Weekly Wrap Up

Do you know if your child knows his/her address and your phone numbers? How about whether or not they know how to leave you a voicemail? I recently did a quick check, and found quite a few of them don’t know this. Many of them also don’t know how to use a traditional telephone, or what a dial tone is. As your child is getting a little older and more independent you might want to make sure they can do this in case of an emergency. Also, if your cell phone is locked but has an emergency access, you might want to show them how to use that.

For all you parents of summer birthday kiddos, your child is welcome to celebrate this month or early in June. We have 11 summer birthdays in our class, so it’s going to take some coordinating so that each child has their own special day. If your child is a summer birthday kiddo, and you want to celebrate in school, please pick a day that works for you, and let me know as soon as possible. 

Can you believe there are only 15 days of school left this year?  Wow!!!  Since we are at the point of starting to wrap things up, we are wrapping up math fact logs. This is the last week I will ask for math fact logs to be kept. That doesn’t mean your child is done studying his/her facts though. They should keep it up all summer long or they’re likely to forget the facts. The week of Memorial Day will be our last week for keeping reading logs. Just like math, keep reading over the summer to avoid back slide in levels!

Are you aware of what your child is doing online? Do you know what apps they have and might be using to communicate with others? I’ve been listening to some of the discussions the kids are having about apps they’re using, and I urge you to not only be aware of what they have, but also know how they’re using them and how they’re communicating with others, and potentially with strangers. I teach them digital safety with the programs we use in school, but some of what I see and hear about the apps and the potential of them really goes beyond that. Please look at your child’s devices and talk with them about them, discuss how to stay safe online, and what your family rules are for safety and privacy. Also, explore their apps, look for ways to leave comments or messages, and look for the use of hashtags. Hashtags mean they can click them and see things others posted with the same hashtag, even people they don’t know! It may or may not be appropriate for your child. If you need resources to help you, I recommend http://www.netsmartz.org and https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews  (this one is good for app reviews).

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

Reader’s Workshop AND Science: Animal Research Clubs/Habitats

Writer’s Workshop: Fairy Tale Adaptations

Math: Elapsed Time and End of Year Review

Remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Weekly Wrap Up

If your child has a summer birthday, and would like to celebrate later this month or early in June, that’s fabulous. We have 11 summer birthdays in our class, so it’s going to take some coordinating so that each child has their own special day. If your child is a summer birthday kiddo, and you want to celebrate in school, please pick a day that works for you, and let me know as soon as possible. Thanks!

Is someone in your house is handy at fixing broken things? Is so our class could use your help. One of our electric pencil sharpeners is no longer sharpening pencils. The motor runs, but the pencils aren’t getting sharp. Before I buy a new one I’d rather try and see if this one can be fixed. If anyone is willing to take it apart and see if it that’s possible, let me know and I’ll send it home with your child.

We’re getting very close to taking our end of year math fact tests, including addition and subtraction! Students are expected to score at 80% or higher in order to be considered proficient in their facts. Thanks for helping monitor your child’s continued practice of their math facts!

Our class will be taking the SBAC tests the mornings of May 10, 11, 13, 18, and 19 from 9:15-11:00ish. Please try to avoid scheduling appointments that will require your child to be out of school any of those mornings.

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

Reader’s Workshop AND Science: Animal Research Clubs/Habitats

Writer’s Workshop: Fairy tale adaptations

Math: Measurement of Volume, weight and mass

Remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Weekly Wrap Up

We’ve been busy putting our new knowledge about fractions to work this week. The children have been working in small groups to create presentations on the iPads using PicCollage and Educreations. As soon as each group finishes their project it will be posted on here and on the student blogs. Please stop by your child’s blog, watch their video, and leave them a comment!  

You’ll notice something new on your child’s weekly progress report, a box giving their weekly multiplication and division math facts quiz scores. To help the children track their progress, improve, and know how close they’re coming to meeting the goal score, we’re now doing weekly timed quizzes. Each week I’ll report their scores to you. If your child had 90 or higher on their January multiplication and/or their January division tests they do not have to take the weekly quizzes for that operation. Once your child gets 3 scores of 90 or higher in a row on an operation for the weekly quizzes, they no longer have to take the quizzes. However, if they drop below 90 on their monthly quizzes, then they’ll start taking the weekly quizzes again. I know this might sound a little confusing, so if you have any questions please drop me a note or call.

We have a lot of birthdays coming up in late winter and spring. If you plan to send something to school with your child, please remember that we have food allergies in the room. My policy is that any food treats that come in need to be tree nut free and peanut free, as well as shellfish free. If you make them at home, they can't be made in/on equipment that might contain any trace of tree nuts or peanuts or shellfish. If you make them, please send me a note that they're allergen free so I can get the parental permission of the children with food allergies. If you buy them, please make sure I can see the ingredients labels on them. Also, if you buy them, the label shouldn't say they're made in a facility or on equipment that also processes the allergens due to cross contamination that can happen. I know this can be confusing, so as an alternate, non-food treats are always great.  Please contact me ahead of time if you plan to send something in.  Thanks!

A couple of reminders:

• Please sign your child’s behavior calendar at the end of each week. Students get Tiger Tickets for signatures.
• Have you looked in your child’s backpack lately? I sometimes notice food in their desks and lockers, you might want to check their bag if you haven’t in a while.  :)

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

• Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop: Cross text synthesis while writing information books
• Math: Fractions
• Social Studies: Connecticut

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