January
1-19-16
Happy MLK Day! I hope you all had a good chance to talk about this important day in history. MLK was such a positive leader! MAPS TESTING: Students did great on their winter round of maps reading and math tests! We saw improvement in both areas. Lots of hard work and concentration went into those sessions. Be sure to pat your kiddo on the back! I know it seems crazy how fast things are going, but we only have half a school year left! We need to work as a team to continue to see growth in learning from your child and finish the year strong! Let's set new goals to accomplish! :) Let me know if there is any way that I can continue to provide support. Math: Students have been working hard at learning to multiply! The final set of flash cards were sent home before winter break- students should be practicing them a few times each week! Not only are we working on multiplication, we have been looking at division, too. FUN GAMES AT HOME: A fun math card game to play would be multiplication war! It is played like regular war, but when each card flips up, the first person to multiply it correctly wins that set. Kings, Queens, Jack can be played as 10's, or as the numbers 11, 12, 13 for a challenge. Another great math game would be salut, multiplication style. You need three players. Two players flip up a card on top of their forehead without looking at their own. The third player multiplies the two numbers together and tells the product. Then, each player has to divide to figure out what their own card is. First player to get the correct quotient wins. There are also fun math websites in my MATH tab. I will be adding to that as I find more. Multiplication.com is a great start! Literacy: An area of need is in informational texts. Usually kids love to read fictional books which is also very important. Encourage your kids to read informational/ non-fiction texts and check for understanding. Also, look at all of the extra features non-fictions texts include (table of contents, glossary, index, headings, captions, etc.) We are in the beginning parts of our narrative writing unit. Students will first write a personal narrative. We have thought about a "small moment" from our lives that we would like to write about. We want DETAILS, TRANSITIONAL words (first, next, after that...), and PARAGRAPHS! Some students are even experimenting with using dialogue. Have your child point these out when reading at home! CONFERENCES: Coming up Feb. 9, 11, and 12. A slip will come early next week asking you to approve your conference slot (same as in the fall). Please return these ASAP in case adjustments need to be made. That's all for now! I had a lot to catch up on, things have been crazy. Continue working on READING LOGS and MATH HOMEWORK as it is very important to reiterate what happens at school! As always, please contact me whenever necessary. Otherwise I assume that no news is good news and you can do the same! _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 11-5-15 : Please have your child answer the poll! LATE START TOMORROW! (11-6-15) The students had a very busy week learning about synonyms, verb tenses, and tricky story problems. We played a fun game called "Synonym Slam"- ask your kiddos about it! Next week in math, we will starting a new unit on figures, angles, and triangles. We will start out by talking about symmetry. Give your child a head start by discussing this at home! In reading, we will work on silent letters- kn, wr, and -tch. We will be finding context clues and making predictions. We will also talk about using commas appropriately in dates and writing. Our class will continue to learn with Mr. Olsen in Social Studies at the end of the day. COMING UP: Demonstration Speeches are due Friday, November 20. It will sneak up quickly! We will be sharing our presentations Friday, November 20, Monday, November 23, Tuesday, November 24, and finish up Wednesday, November 25 if needed. PLEASE contact me with any questions. I'm excited to learn new things! NOTE: There is an opportunity for a FREE session to learn about Cyber Safety. Here is the info below: Cyber Safety: Catching Up With High Tech Kids presented by Dave Eisenmann Tablets, Smartphones, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, Minecraft…Technology is a big part of our kids’ world! Keeping up can be challenging, but a positive and well informed approach can have a big impact on your child’s future and habits. If you are looking for ideas and resources to help, plan to attend this FREE EVENT on Tuesday, November 10th from 6:30-8pm at the Middle School CAC! Call NOW to reserve your seat to attend 320-258-1577 or online at www.SaukRapidsRiceOnline.org. Childcare is available for ages 3+ during the presentation, call for details. 10-29-15 We will be taking our spelling test for long vowels and short vowels tomorrow. Please finish up on the Tic-Tac-Toe Boards and send them back for credit! Green Book Logs need to be returned each Monday. A good idea to keep track is to hang the log on your refrigerator or keep it in a safe counter space so that it can be a daily reminder to log in for reading minutes. Halloween is almost here! We will hopefully do a couple small activities during the day, but they need to be earned by each student. Please remind your child of the PATH expectations so that we can all celebrate! Have a safe and fun Halloween! COMING UP: I hope you all have a good start on your Demonstration Speeches. I am so excited to see what we can all learn from you! If you have any more questions or need details, don't hesitate to contact me! 10-22-15 Tomorrow we will be wrapping up Unit 2 in Math with our "Celebration." We call our tests celebrations because we get to show everything that we know! We have had a great week. The students followed directions and listened really well! Keep reinforcing positive behaviors at home! ROCK ON! Please continue reading each day! Complete the green book log sheet and return every Monday!
10-14-15 Thank you to all who attended fall conferences. I enjoyed meeting with all of you! Enjoy the break! |
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