Hello Room 18 Families,
We have had an exhausting few weeks! We took our PARCC tests Tues, Wed, and Thurs last week and the students did a great job staying focused and working hard! We are all happy to have the ELA tests behind us and we were able to have a great day that Friday! We had our Autism Walk where students raised money for Autism Speaks - an organization that helps families and supports research for Autism. We also had a school assembly where we got to experience some Caribbean and African drumming and dancing. it was lots of fun!! See some pictures of last week below!
Announcements:
1) A BLUE packet of important information and permission slips went home today (Friday).
2) Math PARCC test dates: May 10 & 11, AND May 17 & 18 (4 different days)
3) Science MCAS test dates: May 13 and 20 (2 Fridays)
Remember that a good night's sleep, and healthy breakfast and snack are 2 of the best ways to prepare students for a test.
Academic Updates:
Math: We will be spending time over the next week reviewing many things we have learned and refreshing some skills that still need work before PARCC. Homework coming home may be review work or new practice depending on the day. Today (Friday) a lot of PARCC practice work has gone home. I would suggest going through these with your child and helping to reinforce concepts in this practice. We have gone over all materials that went home in class.
Reading: We are making our way through HOOT, which we are reading in Walk to Read. We are reading this book at a quicker pace and there is more reading going home as homework because we are hoping to finish in time to do Battle of the Books in June. In Reading class, we have gone back to usual reading groups since our PARCC work is behind us.
Writing: We are beginning our research for our persuasive letters. We spent time in class discussing how to identify a reliable research website and started looking for some reliable sources. We are just beginning notes on our research, and hopefully we will have drafts written in the next week or two.
Science: In science, we reviewed our knowledge of simple machines and designed our own Rube Goldberg machines - the ideas were very creative! We are nearing science MCAS and have spent part of this week and next week reviewing for these tests. Students will be doing lots of practice questions and we will be doing practice open response questions in class. My hope for our time after MCAS is to do activities that build science observation and process skills, rather than the content we have spent time reviewing for MCAS. One thing the kids want to do is BUILD their Rube Goldberg designs!
Hope all have a great weekend!
Ms. MacPherson
We have had an exhausting few weeks! We took our PARCC tests Tues, Wed, and Thurs last week and the students did a great job staying focused and working hard! We are all happy to have the ELA tests behind us and we were able to have a great day that Friday! We had our Autism Walk where students raised money for Autism Speaks - an organization that helps families and supports research for Autism. We also had a school assembly where we got to experience some Caribbean and African drumming and dancing. it was lots of fun!! See some pictures of last week below!
Announcements:
1) A BLUE packet of important information and permission slips went home today (Friday).
2) Math PARCC test dates: May 10 & 11, AND May 17 & 18 (4 different days)
3) Science MCAS test dates: May 13 and 20 (2 Fridays)
Remember that a good night's sleep, and healthy breakfast and snack are 2 of the best ways to prepare students for a test.
Academic Updates:
Math: We will be spending time over the next week reviewing many things we have learned and refreshing some skills that still need work before PARCC. Homework coming home may be review work or new practice depending on the day. Today (Friday) a lot of PARCC practice work has gone home. I would suggest going through these with your child and helping to reinforce concepts in this practice. We have gone over all materials that went home in class.
Reading: We are making our way through HOOT, which we are reading in Walk to Read. We are reading this book at a quicker pace and there is more reading going home as homework because we are hoping to finish in time to do Battle of the Books in June. In Reading class, we have gone back to usual reading groups since our PARCC work is behind us.
Writing: We are beginning our research for our persuasive letters. We spent time in class discussing how to identify a reliable research website and started looking for some reliable sources. We are just beginning notes on our research, and hopefully we will have drafts written in the next week or two.
Science: In science, we reviewed our knowledge of simple machines and designed our own Rube Goldberg machines - the ideas were very creative! We are nearing science MCAS and have spent part of this week and next week reviewing for these tests. Students will be doing lots of practice questions and we will be doing practice open response questions in class. My hope for our time after MCAS is to do activities that build science observation and process skills, rather than the content we have spent time reviewing for MCAS. One thing the kids want to do is BUILD their Rube Goldberg designs!
Hope all have a great weekend!
Ms. MacPherson