Monday, May 25, 2015

Waterslide Update

Our class isn’t very close to meeting the goal for the waterslide! We’re about 7,000 minutes under goal. I need your help to make sure your child is filling in the bubble sheet each night for his/her reading. If they lose it I have more in the classroom where the reading logs are (your child knows where to find them), and I placed a digital copy on the File Cabinet page of our class website. Don’t forget, parent signatures are needed on this form. Thanks for helping make sure our class gets to enjoy a fun reward for all their hard work reading!

Friday, May 22, 2015

New Schedule with Wellness Breaks

As you know from Dr. Kitching’s letter earlier in the week, we start our new pilot program with Wellness breaks when we return on Tuesday. This means that our daily schedule will look different. Here’s what it’ll look like for now, although it’s subject to change:

  • 8:45 - 8:55 - Morning work
  • 8:55-9:25 - Spelling/Word Work/Handwriting or Science/Social Studies
  • 9:25 - 9:45 - Interactive read aloud
  • 9:45 - 11:00 - Math (snack during the math lesson and video at 9:45, 10:20-11:00 math tutor)
  • 11:00-12:00 - Specials
  • 12:05-12:25 - Writing mini lesson
  • 12:30-1:00 - Lunch/Recess
  • 1:00-1:40 - Writing
  • 1:40-2:00- Reading mini lesson
  • 2:00 - 2:20 - Wellness Break
  • 2:20 - 3:15 - Reading (2:40-3:10 - STARS)
  • 3:15-3:29 - Clean room and pack up
  • 3:30 - Dismissal

Friday, May 15, 2015

Weekly Wrap Up

I wish you could have been flies on the wall during the last couple of weeks to see how hard your children have worked on their SBAC testing. I’m very proud of them for the effort and stamina they showed during testing. We have pretty much finished with testing, with just make-ups early next week. Thanks so much for helping make sure your child was at their best each testing day.

As you know from the capacity measurement homework, we are spending a few days studying measurement of capacity and mass, using both metric and customary units. If you go to the grocery store with your child this weekend, you can turn it into a huge learning experience by having them locate items measured in cups, pints, quarts, gallons, milliliters, and liters, as well as grams, kilograms, ounces, and pounds. Of course if the thought of trying to do this in the grocery store with your child makes you laugh (or gives you hives) you could send your child on a measurement of mass treasure hunt in the kitchen (similar for what they did for capacity homework), looking for items with weight measured in grams, kilograms, ounces, and pounds.

Help!  No one volunteered for the one chaperone spot open for our June 2nd trip to the State Capital, Legislative Office Building, Museum of State History, and Bushnell Park in Hartford. We’ll leave Toffolon around 11:00 and be back around 3:00. It’s a big day, with a lot of walking. If you’d like to join us please email me or send in a note with your child.

Here's what we're learning about next week:

  • Reader’s Workshop: Elements of fairy tales
  • Writer’s Workshop: Adapting fairy tales
  • Spelling: Unit 31 - Words home on Monday, test on Friday
  • Math: Measurement of mass then Data (aka graphing)
  • Social Studies: CT

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Chaperones Needed


One chaperone is needed for our June 2nd trip to the State Capital, Legislative Office Building, Museum of State History, and Bushnell Park in Hartford. We’ll leave Toffolon around 11:00 and be back around 3:00. It’s a big day, with a lot of walking. If you’d like to join us please email me or send in a note with your child.  (Field trip permission forms are going home on Monday.)

Reading for the Water Slide


Have you heard the news? We have a new reading incentive program to earn the water slide!  Just when it seemed like winter would never end, here we are getting ready for the water slide! In order for our class to go to the water slide, we need to read a total of 10,000 minutes. I know if all of the kids do all of their reading, they can make it. It’ll be important for each child to read at least 20 minutes 5 nights a week though. If not, we might not make it. The children brought home a water slide reading sheet this week. They should be coloring in a bubble for every 10 minutes they read. The sheets need to be handed in each Friday with their reading log. Thanks in advance for keeping an extra eye on your child’s reading, and encouraging them to get it done each day. If you need another water slide reading log, you can find it in the File Cabinet section of our class website.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Weekly Wrap Up

How did it get to be May already? That means we’re getting close to the end of year countdown. Yikes! There will be lots of special events and activities that take place over the next month and a half, but our learning continues. Homework still continues on, and it gets a little harder now for some children to manage their time when they have school events, sporting practices, and various other activities. Even though your child has been doing homework all year, they might need a little extra help from you now to budget their time between homework, events, and just being a kid and playing. 

Monday is our field trip to the Plainville Historical Society. We will leave school around 9:00, and be back at school in time for lunch, so there’s no need to pack a special field trip lunch. 

Testing continues next week on Tuesday and Thursday. Thank you for making sure your child is well rested, and eats a healthy breakfast each day.

Our extra copies box is full, so that means it’s time for the kids to bring home any extra copies of old papers they want. If you see a lot of unfinished papers coming home, don't think it's work your child needs to catch up on, it's just what they picked out to bring home for fun.

Here's what we're learning about next week:
  • Reader’s Workshop: Elements of fairy tales
  • Writer’s Workshop: Adapting fairy tales
  • Spelling: Unit 29 - Words home on Monday, test on Friday
  • Math: Area
Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. Together we are partners in your child’s education!