders have been practicing sequencing with flow-maps, while kindergartners have been using bubble-maps with beginning sounds (single letter sounds and blends) and practicing visualizing!
Students have been working very hard in the ESL classroom! First graders have been practicing sequencing with flow-maps, while kindergartners have been using bubble-maps with beginning sounds (single letter sounds and blends) and practicing visualizing!
|
|
Over the last two weeks, students in first and second grade have been sequencing events in a story in preparation for writing how-to books. Here are some students work after reading the book, "Froggy Gets Dressed" and "Lily and the Purple Plastic Purse."
Pictured are a story teller and a flip book! Next we will work on using sequencing with flow maps.
|
|
Kindergartners have been working on story elements, while third graders wrote book summaries and book reviews!
|
|
Students did an excellent job with the ACCESS testing during January and February! They are complete and we will have scores by August 2016.
Over the past couple of weeks, students have been using scaffolding skills to create their own books!
First, we read a leveled reader closely. Next, I modeled how I would create my own book. Then, students created their own books that used the same language and pattern as the book they read! All students were very proud of their work!
Below are a couple of students showing off their final publications.
First, we read a leveled reader closely. Next, I modeled how I would create my own book. Then, students created their own books that used the same language and pattern as the book they read! All students were very proud of their work!
Below are a couple of students showing off their final publications.
|
|
|
Important Information: We will be taking the ACCESS test after winter break. The test window will be from January 11th- February 11th.
Great apps and websites to use at home!
FutabaWordly Wise
BrainPop
Raz Kids
Starfall
Any Picture Dictionary
ABCya
Kids ESL Games
FutabaWordly Wise
BrainPop
Raz Kids
Starfall
Any Picture Dictionary
ABCya
Kids ESL Games
|
It's always fun for students to use total physical response when learning new things! Check out these tools we use in the ESL classroom for Kindergarten-2nd grade!
Left-This is the action alphabet we use in class, and can be a great tool to use at home for phonemic awareness! Ask your child to show you how we use this in class. Right- We also enjoy using the Usher Alphabet to move to the music and get to know our letters better! |
|
Meet Ms. Wexelman
Thank you for checking out the ESL page! I am so excited to be here at Shoesmith this year working with your students in all areas of literacy (reading, writing, speaking and listening). Please contact me at: awexelman@cps.edu |
Please take a look at my schedule below. I will be at Shoesmith on Monday, Wednesday and every other Friday. I will also be working with ESL students at Harte Elementary.
| ||||
