OPI Powerpoint

 

Finally they're here!  I finally figured out how to get the powerpoint of our wonderful trip to OPI up for all to enjoy! (Thanks Hailey for the help)  Please take a minute with your fabulous kiddo to experience the great adventure we had.

Grading System Update

            I am sending home pieces of returned work for the months of October and November.  These are the pieces that your child has chosen not to put into their portfolio.  I will be sending these packets of papers home each month after we have done our portfolio work. 

Just a quick note on my grading marks.  Currently I use three letters to grade their work.

B = Beginning ( This means they are either in need of reteaching or additional work in class to further their learning.)

D = Developing (This signifies that they are understanding the information but that they still need some work on the basic concepts)

M = Mastered (If they have this letter they have shown that they are capable of understanding the concept and that they only need to review or practice a little to keep the concepts firm.)

Because of some confusion with these marks I will be changing them to the following letters.

R or Reteach for B’s

S or Satisfactory for D’s

M will still represent Mastered.

I am sorry for any confusion this lettering system has caused.  I tell the students all the time that mistakes are okay as long as we learn from them. I am doing my best to do just that! :)

New Planner

You may have noticed a new style of planner come home this week.  We are working on our organization skills and keeping track of our work.  The students will be getting these planners checked at the end of the day to make sure they fill them out correctly and then checked in the morning to make sure they completed their homework.  Please be aware that these are organizational tools for the students and are a great way for you to be aware of some of the work we are doing in class.  For questions and comments it is still best to email me or call me at the school.  Please feel free to use these as a way to open discussion with your child about the wonderful learning they are doing as Wildcats!

Food Bank

Our trip to the food bank was a wonderful learning oportunity this week.  We got to learn a lot about how the food bank worked, how many people it served and where it got all of the supplies and personell needed to run it.  The students had great questions for the workers.

We made sure to ask about what kind of food the food bank needed right now because very soon we will be doing a food drive.

 
We took notes on some of the statistics of running the business so that we can use them in our new math project.  We will be learning what an average family spends on groceries each month and compare this cost to the average low income families monthly budget. (This also gives us a great opportunity to work on our estimating and averaging skills in math)

STAY TUNED FOR MORE NEWS ON THE UPCOMING FOOD DRIVE! :)

Branches of the Government

Last week we started a Webquest to learn all about the Branches of the Government.  We will be using internet resources to gather information about how our government works and use that information to eventually run our very own mock election.  This is also a great way for the students to learn how to navigate the web, activate links in a document, and gather information from multiple resources.

Visit these websites to check out some of the fun games, quizzes, and information the students are exploring.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/usa_game/government/branches_government.htm

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/default.aspx

http://www.congressforkids.net/Constitution_delegates.htm

Writing from Another Perspective

As we have been reading My Brother Sam we have discussed a lot about the main character Tim's perspective on the war and his family's involvement.  Today we started a writing assignment where the students chose an event from the book to tell from the first hand perspective of a different character.  This is a great chance for the students to work on writing in the first person point of view and experience some of the process the author goes through when trying to convey the feelings of a character.  We will be working on this more in the coming days and I am looking forward to seeing the wonderful growth in our class' writing ability as they work through the writing process.

My Brother Sam is Dead Lit Group

I am so excited about the awesome talk our class had today about the book we have been reading.  We had a great discussion about the main character Tim and how he viewed the Revolutionary War.  The kids were very thoughtful in answering questions about why Tim felt the way he did and they did a wonderful job finding connections to the world around them.  We talked about decisions our loved ones make and how they effect us.  The students brought up the fact that if two people they loved or respected had very different views it would be hard for them to choose which side to be on.  We also discussed how hard it is to make decisions on things that we aren't directly affected by especially if we don't know all the facts.  I look forward to more rich discussions about our reading this year. :)