Week In Review

September 8-12

“I’ve got a brand new pair of roller skates….” Again, this week flew by, and we were busier than ever.

In Math we’ve taken on the task of addition with and without re-grouping.  Students did really well on the pre-assessment, and all of them received an enrichment project called a math menu.  The purpose of this menu is  to take concepts we’ve learned and apply them to real life situations.  They have options to choose from, and as long as the point value adds up to 100, they have satisfied the requirements.  This menu is done in class, and should the student choose to add embellishments, they may take the project home and complete it there. For example, many of my students chose to create a video to teach the skill of adding to someone else.  In order to get the best sound and video quality possible, they chose to do the activity at home. As a result, we have wonderful videos and a slew of new addition games for in-class use.

In the later part of the week, we began the skill of subtraction with and without regrouping.  Although the results of the pre-assessment were not those of the results of the addition pre-assessment, I’ve noticed the students perfecting their subtracting skills as we’ve reviewed over the last few days.  Subtraction with large numbers is a harder skill, and we’ve been practicing to improve.

In Social Studies we’ve begun our exploration of the regions of Texas  We are working from our home base in the Gulf Coastal Region and moving west.  Our “travels” will end next week with a culminating project that include an “infomercial.”  I can’t wait to begin, and I can’t wait to show you the end results. I’ve no doubt it will be spectacular.

In Reading we’ve taken a small hiatus from mini-lessons in order to conduct the DRA assessment.  The students have actually enjoyed the time for extra independent reading.  They’ve even taken the reader response requirement to a new level and are using Evernote to communicate with other classmates about their books.  I’m one happy teacher.  As for the DRA assessment, I’m so excited where my students currently fall.  We have a wide range of readers, and I’m excited to work with each one to achieve their maximum potential.  Mini-lessons on Traditional Literature will resume on Monday, and a quiz will be given on Realistic Fiction.

In Writing we’ve taken a break from brainstorming ideas on what to write, and we’ve started writing “Kernel” outlines.  The idea behind this is that popcorn kernels start as something small in the beginning and get larger as they cook.  The same idea is true in writing.  We want our students to start with something small and grow their ideas over a period of time. It’s amazing to see our students’ growth. I’m learning more about them every day through their life’s experiences.

In Word Work, we have started two different systems.  We have introduced sorts during Words Their Way Time, and we’ve introduced 10 vocabulary words during Flocabulary time.  Students are expected to follow certain guidelines when doing work in both these areas, and the guidelines can be found in the  respective notebooks of each.  Tests in Words Their Way occur every other Monday. (They have two weeks per sort), and Flocabulary assessments occur every three weeks. Should you like to see what Flocabulary is all about, please feel free to visit www.flocabulary.com the user name and password is memorialdrivestudent.

Lastly in Science, we’ve continued our study of matter.  This week we focused on how heat, or lack thereof, affects matter.  Our culminating activity was to create solar ovens in order to bake cookies.  Although we were rained out, we were able to build our ovens, and we hope to bake our cookies Monday.

Upcoming assessments:

Monday there will be a small assessment in Reading for Characteristics of Realistic Fiction.

Tuesday there will be a small assessment in Math for subtraction. We will review for the assessment on Monday.

Thursday there will be a large assessment in Math covering Place Value, Addition, and Subtraction. We will be reviewing for the test on Wednesday.

Thursday there will be a large assessment in Science  covering Matter. We will be reviewing for the test on Wednesday.

Monday – Friday we will be continuing DRA assessments in Reading.

I have gotten many questions regarding homework in our class.  Every day my students are expected to write their homework in their purple take home folder.  In addition, I will be adding the homework to Evernote.  There will be some days where homework will not exist.  It is also rare for me to assign homework over the weekend; however, if students have not done their weekly homework, I do give them the weekend to catch up.

www.evernote.com username: MDESMALLING password: 305rocks! (please don’t  forget the exclamation marks.)

I had a wonderful time meeting with those of you who came to our coffee at Mrs. Siddiqui’s house on Thursday.  Thank you for making me feel so welcome.

Upcoming Events

I look forward to seeing you again this week at Parent Night on Thursday, September 18, 2014 from 7-7:30.  The Spaghetti Dinner is also coming up on Monday, September 22.  Please let us know if you will be in attendance.  I believe that tickets are $25.00 per family.  That will also be the first day of BOOK FAIR!!! (One of my favorite school events!!!)

You should have received flyers yesterday regarding School Pictures, GT, Spaghetti Dinner and the Spelling Bee.  Just a FYI.

Have a great weekend. The Hogs are on at 2:30!

The Little Engine That Could,

Anne Smalling

September 5 - September 8

Although our week was short, it was jam packed with activity.  In Math, we started with place value to the billions place and quickly segued into addition with and without regrouping.  In Social Studies, we began our study of the Southwest region of the United States, and will move on to regions of Texas next week. Please note that periodic quizzes will be given over the US regions with the goal being complete knowledge of all 50 states by the end of the year.  This is a school and state expectation.  In Writing Workshop we began to accumulate ideas for future pieces and discussed the writing process.  Grammar studies included nouns, collective nouns, as well as subject and predicate.  With Reading Workshop we examined how good readers “Life a Line” of text and respond to it with questions or thoughts. We also began our genre study of Realistic Fiction. This included point of view, character analysis, visualization, and making connections. Lastly, in science, we added to our knowledge of matter by honing in on properties and classification. All in all, it was a very busy week, and when you add in Specials, Spanish, and Library sometimes I think it would be easier if we all wore roller skates! J

I wanted to send a large thank you to everyone for supporting their children in this lab. We know that the turn-around time was short, but we needed to understand our concepts before we could do a culminating activity.  The creativity and resourcefulness of my students showed, and we had a wonderful time.  We will be posting video of the races to our respective blogs and staff pages.  In the interim, I wanted to make sure that everyone knew how much I appreciated the work that went in to each project.

Our plans for next week include adding Words Their Way and Flocabulary to our already busy schedule.  Further, we will begin our DRA reading assessments Tuesday after modeling our expectations on Monday.  I have already had the chance to listen and converse with many of our students about their reading, and I’m so impressed with their attention to detail and thoughtfulness.  I am looking forward to amazing results.   

Coming home on Monday, your children will have a link, user name and password to log in to Stemscopes.  This is our science curriculum based at Rice University.  I will be assigning different pieces of the website for our students:  Picture Vocabulary, Science Rock, and Scope Review Game are just a few examples.  This is an amazing program, and I hope you will spend some time with your students navigating the website.  In the upcoming week, we will be studying how heat affects various states of matter.  I am hoping that our culminating activity will be building a solar oven.  Because this takes a bit more planning, I would like to ask each student to bring in a box. The approximant size needed is a shoe box.  It is my goal to bake cookies in this box. The original lab called for making recycled crayons, but I believe the students will enjoy baking cookies more.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to address homework. Many of you have questioned the amount of homework or lack thereof.  Next week will be the first week you will see homework in each subject.  The layout will be as follows:

Math in Focus: Problems provided for practice related to the objective of adding and subtracting with and without regrouping

Social Studies: Continue to study the location and correct spelling of the regions located in the Southwest part of the US. This includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico.

Words Their Way – Instructions will be given on the same day as the sort (Monday). The instructions will be located on the left side cover of the Words Their Way spiral. All answers should be provided in the Spiral.

Flocabulary – Again, instructions will be given Tuesday and placed on the left side of the inside cover. Each day that Flocabulary is to be completed will have specific instructions for the students.  All answers will be placed inside the spiral specific to Flocabulary.

Reader’s Workshop – It is the expectation that each student will read at least 20 minutes per night.  There will be a packet located in the purple homework folder for students to respond to questions about their reading.

Writer’s Workshop: None at This Time

Science/Stemscopes – Mon/Tue Students will read and answer questions about the passage.  Wed/Thurs Students will write about science.  These assignments are located in the “Stemscopes Reading and Writing” book. The answers are to be placed in the science journal behind the tab marked “Matter.”

I know this email was extensive, and I’m sorry. There is a lot of information to transmit, and I appreciate your time to read about our classroom.  I will continue to send emails regarding our Week In Review every Friday or Saturday. I will also post this email on our class blog and my staff webpage. As soon as I get my twitter set up and working, please be on the lookout for pictures and tweets of our day.

In conclusion, thank you for being amazing parents for my students.  Thank you for supporting them and our school.  I look forward to seeing you at Back to School night on September 18 from 7:00 – 7:30.  The Underwriting campaign is currently underway, and our Book Fair is scheduled to begin September 22, 2014.