Archives

Utah Compose Reminder

Jan7

The new Utah Compose writing assignments are now available.  Please remember to have your children work on their Utah Compose assignments at home.  The assignment will be visible when your student logs in.  The current writing prompts are as follows:

Level 4 – Help from Clouds: Write an essay explaining how clouds can help us to predict weather. Read the article and view the video before you begin your graphic organizer. Be sure to use science words and other information from the article and the video.

Level 5 – How do Banks Work? : Read the webpage. Try the compounding calculator. Then write a letter to a younger brother, sister, or friend, explaining how banks work. Be sure to explain how banks have money to loan and how they make money.

Level 6 – Origin of the Alphabet: Read Part 1 and Part 2 of the article about the alphabet. Then, in your own words, explain how the alphabet came into being. You may use facts from the reading. Be sure that your summary fully and accurately explains the origin of the alphabet.

I carefully selected these prompts to draw on background knowledge that your children already have from our math, science and history lessons.

This assignment is due next Tuesday, January 13th,  so that we can peer edit and give feedback.  Your child will have one more week to revise and edit before submitting a final draft on Tuesday, January 20th.  Your children can submit as many drafts through Utah Compose as they would like in order to improve their writing with feedback given through the website.  I will also be checking their writing and giving feedback through the website.

When a draft is submitted, your child will receive a score with a breakdown of why they received that specific score.  The essays are graded on a scale of 1-5 in each of 6 categories: development of ideas, organization, style, word choice, sentence structure and conventions.   For each category lessons will be suggested in order to improve the essay, thereby improving the overall score your child receives.  I highly recommend your child take a look at the lessons.  They are in the form of games and exercises designed to address each particular writing trait.   In the past, the students have quite enjoyed the lessons.  After viewing a lesson, your child should go back to their essay and apply what they have learned.

Thank you for supporting your child in completing this homework assignment.

Utah Compose and Business for the Coming Week

Nov2

Beginning tomorrow, all students will have access to the Utah Compose writing tool.  This is an internet based writing program designed to help students improve their writing skills.  This website replaces Utah Write, a site that level 5 students have used in the past to help prepare them for the DWA (direct writing assessment).

Each week your student will receive a writing lesson during class and a writing assignment that will need to be completed at home.  They will have some time to utilize the computers in class, but because of the limited resources in the classroom and time during the day, students will need to do a portion of the work at home.

All students will be logging in and resetting passwords tomorrow in order to be able to utilize this great resource at home.  At that time, we will be learning how to navigate the site and begin the first writing assignment.  The more time they are able to spend with this resource, the better they will do on the assessment and the better their writing will become.

Feel free to email me with any questions you may have.  As always, if you do not have access to the internet, we will make arrangements for your student to have time during class.

In other news, our school has decided to participate in the interim testing for SAGE.   Our class will test Tuesday, November 11 and Tuesday November 18.  This will enable the children to experience a form of the test, before they have to take the test in the spring.   In addition to the testing, students will be doing practice assignments in class utilizing the SAGE portal.  This practice will help them become familiar with the site and the types of questions they will encounter on the SAGE Summative.

This week we will also be discussing the expectations for the next book report (due November 21).  This month the students will be doing a scrapbook page book report.  All information for this report and the expectations (with a rubric) will come home this week and will be available on the blog.  I was so excited with the creativity and thoughtfulness the students put into October’s report!   We had sandwiches and wardrobes, posters and puppet shows.  Your children are so clever!

With the weather cooling off, please be sure your children are dressed appropriately. Unless there is lightening or extreme freezing temperatures, all students go outside for recess everyday.  Students who do not have appropriate clothing, will not be allowed to stay inside.  Make it routine for your children to check the weather.  4th level students are studying weather in science so this would be a great practical extension on their weekly science lessons.

~Cheers

 

Science Fair – Research Plan Date Change

Oct23

With all of the activity we have had in our class, I have not been able to have an adequate discussion regarding the science fair research plan.  As such, I am bumping the due date for the research plan to Monday, October 27th.   We will be discussing this portion of the project in class tomorrow.

An advance thank you to the students who have already turned this portion of the project in.  You are all on track!

Remember, science fair is mandatory and if your student has not chosen their topic or posed a question they plan on investigating, they are behind.  Please see the science fair page at the top of the blog for information about due dates and expectations.

Celebration of Life

Sep24

We love to celebrate your child’s birthday or half birthday.  If you would like to share photos, memories and stories about your child with our class in honor of their next circle around the sun, please sign up on the side bar under the Celebration of Life link.

 

Week Three

Sep1

I hope you all have enjoyed the three day weekend.  I think it’s just what the kids needed before the long haul to fall break.

We have spent the last 2 weeks getting to know each other, building connections and strengthening our relationships through a variety of cooperative games and engineering design challenges.  We have a lot of problem solvers in our classroom!

This week we begin our modified work cycle.  We will spend a lot of time organizing and learning the procedures for planning our work day and recording our work.  Organization is very important to your child’s success, the more externally organized your child, the more organized their mind will be as well.  Though the time spent doing this could be used in lessons, the foundations we lay now will benefit your student greatly as the year progresses.

In the morning, we will begin reviewing parts of speech, punctuation rules and the hierarchy of numbers.   In the afternoon, on Tuesday, we have our first science lesson. Fourth grade students will be attending science with Mr. John, fifth grade students will remain with me, and sixth grade students will attend science with Ms. Kirsten.   Wednesday-Friday in the afternoon we will begin our Geography unit, and Friday morning we will have our first physiology lesson.

Wednesday we begin P.E.  Please ensure your child has the proper footwear and clothing to participate.  While the weather is nice, P.E. will be held outside which means sunscreen is a must!  The class length is 40 minutes and this is far too long to be outside without sun protection.  Feel free to send your child with a hat, that is free of logos and characters, that they can wear too, these are always allowed outside.

We have several additional activities happening this week.  On Tuesday, our 6th level students have a meeting to discuss volunteer opportunities as well as the 6th grade field trip, Wednesday afternoon we have our first studio assembly, and Thursday night is back to school night from 6:30-7:30.

Please be on the lookout for the studio flyer to come home with your child.  This must be filled out and returned on Thursday.  If this is not returned, your child will be placed in an available class rather than in a class of their choice.  I will also have the studio course descriptions posted on the blog Tuesday night if you would like a preview.

~Cheers