Week 7 Recap
Posted on Sunday, October 8th, 2017 at 4:43 pmHello Everyone!
Past Week:
This past Monday afternoon we welcomed Ms. Rachel for her 2nd monthly Botany lesson with our class. She talked about different biomes and how even deserts can be snowy in certain parts of the world.
We had author Gary Hogge come to our school on Tuesday morning. He presented to the students about using “their author voice.” He came to our class after lunch and did a class writing workshop with our students. 3rd graders then went to a 3rd grade writing workshop while the Level 1s and 2s went to recess (Ms. Misha was at her monthly assistants meeting during that time). So, Tuesday was a very busy day of presentations!
Katie James, our room mom, contacted you all about our upcoming local field trip this coming Thursday afternoon. On Thursday afternoon from 1:00pm-2:30 we will be walking around MMA and surrounding communities to pick up trash. Students will be put into groups with Ms. Steph’s Upper El students and a chaperone. I am hoping to get at least 5 chaperones. I believe we are currently at 2 (as of Saturday). She is also looking for ideas for our Halloween class party! Once activities are planned, then supplies/materials can be donated. I’m planning on having our party on Halloween in the afternoon from 1:00pm-2:40pm.
Wednesday the Imagination Learning accounts were ready for our 1st and 2nd graders. We got everyone on and they began their learning about the program. 1st and ins graders logins are their MMA student ID number and their password is also their MMA student ID number.
On Friday I discussed the peacemaker project some more with the students. I noticed the biography page on the Projects tab of our blog wasn’t working. For some reason, this blog site can be iffy with PDFs. I will be giving each child a hard copy this week to take home. Sorry about that. I tried to reattach it, but it wouldn’t work. I may try emailing it to everyone and see if it will load for you as an email attachment. We will be going over our first peacemaker, Mother Theresa, this coming Friday.
Yesterday, Saturday, I came across a really cool website for our students! I’m pretty excited about it since it was free and seems easy to use. It is called Prodigy Math. I loaded in each student and then Prodigy made their username and a password within a parent letter. The website checks student’s understanding of common core math standards. I can assign students a standard to work on within a timeframe. Since 3rd graders are needing to work on multiplication facts, I assigned 3rd graders to work on multiplication tables of 0s and 1s. They have until Nov. 3rd. I’m going to have the students take home their login paper this week so they can do their work at home, but also in school when we get the COW (computers on wheels cart). I made an assignment for first and 2nd graders too to be completed by Nov. 3rd. I want to use this website to help see hard data on what students know. This will allow me to give better scores on the progress reports as the year goes on. I know many of you have asked about what can you do at home to help your child and I’m giving you resources. Last week, I posted a sight words list and a nonsense words for beginning readers. The sight words list goes up to higher grades, so don’t feel like the sight words list is just for 1st grade.
October’s Writing Prompt– Every month, all students in Lower Elementary will receive a monthly prompt. 3rd graders will be typing theirs in Utah Compose and 1st and 2nd graders will write theirs. They have all month to complete it. The prompt is “Tell about a time you were scared.” It is a personal narrative prompt.
We focused on Fraction lessons this past week with 2nd and 3rd graders. 2nd graders worked on naming the fraction within a group and 3rd graders worked on equivalent fractions. Level 1s are continuing to work on labeling the fraction families. They will get their 2nd fractions lesson next week. Everyone will get Geometry this coming week
Progress monitoring also began for students who are red in DIBELS.
In cultural this past week we worked on Zoology/Physiology:
Level 1s: Vertebrates vs invertebrates
Level 2s: Why is breakfast important? We did a class survey and graphed the results
Level 3s: Porifera review and Cnidarian intro (sea anemones, certain corals, jellyfish)
Upcoming Week:
Please let Katie James know if you can chaperone for our Thursday afternoon field trip. If you would like to chaperone, please be at MMA in our classroom at 12:30pm.
Ms. Nikki, our new special educations teacher/support staff will begin her role full time. She is working on servicing students from 3 classrooms (including ours) for 2 hours in the morning (8:30-10:30). As she gets her schedule going, students who might need more practice or support in subject areas can work with her one on one or in small groups. Does not matter if a student needs services or not, she is there for everyone.
Wednesday is picture day! Picture forms went out awhile ago, but if you need another one, I have plenty. You can also wait to buy them online.
Thursday afternoon we have our field trip and 3rd graders will have their dictionary assembly at 11:15am from the Utah Rotary Club.
Ms. Stef and I were discussing the COW situation since we only get the laptops for an hour on Wednesdays right after lunch until 1:30. Ms. Stef’s class then gets the COW from 1:30-2:30. We discussed that the timing isn’t enough once we get everyone settled after lunch and the students login. We decided to rate our weeks so that we each get the laptops all afternoon! Mr. James said this is fine and other classes are doing the same. I will talk with Stef to see if we can begin this Wednesday or not. This will allow us to have the COW every other Wednesday all afternoon. On the days we have the COW I will pull for cultural lessons while students are on the laptops and then they can return to their laptops after their lesson.
Please sign up for Conferences! I made conferences their own post 🙂
Have a great rest of your weekend and upcoming week!
Ms. Kaley