Newsletter- Week 6

Better late than never!

Where ever there's a Q, a U must follow!

Skills : short a review and q+u
but*, run*, quit, does, of

Vocabulary:

skeletal

muscular

respiratory

circulatory

digestive

nervous

arteries

veins

intestine

cavity

**A quick word on Literacy Stations:

You are getting a (slightly disorganized) packet of work each week.  This is their Literacy Station work.  They do 3 jobs per day and these jobs are self paced.  The students have 1 hour to complete two 'paperwork' jobs, plus one that doesn't have a recall sheet that comes home.   

Students are expected to complete each of the 3 jobs within a 15 minute time frame, leaving a 15 min window of time for them to meet with me in small groups.  I see this as a great opportunity for students to practice skills we've worked on as a class, as well as develop time management skills.  I do not personally grade this work, but I have made my expectations very clear on the quality of station work and with very few exceptions, the kids are doing  what I ask.  We review the work together on Friday mornings and so a 'self-evaluation'.  We made a poster of station work expectations and the goal is to get a 'check +'.  That means they did their best.  A 'check' is ok, and a 'circle' at the top means something significant is missing or that it was not their personal best effort.  By now, I know what your child is capable of and while I know it's not the same for all of them, I will continue to encourage them to have pride in what they do and in their learning.  I tell them, if you aren't doing your very best all the time, the only person you are hurting is you.  They really understand that!

In RW this week, we are tying up some loose ends.  We are reviewing genres or writing, making ure we have a 'Balanced Reading Diet'.  We are reviewing how to discuss books with our reading partners, as well as building our stamina.  We are also investigating who we are as readers... Your child finished this sentence today "I am a reader who..."

We started a new unit of study this week.  It's called "Writing for Readers".  The kids were SHOCKED to hear that someone actually READS what they write.  We had a great time today discussing different things people do to make it HARD HARD HARD for the reader to read their writing.  We established that spaces between words ARE important and that sloppy writing can mean a big headache for the reader.  While last month was focused on ideas and content of their writing, this month we are going to make 100 % sure that those great thoughts and ideas are readable!

Part Part Whole- that is the name of the game this week.  We are looking at a whole, breaking it into parts and creating number sentences based on this.  We are using beans, cubes, really anything we can get our hands on to manipulate into number sentences.  Please work on this with your child.  I am amazed when talking to my HIGH SCHOOL math teacher friends, that kids are STILL counting on their fingers as 9th graders.  Number fluency is a huge priority to me and I will spend a great deal of time making basic addition and subtraction facts a major part of our math curriculum.  These are skills that were required to become automatic for me in school so I expect the same from these kiddos!

This human body study has been awesome!  The kids are totally grossed out thanks to a great find Mr.Stagg made at Dollar Tree- bloody brains, hearts, and livers MEANT for Halloween props.  They have become fascinating learning tools!  This week, we are learning about the digestive system (don't worry, we left a little to the imagination) and circulatory systems.  Tomorrow, we review the organs and on Thursday we assemble the super cool project we've been working on for 2 weeks- your first of many projects that will be coming home this year!

Don't you just LOVE October?  Please tell me this means we can drop into at least the low 90s in the afternoons!   I, for one, am so excited to be able to get into my car and not get burned by my seat belt!  Please don't forget to return your field trip permission form.  The field trip to Dewberry Farms is Tuesday, October 9th, the day after the Columbus holiday.  

I have enjoyed meeting with many of you this week.  I love sitting down and telling you how great your kiddo is!  I have a few of you that still need to schedule conferences so I'll be in touch through the daily folder soon.  If you'd like to join us at the farm you are more than welcome.  I also need a volunteer to carry our lunched to the farm from school.  If you're interested, let me know!  
Thanks for all you do!