Good Evening!  I hope you all had a fantastic three day weekend!

We have a lot of things happening in our classroom this week, the first of which is your child’s first IXL homework assignment.

Each week your child will be given an assignment in IXL.  The assignments have several purposes: to review previously learned material (from 3rd or perhaps even 2nd grade), to practice newly taught material in a format different from that they see in the classroom, and to practice skills using language that they will see on end of year testing.  This homework is by no means “teaching to the test” nor is it meant to drill your children to death.

IXL homework should take, on average, 20 minutes each night.  If your student is not able to earn the “badge” at the end of each session, or score a minimum of 80,  within that amount of time, I have asked them write a note in their planners letting me know that they may need more help with a particular concept.

IXL logins are in the back of your child’s planner (along with Utah Compose and SAGE which we have not accessed yet).  The link to login can be found here as well as at the top of the page under IXL.   Please do not allow your child to reset or change their passwords.  If they are unable to login, please let me know and we will troubleshoot from school.

In addition to being written in your child’s planner, the IXL homework will be posted at the IXL page weekly.  This week, because of the holiday, students will have until next Monday evening to complete their homework.  Typically homework will be given Monday and is due Sunday evening.   As discussed in class, this homework is not optional.  The school has purchased a license for each student to be able to practice and it is an expectation that they are following through.  As will all homework and home projects, any that are not completed on time, will receive a pink slip notifying you they are not complete and asking your child to create a plan for completion.

If you do not have internet access at home, please let me know either with a note in your child’s planner or an email and we will make arrangements for your child to practice IXL during class time.

Tomorrow, Gary Hogge, a local children’s author, will be visiting our school to do an assembly.  Each grade level will then have their own break-out session either tomorrow or Thursday for further writing instruction.  He has come to our school several times in the past, is a fantastic educator, and the students learn so much from him.

Stay tuned for more updates coming later this week.