Hello All!
We have had another great week! We had a Red and White School Spirit Assembly Thursday, A Random Act of Donut from Willow Bake Shoppe (ask your children about this!), and Back to School Night. It was great to see many of the parents and watch the students give a tour of our classroom! If I didn't get a chance to talk to you, I'm sorry! It's a busy hour. As always, if you have any specific concerns about your child, please email/call or set up a meeting.
Announcements:
1. Picture day will be Friday, October 3rd. Our pictures we be during first period, when everyone is looking their best! :) A picture day form is in this week's Friday Folder.
Here's what we've been working on:
Math: Unit 2 is underway. We focused this week on adding and subtracting decimals, especially within word problems. The word problems may have seemed rigorous (they were!) but that is an effort to align with common core and the new standards-based standardized testing. As teachers, we are adding in things to meet these standards. Unit 2 will continue next week!
Reading: After I responded to students reading responses, students have responded back this week! I'm excited to read what they've written this weekend. I learn lots of information about each student as a reader and writer in these short responses. Next week we are going to work on book talks, which will be a fun way for students to share what they're reading and suggest great books to their friends!
Writing: This week we continued to revise our narratives. We have done our last revision (for now) and will be typing our narratives next week. I am excited as I watch the narratives getting better each day. Once typed, we will do some further revising and editing to make them the best they can be!
Social Studies: This week we finished A Long Walk to Water. It is a moving and powerful book, and the ending left us wanting to know more. Please ask your children to tell you about this book - it is a great book to start a family discussion and they were all VERY excited to be reading it and talking about it. Here's a link to more information about the book: http://www.lindasuepark.com/books/longwalk/longwalk.html
We have watched some interviews with Salva (the man the book was written about) and the author and discussed the topic. If you are interested, his organization's website is here: http://www.waterforsouthsudan.org
On October 8th, we are going to live stream a presentation that Salva Dut and Linda Sue Park are giving for schools in New York. It should be a great way to connect the book to real life!
Science: As always, check Ms. Barstow's blog!
Reminder about Friday Folders: Please look at this folder each weekend. It is meant as a way of communicating how your child is doing academically. There are important notices and work that students have been doing that is graded. The first unit Math test re-dos will be there this weekend. Anything graded should be returned to school in the folder, keep notices at home. We keep student work so that we can pull out assignments to work on with students and keep track of progress. All graded work will come home at the end of Trimester 1. Once you've seen the work, please sign the Friday Folder Log. It helps me to know that you've seen the work and that your child actually brought it home and gave it to you and there is a spot for comments if you have a question! Thanks for participating in this endeavor!
Hope you have a great weekend! Enjoy what may be our last weekend of WARM weather!
Ms. MacPherson
We have had another great week! We had a Red and White School Spirit Assembly Thursday, A Random Act of Donut from Willow Bake Shoppe (ask your children about this!), and Back to School Night. It was great to see many of the parents and watch the students give a tour of our classroom! If I didn't get a chance to talk to you, I'm sorry! It's a busy hour. As always, if you have any specific concerns about your child, please email/call or set up a meeting.
Announcements:
1. Picture day will be Friday, October 3rd. Our pictures we be during first period, when everyone is looking their best! :) A picture day form is in this week's Friday Folder.
Here's what we've been working on:
Math: Unit 2 is underway. We focused this week on adding and subtracting decimals, especially within word problems. The word problems may have seemed rigorous (they were!) but that is an effort to align with common core and the new standards-based standardized testing. As teachers, we are adding in things to meet these standards. Unit 2 will continue next week!
Reading: After I responded to students reading responses, students have responded back this week! I'm excited to read what they've written this weekend. I learn lots of information about each student as a reader and writer in these short responses. Next week we are going to work on book talks, which will be a fun way for students to share what they're reading and suggest great books to their friends!
Writing: This week we continued to revise our narratives. We have done our last revision (for now) and will be typing our narratives next week. I am excited as I watch the narratives getting better each day. Once typed, we will do some further revising and editing to make them the best they can be!
Social Studies: This week we finished A Long Walk to Water. It is a moving and powerful book, and the ending left us wanting to know more. Please ask your children to tell you about this book - it is a great book to start a family discussion and they were all VERY excited to be reading it and talking about it. Here's a link to more information about the book: http://www.lindasuepark.com/books/longwalk/longwalk.html
We have watched some interviews with Salva (the man the book was written about) and the author and discussed the topic. If you are interested, his organization's website is here: http://www.waterforsouthsudan.org
On October 8th, we are going to live stream a presentation that Salva Dut and Linda Sue Park are giving for schools in New York. It should be a great way to connect the book to real life!
Science: As always, check Ms. Barstow's blog!
Reminder about Friday Folders: Please look at this folder each weekend. It is meant as a way of communicating how your child is doing academically. There are important notices and work that students have been doing that is graded. The first unit Math test re-dos will be there this weekend. Anything graded should be returned to school in the folder, keep notices at home. We keep student work so that we can pull out assignments to work on with students and keep track of progress. All graded work will come home at the end of Trimester 1. Once you've seen the work, please sign the Friday Folder Log. It helps me to know that you've seen the work and that your child actually brought it home and gave it to you and there is a spot for comments if you have a question! Thanks for participating in this endeavor!
Hope you have a great weekend! Enjoy what may be our last weekend of WARM weather!
Ms. MacPherson