Our class is having a blast preparing for the Loretto Elementary School Fun Run coming up soon! Plus, we started learning how to “play with character” through the Fun Run’s character theme, Big World Recess. We’re traveling the world learning from REAL kid-athletes in other cultures.
Remember, as you connect to sponsors for the Fun Run, make sure all pledges are entered on funrun.com. The more pledges we get, the more incentives our class earns on our Pledge-O-Meter. Plus, for every $30 per lap our class pledges, a pair of shoes will be sent to a person in need in another country through the Great Shoe Takeoff giveback program. I know our students are excited to rise to the challenge!
Thank you for your generosity and supporting our school. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Have a great day!
PS - Make sure to register your child on funrun.com. He or she will receive a FREE GIFT just for being signed up. Use our school registration code: 595249
September 29, 2015
September 28, 2015
PTA membership
A huge thank you to everyone who has joined. We are two "scoops" away from 100% membership which will earn us an ice cream party and $15 gift card. If you have an extended family member who would like the discounts that you get, they can sign up for a membership too.
September 22, 2015
Status of the Class
Reading
The main focus of our new reading series is listening comprehension. Students are read a selection with limited pictures and are responsible to recall the information. You can help at home by continuing to read to your child and discuss the stories that you read.
The current module is focusing on the human body. You will be amazed at the facts that your child is learning! It amazes me how much these young minds can absorb. Ask your child about the different body systems we've discussed and the importance of each one. Here's a cheat sheet for parents:
skeletal, muscular, digestive, circulatory, and nervous systems. We will continue discussions this week with health and nutrition. Let's see if your child starts making better food choices on their own!!
Writing
We are spending one more week on the foundations for writing including writing in complete sentences using capitals, spacing, and punctuation. I hope you encourage your child at home to always do their best work and not to settle for anything less (specifically focusing on messy handwriting).
Math
The children are readily using the counting up strategy to solve for sums and missing addends. Encourage them to put one of the numbers in their head and count up using the other number. We are looking for fluency (little think time) in facts to 10.
i-ready
Most students are well under way with their lessons. Their will be a progress monitoring assessment assigned to them the first full week of October. I ask that they do not take this at home so I can get a more accurate assessment of their work. I will discuss this with the children as well. To begin a lesson, the button is red. I believe the button color will change to green to indicate a progress monitoring assessment has been assigned to them. Regular use of i-ready will prepare them for future diagnostics.
The main focus of our new reading series is listening comprehension. Students are read a selection with limited pictures and are responsible to recall the information. You can help at home by continuing to read to your child and discuss the stories that you read.
The current module is focusing on the human body. You will be amazed at the facts that your child is learning! It amazes me how much these young minds can absorb. Ask your child about the different body systems we've discussed and the importance of each one. Here's a cheat sheet for parents:
skeletal, muscular, digestive, circulatory, and nervous systems. We will continue discussions this week with health and nutrition. Let's see if your child starts making better food choices on their own!!
Writing
We are spending one more week on the foundations for writing including writing in complete sentences using capitals, spacing, and punctuation. I hope you encourage your child at home to always do their best work and not to settle for anything less (specifically focusing on messy handwriting).
Math
The children are readily using the counting up strategy to solve for sums and missing addends. Encourage them to put one of the numbers in their head and count up using the other number. We are looking for fluency (little think time) in facts to 10.
i-ready
Most students are well under way with their lessons. Their will be a progress monitoring assessment assigned to them the first full week of October. I ask that they do not take this at home so I can get a more accurate assessment of their work. I will discuss this with the children as well. To begin a lesson, the button is red. I believe the button color will change to green to indicate a progress monitoring assessment has been assigned to them. Regular use of i-ready will prepare them for future diagnostics.
September 17, 2015
Class T-shirts
I have sent an order form home for your child to order a class T-shirt. The cost is only $5 and your child will have multiple times to wear their shirt. I ask that students wear it for field trips, play day, and other special events through the year (of course, they can wear it when they like!).
Please have order form and money to me no later than next Thursday, September 24 if you want your child to be included.
Please have order form and money to me no later than next Thursday, September 24 if you want your child to be included.
September 11, 2015
Sunshine Math
This will be the first week that you will see a yellow Sunshine Math paper attached to your child's homework. It is attached so that it is returned on Friday with the other homework.
I want to remind you this is a completely optional enrichment program offered by our school PTA. I HIGHLY encourage each child to attempt every sheet. If that means only completing 1-2 problems, then at least they tried! Students will receive credit for every sheet they turn in whether the answers are correct or not. At the end of the year students who attempted the majority of the sheets will get to attend a Sunshine Math party.
You as parents are not to help your child with this work. You may read to them and provide them materials to help count or keep track of their work, but you do not need to guide them to an answer. If you feel like they are frustrated have them take a break or move on altogether. A parent volunteer will be in on a regular basis to go over the sheets with the kids.
One more request... if you could sign the white sheet in front of the sheet this week. It's an agreement that you will not assist your child with these sheets and you're on board with them participating in the program.
Let me know if you have more questions!
I want to remind you this is a completely optional enrichment program offered by our school PTA. I HIGHLY encourage each child to attempt every sheet. If that means only completing 1-2 problems, then at least they tried! Students will receive credit for every sheet they turn in whether the answers are correct or not. At the end of the year students who attempted the majority of the sheets will get to attend a Sunshine Math party.
You as parents are not to help your child with this work. You may read to them and provide them materials to help count or keep track of their work, but you do not need to guide them to an answer. If you feel like they are frustrated have them take a break or move on altogether. A parent volunteer will be in on a regular basis to go over the sheets with the kids.
One more request... if you could sign the white sheet in front of the sheet this week. It's an agreement that you will not assist your child with these sheets and you're on board with them participating in the program.
Let me know if you have more questions!
September 9, 2015
Status of the Class
Reading
We are wrapping up our unit on fables and folktales this week. Students are being assessed on their listening comprehension as well as their knowledge of fable and folktale characteristics.
Starting next week we will begin our unit study on the human body.
Skills
We are continuing to review the short vowel sounds as well as decoding 3-letter CVC words. Every week we will do a making words activity in conjunction with the short vowel sound we are working with. You will see these letters go home in folders for your child to practice with at home.
We have also been doing a lot of oral word games were students are practicing a variety of skills including identifying beginning and ending sounds, rhyming, and letter/sound manipulation.
Math
Number combinations has been the focus of the past 3 weeks. Students have been introduced to a variety of new math techniques including sprints and number bonds. I will be e-mailing a parent letter for everyone to look at that helps you decode some of this new terminology and will hopefully help you in assisting your child with any math work that is sent home.
Writing
We started the year by reviewing the correct formation of letters with an emphasis of taking your time. Students have transition into the basics of writing a sentence with proper capitalization, spacing, and punctuation.
i-ready
We can't leave this component out! All students will be finished with the diagnostic assessments for reading and math by the end of the week. I will be sending home the parent letter to let you know how your child did on these assessments. It can be a little overwhelming to look at the report so please feel free to contact me with questions or concerns. Don't fret if your child was placed at a level that is labeled as "Kindergarten". That leaves a lot of room for growth and does not effect their classroom grade. What I would prefer you focus on is that actual lessons they are completing at home (and school). You can check their progress periodically on their log-in page. We want to make sure they are not consistently failing lessons and having to repeat them. When using the computer at home, please make sure this area is free of distractions for the time they are on the computer.
We are wrapping up our unit on fables and folktales this week. Students are being assessed on their listening comprehension as well as their knowledge of fable and folktale characteristics.
Starting next week we will begin our unit study on the human body.
Skills
We are continuing to review the short vowel sounds as well as decoding 3-letter CVC words. Every week we will do a making words activity in conjunction with the short vowel sound we are working with. You will see these letters go home in folders for your child to practice with at home.
We have also been doing a lot of oral word games were students are practicing a variety of skills including identifying beginning and ending sounds, rhyming, and letter/sound manipulation.
Math
Number combinations has been the focus of the past 3 weeks. Students have been introduced to a variety of new math techniques including sprints and number bonds. I will be e-mailing a parent letter for everyone to look at that helps you decode some of this new terminology and will hopefully help you in assisting your child with any math work that is sent home.
Writing
We started the year by reviewing the correct formation of letters with an emphasis of taking your time. Students have transition into the basics of writing a sentence with proper capitalization, spacing, and punctuation.
i-ready
We can't leave this component out! All students will be finished with the diagnostic assessments for reading and math by the end of the week. I will be sending home the parent letter to let you know how your child did on these assessments. It can be a little overwhelming to look at the report so please feel free to contact me with questions or concerns. Don't fret if your child was placed at a level that is labeled as "Kindergarten". That leaves a lot of room for growth and does not effect their classroom grade. What I would prefer you focus on is that actual lessons they are completing at home (and school). You can check their progress periodically on their log-in page. We want to make sure they are not consistently failing lessons and having to repeat them. When using the computer at home, please make sure this area is free of distractions for the time they are on the computer.
September 4, 2015
I-ready
Busy i-ready testing this morning. Hopefully your child will have access to lessons in both reading and math after today.
September 2, 2015
i-ready
I'm still fielding a lot of questions about i-ready and I want to make sure I'm addressing every one! It's a big part of how we assess the kids so I believe it's important to understand what they are doing and how you as a parent can help.
As a reminder please have your child log on i-ready for approximately 15-20 minutes every day. They should probably rotate between reading and math. Unfortunately, due to still being a diagnostic window, the math is unavailable for most students. Stick to reading for THIS WEEK ONLY.
Once all diagnostic testing is done, I will send a report home to let you know how your child scored in this baseline assessment. Remember, this is not for a grade. Instead, we want to utilize this program to reach every learner. Each student will get their own trajectory and specific lessons and practices assigned to them based on how they scored on the initial baseline.
Many students will test into a level that i-ready recognizes as "Kindergarten". Does this mean your child is below level? No, it simply means that they need lessons that are labeled as Kindergarten skills according to the i-ready scope and sequence.
What if the lessons are too easy? My blanket statement is that the computer assessed their knowledge and they are just going to have to work through them because they did not know the information on the diagnostic. For a few students I will have the capability to skip a lesson or two if I'm 100% certain they need to advance.
I had a parent ask me about tracking their progress. On your child's home page their is a tab where you can see their progress. It will be their progress over the course of the year, so you will have to monitor it if you want to really keep up with their weekly lessons. I will be looking on my end to see that children are completing a minimum of 2 lessons each week in each subject area (a total of 4 lessons). They will have access to computers first thing in the morning in my room as well as once a week during their center time.
As a reminder please have your child log on i-ready for approximately 15-20 minutes every day. They should probably rotate between reading and math. Unfortunately, due to still being a diagnostic window, the math is unavailable for most students. Stick to reading for THIS WEEK ONLY.
Once all diagnostic testing is done, I will send a report home to let you know how your child scored in this baseline assessment. Remember, this is not for a grade. Instead, we want to utilize this program to reach every learner. Each student will get their own trajectory and specific lessons and practices assigned to them based on how they scored on the initial baseline.
Many students will test into a level that i-ready recognizes as "Kindergarten". Does this mean your child is below level? No, it simply means that they need lessons that are labeled as Kindergarten skills according to the i-ready scope and sequence.
What if the lessons are too easy? My blanket statement is that the computer assessed their knowledge and they are just going to have to work through them because they did not know the information on the diagnostic. For a few students I will have the capability to skip a lesson or two if I'm 100% certain they need to advance.
I had a parent ask me about tracking their progress. On your child's home page their is a tab where you can see their progress. It will be their progress over the course of the year, so you will have to monitor it if you want to really keep up with their weekly lessons. I will be looking on my end to see that children are completing a minimum of 2 lessons each week in each subject area (a total of 4 lessons). They will have access to computers first thing in the morning in my room as well as once a week during their center time.
Scholastic Book Clubs
Monday your child came home with Scholastic Book flyers. Attached was a gold sheet detailing how to order books. A few reminder points:
- To order online go to www.scholastic.com/readingclub
- Enter Activation code: GVG88
- Orders are due by Friday, September 11
- You can order from ANY catalog (not just the ones I sent home)
- Every book you buy earns points for our class and allows me to buy books and other resources
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