I am sorry I haven’t given everyone
an update in a very long time. I just
haven’t had a chance to sit down and reflect/project completely on what had and
will be going on! This year has been a
very busy one, as we are implementing so many new things brought to us by the
district. This includes both district
level testing and remediation groupings for the students in our
classrooms. Your child may be currently
involved in a “Traveling Team”
group. These are groups to help
remediate areas of need and build skills.
These teams meet Monday through Thursday from 8:35 to 9:05 and rotate
from teacher to teacher each day. If
your child is not on a “Traveling Team”, they are not missing out. They are hard at work on additional learning
opportunities as well. They will have a
+ assignment within our new routine, called Weekly Content 5+. I just felt like I couldn’t get both Science
and Social Studies accomplished at any rate at all. So, with a little help from the Internet, I
stumbled onto someone who was using a reading program in their science
classroom. I have adapted that to meet
the needs of the “Travel Team” window, the content areas we need to be
covering, and the reading block times that are available. The kids now know what their assignments are
for Science and Social Studies for the week on Monday. They are given all the handouts needed and I
provide a teacher rotation on the
schedule to meet any verbal/hands-on needs that we have. Then the kids go for it! They have been loving it! They are on task,
work toward completion, and are doing the same things we would have done over a
longer period of time compressed into a much shorter one! I will be monitoring all work for any area of
need beyond what I am seeing currently as well.
Students who are on the “Home Team” complete a + assignment each week. It will usually be a map activity
or reading and writing about a Science or Social Studies article I assign
them!
So, that gets us to the
project. This week the students explored
and researched a specific tribe found in Florida. The students determined how their group would
research and set about completing their research. On Friday the students met with their group
again, shared their research to fill any holes that they had, and then
determined what “store” they would be creating their project for. The idea is that each group has a wing of the
mall and they must draw a crowd to their stores. I explained that they would be creating more
of a poster ad than the actual products.
Here are some samples from last year to give you some direction.
The kids should have brought home the blue sign and return
paper, the general guidelines, and their notes.
When I was going through their folders before I left, I found a few in
their folders. They will bring them home
on Monday.
I would
like to take a moment to thank everyone for the wonderful job you are doing
with your child to support their Tuesday writing. I have told the kids a number of times that
you are right on with your evaluations.
Keep encouraging them, it is paying off!
And, I really can’t do it without you too! You are such a valuable tool to your
children, so just know that you are doing that great work and it makes a huge
difference! We did a prompt on Thursday
and, just glancing at them, I see some major growth in just the two prompts you
have helped them with! Thank you, thank
you, thank you!!!
Some up and
coming things that are going on include:
December 11th Movie-Each year Mr. Stenger and
Mrs. Dixon give the kids a gift of a movie and popcorn. They will be seeing Monsters University.
December 13th 3rd Grade play-We will
be attending the play at 9:00! It looks
great!
December 19th Class party- I will be getting with Mrs. Taraska to get a
plan going for our Holiday party! Mark
your calendars now!
-Native American Mall project due.
December 20th-Last day of school before the
Holiday Break!
As always, please feel free to let me know if you have any
questions!
Have a great weekend!
