Weekly Update; September 18

Coming Up

Sept. 21:    BTSN from 6:00-7:30 p.m.

Sept. 24:    Student Pictures
Sept. 24:    Ben Hatke – Author visit 1:00-2:00

Oct 2:     LS Walk for Fun Assembly 8:10 – 8:40 a.m.

Dear Parents,

We enjoyed the first full week with your children who are eager, enthusiastic and full of energy. It is good to see them treat each other with kindness and respect; they have been doing an amazing job of working together. We have been practicing various classroom routines in starting to work together as a community. The children enjoyed the first technology, art, library, and science classes.

Homework

Reading: Students should read for at least 20 minutes, take notes showing deeper thinking about the text and fill out the Status of the Class update.

Math: We will introduce MobyMax as an online tool for differentiating math homework. We may also provide some home study links and math boxes throughout the week for home practice.

We will talk more about homework practices, organization, and my philosophy on homework on Monday at BTSN.  Please do let me know if your child has difficulty with homework, you and your child should not struggle or be frustrated by the amount or content.

BTSN

Back-to-School Night on Monday, September 21, from 6:00-7:30.

Many thanks to Brandi Ettinger for being our room parent; she will provide information on the parent volunteer program at BTSN. The list of opportunities is pretty long and I do appreciate your help in this team effort.

I will go over our curriculum for the year and provide you with a paper copy of the information I present.

Reading

I have been working on reading assessments and will continue through next week. We are emphasizing comprehension strategies and slowing down to read intensely while students are reading their books of choice. I am reading Tiger, Rising by Kate DiCamillo out loud. We are practicing as a group the habits of and intense reader who stops to think deeply about the characters as well as the choices the author makes when writing.

Writing

Writing follows a workshop model; students will start planning a realistic fiction story based on a small moment story. Students are focusing on developing believable characters and a clear story arc through planning.

Word Study

We are beginning our spelling/word study program by reviewing and assessing students knowledge of word patterns and mastery of frequently used words.

Math

We will continue to work through Unit 1 and focus on classifying quadrangles based on properties. We will also identify properties of polygons and distinguish between convex and concave polygons as we explore geometric definitions and classification and practice using a compass.

Social Studies

As part of our wider social studies curriculum we'll begin to talk about our place in the world. We'll consider the places we are connected to: countries and states we have visited, places where family and friends live, and our cultural heritage. We'll use this activity to begin our exploration of world geography. 

Technology

Students have received their laptop computers and new passwords and we hope to resolve glitches next week and start using our googledocs.

Attendance

Please send any attendance changes to lsattend@oes.edu. This way if one of the teachers or Miriam is off campus someone in the office will get the message.

Have a wonderful week!