9/24 Weekly News

September 24, 2008
Dear Families,
Hello and Happy Fall! I can’t believe its Wednesday already. This week has been really busy with “extras” like Fire Safety, picture day, and the GATES reading test. Other things we’ve started are:

Reading: Students have officially started writing to me in their response journals. IN addition to thinking and writing about our reading, we are working on proper letter format and proofreading our writing. It is a great exercise in writing and thinking about reading, as well as being a great way for the students and I to connect personally. All students will have turned in one reading response this week and should have received a response back from me.

Writing: We are continuing to work on exercises for thinking of things to write about. Last week we made a “Special Place” map. This week we “Mined our Hearts” to create a heart map and brainstormed lists of moments in our lives that evoke emotions such as sadness, hope, embarrassment and worry. Again all of these exercises will help us write thoughtfully in our journals. Students will be developing these “seed Ideas” when we start looking at memoirs.

Math: Math has been interrupted this week with the 3 things I mentioned earlier. The work we have done has been in place value and the language of word problems. Next week all students will be receiving their Everyday Math journals and prepping for NECAPs.

Science/SS – We are continuing to study U.S Geography and some vocabulary that goes along with it. The students were VERY excited to come to school this Monday to see how they did on their map quizzes. As is always the case, many students learned lessons about capitalization, neatness, and spelling. Any student who passed earned a “Patriotic Flyer” and students who didn’t pass still have 3 weeks to practice. I am confident that all students will pass!!
We are just starting our Human Body unit. We’ve experienced a few “Body Breaks” in which we’ve had a quick 5 minute interactive lessons about our bodies. Additionally, we will be listing the body systems that we’ll be studying and will brainstorm a list of what we want to learn about the Human Body.
**The SMILEDOCS program will begin next week. This is a group of UVM medical students who come for 4 sessions to teach the children about the Human Body. They will be here on Wednesdays through October. **

Testing – You should have received something at home today regarding NECAP testing. NECAPs will start next Thursday (10/2) and will go through the week of the 10th. I’ll be doing some test prep over the next week. You may see this come home.

Reminder that you can find the spelling lists online at the Endeavor webpage.